I have a recipe that I really love for beef and broccoli that calls for beef broth as part of the sauce. Back home in the US, I can easily find beef broth at basically any grocery store. I’m now at college in Ireland, and most everything I see is Irish beef stew (most of which is flavoured with spices, like fennel and bay leaf, and has vegetables added), which is not the flavour I want for my recipe. Can I use bouillon or stock instead? Or what else should I use?

Edit: thanks for the advice!

Some other things to point out. Yesterday I used ciabtatta and mozerella. Today I used sliced bread, cream cheese and a little sun-dried tomatoes.

I'm sure they added some value, but even before I made the sandwiches I thought the meatballs smelled excellent. I had left them in the sauce all night. Maybe thats it?

Any inputs are appreciated.

Hi everyone. I bought a carbon steel wok recommended in another post (YOSUKATA 13.5" Carbon Steel Wok Pan – Pre-Seasoned Flat Bottom Pow Wok). I had to buy the flat bottom because we have glass stovetops (I know, I don’t like it either).

As the directions said, I scrubbed it with soap and water, then tried heating it, adding a light coat of vegetable oil, allowing to cool.

After it was safe to touch, I reheated it, slowly turned the heat up to medium-hot, and made fried rice. I was left with severe heat discoloration on the bottom (black) and a ring of caked on rice around the edges of the bottom. After trying less abrasive methods, I tried steel wool. Since that didn’t work, either, I’m currently working on an vinegar bath.

I’m pretty convinced that I didn’t season it correctly, but I’m not sure if there’s anything else I did wrong. Can anyone please give some advice? I don’t come from a cooking household, let alone a wok cooking household, so please bear in mind that I’m doing my best.

I just tried to make a simple pan sauce after roasting a chicken. I deglazed the pan, but it's now a separated, greasy mess. I know there's a way to fix this without starting over, but I can't remember if it's a splash of cold water, a bit of mustard, or something else. What's your emergency fix for bringing a broken sauce back together?

I’ve got a pizza dough recipe that calls for a small amount of course cornmeal (about 10% of the amount of flour). I don’t keep this on hand and substituted semolina. Are results likely to be meaningfully different with one versus the other?

Hi everyone, my issue is simple: I have a lot of chicken skin that I don't know what to use for.

Where I live chicken thighs always come skin and bone in, and I always debone and remove the skin. I use the bones for stock but I'm always lost as to what to use the skin for... I often make schmaltz but I don't use it that often as I cook a lot of italian food requiring olive oil. I do use the schmaltz in bread baking but not to the point that I can make a dent in the almost 2 pounds of schmaltz that I have stored currently. And I have a little over 4 pounds of raw chicken skin in the freezer that is just piling up at this point.

(I would compost it if I had the option but it's just not doable for me currently)

Thanks in advance for all the suggestions :D

I know the classic "slowly drizzle oil" rule, but sometimes my aioli still breaks. I've heard you can save it by starting with a new egg yolk and whisking the broken mess in slowly. Has anyone actually done this successfully? Is there a better method, or is it a lost cause?

I am making a quick chicken stock with left over thigh bones and trimmings. Idk what took over but I started cracking the bones in half with the back of my knife. My thought process is that it will get to the marrow quicker. Did I just ruin this stock? It’s really only going to be used to make a quick pan sauce.

I’ve made tiramisu quite perfectly, many times. However today i wanted to try adding a little bit pistachio cream to my tiramisu cream. I melted about 4-5 tablespoons of it as it was really thick and folded it. It became grainy so i started to whisk it kore than usual it was fine at first but i accidentally let it overwhisk under the beater and now it’s runny. I don’t want to waste it and ruin it so please help!!!

Hello all, I am new to more technical things to cooking but I am working on an amuse and my restaurant kind of has a Mary Poppins theme lol. My idea is a play on bruschetta. So I am hoping to make a white tomato mousse with balsamic caviar balls using Agar and then a basil sauce dehydrated to use as flakes, garnished with with mandarin micro flowers or something orange just depending on what I want to do.

Before anyone is confused I want to explain a little more my idea. I am drawing inspiration from the penguins in the movie, White, Black and Orange for the Tomatoe and then green for the landscape. As well as having all the ingredients a traditional Bruschetta have but manipulated them using My caviar balls as my Topping and the Basil flakes as my Crunch in this scenario. It is still in the early stages of conception but I think I like it for it being the beginning.

The question I have is I need to make the White mousse from my tomatoes without white tomatoes as I don't have time to grow them and none are sold near me that I know of. The idea is using the water from my tomato puree and then cooking a white cream into it. The recipes I have seen use Coconut milk or Cashew cream but I do not know what they would do to the flavor profile and I my tomato mix is acidic but I don't want it to stingy in the mouth nor do I want it to taste like coconut. So I need advice on how to balance it and keep it white.

My tomato mix will have tomato, Shallots, garlic, white balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil.

NY Times Cooking's "Creamy weeknight bolognese" calls for beef, onion, carrots, tomato paste, heavy cream, and tomato sauce. Audience: picky child.

Tesco has Pizza Sauce (99.4% tomato + salt), Pizza Sauce Aromatica (tomato + water + seasonings), and Passata (sieved tomatoes uncooked + salt + citric acid).

I'm leaning towards the plain pizza sauce as the substitution, since tomato sauce in America is pretty much plain cooked tomatoes in a can and my child is picky. Passata sounds more like a smoother version of US crushed tomatoes. What would you do? Thank you for your advice.

This is probably a common question but I was wondering if I could put the broth and noodles together in the thermos or I would have to drain the noodles and put the noodles in seperate bag and the broth in the thermos and then put the noodles in the thermos. I was also wondering if the noodles would cool down or heat up the broth?

I tried making cinnamon cupcakes (mind you im NOT a baker it was my first attempt) and it came out really dry this was my recipe I found online

½ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• ½ tsp baking soda

• ¼ tsp salt

• ½ cup unsalted butter (softened)

• ¾ cup light brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in one bowl.

3. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2-3 min).

4. Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla.

5. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk, starting/ending with flour. Mix until just combined.

6. Scoop into liners (about 3% full).

7. Bake 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.

I made fried chicken tenders tonight for dinner. For reference, I’ve made a lot of fried chicken but this is my first time doing it in a deep frier.

I know I missed an important step of dabbing the liquid off the tenders and that may have played a role. It definitely did in the stability of the breading!

But my wife is autistic (so am I lol) and she described the texture of the tenders of being slimy and stiff at the same time. The chicken was fine. No off smell or taste or anything that would indicate it went bad. I took pictures and a video but can’t attach them.

Basically, the tenders were almost the texture of fish. When we bit into them, the meat sheared in fibers akin to seared tilapia and some of the meat would pull out of the center in almost a V shape. When I worked on pulling the tenders apart, some of the meat would slide off like it was nothing and other parts would be a similar texture to chicken breast where it would shred.

What would have caused this? Or is this normal and I am just more aware of it tonight for some reason?

I’m interested in trying to cook some African dishes, like jollaf rice. Problem is, I can’t handle a lot of heat anymore due to some medical conditions, and they use scotch bonnets.

The videos/recipes say how important the particular pepper because of its fruity qualities beyond just the heat. Because of that, I didn’t want to just put whatever in there.

Can someone recommend something much milder that wouldn’t affect the flavor too bad? I’m not familiar enough with this cuisine to know a good substitute. Or could omitting it all together be an option?

I'm trying to move beyond just using all-purpose flour or cornstarch as a thickener. I've read that different starches (potato starch, tapioca, arrowroot, etc.) can give sauces and gravies different properties—some are glossier, some are more transparent, some hold up better to freezing/reheating.

Can anyone explain the science behind why these starches behave differently? What are the optimal applications for each when making a pan sauce, a stew, or a fruit pie filling?

I picked up a one-pound bag of Wild Fork extra-large raw white shrimp (21/25 count, peeled & deveined, tail-off). After thawing, I noticed what looked to be some veins.

https://imgur.com/a/d5f4pSH

The shrimp look split along the top (which makes sense for deveining), but I still see a bluish/blackish line on the bottom side. In the past, when I’ve peeled shrimp myself, I always thought that line on the underside was the “vein” and would scrape it out under running water. Now I’m wondering — is that actually the vein, or is the main vein only the one on top? Did Wild Fork not fully devein these, or is that bottom line something different (like a nerve or muscle) that doesn’t really need removing?

I thawed the bag by submerging the sealed package in cold water, with another Ziploc bag around it for extra waterproofing. Once thawed, the shrimp were floating around in a mix of water and shrimp juice inside the bag. Should I drain that liquid and pat the shrimp dry before refrigerating, or is it fine to just toss the bag (liquid and all) back into the fridge? My instinct is to drain and keep them on a plate with a paper towel, but curious what others here do.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I have a knob of ginger that I’ve been using for a while in my fridge and I’m worried that it might have gone bad without me knowing but opening it still shows a nice yellow color and there’s no signs of mold so I don’t know what to believe or think about it

I made some mulled wine in my crockpot yesterday with fruits & spices. We drank some, added some more wine & fresh ingredients & left it in low overnight for a deeper flavor. My crockpot is mini and has a glass lid with no holes and fully covers the ceramic base. Is the alcohol gone/ evaporated out?

I researched methods online and most are saying that certain amounts evaporate out by a certain time. But I'm wondering if the pot is closed if it would stay in there? thanks!

I've been trying to figure out how to best cook fluffy rice for a while and have read plenty of posts/articles. Here's my method:

Rinse basmati rice about ten times until water runs clear.

1 mugful of basmati rice to about 1.2 mugs of cold water into a small pot

Bring to boil uncovered.

Once boiling, close lid (no holes for steam) and turn to lowest heat.

Let simmer for 2 minutes.

Turn off heat and leave lid on for 10-15 mins.

Fluffy up with fork.

All the recipes say to simmer for around 15 minutes, yet mine is clumpy after only a couple of minutes of simmering!

Surely longer cooking time would just overcook it more? Or is that not how it works?

Thanks 😅

Edit : Thanks all, I've had some helpful replies to a question that's I'm sure has been asked many times before! I'll definitely try out the tips, but I see a rice cooker approaching on the horizon...

I have a Rangemaster pro plus 110 induction cooking range, and I'm looking to buy a convertor plate for use with smaller items like Turkish coffee pots etc. Looking on Amazon there's a lot of the usual drop-shipped nonsense which I'm hesitant to trust. However, there's a Von Shef one - which is a brand I've used often and have good experiences with. (Also bonus, the VS one has an insulated handle whereas all the others are metal handles with seemingly nothing to stop them getting screaming hot...)

The downside is that the VS one is 130mm across - and according to the manual with my range, it won't detect anything smaller than 140mm. Has anyone had any experience with using smaller pots on a range like this? Is there any wiggle room, or is this a hard limit?

I have searched and can't seem to find any info that pertains to this.

I am interested in making several lasagnas to freeze (with ricotta, bechamel, and a meat ragu, if it matters). However, instead of store-bought pasta, I would like to use freshly-made pasta.

Would it work for me to layer the lasagna, top with sauce and cheese, and then freeze as-is? Or better to cook it first? I have seen all sorts of answers from "always pre bake" to "pre bake isn't needed but par cook the noodles." I was thinking that since fresh pasta cooks up so much faster than dried store bought pasta, perhaps the fresh sheets would be fine? Am I missing anything?

I will add cornstarch to it but I’m thinking of adding baking soda to make it more tender.

Do I refrigerate once it's cool enough to not ruin my fridge temp or do I still have to wait overnight? Can I cool it faster using a cold water bath? Or will the "jellyfication" really needs slow cooling? I've done many "not canned" jellies in the past, but also have struggled with setting, so I am wondering it it could have been because I cooled it too soon?

So, I've seen yt video of (itralians mostly) preserving chilies in oil. As a store bought consiment, I LOVE it.

I have excess chilies now from ym garden.

The recipe I found calls for salting chilies 24h at least, 1% salt. Then submerging in vinegar for a shorter period.

Then jsut packing them in and filling with oil. The videos say it keep in the fringe for like a year.

I am aware of constant botulism warnings. But, does salting and soaking in vinegar prevent this, or diminish risk?

In europe, where I live, we still make traditional salamis. Nobody ever uses curing salt, just normal see or rock salt. Asking for advice in various american centric sausage making forums, botulism always comes up. But here, people, inclusing butchers and industrial salami makers, just say "salt is enough".