Most people simply pack their vanilla beans in sugar when they’re not using them (or pack them in a jar of sugar and give them as a gift).  This method is better at infusing the sugar with vanilla aroma than vanilla flavor.

Here’s our how-to post- How to Make Vanilla Scented Sugar

The other method we’ve used imparts more flavor and involves leaving the beans out to dry until stiff, then grinding them with sugar.

Here’s the how-to post for that method – How to Make Flavored Sugars

- Question Submitted by Linda

- Question Submitted by Mitch

Summer truffles actually need to be very lightly cooked to awaken the full potency of their flavor and aroma. Slice them or chop them as called for in your recipe, then lightly sauté them or heat them in oil before adding them to food.

While we can accept edible flower orders any time up to 10 AM EST the day before your preferred delivery date, for weddings and other events we recommend ordering earlier and having the flowers delivered a few days before your event.  For unusually large orders and color blend requests we recommend placing your order a week or two in advance of your preferred delivery date.

- Question Submitted by Forey

Please note that we cannot be responsible for any changes to the product after it reaches the US address we ship it to, nor can we offer any import/export advice.

- Question Submitted by Natalie

- Question Submitted by Michelle

- Question Submitted by Kristan

For more information on this issue & discussion of our rationale, see our CEO’s post – Kobe Beef in the News.

- Question Submitted by Matt V.

- Question Submitted by Kirstyn

Because produce can vary in size, that number may vary based on the size/weight of the rambutans in the specific case.

- Question Submitted by Leslie

- Question Submitted by Leslie

- Question Submitted by Curtis A.

Alternatively, you could always order/purchase live shellfish, enjoying the meat as a delicious bonus, and saving the (thoroughly cleaned) shells.

- Question Submitted by Ron C.

There’s nothing to worry about.  These little bottles of goodness still contain the wonderfully complex condimento balsamic vinegar they did earlier, which has still been made in Modena, Italy by a small family-run company using Modica-grown grapes and traditional methods in breathable wood casks.  It is still free from additives, thickeners or coloring agents, has an acidity of 6%, and contains only wine vinegar and cooked grape must.

What’s different?  Italian labeling laws.  Without getting into the industrial “balsamic” corporations vs. small artisan producers debate, the key point is that the balsamic laws in Italy have been changed to say that any container of balsamic vinegar under 8.5fl oz that is not a 12 year old affinato or 25+ year old extra vecchio can no longer legally be labeled balsamic vinegar.

Thus, in larger bottles Oro Nero is labeled balsamic vinegar, but at 3.5oz it’s labeled “balsamic condiment.”

In any case, the USA has no such law, so we can call it what it really, honestly, is – but the bottles are labeled in Italy for sale around the world, so that’s why it’s there.

St. Louis ribs are cut from younger animals for more tender meat.  This also results in smaller racks that are easy for home cooks to handle, but are less impressive on the competitive circuit. St. Louis racks are also cut down to make them very easy to cook at home, but as a result they have a higher level of exposed bones (aka “shiners”) than is preferred by many competitive teams.

If you would like to special-order competition-size whole Kurobuta spare rib racks that you can trim down to your exact specifications, please contact us for a custom quote.

We can’t give you a month or season prediction on them, but we can contact you the moment we have them back in stock if you contact us with your preferred e-mail address and/or phone number.

- Question Submitted by Mitchell E.

Morels are wild mushrooms and can vary wildly in size.  As such, the number you can fit in a half cup measure will be different, sometimes very different, depending on the exact mushrooms you’re working with.  They’re also filled with air (being hollow), which further inflates their volume relative to their weight.

- Question Submitted by Kit

Wild mushrooms grow when, where, and how they will.  Changing weather patterns can have a huge impact on morel arrival, departure, and yield.

Once the season starts, we’ll have a somewhat better feel for how much longer it is likely to last…but probably not much more than rough impressions of a week out.  For example, we might be able to tell you “next week looks like it’ll be strong too” or “our foragers are starting to have trouble finding them, so the season may be petering out.  I’d order this week rather than waiting…just to play it safe.”

What we can offer you now is to let you know as soon as we get them.  Just contact us and tell us how’d you like us to get in touch.

- Question Submitted by Rita P.

Supply – as far as we know, there is no commercial production of these animals for meat…likely due to lack of demand in addition to any issues associated with hunting/farming such animals in large quantities.

Legal Controls – Under USDA rules, it is illegal to sell the meat of animals hunted in the US.  However, you can sell the meat of wild animals if they were instead trapped and then slaughtered in a USDA approved facility (this is how our wild-caught wild boar meat is harvested).  According to Dave Arnold of Cooking Issues you may, very rarely, see trapped raccoon meat, beaver meat, etc for sale…often as a byproduct of the fur industry….but it appears to us to be difficult to track down with any regularity.

As a web retailer selling food across the United States, we also have to be aware that there may be varying state & local laws that further complicate the sale of such meats across the country.

People can and do hunt these animals for meat for their own consumption…so if you want to try them, befriending a hunter may be your best bet.

- Question Submitted by @palateb2w

- Question Submitted by Harry

- Question Submitted by Mike

We cannot guarantee their agricultural performance or offer growing advice – food is our area of expertise, not farming.

- Question Submitted by Barb F.

Our cut grass-fed beef steaks (ribeyes, porterhouses, strip steaks, top sirloin steaks) and sliced short ribs are shipped frozen.

The larger cuts (whole ribeye rolls, tenderloins, flank steaks, hanger steaks, skirt steaks, etc) can be shipped fresh (with frozen gel packs) OR frozen, depending on availability.  Contact us before placing your order if you’d prefer one or the other and we’ll see what we can do for you.

The large muscle cuts (whole sirloins, tenderloins, ribeye rolls, striploins) ship pretty much ready to slice into steaks (and tend to be cheaper by weight), so they’re a great solution if you’ve got your heart set on fresh steaks.

- Question Submitted by Kyle C.

We tried floating a crystallized pansy once, which is a variety with a thick sugar crust on one side.  It did float in water for at least a little bit, but in our experience the sugar dissolved fairly quickly and the texture suffered for it.

­- Question Submitted by Amy

-  Question Submitted by Jill F.

Our best estimate is that there could be anywhere from 25-40 pieces per tray…but even that range could be off.

- Question Submitted by Lou D.

The best we can do in terms of providing an estimate is to ask you to call us the week you’re planning on ordering.  We’ll do our best to track down an estimate based on what’s shipping at that time.

- Question Submitted by David

I’m assuming that if you’ve reached the point where you’re considering additives to solve color issues, you’re secure in your technique and this isn’t an issue with simply leaving the chicken pieces in the oil a little bit too long.

Here are some frying technique tweaks that might give you avenues for manipulating the darkness of the crust while still getting cooked chicken on the inside:

A) Try frying the chicken using a different oil, batter-style or piece size. (I assume you’ve already thought of this and don’t want to switch)

B) Try frying with new oil. Oil that has been used for a few batches tends to impart darker colors to fried foods than fresh oil (usually that’s a good thing).

C) Try pre-warming your chicken to lower the frying time necessary to cook it through, which may help you get cooked chicken before the crust overbrowns.

We haven’t tried this ourselves yet, but Harold McGee recommends wrapping meats and immersing them in warm water for 30-60 minutes in order to bring their internal temperature to around 100˚F/40˚C.  He says this can reduce cooking time by a third or more.

Obviously you’d want to cook them ASAP once they hit that target temp for food safety reasons, because at that point you’re well into the temperature danger zone and bacteria grow fast.

D) Try frying at an even lower temperature.

You mentioned frying at 170˚C.  In Modernist Cuisine, Myhrvold et al suggest that reducing your oil temperature further to 160-165˚C (320-329˚F) can slow the maillard browning reaction on the outer crust while still cooking the interior. We haven’t tested this either, and depending on your piece size this may slow cooking enough that you end up with greasy chicken.

- Question Submitted by Gail S.

1) Dried candy caps are harvested up and down the US west coast.
2) Dried Italian porcinis are (as you’d expect) from Italy.
3) Right now our organic dried black trumpets are from Serbia.  Because the 2010-2011 black trumpet mushroom harvest was unusually small, all the black trumpets were sold fresh.  We’re hoping the 2011-2012 season is strong enough to allow us to switch back to the usual Pacific Northwest black trumpets this year.

Cultivated Mushrooms:
Many of our organic dried mushrooms are grown in China, though we may be able to special order domestic non-organic dried maitakes if you contact us.

- Question Submitted by JoAnn

“40 stigma weighed about 71mg or 1.775mg per stigma.  That works out to 255,000 stigma per pound… In one ounce (28.35g) there [would be] about 16,000 stigma.”

Based on the numbers he supplied us with above (1.775mg per stigma), we’d estimate about 560 stigmas/threads per gram.

As always, these estimates are rough at best, but if your recipes call for a specific number of threads, this will hopefully help you estimate the number of batches you’ll get per gram or ounce.

If you’re planning to use a brown butter or olive oil sauce with herbs – roasted/sautéed carrots or fresh mushrooms (perhaps with white wine and garlic) would also work.

If you’re planning on using our fennel & parmesan pasta sauce, why not pair them with asparagus or some roasted beets (preferably one of the milder varieties (golden, etc)).  You could also very thinly slice the beets raw on a v-slicer or mandoline for use in a crisp side-salad instead.

- Question Submitted by Gloria D.

Oregon truffles are a less intense than their European counterparts, so you may want to use more.

The above is simply our best guess given the information provided.  Given that we didn’t roast the chilies, sell the chilies, freeze the chilies, or know what temperature they were at (for how long) while thawing we can’t be absolutely sure.

- Question Submitted by Robbie C.

That said, lobster is a pretty adaptable as long as you keep your sauce on the mild side.  Butter, browned butter or olive oil sauces are probably better choices than tomato or cream sauces, as these can cover up the filling’s flavor and the pasta’s appearance.  Sauces with lemon and/or basil will reinforce the filling’s flavors.

A lot of the sauces in our pasta sauce recipe collection are tomato or cream based, but you still might check them out to see if anything strikes your fancy.

- Question Submitted by Gloria D.

- Question Submitted by Debbie F.

Thus, as a very rough estimate, the usable/edible part of the fruit makes up around ten ounces of every pound.

This yield percentage may include the seeds, which are edible.

The Book of Yields says that there are roughly 5.9 tablespoons of red chile flakes per ounce.  With 16 ounces per pound and 3 teaspoons per tablespoon, we’d estimate 283 teaspoons per pound.

Of course, this is a very rough estimate at best and that the Book of Yields is describing generic red chile flake rather than our product specifically.

- Question Submitted by Gloria R.

Ordering squash blossoms for a scheduled event is always tricky, because they’re quite perishable (lasting two days max in the refrigerator after delivery) and must be picked the day they are shipped.  If that day’s quality is not up to par, we will not be able to ship your order.

For a Saturday event, we’d recommend ordering for Thursday shipment (Friday delivery).  That way if the Thursday crop is sub-par we can still try to ship Friday’s crop for Saturday delivery.

- Question Submitted by Chuck V.

- Question Submitted by Bill

In the case of chicken, white meat (breast meat) is the most commonly sautéed.  This is because sautéing is a hot & fast cooking technique best suited to quick cooking ingredients.  Chicken breasts are leaner than legs & thighs, so they cook faster.  They also have a uniform composition that makes them easier to cut up into similarly sized pieces that will cook at the same rate.

Dark meat (legs & thighs on a chicken) takes longer to cook and tends to contain more connective tissue (which takes time to break down).  This can make it difficult to cook dark meat through evenly using the high heat of a sauté or stir fry.  We’d recommend slower and/or more even cooking methods like roasting, braising, etc. for these portions of your bird.

- Question Submitted by Stephanie

Bamboo Rice
Ratio: 2 cups of water per cup of rice.

Method: Put the rice & water in a pot.  Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover the pot & simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat & let stand (covered) for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork & serving.

Yield: Each cup of dry bamboo rice will yield about two cups of cooked rice.

Purple Sticky Rice
Ratio: 2 cups of water per cup of rice.

Method: Put the rice & water in a pot.  Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover the pot & simmer on low for 40 minutes.  Remove from the heat & let stand (covered) for 10 minutes before fluffing with a fork & serving.

Other uses: can also be used in black rice pudding recipes.

Yield: Each cup of dry purple sticky rice will yield about two cups of cooked rice.

Wild Rice
Ratio: 4 cups of water per cup of rice.

Method: Put the rice & water in a pot.  Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover the pot & simmer for 45-50 minutes (until the rice bursts). Drain off excess water & serve.

Yield: Six ounces of dry wild rice will yield about three cups of cooked rice.

French Camargue Rice
Ratio: 1 ½ cups of water per cup of rice.

Method: Put the rice & water in a pot.  Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover the pot & simmer for 30-40 minutes (until the grains are tender).

Yield: Each cup of dry Camargue rice will yield about three cups of cooked rice.

Himalayan Red Rice
Ratio: 2 1/4 cups of water per cup of rice.

Method: Put the rice & water in a pot.  Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover the pot & simmer for 20-25 minutes. Fluff with a fork & serve

Carnaroli Rice
This is a risotto rice variety and is best prepared using the risotto method (see how to make risotto for details & our risotto recipes for examples).  It can also be used to make rice pudding.

Gaba Rice (Sprouted Brown Rice)
Ratio: 3 cups of water per 2 cups of rice.

Method: Rinse the rice.  Put the rice & water in a pot.  Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover the pot & simmer for 40 minutes.  Fluff with a fork & serve.

For more ideas for how to enjoy your rice, check out our rice recipes & techniques collection.

- Question Submitted by Dennis L.

That said, using whole dried chilies does give you a larger range of culinary options.  First, because you can remove or leave in some or all of the seeds (where a lot of the heat is stored) before cooking, you have much more control over how hot the chilies are.

Secondly, you can use whole chilies in a variety of different ways with different affects on the finished dish.  You can rehydrate dried chilies for use similar to fresh chilies, cut them up with a knife or kitchen shears, grind them into homemade chile flakes (which, depending on where you get your flakes, may have more flavor) grind them into chili powder, or put them in your sauce whole and remove them before serving (as you would a bay leaf). Removing them from the sauce after cooking will probably yield the most mild results.

As to which chilies will give you “good heat,” it’s difficult for us to recommend varieties because different people have different tolerances for spice. Why not take a look at our chile heat scale, look up chilies that you consider mild or hot, and pick varieties relative to them?

- Question Submitted by Tom S.

There are several reasons why some clams taste better than others.  According to food science guru Harold McGee, clams and other mollusks store energy in the form of amino acids which give their meat flavor, body, and sweetness.  If the clam has expended those stores of energy, it is correspondingly less tasty.

That said, the most likely cause for clams to be using their stored energy is spawning, and quahogs tend to spawn in the summer, not the winter…so this may not be the cause of your particular issue.  Perhaps the clams were handled in such a way that they were under stress and had used up a bunch of their aminos by the time you cooked them.

The salt content of clams can vary with the conditions of the water where they grew.  Besides making food salty, salt is also a flavor enhancer, turning up the volume on other aspects of ingredients’ taste. It’s possible that the clams you bought this time came from a different source than you were used to and thus had a different flavor.

- Question Submitted by Sharon G.

We also are not aware of any other company selling salmon skin for human consumption, though there do appear to be vendors selling dried salmon skin pet treats.

- Question Submitted by Demone G.

- Question Submitted by P & G Caters

- Question Submitted by Gary

- Question Submitted by Frank

We absolutely offer wholesale pricing on all our products – simply contact us with info on desired quantities and your shipping address for a custom quote!

- Question Submitted by Annmarie B.

Most varieties of truffle producing fungi live in symbiotic relationships with trees and are found underground around their roots.  Truffles aren’t the main body of the fungus itself, but a special growth that it produces to spread its spores (just as apple trees grow apples to distribute their seeds).  Truffles emit their intense aroma to make it easier for animals to find them and eat them.

Most desirable truffles are in the genus tuber (family Tuberaceae) within the fungi kingdom.  Within the tuber genus there are a wide variety of species with varying characteristics and levels of desirability.  Here are the truffles with the most culinary importance:

Alba White TrufflesTuber Magnatum Pico
Perigord Black Truffles Tuber Melanosporum
Italian Summer Black TrufflesTuber Aestivum Vitt
Burgundy Black Truffles Tuber Uncinatum
Bianchetti White Truffles Tuber Borchii
Oregon White Truffles (two species) Tuber Oregonense & Tuber Gibbosum
Oregon Black Truffles Leucangium Carthusianum

- Question Submitted by Ray S.

Related Posts:
How to Choose Which Truffles to Buy

Some recipes specify a specific amount of blooming water and then have you add the gelatin with the water, others have you drain off the water (in the case of gelatin sheets, squeezing out excess too), which keeps it from diluting flavors/throwing off proportions in the finished dish.

While you can add gelatin directly to liquids without blooming, you generally have to get that liquid hotter before gelling in order to prevent the gel from forming an uneven texture and/or appearance. Many of the ingredients used in fancier gelatin dishes have better colors and flavors when not subjected to this level of heat.

Your best bet for tracking some down is inquiring with companies that sell food dehydrators and related goods.  For example, the Excalibur dehydrator company sells Sodium Bisulfite by the 10oz jar.

- Question Submitted by Adeline A.

How to Make Brown Butter
1. Melt unsalted butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat.

2. Continue cooking until you start to see brown specks in the butter (the butter solids toasting) and it emits a nutty aroma.

3. Use in your recipe.

Note: if you over-brown the butter solids (i.e. they start to turn black) they will be unpalatably bitter, so you should start over with new butter in a clean pan.

- Question Submitted by Lisa W.

Related Posts:
Beans & Game Sausage w/ Brown Butter & Sage
Crispy Pumpkin Sage Ravioli with Brown Butter Wild Mushroom Sauce

- Question Submitted by Bill

How to Use Them:
For tips on using fresh truffles, see How to Use Fresh Truffles.

Frozen truffles are best partially thawed (in a bag in your fridge) just until they’re soft enough to slice, then thinly sliced/shaved while still partially frozen.  The warmth of the hot food you’re finishing with them will quickly thaw them the rest of the way.

Shelf Life:
Fresh truffles will last approximately 4-7 days.
Frozen truffles will last approximately 2 days once thawed.

- Question Submitted by Rob M.

_____________
Related Content:
Truffle Recipes & Tips

- Question Submitted by Ruby

Soy Sauce
Soy sauce, of course, plays a very important role in Japanese food.  Most of the soy sauce I ate during my two years in Japan was middle of the road every day stuff, but for sashimi, glazing senbei rice crackers, etc, people broke out the tamari soy sauce.  Tamari has a much richer, deeper flavor than basic soy sauce that’s simply superb with raw fish.  You can use it as a more flavorful substitute for conventional soy sauce too…you’ll just want to use less for many dishes.

White soy sauce is used even less often, in my experience, but some chefs use it in really fancy dishes where they want a more delicate soy flavor and a lighter, golden color that lets the bright colors of other ingredients shine.

Seafood
It goes without saying that seafood plays a central role in the Japanese diet, and they eat a huge variety both raw and cooked.  Rather than list all the varieties you might find in Japan, here are some sushi & sashimi favorites: yellowfin tuna, geoduck, uni, mackerel, and fish roes (ikura, tobiko & masago).   Seafood plates are often garnished with pickled ginger, daikon radish and fresh shiso leaves.

Depending on where you are in Japan and the time of year, you might also be served fresh oysters and clams (especially tiny baby clams in miso soup).

Wasabi
We can’t discuss sashimi without discussing wasabi.  Most wasabi paste sold in the US (and a fair amount sold in Japan) is actually fake wasabi made from a blend of horseradish, green food coloring, and Chinese mustard.  When you go out for really nice sushi or sashimi though, the chef will grate real fresh wasabi rhizomes.

Sea Vegetables
Like seafood, sea vegetables play a major role in the traditional Japanese diet.  The varieties that I was served most often were probably hijiki, wakame and nori.  Kombu is a foundation ingredient in a huge amount of Japanese dishes where it’s used to infuse flavor into dashi stock and often removed before the food is served.

Meat
Traditionally people in Japan tend to eat more seafood than meat, though meat consumption has increased dramatically in post WW2.  Kobe beef and Kurobuta pork are widely regarded as the best of the best over there.  They also eat duck, chicken, chicken eggs and, believe it or not, a lot of quail eggs.

Japanese Citrus
Japan is home to at least three varieties of exotic citrus fruits: yuzu, sudachi and kabosu.  Yuzu is probably the most common and most beloved of the three (its flavor is incredible). We offer both yuzu juice & fresh yuzu fruit when in season as well as other yuzu products, sudachi juice and kabosu juice.

Mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and maitake mushrooms are consumed very frequently in Japan, whereas matsutake mushrooms are a highly prized delicacy that people look forward to all year.

Traditional Japanese Sweets
Mochi rice and sweetened adzuki beans are very mainstream ingredients in Japan.  They’re used in traditional Japanese sweets, especially those served with green tea and in the winter.  Sweetened adzuki beans can also be used as a topping for summery desserts, like ice cream, agar gel desserts with fruit, and kakigori shaved ice.

Yuzu juice is also used in some Japanese sweets and beverages.  It makes incredible ice cream, sodas, and sorbets.

Produce
Shishito peppers show up a lot as a garnish or grilled/fried as bar food.

If you travel to the south island, Okinawa, you’re very likely to encounter bitter melon in dishes. It’s known as “goya” there.

Kyoho grapes are served for dessert when they’re in season.  They’re highly prized, and particularly perfect crops can sell for a lot of money because fresh fruit is a traditional gift.  They’re often served chilled with a small bowl on the side for discarding the seeds and the skins (which are edible, but slightly sour…so people often peel the grapes).

Persimmons are a winter delight in Japan.  When they come into season you’ll start seeing them on grocery store shelves and in food all over.  Sweet fuyu persimmons are often served simply peeled and cubed with a toothpick on the side as an eating utensil.  Hachiya persimmons are often dried before eating, as they can be rather astringent fresh.  If you visit an area where people have hachiya persimmon trees in their yards at the right time of year, you’ll find their balconies festooned with drying persimmons.

- Question Submitted by Chris S.

While the Chinese pine nuts can be used as a substitute for Italian pine nuts, the two are actually different varieties with different characteristics from completely different species of pine trees.

Italian pine nut on the left, Chinese pine nut on the right.

Marx Foods is proud to offer only 100% Italian Pine Nuts.

Porcinis, shiitakes, morels and matsutakes are particularly strong. All of them are earthy, but porcinis are particularly so. Morels have a “buttery” element to their flavor and matsutakes are also very resinous/pine-y. Candy cap mushrooms probably also belong in this category and have a sweet, maple-y flavor that may disqualify them for some beef dishes.

Hedgehog mushrooms, chanterelles, black trumpets, portabellos and lobster mushrooms are more medium-volume. Hedgehogs and black trumpets have a buttery note to their flavor, chanterelles are nutty and lobster mushrooms have a seafood-esque flavor can be used to give a “surf and turf” feel.

Enokis, oyster mushrooms, creminis, wood ears, beech mushrooms and maitakes are on the mild side, and thus a good choice for bringing the extra body and texture of mushrooms to dishes without competing with the beef.

- Question Submitted by Kellie

Below are some estimates for the average “caffeine” content in most commonly consumed hot beverages.  Note that the caffeine content can vary based on a wide variety of factors (brewing method, etc), so the below is simply to give you a rough idea for comparison purposes.

Estimated Caffeine Content:

Coffee beans actually contain less caffeine by volume than tea leaves, but the brewing methods used for coffee extract more of the bean into the brewing water.

Different “Caffeine” Alkaloids have Different Effects

The actual caffeine in coffee is fast acting and stimulates energy that is more “physical.”  Green tea is a source of the alkaloid Theophylline, which is more “mental,” stimulating the brain more than the body.  Chocolate is a source of the alkaloid Theobromine, which offers a slow release effect.

Though its caffeine level is lower than most beverages, Yerba Mate actually contains all three forms. As a result, it is believed to offer a more balanced caffeine effect (both body & brain) that is longer lasting rather than simply a quick jolt of energy.

Holy Mate is a blend of yerba mate with tulsi & peppermint (which are caffeine free).  Thus it offers the same type of caffeine.

Why do “molecular gastronomy” chefs use maltodextrin?

Chefs use powder maltodextrin, generally tapioca maltodextrin, to “powder” fats like olive oil, bacon fat, and nutella (a pastry chef favorite).

Powdering fat doesn’t affect its flavor, but changes its texture into a dry powder that melts in the mouth, allowing chefs to bring a different look and texture to dishes.

Powdering tends to work better when the fat is chilled (as long as it still maintains a creamy or liquid consistency…many fats solidify when cold).

My understanding is that the maltodextrin isn’t drying or transforming the fat into a solid so much as it is absorbing it.

Why do food companies put it in processed foods?

In its powder form it’s often used as a food additive to increase the volume of powdered mixes or frozen foods without modifying their flavor.

In other words, food companies often use it to make more of things like cocoa mixes with the same amount of expensive ingredients (like chocolate) by fluffing them up with maltodextrin.  It’s cheap and it doesn’t taste like much of anything.

Maltodextrin syrup is used as a food additive to make liquids more viscous and dense without making them much sweeter.

How is maltodextrin made?

Maltodextrin can be made from many different starches.  The most common are corn, wheat, and (to a lesser extent) tapioca.

To make maltodextrin, starch molecules are partially split into smaller polysaccharides by cutting the hydrogen bonds that hold them together through the use of enzymes.  This process is called “hydrolysis” (not to be confused with hydrogenation, which is entirely different).

Once made, maltodextrin is usually spray dried into a powder.  It is also available (probably only to industrial food producers) in a syrup form.

Generally it can be said that those who are described as “molecular gastronomists” are using:

• applied food science
• unusual techniques and equipment often originally designed for science labs
• often either modern art style food presentations
or presentations that imitate other foods or objects
• hydrocolloids, enzymes, and other unusual ingredients

to introduce, discover and create new textures, appearances and flavors in food.  Others have called it (more accurately) modernist cuisine, modern cuisine, contemporary cuisine, and a host of other terms.

The most prominent torch-bearer chefs for this movement are probably Ferran Adria (with his brother Albert Adria), formerly of El Bulli in Spain, and Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck in England.  However many others continue to advance this style, take it in new directions, and bring their own discoveries to the culinary community and diners.

A less-than-complete list of other movers and shakers in this culinary genre includes:

• Chef Rene Redzepi
• Chef Grant Achatz
• Chef Homaru Cantu
• Chefs Dominique & Cindy Duby
• Chef Will Goldfarb
• Aki Kamozawa & H. Alexander Talbot
• Dr. Nathan Myhrvold & Chef Chris Young

A large number of other chefs, both celebrity and less well known, are integrating modernist cuisine techniques into their menus on a much smaller scale.  For example, lecithin foams/airs, once “fringe” elements, are now found on many fine dining menus.

Where the term “Molecular Gastronomy” came from:

I’ve seen two origin stories for the term:

1) Harold McGee has said that he and other presenters at a food science conference came up with the term to promote the conference to the public and media – purely because it was intriguing…not because they felt it really described what they were examining. It unfortunately stuck.

2) The phrase “molecular gastronomy” was actually coined by noted chemist and author Hervé This (along with Nicholas Kurti) and was used as the title of one of his books.

This book, and his work in general, do focus on food science, figuring out why cooking techniques and ingredients operate the way they do, and what’s actually happening to food on a molecular level.  However, he appears to regard the term as better applied to the science of food rather than this new style of cooking.

The longer, more correct answer is that “hydrocolloid” is a classification for a group of compounds (proteins and polysaccharides (starches, cellulose, etc)) that act as gelling agents for water-based liquids (juice, milk, cream, soda, coffee, stock, meat juices, etc).

You probably cook with one or two already…the most common ones in American kitchens are wheat flour, gelatin and cornstarch.

Why do home cooks use hydrocolloids?

Most home cooks use hydrocolloids as thickeners. Whenever you make a roux, thicken a gravy, or add corn starch to pie fillings, you’re using starch hydrocolloids to thicken.

Gluten-free households often turn to alternative thickeners like guar gum and xanthan gum, also hydrocolloids, as wheat flour substitutes in gravy, soup and stew recipes.

Hydrocolloids are also used to gel things. If you make a gelatin mold, panna cotta, or Jell-o, you’re using gelatin (a protein hydrocolloid) to turn a liquid into a wobbly, jiggly gel.  When leftover gravy or stock gels in the fridge, that’s also gelatin at work.

If you make your own jams and jellies, you’re using pectin (as an added ingredient or naturally extracted during the cooking process), a hydrocolloid derived from some varieties of fruit.

Why do “molecular gastronomy” chefs use hydrocolloids?

Modernist chefs are using a broader array of hydrocolloids in order to give foods specific textures, thicknesses, and appearances at different temperatures, acidity levels, and concentrations than are possible using more conventional varieties.

They also use hydrocolloids to filter and clarify liquids more effectively than is possible using traditional clarification methods.

Because their use often doesn’t require incredibly expensive equipment like chamber vacuum sealers, autoclaves, roto-evaporators, immersion circulators and centrifuges, hydrocolloids are one of the most affordable and home cook-accessible elements in “molecular gastronomy.”

Why do food companies put hydrocolloids in processed foods?

Food companies use hydrocolloids to help give foods, sauces, etc desirable consistencies consistently.

They are used:
• As stabilizers to preserve textures & flavors in products that would otherwise break down or separate on the shelf. For example: salad dressings, sauces & soups.
• As an addition to baked goods with fillings to keep the fillings from running out during the baking process.
• As thickeners to make sauces & salad dressings consistently thick, yet pourable and to give low-fat products a similar “mouth feel” to their full-fat counterparts.
• In ice creams to keep them from freezing too hard.
• In a multitude of other applications.

A List of Hydrocolloids:   (not a comprehensive list)
Agar (aka Agar Agar, Kanten)
Arrowroot
Carrageenan (Iota & Kappa)
Cornstarch
Gelatin
Gellan (High Acyl & Low Acyl)
Guar Gum
Gum Arabic
Konjac (aka Konnyaku, Shirataki (as noodles), “Devil’s Tongue”)
Locust Bean Gum
Maltodextrin
Methylcellulose (wide variety available)
Pectin (Low Methoxyl & High Methoxyl)
Potato Starch
Sodium Alginate
Tapioca Starch
Ultra-Tex (often #3, but other strengths are available)
Wheat Flour (& modified Wondra Flour)
Xanthan Gum

Pure vanilla extracts sold to consumers are almost always single fold, which is plenty strong for most home recipes. If a recipe simply calls for “vanilla extract” without specifying a fold strength (as most do) it’s safe to assume single fold extract is the ingredient they are referring to.

Double, triple, and four-fold extracts are available, each representing a multiplication of the 13.35 ounce per gallon amount. Thus, a double-fold extract was made with 26.7 ounces of vanilla per gallon, a triple-fold 40.5 ounces per gallon, etc. Generally double-fold & higher potency extracts are only sold to bakeries and other food companies who make very large batches of food and don’t want to use or store correspondingly large amounts of single-fold extract.

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Related Products:
Bourbon Vanilla Extract
Tahitian Vanilla Extract

The best method depends on the use you have planned for the chile.

If you’re going to grind the chiles or add them to recipes while still dry:
Snip the top off the chile (often while removing the stem) and give it a shake with the hole pointing down.  Depending on the chile variety, most of the seeds should fall out.  For some varieties you may need to cut further, up the side of the chile, and possibly use your fingers (wearing gloves is a good idea) to scrape out straggling seeds.

If you’re rehydrating the chiles:
Water helps the seeds slip away from redhydrated chiles easily. Rehydrate dried chiles as you normally would (how to rehydrate chiles), then hold them in a bowl under cool water (again, we recommend wearing gloves), tear off the stems (if any) and squeeze/scrape out the seeds.

Remove the chile’s flesh from the bowl and continue with the rest of your recipe.

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Related Content:
Dried Chile Recipes & Techniques

That said, they are non-genetically modified potatoes that will sprout, and we have planted a few varieties after they sprouted. They grew well and yielded a crop with excellent flavor and texture.

You mentioned purchasing your casings fresh & unbrined, and hoping to use them to make sausages “near Christmas.” We cannot know exactly how long your casings will stay fresh, it’s best if you ask the meat market you purchased them from directly to be absolutely sure. However, they may have already become unsafe to eat, and we think it’s unlikely that they will last until “near Christmas” even if you brine them at this point.

Our advice is to contact the people you purchased them from immediately. If, based on what they tell you, you believe they’re still safe, your best bet is to make your sausages now, not later, and freeze them raw for use closer to Christmas.

- Question Submitted by Gail A.

Though food cooked sous vide is generally vacuum packed, the water bath is really what’s important.

Sous vide cooking allows you to gently & accurately cook foods to exact internal temperatures you pick.

The Benefits of Sous Vide Cooking

• It’s much harder to overcook food
Sous vide baths are incredibly accurate, usually to within at least .5˚F.  This allows you to reach precisely the internal temperature you want every time, and makes it much harder to overcook food.

In addition, many foods can be “held” at that desired temperature for longer (sometimes hours) without overcooking, which can make sous vide more convenient as the food’s ready when you are.

• Food cooks more gently & evenly
Food cooked using other methods demonstrates something called “the bull’s-eye effect” where outer layers are more cooked than inner layers.  Food cooked sous vide can have the exact same level of doneness from end to end.In addition, lower sous vide temperatures can better preserve foods’ appearance, flavor, nutrient content and texture.

• Food cooked sous vide can be more moist and tender

• You often need less liquids, spices, fats or herbs

• Allows you to further separate cooking time from level of doneness when braising Braised meats need to be cooked low and slow to release their collagen into gelatin.  As a result they usually come out of the oven well done.  Sous vide braised meats can be slow cooked long enough to become fairly tender (more like steak than pot roast) while still coming out rare, medium rare, etc.

The Cons of Sous Vide Cooking

• Sous vide cooking can take longer than using conventional methods
However, as many foods cooked sous-vide can be held longer (see first benefit), with prior planning this con can often be mitigated by starting the cooking process earlier.

• Some fish & vegetables do not react well to being cooked sous vide
Some seafood and some green vegetables develop undesirable textures, colors, and or flavors when held at sous vide temperatures for the length of time necessary to cook them through.

• You need to be more careful about food safety
Done correctly, sous vide isn’t inherently much more dangerous than other cooking techniques, but it allows you to cook food in less safe ways.  In other words, its safety is largely a factor of what you’re doing with it.

If you’re cooking foods at lower temperatures and to lower levels of internal doneness (and that’s a primary draw of the method), you need to be very aware of cleanliness.  As restaurant menus warn you, eating undercooked meats & seafood can be risky.

Searing proteins before or after cooking them is recommended for flavor as well as safety.  It is also possible to pasteurize your food while sous vide cooking – check out Jeff Potter’s book, “Cooking for Geeks” for time & temp guidelines.

• Controlled sous-vide cooking requires special equipment
It’s certainly possible to cook something in a vacuum bag on your stove top or in the oven, but you won’t get the highly accurate temperature control that makes sous vide really effective.

You can get a dedicated, entry level consumer sous vide machine from Sous Vide Supreme for $300. It’s about the size of a crock pot.  They also offer a larger model.

If you’re ok going with a more fiddly solution, you can set up a sous vide rig using a $150 PID controller and a cheap rice cooker.  Cooking for Engineers has an excellent how-to article that’ll explain the process and recommend products.

If you’re looking to start sous vide in a commercial kitchen, you’ll likely want the higher volume and tighter control provided by a real immersion circulator.  PolyScience has a new entry level model that’s about $800 and will clip onto most containers.

Yes! Australian finger limes have a unique inner structure that makes them more freezable than other citrus varieties.

Their outer skin may become more pitted, and the inner vesicle “caviar” will become slightly softer, but otherwise they should be pretty much the same as when you froze them. We recommend freezing whole, uncut finger limes following these freezing tips, and then moving them to an air tight container or vacuum bag for long term storage.

Frozen Finger Limes

When you’re ready to use your finger limes, remove them from the fridge and let them thaw completely before slicing them open and extracting the vesicles as you would from fresh finger limes. They may weep a small amount of juice during the thawing process.

This can be extrapolated out to the following estimates for the smaller package options:

- Question Submitted by Carol

Discard any that are closed & much heavier than the others (likely filled with mud), or do not close when their shells are pinched together or they are lightly rinsed with cold tap water.  If desired, first soak your mussels in flour water (see how to prep live mussels) for extra flavor and color and scrub the shells with water & a wire brush before cooking.

You can poach in water, but most chefs poach seafood in liquids that impart flavor, like court bouillon, fish stock/fish fumet (quick fish fumet recipe, traditional fish fumet recipe) or beurre fondue.  Many chefs poach seafood in liquid that is about 160 degrees.

Remove the mussels from the pot as they open so they don’t overcook.  If desired, after removing the finished mussels, you can then strain court bouillon, fish stock, or fumet and continue to cook it for use as a soup base or sauce.

Discard any mussels that refuse to open.

Once cooked, poached mussel meat can be used in soups & salads, breaded and fried, or added to a huge variety of other dishes.  If reheating them, make sure to do so only until just heated through.  They’ll toughen if overcooked.

We do not generally recommend storing mussels in their shells after cooking.

Related Content:
Mussel Recipes
How to Store Live Mussels
How to Freeze Mussels
How to Cook Frozen Mussels

- Question Submitted by Sandra C.

Though the baby corn you find for sale in stores (usually canned or pickled & canned) is usually one of a few yellow corn varieties selected for their particularly high sugar content, they aren’t a special variety of “dwarf” corn.  If nature was allowed to take its course (and the ears pollinated) baby corn would grow into full size, normal ears of corn.

According to food science tome “On Food & Cooking,” baby corn’s sugar content is often between 2-3% at time of harvest, and the practice of harvesting baby corn was first developed in Taiwan, then improved in Thailand.

- Question Submitted by Tara S.

- Question Submitted by Patrick J.

With that in mind, here are some general guidelines:
10oz ribeye steaks will be around 1” thick
12oz ribeye steaks will be around 1.25” thick
14oz ribeye steaks will be around 1.25″-1.5” thick

Keep in mind that the above numbers are averages/estimates to give you some sense of what to expect. It is entirely possible to get at a 10oz steak that’s ¾” thick (and thus wider) or 1.25” thick (and thus more narrow).

- Question Submitted by Elissa P.

All Varieties in the Specialty Sausage Sampler
Venison Sausage with Merlot & Blueberries
Lamb Merguez in Pork Casing
Buffalo Sausage with Chipotle Chilies
Duck Sausage with Foie Gras & Sauterne Wine
Duck Sausage with Orange Liquor
Rabbit Sausage with White Wine
Wild Boar Sausage with Cranberries & Shiraz
Smoked Duck Sausage with Apple Brandy
Elk with Pear & Port Wine
Pheasant Sausage with Cognac
Wild Boar with Roasted Garlic & Marsala
Venison with Red Wine & Demi Glace

If you have an MSG allergy we encourage you to contact us and make sure that the ingredient formulations have not changed.

We are also happy to try to track down information on other specific specialty sausages we sell that are not on the above list.

- Question Submitted by Charles R.

Ideas for Flavoring Ingredients:

Citrus Fruit Slices -  Lemon & lime are the most common, but most citrus fruits will work…just let the flavor of the fruit guide how much you add

Mini citrus fruits like kumquats, mandarinquats and limequats look particularly delicate and elegant in a pitcher because they’re so small. 

Blood oranges are particularly striking, but can impart a more bitter orange flavor…so you may want to pair them with other ingredients to achieve balance if that’s not what you’re looking for.

Lightly Mashed Berries – Mash them just enough to start releasing their juice, but not enough to reduce them to a pulp.  You still want them to look pretty in the pitcher.  Almost any berry will do.  We particularly recommend wild huckleberries for their potent flavor and vibrant color.

Cucumber Slices - Cucumber water is particularly refreshing with an ethereal quality, and often shows up in restaurants and spas.

Fresh Herbs - Spearmint is the most traditional choice, but many other fresh herbs will also work like lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and basil.

In a pinch, an easier but less beautiful option is to simply stir in small amounts of juice or fruit puree until the water has the subtle flavor you’re looking for. 

- Question Submitted by Janet S.

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More Iced Beverage Recipes & Ideas:
How to Make Figuette
Refresco de Avena Recipe
Hibiscus Drink Recipes
Lavender Drink Recipes
Using Szechuan Buttons in Beverages

The most common restaurant serving size for fish fillets is probably 6oz, so you’re looking at around two servings for every pound purchased.

If the whole salmon you’ve purchased has only been gutted and had its gills removed (i.e. it’s still got its head, tail & fins on), less of the purchased weight will be usable fillets.  According to The BoY, you’ll be getting an average fillet yield of 70%, or 11.2 ounces per pound (still pretty close to two restaurant servings per pound).

Thus, for a gutted (but otherwise whole) salmon weighing about 20lbs, you can estimate an approximate yield of 14lbs/224 ounces/37 restaurant servings of fillet.

Obviously salmon vary widely, and the Book of Yields is generalizing across all species and origins…so we recommend buying a little more than you think you need, just to be safe.

- Question Submitted by Jeff C.

Related Posts:
Salmon Recipes
Whole Fish Recipes & Techniques

In order to develop their unique, spectacular vanilla flavor and aroma, they have to be cured for anywhere from 40 days to six months. During this time they become black, wrinkled, and develop the raisin-like texture we all know and love. They also shrink dramatically.

Each pound of cured vanilla beans was once 3-5 pounds of fresh vanilla beans.

Related Info & Products:
Vanilla Recipes & Techniques
How are Vanilla Beans Grown?
Bulk Bourbon (Madagascar) Vanilla Beans
Bulk Tahitian Vanilla Beans

Precooked mussels can be sautéed, simmered in pasta sauce, added to soups, etc. Just try to add them towards the end of the cooking process to they don’t overcook and get rubbery. Some people recommend cooking frozen mussels while still frozen or only partially thawed, but we don’t have enough experience with them to say whether that’s a good idea or not.

- Question Submitted by Debbie

Based on these estimates, we’d guess there are approximately 8.96 oz of leaves per pound of fresh basil, and thus approximately 6.4 cups of chopped basil leaves per pound.

Please note that The Book of Yields describes estimates of fresh culinary herbs in general rather than our product specifically. In addition, they describe their cups of herbs as made up of leaves “stripped from stems before chopping”, “cut chiffonade, than cross-cut and chopped a bit more” and “tapped down but not pressed down hard.” Thus, if your recipe allows basil stems to be included or requires the leaves be firmly packed, your cups per pound will likely vary.

- Question Submitted by Irwin K.

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Related Posts:
Fresh Herb Sprigs/Leaves Per Pound Estimates

If you need flowers that are particularly hardy, we often recommend Szechuan/buzz buttons, karma orchids or micro orchids as great compromises between palatability and shelf life.  Sparklers™ also last for a long time and are visually stunning garnish.

Though the shelf lives we list on each individual product page are good estimates of how long they’ll stay fresh and pretty, edible flowers are at their absolute tip-top best within a few days of arrival.  For major events we recommend ordering them for delivery a day or two before your event, so you can rest easy knowing they’re in your refrigerator ready to go before the deadline, but they’re still looking as pretty as they can.

If you must order far in advance because of travel plans, refrigerator space for your flowers is tight, or you’re still nervous about perishability, crystallized flowers are the perfect solution.  They’re gorgeous, completely shelf stable, and all varieties last six months to a year as long as they’re stored in a cool, dry place.

- Question Submitted by Lisa M

That said, the best amount of cooking time for each stock is actually a long running and ongoing debate. For example, when I was in culinary school a few years ago, I was taught 3-4 hours for chicken stock, not 4-6 hours.

While you want to simmer your bones long enough to get the good stuff out, there are also concerns about undesirable flavors developing or flavor compounds breaking down in stocks that are simmered for too long. Other chefs argue that simmering beyond a certain point doesn’t offer any benefits and merely wastes energy and time.

- Question Submitted by Toya

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Related Posts:
How to Make Veal Stock
How to Make Chicken Stock
The Cardinal Rules of Stock Making

● This huckleberry sauce recipe is great with most of the game meat & bird sausages – wild boar, venison, duck & elk.

● A simple jus or pan sauce (made by deglazing the pan you cooked the sausages in with stock) will add moisture and a little bit of flavor, but still allow the flavor of the sausages to shine through.  Try reducing the stock with herbs or spices in the pan.

● Wine reduction sauces would work well with many of the links in the sampler, particularly those made with red wine. See What is a Reduction? for more tips & info.  You can even add berries to your reduction for the elk & venison sausages.

● Juniper berries are a good ingredient for sauces being served with game meat sausages.

● Check out our meat & seafood sauce recipes for more possibilities!

- Question Submitted by Jeff L

- Question Submitted by Searc

Related Posts:
How to Open Clams
How to Steam Clams
Clam Recipes

- Question Submitted by Mike

According to the scoville numbers we have on our chile heat scale, ghost chilies have a heat level between 300,000 and 400,000 units.  Habaneros are rated between 100,000 and 200,000.  However, scoville is a rough approximation of heat at best, and can vary with where/how the chiles were grown.  Given that our dried ghost chiles are wild (and thus even less predictable), I wouldn’t bank on those numbers…though they are useful for getting a rough sense of things.

For a recipe calling for 1-2 habaneros per jar, I’d start with a single ghost per jar at the absolute most (and expect it to be significantly hotter).  You could clip the ghost into smaller pieces with culinary shears (or slice after reconstituting it) to use even less.  Just keep in mind that a lot of the capsaicin (the stuff that makes chiles hot) is on the seeds and inner ribs, so if you’re steeping cutting the chile open may actually make the food it’s in hotter by giving the liquid easier access.

Another trick we use to keep ghost chile heat under control is steeping rather than pureeing or steeping for less time.  I’m not sure what technique you use to get the heat in your pickling brine, but if you normally pack habaneros in the jar, you might consider just steeping a whole ghost chile per jar or two in your brine until you like the heat level (taste occasionally) and then pulling it out before putting the brine in the jar with your cucumbers.

In our recent ghost chile hot sauce recipe, we got comfortable heat (noticeable, but not that spicy) just steeping a single ghost chile for the amount of time it took water to boil.

Related Posts:
How to Quick Pickle

- Question Submitted by Gerry

1. Tradizionale balsamic vinegars must be aged a minimum of 12 years (for Affinato vinegar - Extra Vecchio vinegar must be aged 25 years or more).

2. They must be exceptionally high quality as judged by experts in the Consortium of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.

3. These vinegars have legal DOP/PDO status, which means they must be produced in Modena from only the must of Modena-grown grapes. No other ingredients are allowed. By limiting them by age, ingredient quality, and geography, production levels are kept low (see How Balsamic Vinegars Are Made for more info).

4. Over the long periods of time these vinegars are aged, they decrease substantially in volume (roughly 10% evaporates per year).

It has been estimated that each cup (250ml) of tradizionale balsamic vinegar was made from around 70lbs of Modena grapes.* Each tradizionale bottle contains 3.5fl oz of vinegar, which means it was made from about 29lbs of grapes!

Extra Vecchio vinegars are aged longer, and may represent even more fruit.

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More Balsamic Information:
How Balsamic Vinegars are Made
Vinegar Recipes

* Harold McGee, pg 776 On Food & Cooking, Revised Ed.

The word “aroma” on truffle oil, lemon-pepper wheat germ pasta and other Italian products’ ingredient lists is the equivalent of “flavor” on American-style ingredient lists.  It’s simply their term for the essence of an ingredient.  Thus, when you see “truffle aroma”…just think “truffle flavor.”

Recently new balsamic laws have gone into effect in Italy that prohibit prominent numbers on the labels/in the names of balsamic vinegar products (whether they’re the true age or not).

We provide ages where we can for balsamic vinegars on the Marx Foods store, and our condiment-grade balsamic vinegars are aged longer and made using more traditional methods than many on the market, but you won’t find any ages on the bottles when you receive them because of the Italian law.

You can always be sure that affinato balsamic vinegar is at least 12 years old and extra vecchio balsamic vinegar is at least 25 years old…because those ages are a required part of the grading process.

The crema forms because the incredibly high pressure under which water is forced through the ground coffee carries a higher proportion of the beans’ flavorful oils and other compounds into the cup than other brewing methods. These compounds gather together forming bubbles and eventually a stable foam.

The crema gets its name from its delightfully creamy texture.

Related Products:
Italian Espresso Coffees

Using the USDA National Nutrient Database* to compare generalized statistics on the “lean” (i.e. meat as opposed to fat) in raw bison ribeyes vs. conventional Choice beef ribeyes provides this data:

The Nutrient Database provides additional nutritional content should you be looking for specific info, the above are just some of the highlights.

In addition to the above health benefits, bison also possesses a richer, sweeter beef-like flavor and a coarser grain.  It’s a great substitute for beef in most recipes, as long as its lower fat content and faster cooking time are taken into account.

- Question Submitted by Walter

*as of 6/29/11

During the ordering process, you will be asked to select a “preferred delivery date”.  This is the day you want your food to arrive and when you know someone will be there to receive it.  Regardless of whether that day is this week or several weeks from now, we will hold onto your order until the day before.

The day before you want your food, we will ship it via Fedex Overnight (sometimes Priority Overnight to hotter climates during the summer).  The meat/seafood/produce will be packed with frozen gel packs (or very rarely, like when you order molded ice cream, dry ice) by professionals who know just how to pack that particular product. 

Though FedEx promises to get your package to you in a day, we generally try to pack our boxes to stay cool for a second day, just in case.

- Question Submitted by Gloria D.

Don’t let that stop you from making flavored oils, but for safety’s sake:

          ● Make them in small batches. 
          ● Always store them in your refrigerator.
          ● Use them up quickly. 
          ● Use store-bought garlic oil rather than making your own. 

Commercially made flavored oils are often treated and/or manufactured in a way that makes them safer.  Just store them according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Our preferred herb oil method is quick, easy, and actually blends fresh herbs right into the oil, so it’s ready to use right away without infusing…why not just make it as you need it?

Homemade flavored alcohols and vinegars are very bacteria-unfriendly places and thus generally safe to store at room temperature.

Related Posts:
How to Make Herb Oils
How to Make Chile Infused Vinegar
How to Make Chile Infused Alcohol
Roasted Beet Oil Recipe

- Question Submitted by Tom

What gives these flowers their unique voltage effect is actually a natural painkiller (an analgesic) called spilanthol that briefly triggers a reaction in a nerve pathway in your mouth. The effect lasts only a couple of minutes and is used in some cultures as a toothache remedy.

Other Szechuan Button Information:
Szechuan Button Recipes
Freezing Szechuan Buttons

Sesquiterpenes are complex terpines, which are organic compounds commonly found in plants’ resins and essential oils.

Parboiling is a very old technique (it has been used for over 2,000 years) which involves soaking the rice grains while they’re still in the hull (aka the paddy), and then boiling or steaming them. This process provides multiple benefits:

   1. It makes the rice easier to mill.

   2. It partially gelatinizes the starch in the rice grains, making them firmer and shinier. The grains are less likely to stick together on the plate.

   3. It imparts a nuttier flavor.

   4. It makes the rice harder to overcook and less likely to get mushy when reheated or kept hot on a steam table. This is why restaurants love it.

   5. It transfers some vitamins and nutrients from the bran to the endosperm (the part of the rice grain we eat). Pearled rice (rice that has had its bran removed) that has been parboiled is actually healthier than other pearled rice.  It’s still not quite as healthy as whole grain rice, which retains the bran and thus has more fiber and a few more vitamins.

Parboiled rice is extremely popular with restaurants, so you’ve probably eaten it several times without realizing it. The one thing to be aware of when substituting parboiled rice for plain rice in a recipe is that parboiling can slightly increase rice’s cooking time (because the grains are firmer), so plan accordingly.

We currently offer parboiled (actually par-steamed) Chinese black rice.

- Question Submitted by Laura

Szechuan buttons tend to last up to 14 days in the refrigerator, while dulce buttons are a little less hardy and will keep for about ten days.

We’ve also discovered that Szechuan buttons are quite freezable.  They’ll turn a darker color and go slightly limp, but their “electric” effect is just as strong…possibly even stronger! 

Check out freezing edible flowers for more info and before & after photos.

- Question Submitted by Theresa M.