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Kitchen lottery I make the batter for my Yorkshire pudding to exactly the same recipe each week, yet sometimes it rises in the oven while at other times it doesn't. What properties of batter, or what unnoticed change in my cooking technique or my oven could be behind this weekly lottery?Janice Bentley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
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Asked by Michael Marshall
on 2007-10-08 16:28:14

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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: domestic science.

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Sacred DNA Animals and plants share a common genetic ancestry, so perhaps vegetarians who refuse to eat meat on ethical grounds should avoid anything that has DNA at all. Is this feasible? Could anybody suggest a menu?Richard Ward, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
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Asked by Emily
on 2007-10-03 17:54:46

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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: domestic science.

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Tasteful matters Why do cooked foods taste different after they have cooled from the way they tasted when they were hot?Alan Parson, London, UK
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Asked by damian
on 2007-09-26 18:16:53

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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: domestic science.

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The spring has sprung The mineral water in my local shop has a label telling me it is from a 3000 year old source, yet there is still a â€œbest before endâ€ date on it approximately two years in the future. If the water has been in its aquifer for 3000 years, why should it go off in a sealed bottle?Lewis Smith, Swansea, West Glamorgan, UK
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Asked by damian
on 2007-09-19 17:48:45

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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: domestic science.

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Stuff that

I cooked some poultry stuffing and left it in a bowl in the fridge overnight covered with aluminium foil. In the morning there were holes in the foil where it had touched the stuffing, which was stained black under each hold. Uncooked stuffing does not produce this effect, and it makes no difference whether the stuffing is cooked inside the bird or separately. What is gong on here: and is the black stain poisonous?Andrew Stiller, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US

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Asked by damian
on 2007-09-12 17:52:58

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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: domestic science.

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Colour of custard Why is custard powder pink until you add the liquid, upon which it becomes yellow?Heather and Claire McGee, Belper, Derbyshire, UK
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Asked by damian
on 2007-08-29 17:52:55

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Categories: Domestic Science.

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Growth potential My new shower gel proclaims: â€œNew! Stimulates skin floraâ€. Is there any benefit in this?Peter Eaton, Porto, Portugal
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Asked by damian
on 2007-08-10 13:56:24

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Categories: Domestic Science, Human Body.

Tags: human body, domestic science.

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Timber treatment Itâ€™s well known in wood-turning circles that a piece of wood which is a little soft or rotten can be brought back to a useful state by an overnight soaking in 50:50 solution of water and washing-up liquid. This hardens the word so that it can be gripped successfully in a lathe. What is going on and why does it work?Andrew Norbury, New Mills, Derbyshire, UK
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Asked by damian
on 2007-08-08 18:17:55

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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: domestic science.

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Ice vine

Living in an older home with single-glazed windows, I have grown used to seeing intricate patterns of frost on the panes each winter. However, I was truly impressed by a twining vine-like pattern that appeared this January (see Photo), and I would love to know how it came about. The vine-like shapes formed in a 20-by-30-centimetre section of the window and were surrounded by standard snowflake-shaped frost. The "vines" were 1 centimetre wide with small dots running up the centre, and they twisted about each other with leaf-like shapes sprouting from the sides. The photo shows a section measuring about 6 by 10 centimetres. It had been a particularly cold day (-20 Â°C) and the sun was shining on the window. My wife suggested that the sunlight shining through the branches of a tree 2 metres away had caused this, but there were no distinct shadows visible on the window at the time.Ken Zwick, Neenah, Wisconsin, USNo clear answer to this one, but some hypotheses. This phenomenon has been seen by many people - Ed

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Asked by damian
on 2007-07-25 17:45:27

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Categories: Domestic Science, Weather .

Tags: domestic science, weather.

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Part-time curdling

On 3 July last year I opened a 2-litre plastic bottle of semi-skimmed, homogenised milk, with a use-by date of 5 July. I poured out a small cup of what turned out to be curds: a sniff confirmed the milk was off. I guessed that it had been inadequately refrigerated but because I was making pancakes I continued to pour it out, suspecting the sour taste would not be noticed. To my surprise, the remainder was fine and still was a day later: the curdling was restricted to the top 4 centimetres of the milk, where the bottle was fairly narrow. How can this have happened?Bob Ladd, Edinburgh, UK

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