r/AskCulinary

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?

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

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

Canadian Thanksgiving is fast approaching and I have a guest who is allergic to apples and pears. Normally it’s not a hard allergy to work around, but I make a dressing to go with the turkey that has leeks, bacon and chunks of apple.

Last year I swapped pears for the apples and that’s how we discovered the pear allergy.

I have tried cubed up squash for a similar mouth feel but I didn’t like how starchy it ended up being when I tested that out a couple weeks ago.

Am debating doing a whole bunch of carmelized onions or pearl onions and bacon, but figured throw it to Reddit to see if there are other options for a similar texture / sweetness. Any ideas are welcome!

When I make candied yams (sweet potatoes) the inside tends to remain bland no matter how long I cook it before it turned to mush. How do I get them to soak up that flavor?When I’m at restaurants they still have some bite while being sweet inside so I know it’s achievable

Hi.
Im currently searching for new pan.
I usually had two teflon - one thin for pancakes, eggs, cheese bread etc.. and second for meat/sauces/vegetables with thicker bottom.

Currently im annoyed of pan getting damaged often (i use wooden cutlery but im clumsy..).
I tried ceramic pan but after i accidentally let it get too hot, i started smelling like chemicals and it stayed when I tried second use.. and also pancakes was mission impossible on it.

So im interested in non toxic variant which is versatile. I prefer nonstick so i can save calories on fat, but im open to learn how to use another material to cook on it properly (preferably not use a lot oil, but i dont expect no oil at all). Im clumsy and i dont like long routines to keep things working so please if something contain that, its just no for me. And I have gas stove.

I was interested in stainless steel but scared its impossible to do eggs, pancakes etc on it. Also cast iron but i heard no acid on it (i do tomato sauces etc). So whats my pick please? Im european/czechia located if its important. And im sorry for my bad english.

I would like to get some ideas, thank you.

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

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?

Hello, I‘m making a consommé double, so I started by making a broth from roasted bones and beef shank. This first batch is now “ready,” but I’m wondering if I did it right, because I don’t feel like all the flavor and fat and collagen has been fully extracted.

This was my method: I put the roasted bones in cold water, brought it to a boil once, and then maintained the temperature between 62 and 67 degrees Celsius (around 150 Fahrenheit) and simmered the broth for about 18 hours. I’ve heard that’s the best temperature for extracting the flavor. Is that true? Maybe I should have let it simmer longer?

(EDIT: tasted the same after leaving it in the fridge for 12 hours hoping it would mellow out. i added a second batch of just garlic and oil at roughly the same amount as suggested and mixed it in but it didnt work either so i just dumped half a tub of the low acid greek yogurt and it helped mute the salt and lemon juice well. i added another small drip of ice cold water to dilute it before adding the yogurt but it seemed unnecessary since the yogurt basically carried the rest of my mistakes away :/)

it tastes salty and sour as hell with a garlic kick at the end.

thinking of just adding some low acidic yogurt just to fix it but i'm kinda stumped on what to do.

i added water before i blitzed it again for the last time but i decided to just leave it and put it in the fridge for a few hours just to see if the taste would go away.

I’m making a tomato and kale soup tomorrow and have my garbanzo beans soaking in veg stock overnight. Do I need to drain that off tomorrow or can I just dump the entire bowl into the crock? Veg stock will be the base of the soup.

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for some ideas on how to reformulate a glaze recipe for a chocolate stout cake.

Currently, this is what I have:
120 g confectioners’ sugar
1.5 g salt
35 g sour cream
23 ml whiskey coffee reduction

My goal is a reduced-sugar recipe that maintains the consistency of the 100% sugar one. So far I’ve tried baking sucralose but it leaves too many lumps/doesn’t dissolve nicely. I’ve been tempted to try allulose but haven’t found a powdered version yet (maybe I’ll need to powder it myself).

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: the sucralose experiment I tried was 50/50 with the powdered sugar.

I have a couple of good All-Clad pans but have read that stainless steel reacts to acidic sauces, as would carbon steel and cast iron. I want to avoid the non-sticks due to the PFA’s and also the ‘ceramic’ coatings which is basically just a silicone spray on. What does that leave?!

Recipe:

One pre marinated rib eye (sake, mirin, soy sauce, ginger)

2 tbsp doenjang

Garlic, olive oil

I love the flavor of doenjang and have used it in marinades before. My question is, since this steak was pre marinated, can I crust it with the paste to give it flavor? Or is it a bad idea to sear it on stainless steel?

Looking for help troubleshooting what to do differently for dipping cake pops in melting wafer chocolate for my kiddos birthday party!

I am using

- black melt craft candy wafers from Michael's (canada)

- Roxy and rich fat dispersible food colourant to make it more black

- coconut oil to make it thinner for dipping

I noticed the chocolate looks bloomed (white coating on it) when I opened it. I have not bought this brand before so unsure if this is how it normally comes. I opened 2 bags and they were the same so went ahead.

The issue is they are drying with speckled film on them and I am unsure how to fix this.

Is it the chocolate? Is it the oil? Is it the way i melted it? Im struggling lol

Any help or tips on what to do differently would be greatly appreciated!

So my family has a brisket recipe we break out on the holidays, it’s brisket, lots of garlic and paprika, topped with a ton of chopped carrots, onion, and celery, then on top you dump tomato paste and onion soup mix, before baking it for three hours

My entire life, those brisket veggies have been my favorite form of vegetable to eat.

But brisket is expensive, and doesn’t fit the budget as often as I’d like.

Is there anything I could add to a pot of veggies to replicate the taste, for less price?

I’m imagining some combo of crushed beef bullion cubes, and then finding a local butcher to buy beef fat from to put on the bottom before baking, but I’m not very experienced with modifying meat dishes

Thanks in advance for any help

I think I bit of more than I can chew. I got an almost 3kg leg of Lamb for a dinner party tomorrow night.

My mom gave me her recipie but she usually cooks it stove top and I'm going to go with the oven, cause i don't have a big enough pot for what she does. I just need help to adjust this recipie for myself. I've never cooked something like this before.

Here's her recipie/instructions

-Brine the leg in water, salt and vinegar overnight

-Marinate with a mix of spices with yogurt for a few more hours

-Cook (a quick google search tells me I gotta go around 200c for 3-4 hours)

Also is there any difference between having my oven on bake mode or roast mode?

PS. I dont know if this effects the answer but the flavors are very South Asian