How do you cook.....?

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

BB2 & I go every Wed. night.

[lisarea]

YES HELLO I HAVE AN EMERGENCY of needing to know why the hell, when you're making egg noodle dough, you're supposed to make that dumb well in the flour to mix the eggs in.

What purpose does that serve other than making everything explode? I can never ever make that work, and I really don't know why I bother except that everyone says you have to.

[livius drusus]

You mean as opposed to mixing it in a bowl and then dumping it on a floured surface? I don't know fer sure, but the whole process seems to be about flour control. Like, once you beat the eggs in the well, you fork the flour in gradually until the ball forms. Usually there's extra flour that you then use as the dusting material when you're kneading.

Is your well wide enough? It's more important that it be wide than it be tall, in my experience. The thicker the city walls, the harder it is for anything to get in, or out, in this case, and it's hella easier to beat the eggs without splatter when you have some room. I've never measured mine and I completely suck at eyeballing measurements, but if I were to guess, I'd say it's maybe four inches in diameter?

Anyways people make egg pasta dough in stand mixers and shit, so obviously it's not a law that you have to do the well.

[lisarea]

Thank you.

I compromised and mixed it in a very large mixing bowl, using the well, then transferred it to the board after it was in kneadable form, and I was thinking about it and the gradual introduction of the flour was the only thing that I could even think of.

I only make pasta maybe a couple times a year, and I get dam breaches that get raw egg all over my torso every single time, and any lessons I learn from experience are long forgotten by the next time I do it.

Anyways, Matlock cleans up after me when I make dinner, so I can be promiscuous about dirtying extra dishes. But I'm going to try that if I decide to start making pasta more regularly.

(Of course, if I start making pasta all the time, what will be my pain in the ass special occasion dinner?)

[Qingdai]

Tamales

[lisarea]

Man, this is a late request, but: HOPPIN' JOHN?

I kind of freeball this on New Year's Day, but I don't think I've ever had authentical Southern hoppin' john, so if anyone has any tips and tricks or anything, I am listening. Everyone is OK with what I make, but it'd be great if I could step it up.

I have black eyed peas soaking right now, and I have the stuff to make my half-assed versions, but if anyone has a real recipe, I will go out in the morning to get the ingredients for it.

[BrotherMan]

I'm sorry. I have never heard of hoppin john.

[livius drusus]

I am determined to make a patty melt tonight. I've made one before and it was delicious, but I was annoyed by the patty itself. It was a little too thick and not spread out enough. I want it to be basically the size and shape of the bread, so there are no hamburgerless bites. Any burger pros here with advice on patty shaping?

[lisarea]

Every now and again, I remember that used to have a cooking questions thread, and I think to myself, "I should find that thread again."

I have read this thread thoroughly and understand it is old, yet still wish to reply.

Will buttermilk cultures survive freezing? I know I can freeze buttermilk for other things, but I specifically want to freeze it to use for creme fraiche later, and that depends on the cultures still being active.

Better yet, even: Could I freeze the correct proportions of heavy cream and buttermilk already mixed together in jars and then just thaw them on the counter and then leave them to culture?

[Corona688]

They use frozen starters for cheese all the time. Go for it.

[Corona688]

There might be some weird separation if you pre-mix it. I dunno.

[lisarea]

Update: I froze the remaining buttermilk in an ice cube tray and put it in a freezer bag. The cubes are about 2 Tbsp. each for easy measurement. Then, with the rest of the cream, I made cultured butter. It came out really good, I think, so I guess that's a new thing I do now.

But. A side effect of making butter is...buttermilk. So I guess from now on I buy the cream, make butter with some of it to get buttermilk, then make creme fraiche out of that.

[JoeP]

We should have had a :culturedbutter: smilie by now. You can picture it, I bet.

[Crumb]

It would be like regular butter but with

[Sock Puppet]

Or an anthropomorphic stick of butter with a monocle.

[JoeP]

And a top hat.

[lisarea]

Hey, yo. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm just now figuring out I gotta make tortillas.

I did this recipe tonight, and I have to adjust the stove temperature because it was too high, but also: No baking soda? Also, I want them more pliable. They stiff up pretty much the minute they start to cool down.

What am I doing wrong? Or alternately, just hit me up with your tortilla recipes, please.

[slimshady2357]

We make out own as well, but use a similar recipe with similar results.

I'm sure I remember somewhere hearing someone say that the less flour you can use, the more pliable they will be in the end. So when we roll them out the board is well floured because you're rolling them so thin. But I think it's better to have them not very floury as they go into the pan. I was thinking of trying to find where I heard that just yesterday. If I find anything I'll let you know.

The other complaint I have is that our largest frying pan is too small to make really big tortillas, which I prefer because they are easier to roll up, especially since they are getting stiff quickly after making them.

So Sou bought me a huge paella pan, it takes up half our stove, but you can make huuuuuuuuuge tortillas Like, need a pizza peel to get them to the pan huge.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

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[Crumb]

That cooks itself.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Cooking tips for people just starting out:
- you aren't using enough salt
- you aren't using enough fat
- you aren't using enough acid
- you aren't using enough sugar

Basically food is best when it is right on the edge of being disgusting.

— Existential Comics (@existentialcoms) November 28, 2019

[lisarea]

Except no. Not sugar. I can't think of a single time when a beginner cook didn't add enough sugar. Apart from maybe an obvious oversight like forgetting the sugar in a dessert entirely. I can think of a million times they added too much, though.

I don't have Twitters, so someone else will have to tell that person to delete their account.

[SR71]

I've been making a tomato rice thing recently. Very simple, minute rice, bottled marinara sauce, butter, salt, optional sauteed chopped pepper and onions. Cook and soften rice, add the rest, heat and stir to a pleasing consistency.

What would be a cheaper substitute for marinara, tomato sauce or tomato paste?

[lisarea]

That sounds kind of like sofrito. Canned tomato puree or crushed tomatoes are pretty inexpensive, I think, but I don't know if they're cheaper than what you're using.

Or do you mean non-tomato options?

[SR71]

The tomato taste is key. Looking for something to impart a strong tomato taste. The marinara sauce works well, but is kind of pricey. I'm thinking of scaling up to sell as a side to sandwiches, so want to use less expensive ingredients. Looking for something with about the same concentration of tomato flavor as the marinara sauce, but comes in a can so presumably is cheaper. Out of canned tomato sauce, paste, puree or crushed, which do you suppose would be most cost effective to give the tomato flavor? I remember using paste or sauce a long time ago, but the result was disappointing, too bland, dilute more than lack of spice or anything, and I can't remember if I used paste or sauce.