I eye-balled the chili and cayenne powder in my chili and have made it painful to eat. What should I use to counteract this? I tried adding pasta sauce and cheese to a small serving, but it wasn't very effective.  According to the question "" the heat is coming from capsaicin:     Capsaicin, the heat-producing compound in most types of hot peppers,   is the highest on the Scoville Scale; extremely piquant and can   produce a "burning" sensation in very small quantities. It is also   poorly soluble in water, but is far more soluble in fat, especially   oils. Adding some olive oil or a good quantity of butter to your   recipe is a good bet for reducing capsaicin/capsicum heat.   From some various discussions on the internet, I've also heard dark chocolate and sour cream can be effective.  What can I add in minimal quantities without affecting the taste drastically?
122715
I made chili and it's too hot! If I cook it longer will the heat calm down?
106950
I have a friend that has developed an allergy or sensitivity of some kind to tomato sauce in foods. She has been craving pizza, pasta, and lasagna for a while now and I've been searching for a way to make those sorts of dishes without using tomatoes, but while maintaining a similar flavor i.e. not a white sauce flavor.  Any ideas suggestions?
63890
How to fix food that got extra salty? I imagine this depends on what the food is. With spaghetti, you can add water or change water if you detect it on time. But what about grilled meat? Or a tomato sauce?
6168
I've read the discussion here about .  I've also read this one: .  But I did not find any word or phrase that describes the reaction someone has when eating a too spicy-hot food. You know, they tend to sweat, catch their breath, and even sometimes shed tears; due to the spiciness of the food.  So my questions:        What do you say to describe the reaction someone has when being excitedly "suffered" by a very spicy-hot food? In Indonesian, we would call it kepedasan.   What do you say when you get that thing [the answer to question 1] with you, other than the list I enclose below:                Oh, spicy!     My God, it's spicy-hot!                      Is that it?
97964
I picked up a pork sirloin roast yesterday, it's a little over three pounds.  I've never cooked one of these before and I am not sure what to do.  My seasoning plan is salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, and I might poke a couple holes for cloves of garlic as well.  My cooking plan is 8+ hours in the crock pot on low, with about an inch of water in there.  Will this turn out OK?  I'd like a tender and moist result, obviously.  Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
123623
Teflon toxicity and second degree burns aside, are there any health issues related to cooking with oil at or past its smoking point? Googling a bit I found one article that went so far as to say you should always "discard oil that's reached its smoke point, along with any food with which it had contact". Other searches showed pages suggesting cancer risks.  I've never given it a thought before and I often use peanut oil at smoking point to brown meat.
90776
My recipe for hummus says to cook the garbanzo beans with a little baking soda to soften them. Does this work with other legumes?   I've often seen the advice against salting the cooking water for beans, as it supposedly toughens them. Will a different sodium compound, bicarbonate, have the opposite effect?   Would love to know the science of this issue.
89409
I recently made a large batch of mixed vegetable pickles (cucumber, onion, carrot, peppers, cauliflower, garlic) with a brine of 1 cup white vinegar to 3 cups water and 1/4 cup salt. I used a clean, not sterile method, and didn't process the jars. Ten days later some of the jars are cloudy, and some of the lids are fizzing.  I've pickled a lot in the past, sometimes using a water bath to process and sometimes not. This time I skipped the step thinking the acidity would be enough to prevent nasty things like botulism.  I'm belatedly researching and learning the difference between fermented pickles and vinegar pickles. I had simply assumed the process was similar and adding vinegar would keep it safer by increasing the acidity.   My question now is, will the high acidity and high salt (works out to 1 tablespoon per cup of brine) prevent botulism from growing and keep them safe to eat (as long as they don't smell bad)?   Reading about fermented pickles, I see that cloudiness is a good sign. Can the cloudiness be lacto-fermentation, or would the vinegar disrupt that process?   Another thing that might explain the cloudiness is the iodized salt (I didn't have access to pickling salt).  I want to experiment with fermentation and would definitely do things differently next time, but for now, I'm just wondering if I can salvage anything, and what would be a clear indication that they're unsafe and I should throw out the lot.
34390
I was using canola oil and put the stove top setting on "high - 9". I read plenty of guides suggesting there will infact be oil splatter, but it was pretty excessive and burning my arm with one drop getting near my eye before I stopped. I turned the heat setting down to "medium - 4", where the oil splatter seemed to drop substantially. Before I try to make steak again I'd like to get some clarification  So my questions are:   Which heat setting am I supposed to use? Is that type of oil splatter normal or should I try using a different oil, and if so, what oil? Should oiling the meat instead of the pan help the problem?
117685
I'm the kind of chef who chops up whatever the local bazaar has that week, adds a random amount of seasonings until the color suits my fancy and then cooks it. Somehow. Most days I don't go hungry.  The other day, fresh garlic was really cheap so I bought a bunch. The housewares shop had some little jugs with corks, so I picked one up. Back at home I chopped up a few heads of garlic, stuffed it the jug, then filled the jug with olive oil. Bread for the next two days had had a great dipping sauce! However dipping bread in oil uses up a lot of oil and not very much garlic, so on the second evening when it was about half empty I topped off the jug with fresh oil. I corked it, wiped off the drips from around the top with a paper towel and left it on the table.  This is what I found in the morning. (click for larger)    I am certain when I corked it the level of oil was below the bottom of the cork because I tipped it to see how the garlic was getting an and remember the air moving around in the jug. I am also certain the top was clean having wiped it off, and of course there was no puddle. Even stranger, as I have left it there today it has continued to drip.  The only clew seems to be garlic mixture seems to be producing periodic bubbles that float up through the oil. This does not explain to me how the oil got out, but it does seem like it must be producing   I see three fields for questioning:   Casual kitchen tinkerer: How should I safely store my garlic and olive oil? Is there danger to storing this in something that seals better than a plastic cork? Is it safe to eat? Amateur chemist: Is there a chemical reaction going on between the garlic and the oil? Would it ever explode? Wannabe physicist: How did the oil get out? This seems like a gravity defying stunt. Note the current oil level is about ½" below the cork.   Somebody please tell me why my day's adventure at the bazaar made this much mess and how to make yummy things with garlic and olive oil safely!
36276
I just cleaned up a rusty cast-iron skillet and I would like to season it. The thing is that I don't have lard handy and I'm wondering whether any of my other oils and fats would do.   I have: canola, olive, sesame and almond oil.   Also, I've heard that appying the oil and reheating multiple times improves the seasoning. Is it true? How many times does it make sense to repeat the process?
118433
So my roommate forgot about his boiling water and burned one of the pots pretty bad. The bottom is a dark brown/gray with colored spots underneath (electric range).   What are some household remedies to restore the pot? I'm worried that the heat might have changed the properties of the metal (such as annealing).
35303
Just cooked some chicken breasts today. All day in the crockpot and when done the meat was horribly dry.  I put chopped onions, carrots, spices, and coconut milk and 1/2 cup water and 4 chicken breasts.  There was plenty of fluid there when it was done, but the cooked chicken meat was really dry.  This seems to happen with beef roast as well.  Is there some trick to getting meat to be tender when cooking in the crockpot?
75392
My roommate put a hunk of beef roast in the slow-cooker for a good 6 hours.  It's a fairly large sized slow-cooker, at least 8 quarts.  The meat was cooked through but very chewy, and I never remember my mom having that issue with a slow-cooker.  My roommate tends to put only enough water to get halfway up the side of the roast, and always uses a slow-cooker 'bag' (another thing my mom never did).  What advice can I offer them to get a better outcome?
40266
I have a small cast iron pan which I am working with, trying to make sure I understand seasoning/cleaning before moving on to a larger one. I seasoned with flaxseed oil (4 light coats, hour in the oven), and have cooked a few things - I made some Ghee, fried some onions, stuff like that. After each I washed with hot water (no soap), heated until dry on the stove and coated with a thin layer of canola oil.  Now, when I take a dry paper towel and rub it on the pan, a black residue shows up on the paper towel. I can't feel anything with my fingers and I haven't noticed anything cooking with it. I'm fairly confident this occurred after the initial seasoning - although I'm not sure I did this exact test with the paper towel.  Is this a) normal, or b) what is wrong and c) how can I fix it?  There are quite a few questions (and good answers!) regarding cast iron cookware on this site but I haven't been able to find one that deals with this specific issue.
88041
Peppers evolved chemicals like capsaicin to discourage animals from eating them, and that chemical itself can cause internal damage if consumed in large quantities, though this is usually only a concern for the hottest of peppers (which people do eat).   Still, why is it that humans seem to be the only animal that often "like" spicy food?
31836
I love the taste of onions and garlic and it seems lots of other people do too.  But they upset my stomach so much that I can't really cook with them.  What can I use in their place to give my food a similar flavour?