Is it normal for the Chickpeas to develop white froth after being soaked for 12 hours?

Question

Yesterday at 08:00 I had soaked white Chickpeas in water and left the container in the kitchen. Daytime temperature here is 44C.

At 20:00 the same day I saw the container covered by white froth. Is it normal for the Chickpeas to develop white froth or was it caused by the heat?

Not sure if that's edible.

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

Yes, it is normal for pulses to develop froth when soaked. I've seen it at lower temperatures and shorter soaking times. They can feel slimy too. This isn't a sign of bacteria development in itself, I think it is caused by the oligosaccharides slowly dissolving in water (but don't remember where I read this, so not 100% sure).

On the other hand, these conditions are also risky. Your chickpeas can have developed bacteria independently of the froth. In temperate regions, soakers aren't a problem, because bacteria growth in them is not especially quick (the 2 hours rule is made tight enough to cover things like meat, and a soaker doesn't even have enough hydrated bacteria food initially). But I have noticed that food I would have had no problem with at 22°C goes bad in short time at 28°C. The relationship between bacteria growth and temperature is not linear, and with growing heat, bacteria growth can speed up a lot. So I don't know if I would eat the peas - not because of the froth, but because of the conditions you had them in. I would recommend that you soak in the fridge next time - you don't need any fermentation to take place, so the low temperatures aren't a problem.

Answered by rumtscho

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What temperature to cook a pork tenderloin at?

Question

What temperature do you normally cook a pork tenderloin at? I was searching on the internet and saw anywhere from 325° to 450° and couldn't seem to find a good answer.

Also, does it depending on how long you want to cook it or in how you prepare it before cooking?

Asked by amurra

Answer

With a pork tenderloin:

Season the meat, sear all sides in a very hot pan, and then finish in the oven at 350 degrees until the internal temp. hits 145. Let sit for 10 minutes, then cut 'er up.

If you need it done faster, a higher oven temp will accomplish this, but may compromise quality. But like I said, for a tenderloin, you don't want too low, or too high. Just watch the internal temp., that is the key.

Answered by mrwienerdog

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How long should roast pork be cooked so that it stays light pink?

Question

Often pork is much too dry when served, I would like to have it slightly 'rosé' pink.

So I am looking for some cooking instructions for cooking a roast pork in the oven. A time/temperature table should be fine.

I ask this as from the information I see around, temperature varies from 160ºC to 210ºC. But from experience 200ºC makes the meat much too dry.

Asked by HeDinges

Answer

The USDA recommends an internal temperature of 160ºF (about 71ºC) for pork to be considered safe to eat. The exact time and temperature for your oven will depend on many factors, so always use a probe thermometer to check. If you're worried about it getting overdone, start checking the temperature a while before you expect it to be done (based on your previous experiences). There are also thermometers which you can leave in the oven, and have a remote part that can sound an alarm when a certain temperature is reached. Also note that the internal temperature will continue to rise a bit after you remove the roast from the oven, so you may want to aim for a few degrees below your target temperature.

210ºC (410ºF) does seem too hot to cook a roast, so I'd aim for something on the lower end. Whatever time/temperature combo you use, it's always the internal temperature of the roast that matters, both for safety and for taste.

Answered by Bob

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Why does flatbread have to be microwaved / cooked / toasted?

Question

I was eating at a sub making restaurant the other day and they asked if I would like my flatbread toasted... I responded with a "No thanks."

The Chef said, "Well technically the flatbread still HAS to be toasted, so would you like the meat toasted ?"

In confusion, I asked, "Why? I would prefer it un-toasted."

The Chef said, "We are required to toast all flatbread, as it releases some chemical... or something."

Can anyone clear up what he may be referring to? Does flatbread (non-homemade) HAVE to be toasted / cooked / microwaved ?

Edit:

Ingredients: Enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid, malted barley flour), water, soybean oil, yeast, contains 2% or less of nonfat dry milk, salt, wheat gluten, sugar, dough conditioner (acacia gum, guar gum, ascorbic acid, L- cysteine, enzymes), calcium propionate, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), and sodium stearoyl lactylate.

Asked by Foxtrot

Answer

If we're talking about the same sub making restaurant, their flatbread contains the following ingredients:

Enriched wheat flour (flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, malted barley flour, ascorbic acid), water, soybean oil, yeast; contains 2% or less of: nonfat dry milk, wheat gluten, salt, dough conditioners (guar gum, Arabic gum, sodium stearoyl lactylate, enzymes), sugar, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), calcium propionate.

I can see nothing in there that isn't in found in commercial soft white bread. It may well be a case of an overzealous legal department acting on the merest possibility of a hint of an idea that one ingredient may perhaps have the potential to maybe sometimes cause a problem if not cooked.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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How to make chicken absorb more salt when cooking a soup?

Question

This is a really important question for me, it can actually make the difference between me recovering from a chronic illness or not.

Basically I have been cooking a basic soup : 1kg chicken: 1.5 litre water and 4grams sea salt. Note there is no vegetables for testing purposes. I add the ingredients at the beginning, bring to a boil, simmer and then eat.

The problem is that on some days it seems the chicken absorbs a lot of the salt making the chicken it taste nice and leaving the water seemingly less salty while on other days the chicken doesn't absorb a lot of the salt and this ends up leaving the soup water too salty. I need it the first way as my stomach tolerates it however if the water is too salty my stomach starts giving me problems.

Since ingredients/ solids weight are the same I am convinced the problem is in the way I am cooking. I am doing something which is affecting the absorption of salt by the chicken. I wondered about possible causes and thought about the following:

1.May be slow/quick heating affects absorption 2.Maybe as the chicken gets softer any salt it absorbed starts to come back out, so it’s a question of timing 3.Maybe washing the chicken at the beginning has an effect, 4.Maybe cooking time affects absorption

I tried and tested various scenarios in the above but I cannot figure out what the specific cause is, perhaps you can kindly help me out with an educated/tested opinion.
The one thing I believe I noticed was that on those days it comes out right during the simmer the water seems to go low, perhaps evaporates or gets absorbed. In either case I imagine it may be temperature issue but I am not sure and could even be mistaken about the water being low.

Do you guys have any ideas, please this is a major issue for me and only if I cook the right way will my stomach start to recover. My nutritionist didnt seem to know the answer and she said 'you'll just have to keep cooking and note what you do differently'. Any help will be highly appreciated.

Many thanks

Asked by James Wilson

Answer

Speaking as pure theorist here, because I've never compared the saltiness of cooked chicken.

I think that there are two things you will have to think about. The first one is osmosis (water that gets soaked into the meat through cellular membranes), the second one is transport through porous media - like a sponge, the open ends of muscle fibres of your chicken soak up the liquid you put them in. What you want to do is to prevent osmosis into the chicken (because only pure water will go in through osmosis, concentrating the salt outside) and maximize absorption. I will assume that 0.9% saline is isotonic for a chicken, and I think this is a safe assumption, because veterinary saline isn't marked as species-specific. Seeing that your soup liquid is 0.27% saline, you can expect some osmosis to happen. *

Let's tackle the more interesting part first. You want more absorption to happen. The absorption is described by the Washburn formula, and you want to maximize your L.

• L improves with time. Luckily, a soup is meant to be cooked for a long time anyway. But when you wonder whether to give it some more time on the stove or not, more time is probably better. Keep the temperature lowish for less evaporation, and a lid on which will drip back evaporated water.

• L improves with lesser viscosity. No way to influence it in your basic recipe, but in a real soup, avoid thickening. So don't use starchy ingredients, or at least, wash them before adding.

• Surface tension should be kept high. Again, this is ingredient-specific. No way to influence it in the basic recipe, but it could turn out that some vegetables are reducing your surface tension a lot - I can't think of a soup vegetable or a herb or spice which is famous for a high saponine content, but it could happen. Also, you should give your pots a finishing wash with clean water if possible - detergent and dishwasher finishing liquid reduce surface tension a lot.

• Pore size. My intuition says that this should have the biggest effect in the soup case, as you probably can't influence viscosity and surface tension too much. Obviously, the bigger your holes, the more water comes through. A good way to do that is to thoroughly denature your proteins. The first and most common way for that is prolonged cooking time. Second, brining in concentrated saline (6%) and/or acid before you cook will attack the meat surface, again denaturing proteins. However, I don't know how wise it is to use this option, because some of the brine will get absorbed into the chicken, which will leave less space for broth and will increase salt content as a whole. (This assumes that you salt the broth; Brian's idea of not adding salt to the cooking water after brining has merit). Third, you can use meat from the freezer (this is a very likely reason for the mixed results you saw until now). Freezing produces ice crystals, which rupture cell walls. When you use the thawed meat in a soup, there are more holes for water to flow in.

• The Washburn formula is for a single capillary. But the more capillaries you have, the more absorption you get. So, what you want to do is to cut the chicken meat perpendicularly to the muscle fibres. And cut it into many small pieces instead of a few big ones.

Now we took care of the absorption, let's look into the osmosis. You can't change the salt content of the chicken's cytoplasm. But for osmosis, you have to separate the two solutions by a semipermeable membrane (the cell wall). Poke a hole in the wall, and the osmotic gradient vanishes when the liquids mix. So everything from the third point on absorption helps you reduce osmosis too.

As for your suggestions: 1. I see no reason why slow or quick heating will change absorption. I guess the products of a Maillard reaction could clog some pores, if you sear before cooking, but it won't happen during boiling. As I said, cook slow because of evaporation. 2. The chicken shouldn't absorb salt, but salty water, see the footnote. Although, if there is a hole in my theory, this is a likely place for it. 3. I doubt it, but if you wash it, you could free eventual clogged openings. 4. Certainly, cook longer.

To summarize: Cook meat which has been frozen, cut in small pieces perpendicularly to the grain, and stew it for a long time.

* I don't see a mechanism for the chicken absorbing a higher percentage of salt than what you have in the broth. I assume that in your "normal" cases, you are left with salt content near the initial 0.27%, and in bad cases, this gets concentrated.

Update As requested in the comments, I am providing an explanation about "cutting across the fibers". Short story, meat is made up of muscles, and a muscle is made up of fibers, or bundles of bundles of cells. You can easily see them in raw meat. You want to slice across them, so their ends are open, as opposed to along.

The good, long explanation with pictures can be found on Serious Eats

Answered by rumtscho

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How to decide the baking temperature when recipe doesn't mention it?

Question

On what factors does the temperature setting depend?

Of course if I have to bake a stone, I would need to set the temperature at 900C perhaps :rolleyes: ;), but in normal cakes where you have a banana or an orange as an extra ingredient, how do you decide the temperature?

Example: How much temperature difference can there be in a plain cake and a banana cake?

If you bake a banana cake on 200C instead of 180C, is that going to make a difference somewhere? In which way?

Asked by Anisha Kaul

Answer

Cooking temperature and time are determined by a number of factors. The idea is to get the inside of the product properly cooked before the outside dries out, becomes tough, or becomes unpleasantly dark or even burned. At the same time, you usually want the product to get nicely browned (adds flavor and looks nice) before the inside is overcooked. So it's a balance.

Factors which influence appropriate temperature and time include:

• ingredients: High protein ingredients (like meat or eggs) easily become tough when overcooked. High sugar or starch recipes will tend to brown or burn more easily.

• moisture level: For some products, such as popovers or many kinds of pastry, steam is an important leavening agent, and a high temperature is called for. In other products, like cookies, one of the goals of baking is to drive off excess moisture. And in still others, moisture is absorbed into the other ingredients.

• shape: A fat, round loaf will usually need a longer cooking time and lower temperature than a thin, flat pizza or a long, skinny baguette because it takes longer for the center of the loaf to heat up.

• pH: Changing the pH of the product will change how it browns.

• leavening: Some chemical leavening, like double-acting baking powder, activates at a certain temperature.

• personal preference: At the end of the day, the most important factor is whether you like the way the product turned out. If you like a crispier crust, change the temperature and/or cooking time to suit your taste.

Any baking recipe should specify the temperature and cooking time, unless perhaps it's from a book that specifies those things for a number of recipes at once. If not, find a similar recipe and use the temperature specified there, but keep a close eye on the product during the baking process. Learn how to tell when the product is done. For cakes, you usually go by color for the outside, and by temperature or using a toothpick or wooden skewer for the inside. (Briefly: poke a wooden toothpick into the center of a cake; if it comes out with wet batter, keep cooking; if it comes out clean and dry, it's probably overcooked; if it comes out with a few crumbs stuck to it, it's probably perfect.)

Answered by Caleb

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Could rice or pasta be cooked without hot water?

Question

I moved in a brand new house. I have no stove, microwaves or hot water for a week or two.

I'm vegetarian and I've already prepared fresh veggies wrap, salad, hummus, sandwichs, .. but I'm wondering if you could cook any kind of pasta or rice without hot water.

A long time ago I read pasta could be softened in cold water before boiling it to cook it quicker.

Asked by doctoraw

Answer

Wetted starch is not the same thing as cooked starch. If you want to see the difference in a simple experiment, make two starch slurries, boil one into a pudding, and leave the other one cold. Starch only gelates at high temperatures (I think it starts around 70°C, but needs even more to complete the process).

When you have a grain of rice, you have the problem that the starch is very closely packed together, and water can't penetrate into the center of the grain too well - the outside layers soak all the water they come in contact with, and so water only seeps into the center of the rice after the outer part has been hydrated. It is similar for pasta. In the worst case, when you cook rice, the time needed for cooking will be enough to heat the whole grain to the gelating temperature, but not enough for the water to hydrate the innermost part of the corn. This is fine if you want hardish-cooked rice, but if you want soft, mushy rice, you should presoak it so the inside is already hydrated when you start cooking it. I suppose you can do the same with pasta. This is the reason why some sources will advice you to presoak.

But, as I said, this is not the same as cooking. Yes, the rice or pasta will get soft, so you won't break your teeth if you try to eat it. But it will still be raw starch. I don't know if it is unhealthy to eat raw starch (my mother certainly told me so, but it could have been a myth; I asked a question about that and got no conclusive answers). But it will probably taste unpleasant, similar to raw potatoes or raw flour. I would try to get other sources of food for this time period. Or, as @justkt's comment suggests, it is easy to get an electric kettle in a brand new house before the kitchen is installed. You can use it to pour cooking water over "instant" versions of pasta and rice. These have been pregelated and then dehydrated, so don't need a prologned cooking. They are usually available as instant hot soup or rice meals in sachets and cardboard boxes, I haven't seen them as pure ingredients.

Answered by rumtscho

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Does searing cause more or less oil to be absorbed than frying?

Question

Let's assume that I have two identical pans, with equal amounts of oil in each, and two practically identical slices of tofu (or whatever else, but I'm referring to items that would be more spongiform like tempeh, seitan, etc). Further, I would like a crisply browned, non-oily filet to come off the pan.

In this experiment, the independent variable is that one is heated to medium (a generally specified temperature for frying tofu), and one is nice and heated up for searing;

• If I apply the tofu to both pans and let each one stay on the heat for as long as it takes to brown equally, will one absorb more oil than the other?

For further detail;

• Does the moisture level impact oil-aversion?
• If so, will a wetter block cause less oil absorption?
• Would a dusting of flour or quick rub of salt benefit one or the other method?

Asked by mfg

Answer

Higher temperatures, as a rule, mean less absorption of oil because the force of the steam trying to escape from the food pushes against the oil. Here is a link to a scholarly article discussing the mechanics of fat absorption in the production of french fries (complete with a table of results and diagrams). Interestingly, the author says that potatoes deep fried at more than ten degrees Celsius below the recommended temperature of 180-185C leads to 40% higher fat uptake. I expect pan-frying leads to a much lower total uptake of fat, but I am sure the principle is the same.

(For a fun explanation of the mechanics, here's Alton Brown in part II of the "Man Food" episode of Good Eats. Enjoy.)

Now, your question was aimed at tofu (or some spongy equivalent), and you asked about the effects of flour vs no flour. I could not find any articles with data on those exact elements of your question, but I suspect the answers will all derive from the same underlying principles. In other words, as a rule, cooking at low or medium heat means that the spongy and/or dredged product will tend to absorb more fat than at high heat.

So, then, why do the recipes you have seen typically call for cooking tofu on "medium" heat? My guess is that the recipe authors found that high heat makes the outside brown too much by the time the inside is "done" to the authors' preferences -- and perhaps a little extra oil in the tofu makes it taste better. I am not sure, however, because most of the recipes I've seen call for searing a crust onto the tofu using medium-high heat.

Answered by Bruce Goldstein

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How do I cook a chicken breast on stovetop?

Question

Ok I'm going crazy with this. I've tried everything, but no matter what I do, it always results in my chicken breast burning and becoming black. Here is what I usually do:

Grab a chicken breast, wash it with water.

Next, I season it. I usually add salt, pepper, curry, and lemon pepper.

Then I grab a pan and I've tried these things to cook the chicken with:

-Olive Oil

-Vegetable Oil

-Butter

All of them usually result in me burning my chicken. I set the temp at like 5.5/10 on the knob, so that it takes its time and doesnt burn. What am I doing wrong and what should I do instead?

Asked by fprime

Answer

I suspect the blackness comes from the spices you put on the chicken burning.

Try this technique I learnt from Jamie Oliver: Season your chicken as normal. Put the pan on a high heat until it's hot (not stupid-hot, just hot). Add olive oil and the chicken skin-side down. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, take a square of baking parchment or greaseproof paper big enough to cover the pan. Fold it in half until you have a 'folded fan' shape. Hold the point so it's roughly over the middle of the pan, and tear off any excess that goes over the side of the pan. Unfold and you should have a circle of paper. Scrunch it up, then run it under a cold tap and give it a shake.

Turn the chicken over, turn the heat to medium low, then place the wet paper (a 'cartouche') on to the chicken. Finally put a heavy pan lid (the lid from a casserole is ideal) on top. Cook for another 20 minutes.

The moisture in the cartouche helps keep the chicken moist and prevents it from burning. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the breast, so do check it's cooked through before eating (cut it open and check it's not pink).

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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Why should dried mushrooms be soaked in warm water?

Question

I was looking at some recipes online that included dried mushrooms (mostly porcini). All those recipes and this question mention soaking them in warm water.

Why warm water? Would there be a difference if you would use cold water?

Asked by Mien

Answer

Rehydrating dried fruits and vegetables in warm water is fast - mushrooms might take 15-20 minutes, though some varieties take longer, and it of course depends on how hot your water is. It would take a lot longer with cold water. You can still do it, and possibly more of the flavor will remain in the mushrooms (since you're not effectively cooking them slightly), but it'll take hours - not the kind of thing you can do without advance planning.

Answered by Jefromi

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How do I control the temperature of water for an extended period of time?

Question

When making the "perfect" mash, Heston Blumenthal recommends cooking waxy spuds in hot water for half an hour at the temperature of 72 degrees Celsius, exactly. At 75 degrees stuff starts breaking down.

I would like to try this out but am unsure how I can keep the temperature constant.

What kitchen tools and process can I follow to measure the temperature throughout the process? Are there any tricks?

Answer

You can try to set up my at-home on-the-cheap monkey-at-the-controls sous-vide machine. I take a nearly full 22 quart stock pot with an analog instant read thermometer to monitor the temperature and watch the temperature and adjust the dial accordingly.

With this only needing 30 minutes you probably just want to get the water to exactly 72 degrees C and then immerse the potatoes without adding any heat. The amount of energy in 20 quarts of water is phenomenal and you won't lose a lot of heat to the air.

Alternatively you could get 72 degree water and a beer cooler and try that way for the extra insulation.

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At what temperature should monkfish be prepared?

Question

At what internal temperature should you aim for monkfish to be properly cooked? According to this recipe, it should be at 145F (63ºC). Does anybody know a temperature chart for fish in general?

FYI I just found this and this reference.

Answer

To be perfectly honest with you, in all my years of cooking in kitchens I never took the temp of the fish. It was always by feel and look. Yes, I know that the gov't has guidelines that say 145F for fish but really when it comes down to it, if you have an 8oz cut of salmon/cod/monk in the pan, sticking an instant read into the middle won't do you much good. (Caveat: If it was a salmon Wellington I would shoot for 130F as it's a fully enclosed package that you can't feel for doneness)

The thickness of the cut will make a huge difference in when you should pull it out as you get post-oven cooking during resting in which the heat continues to heat the core of the flesh up to a final cooked temperature. That's why most chefs will take the roast out at a rare measured temp when they are shooting for a med rare serving state.

If your question is what state should monk fish be served, IE med rare (like salmon) or rare ( like tuna) then I would say med-rare is your best bet. Over cooking is a bad thing for monk fish and it goes from a lovely moist state to dry nastiness really quick. A nice way to cook it that helps to give you a little move wiggle room when cooking it is to wrap it in Parma ham (prosciutto). The little extra wrapping tastes great but also gives you a little bit of buffer as you get close to that magical temperature of doneness.

Hope it helps.

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How much could I safely heat a content-less cast-iron pan?

Question

To which temperature could I safely heat my cast-iron pan on the stove, without any contents? I don't want to re-season it afterwards. Afterwards, I'd just let the pan cool off in room temperature. The base is ~0.5 cm thick.

Answer

If it is completely empty, you probably can't reach dangerous temperatures with your stove. The iron itself melts at 1500°C. The seasoning can be burnt off at much lower temperatures, a self-cleaning cycle in the oven is enough for it (500°C). I have taken an iron pan to above 400°C without damaging the seasoning. (I don't know exactly how high it was, my thermometer doesn't go above 400°C). This was on an induction stove set at maximum, I doubt that any other kind of stove can produce such temperatures.

Edit I just heard an example showing that you can take a pan on a resistive stove to above 500°C with prolonged heating, so you should be measuring it if you plan to go that high. (and if you have a thermometer in this range, you can post your findings to further limit the range of 400° to 500°C, because I'm curious).

But if you say "no contents", be careful that it is actually just the pan. You cannot oil it, because the self-ignition temperature (of flash point) of vegetable oil is low, Wikipedia gives it at 327°C. It could just smoke terribly and throw a spark or two when you reach it, but it can also flame up and then you are holding a small brand in your hand.

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Why does strata have to come to room temperature before baking?

Question

I've made strata a few times before, usually for brunches where I have a number of guests coming over and don't want to spend all my time in the kitchen. I always follow instructions in the recipe; I assemble it the night before, refrigerate overnight, and then let it come to room temperature and bake it in the morning.

I've never had any problems, but I'm planning on making this for New Year's brunch that I'm hosting, and I got to thinking about why I need to let the strata come to room temperature before baking it. (Every recipe I've seen for strata says to let it sit on the counter for at least a half an hour.) I bake mine in a glass casserole dish, so I know that one reason for this is to avoid extreme temperature change that could cause the dish to shatter. However, is there any chemistry or physics reason for this - i.e., would baking it (in a disposable aluminum pan, for instance) straight out of the fridge impact the taste/texture?

Answer

My guess - and this is just a (somewhat educated) guess - is that it's just to promote more even cooking.

Since you're talking about a layered dish, some parts are definitely going to cook faster than others. If the entire dish starts from room temperature, as opposed to fridge temperature, then that means less time is required to cook it through. Less time and less heat required to cook means that all of the layers will be more likely to end up at similar internal temperatures - as opposed to having burned bread, liquefied cheese, or rubbery eggs (I'm not sure offhand which cooks the fastest).

Even if it's not an issue with the thermal capacities of your individual ingredients, you're also layering these each several times over, creating a very dense product, so there would still be a significant risk of the middle layers being undercooked, or the outer layers being overcooked.

You might be able to bake it straight out of the fridge; however, you would definitely have to increase the cooking time to account for the temperature difference, and there are a lot of variables that come into play which would affect how evenly it cooks: the intensity and location of your oven's heat source(s), the density of the casserole, the kind of baking dish you use - I probably wouldn't chance it, at least not when preparing this for other people.

You tend to see the same recommendation for anything particularly dense, such as a roast, or anything layered, such as a lasagna, and generally, you do want to follow those recommendations for the same reason. They cook rather poorly if you cook them from cold or frozen, leaving you with a charred surface and an only-mostly-cooked interior. It can still happen even if you start off at room temperature, but it's less likely and the effect tends to be less pronounced.

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Searing after sous viding - what temperature?

Question

I just got a sous vide supreme for christmas and I am super excited to use it. Many of the recipes I have seen online suggest to sear the meat after cooking to provide a crust. No problem.

My question is about doneness - If I want a medium rare steak, I would cook it to 125-130. With a sous vide and an after bath sear - should I still cook it to 125, or should I cook it to 115 and let the pan finish cooking it?

Thoughts?

Thanks

Answer

The searing applied after sous-viding should not be enough to alter the temperature of the meat notably. All you're trying to do with the sear is create the flavorful crust on the outside of a piece of meat via the Malliard reaction, not accomplish any cooking of the interior of the meat itself. This is best done by applying very high heat for a very short amount time, usually just a few seconds. Some like doing this via pan-searing or on a very hot grill, but I usually use a high-powered blowtorch. The important thing is that you not sear for so long that interior of the meat has a chance to notice. A perfectly sous-vided piece of meat should be a uniform color throughout, except for a heavily seared crust. There shouldn't be any gray band of over-cooked meat under the crust. Avoiding that is why you're sous-viding in the first place.

Also, I find 125-130 to be a touch on the rare side. For a good medium rare, 133-135 gives me better results.

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Is there a table that shows the cooking temperature and the duration for different meat types and its bones?

Question

Just wondering if there is a table (similar to the one below - including a example) that can shows the cooking temperature and the duration to cook different types of meat (and/or its bones) in different style?

============================================================================================
| Temperature (Celsius) | Min. Cooking Period (Minutes) | Meat / Bones        | Styles     |
============================================================================================
| 150                   | 25                            | Steak               | Grill      |
============================================================================================

Answer

A table like you're asking for can't actually exist: doneness depends on the internal temperature and hold time of the food, not the oven temperature; your table is missing some columns.

So, there are a couple variables you're not accounting for—the biggest one being the shape and size of the meat. A ½" thick steak will cook much quicker than a 1" thick steak. The other one is the starting temperature—a steak that has been left to warm for an hour before cooking will cook quicker than one straight from the fridge. You could, I suppose build a table for all variations of size (steaks go from maybe ¼ through 2"), initial temperature, and desired doneness, but that'd be a large chart, just for a steak (and it'd be different for a T-bone or porterhouse due to the bone).

More reasonably, you could just use a food thermometer. Then you only need to worry about the temperature for desired doneness.

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Precise temperature reading on induction cooker

Question

I have an electronic thermometer that I've used on an induction cooker and it is getting crazy. The thermometer starts buzzing and the temperature displayed is highly volatile. It's just unusable.

What would be a good solution for precise reading on an induction stovetop. An analog thermometer is a nice workaround, but it is not a real solution as the precision is generally too low. I'd like a precision of 1 to 3°C (0.5 to 1.5°F). Maybe there are digital thermometers that can handle the magnetic field ? So please, be specific about the maker if yours is working on induction.

Answer

I use a Sunartis E514 digital household thermometer on an induction stove, and I get normal readings.

I can't say it is the best thermometer out there, as it is a bit slow. The specification is 4 to 10 seconds measuring time. From experience, it doesn't need 4 seconds to change the display when immersed in hot liquid, but while it gives you the temperature with 0.1°C precision, I guess this temp is slightly lagging. That can ruin a batch of candy or dark chocolate, but these are still doable if you are mentally accounting for the lag. It is great for everything else. The low price is another advantage.

I can't promise 100% that it will work with any induction stove. Mine is a small portable one, and maybe its magnetic field is weaker than that of a full-sized stove. For temperature-sensitive applications, I usually cook on 500 Watt, but I've had the thermometer inside (also very close to the bottom of the pot) at higher settings, so I hope it will work. Nevertheless, it is probably a good idea to get it from a place with good return policy.

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How to set yogurt in the room temperature between 20 to 16 degree Centigrade?

Question

It is winters here, and the yogurt never sets the way I used to set it during summers.

If for example, we have 1/2 litre milk, what is the near exact temperature (for heating the milk), and the near exact yogurt to be added to the milk for setting?

EDIT 1:
When I mention heating milk, I mean that milk has been boiled quite a few hours ago, we just need a warm up session now. So how many centigrades are required?

Answer

You can make the yogurt in an insulated container, like a thermos bottle. A wide-mouth bottle will probably be best. Pour hot water in and let it sit for a minute or two to warm up, then pour it out. Heat and add your milk and starter culture as usual.

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Cooking with a crock pot - temp

Question

I'm thinking about getting a slow cooker, so I was checking out some recipes. Many say something along the lines of:

Cook Time
4 - 5 hours on LOW
2 - 2.5 hours on HIGH
Slow Cooker
4 - 4.5 Quarts
6 - 6.5 Quarts

Two questions:

1. Is it better to cook it on low or high? Obviously the time will be different, but will it usually taste better when done on low?

2. What is the stuff under Slow Cooker referring to?

Thanks

Answer

Cooking "Low and Slow" allows the heat to break down the connective tissues that cause toughness in meat, creating a more tender dish.

As for what the "Slow Cooker" is referring to, that is the volume of the crock pot.

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The cooking temperature 15 degree is consider as …?

Question

When we perform cooking on devices such as in the oven, the temperature is considered as the cooking temperature or the normal temperature?

For example, when I cook a potato in the oven in a temperature at 15 degree Celsius, is it the same than putting a potato in a room at a temperature of 15 degree Celsius?

Answer

I don't think it will cook at 15C. But if you put it in a room that was 150C, it would be the same as putting it in an oven that's 150C. Of course, if your oven has a convection fan, the very hot room would also need a fan to make it more equivalent.

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