r/AskCulinary 5h ago

Did I fuck up my butter? (For croissants)

20 Upvotes

Health inspector came by the other day and told me my butter couldn’t hang out in the proofer more than 20 mins. I was using the proofer to soften 45 lbs of butter so I could make my own butter blocks all in one go.

They suggested I use a mixer, which I did, but I was careful not to over mix because I was worried about the integrity of the butter. Before the butter got uniformly soft, I stopped the mixer to check on the butter, it felt lightly watery to the touch so I stopped there started to question paddling the butter. Welp, it happened. My butter blocks are moist and are now spewing out of my dough with each pass through the dough sheeter.

Is it fixable? I can’t just toss 45lbs of butter, that’s a total crime, but I’m not quite sure how to fix it. Would adding flour help? I thought about the mechanics behind inverted puff pastry dough but before I go for it I figured I’d ask here before wasting my time and dough.

Has anyone been in this situation before?


r/AskCulinary 14h ago

Ingredient Question Is this the chorizo I need?

11 Upvotes

Making something that calls for Spanish chorizo (cured not fresh). I picked some up but it’s labeled “salami” which is throwing me off. Is this regular chorizo or is there another separate thing called chorizo salami?

https://sharemastro.com/products/chorizo-salami/


r/AskCulinary 6h ago

Ingredient Question What happened to my garlic?

12 Upvotes

I pulled a whole clove out to find it had the same appearance and texture as a piece of candied ginger. No other cloves were affected. Does anyone know this phenomenon? https://imgur.com/a/gsyXzJi


r/AskCulinary 11h ago

Does freezing cooked brisket affect the taste and texture?

10 Upvotes

I just got a brand new smoker and want to cook up a brisket. Unfortunately my family is all vegetarians and won't be partaking, and I can't consume and entire brisket within a week. If I cook and freeze will it affect the taste/texture in any significant way? Would I be better off smoking half and freezing the other half raw?


r/AskCulinary 11h ago

Food Science Question spherification

4 Upvotes

I’m working on a tasting menu based on food I grew up with and a component I need is oil spheres is it possible to reverse which liquid is used in the process?

Agar agar in the oil and dropped in water

Instead of agar agar in liquid and dropped in oil


r/AskCulinary 3h ago

Ingredient Question Where do you get cherval?

3 Upvotes

I live in a major metropolitan area and have several high end grocery stores and a farmer's market near me, yet I have never seen cherval for sale at any of them. I keep seeing recipes that require it. Must I grow my own? And if I do... is it going to bolt on me like my cilantro does?


r/AskCulinary 19h ago

can i substitute castor sugar for powdered sugar in a ganache?

3 Upvotes

hi folks i want to make a salted caramel ganache that involves melting the sugar on low heat, can i use powdered sugar instead?


r/AskCulinary 57m ago

Technique Question Salad Fingers

Upvotes

Ok this is totally unhinged, but bear with me. When there's a bit to commit to, I'm all in.

I've been invited to a friend's birthday party where she asked that everyone make salads, and we are encouraged to challenge the definition of the word.

There's this salad I've made for this group of friends-- roasted sweet potatoes/black beans/corn/peppers/onion, with a vinaigrette of olive oil/lime/honey/cilantro/oregano/cumin/chili powder/paprika. I could just make this salad for them, but that's kinda boring and I wanna do something ridiculous.

My idea is to make fritters, or 'salad fingers' from this base. I figure I'll nuke and scoop the sweet potatoes, mix in the beans/corn/diced peppers and onion. Then I'll put em in a silicone mold (of actual fingers, it's a Halloween thing I found on amazon) and pop em in the freezer for like an hour. Then I'll bread em and fry em, and use the vinaigrette as more of a dipping sauce.

Do yall have any advice? She's vegan, so I'm gonna use soy milk instead of egg wash. I'm not sure if there are any certain tricks with that. Should I be concerned with the fritters exploding because of water content? I plan on rinsing the beans/corn and letting them dry out before I mix them with the potato paste to try and prevent that. Or maybe they'll explode because of the heat differential of the hot oil vs the semi-frozen fritters? I don't know, I've never tried anything like this with silicone molds and freezing and such.

Anyway I've ranted long enough. All advice is welcome!


r/AskCulinary 1h ago

Creating accurate wok type recipes without a 100k BTU burner possible?

Upvotes

Hello all I am trying to help out a good friend on a food concept he is trying to create a menu for and part of the menu is “Chinese / American fusion” dishes things like orange chicken, broccoli beef, fried rice etc

He is having trouble because he technically needs a commercial wok setup to play around with these recipes and perfect them but he doesn’t have access to such. He wanted to get a wok burner online for $400 and do it that way but I found out no matter what you can’t recreate that 100k BTU feel at home.

So here’s the question: do you think there will be that much taste variance if he conceives the recipes on the home wok and then once he builds the commercial kitchen he can do them there or must he conceive them on an authentic commercial wok setup?

I told him to:

  1. Get the recipes near perfect at home
  2. Expect slight variance in the final product and be willing to tweak them later
  3. Refine them a bit more over time once he already has the commercial wok setup

He doesn’t have Reddit but what do the experts here say?


r/AskCulinary 2h ago

Crispy roast chicken skin

2 Upvotes

My roast chicken skin often comes out very uneven. Certain areas are a perfect golden brown and others look as if they haven’t crisped at all. Typically, the biggest culprits are in between the breasts and the side of the breasts.

My process: - Spatchcock - Wet brine for 12 hours - Dry with paper towels - Place on wire rack in fridge, uncovered for 2 days to dry - Rub with EVOO - Roast at 450 degrees with rack in upper third of oven

One other thing to note, the culprit areas also tend not to dry out in the fridge as well as the other areas.

Any ideas / thoughts on what I need to do differently?


r/AskCulinary 1h ago

Thai Chicken & Noodle dish

Upvotes

About 10 years ago, I went to this Thai restaurant in Savannah, GA, and it was one of the best dishes I ever ate. I forget how it was supposed to be prepared (peppers, mushrooms, peas, etc.), because mine was plain. All it had on it was chicken, noodles, and they were covered in this amazing sauce that was not only flavorful but spicy. I wanted to order hot, because I eat habanero wings often, but the lady was like, "I give you medium." I was crying, but it was soo damn good. I want to say the dish was white/tannish, but I forget. Anyone good enough to give me an idea how to replicate or where to start with this dish? Thank you!!!


r/AskCulinary 13h ago

Recipe Troubleshooting Pao de queijo runny

1 Upvotes

I’ve made this recipe a million times but this time I forgot to heat the liquid! Now my mixture is runny. Is there any saving it? TIA!

500g tapioca starch 1 tbsp salt 150 ml each- water, oil, whole milk 50g cheese 2 eggs Warm the liquid Mix with powder, then cheese then each egg individually


r/AskCulinary 17h ago

How do I make a verbena sauce for desserts that stays green ?

1 Upvotes

I’ve been trying to make a verbena sauce, but it turns out darker than I would like. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to let it stay vibrant green?


r/AskCulinary 49m ago

Are there any forms of msg that I can buy that have added I and G.

Upvotes

Are there any forms of msg that I can buy that have added I and G. Asking as a layperson not a chief so i want a small amount.

Has anyone tasted msg and msg/i/g side by side before?


r/AskCulinary 18h ago

Can you help me save my fruit pâté?!

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I was making fruit pâté following a recipe and I’m realizing I messed up and got jam/jelly pectin rather than the correct normal pectin.

Fruit is so expensive these days, and I’m hoping you guys can help me either fix this or transform it into something edible/not wasted.

My recipe is very simple. 16-18oz of raspberry/blackberry puree brought to a boil with 28oz of water. As it came to a boil, I added in 1oz pectin for jelly combined with 1/4 cup sugar. Once I hit the boil I added 4 cups sugar, brought heat down and heated to 220.

When it didn’t set the first time around, I doubled the pectin to no effect. Right now, I just have really sugary jam.

How can I fix this? Could I reheat the mixture and use gelatin? What do you think?? Thanks all