A candy or deep fry thermometer can be checked for accuracy by placing it in a pot of water and bringing it to a boil. At boiling, the thermometer should read 212°F (100°C). If it does not, cooks can either adjust for the difference or return the thermometer.
A veteran cook with 14 years of experience explains how the pandemic changed her grocery shopping and shares the pantry, fridge and freezer items she restocks most often, from all-purpose flour and dried pasta to Dijon mustard and frozen dumplings.
When a recipe calls for yolks by the half-dozen, bakers are left with surplus egg whites. Smitten Kitchen lists recipes that use whites, including marshmallows, pavlova, frostings, cookies and cakes, and notes they can be frozen. David Lebovitz also offers additional ideas for using them.
Whipped cream loses its thickness within hours because it is made with air alone. Two stabilization methods—dissolving gelatin into the cream or beating in sour cream or creme fraiche—can keep it fluffy for up to 4 to 5 days, according to the source material.
A home cook's 12-year review of 4.5-ounce Libbey glass spice jars finds the containers remain airtight and rust-free, unlike the metal tins they replaced. The account details label smudging, sunlight exposure, and stacking limits as ongoing trade-offs.
Smitten Kitchen founder Deb Perelman explains why weighing ingredients with a scale delivers more consistent baking results than cup measurements. She cites flour's variable weight—120 to 190 grams per cup—and notes that almond flour, coconut, oats, nuts, and fruit chunks are especially difficult to measure by volume.
Cream products are labeled by name rather than milk fat percentage, which can confuse shoppers. Federal standards define half-and-half at 10.5–18% milk fat, light cream at 18–30%, whipping cream at 30–36%, and heavy cream at 36–40%; double cream, at 42%, is not widely available in the U.S.
Cut-out cookie dough demands softened butter, extended creaming, and hours of chilling before rolling, then re-chilling of scraps for a second, flourier batch. An author who has written about make-ahead doughs for rugelach, icebox cake, and confetti cookies says the fix deserves one consolidated explanation.