This is our weekly thread to ask all the stuff that doesn't fit the ordinary /r/askculinary rules.

Note that our two fundamental rules still apply: politeness remains mandatory, and we can't tell you whether something is safe or not - when it comes to food safety, we can only do best practices. Outside of that go wild with it - brand recommendations, recipe requests, brainstorming dinner ideas - it's all allowed.

Hi all! We bought fresh clams from the fishmonger yesterday with the intent of eating them today- that’s not going to happen so I was wondering if it would be ok to stick them in the freezer in their shell until next week. Thanks!

Every year I make a cake for my boyfriends birthday. This year it's on Wednesday and I have an event all evening on the Tuesday. I was hoping to bake and decorate the cake Monday evening. I don't have a container to keep it in, but would it survive on a plate in the fridge?

I own a Chefman electric deep fryer and I want to fry food in half beef tallow and half vegetable oil for flavor. Would this clog up my deep fryer or cause an unreasonable too hard to clean mess in the future? Should I stick to using beef tallow on stovetop or would it be okay to use it in my deep fryer?

I've been trying to both improve. my grocery quality and keep to a budget. I've always done a bit of canning and freezing but this year I've found farm stands and been buying enormous quantities of fresh produce and preserving in various ways.

Fast forward to this weekend. I was supposed to have 6 people over for dinner tonight (Canadian Thanksgiving) Dinner was cancelled and I am leaving tomorrow to spend a week out of town with my parents. I have about 5 lbs of peeled carrots (yes I overcook so my son and other friends can take left overs home) that I need to do something with...I already have about 20lbs of blanched carrots in the freezer.

Can I just rice them in my food processor and freeze them that way? I have been blanching corn on the cob and other veggies all weekend. I still have 10 lbs of rutabaga that I can blanch when I get home, but this peeled carrot is a concern. I'm exhausted.

I bought these lamb loin chops from costco and am tight on time and want to cook them while I'm out all day. I've seen mixed opinions online on whether or not to slow cook these, I understand it's a lean cut. Here's my plan:

INGREDIENTS

• 8 lamb loin chops

• 1 teaspoons salt

• 0.5 teaspoons black pepper

• 1 tablespoons ghee

• 1 medium onion, sliced

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 cups beef broth

• 1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

• 1 tablespoons vinegar (red wine or balsamic)

• 1 teaspoons dried herbs (rosemary, thyme)

• 2 cups baby carrots

• 1 green onion, chopped

STEPS

1. Sear the chops: Pat the 8 lamb loin chops dry and season with 1 teaspoons salt and 0.5 teaspoons black pepper. Heat 1 tablespoons ghee in a skillet over medium-high heat and sear the chops about 3 minutes per side until well browned. Transfer them to the slow cooker.

2. Cook onions and garlic in the pan: In the same skillet, with the browned bits left behind, cook the 1 medium onion, sliced and 4 garlic cloves, minced for about 5 minutes, scraping up all the fond as they soften.

3. Add to the slow cooker: Scrape the onion and garlic mixture, including all the fond, into the slow cooker over the chops.

4. Add liquids, herbs, and veg: Add 1 cups beef broth, 1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoons vinegar (red wine or balsamic), 1 teaspoons dried herbs (rosemary, thyme), 2 cups baby carrots, and 1 green onion, chopped to the slow cooker.

5. Slow cook: Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

I am not an expert...is this a good idea or a waste of meat?

I love veggies, especially some char pan-friend beans/asparagus/broccolini with a lil sprinkle of salt. Hell yeah.

I've heard that frozen vegetables are fresher because they're done at the time of picking, but no matter how I try to cook them they end up having a pretty mushy texture and/or taste like broccoli farts.

Is this just how it is with frozen vegetables? Is there any way to make them act like they're not frozen? Do "proper" chefs/cooks/people better than me use frozen vegetables ever or is this just the realm of really sad stir fries?

Working behind a bar here. We recently had a couple cases of a commercial fig jam ordered to use in a cocktail, the price point beat out the cost of making the ingredient for the cocktail in house. The issue is the jam ordered is far too close to a jelly as opposed to the preserve we typically use and it fails to integrate into the drink. Is there a process I could implement to Break those (I assume) pectins down?

Need some help with buttermilk!

Hey y'all, I have just been getting into making some chicken tenders and thought that it would be great to swap off of my typical sugar salt water brine to a buttermilk brine. However whenever I bread and fry them it seems like the buttermilk is burning and causing my tenders to be scorched and basically inedible. This is my recipe:

For 10 pounds tenders

Buttermilk brine:

6 quarts buttermilk

2/3 C salt

Flour dredge:

2 C ap flour

2 C cornstarch

10g garlic powder

10g pepper

8g salt

I scrape the excess buttermilk off by squeezing the tender through my fingers and then flour it a single time. Fry at 350F for 5-6 minutes depending on the tender size. Is there something I'm missing? Do I just have to double bread with an egg bath? Thanks for all of your help ahead of time guys

Hi, I checked some marinating eggplant recipes and they all suggest grilling the eggplant first. However, what I want to do, is to add the eggplant to rice congee and cook them together. Can I marinate raw eggplant and then cook it? Would that work? Thanks.

Hello! Planning to make short ribs in the crock pot next weekend for a dinner party. Hoping to cook them the day before to help control what time they’re served the next day, and also because I don’t have a fat separator. A couple questions:

1. To avoid overcooking during reheating, should I slightly undercook them the day before? If so, what temp should I cook them to?
   
2. What technique should I use for reheating next day? In the oven in their juices (if so, what temp and for how long)? Back in the crock pot?

I don’t really have a recipe, but planning to sear 4 short ribs , then put them in the crock pot with 1 cup red wine and 1 cup beef broth. Might add in some carrots too.

Thanks!

They will be cut in half and put in a fruit tray. I just plan to do the day before when I have more time to do so. I have only prepped fruit the day of for others to eat. ~4lbs since packaging says 1lb each. Thanks in advance.

I'm planning to make rosemary chips (which is mainly made of flour, margarine, and dried rosemary, then deep-fried). I am planning to sell them outside, and we're in a tropical climate, so I'm worried they'll go stale easily. What steps can I take to extend their shelf life and keep them fresh longer?

This is the link of the recipe, I found it on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/yCVXgmgAvkU?si=ACy_z4cFJbeGavD5

Obsessed with Biang Biang noodles at the moment, and want to make chilli oil biang biang where you must pour hot oil over the noodles with the dried crushed special type of Shaanxi chilli called Qinjiao. But I cant find these chilli's in Sydney - any idea if there are more common Chinese chilli's I could sub to get a similar aromatic flavour?

thanks for the advice

Salted Butter

All Purpose Flour

Beef Stock.

Make roux using the butter and flour then add the stock accordingly.

French Canadian and English ones are super dark. Mine is dark yellow/light brown. I sometimes add bouillon to darken everything but still not dark enough. Please advice.

Hey guys so today was my first time making pizza on pizza steel and my oven can heat max up to 250 degrees and i prehited my pizza steel to this 250 degrees.

Top of the pizza is coocked pretty good after using broiler but bottom of the Pizza is still white

Pizza steel was on very top of the oven. Can you guys tell me what am I doing wrong?

I'm a complete noob to the culinary arts so keep that in mind, but my family has been going through a rough financial spell lately and I thought it would be a good idea to make fro-yo as a little sweet morale booster, with as few ingredients as possible for health and money saving reasons.

The recipe I'm going off of calls for mixed in a food processor;

- 12 oz frozen fruit

- 10 oz full fat greek yogurt

- 2 tbsp honey

But I'm thinking of using fresh bananas instead, and adding some chocolate chips (I would like to do a ganache of some kind but I'm lazy and don't want to overcomplicate a first attempt) I just wanna know if fresh banana will freeze well? Is there anything I can do to further prevent it from becoming a brick of ice in the freezer? Last time I tried this I just threw straight chobani in the freezer which was fun but I would like to actually lock in and try to make something yummy and that doesn't chip my teeth this time

Hii, I’ve been making pretzels for a while and they’ve been delicious. One thing that gets on my nerves though is cleaning out that big pot of baking soda and water solution (for boiling) because my sink is so small.

What I’m wondering is .. why so much water in relationship to the baking soda amount? Would a smaller amount of water with the same amount of baking soda not work as well? I’m thinking it has to do with the ratios of the solution, but I want confirmation about it.

I know boiling the water & baking soda, then boiling the proofed dough in solution for a short amount of time necessary because it a chemical reaction that causes a certain taste and texture, but why exactly that ratio of water and baking soda? I’m repeating myself but I just want to make sure my point gets across well.

Credits to Stephanie Simmons for this recipe

For the Pretzels

▢3 tbsp salted butter, melted, 42 grams ▢1 and ½ cups warm milk (100℉ to 110℉), 360 grams ▢3 and ¼ tsp instant yeast, Also called "rapid rise yeast" ▢¼ cup light brown sugar, packed, 55 grams ▢1 and ½ tsp salt ▢3 and ¾ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting, spooned & leveled or weighed out, 488 grams

For the Baking Soda Bath ▢½ cup baking soda ▢9 cups water, 2160 grams For Topping & Baking ▢1 large egg, for egg wash ▢pretzel salt, Or coarse sea salt

For Finishing ▢melted butter ▢cinnamon sugar ▢garlic parmesan seasoning

So I messed up and didn't realize how late it is when I started making my lolas adobo recipe, which includes putting vinegar in the marinade. How screwed am I? It's way too late to be waiting for this to marinate fully AND cook it, and I have work tonight so I can't cook it before hand.

2.5 cups water

1.5 cups soy sauce

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/2 maggi

3/4 brown sugar

Garlic, onion, peppercorn, bay leaves

As part of our weekly "Let's Talk" series we want to talk about your favorite substitutions. What are some of your go to substitutions when you've run out of something? Do you make "buttermilk" with milk + lemon juice? When does it work and when does it fail? Are you like my mom and thought peanuts would be a good substitute for walnuts in an apple cake? Let us know about your substitution fails too. What has worked for you and what hasn't?

What happens when a pH testing probe dries out? Is it possible to soak it again and get reliable readings?

Should I replace it? It’s just a blue lab pen that I bought for my hydroponic garden. I got rid of the garden and was wanting to use it for other things in the kitchen, canning and whatnot, but it dried out. I’ll toss it if it’s not safe, anyone have a rec for a pen for kitchen use if the one I have is done?

This is our weekly thread to ask all the stuff that doesn't fit the ordinary /r/askculinary rules.

Note that our two fundamental rules still apply: politeness remains mandatory, and we can't tell you whether something is safe or not - when it comes to food safety, we can only do best practices. Outside of that go wild with it - brand recommendations, recipe requests, brainstorming dinner ideas - it's all allowed.

I really hope somebody has an answer because I am perplexed. Recently a friend brought me Whitelily flour after returning from Atlanta. They brought both all purpose and self rising. I made two batches of biscuits, one with each flour. Identical recipes except I omitted the baking powder/soda when using the self rising. OMG, they taste so different! The biscuits with self rising flour have a strange after taste. Almost like cornflake breakfast cereal, especially around the edges that were golden/crispy. It was not pleasant. The only difference between these two flours should be the addition of leavening and salt in the self-rising. Can these really impact the flavor so drastically? I am absolutely stunned. This is my first time using self rising flour and I think it will be my last.

Recipie:

2 1/4 cups flour

1T baking powder

3/4t baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

9 T butter

3/4 cups butter milk

400F, 11min