Q&A: Tofu a good sub for meat? Depends on dish

The Washington Post Food staff answers questions about all things edible.

Q: I have not eaten any type of meat in 45 years, so I wind up skipping meat-based recipes I would otherwise like to try. Would it work to substitute a similar amount of tofu?

A: It depends on the recipe. Tofu is very different from meat, and there are many types of meats — and many types of tofus.

If what you're considering is a sauce-on-pan-fried-meat recipe, you could certainly pan-fry firm tofu (preferably after marinating it) instead. You can also try crumbling tofu and treating it like ground beef.

Q: How should I clean my new baking stone? I've used it for both pizza and bagels and they turn out great, but the bagels are picking up the olive-oil fragrance from the pizza dough.

A: Scrub your stone with soap and water to get those smells out. I've also rubbed mine with cut lemons. Once it's clean, make a promise to yourself to bake your pizza and bagels on parchment paper.

Q: I have a couple of recipes that call for canned whole tomatoes, which I am then instructed to crush with my hands or the back of a spoon. Is there a reason it's preferable to use canned whole tomatoes, rather than simply canned crushed tomatoes?

A: It has never made any sense to us to purchase whole tomatoes when the next step was to crush them. However, some recipes will call for just the tomatoes, drained, without the juices in the can. In that case, it's best to use canned whole tomatoes.

Q: I make my own niter kibbeh, an Ethiopian spiced clarified butter. Three pounds of a nice-quality butter plus spices turns into 3-plus cups of liquid gold. Because I hate to waste the rest of the butter — the spiced-milk solids and the foam that I skim off the top while cooking — I'm looking for ideas. I do strain out the spices themselves, but can you suggest a way to enjoy the lovely flavors in the non-ghee outputs of the process?

A: How about spooning the solids and the foam onto roasted vegetables? Carrots would be nice, or onto rice or pasta.

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