What is a "heavy-bottom pan"?
Just use a 2 or 3 quart saucepan with a handle and tight fitting lid. It should look similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/All-Clad-5203-Stainless-3-Quart-Saucepan/dp/B00005AL5L/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1264563415&sr=1-13 I always make popcorn in a saucepan on top of the stove. You don't even need a real heavy saucepan, but I would use stainless steel. The trick to not burning the popcorn is don't let the pan touch the burner while it's cooking. Start off with the pan on the burner. Cover the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil and sprinkle about 1/4 cup of popcorn evenly over the bottom of the pan. You can add a pat of butter also if you like. Put the lid on the pot and turn the heat up to high. As soon as you hear the first kernel pop, raise the pan up about an inch off of the burner and start moving the pan over the top of the burner in a circular motion. Enough heat will be rising from the burner so that your corn will continue to pop, but it will not burn on the bottom as long as you don't set it back down touching the burner. Keep moving the pan over the top of the burner until you no longer hear any corn popping. This will only take a minute or so. Don't use a pot that is too heavy or your hand may start to get tired. If that happens, just set it down for a second and then start again until all the corn is popped.
Why does my baking pan make a loud popping noise every so often when I'm baking on it?
Metal expands when heated... and sometimes it doesn't expand uniformly... as it expands, some parts may expand more than others and cause the pan to warp a little. making a popping sound when it passes it's flexibility threshold.
Why were the bottoms of my muffins soggy?
a cooling rack. you should let the muffins sit to cool a little, then put them in a cooling rack. otherwise the water condensation from cooling will pool at the bottom of the cups and make them soggy
It sounds like there is running water inside my refrigerator. What could cause this?
What you're hearing is most likely one of two things:Flow noise caused by the refrigerant moving through the pipes and the condenser.The ice maker at work (if it has one).Here's a basic functional schematic of a typical home fridge:Note that most use a capillary tube as the metering device.As the hot gas moves through the condenser it condenses by releasing the heat it's gained by being compressed and becomes a warm liquid.Here's a little better (simple) diagram of the principles involved in the refrigeration process:
How do u keep corn tortillas from getting hard whil cooking enchiladas in the oven?
I lightly fry my corn tortillas, dip them into the enchilada sauce and then place them into a dish that has sauce on the bottom. I find it's much easier this way.
My fried potatoes stick!?
You need to make sure the pan is hot enough before you add the oil. (not super hot because the oil will burn, but around med-high) Then once the oil gets hot enough, you can add the potatoes. Try to move them around a bit so all the potatoes can get some oil on them and then flip them every few minutes are so. Hope this helps!
Stove burner vs. pan size?
You're both wrong, and for the wrong reasons. Better buy each other a chicken dinner. Ideally, the bottom of the pan should be the same size as the burner. If you have no choice but to have the pan a different size than the burner, then I would choose based on what I was cooking. If I was frying, or boiling something water based, burner bigger than pan would be best so the whole bottom would get heated, though any good quality pan should conduct heat well enough to give satisfactory cooking even if the burner is a bit smaller than the pan. If I was making fudge, I'd choose a burner smaller than the pan so the sides of the pan wouldn't get hot and burn the fudge at the edges where it's hard to stir. The heat of a burner will not damage the average cooking pot as long as it has food in it--they are made, after all, to be used on burners at any temperature--unless you have really cheap plastic handles and the burner is cranked high enough to melt or burn the plastic.