Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff

My granny was a great cook. She could saute, stirfry, steam, even make quick soups from nothing but a plain old wok. She also taught me things like sticking sour fruits in our bucket of rice to ripen them; storing persimmins in cold water streams in the country to keep them cold, rubbing a stainless steel spoon on your fingers to get rid of the smell of garlic.

The question is, do those things work?

"A Spoon dangled in a bottle of champagne keeps it fizzy"
The mythbusters busted this one.

"Searing meat keeps the juices in."
I fall for this one regularly, but really, I just do it to make things taste better. When you sear meat, it caramelizes the surface and create complex flavours that make great sauces. But it doesn’t really keep more juices in than when you would, say, just stick the darn thing in the oven.

"Mayonaise spoils easily, so in a picnic, pack vinegrette based salads instead."
Complete BS. Both mayo and vinegrette contains vinegar. And they both keep well. Break out that mayo based potato salad!

"Always cook pasta with the lid off."
Lid on, lid off. Makes no difference, really. You’ll endup losing a lot of heat with the lid off, thereby using more energy. I choose to keep the lid on and check periodically by bite. Who came up with this one?

"Putting a potato in an oversalted soup/stew will soak the salt up."
Martha Stewart announced this one, I believe. Doesn’t work. Your best bet? Add more vegetables and water. Or if you’re in a huge hurry, throw in a cup of raw sugar. Chinese cane sugar works well.

"Eating from aluminum cookware causes Alzhimers."
This was news to me when the bf mentioned it, so I thought I’d look it
up. Turned out that the link is there, but the cause and effect is
reversed. Aluminum does not cause Alzhimers, but rather, Alzhimers
causes aluminum buildup.

"Wrapping celery in aluminum foil keeps it fresh"
I did a test of this last week. I washed and chopped, then wrapped one batch in saran wrap, and the other in aluminum foil. Both were kept in the veggie compartment of the fridge. One week later, both tasted the same, and the aluminum-wrapped ones are drier. I think it just needed to be in the dark.

"Drinking coffee cures a hangover."
A hangover is caused by dehydration. Coffee is a diuretic. Do the math. It can’t possibly work.

"Carrots improve night vision."
Um, not really. Vitamin A is good for your eyes, but carrots contain an OBSCENE amount of beta-carotene (which is converted to vitamin A as your body needs it) and your eyes only need a smidgen. If you throw back a steak, there’s vitamin A in it.

Feel free to add anything else in the comments!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Sally's Kitchen Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.