55
votes
Accepted
Can I thaw salmon directly in water?
The salmon will get water logged and mushy (and consequently release a lot of water during the cooking process) if you omit the bag. It's not unsafe, but it will decrease the quality of the salmon.
- 10.6k
52
votes
Accepted
Tea water: heat to 80 °C or boil to 100 °C and let it cool down to 80 °C?
It's actually the opposite, you shouldn't boil water for tea unless you want it boiling. Water has dissolved oxygen in it, the more you have the nicer your tea will taste. This has been covered in ...
- 77.9k
52
votes
Does water "go bad" in this sense?
It doesn't go bad, but it does change the taste.
When water is just sitting there, water evaporates, but most things dissolved in it don't. Then, each time you boil it, the steam causes additional ...
- 531
49
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
No, mint won't dissolve in water (leaves are mostly cellulose), but it does make excellent tea.
Boiling water, steep 5-6 minutes.
For best results, I recommending purchasing whole leaf mint intended ...
- 2,037
35
votes
Accepted
Why use a kettle to heat water?
Bear in mind that I'm using an electric kettle, rather than a stove-top one.
First, the advantage of a kettle is that it is quite efficient, and turns itself off once the water is boiling.
This as ...
- 11k
35
votes
Why use a kettle to heat water?
I think the primary considerations are convenience (how much effort is it to set up and use the system?) and time spent (how long does the system take to heat the water?).
A standard electric stove ...
- 1,749
27
votes
What would result from not adding fat to pastry dough?
You'd end up with something somewhere between unleavened bread, pasta & laminate flooring, depending on what else you did with it.
The first two are what you'd get if that's how you treated them, ...
- 29.9k
24
votes
Accepted
Best way to deal with drying dishware to minimize hazards?
The only important part here is to not seal water in the container.
You can either let it air dry, or use a clean cloth to dry it.
If you have a problem with your dishes and glasses having a white ...
- 82.1k
22
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
Mint leaves, and plant matter in general, won’t dissolve in water no matter how finely you grind them. They are largely made of substances which are simply not (very) soluble in water. At best you’ll ...
- 32k
19
votes
Can I thaw salmon directly in water?
Osmotic Pressure
If you boil vegetables in water, some of the compounds from within the cells will leach out of the vegetables into the water. The reason is because vegetables are bags of water with ...
- 321
17
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
You have several options for mint-flavored water, and none of them includes dissolving dried mint leaves in it. As others said, leaves don't dissolve in water (plants would be in a lot of trouble if ...
- 141k
16
votes
Accepted
What are good ways to flavor water?
Lemon juice
This one is fairly obvious and self-explanatory. Although the idea is mainly associated with highly sugarey lemonade, just a few drops of juice in a bottle of water and no extra sugar ...
- 1,922
14
votes
Does water "go bad" in this sense?
As far as I know it does not go bad, but there is a good reason not to fill your kettle completely when you fill it from the tap.
Partly filled kettles come to the boil in less time. Also costing less ...
- 2,131
14
votes
Does fully frozen food (bread) give off any moisture?
Freezers are extremely dry, over time without protection food will develop 'freezer-burn', where the outside of food dehydrates and loses quality. A sealed bag will make a big difference in preserving ...
- 77.9k
13
votes
Does liquid temperature matter when making bread in a bread maker?
With a bread maker, it's important to follow the recipe closely, at least until you've got a reliable result , when you can start experimenting.
Mine, for example, expects "tepid" water for most ...
- 45.8k
12
votes
Is it safe to not wash mushrooms?
Alton Brown, Harold McGee, Robert Wolke, and Kenji Lopez Alt have all tested washing mushrooms by weighing them pre and post wash, and found they absorb an insignificant amount of water that does not ...
- 406
11
votes
Accepted
Can I simply soak fruit and vegetables in water for several hours to sanitize them?
Washing fruit and vegetables in water is less an exercise in sterilisation and more a case of simply washing off any mud or debris. Soaking in still water does nothing to clean, well, anything really. ...
- 43.7k
11
votes
Scaling up water for cooking soup
1.5 litres for 4 servings is 375ml per serving (plus some volume from the veg which I'll ignore) assuming no water boils off. That's a sensible portion. I reckon my soup bowls hold just a little less ...
- 45.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Why does oil transfer heat to food more gradually than water?
First, I don't think the question you are asking about is written well (your question about this question is better). We don't have the benefit of the course's context, but alone this question seems ...
- 2,474
11
votes
Can I thaw salmon directly in water?
Yes, if you use brine!
(And keep an eye on it to make sure you don't leave it in too long after thawing.)
It's interesting that Lawnmower Man brings up osmotic pressure. Though he makes some very ...
- 375
10
votes
Making apfelschorle
As I am from "Apfelschorle Country", I have to chime in. Note that some statements below are subjective to a certain degree.
For me, a real Apfelschorle is apple juice and carbonated water, poured ...
- 61.4k
10
votes
Why are my Rucola and Lettuce washed in ice-water?
Using cold/ice water helps crisp up leafy vegetables.
- 20.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Water concentration of butter post-melt
The proportion of water will not change significantly unless you leave it hot for a while (evaporation will occur even below boiling temperature); the only substance that will evaporate in any ...
- 12.2k
10
votes
Does fully frozen food (bread) give off any moisture?
I've been assuming that all water is locked up as ice
At the temperatures in a home freezer, that's not quite true. Solid ice still has a vapor pressure as some of the water is able to escape. ...
- 1,196
9
votes
Accepted
Can I save peanut oil from turkey fryer after rain?
Generic, short answer, just to make sure a potentially dangerous state of things is not left uncommented.
Certainly unsafe for deep frying at that scale unless you can guarantee you got all the water ...
- 15.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Should I be concerned about drinking tap water?
It really depends on the location. Sciencemag.org has an article on this, which is backed up by this paper. To quote a relevant part from sciencemag:
Allaire and her colleagues downloaded EPA’s ...
- 564
9
votes
What would result from not adding fat to pastry dough?
Your title mentions oil but your question mentions shortening. Be aware that oil and shortening are not the same thing, and substituting one for the other will change the results. Oil is fat that is ...
- 3,148
9
votes
Why are my Rucola and Lettuce washed in ice-water?
I would suspect advertising speak. No-one these days can sell anything at all without some form of hyperbole.
We all know that rinsing salad in warm water won't be great for the leaves, so we'd rinse ...
- 29.9k
9
votes
Does water "go bad" in this sense?
If you don't do it too often this might be a good idea for another reason: when you pour out the water (and preferably give your teapot a rinse) you also pour out concentrated chalk residue and any ...
- 584
9
votes
Does water "go bad" in this sense?
Potable water does not "go off" ever*
I wouldn't even consider actually changing the water in a kettle unless I was going to be away from the house for more than a week, for which I'd simply ...
- 29.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible