Stefano

1,254 reputation

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bio	website	wholemeal.ie
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visits	member for	1 year, 7 months
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	1,254 reputation	bio	website	wholemeal.ie	visits	member for	1 year, 7 months
111 badges		location			seen	yesterday

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2d	comment	What causes the difference between Maine and Canadian lobsters? Larger lobsters are actually less desirable because by the time you've cooked the meat in the centre of a particularly big one, the outside meat is horribly overcooked. Good article about working with big specimens here: cookingissues.com/2010/07/07/…
May 15	comment	How to correctly infuse cream into vegetables Are you looking for a result more akin to potato dauphinoise?
May 1	comment	How to prevent Orecchiette from sticking to each other while cooking? How to separate in water? Just wanted to say thanks for this answer, for years I've had hit and miss results with orecchiette and last night I used this technique and they came out perfectly.
Apr 30	comment	Is there much of a difference between organic vs. regular olive oil? Just because it says organic doesn't necessarily mean no chemical products were used. A lot of organic certification schemes allow pesticides that have been derived from 'natural' sources. I'll refrain from critiquing the inconsistencies of this approach as it's not really on topic.
Apr 21	comment	What is the internal temperature a steak should be cooked to for Rare/Medium Rare/Medium/Well? Someone had better tell all those food scientists that they've been wasting their time!
Apr 18	comment	How to turn froth into juice? Be careful with what type of emulsifier though, something like xanthan gum will just stabilise the foam.
Mar 12	comment	What is “Fish Sauce” typically used for? I didn't mean to imply that people were saying it was restricted to Asia just that my use case hadn't been mentioned yet; it's actually more common than you would think, especially in professional kitchens (it was a chef who worked in a French restaurant who told me about the trick).
Mar 12	comment	What is “Fish Sauce” typically used for? Also, there's no need to restrict its use to only Asian cuisine, I often replace some of the salt in European recipes with fish sauce, just enough give that lovely umami flavour you mention but not enough to impart any fishy flavour. The longer cooked the dish the more you can add, I find. Of course, this was common practice in Europe centuries ago with the Roman condiment garum.
Mar 8	comment	How do I roast beets to easily remove the skins? Are you roasting them uncovered in the oven? I always wrap them individually in aluminium foil before roasting and have no problems removing the skin later.
Mar 8	comment	Why does curry flavor improve overnight (beyond the effects of permeation and infusion)? That's not actually what it's saying, if the curry is stale then the oxidation reaction has gone too far.
Mar 6	comment	Why does curry flavor improve overnight (beyond the effects of permeation and infusion)? In short, I'm not sure if it only applies to meat; MC specifically mentions meat but then the section is in the part of the book concerning braising pieces of meat so it could just be a function of that. However, it could be possible that the fats in your curries such as ghee or coconut fat could be be undergoing this ageing process too.
Feb 20	comment	Homemade mayonnaise difficulties How long are you leaving the blender on for? I don't see how if you dumped all the ingredients into something as powerful as a Blentec and left it running for 3-4 minutes at max speed that it wouldn't emulsify the sauce.
Feb 11	comment	Baking 'Master' Recipes Ruhlman has also created an app based around the concept. I've not used it though: itunes.apple.com/en/app/ratio/id345119718?mt=8
Feb 7	comment	Why does tomato sauce spatter more than other sauces? I'm not sure how much it being a fruit has to do with it: when I had blender that wasn't very good I used to have to make purees with a lot of liquid added and them reduce them down on the stove, I remember celeriac in particular being particularly violent in giving off splatters.
Feb 5	comment	Sous vide over cooking toughens meat? But for many cuts, the time the piece of meat is held at a particular temperature is just as important. Just getting short ribs up to temperature is not sufficient to make them edible, for example.
Jan 31	comment	Was my bone marrow broth boiled too long? Yeah, if boiling stock completely ruined its flavour then tonkotsu ramen wouldn't taste so delicious! Taste your broth and see.
Jan 22	comment	What is the lowest possible temperature for stewing meat? Just an FYI, myself and Stefan are two different people we just have very similar names! :)
Jan 22	comment	What is the lowest possible temperature for stewing meat? Collagen conversion starts as low as 50C and the the sarcoplasmic protein enzyme collagenase remains active below 60C but as you note it will take days to tenderise the meat and is really only practical using sous vide. Some good information here with references: douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Tough_Meat
Jan 17	comment	How to add flavor to potato soup (using minimally processed ingredients)? As SAJ14SAJ says using water as a base for a soup made with a bland ingredient like potatoes is not the best course of action. How much salt did you add? I would just guess you've not seasoned it enough.
Jan 16	comment	How to add a salty/bacon flavor and texture to vegan collard greens? I presume you've seen this? sciencentral.com/video/2009/03/02/… I've seen recipes that use soy sauce instead of salt too.