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Absurdly, stupidly basic cooking questions (Part 2)

Pontormo

By Pontormo
in Food Traditions & Culture

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weinoo

weinoo

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Sdogg said:

Realistically is there any way to preserve sushi after buying it from the store and opening the cover? 

I've kept it in the fridge before, but the avocado browns and rice looks stale the next day.

 

No, there isn't.

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Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Sdogg said:

Realistically is there any way to preserve sushi after buying it from the store and opening the cover? 

I've kept it in the fridge before, but the avocado browns and rice looks stale the next day.

 

No way! The whole point is freshness.

 

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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  • 3 weeks later...
TdeV

TdeV

Posted
Posted

Another crazy question:

 

As you probably know by now, I hate throwing things away which might have some good left in them.

 

Rooting through the fridge for items to add to stock pot, some old fennel root was discovered. Part of some of the fronds had blackened which were tediously removed. The edges of leaves of the bulb had discoloured, so were sliced off. This removal was quite time consuming. The remainder was bright green and white, and was added to old carrots, with water and ham hocks for an overnight slow cook.

 

I'm wondering if the careful removal of brownish bits was necessary. The liquid in the slow cooker is just shy of 200°F (3 hours in), so I don't think it could have become dangerous. Or could it? Had I left those black/brown bits of fennel attached, would it have add a bad flavour?

 

 

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

Probably

 

I agree. I suppose you could have tasted some of the bits before deciding what to do with them. However, if the thought of doing that induces even a moment's hesitation, then definitely ditch them.

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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pastrygirl

pastrygirl

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Does anyone know the substitution ratio? 

 

No, but if 'caviar' is 100% seeds and 'paste' is seeds diluted with syrup, my guess is try half the amount of vanilla bean paste called for. 

Edited by pastrygirl (log)
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ElsieD

ElsieD

Posted
Posted
28 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

No, but if 'caviar' is 100% seeds and 'paste' is seeds diluted with syrup, my guess is try half the amount of vanilla bean paste called for. 

 

Thank you.  My understanding is that my little pot contains only the seeds and paste of the vanilla bean.  There is no liquid in the little pot.

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted

I've just made a granola recipe and find the result far too sweet for my taste.  (Ed likes it...but then...Ed likes Butter Tarts and I can't stand them.) 

 

However, the sugar ingredient in this recipe is maple syrup...1/2 cup..and it is part of the non-dry components which hold the recipe together.  Peanut or other nut butter is the other non-dry ingredient.

 

If I cut down on the syrup, the recipe won't hold together.  Suggestions please.  

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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weinoo

weinoo

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Darienne said:

I've just made a granola recipe and find the result far too sweet for my taste.  (Ed likes it...but then...Ed likes Butter Tarts and I can't stand them.) 

 

However, the sugar ingredient in this recipe is maple syrup...1/2 cup..and it is part of the non-dry components which hold the recipe together.  Peanut or other nut butter is the other non-dry ingredient.

 

If I cut down on the syrup, the recipe won't hold together.  Suggestions please.  

Add salt?

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Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, weinoo said:

Add salt?

Salt usually intensifies the sugar content I have read.  I want to substitute something for the amount of sugar which is needed as a liquid binder.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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haresfur

haresfur

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Darienne said:

Salt usually intensifies the sugar content I have read.  I want to substitute something for the amount of sugar which is needed as a liquid binder.

 

You could just cut down on the syrup and add more peanut butter and of course use an unsweetened peanut butter.

It's almost never bad to feed someone.

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
Just now, haresfur said:

 

You could just cut down on the syrup and add more peanut butter and of course use an unsweetened peanut butter.

I do use an unsweetened peanut butter and I could try that solution...but...  OK.  If nothing else turns up, I'll just do that.  

 

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
Just now, weinoo said:

Is there another way to add an acidic component?

My problem is that I just don't really know enough about cooking to answer that one...which is why I am asking in this 'absurdly  stupid' topic.  :wacko:  I am older than dirt, but I only started 'cooking' just over a decade ago and still don't know enough so that I could answer my own question in this case.

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Tropicalsenior

Tropicalsenior

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Darienne said:

one...which is why I am asking in this 'absurdly  stupid' topic.

In cooking there is really no such thing as a stupid question. If you don't know you don't know and the wonderful thing about this group is that somebody is bound to know. By the way, I just asked Google which is sweeter, honey or maple syrup. I was informed that honey is much sweeter than maple syrup so you can forget my stupid answer.

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blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Darienne said:

I've just made a granola recipe and find the result far too sweet for my taste.  (Ed likes it...but then...Ed likes Butter Tarts and I can't stand them.) 

 

However, the sugar ingredient in this recipe is maple syrup...1/2 cup..and it is part of the non-dry components which hold the recipe together.  Peanut or other nut butter is the other non-dry ingredient.

 

If I cut down on the syrup, the recipe won't hold together.  Suggestions please.  

 

Some granola recipes use egg white to help bind the bits together.  Or a couple of tablespoons of ground flaxseeds mixed with the same amount of water to make a slurry.  

You could try subbing one of those for part of your maple syrup. 

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Darienne

Darienne

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

How important is 'holding together'?  Do you need big clusters or would you be happy with loose but appropriately sweetened oats?

Importance?  Very.  In this case, it's Granola bars that you can pick up and eat.   That's the problem.

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Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Katie Meadow

Katie Meadow

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

How important is 'h olding together'?  Do you need big clusters or would you be happy with loose but appropriately sweetened oats?

Does clumpy granola always depend on more more sweet syrup? I make granola that is not clumpy and it is not very sweet.

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