Kitchen Myths

Adding a raw potato can reduce saltiness in a soup of sauce

kitchenmyths — Sat, 18 May 2013 00:44:04 +0000

A potato will absorb little or no salt, so this just does not work. Adding more unsalted liquid and other ingredients is about the only solution to this problem.

Kitchen Myths, the book – now available

kitchenmyths — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:07:42 +0000

Now available for Kindle, iPad, Nook, and other devices: the book version of the Kitchen Myths blog.

Dozens of new myths
Illustrated with the author’s photographs
Updated throughout

Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, many other retailers, and also here.

View the press release as a PDF

Acidic marinades make meat tender

kitchenmyths — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 13:31:29 +0000

Many people believe than an acidic marinade – one containing wine, vinegar, or citrus juice – will make meat tender. In fact, the opposite is often the case. Acid interacts with the proteins in the meat, causing the protein molecules to pack more closely together and thus squeezing liquid out of the meat. The result? Tough and dry steak, chicken, or what have you. What’s more, extended exposure to acid can cause the surface of the meat to become mushy because the proteins start to break down. The rule, then, would be to keep acidic marinade periods short, but then of course the flavor won’t get into the meat very well. My approach is to rely on non-acidic marinades.

The fact is, marinades in general don’t have nearly the effect that many people think because the flavors just cannot penetrate beyond a millimeter or two at the surface. Salt and water in a marinade can penetrate deeper, and the benefit of most marinades is the result this factor.

Tear basil, rather than cutting it, for best flavor

kitchenmyths — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:32:29 +0000

When a recipe calls for fresh basil, you’ll often hear chefs saying to tear it with your fingers, rather than shredding it with a knife, to get the best flavor. Sorry, but nope. The flavors in basil – like any herb – are primarily contained within the cells of the leaf. If you tear it, it tends to come apart between the cells so that less flavor is released (because it stays in the cells). If you cut the leaf, you will break open the cells (some of them, anyway), releasing more flavor. This makes the most difference when you are using the basil raw, as in a tomato salad. In cooked dishes, such as a sauce, it does not make as much of a difference because the cooking gets the flavor out of the cells.

My technique is to wash the basil, pat dry with paper towels, and remove the leaves from the stem. Stack several leaves together and roll into a cylinder, then cut crossways into thin strips.

Coffee labelled “fair trade” is the highest quality

kitchenmyths — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 21:08:28 +0000

The Fair Trade Labeling Organization was started in response to the plight of coffee growers, who often received dismally low prices for their product. If a coffee cooperative met certain labor, environmental, and social standards (among other things), their coffee could carry the Fair Trade label, and they received a higher per-pound price than they would otherwise (still a low price, but definitely an improvement). Fair trade coffee is a small part of the total coffee market, about 1/2 of 1%, but it allows socially conscious consumers to ensure that the growers of their coffee are receiving a fair shake – a good thing.

Unfortunately, many people have the misconception that any coffee labeled Fair Trade is automatically of the highest quality. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It’s an open secret among high-end coffee roasters that Fair Trade coffee is often of lower quality. After all, the requirements for earning the Fair Trade label have nothing to do with the quality of a grower’s coffee, but only with meeting the Fair Trade requirements. When the price a grower receives for coffee has nothing to do with quality, there is no incentive to work to maintain or improve quality – with predictable results.

I am all for the Fair Trade idea, I have traveled in Central America and am aware of how much work goes into growing and harvesting coffee, and these people should definitely be paid fairly. The fact is, however, that if you are fussy about the taste of your coffee, as I am, and seek out only the highest quality beans, the growers of those beans will have received more than the Fair Trade price for their crop. So, if you like the Fair Trade coffee that you buy, that’s great, but if you really want to help the growers, insist on the highest quality coffee you can find. Hint: it’s not at Starbucks.

A pinhole in a raw egg will prevent cracking while boiling

kitchenmyths — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 22:23:35 +0000

This myth is based on the reasonable idea that eggs crack, when being hard- or soft-boiled, because the air in the shell expands from the heat. The pinhole is supposed to release this pressure. Reasonable, yes, but tests show that a pinhole really does not reduce cracking. Rather, cracks occur either because the egg already has an invisible crack in the shell, which expands during cooking, or because the egg is being knocked about in the pan by too-active boiling.

You can keep meat moist by cooking it in a stew or braising it

kitchenmyths — Thu, 03 May 2012 01:55:04 +0000

This seems to make sense—cooking meat in a moist environment would keep it moist, right? Not necessarily. A major determinant of the final moistness of meat is how hot it got during cooking. So, how you stew or braise the meat is really important. Cook at a boil, where the meat may reach over 200 degrees, and it’s likely to be dry. Cook at a gentle simmer, keeping things at 180 degrees or so, and the results will be much better.

When making a meringue, you must not get even a tiny speck of yolk in the egg whites or they won’t beat up properly

kitchenmyths — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:27:39 +0000

There’s a kernel of truth in this one. When you beat egg whites until they are stiff, you are actually creating a foam in which the egg white proteins form bubbles with the air you are beating in. Fats tend to collapse foams and an egg yolk contains a lot of fat, hence the origin of this “rule.” It may have had some validity when people made meringues by hand, but with today’s power mixers you’ll be able to make a perfectly good, stiff meringue even if a bit of yolk gets mixed in.

Different areas of your tongue are sensitive to different tastes

kitchenmyths — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:25:11 +0000

I remember learning this in high school – the so-called tongue map that claimed that each of the 4 fundamental tastes were “picked up” on different parts of the tongue: bitter in the back, sweet in the front, sour on the sides toward the back, and salt on the sides near the front. This was shown to be false long ago–all areas of the tongue are sensitive to all the tastes.

And yes, there are now believed to be more than 4 basic tastes. A fifth, savory or umami is widely accepted, and some researhers argue for a sixth, piquance.

Grass fed beef is superior to “regular” beef

kitchenmyths — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:51:41 +0000

Well, if you like dry, chewy beef, this may not be a myth for you. That, unfortunately, is how almost all grass-fed beef stacks up against corn-fed. Y’know, people didn’t start feeding corn to steers just for the heck of it! It produces a better product. Oh, you can find people who will look you in the eye and claim that grass-fed beef tastes better, but if you look closely you might see a bit of a twitch at the corner of their mouth (for the humor-impaired, that’s a joke so don’t get all het up).

There’s no denying that there are problems with the feedlot system, from which most beef in the US comes. This involves both the treatment of the animals and environmental issues. There’s more than one side to this issue, however. The fact is, most grass-fed beef comes from South America, where vast tracts of rainforest are leveled to make pasture for the cattle. Your grass-fed steak may not actually be as environmentally friendly as you think.