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A friend gave me 2 boxes of kerr jars that are about 25 years old. The boxes were unopened with their original lids. The sealing ring is a grey material instead of the reddish stuff that I'm accustomed to. Is it okay to use these lids? Will they seal properly?

I'm pretty new to canning. This is my first year. I am aware that bubbles are undesirable because they can cause problems in the preservation process. I don't know if they are absolutely prohibited though. I just canned 4 pints of apple butter and 5 quarts of apple sauce. My family...

I know that some types of pickles are fermented. What is the other kind called? Can someone explain the pros and cons of the different types? I don't know if I've ever had fermented pickles. Most of my pickle experience is from store bought pickles and the occasional pickle on a restaurant...

I've never pickled anything before although my mom was really fond of pickling green tomatoes and beets when I was a kid. I ate alot of those. For some reason I have a sudden strong desire to pickle something soon. I think it was a Good Eats recipe that did this to me. I'd like to make some...

I have a large family. There are currently 6 of us and we only go grocery shopping every 2 weeks. During the winter we have a few places that serve as "overflow" for fridge items that will stay just around the right temperature. We're SOL during the summer though. We're looking at getting a...

great ideas so far. She already has a bunch of the suggested items though. Does anyone have comments on the special, perforated and shaped pans for baking french bread and baguettes? She really enjoys making breads and has tried french bread a few times on a regular cookie sheet. This looks...

I apologize if this is not the correct place to put this. I'm trying to think of a few cooking related gifts for my wife. In our household I do almost all of the cooking but my wife does all the baking. She typically makes things like bread, rolls, biscuits, cake, brownies, cinnamon rolls...

I like to cook a whole chicken to make chicken soup but I suspect that I'm not getting all the broth out of the cooking that I should. I usually just add water until the bird is fully covered but the last time I only ended up with about 8 cups of stock. I figure that I could easily add some...

I read another method of determining the correct temperature. I put my candy thermometer in boiling water and let it sit for 5 minutes. The boiling point today is showing as 200 exactly on my candy thermometer. That's a 12 degree difference from standard. Should I subtract 9 degrees or 12...

So, my recipe says to take the fudge to 234 degree and I'm at 4500 ft. I adjust it down 9 degrees to 225 degrees? My recipe says that after boiling I should let it sit and cool until it reaches 138 degrees before stirring. Should I also adjust that temperature? It's not boiling at that point...

another possible cause. After the mixture cools on the stove top I'm supposed to stir it until the "sheen" turns into a dull matte appearance. I stirred it as hard as I could but couldn't identify a change in the appearance. I eventually put it into a pan when it started to harden up a bit...

I made fudge for the first time last night. I used the Alton brown recipe as well as watching that episode of "good eats". I believe that I followed all of the instructions and tips from the episode but I may have missed something. My results were dry and crumbly. I was able to cut them but...

I referred to my asian cookbook by Martin Yan (Yan can cook). It simply states that it was soysauce with molasses. I don't know if that is over-simplifying or not. Maybe I will try throwing some molasses into my recipe with the regular soy.

I've started to cook alot of asian dishes. I've used regular soy sauce and light soy sauce (low sodium) but I have not yet tried dark soy sauce. I have a recipe tonight but I don't have the dark soy that it calls for. Can anyone explain what the difference is? Is there something I can add to...

I have a huge 26" wok. It clearly wouldn't work in the kitchen. My first attempt was to cook it on top of my weber grill. That worked although it didn't get quite hot enough. I have now constructed a new work cooker where the wok sits on top of a big metal barrel with alot of HOT wood...

I'm not sure if ramen is the right word for what I'm looking for. "Ramen" seems to invoke ideas of the dried noodle variety with a packet of meat flavoring. I'm actually looking for something authentic with fresh noodles, good broth, veggies, meat chunks, etc. I don't even know what to...

We recently attempted to make the Alton Brown overnight cinnamon roll recipe. Everything went find at the beginning. The yeast appeared to activate properly. It double like it should. We put them in the fridge overnight per the recipe. The next day we attempted to follow the proofing...

I'm shopping for a wok but traditional woks are pretty small. I generally cook for at least 6 and I try to cook enough to have some leftovers. 12 and 14" woks are completely too small as I've cooked with them before and they don't do it. My local restaurant supply has woks up to 28". I...

I'm on a high protein, low fat/carb diet right now. My wife and I ate 12 egg whites for breakfast but I'm really hesitant to throw out a dozen egg yolks. Do you just throw away yours? I do have 3 young boys. Is there anything I can make with 12 yolks that they would enjoy?

My wife and I love curry dishes but she doesn't eat spicy food. I'm looking for a delicious chicken curry to try that meets these requirements. Our favorite recipes usually have coconut and peanut flavors too. We like it saucy too. -not spicy -coconut -peanut I think that curry chicken...

My favorite is a dish served in Bolivia called "pique a lo macho". My memory might be a little bit fuzzy. I seem to recall that it is supposed to have some steak chunks in it in addition to what I use. Start with a bed of fries (I use steak fries) top this with: kielbasa type sausage browned...

Is there such a thing as an electric cast iron skillet? I read that most skillets are aluminum and suffer from terrible heat qualities (hot spots, cold spots, etc). I guess its too bad that I don't have a gas range. I figure that alot of the the cast iron skillets are designed to be used...

I have a growing family. There's 5 of us now and a 6th on the way (3 growing boys). Breakfast is sometimes a very slow process cooking in a frying pan. I'm seriously considering an electric griddle for cooking things like pancakes, bacon, french toast, eggs, etc. It will likely be a great...

I spent some time in South America a number of years back. They have a cooking practice that I never quite understood because we don't do it here in the US. When cooking rice or pasta they brown it in a pan with some oil before adding it to the water for boiling. Is there a reason to do this...

I think I'll try some of those recipes. I just had zatarain's black beans and rice. I'd love to be able to duplicate that with a slightly fresher taste.