[robojester]

Trying a favorite recipe today.
It seems to be "behaving" strangely.
Moving from MN to the Vegas valley there is both a difference in altitude and humidity....

Anyone else have problems with favorite dishes they brought from"home"?

[Caltovegas]

Too many buffets for people to stress over cooking.

[observer53]

I would not think the difference in elevation between LV and anywhere in MN would matter that much. Even with a cake mix, you only change how you put it together if you are over 5000 feet. Humidity, maybe, but I'm betting that's not the problem either. Of course, I don't know what you are cooking!

[SoHoVe]

Might be the difference in mineral levels in the water.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by SoHoVe

Might be the difference in mineral levels in the water.

Or more likely a different oven. None of them are calibrated to what the knobs say. And next to nobody uses oven thermometers to check.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by robojester

Trying a favorite recipe today.
It seems to be "behaving" strangely.
Moving from MN to the Vegas valley there is both a difference in altitude and humidity....

Anyone else have problems with favorite dishes they brought from"home"?

Can you post your favorite recipe & what the strange behavior is? That might help us figure it out.

[EA]

One thing I've dealt with is the behavior of instant oatmeal (Hey, I'm poor, leave me alone)
In NC it came out perfectly. I had it down to a science.
Here, it just doesn't cook properly. It comes out dry and grainy instead of oatmealy (officially a word, because I said it is)
I've tried altering the cooking time, amount of water, and even tried letting it soak a few minutes before cooking. Nothing seems to help.
The wife and I also noticed that quite a few things taste differently here. We've yet to figure out why.

[Raiderman]

I think it is definitely the water. I've noticed the DD coffee tastes different here as well.

[SportyandMisty]

Regarding water: if you cook with tap water, it may effect taste. If you cook with softened water, you'll get more sodium in the recipe.

There are a handful of things such as baking bread for which sodium is required for the dough to rise, I'm told (that is why you can't make bread using a salt substitute such as magnesium chloride instead of table salt sodium chloride). In that case, you need to adjust the salt (sodium) in the recipe.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

Regarding water: if you cook with tap water, it may effect taste. If you cook with softened water, you'll get more sodium in the recipe.

There are a handful of things such as baking bread for which sodium is required for the dough to rise, I'm told (that is why you can't make bread using a salt substitute such as magnesium chloride instead of table salt sodium chloride). In that case, you need to adjust the salt (sodium) in the recipe.

The salt is in the bread dough for three reasons:

1) It retards the growth of the yeast. You get better bread when yeast takes longer to do it's fermentation.

2) It aids gluten development -- this is why unsalted bread dough doesn't rise as well -- the carbon dioxide escapes from the flabby dough.

3) Unsalted bread tastes like cardboard.


It IS possible to get a nice loaf using a salt substitute. But it is a royal pain in the ass and usually involves adding pure gluten to the dough. (Or developing the gluten in an unleavened dough, and then adding that to a new dough.)