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By MARY A. KEITH

Tribune correspondent

Published: May 27, 2008

I used a friend's recipe to make herbed olive oil. It called for mixing herbs into olive oil and cooking at very low heat for 24 hours. How long will it keep?

It's risky to make herbed olive oil at home because bacteria that causes botulism can grow in the air-free environment found in a jar of oil. You'll need to be very careful about cooking temperatures and storage. Be sure the herbed oil is heated to at least 145 degrees while on the stove. Don't keep the finished product at room temperature for more than two hours or in the refrigerator for more than two to three days.

Can I make bread and butter pickles using a mixture of Splenda and sugar?

The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a recipe for sweet pickles that uses all Splenda, but I can't recommend that you try to adapt a home recipe. It's a matter of food safety and taste. The sugar acts as a preservative, and with less sugar, the amount of acid and salt in the recipe becomes more important. I also can't guarantee that Splenda will provide the same texture and color that sugar does.

Can we sun-dry tomatoes here? I have plenty of fresh ones, and dried ones are so expensive.

In Florida, it's much safer to use a dehydrator or an oven set at a very low temperature. That's because we have plenty of sun but plenty of humidity, too. The humidity can keep tomatoes and other foods from drying fast enough, and they will start to mold.

I've been told that enzyme supplements will help my digestion, but I don't know which to choose. The labels say papain, bromelain or betain. What are these, and which one works best?

Papain is a protein found in papayas; bromelain is a protein found in pineapples; and betain is a protein found in beet roots. All three act as enzymes to break down other proteins and are used as meat tenderizers. But I can't recommend any of them for indigestion. In the body, they are inactivated by stomach acid and broken down like any other protein. Taking them as tablets isn't likely to do much.

I have a package of corned beef in the freezer. The expiration date says February 2007. Is it safe to use?

If the freezer's been on the whole time, then it's safe. But it might not taste very good. Salt can react with fat in frozen food and make the fat become rancid. There's nothing that can be done once this happens, but you still can try cooking the corned beef. Your nose will tell you if the meat is any good. If it has a strong or rancid odor when it starts to cook, don't bother cooking it any further.

I tried substituting Splenda for sugar in a flourless chocolate cookie recipe, but what a mistake! The dough didn't spread out at all, and the cookies were like dry, crumbly golf balls. What happened? Would adding cornstarch help?

The reason it didn't work is because Splenda and sugar aren't equal by weight. A cup of Splenda and a cup of sugar may look like the same amount, but they are unequal in weight. Splenda weighs about 1/200th of the same amount of sugar. Therefore, it can't hold as much moisture and won't melt and spread in the way a cup of sugar would. Cornstarch would only make the cookies even drier.

Is it OK to freeze store-bought fruit juice in its original container?

You'll have to pour off some juice to leave room for expansion as it freezes. The type of container could make a difference. Some plastic bottles will get very brittle and shatter easily when frozen. Cardboard cartons and glass bottles can be safely frozen.

Mary A. Keith, a nutrition and health agent at Hillsborough County Extension, can be reached at (813) 744-5519 or mkeith@ufl.edu.

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