How long can savory cream cheese dishes last?

Question

I made this recipe here and have some of the black bean, onion, cream cheese mixture left. My question is .. how long will this last? For some reason, the thought of heating down the cream cheese to become a sauce will not last very long..

Thanks for any recommendation!

Answer

According to North Dakota State University, cream cheese, opened should last about two weeks between 32'f and 40'f. For the cheese itself, unopened, they recommend to "Use within one week of the 'best when purchased by' date". Unfortunately, in this situation, you cannot simply cut away the mold from the cheese since it is a mixed dish.

When you factor in the fact that the cheese was not only unwrapped, but heated along with other components, and likely sat out for some time on the counter in addition to in the pan, with added protein (the black beans especially), the math for how long cream cheese can last in your fridge shrinks and shrinks.

Personally, I would follow the cooked meat guidelines to be on the safe side. This means that well-wrapped leftovers, quickly taken out of the danger zone range of temps (40'f - 140'f), should last for 3-4 days after cooking.

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What is Molecular Gastronomy?

Question

There is a lot of material on TV, magazines and on the web recently about molecular gastronomy. Techniques like sous-vide and spherification seem to be popular. But what makes a cooking style "molecular gastronomy" and not "regular cooking"?

Is there a list of techiques or ingredients are a hallmark of molecular gastronomy?

Or maybe it's a philosophical distinction.

Regardless, how do I know if I'm serving "modernist cuisine"?

Answer

First of all, the term "molecular gastronomy" is almost universally derided by those who practice it and "Modernist cuisine" seems to have become the accepted nomenclature. The book Modernist Cuisine has what I regard as an excellent introduction to the movement and drawing the analogy with other Modernist movements in other artforms. The Modernist movement was about rejecting the lineage of everything that had come before and re-examining basic questions such as "what is perception". Similarly, we can trace a direct lineage from Escoffier to Nouvelle Cuisine and Modernist cuisine seeks to break that lineage.

The best way I've come up with to describe the Modernist philosophy is "the use of technology to gain direct, precise control over temperature, humidity, pressure and texture".

When you're poaching fish in a simmering stock, you want to bring the fish up to 45C by putting it in 80C stock that's heated by a 600C flame. You control point in this scenario is the knob of the stove which is the second derivative of the temperature of this fish. What's more, your feedback loop is entirely perceptual and based on human sensing and control. Modernist cuisine starts with the goal of bringing a fish up to 45C and determines the optimal way of accomplishing that goal which is sous vide. With Sous Vide, you are directly controlling the temperature of the fish and you're doing it precisely because you replace humans with automated feedback loops.

Another example might be reducing a sauce. In this case, you manipulate the vapor pressure of the liquid through the indirect application of heat. What you really want is to drive water off but you end up causing many inadvertent changes as well. With Modernist cuisine, you use a rotovap to control pressure directly and vacuum evaporate liquids without heating.

Same with using a roux or cornstarch to thicken a gravy. Instead of indirectly controlling the texture of a sauce by picking from one of the dozen common, natural thickeners, Modernist cuisine starts from asking exactly what textural qualities you want from a sauce and then figuring out the right combination of starches, hydrocolloids and proteins that accomplish that task.

Modernist cuisine may seem complicated on the surface because so much of it is new and unfamiliar but I find it actually to be radically more simple than traditional cooking once you understand this ethos. Rather than a hodgepodge of tradition built up over millennia, Modernist cooking is simply about starting first from your desired goals of flavor, temperature, pressure & texture and then figuring out the appropriate use of technology to accomplish that goal.

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Can I use a deep fryer instead of a pot with oil?

Question

I got a deep fryer for Christmas, and that made me think of all the donut recipes I have seen floating about, like this one for crullers or this one for chocolate dipped donuts.

These are just two examples, but I noticed they all call for a pot filled with about 2 inches of oil heated to a certain temperature. My deep fryer does have adjustable temperature settings, so that would be fine, but I am not sure if using the deep fryer instead of the pot of oil would work.

Is a deep fryer an okay substitute? I really want to get some good use out of it, and this sounded somewhat plausible. Am I completely off-track?

Answer

You can definitely cook donuts in a deep fryer. Most, if not all, donuts shops cook them in that manner. Just make sure your temperature is good and use something like chopsticks to flip them.

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How to adjust an oven to accommodate two items with different cook times and temperatures?

Question

For dinner this evening we are cooking a roast beef and intend to serve a baked brie appetizer. Unfortunately, we only have one oven. To reach medium rare the roast needs 3 hours at 325° while the brie needs to be cooked at 400° for 20 minutes.

Is there a way to cook both of these items in the oven at the same time? Is it a matter of adjusting the length of time the brie needs to be in the oven?

Answer

I would cook the Brie at that same temperature for 30-35 minutes and it should be okay.

Alternatively, you could cook the roast fully, remove it from the oven, tent it with foil and then cook the Brie. The meat can rest while the Brie is cooking and being eaten. Prior to slicing the roast, heat up the pan drippings to a sizzling temp and baste to ensure a crispy crust. But if the appetizer course happens to last for 20-30 minutes, then the roast will have been resting for 40-50 minutes and could lose too much internal heat.

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What is the rule of thumb for mixing doughs?

Question

Without delving too deeply into specialty doughs, but addressing more than just cakes and bread, what concerns can I evaluate when calculating the technique for approaching a dough?

For instance, some recipes say not to mix too much, others would imply that beating every bit of air out of the dough is the best thing for it.

What I am looking for is a set of criteria, maybe a flowchart, that outlines how to deal with having a well-reasoned technique (as opposed to just following a recipe).

Crumble, cream, or melt the fat first? Paddle or hook? Beat, fold or whisk? Knead once and rest or knead three times and throw? I would assume that to some extent getting air in or out, activating and mixing ingredients, distributing fats more or less evenly, and so forth play a factor in any decision. However, I have no idea what those different things do, or the food science behind them.

What general principles would help me understand what each factor does, so that I can have more confidence when staring down the ingredients, whether for some cookies or pizza crusts or muffins?

Answer

Once you start thinking in terms of techniques, it shouldn't be that hard. The book Ratio has an excellent overview of different methods for cakes. The blog pastrychefonline.com does as well. You can see an overview of the:

• Creaming method in which softened but not melted butter and sugar are whipped together first to create a network of air bubbles for structure, then eggs, if called for, and other liquid ingredients added, then (or alternated with) solid ingredients. Overmixing after a certain point destroys the air bubble network, but you need to build it up well first. An alternative is the Two-Stage Mixing Method in which eggs and flavoring go in with some of the liquid, then softened fat and solids all get added in, then the rest of the liquid in parts with little mixing.
• Foaming method, or sponge cake in which egg yolks and whites and sugar are whipped together to form the air bubbles, then dry ingredients are added, then melted butter is added at the end if called for. I believe in Ratio butter is added before dry ingredients, but I don't remember if that is the case. Again, you don't want to start popping your air bubbles.
• Biscuit Method or pastry method for pie crusts and biscuits, in which it is important to keep your fat very cold and leave some larger pieces of it for flakiness and usually over mixing after liquid has been added causes a dense biscuit or crust because it activates the gluten.
• Muffin Method or quick cake/bread method in which all the dry ingredients are added to all the wet ingredients and the fat is melted or liquid as opposed to softened or cold. In this case leavening comes from commercial leaveners instead of mixing so at no point do you want to overmix and activate the gluten.
  • There is an exception for batters like crepe batter where there is simply so much liquid that the gluten will never be activated. You can mix a high liquid content batter all day if you want.

And not covered on that blog are:

• Yet another technique uses whipped egg whites only for structure, much like making a meringue. I have a waffle recipe that uses whipped egg whites at the end for additional structure after using the muffin method for the rest of the batter.
• For bread I personally love the explanations in Peter Reinhart's books, both that on regular bread and also whole grain bread. You WANT to activate the gluten, so that's why you knead it after mixing (or in the case of the no-knead bread movement let the yeast activate it over a very long time), which is basically more mixing. The structure of bread is a combination of the bubbles from the yeast and the gluten that is partially activated by kneading. After rising you want to handle even bread gently, though, so as not to degas the yeast bubbles.

There may be more and different recipes use different variations, but these are the ones that spring to mind. The key is to figure out:

1. How is leavening happening - from chemical leaveners, a mixing method, steam during baking, yeast, or a combination of these?
2. How much do I want to activate the gluten?

The answers to these two questions largely determine the temperature of your fats and eggs and how much you mix.

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Clean an entire fish before or after storing in a freezer?

Question

After buying an entire fish from the supermarket, I was wondering if it is better to clean an entire fish before or after putting it to a freezer for storage (not long, abound a few days)?

Or the solution depends on the kind of fish? Today I bought some butter fishes. Before, I have bought porgy, bluefish, mackerel, pomfrey, ...

Thanks and regards!

Answer

Yes the fish should be cleaned and prepared before being frozen. Reference: http://www.helpwithcooking.com/food-storage/freezing-fish.html

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Can you pickle avacados?

Question

I wanted to see if anyone has tried to pickle avocados?

Mostly I am interested to use only vinegar, and/or salt.

Answer

I've never heard of it being done and I can't imagine why you'd want to try. An avocado is 70-80% water and 15% fat. That means you would basically be making pickled fat.

Compare to cucumbers and peppers which are both in the range of 0.1 to 0.2% fat, and much firmer than even an unripe avocado when raw.

I'm sure that it would be safe as long as it's done properly and the pH is under 4.6, and the acidity would kill or slow down the enzymes enough to prevent it from turning black. But I don't think it would be edible, even if you added oil to the mix. We are biologically hardwired to perceive sour fat as being rancid, and unlike certain pickled meats, there's no umami in there to compete with that sensation.

If you feel you must try this, at least start with an unripe avocado and see what it's like after a few days. A ripe avocado would almost certainly disintegrate in a pickling brine.

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