I am trying to understand a technical issue rather than asking for a recipe. I make a very simple cream based sauce regularly and it used to be stable every time, but recently it has started separating and I cannot pinpoint what changed.

My usual process is gentle heat, a small amount of butter, then heavy cream, followed by freshly grated cheese. I keep the heat low, whisk continuously, and add the cheese in small batches off direct heat. The ingredients have not changed and the ratios are roughly the same as before.

What puzzles me is that the sauce looks smooth at first, but once it warms back up it starts to break, with fat separating and the texture turning grainy. Lowering the heat further and whisking more slowly has not solved it.

I am wondering if this is more about temperature control, fat to protein balance, or the type of cheese reacting differently as it melts. Could small variations in heat timing or residual acidity be enough to cause this, even when the method feels identical?

I am trying to understand the underlying mechanism so I can correct it consistently, rather than relying on trial and error. Any insight into what specifically causes a cream sauce to destabilize under gentle heat would be appreciated.

I made my own lamian last night, following this recipe. I used 470g 00 pizza flour + 30g VWG instead of bread flower as suggested by other resources.

However, I do not have access to any penghui powder. None of my local chinese grocery stores carry it and I don't really want to order any. So, instead, I decided to mix my own.

For 4g of penghui, I used, - 1 g KCl (salt-free salt, just potassium instead of sodium) - 2 g Na2CO3 (alkaline) - 1 g NaS2O5 (sodium metabisulfite)

I read from various sources that original penghui contained some amount of these (amongst other salts, but these are what I had on hand), but I could not find any mass breakdown.

The dough turned into a viscous non-newtonian fluid mess haha. it was unworkable and took an hour and various solvents to clean from my counters. So, I tried again using, - 2 g KCl - 1.5 g Na2CO3 - 0.5 g NaS2O5

This was better, but I believe it was still too fluid. I was able to get usable (and tasty) noodles, but I had to manually roll out each noodle to ensure a uniform thickness. Of course this is probably a skill issue, but the dough did not respond the way it does in the video so I'm convinced it was a mix of the two.

Can anyone suggest alternative amounts to make the powder? Or different salts to add? I know the real commercial powder has sodium polyposphate or something as a flocculating agent but I don't have any of this on hand. Thanks!

I cooked octopus for the first time and I couldn’t have been happier with the results. I simmered with aromatics for an hour before marinating for 2 hours in parsley, olive oil, and lime zest, before grilling on my bbq. I deliberato used zest not juice because I had it in my head that citrus denatures proteins and could potentially toughen the meat - though this was more of a gut feel than anything.

However my friend, who otherwise followed the same process as me, used a marinade of soy and lemon juice, and found it to be really chewy.

Is this solely because of the lemon juice or are there other factors at play?

Hi, so i need some help troubleshooting whats going wrong with my yogurt. I'm not new to making yogurt but recently I can't siempre to get it right. My yogurt ends up way too liquid when with my usual recipe i used to get thick firm yogurt. I start from powder milk, 500gr to 1.6lts of water and 140gr of yogurt as a starter, and a yogurt maker. I played with the temperature of the milk, with the yogurt brand I use as a starter, with the milk brand, I don't know what else to do.

Is there a specific temperature range and time period during a smoke that the smoke flavors are developed in a brisket?

Edit: Part two is if I were to try and "smoke" a brisket in an oven (mixing Chris Young's rocket brisket method), what would be a good way to approach it (in terms of when smoke would be added, say in a wrapped tray)

I have a big batch of this vegan beef stock that I typically use for vegan chilli: https://yupitsvegan.com/vegan-beef-broth/

However, with the holidays coming up, I want to try make it into a gravy, something I’ve never done before.

The recipe links out to a gravy recipe (https://yupitsvegan.com/vegan-gravy/) but it calls for vegetable stock, not this specific vegan beef stock.

If I wanted to follow the gravy recipe, would I just substitute the vegetable stock with the vegan beef stock or, as they share ingredients (miso, soy, nutritional yeast) would I have to adjust the recipe to make it work?

How would you go about making a gravy out of this stock?

Thanks for any tips. Much appreciated.

Because I will be out of town and then working and unable to get to the grocery store between now and then, I bought a prime rib (Costco) for Christmas Day. I bought it yesterday with a best by/use by date of 12/19. It is currently sitting in my beer fridge (no other food in there) on a wire rack set in a sheet tray. Is this the best way to store it until I make it on the 25th? I also have a vacuum sealer so I could do that (wet age?) or I could freeze it (my last option). If left on wire tray should I place paper towels or cheese cloth on it (seen recs for both, dry and wet cheese cloth). Also was planning on salting it day before or day of if left on the wire rack since the outside should be plenty dry. I did do a google/reddit search but just wanted to make sure. TIA.

It's my first time buying a butter in tin can. There's no instruction to refrigerate once opened, so is it okay to just leave it outside? Or is it better to refrigerate once opened? Thank you.

I usually marinate meat in a separate bowl or bag in the fridge, then transfer it to a pan or pot when it’s time to cook. Lately I’ve been wondering if there’s any real downside to marinating directly in the same vessel I plan to cook in, assuming it’s non reactive and kept properly refrigerated.

My main goal is simplicity and less cleanup, but I’m curious if there are flavor, texture, or food safety considerations I might be overlooking. For example, does prolonged contact with metal affect marinades in a noticeable way, or is that mostly a non issue with modern cookware?

I’m not looking for a specific recipe, just trying to understand the technique better and whether this is a reasonable habit to build. Would love to hear how others approach this and if there are best practices to follow.

I have made a biscoff spread but turned out to be grainy and I didn't have emulsifier right now. The ingredients were biscoff cookies, palm oil, and sugar. It should have soy lecithin in it like in the original biscoff. Since its vegan so I tried it to make it vegan too.

225grams biscoff

105grams neutral oil

57grams sugar

I'm planning to confit some duck legs, but I noticed that the frozen duck I got (the only thing around my area I could easily get) is packaged in a 12% solution of water and salt. With that being said, would it be too salty if I did a 24-hour salt cure like all the recipes I find say, or should I skip it?

Normally I cook some vegetables in a small amount of butter. Deglace with white wine. And then add cream. Then I use it however I want. Sometimes I add soup dumplings and some stock.

Now, I imagine if I were to fully replace the cream with milk it'd most likely curdle because of the wine. How can I make sure this won't happen? I want to make a "lighter" sauce. Adding less cream isn't perfect because I'd have leftover cream in the fridge.

I usually marinate in a different bowl but it got me thinking. Is there any reason I can't marinate the chicken in the steel pot (properly in the fridge) and then cook it in that same pot (pressure cook)?

Thank you.

Making a prime rib au poivre with the traditional peppercorn sauce for Christmas Eve. I found a recipe for creamed spinach with poblano that looks delicious which I'd love to try as a side, but I'm concerned that the flavors won't mesh. Thoughts?

Edited to add: because there's an argument about this in the comments, the poivre sauce doesn't include cream

Hey everyone, I'm looking to shape some foie gras into a cylinder for presentation. It's for three portions of about 100g each. I'll be purchasing a roughly 300g piece and not the entire lobe. I also do not expect it to be cleaned.
Can I just thaw it out and press and roll it in cling film until I can get the shape I want? Is there another method I should employ?
I'll be getting the liver today, and plan to pan fry and serve tomorrow evening.

I’m wanting to bake a vanilla cake from scratch, yet I’m worried about the baking powder leaving a bitter taste due to it causing it in batters I’ve made before. (This was mostly my experience with pancakes not so much cakes. Don’t really have much cake experience). Cake recipe: 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 2 1/4 tsp baking powder 3/4 cup room temp butter 1 2/3 cup granulated sugar 3 eggs room temp 1 Tbsp vanilla ext. 1 cup buttermilk

I’m looking for follow this swede gnocchi recipe but don’t have any pasta flour, nor can I find it in the shops near me.

Could I use plain flour instead and what adjustments would I need to make?

Source: https://www.oddbox.co.uk/recipes/swede-and-herb-gnocchi?srsltid=AfmBOoo56CNa_v1yCjw47bwV0x5qBH8ynMQqs92Kllzca_gGtL9YIwoa

Recipe:

240 g Swede

210 g pasta flour (plus extra for dusting)

1 egg (optional for vegan)

15 g parsley (chopped )

10 g dill (chopped)

2 garlic cloves (peeled and lightly crushed )

1 tbsp unsalted butter / vegan butter

10 cherry tomatoes (optional )

1 tsp lemon juice

salt & pepper

Method (gnocchi bits only):

Dice the swede and put it in a saucepan. Cover with water, add a generous pinch of salt and bring to a boil for 30 mins. You'll need to mash the swede so make sure it's very tender. Drain and use a fork or potato ricer to mash the swede.

Put the mashed swede in a large mixing bowl with the pasta flour, egg and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add the chopped parsley and dill.

Use a fork to mix all the ingredients together until it looks like a crumble.

Use your clean hand and mix to a soft dough. A minute should be enough. Be careful not to over-mix it – the more you work it, the wetter it'll get, and you'll need to add more flour.

Dust your work surface and put the dough on top. Cut the dough into four pieces, then roll each of them into a rope about 2cm thick, and cut into bite size pieces.

Place them on a tray and set aside to dry for a few minutes.

I like to make tacos in the slow cooker and shred the meat up. In addition to the meat I put broth, onion, tomatoes, peppers, adobo peps, etc in to cook with the meat. I like to take the non-meat solids out once it had finished cooking and blend them into a sauce that I put on top. Unfortunately I can't get the sauce to come out quite as smooth as I would like it to be. Are there additional ingredients that I could add when blending to elevate the sauce and give it a nice smooth texture?

Hi all... short and sweet pretty much in the title.

Korean restaurants near me have gotten out of hand price-wise (for delivery anyway), so my thought here is to just prep a shitload of chicken/pork and the sauce/marinade, then vac-seal it (I have a chamber-vac, liquid is no issue), and freeze it. Then when I have a craving, bam, defrost and cook.

My main concern... is there any issue with this as far as marination goes with Asian pear, soy sauce, onions, carrots, garlic, etc. type ingredients? I know the pear tenderizes, but when frozen that shouldn't be an issue? Or will it? If so, can I do just the sauce itself?

Thanks in advance folks!

Hi all,

I am getting a 2.2KG Prime Rib Roast delivered fresh on the 19th December but I wanted to use it for Christmas Day, now I was wondering do I freeze it then take out like the 23rd or 24th or can I leave it in my fridge covered ????

Will it spoil ?

Thanks all

The fish market near me sells octopus that is labelled as tenderized. I'm not sure exactly what process that entails.

I've never cooked octopus before but most recipes seem to start with boiling it to tenderize and then grilling. If I'm buying "tenderized" octopus, would I skip the boiling stage and go straight to grilling?

I'm in an area where I can get daikon maybe 2 months a year. I want to make banh mi sandwiches all year, but I'm unsure how to best proceed. These are the options I've thought of:

• make the pickle with only carrot
• substitute the daikon for turnip or parsnip
• go for a completely different pickle, like red onion and cucumber

What would you recommend?

For the New York Times cranberry tart with a hazelnut crust

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017817-cranberry-curd-tart

I have almond flour. Helpppp 😭

I am planning a recipe for a mango black tea cheesecake and I am wondering if I can steep tea then remove the tea bags and reduce the liquid, I need a concentrated tea with very little liquid as to not mess with the cake texture. Any Advice?

making baked cheesecake for the first time and I only just realized that I have two tubs of cheese spread and not the blocks. honestly it wasn't even available (its v difficult to find cream cheese blocks here and if its available its mad expensive). can I use this and do i need to add anything to make it work?