| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/13/2008 7:38:35 PM | If you have a question I promise you no one will really think it's stupid. (Right guys? ) If there is something about cooking you have never been clear on you can ask here, I guarantee you...someone will have the answer.
Thanks to all of you who have helped out so far. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/13/2008 9:07:36 PM | As I understand it, kerosene and diesel fuel and lighter fluid are closely related, but diesel has more additives for the engine. Likewise white gas or Coleman fuel is like gasoline without the additives.
Do not use gasoline or white gas for lighting charcoal or wood fires. Its too volatile.
But the newspaper and/or wax idea is good. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 10:47:49 AM | | Here's my question. Is it possible to "roast" peppers or tomatoes on a flat top electric stove top? I'm too lazy to start up my charcoal grill just for that. Trying to make some salsa..... | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 11:25:14 AM | Turn it on dave.
BUT, I have seen peppers charred on a flat top before.
Not the same, but you deal with the cards you're dealt. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 11:52:14 AM | I bought a replacement metal grill @ Home Depot and hacksawed it into several different sized pieces
for "racks" to fit on/in baking pans/pyrex I already had .
Same thing would work with a mesh "basket" type and wirecutters . Use stainless screws/nuts/washers for legs .  | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 5:17:28 PM | Okay, another question. I cooked out two days ago (charcoal) and I have 4 or 5 hamburgers left....I am craving tacos. Can I just crumble up those hamburgers and make taco meat as normal? Wait, I realize I can do that...I'm worried about the taste. They do have a smokey smell to them and I did add steak sauce and Montreal steak seasoning to the ground beef before I made the patties.
What do you think, would anyone else try it? | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 5:41:38 PM | | The montreal spice would add a special flavor I'm sure you would like. I've tried store bought patties in things like Spaghetti sauce, Does'nt taste so good, I do think what you wanna try would work.. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 7:39:02 PM | Dave, no, just turn it on LOL You can lightly oil the peppers. Be sure to watch and turn them when black, then wrap in plastic, a paper bag, or foil and then a bath towel for 30 minutes. Open and peel.
Nautical, I think it would be fine. You could put them in a skillet with a little water and taco seasoning, but I think as is would be great. Try running them through a processor if you want them really crumbled. If you want them a little moist, maybe a small bit of chili when run through the processor would be good. Or even warm salsa, or cheese! LOL I love left-overs.
Hey, if you just cut them in strips instead of crumbling, the meat won't fall out of the taco shell LOL | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 8:27:54 PM | | dont put oil or butter in the water. When done the sauce will not adhire to the pasta. Just stir the pasta in boiling saltes water, it wont stick together if stirred | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions NAUTICAL- BURGERS
Posted: 3/14/2008 10:19:04 PM | Hi Nautical I might be a day late and a dollar short by now, but.....
Sure you can use the charcoaled burgers in tacos or burritos. BUT don't put Mexican seasonings or spices on them. They'll be like having carne asada only made with hamburger. Just do your tortilla, chopped cilantro and onion, and lime juice with them, with or without salsa, and any gringo add ons like cheese, lettuce, tomato. Mainly anything goes, only DON'T try the Mexican spices with the meat done this way.
YumO, Salud, Sante, Muy Sabroso etc
(Now having said this, you have to understand that different parts of the country have different standards for what consitutes Mexican food. Here the influence is strongly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, rather than the Border Mexican states (Snonora, Baja) like I grew up with in Southern California. Someone who does Tex Mex will have a totally different take on this and would probaly go 'eeewwwwwww" at the idea of lime juice in the taco or even having it be a soft shell (I didn't tell you that's a shoft shell corn or flour taco, did I?) Just try the different suggestions and see which one you like (like Julia Roberts eating eggs in Runaway Bride)
Mange
Linda | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 10:24:50 PM | Ohhh, Linda...I wish you had been a little earlier. I did put mexican seasoning in it, the taco mix stuff that you add to the meat and water. It had a very unique taste...I don't think I'll be doing that again. A ton of taco sauce and a whole lot of cheese made it edible. Luckily, I was only cooking for myself. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions NAUTICAL- BURGERS
Posted: 3/14/2008 10:33:25 PM | hahahaha I was too busy playing with my sister and brother!! I think we have both been very diplomatic . Unique is what I would have expected LOL. Well don't let this experience deter you from trying again. It's basically a good idea for a super simple meal. Try it Guatemala style next time and see what you think. Oh! I forgot another reaaally good add on is sour cream (just called crema in Hispanic markets) . It carries a lot fewer calories than the cheese. The cheese is an American thing. The food is really good without it. Next time you are grilling throw on some steaks and stick them in the freezer for eating later. Sliced up thinly, they make excellent taco fillings. Quacamole is good on it too, but not the creamy American style one. The one that is thin and made with lots of tomatillos and lime juice with a small amount of avocado is perfect with this. Another traditional add on is pickled onion slices/rings--oh are they good with it!
Time for a potluck !!! I guess a cyber potluck would work....."sort of", she said half heartedly.
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 10:43:01 PM | eewww too bad, I hope you didn't do this because I mentioned it. I have never done it, which is why I said I would use it "as is". Glad to know it turns out yucky, so I won't mention it anymore to anyone. Good feedback.
If you did do it because I mentioned it, please forgive me. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 11:24:10 PM | I don't think she's going to hold it against you SS--LOL. It's all about experimenting and finding what we like best anyway, isn't it? I used to be a fabulous cook and enjoyed everything I ate. Now, because of these rotten food allergies, I am having to relearn how to eat, and make many new things. Some of them are just a real miss, worse than when I first began cooking. (not the tacos I mentioned thank heavens!!)
I have only about a weeks worth of really varied new meals now. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/14/2008 11:42:38 PM | Hello Linda,
I read about your food problems. I felt so very badly for you. I don't know what I would do if I were you. What did you come up with for the tomato sauce replacement? | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 4:41:44 AM | | ...I'm wondering when these food allergies started...and if you can be "de-sensitized" to any of them?....It's really tough to not be able to eat things you've always enjoyed... | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 5:43:58 AM | Food is just like medicines, you can be allergic one day and not the next and vice versa.
My mother was allergic to benadryl--go figure. Put her into a paralitic state and stopped her breathing. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 2:48:50 PM | I have a question that I would welcome illumination on.
While I acknowledge that baking requires very precise measurements, why is it that you are told not to double some recipes ???
Making two seperate batches and mixing them together in the end makes no sense to me.
Can anyone offer clarification on this ??? | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 7:23:07 PM | you can double recipes, just make sure to double the amount of cook ware also. Most of the ' do not double" recipes is so you don't try to bake , lets say a cake for arguments sake, twice the volume in a larger pan with out adjusting temp and time, it is hard to do but if lets say you are going to make a recipe that call for a 13"x9" pan and you want to double the recipe, you can use 2) 13"x9" pans, just make sure there is enough room in your oven to put them side by side with atleast 2" space between them as cooking on a lower and upper rack will give uneven baking. or else you can double the recipe and bake one at a time if leavening time isn't a factor. like a torte that has not baking soda or powder. If you make a double recipe and bake on first then the second and leavening is involved, theres a good chance the second one baked will be flat as the gases will have already gassed before baking. hope this helps | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 7:36:39 PM | | Thanks, growlbear...after reading the question I was wondering the same thing. Your answer made a lot of sense. Hope you are doing okay, always nice to run into you. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 8:00:56 PM | Yes, thank you growlbear. Your response seems to be a reasonable explanation.
I was always under the impression that somehow it would interfere with the end result. Made no sense in my mind.
Thanks again. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 9:39:56 PM | Hello Malley,
There is a chemistry/physics reason why you should not and cannot double, tripe, quadruple recipes.
Most recipes can be doubled without a problem, but above that the result will change. For instance, if you make a batch of mashed potatoes and increase it by 10, but you make them by sight, taste and feel, then you probably will not notice the differences. If you make that batch of potatoes and do it by exact measures and increase by 10 you will have a huge problem. It won’t come out like your good nice creamy potatoes always do.
The reason is on an anatomical and molecular level and this is why the answer to your question is not commonly known by the average person. It would take some complicated math to make it understandable, but let me give it a try. Each atom and molecule has a weight and only so many electrons that can bond to others. Absorption and chemical change are limited without the introduction of a different element, or measure in the mix. Sometimes a temperature change is all that is needed, but it is not only THAT simple. Let me try to explain it another way.
You have heard that if an ant, with the exact same body structure, were 20 ft tall, it’s legs would crumble and it would suffocate, right? That is because structures only work within a small range. Giant people and little people have serious health issues, because they are out of the range of proportional structure to function properly. The cardiovascular system in a giant cannot support their proportional increase in size. Even though the veins, heart, lungs and arteries increased proportionally with the body, this is no longer the right recipe/structure to support life and health.
Are you a gardener? Now go right ahead and laugh, because I know very little about gardening, so my measures here will be a joke, but they are just for giving an example. Let’s say you have a 10ft X 10ft plot of land to garden, but it is all clay soil and you mix 50# of gypsum, and 20 yards each of sand and mulch. When you water it, it may take 40 gallons of water before it stops absorbing and overflows. Now, take that same plot and double the gypsum, sand and mulch. I can guarantee that it will not take 80 gallons before it stops absorbing. The amount of water will either increase, or decrease considerably at the point of overflow. I am guessing it will increase, but like I said, I don’t know that much about gardening.
Cooking IS chemistry. Aren’t you glad I didn’t get my books out and put some complicated molecular conversion problem 13 lines long here? But doesn’t it make you feel like at least donning that apron before going into the kitchen. Goggles are even a good idea when frying! LOL The truth is, most recipes cannot be more than doubled and some cannot even be doubled. Trust the recipe.
This is why I love Alton Brown. I have had so many years of chemistry that he makes sense to me. | |
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| A place for stupid cooking questions
Posted: 3/15/2008 9:58:41 PM | Good site for reducing, doubling, or tripling recipes and much more.
http://www.baking911.com/howto/recipes_doubletriplecut.htm | |
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