board77

I thought about that, but I didn't remember seeing your post earlier. I actually thought it popped up around that actual time. So what time was it really?

It must have been about 5 hours earlier. My brother and his family came over around 6pm, and I had just taken the chicken off the grill after about an hour-and-a-half of grilling.

By the way, the beer can didn't melt, in case you were worried

I was a little worried. How did it taste?

I answered Lali's post by PM when the time glitch bug prevented me from posting, but in case anyone's wondering: beer can chicken is absolutely delicious and super-easy to make. It also doesn't taste anything like beer.

Maybe that's something we can do with the beer we have that my husband can't drink anymore. Does the beer ever touch the chicken?

Probably some of the beer evaporates and "marinades" the inside of the chicken.

You could probably use the same technique with a can of something else. The Cooks Illustrated recipe suggested lemonade for those that don't like beer.

Jude wrote:

Probably some of the beer evaporates and "marinades" the inside of the chicken.

You could probably use the same technique with a can of something else. The Cooks Illustrated recipe suggested lemonade for those that don't like beer.

The beer just evaporates. You don't taste it and it doesn't marinate anything.
I've made it, and the general consensus was it's a waste of a can of beer. It keeps the inside of the chicken very moist, which is nice as far as it goes.

A far better way of doing chicken is to brine it with flavoured brine, which works splendidly.

I brined the chicken for an hour before grilling.

Since I'm not a beer drinker, there's no better purpose for a can of beer than to make chicken taste better.

Mediterranean Chicken Kebab Salad

Tweaks I made:


Marinade--I mixed fresh-squeezed lemon and lime juice.

Salad--I just used the veggies we like/had.

I did serve with pita bread and tzatziki.

I need cake advice. Check this out:
Both layers came out a little flat. Come to think of it, my last cake was a bit flat, too.

Any ideas why? Is my baking soda/powder defective? Or something wrong with my technique?

Just for now, I'm saving the situation by making another layer - the whole cake should be almost tall enough.

How large are your pans? (IOW, are they too large for the recipe and it's a simple matter of too little batter for the pans?)

How old is your baking soda and powder? It could be that, too. Did you use cake flour? Did you sift it?

The pans are 9 1/2 inches. You may be on to something there, the recipe calls for 9 inches. I guess that could have accounted for 1/2 inch less in height.

My baking powder is fairly new, but my baking soda - I don't remember when I bought it. Maybe it's time to replace it.

Here's the finished product:
In some ways, it's good that I had to add an extra layer - I couldn't have fitted all the chocolate-hazelnut filling between just two layers. You can't see it from the angle, but there's a good amount of filling between the bottom two layers too.

I didn't use cake flour; I specifically looked for a recipe that called for all-purpose, since I didn't have any on hand.

Pan size. Do the math.

1/2 inch extra diameter means x inches less in height - I don't know the formula, but I'm pretty sure π is involved.

Somebody else do the math!

Actually you can ignore Pi

Area is Pi*r*r, so volume will be Pi*r*r*h where r=radius and h=height.

Assuming 9" pan as radius r1=4.5" and height h1, and 9.5" pan has radius r2=4.75" and height h2
Second, we'll assume the volume is the same in both pans

Pi*r1*r1*h1=Pi*r2*r2*h2
Divide across by Pi

r1*r1*h1=r2*r2*h2
4.5*4.5*h1=4.75*4.75*h2

20.25*h1= 22.5625 *h2

So h2 = h1*20.25/22.5625

h2=h1*0.8975069252077562

Rounding up, you lost 10% of the height of the layer by going with the 9.5" tin.

I have to make a gluten free, sugar free cake for my husband's birthday this weekend- without using aspartame or sucralose or gluten free flours that use potato starch.

It's a challenge- but I think I've got it licked. Stevia is OK for him, which means the icing can be cream cheese, butter, vanilla and liquid stevia extract. And a little cornstarch to bulk it up.

The gluten free carrot cake I perfected long ago- I just have to see how much it changes using the stevia product "Truvia".

Alatar wrote:

Actually you can ignore Pi

Well, obviously. He's making cake.



(But seriously... )


Good luck, Maria! I use liquid stevia in my iced tea, and it does all right. I hope it works out for you.

Ah, that all makes sense when you take it step by step like that

I think the height difference between what I expected and what actually came out was more than 10%, so it must be the recipe, or possibly the quality of my baking soda.

I've got a recipe for Figs in Vanilla Syrup that calls for 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid.

Is the acid really necessary? Could I use lemon juice instead? Does it have a sterilization purpose or something? Assuming I can even find it in my grocery store.

The weird thing is, it's listed among the ingredients, but the directions say nothing about adding it in any of the steps. Maybe I can just ignore it?

Sorry, I have no idea.