Bought chicken breast on Sunday and put in marinade.  It is now Thursday.  Chicken has turned a bit white . . . is it safe to cook and eat at 5 days in marinade?
1715
How do I know if a given food or ingredient I have is still good, or if I should discard it?  How can I best preserve a food or ingredient?     This broad question is intended as a "general reference" question to quickly answer many how long will food keep for? questions. Please feel free to edit this question to expand and clarify as needed.
111553
The bags of frozen mushrooms and okra that I just bought got mistakenly put into the refrigerator for a few days instead of frozen. I want to eat them now.  What's the problem with letting bagged veggies thaw and then eating them? Is there a danger of food poisoning?
114376
I cooked some bacon about a week ago and left the grease in the pan.  I've used it the last two nights with great success for cooking other meals.  How long is it safe to reuse?  I figure since I'm heating it up to a million degrees each time I use it it's probably pretty safe, but.... I'd rather not get food poisoning.
77596
I made chicken stock recently from chicken thigh bones and skin (just needed the thigh meat and the bone-in-with-skin were cheaper).  After cooling it in the fridge I ended up with gelatinous semisolid stuff underneath a layer of fat a few mm thick.  I removed the fat, but am wondering whether the "stock" underneath it is useable for anything.
7850
I wonder if it is bad to cook frozen meat (chicken, fish, beef,...) without waiting for it to thaw?  Sometimes, I realize I forget to take meat out of my freezer beforehand, when I am too hungry already.
57299
I decided I would make baked beans for a BBQ at my MIL's this past weekend. I've never made baked beans but decided that it was time since I love them so much! I found a recipe for Southern Baked Beans (using Navy beans). It was from a food blog.   During the description/commentary of the dish the blogger said they could be made with dried beans but she uses canned to save time. The recipe only mentioned canned beans. I couldn't find anything to tell me the ratio canned:dried beans so I decide a 1:1 ratio would be good. After putting a 24oz bag of beans in a cake pan (the recipe called for 32oz canned beans), I decided that was A LOT of beans so didn't add the remaining 8oz. I rinsed them first then soaked them for 15-18 hours. I rinsed them again and put them in a pot with the rest of the ingredients.   The recipe said to bake them at 350 for about 40 minutes and they should be done. After an hour and a temperature increase to 400, the beans weren't anywhere close to being done. At this point I decided they were probably very old beans. :( I moved them to the stove after another 30 minutes. They boiled on the stove for another 1 1/2 hours and were still rock hard (I kept adding water so they wouldn't boil dry - and this was on medium to medium-low heat).   We left the beans at my MIL's and she cooked them "off and on" (her words) the next day and declared they were done. They are not done. :(  Now that they've been cooked then refrigerated then cooked then refrigerated again, can I attempt to salvage them? I've read that adding 1/8 tsp baking soda per cup of beans will soften them. Is it too late to try this - add the beans, more water, and a small amount of baking soda and cook them a little more? I've put so much effort into these stupid beans I can't just give up! LOL
95797
I use a simple fried chicken recipe: wash chicken (I use thighs), dredge in seasoned flour, dip in egg with a bit of milk, re-dredge in flour, shake and fry. The dish comes out great on the day I cook it, but loses its crunch the next day when I want to take it as part of a picnic lunch. Is there a way to avoid the limp-crusted fried chicken on day 2?  P.S. I remove skin and all visible fat, and I drain on paper towels both top and bottom sides.
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?
49402
My roommate put some mothballs in the pantry and when I came home and saw them, I took them out.  They were probably only there for a few hours, but is it safe to store food in there?  Should I throw out the food that was in there together with the mothballs?  I'm leaning towards 'when in doubt throw it out' but I'm unsure whether that is overkill in this case.
120367
I live alone, so I cook for myself. And often times I cook steaks/burgers on a pan, and later in the same day would return to use the same pan/oil without washing/using new oil.  Is this safe, or should one wash and use a new pan before cooking every steak/burger patties? I've actually done this for more than a day once (cooked burgers in the morning, steaks later that afternoon, and then burgers for the next morning).
98784
I've soaked some beans in room temperature water overnight, since 6pm (white navy beans).    How long can I keep them in water before I must use them?   Will they last a day or so at room temperature and in water, or should I drain and store in the fridge, or must I cook with them immediately?
71928
I notice when cooking chicken breast in a pan, or in the oven, the chicken releases a lot of fluid, watering down the flavour.  This happens with fresh chicken as well as frozen (de-frosted) chicken.  How do I prevent this?
96180
I opened a can of sliced black olives for my pizza and only used half. I put the leftovers into a sealed container with the liquid and put it in the fridge. Under those conditions how long will the olives last? Is there a better way to store leftover olives?
79587
From my experience it is always best to marinate meat for a decent amount of time, so the meat can "soak" up the marinade and be more flavourful.  However, I came across this recipe here:   In the directions, it says: Add pork and marinade for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight, but no longer than 12 hours.  I was wondering, why does it say "no longer than 12 hours"? Isn't it good to let meat marinate for as long as possible?  Thanks.
40312
I just bought my first few pot and pans "Calaphon" stainless steel trip-ply  I used my new 10" skillet tonight, and cooked pork chops. I heated the pan first, added olive oil, let it heat, then added chops. After I was done, cleaned it immediately under water, and noticed white cloud looking areas on the bottom of the skillet. They won’t wash or rub off  Do I need to return these? I did buy them for the look as well.
78144
I'm planning on marinating my chicken legs with Tabasco sauce. I have read that a marinade should be one part lemon juice and 3 parts olive oil.  I'm going to be using two skinned chicken legs, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and Tabasco sauce  The reason I want to marinate the chicken legs is because I will be eating them on the go and wont have time to add the Tabasco sauce to them yet I still want them spicy.  So basically I'm wondering how many extra calories could I be talking for each chicken leg.  Thank you.
36357
I'm trying to develop my own "secret" fried chicken recipe, something that is similar to Popeye's or Church's. I'm a LONG ways from getting there. Here's what I did in my last experiment:   Chicken was marinated in buttermilk with Cajun spices and Tabasco sauce for 24 hours I used a deep fryer and canola oil. 175C. Prior to "dressing" the chicken, I let the excess buttermilk brine drip off the chicken. I then seasoned it with Cajun seasoning I made a batter using an egg, self rising flour, milk, baking powder I also tried using just plain flour for breading   Results:   Using the batter, the chicken came out looking burned and too smooth (didn't have that crunchy look). It burned too much that I couldn't finish cooking the chicken. Using the flour, the chicken came out with a thin crust, somewhat crispy, but also too burnt. Dipping the chicken in the batter AND then flour gave a bulky &amp; crunchy look. However, again, the result looked too burnt.   Modifications:  I then changed the the breading. I used bread flour and corn starch. I dipped the chicken in the batter again, then used the new breading. The bread flour was a bit lighter. And the corn starch was even more lighter. But they were still burn looking (just lighter shades). I also dropped the temperature to 160C.  Results:  Burnt chicken whose crust wasn't really sticking to the skin/meat.  Questions:  Any suggestions on what I can do to improve? I'm guessing something in the batter is causing the burnt coat. What flour should I use? What can I do to make the coat stick to the skin/meat? Any other suggestions on what to do?