Robert Cartaino

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Stack Exchange Valued Associate #00005

I am the Director of Community Development for the Stack Exchange Network.

I can be reached at
rcartaino@stackexchange.com

	770 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	2 years, 10 months
513 badges		location	Palm Bay, FL		seen	May 13 at 20:03

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22 Comments

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Apr 26	comment	Pickle handling Yes, I've heard this and always suspected it was a needless extrapolation of keeping the process of handling canning jars somewhat sterile.
Apr 26	comment	In what proportion should the given ingredients be combined to form a cookie? @SAJ14SAJ Sure. Your answer spoke to the purpose (and substations) for those ingredients; excellent job! I was trying to address the "combinations" part of her question. Yes, that's only a start, but a better start than saying "can't be done" or "look it up on the Internet." Anyway, that's how I do it.
Apr 25	comment	Can I change the flour type of my sourdough starter? Fair enough. My suggestion to "start over" was based on an assumption that the author switched for good reason and wished to continue with the wheat flour. My rye starter always seemed to sour better anyway.
Feb 14	comment	Are there visual differences between regular and decaf coffee? @WayfaringStranger Can you post your answer using the 'answer' function rather than using a comment. Thanks.
Feb 10	comment	Vanilla Extract Vodka Quality @Aaronut If you want to get down to double-blind studies, several (including America's Test Kitchen and many others) say they prefer the taste of vanillin (artificial vanilla extract) to the alcohol based extracts anyway... primarily in baked goods. Just saying. wink
Jan 28	comment	Is it wise to use an aluminum foil in the microwave? Is there a substitute for the aluminum foil? I hear ya, but it still sounds like describing "safe" ways to wash your clothes with gasoline.
Jan 25	comment	Is it wise to use an aluminum foil in the microwave? Is there a substitute for the aluminum foil? I'm sorry, but *this sounds like horrible* advice.** It is "unwise." Period. Why would we recommend something that is "generally unsafe in microwaves" for an application it is entirely inappropriate for?! It's a scientific curiosity that you can make it work at all... until it doesn't. The penalty for getting it wrong is breaking the microwave (best case) or a fire in the kitchen. I suspect the voting is going for the "wow" factor, but this is not culinary advice. It's a science experiment.
Jan 21	comment	What does beating eggs actually do (chemically speaking)? @Fitri: Beating an egg does not change any nutritional values.
Jan 5	comment	Best way to juice a pineapple @adamse: Meh, technically, its more likely to be called a strainer. Colanders are typically bowl-shaped and perforated. There's a bunch of gadgets/strainers specifically shaped for this sort of straining. I'd use a juicer myself but, if I am straining, this is what I have on hand.
Dec 17	comment	Can you make pie crust from cookie dough? I had envisioned this would be more like a graham-cracker style pie shell. Yum.
Dec 10	comment	How long to preheat oven? Add to that... consider the degree you need to maintain constant temperature. When baking bread, you don't want that initial drop in temp from improper preheating (so preheat longer). But if you're warming up yesterdays casserole, who cares?
Nov 8	comment	Which non penetrating method is recommended to check chicken breasts for done-ness when pan fried I don't know if I would call that a "check for doneness." Restaurants can get away with that because they can produce repeatable results when working with the time/ingredients/equipment day after day. If you cook anything long enough, it's probably safe to say, "Sure, it must be done by now." But that's only safe if you way overestimate the minimum cooking time needed and err towards overcooking.
Oct 5	comment	DIY blender lid replacement The "gasket" I had in mind is a simple strip of foam rubber you bend into an approximate circle. It could flair out a bit to fit the curve of the spout. But it might be easier to cover the entire surface with some sort of soft rubber, like a thick shelf liner or some such.
Oct 5	comment	DIY blender lid replacement Hmm... My blender's spout is flush with the top of the rim. Other's may not be.
Sep 18	comment	Better Scrambled Eggs I've been doing this for years. Cream cheese or sour cream. Excellent. Not just for scrambled but for omelets, too.
Sep 17	comment	Unnecessary kitchen gadgets: a reference Chopping nuts: indispensable, especially when I need consistent chop sizes when doing batches (butter crunch toffee, 6 "slaps" for course interior nuts, 12 "slaps" for finer outer coating). Mine comes apart for really easy cleanup in a dishwasher.
Sep 12	comment	Can I repair a cake tin which has started to leak? Seriously. I didn't know that springform pans were supposed to be water-tight. I have to cradle my cheesecake pans in foil when I bake them in a water bath. Where do you buy your springforms? I'll have to start shopping there.
Sep 12	comment	What is the preferred method for sanitizing the kitchen? This site has to stay focused on culinary techniques. Cleaning your refrigerator and brushing your teeth are not on topic for this site. I have to close as off topic. Sorry.
Jul 23	comment	Is it safe to eat raw eggs? @Santanicpuppy: That is no longer true: "The inside of an egg was once considered almost sterile. But, over recent years, the bacterium Salmonella enteritidis (Se) has been found inside a small number of eggs." (source: incredibleegg.org/egg-facts/egg-safety/eggs-and-food-safety)
Jul 18	comment	Which food writers do you take to bed? Any question that asks users to create a list of answers (i.e. polls or list-of-X) should be make community wiki. I converted this question.