Norm Matthews

Temperature of the liquid can vary according to relative elevation and what other ingredients may be in the water for flavor.. such as court bouillon. The terms describe the degree of activity the liquid has. Poach is hot, below boiling. Then there is simmer, slow boil, boil, and rapid boil. The activity of the liquid is determined by the amount of heat applied and length of time needed for the condition described.

Japanese rice wine is sake. I don't know what Chinese rice wine is called but dry sherry is often mentioned as a substitute in 'Asian' style recipes. You could use what you got to deglaze your pan, then cook it down to a syrup and use other ingredients to make a sauce.

It sounds to me like you got a cooking wine instead of a drinking wine like sake. I suppose you could use it in place of salt for t times until you use it up. If it has alcohol, it isn't a total loss even though you say it does not have much flavor itself. Alcohol is a solvent for food flavors that other solvents, (water and oil) don't bring out. Alcohol is a great flavor enhancer for tomatoes. Vodka sauce does not have much flavor in the alcohol but brings out the alcohol solvent flavors of tomatoes. You could use it for things like that.

My cutting board is cantilevered so that it sticks a little higher and over the edge of the sink where the disposer is located so that I can sweep the garbage off the board and into the disposer ( I know I should save it for compost or stock but I don't). My stove is directly behind me so when I have too much stuff on the cutting board to transfer with my hands, i turn around, pick up the skilled and hold it under the overhand of the cutting board and scoop the contents off into the pan.

I use cookbooks that present entire meals and those give me ideas for what to serve together even though they aren't all in the same meal in the book, I can pick from categories. The three books that help me plan for sides are Julia Child and Company, The Best of Beard and Culinary Artistry.

You are probably using too much leavening. According to Shirley Corriher, a rule of thumb is to use 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder for each cup of flour or 1/4 tsp. baking soda. But is is variable. If your pan is larger, you will need less baking powder because the batter will be thinner than if in a smaller pen. One thought is that the original recipe may have used single acting baking powder while most of what you get today is double acting.

What I usually do is put the ingredients in a small jar, close it with a one piece mason jar lid and shake it vigorously. It works for me. I use what I need and put the rest in the refrigerator until next time.

I have a question. If you want a cheese sauce why not just do a variation on a Mornay sauce?

I do the Alton Brown method by lining a rimmed baking sheet with foil, put it in a cold oven, turn it to 400º and check after 20 minutes. Thick bacon takes a little longer, really thin bacon takes a little less time. I pour off the fat and save it for cooking and drain the bacon on paper towels. ps I didn't know it was A. B.s method though. I once saw Emril do it the same way.

One of the favorite BBQ joints in KC is Oklahoma Joe's This rub is really good. I use it all the time. Put it on the pork the night before and wrap in plastic, then foil and refrigerate. Next day let come to room temperature before putting it on the BBQ or the grill. Oklahoma Joe's Rib Rub 2 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon white pepper 1 teaspoon black pepper 1. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, garlic powder, chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt, onion powder, white pepper and black pepper. 2. Store in a covered container at room temperature! Note, A variation is to rub beef short ribs with vinegar before applying the rub.

It makes a great deal of difference if you happen to be using a different brand of flour than the person who wrote it. Humidity does not make a significant difference but flour does. Professional bakers use weight to measure flour for accuracy but they buy the same flour every day and in large quantities. Home bakers will have a different situation. Some flour, even if they are all purpose flours will have different protein content. You can't tell by reading the label because they all round off and don't give a true idea. Here are some hypothetical examples. What if you are using a tried and true white bread recipe that someone provided you and you measure all the ingredients exactly to within .01 of a gram. If you use Martha White All Purpose and the original used Gold Medal AP flour, you are going to have a sticky mess when the other flour will have given you a good dough. What if you knead the bread for three minutes and the original person kneaded for six? What if you both knead for the same period of time but your way does not maximize the development of a smooth and elastic surface as well? Whose is going to rise higher? What if the room in which you let the bread rise is cooler than the original? What if you yeast is not as fresh and as active? What if your oven thermostat is not accurate and you are baking the bread hotter than you think you are? Then there is the issue of converting recipes. Use the amount that works for you. Don't go to some site and see how much flour is supposed to weigh and substitute that for cups. That is just changing one approximation for another. Here are a random sample of sites that tell you how much a cup of all purpose flour weighs. http://www.veg-world.com/articles/cups.htm Flour (all-purpose, white,self-raising, etc) 4 oz 110g http://www.erikthered.com/flwm.html 1C =113g http://www.preparedpantry.com/how-to-measure-flour-convert-cups-ounces.aspx 1C = 4.25 oz ( 1oz = 28.35g so 28.35x 4.25= 120.49) http://allrecipes.com//HowTo/baking-ingredient-conversions/Detail.aspx 1C.=4.5 oz= 127.58

It would be nice if everyone could post the original recipe alongside the converted one because a recipe in grams and ml takes away the opportunity for many -if not most- people to try the recipe when they don't have the proper equipment to measure in such a manner.

Just to get things perfectly straight, mass is not volume. They are different. Mass is the amount of matter in an object. Volume is how much space it occupies. The ratio of these two is density (= mass / volume). A marshmallow and a pebble might have the same mass, but the marshmallow has a much larger volume and lower density than the pebble. Weight and mass are often confused because we typically use scales to measure both of them. But weight is not mass. Weight is the force exerted by the earth's gravity on an object. In a fixed gravity environment, weight is proportional to mass, which is why we can measure them using the same tool. If we took the marshmallow and the pebble to the moon, their mass would remain the same, but their weight would be lower than it is on earth. You are right. I was wrong on that account.

When we sold our (Korean) restaurant to a Chinese restauranteur, one of our regular customers hired our cook and opened her own restaurant using our old menu. She knows me, saw my son grow up and knows his GF too. We are treated with respect and she seems happy to see us. We talk about old times and our current lives but there is no assumption that we will order anything every time and there is no price adjustment but sometimes she gave us a little extra rice if we had a doggie bag until I told her she didn't have to do it.

" Jose Nieves A good example is the Calorie Count site that roygon mentioned.. 1 Tablespoon (.5oz) of sugar is 13g but 16oz of sugar are 454g. 454g divided 32 (.5oz x 32 = 16oz) gives me 14.19 and 13g times 32 gives me 416g." US weights and volume measurements use the same sounding terms. It can lead to errors like the one discovered above. A fluid ounce is volume, and ounce is by weight. 1 Tablespoon is .5 fluid ounces, both are volume measurements. That is why when you divide 416 grams (weight) by 32(volume) you get a different answer. BTW, mass is also a volume statement, not weight.

http://www.foodily.com/ This link is one someone told me about yesterday. It will look up recipes on line for you then if you wish, it will convert them to metric. It is still volume (ml) but it may be helpful to some. Well one of the recipes I looked up converted. Maybe all of them don't. Sorry, I'd delete this if I knew how.

I absolutely agree that weight measurements will be more consistent than volume measures. My main point is you have to determine the measurements. Someone else telling you what works for them isn't a guarantee that you will get the same results any more than measuring by volume. You will get consistent results but not necessarily the same results. I say again, there is more to making a recipe successful than just getting the ingredients measured correctly.

As some people have pointed out or at least hinted at, agricultural products are not chemicals. They vary from brand to brand, from season to season and age of a product can vary the amounts used in any recipe. Making a recipe consistent isn't synonymous with making it taste good. All it does is assure predictability-for good or bad. There is more to cooking and baking than a recipe. Flour for instance varies in the way it is grown and milled from region to region around the world. 10 grams of AP flour won't mix with X amounts of fat and water the same in Alabama as it does in Oregon,,, or France or Italy. If you know your ingredients and measure them by weight and get excellent results, it is not guaranteed that someone else will get the same results with your recipe.

I have made this recipe in the oven and in a dehydrator. APPLE LEATHER 8 MED. APPLES, coarse chop 1/4 tsp. GROUND GINGER 1/4 C. HONEY OR LIGHT Corn syrup 1/4 tsp. GROUND CINNAMON 2 T. LEMON OR LIME JUICE Process ingredients to puree. Line jelly roll pan with wax paper or plastic. Put up the sides to contain it. Tilt to make a thin even layer. Dry in oven set at 140 degrees and door ajar. Rotate in 2-3 hours. When set, pick it up by the paper and flip over to dry on other side until leathery and peels away from paper easily. May be dried in dehydrator or convection oven. Use winesap, golden, Jonathan, northern spy, Newton, pippin or stay man.

Medium and short grain rices cook without any labor intensive efforts if you use a a rice cooker. Medium grain rich can be used in place of short grain btw. Even if you don't have a rice cooker, just making them isn't any more trouble that long grain rice cooked in a sauce pan with a lid.

Yeast does feed on sugar but there are sugars in flour. Sourdough yeast is fed, maintained and kept alive in a batter of flour and water alone. No added sugar. PS I kept a sourdough starter alive for 15 years.

Wild yeast is everywhere. That frosty layer on grape skins is yeast also on some green vegetables and cabbage. Feed those with flour and water and they will develop into usable yeast. Not all is well suited for white bread though. The reason wine first was discovered is because when piled in a barrel, the weight of the upper ones broke the skin on the lower ones allowing the yeast on the surface to come in contact with sugar and liquid inside. Yeast feed on sugar in grape juice and produce carbon dioxide and alcohol. The alcohol is desirable in wine and the carbon dioxide is desirable in making sparkling wine and for rising bread. It does indeed exist everywhere and a yeast grown somewhere else will take on the characteristics of local yeasts eventually Cultured yeast is delicate and will revert to wild yeast if maintained in a flour and water solution for any length of time.

Tender Quick is available at my small town grocery store so I'd be surprised if it weren't just about everywhere. I use it to make corned beef and have used it with pork tenderloin to make Canadian bacon. It works just fine for me.

Lard, bacon fat and shortening all have very similar properties and react the same in baking. Butter has a different melting point and less fat content, more water so it may produce different characteristics in texture and taste. Cookies and puff pastry, and pie crusts are probably the things that will demonstrate the most difference in texture.

It isn't the physical difficulty I was referring to. The effort I meant is the cost of plastic sealer bag and the extra time involved.