Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cooking and home

What's in WMF's Ceradur non-stick coating?

beautiful — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 01:49:01 -0800

What's in WMF's Ceradur coating for non-stick pans? And is it safe to use unlike Teflon? I've been avoiding Teflon and non-stick pans ever since I read about the toxic fumes they give off.

Now I heard about some non-stick coating that is 'pure' ceramic from WMF called 'Ceralux Ceradur': http://www.wmf.com/pans-collections/ceralux-ceradur_82511333.html?sid=BDF283FE-48FD-4637-80AC-335A74AA24D7

Could this be a non-toxic non-stick coating?

I've searched on google and have found a bunch of junk link sites, no real reviews. Does anyone know if heated ceramic is naturally non-stick or if this is another variation of toxic Teflon?

Thanks!

I want to eat you, not smell you

yawper — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:37:50 -0800

Do you cook a lot? Yet your house smells clean? Tell me how you do it! I’m Indian; I cook a fair amount of Indian food. Unfortunately many Indian dishes start by sautéing onions until they’re nice and golden. They taste delicious, but they stink up the whole ground floor of my house! Lately I feel that my house has taken on a stale smell from too much cooking. I run the stove’s exhaust when cooking but it doesn’t solve the problem completely.

A) What can I do to eliminate (not just mask) the current smell?

B) How do I prevent this in future? I’ve heard that burning a candle in the kitchen while cooking helps; does it really? (I tried and didn’t notice much difference).

We have central heat and air and use both (heat from approx. Oct-April and AC June-Aug).

Would changing our furnace filter help? What about duct cleaning? Curtains and rugs? We have mostly blinds and hardwood or tile floors.

I've read through this thread and it has helpful suggestions for adding new scents (simmering cinnamon on the stove etc) but I feel I need more than that to get rid of the existing smell. Thanks!

Flour tortillas at home?

pianoboy — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:26:04 -0800

How do I make decent (but preferably great) flour tortillas at home? After many years of eating chalky, bad store bought tortillas (I live in the northeast) or having to ship them back here from my old local place in Southern California, I'm going to try making them at home.

Anybody have any tips for successful flour tortilla preparation at home? I have pretty good corn tortilla skillz already. Thanks!

Bali Ha'i

netbros — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:27:21 -0800

Every time I go to a Polynesian restaurant [all too rarely] I love the food. Please help me prepare some of these dishes at home. Unfortunately where I live now there aren't any Polynesian restaurants. So, if I want to enjoy these fabulous tastes and flavors I will have to do it myself. Please share your favorite Polynesian recipes with me, or recommend good Polynesian cookbooks. Thank you in advance. My palate will love you.

Keeping food on the table

ecorrocio — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:12:17 -0800

Tired of lame meals and fast food. Help me stock the larder... Here's the scenario:

My wife works full time. I work at home, and I'm dad here too. We share the cooking, but frequenty bomb out completely with nothing in the cupboard and no energy/time to go to the store.

I've heard thru the grapevine that there are people out there who have well stocked larders, who can almost always whip up a meal, who eat healthier than we do. That's what I want to accomplish.

Do you have tips on:

1. Staples that I can stock up on, so we don't get stuck evenings with no meal options (other than running out for fast food again)
2. Recipe genres that would enable me (not the most enthusiastic of chefs) to come up with some variety of "30 minute meals". eg. If you stock X and Y and Z, you can always make A and B and C.
3. How you manage to feed the family healthily and well on a regular basis.

Thanks!!

Is it worth the trouble to vent our range hood outside?

odinsdream — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:55:50 -0800

Is it worth the trouble to vent our range hood outside? We are replacing our old range hood with an above-range convection microwave which can either vent outside or back into the room. Is there a good reason I should go to the trouble to vent it outside?

There is a pathway above the cabinets and it's a short distance to an outside wall, which I'd have to cut a hole in from the outside. I cannot easily reach the exterior wall from inside. I'd have to do most of the cutting work from the outside and fish the vent pipe over to the hole.

What benefits would I gain from venting outside?

Are gas stoves supposed to produce a sticky residue?

waldo — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:49:48 -0800

I know a couple of folks with gas stoves, and they have trouble with a sticky residue coating their walls and ceiling around the range. They describe it as inherent to cooking with gas. (It's really disgusting.) Yet other folks I know who cook with gas don't report any such problems. Is this a known problem? Any idea why it would affect some people, but not others? Different types of gas (natural vs. propane)? Badly-tuned stoves? Something they're cooking? FWIW, my wife and I are gearing up to build a house, and though we'd like to cook with gas, we don't want to deal with the residue. After extensive googling and asking around, nothing, hence asking MeFi.

You can take the boy out of the farm but you can't take the farm out of the boy

Mutant — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:36:46 -0800

Best practices on home canning? So much to the amusement of Mrs Mutant, I've laid in about a dozen tomatoe plants, five Broad Bean vines, ten Bell Pepper plants and five Cucumber plants. I'm also planning to plant some potatoes and onions.

As we live in London and our flat is located on land with a history of industrial use (and I'm too cheap to pay for an evaluation of the earth in our garden) all planting is being done in 47cm pots. From the bottom we've got rocks, sticks, earth, compost, with the seeds in the compost.

I should be able to start harvesting in about two months, but wanted to get some ideas about best practices for home canning. I'm ashamed to admit that back on The Farm my grandma canned frequently but, as I was more interested in cartoons, I didn't absorb much more than cutting, boiling and bottling.

From reading I realise that cleanliness is key, and further, that tomatoes appear to be the safest (due to acidity). If things go well, we should have a large quantity of those to be canned.

Can we combine the tomatoes with other vegetables? I was hoping that perhaps the acidity would help with other vegetables that might be troublesome on their own.

What combinations, if any, can we make from what we're planning to plant? Or should we focus on canning vegetables individually?

Finally, what about fruit? We can get very cheap deals on seasonal fruit from street markets but I've read the sugar makes this a relatively riskier undertaking. Does anyone have a view on canning fruit?

Many thanks!

Anatomy of a vintage appliance. Help me figure this out and start cooking!

iamkimiam — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:49:54 -0800

The vintage oven/range in my new apartment is so obviously awesome. And my landlord says it works. But how? I have taken several pictures of the oven/range...and have many questions.

First off, what do I call this thing? Is it an oven? Is it a range? An orange? A roven? After we've figured that out, I have some individual questions pertaining to the parts seen below:

Picture of the entire thing can be seen here.
—How does this vent?

Picture of the entire thing, with parts labeled (I think) correctly, can be seen here.

Here is a picture of the mystery dial.
—There is one on each side of the orange roven. Little old school light switch style knobs at the bottom seem to turn, but effect nothing. Very curious.

Here is a picture of the mystery handle.
—Turning the handle makes a light clunking sound.

Here is a picture of the mystery box.
—The dial above this thing makes me question if this is indeed the broiler. I don't know. Somebody clear this up for me please.

Picture of "The Well".
—Neat-o. Now what? What can I make with this? How would I get something hot out of there?

And one of the inside of the broiler.
—This is strange indeed. Lid doesn't stay up (must have hand on handle). Can't figure out where to put the food! Do I cook on top (like bacon or pancakes) or put food inside drain tray (like salmon or steak)? Top doesn't seem right (drippings would run down the side), but inside doesn't seem right either (food would get crushed by metal thing above broiler pan).

And lastly, one of the oven.
—How do I clean this? Can't seem to lift bottom plate—what about drippings and stuff that falls beneath it?

Wow. That's a lot of confusion! If I can get one or two of these things dialed I'll be happy. I love to cook and would like to make the most of this sexy beast.

All other tips, suggestions or recipes related to this are most welcome!

Easy to make hard (cider)?

dbmcd — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:13:43 -0800

Making hard cider - simple or complicated? I've done a little research on this, and it looks as though there are two schools of thought:
1. Let the wild yeast ferment, just lay a rag over the top of the (jug, barrel, whatever), and bottle after it's "done."
2. Get all the equipment, buy yeast, fining chemicals, do secondary fermentation, etc. etc.
Which works? Is it worth the bother to do # 2?
We have a small home orchard (it came with our house) and have a variety of apples to use for this. We've crushed it into juice (which is fabulous!), but we both like hard cider and would like to give it a try.
Bonus points for a good (non-repetitive stressing) way to crush the apples.
Thanks!

Fixing vintage Cookmaster stove/oven

mark7570 — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 11:44:13 -0800

I have a 1940s/50s-era Cookmaster stove and oven. Four burners, white, with stove and warming compartment. It's in great shape, with one problem: whenever I light the pilot light to turn on the oven, a few seconds later there's a "WHOOOMP!" sound - surely some gas build-up lighting - and then the oven is on, and it works fine. How can I fix this? I live in NYC and have tried and failed to find someone who can fix this vintage Cookmaster. I'd like to keep this in the kitchen but, of course, "safety first"...

So, should I...
- continue to try to find a repairperson for the Cookmaster
- eBay the sucker (anyone know anything about old Cookmasters' value?)
- do something else?

Any help appreciated.

What's your most useful general advice on cooking?

melissa may — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 11:51:57 -0800

What's your most useful general advice on cooking? For instance, for years I thought that cooking with fresh herbs was overrated because recipes called for things like "1/3 cup loosely packed basil leaves" without specifying that most herbs need to be crushed or chopped to release all their flavor. So, if I were offering one piece of cooking advice to anyone, it would be "if you want their strongest possible flavor, finely mince fresh herbs before adding them to your food." A bit silly, but I think there are many things self-evident to good cooks that require experience to learn. So, what's your hard-earned wisdom on the subject?