AskCulinary

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/ronearc on 2023-09-23 20:42:39.

Original Title: Specific Ingredient Help: I'm using the meat from store-bought confit duck legs to make Duck & Sausage Gumbo. I've never used confit duck legs. Can I (or should I) pick the meat while it's cold but then crisp the skin as a garnish?

I've searched, and while I've found some recipes, most of them are telling me how to confit duck legs, not what to do with them. And a few mentioned the skin, but they referred to roasting, broiling, or pan frying the entire duck leg to get the skin crispy.

I presume I could remove the skin and crisp it separately, but while I've done that with raw chicken thighs, I've never done it with anything that's been cooked confit.

Also, kind of the second part of the question. They're in the refrigerator now, but can I pick the meat and remove the skin while they're cold, or should I warm them in some fashion before doing that?

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/Avacado22 on 2023-09-24 01:38:56.

Final edit!! IT WAS A CHANNEL KNIFE! Thank you to all who offered their guesses! I have a few new techniques to try now 😊 SOLVED!

__

I love this one Thai peanut cucumber salad from a restaurant nearby. It has cucumbers that are cut up in quartered chunks about 1/2 inch wide, and they aren’t really peeled, but they have what I can only describe as deep ridges cut into them parallel with the cucumber so they hold more of the delicious sauce (I assume).

I’ve found a recipe for the sauce that is super close, and figuring out this cutting/peeling? technique feels like the last puzzle piece I need to make this salad at home.

I’ve googled it, tried to find YouTube videos, even ordered the salad and tried using google image search and I cannot figure out how they do it. I feel like it’s probably some simple thing I cannot think of. Help me out here please so I can finally sleep at night.

Edit! Link to a pic of the cucumber chunk in question is here

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/Broog12 on 2023-09-24 00:06:18.

The other week I had bought a similar pack of chicken which I had just tossed into a ziplog bag after I deboned them. Ate them throughout the week and it was fine. But I was wondering if there was any kind of marinade or brine I could toss them in for a week? Probably too much time for chicken but I figured I'd ask just to make sure. Also I can only cook like 4 pieces at time due to limited space so cooking it all at once is not ideal.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/Equal_Afternoon5210 on 2023-09-23 23:51:28.

Enchilada had shredded chicken meat in it. Most of the meat was white but some of it was this dark magenta color, even though it had the same texture as the rest of the meat. Is this just normal with dark meat? Is it hemoglobin?

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/notnavyblue on 2023-09-23 19:43:36.

See above, not 100% true but seems like usually works out that most sugar free gums use xylitol and erythitrol is used in other stuff. I buy these products sometimes and was just wondering if anybody knew why there is a difference in general uses

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/CG_Details on 2023-09-23 18:37:49.

I got a really nice little hand crank pasta machine in a secondhand store for a song. I don’t know it’s history, so I really want to make sure it is clean & disinfected before I get to cooking with it. It LOOKS tidy, but I don’t know what the interior mechanisms are like.

I don’t want to waste your time, so did my research including here in r/AskCulinary before coming to ask for more guidance. No soaking, no rinsing, no heavy soaps. Wipe with damp cloth and dry thoroughly. Good to re-oil the gears, no olive oil (good at first, rancid later) but food grade mineral oil is good. Run a “sacrificial dough” through it to make sure it’s really gunked/oiled out.

Is it overkill to do more? I’m eyeballing the rubbing alcohol. Dousing it in rubbing alcohol shouldn’t rust it but will kill anything lurking inside from its previous owners, and it should evaporate clean. Or am I being too picky?

Edit: I’ve always understood that if you buy a food-prep item from the secondhand store, you sterilize it before you use it.

Edit 2: Ran the sacrificial dough through it and it got stuck so badly I had to disassemble it to get it out. Holy cow this post is much ado about nothing. Started by saying I didn’t want to waste your time… I wasted your time. Sorry guys.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/tortuga3385 on 2023-09-23 17:22:50.

I tried searching, and I found several posts about resting meat, and some people say to cover it with foil, and other say not to.

Specifically, I am referring to sautéed or grilled chicken breasts, pork chops, or steaks.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/SignificanceWitty654 on 2023-09-23 16:40:44.

I’ve been trying out different ways to make spaghetti aglio olio, and what I’ve found is that making a sauce with the right texture and thickness is critical to the flavour of the dish. You could pack all the garlic in the world into the sauce, but if it doesn’t stick to the spaghetti, the dish would be bland.

I typically use supermarket pasta, and what I’ve found works best is to use less water when boiling the pasta, salt the pasta sparingly (my guideline is for it to taste like a lighter soup), and finish cooking the pasta in the garlic/chilli oil together with a generous amount of starchy pasta water. Doing so leaves me with a reasonably viscous sauce that coats the pasta with the delicious garlic/pepper/olive oil sauce.

However, I do not see any chefs online recommending this. The closest to this “technique” I’ve seen online would be from Alex the French guy, who concentrates the pasta water to make a richer cacio pepe sauce.

Have I gotten aglio olio seriously wrong? It’s definitely not traditional, but I would like to at least capture the “essence” of the dish

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/nailsforbrunch on 2023-09-23 03:16:53.

I tried making some tonkatsu to go with some curry the other night and I tried everything and couldn’t get the breading to stick to my pork. I used egg, flour, and Panko. I tried flour then egg, egg then flour, then egg. I don’t know where I messed up. Please help.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/rhiddlesdream on 2023-09-23 06:09:29.

I was sent here from r/cooking

Edit: Feeding 100 people at the contest. Other people are bringing sides. Company is providing mains.

Ok so my 28f, bf 32m apparently entered a cooking contest within his workplace for tomorrow. I work graveyards, he just woke me up in a panic asking me to taste his macaroni salad.

He got a recipe online, didn't read the reviews, and has minimal experience making macaroni salad.

He is very disappointed and distraught, asking me what he can do to fix it.

I'm groggy, up early after multiple 12 hour shifts.

He made a big stock pot of it but did not adjust the recipe according to the amount of noodles used.

He used 3Ibs of uncooked noodles.

He put in "essence of bacon" which is not detectable as he minced it. I told him to get more bacon on the stove and chop it.

The base tastes very sweet, not creamy, the vegetables are also sweet as he added bell peppers. He added feta cheese which you can also not taste.

Did not add carrot or pimiento peppers.

Here's the ingredients list:

4 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

1 cup mayonnaise

⅔ cup white sugar

¼ cup distilled white vinegar

2 ½ tablespoons prepared yellow mustard

1 ½ teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

¼ cup grated carrot (Optional)

2 tablespoons chopped pimento peppers (Optional)

What can we do to doctor this up?

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/flatfeed611 on 2023-09-23 05:00:10.

Sometimes a recipe calls for charred tomatoes and almost always mentions to peel the skins off. If you are looking for a smokier flavor in the dish, wouldn’t it make sense to leave the skins on? Is there any charred taste left on charred peeled tomatoes.,

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/jamie_of_house_m on 2023-09-23 00:36:18.

I'm making roasted potatoes for a brunch on Sunday. Can I cut my potatoes into cubes the night before or a few hours before and just store them in a bowl in the fridge unit ready to bake?

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/TempoRamen95 on 2023-09-22 16:47:31.

Normally I would dry my chicken before flouring, as I was told it would help flour stick evenly. It sounds counter intuitive but I do it.

However I recalled how I make Kaarage, where I mix a small bit of flour into bite sized chicken in marinade. The small amount of flour plus the marinade stuck on the chicken creates a paste on the outside that is then dredged in dry flour.

I was wondering, I want to fry chicken legs instead. Could I use this "paste" method, or would the traditional dry chicken then dredge work better? I only have one shot for this batch I'm making so I'm curious.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/SeaworthinessHot4494 on 2023-09-22 16:15:41.

Hi all, I'm making a huge pot of Thai red curry with mushrooms, tofu, red peppers, orange peppers, green peas, bamboo shoots, corn, coconut milk, and basil leaves.. Of course, the curry will have a base of ginger, garlic, shallots, and, red curry paste.

I would like to add some chicken to it on the side since half my family is non- veg. What do u suggest I marinate the chicken ? And how should I cook it ? I was thinking of marinating it with coriander, ginger, garlic, and a tiny bit of the red curry paste. What do u think ? To cook the chicken, the easiest for me is to bake it in the oven, but I'm open to other ideas. I'm cooking for 8-10 people tonight and want to keep it simple and easy from a prep and execution standpoint.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/flatfeed611 on 2023-09-22 07:00:06.

I have been making regular chickpea falafel recently and would like to try Ta’ameya next. However, most recipes call for dried fava beans that are peeled, dried AND split. I only have access to fava beans that are peeled and dried, but not split. I would think that this wouldn’t be a big deal and that I could use those for the Ta’ameya, but would like to confirm first before attempting and potentially failing.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/alpheus on 2023-09-22 21:57:56.

I made a 3.5 kilo prime rib a couple of days ago and still have half of it left. It's closer to medium than medium rare. It's still delicious but I'll never be able to finish it. Should I freeze it, make a soup, or something else?

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/GR-6171972 on 2023-09-22 19:06:48.

I'm wondering if anchovies can be used in the base of most dishes I make.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/Worried-Jicama-334 on 2023-09-22 19:01:27.

I just opened a jar of homemade vanilla (vanilla beans in vodka) that has been steeping for 18 months or so in the back of my pantry. When I opened it, the beans were all still submerged but the texture was viscous, more like simple syrup than water.

Any guesses what could possibly have caused this? It’s hard to believe it could be spoiled with so much alcohol, but I’ve never seen it thick like this before!

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/CreatrixAnima on 2023-09-22 14:30:14.

I’m making a crockpot, chicken and dumplings, but I don’t want to use canned cream of chicken soup. So I figured I would add an extra half cup of stock and a half cup to a cup of heavy cream and some celery salt. The recipe calls for the chicken soup to be poured in before you turn the crockpot on, but every other recipe, when something calls for heavy cream, or half-and-half, you pour it in at the end. I don’t want to do that with the dumplings, though, because there will be dumplings on top. Why does the heavy cream always go in at the end?

Thanks! I think I will just have to lift up the dumplings and add it at the end!

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/jont9 on 2023-09-22 05:59:50.

I've noticed when cooking one type of ground beef that the fat renders very quickly and thoroughly, whereas in another it's much slower, if at all noticeable. Both types are 15% or 20% fat. What's likely going on? Does one have a higher proportion of suet-like fat mixed in?

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/mart0n on 2023-09-22 11:48:30.

TL;DR: as title. There are lots of methods for cooking veg; in what circumstances is it better to bake veg in a foil parcel than use a different method?

I recently came across a recipe for carrots that involved putting the carrots in a foil parcel and baking them in the oven. I will say that I tried the recipe and I liked that the technique cooked large chunks of carrots well, though I couldn't help but thinking that simpler methods would have worked just as well. Why would one use this foil technique rather than using a steamer, or just roasting them?

I suppose I could add herbs or vinegar to the parcel, which wouldn't be possible with steaming, though I could easily add these flavourings if I was braising the carrots. The foil parcel also would prevent the colouring that would result from roasting, but again, I could achieve that with just boiling or steaming.

I'm asking because I'm sure this method has more potential, but Googling mostly leads me to recipes for cooking veg in foil in a barbecue.

By coincidence, I also recently enjoyed a bean stew in a restaurant, where the main veg ingredients were large, perfectly cooked chunks of carrot and potato. I'm wondering if this technique was used here.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/anal_holocaust_ on 2023-09-21 23:46:42.

Recently found out that undercooked raw beans can basically lead to food poisoning now im a little paranoid. I bought some dry lentils in bulk and threw them in the crock pot with some chicken and veggies. Didnt presoak the beans. Set the crockpot on high for 5-6hrs. Water was bubbling up, lid was never removed, and beans were at the bottom. Are the lentils safe to eat when cooked in a crock pot? My google fu isnt finding much.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/PhilSwiftDaddy0 on 2023-09-21 22:17:36.

Just as the title says. I LOVE sashimi, but I live no where near any fish markets, seafood markets, costcos or anything like that. My local Walmart has farm raised Atlantic salmon that I’m wondering if it would be okay to eat raw if I washed it? Can anyone weigh in on this?

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/tinchek on 2023-09-21 18:54:24.

Original Title: I just watched Croatian MasterChef and one of the Judges as a demonstration of French mother sauces made a bechamel sauce(which he claimed was original) with veal. That's the first I've heard of that.

I knew that you should also add onion and parsley and the original recipe I read also mentions fish stock, but never actual meat.

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The original was posted on /r/askculinary by /u/Fessywessy1 on 2023-09-21 22:27:33.

Often times when I am sauteing something, I will start cooking the item on high heat with oil/butter but then when I'm satisfied with the sear or if I'm worried the spices in the pan are starting to burn, I'll add a half cup or so of water, allowing the item to "finish" cooking via steaming/blanching. Sometimes I cover the pan but sometimes I just leave it uncovered. I find that the water and steam help cook certain foods more evenly or more thoroughly without worrying about burning spices or searing the food too harshly if that makes sense. Idk why or when I started doing this, I just noticed it helps sometimes and am curious to know if this is a viable technique.

An example is broccolini or asparagus or similar veggies. I often will not blanch beforehand, rather will throw them into a hot pan and get some good sear marks, and then add some water and let it steam off to help "finish" cooking them.

I also do this with country style breakfast potatoes. I cook them on high heat until I start to see some browning and color, but at that point the potatoes usually still have a bite to them so I finish cooking with water.