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Huy
Huy
7:29 AM
any idea what is meant here by a golden apple? can I just take any normal apple or is something special meant?
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
8:04 AM
it is not a golden apple, it is a golden delicious apple
this is an apple variety
sweet, little juice, somewhat mealy, keeps well over winter
Golden Delicious
The Golden Delicious is a cultivar of apple with a yellow color, not closely related to the Red Delicious apple. According to the US Apple Association website it is one of the 15 most popular apple cultivars in the United States. == Appearance and flavor == Golden Delicious is a large, yellowish-green skinned cultivar and very sweet to the taste. It is prone to bruising and shriveling, so it needs careful handling and storage. It is a favorite for salads, apple sauce, and apple butter. == History == This cultivar is a chance seedling possibly a hybrid of Grimes Golden and Golden Reinette. The...
 
Huy
Huy
ah
I thought the delicious was just an adjective, not the name :D
what would that be in German?
wow there are almost 1000 different kinds of apples on wiki
 
Huy
Huy
8:27 AM
@Stephie: BTW, it's really amazing, both my parsley and coriander look much "worse" (thin, not as green) than fresh herbs sold in stores, but they are much much tastier !
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
The best way to find the name of a specific thing in another language (even better than a dictionary) is to switch the Wikipedia to the other language
scheint auch auf Deutsch "Golden delicious" zu heißen
it is a common apple, you shouldn't have any trouble finding it
may look green in the supermarket, instead of yellow. But it will have the points
look for black points, white points are more likely to be found on a Granny Smith
> In der Schweiz war Golden Delicious bis ins Jahr 2009 die beliebteste Sorte im Anbau. Erst im Jahr 2010 wurde sie durch den Golden-Delicious-Nachkommen Gala in der Beliebtheit bei den Obstbauern übertroffen, und geriet auf Rang 2.
 
Stephie
Stephie
8:44 AM
@Huy glad to hear this ^_^
 
Huy
Huy
8:57 AM
@Stephie: if I want to reduce the number of plants in my pot (I feel like some are blocking each other), what's the best way to do it? just take the whole plant out?
thanks @rumtscho
 
Stephie
Stephie
Yes, they are crowded. Do you want to keep the thinned plants? Then you have to carefully dig them out and repot. Otherwise, snip them off at soil level.
 
Huy
Huy
no, I was just going to make some cilantro pesto
and probably use the parsley for breakfast with eggs
is it bad to just "rip" them out?
 
Stephie
Stephie
Then cut or pull whole plants, preferably the "weaker ones". If you pull, take care not to damage the remaining plants' roots.
But yes, you can just pull them.
 
Huy
Huy
I see
that can be applied to any of my herbs, yes?
 
Stephie
Stephie
Yes.
 
Huy
Huy
9:02 AM
ok, I'll do that now :) thanks !
 
Stephie
Stephie
Gardener's term is "thinning" or "Ausdünnen".
 
 
4 hours later…
rumtscho
rumtscho
12:52 PM
9
Q: Why would merfolk have hair?

TrEs-2bA classic image of mermaids are their long flowing hair that swishes in the water. But in the scientifically realistic sense this makes none. The hair would be nothing more than a nuisance to the mermaid, so why would they evolve this?

reality-check evolution creature-design merfolk hair
Clearly, because long hair looks gorgeous underwater
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
also hair flips
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
Underwater?
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
naw
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
Allright, maybe it is there to seduce seafarers when the mermaids sunbathe on far shores
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
If they were totally covered in hair
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
12:54 PM
After all, the whole mermaid thing comes from the siren mythology, and the sirens are seducers
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
maybe warmth
like otters
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
are otters warm underwater thanks to their fur?
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
yup
fur traps air
which keeps em warm
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
Hmm, but this works for animals who live a lot of time on land and then dive now and then
mermaids spend most of their time in sunken cities
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
which might have air
are mermaids man like fish or fish like men? ;p
since mermaids have boobs (unlike fish) and rarely gills
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
12:56 PM
typically, they are very anthropomorphic
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
yup
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
Look, if you come back from a 3 year sea voyage and tell your friend's wife he was lost when he was seduced by a siren on a faraway island, she will only believe you if the creature in question did not look overly fish-like. No gills, and certainly no slime.
 
 
1 hour later…
Huy
Huy
2:12 PM
do people here use one (wooden) board for meat and one different (plastic?) board for vegetables?
 
Stephie
Stephie
@Huy two boards, both plastic, because they can go in the dishwasher ^_^.
 
Huy
Huy
ok, and each for one of the two tasks exclusively?
 
Stephie
Stephie
(Or, truth be told, multiple boards, but meat always goes on the red one. The others are for fruit and veggies. - different sizes.)
 
Huy
Huy
ok
 
Stephie
Stephie
If you always'do it the same way it becomes an automatism (aka no-brainer) and it helps when multiple cooks use the same equipment.
Even the minors have picked up on this.
 
Catija
Catija
2:16 PM
I use plastic for meat and wood for vegetables...
 
Huy
Huy
why not the other way around?
 
Stephie
Stephie
The vague "if the meat juice seeps into the pores" feeling, I presume.
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
wouldn't a properly treated wooden board be water resistant?
(granted, we use plastic, and we don't eat meat so...)
 
Stephie
Stephie
It should. "Properly" being the operative word here.
 
Catija
Catija
I don't have a dishwasher... plastic is less porous.
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
2:20 PM
and has different possible modes of contamination.
I doubt plastic grows mould unless you really abuse it
 
Stephie
Stephie
And we are all ignoring the research re. wood and plastic because our gut tells us otherwise...
 
Catija
Catija
I don't really "treat" my cutting boards... and, actually, I just misplaced my wooden one (it was bamboo, I think)...
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Stephie heh. Guts are very important here!
 
Catija
Catija
We took it to a cookout and left it behind.
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Catija apparently a properly treated/oiled wooden cutting board self heals
 
Catija
Catija
2:22 PM
I figure that, as long as I'm not destroying my knives by using glass, I'm good....
... and, yes, one of my roommates had a glass cutting board...
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Catija 0_0
 
Stephie
Stephie
I have a family of four and sometimes cook multiple times a day - my dishwasher is my best helper. I choose tools based on whether they can go into the dishwasher. With "can" being a rather loose definition.
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Stephie my mom dosen't trust those things ;p
 
Stephie
Stephie
Dishwashers?
My kids are a bit young to fill that gap, so..... we have one.
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Catija never seen them, and there's a nice kitchen supply place nearby. Need an immersion blender the size of your arm?
@Stephie yeah
especially for indian style 'woks'
 
Catija
Catija
2:24 PM
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
(which amusingly, are cast iron)
 
Catija
Catija
And it has more than four stars... I don't get it...
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Catija people blame their knives?
 
Stephie
Stephie
From those who put their knives into the dishwasher?
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
or they do what we do and get cheapish ones?
(cause my dad tends to be pretty rough on them)
he's managed to break a ceramic one in two...
 
Stephie
Stephie
2:25 PM
That's actually easy...
 
Catija
Catija
People are dumb and don't know how to care for knives....
@Stephie Drop it... that's all it takes, really...
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
@Stephie the ikea ones come with covers
my dad's lost most of em
and no, I don't think he dropped it
 
Catija
Catija
Crud. Have to run. See you around.
 
Journeyman Geek
Journeyman Geek
most of our knives are 2 dollars
pretty nice, and we don't expect them to last more than a year or two ._.
 
 
3 hours later…
Huy
Huy
5:08 PM
@Stephie: do you use the 1l or 0.5l Korken jars for sugar/salt? I feel like 0.5l might be a bit too little but 1l is so huge ._.
 
Jay
Jay
i would use .5l for salt and 1 liter for sugar
 
Jay
Jay
5:22 PM
@Catija I tagged that as Indian cuisine
yea i dont think we should bother retagging the closed questions
 
Catija
Catija
@Jay I guess... I'm still not really clear on how those "cuisines" tags really work.
 
Jay
Jay
my take on it is its a umbrella tag for all food questions that fall under the cuisine
sometimes there just isnt a better tag for it(such as in this case)
 
Catija
Catija
Except that I'm pretty certain that's not what it's for... otherwise, all questions about pasta would also have the italian-cuisine tag.
 
Jay
Jay
The beewax question i tagged as pastry because the OP is specifically asking where to source food grade bee wax to specifically make a type of pastry
 
Catija
Catija
That makes sense.
 
Jay
Jay
5:27 PM
Questions with this tag should be about traditional ingredients, preparations or dishes from India - such as curries, naan, chaats, chutneys and desserts. Questions about ingredients common to Indian-style cooking, but which aren't about a specific Indian dish, should not use this tag.
So that question matches the tag according to the tag description
since it is about the preparation of a type of dish rather than about a specific common ingredient
 
Catija
Catija
Right... but there are tons of questions that fit that description that don't have that tag. If it's so infrequently used, it's not a very good tag.
 
Jay
Jay
well it is tagged 146 times
which i think is a pretty good number
 
Catija
Catija
^All questions about chutney.
 
Jay
Jay
but in that case, it works with or without the tag.
all im saying is that sometimes there just isnt any other tag that makes sense except for the cuisine tag
 
Catija
Catija
But that's not really how tags should work. If someone specializes in "Indian-cuisine" but we only use it on questions that we can't come up with any other tag for rather than tagging every question related to Indian cuisine, the tag doesn't do its job.
 
Jay
Jay
5:31 PM
and i dont think that was a good example because I also personally didnt realize chutney was an indian cuisine
which im sure will apply to other people, not just me
especially since chutney has recently become a popular "fine dining" food item
 
Catija
Catija
I just picked one of the words out of the tag wiki excerpt.
Anyway, off to lunch, back in an hour.
 
Jay
Jay
later
 
 
3 hours later…
Jefromi
Jefromi
8:21 PM
@Catija It's kind of awkward and hard to do well in practice, I agree, but the idea of the foo-cuisine tags I think is for questions that ask in general about that cuisine without asking about a specific dish.
I think in practice they end up used some like that, some in cases where there's a more specific tag, some when the more-specific tag doesn't exist but conceivably could, and some as a sort of disambiguation.
Disambiguation:
2
Q: Cooking through thick liquids

Daniel RI'm a big curry aficionado and am trying to cook curries that both taste good and require minimal preparation during the week. I like to make both vegetarian (usually, green/red lentils, fresh) and chicken-based curries. For that reason, I'm starting by blending the masalas, tomatoes, onions, et...

indian-cuisine curry
(Indian curry, not Thai curry)
Could have a specific tag:
2
Q: How long can I soak gulab jamun before serving?

AirI would like to make some gulab jamun for a party in the afternoon. Because it's a work party, I can't prepare them in the morning and let them soak the recommended few hours. Instead, I need to prepare them the night before. I have read many recipes and they all recommend a minimum soaking time...

indian-cuisine syrup
(looks like gulab-jamun would actually apply to a few questions, so it'd survive)
General practice for the cuisine:
6
Q: Does toasting and grinding whole spice really improve curry flavor?

mpoisotIt seems to be common knowledge that "toasting is better" when it comes to spices. But the other day I noticed my toasted-and-freshly-ground coriander smelled pretty weak, and I ended up boosting the flavor with pre-ground stuff that packed a lot more "fresh" (citrusy, floral) flavor. It got me ...

spices indian-cuisine curry toasting
(yes, "spices" sort of suffices, but the question is definitely about a canonical method in Indian cuisine)
More specific tag exists:
3
Q: Are my dried moong dal beans bad?

JenniferI have some moong dal that I bought at an Indian market a few months ago. I've stored them in a sealed tupperware container. When I opened them today (to make them for dinner tonight), they smell strongly - not necessarily bad, but pungent. Is this normal? Or have they gone bad?

indian-cuisine beans lentils
(beans/lentils suffices, I think)
 
 
2 hours later…
Catija
Catija
10:01 PM
^@Jefromi Thanks for all of that. Really great info.
 
Jefromi
Jefromi
10:38 PM
@Catija Glad you see it that way, rather than as evidence that it's a mess :)
 
Catija
Catija
HA ... yeah, it's a bit of both but the guidance helps. I have a tendency to remove -cuisine labels unless they seem absolutely necessary, and I think that seems to match up with your explanation.
By the way, not sure what to do with the question about sunchoke that's tagged potatoes. ... It's a tuber... I guess... but there's only two questions about sunchoke, so I'm not sure it deserves its own tag...
0
Q: How should I store sunchokes for 4 months in a hard freeze?

a coderI've seen that sunchokes "just want to grow", so I was wondering how I should store them over a long cold winter. This is mostly so I can have seed (community garden) in the spring, but I will also be eating some.

potatoes
 
Jefromi
Jefromi
Two is enough!
 
Catija
Catija
Oh, ok then.
 
Jefromi
Jefromi
Plus they're really good and deserve more than two questions.
 
Catija
Catija
Good to know. :D
So it's just singletons that get hoovered up?
 
rumtscho
rumtscho
10:49 PM
I read up, but I'm not sure why you want to remove them when it is a specific dish
nothing wrong with having them there when the dish is really part of the cuisine
 
Jefromi
Jefromi
Yeah, I did also want to say, I don't think "remove unless absolutely necessary" makes sense, more "remove if not helpful"
I do think it'd be better for tags to be totally consistently applied, of course, but the existence of inconsistencies isn't a great reason to try to prune them back aggressively either.
The top tag is baking and I doubt it's on every question about cookies or bread or cakes.
 
Catija
Catija
And I'm pretty sure vegetables isn't on every question about ... well... whatever a "vegetable" is...which is debatable.
But if we tried to make it consistent, we'd quickly hit the 5-tag max.
 
Jefromi
Jefromi
11:12 PM
Well, if you're actually potentially running into the max, I think you generally try to start with the most specific tags and work your way broader; that might or might not get you to things like baking and vegetables.
 

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