Persistent culinary myths

Boskowski

ahayes84 wrote: »

My mother is allergic to wheat but not gluten.S o she can eat rye bread etc that doesn't include wheat flour. However she finds that most gluten free breads don't suit her.

Rye bread is typically not rye bread but a mix of rye and wheat, normally 3 parts wheat to one part rye. :eek: I may stand corrected, maybe there is special stuff on the coeliac shelf I don't know about, but I've never had a rye bread that wasn't a wheat rye mix. I come from a country where rye bread is a bigger seller than white (wheat) bread.

Tarzana2

TheChizler wrote: »

plenty of fresh eggs float

I have never met a fresh egg that floated and I have done this a lot. (I crack the floaters to check) And none of the sinkers have ever been rotten. Works for me!

Mellor

TheChizler wrote: »

The rotten floating egg test is another one, plenty of fresh eggs float, and rotten eggs can both float and sink depending on storage conditions/type of egg. It's anything but reliable.

I'm gonna have to request a source on that one?

When eggs age, air moisture escapes and gas builds up in the egg (thats give it that sulphur smell. That reduces its density, make it more boyant as it ages.

katemarch wrote: »

There are numerous myths about eggs, that I have never tested. Mostly about the alleged "freshness" and often too about telling a hard-boiled from a raw (without looking)
Spinning them.

That's not a myth, it's works perfectly well. A raw egg will get "dizzy", by the same mechanism that a person gets dizzy (spinning fluid in our ears).

That if you place a raw egg carefully between your palms at the exact centre, and PRESS firmly inwards, the egg will not crack. Owing to its elliptical shape strength. I have tested this...(very messy. Disproved!)

That one works only if the egg has no flaws. A hairline crack, even an invisible one or mal-formed egg will result in a mess. Whether that qualifies it as a myth is up to you.

kylith

katemarch wrote: »

Yes, I use eggs of all vintages cheerfully, the freshness makes a difference to how they poach and whether the yolks break but I think the staler ones taste great - stronger, eggier.
Lifelong committed egg devotee and only once - exactly once in many decades - did I see one bad egg. It was stinky and sort of black inside. Clearly not edible.

I always crack eggs into a glass individually before adding to anything, even though I've never gotten a bad egg. These days I'm getting a lot of eggs from my brother though, and it just makes sense to me to do it in case he accidentally gives me one that's been lurking in his cupboard for six months.

katemarch wrote: »

r what?]
That if you place a raw egg carefully between your palms at the exact centre, and PRESS firmly inwards, the egg will not crack. Owing to its elliptical shape strength. I have tested this...(very messy. Disproved!)

This does work, but you have to do it from the ends, not the sides.

TheChizler

Mellor wrote: »

I'm gonna have to request a source on that one?

When eggs age, air moisture escapes and gas builds up in the egg (thats give it that sulphur smell. That reduces its density, make it more boyant as it ages.

That's not a myth, it's works perfectly well. A raw egg will get "dizzy", by the same mechanism that a person gets dizzy (spinning fluid in our ears).

This is a claim that just needs one bad egg to sink or one good egg to float to disprove. Unfortunately personal experience is all I have at the moment as there doesn't seem to be any proper studies done on the matter, so there's no official evidence for the claim either way. I agree that statistically you're more likely to weed out bad eggs this way, but nobody wants to be relying on statistics when cracking an egg into their omelette.

The moving fluid in the egg will bend signal hairs which tell the egg's brain that it's spinning after it's stopped?

Markcheese

Boskowski wrote: »

Rye bread is typically not rye bread but a mix of rye and wheat, normally 3 parts wheat to one part rye. :eek: I may stand corrected, maybe there is special stuff on the coeliac shelf I don't know about, but I've never had a rye bread that wasn't a wheat rye mix. I come from a country where rye bread is a bigger seller than white (wheat) bread.

I know the Baking emporium in cork make a"100%" rye- it has the shape and weight of a brick -

Mellor

TheChizler wrote: »

This is a claim that just needs one bad egg to sink or one good egg to float to disprove. Unfortunately personal experience is all I have at the moment as there doesn't seem to be any proper studies done on the matter, so there's no official evidence for the claim either way. I agree that statistically you're more likely to weed out bad eggs this way, but nobody wants to be relying on statistics when cracking an egg into their omelette.

There is evidence tbh. The mechanism of what's happening is documented. We know why they sink/float when they age.
Eating a near floater could be still ok, if you like eggy eggs like the poster above.
An a new egg might float if there was something else wrong with it.

Neither of these make it a myth imo.

syklops

Mellor wrote:

That's not a myth, it's works perfectly well. A raw egg will get "dizzy", by the same mechanism that a person gets dizzy (spinning fluid in our ears).

This is the most useful piece of information in this thread so far.

TheChizler

Mellor wrote: »

There is evidence tbh. The mechanism of what's happening is documented. We know why they sink/float when they age.
Eating a near floater could be still ok, if you like eggy eggs like the poster above.
An a new egg might float if there was something else wrong with it.

Neither of these make it a myth imo.

The myth is that this is a sure way to tell, IMO it's little more than an indicator.

rubadub

Mellor wrote: »

That's not a myth, it's works perfectly well. A raw egg will get "dizzy", by the same mechanism that a person gets dizzy (spinning fluid in our ears).

Yes, you have to stop it and let it go again right away. I have seen people saying it did not work who held on too long, obviously not knowing the theory behind it.

Some raw mushrooms have enzymes which will make you feel like vomiting.

katemarch wrote: »

Now, POTATO skins - I grew up believing that the skins were poisonous. Seemingly not so, nowadays the scrubbed and smashed-down version is very popular with fashionable chefs!

The skins contain higher amounts of alkaloids/substances which some people are seemingly allergic to or have reactions to.

pwurple

Another one about spuds is that green potatoes are poisonous.

Technically, yes, they are, but you are so very unlikely to eat enough of them to actually make you sick. You'd have to eat about 3kg of green spuds in one meal to see any effect.


I've got more.
Caesar salad has nothing to do with Julius Caesar, or to any of the Caesars who ruled Rome. It is named for Caesar Cardini, the guy who invented the dish in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1924 from leftovers in his restaurant.

Refried beans, that delicious mexican food... the beans are not fried twice. It's a mistranslation from spanish frijoles refritos. Refritos doesn't mean re-fried. It means well-fried. They are fried once.

Day Lewin

@pwurple I love your collection! Thank you!

A couple of those are sure to be in a quiz someday. I will know the answers thanks to this. :-)

Mellor

rubadub wrote: »

Some raw mushrooms have enzymes which will make you feel like vomiting.

Some raw mushrooms will make you hallucinate

pwurple wrote:

Another one about spuds is that green potatoes are poisonous.

Technically, yes, they are, but you are so very unlikely to eat enough of them to actually make you sick. You'd have to eat about 3kg of green spuds in one meal to see any effect.

Aren't the leaves the more poisonous part. No idea how much is needed. But poeple have died from potato leaf tea apparently

Lovely Bloke

I do laugh at BB dates on yoghurts, sure aren't they just gone-off milk anyway.

Now, unless some spoon or other utensil has entered an open carton of natural yoghurt and mould starts to grow on it, I'd be happy to eat an unopened yoghurt a few weeks, or even months after it's BB.

RDM_83 again

pwurple wrote: »

Another one about spuds is that green potatoes are poisonous.

Technically, yes, they are, but you are so very unlikely to eat enough of them to actually make you sick. You'd have to eat about 3kg of green spuds in one meal to see any effect.

Thats a "myth" with a extremely logical background though (e.g not a myth) , pre-famine and post famine for certain demographics you could be looking at 10-14 pounds consumption a day of spuds (apparently and the higher value makes sense for calories if doing manual labour) so it would be enough to poison yourself.
I've heard it in relation to pregnant woman, wonder if there is truth in that for a modern diet

endacl

katemarch wrote: »

What other persistent culinary myths have you come across that refuse to die, even though long out of date?

That Brussels sprouts are nice.

A_Sober_Paddy

The post earlier about cornflour being good to thicken stews as a myth?

I use cornflour to thicken some of my curries, and if I leave it out, the consistency of my dishes are certainly different

Mellor

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

The post earlier about cornflour being good to thicken stews as a myth?

I use cornflour to thicken some of my curries, and if I leave it out, the consistency of my dishes are certainly different

I don't think he was saying that it won't thicken them, he was saying that it wasn't a very good way to do it.

Tarzana2

A_Sober_Paddy wrote: »

The post earlier about cornflour being good to thicken stews as a myth?

That was more an opinion.

duploelabs

One myth that gets me is that Listeria poisoning derived from eating blue cheese, raw milk, or other unpasteurised dairy is harmful to a foetus during the second and third trimester. When you get Listeria poisoning, it affects the development of the brain and spinal column of the foetus, all of which is completed once the first trimester is complete. The standard practice preached of not eating un-pasteurised dairy throughout pregnancy is 'using a sledgehammer to break a nut'.

Day Lewin

There is a difference between a "myth" and some opinion that you just don't agree with. The former is passed on from person to person (well, often book to book) for years without anyone bothering to check if it is actually true.

Here's a good example: you will often be advised in recipes for yeast bread that the dough is risen if it springs back when pressed with a finger.
Well, this simply ain't so, in fact it is the opposite of true.

Rising yeast dough - or completely new, young, kneaded-but-unrisen dough - has an elastic consistency and will sping back out immediately when depressed with a fingertip. That's because it is full of stretchy gluten and is, or should be, expanding with bubbles from the fermenting yeast!

It is ready to bake when the little hollow fills in a fair bit slower. If it doesn't spring back at all, or very, very slowly, the dough has gone too far, waited too long, and the spring has gone out of its step LOL.

In fairness, plenty of books, recipes, and teachers will tell you all that, too.
But the other one still keeps getting repeated in print, even though a little experience will show that it is not true - in fact, couldn't be true!
That's a persistent culinary myth.

Mrs Fox

That "use only the white part of spring onions and discard the greens".
Jamie Oliver was one of many others who go by this myth.

kylith

Mrs Fox wrote: »

That "use only the white part of spring onions and discard the greens".
Jamie Oliver was one of many others who go by this myth.

Weirdly, Americans seem to do it the other way round. I see loads of things on Pintrest for regrowing scallions from the white bits and I'm like "...but that's the part you eat..."

I chop 'em up to where the green part gets a bit tatty; get them greens into ya!

njs030

Mrs Fox wrote: »

That "use only the white part of spring onions and discard the greens".
Jamie Oliver was one of many others who go by this myth.

There was a reply of 15 min meals the other day and he used the entire spring onion, maybe he's changed his opinion!

Whispered

duploelabs wrote: »

One myth that gets me is that Listeria poisoning derived from eating blue cheese, raw milk, or other unpasteurised dairy is harmful to a foetus during the second and third trimester. When you get Listeria poisoning, it affects the development of the brain and spinal column of the foetus, all of which is completed once the first trimester is complete. The standard practice preached of not eating un-pasteurised dairy throughout pregnancy is 'using a sledgehammer to break a nut'.

There is a lot of that when your pregnant and when the baby starts weaning too. So many things you "shouldn't eat"

So my myth is that babies need a special meal cooked for them leaving out all the yummy bits and then liquidised until it's no longer recognisable as food. That's just not true (in the case of a healthy baby with no allergies of course)

rubadub

Mrs Fox wrote: »

That "use only the white part of spring onions and discard the greens".
Jamie Oliver was one of many others who go by this myth.

What is the myth? was he saying it's poisonous?

I know I do not seem to digest the greens well, as I have gotten sick a few times and seen nothing but those green spring onions coming up, after a big feed of rice & chilli wings.

If he was just saying leave them out I would not see it as a myth
https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110830105148AAepmjq

Best Answer: It's a matter of preference, but the white and green parts of the spring onion have different tastes. Yes, you're right, the Chinese restaurants use the green part almost exclusively as a garnish for soup. But when cooked, the green parts can get mushy and slimy, so typically they're not added to a recipe as a raw ingredient.

Instead, typically, I will only use the white parts of spring onion in a recipe, then chop and save the green parts to sprinkle over later as a garnish.

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I do laugh at BB dates on yoghurts, sure aren't they just gone-off milk anyway.

I see nothing wrong with BB dates, I laugh at people who do not cop on about what it says, "BEST" not "bubonic", not "botulism" simply "best". If you cook a curry you could give it a "Best After Date" of 1 or 2 days, or wine could have both a best before and best after date.

Mrs Fox

rubadub wrote: »

What is the myth? was he saying it's poisonous?

I know I do not seem to digest the greens well, as I have gotten sick a few times and seen nothing but those green spring onions coming up, after a big feed of rice & chilli wings.

If he was just saying leave them out I would not see it as a myth

I clearly remember him saying "you don't eat those" and that's that. As if they're toxic. I've been eating them all my life as condiments.

Lovely Bloke

Whispered wrote: »

There is a lot of that when your pregnant and when the baby starts weaning too. So many things you "shouldn't eat"

So my myth is that babies need a special meal cooked for them leaving out all the yummy bits and then liquidised until it's no longer recognisable as food. That's just not true (in the case of a healthy baby with no allergies of course)

yep, one of the first things mini-baldy ate was a whole chicken drumstick, and he has whatever we are having almost every day, just a smaller portion.

He loves pasta, and I recently found a bag of "10 minute grain" in Tesco, you just add it to boiling water or stock and leave it for ten minutes, it's a mix of different rices, durum wheat, barley, emmer and oats. He eats that by the shovelful.

Whispered

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

yep, one of the first things mini-baldy ate was a whole chicken drumstick, and he has whatever we are having almost every day, just a smaller portion.

He loves pasta, and I recently found a bag of "10 minute grain" in Tesco, you just add it to boiling water or stock and leave it for ten minutes, it's a mix of different rices, durum wheat, barley, emmer and oats. He eats that by the shovelful.

Haha another pasta lover here. He is 8 months and his favourite meal is spag Bol with plenty of garlic messy but tasty.

I might try that grain. I'd say it'll go down well here too.

Tarzana2

duploelabs wrote: »

One myth that gets me is that Listeria poisoning derived from eating blue cheese, raw milk, or other unpasteurised dairy is harmful to a foetus during the second and third trimester. When you get Listeria poisoning, it affects the development of the brain and spinal column of the foetus, all of which is completed once the first trimester is complete. The standard practice preached of not eating un-pasteurised dairy throughout pregnancy is 'using a sledgehammer to break a nut'.

Personally, I wouldn't risk it. It's just a foodstuff.