Seasons by the Sea: Food Myths Debunked
It all began with ice cubes, or the lack thereof. Expecting some swells for dinner, I had to choose between having enough cubes for adult beverages or using them to shock and retain the beautiful emerald green hue of my green beans to be served later. The adult beverages seemed far more crucial, so I just rinsed the beans after cooking under cold water for a minute or two until they had cooled off. Mission accomplished.
Why do “they” say you must shock them in a bowl of ice water to retain color? You have to get out a bowl, you have to empty and refill ice trays (can you tell I don’t have an ice cube maker in my old fridge?), swirl the beans about, drain again, rinse and dry the bowl. Totally unnecessary. A myth. Which got me to pondering: What other food myths are still floating around out there, just waiting to be debunked? Or in some cases, proven true?
One common myth is the suggestion to put an avocado pit in your guacamole to prevent it from turning brown. This does not work. What works is laying a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the guac. You’re welcome.
There are numerous suggestions for removing the odor of chopped onions and garlic from your hands. When it was discovered some years back that stainless steel helps remove the odors, Williams-Sonoma jumped on the bandwagon and produced a stainless steel blob in the shape of a bar of soap. Pretty silly considering how many stainless steel utensils and surfaces there are in your kitchen.
How does it work? The amino acid sulfoxides in onions and garlic form a volatile gas (propanethiol S-oxide), which is also responsible for making you cry harder than watching the end of “The Bucket List” starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. When and if these sulfur compounds bind to the steel, the odor is removed. Somewhat. Which brings us to preventing tears while chopping onions. Where did the myth of holding a piece of bread in your mouth come from? It is ridiculous nonsense and a waste of bread. Other suggestions are chill the onions, chop them under water (whah?), run a fan, or wear goggles. I say just man up (woman up?), chop fast, and enjoy that cathartic minute of tears. Obviously, if you’re chopping onions you’re making something homemade and delicious. Some other bizarre suggestions for removing the odors of onion and garlic on your hands are rubbing them with lemon juice, soaking them in tomato juice for 10 minutes, or rubbing them with peanut butter. Gross.
What about fish odors? My chef friend Ellen White suggests rubbing hands with baking soda, then rubbing vigorously with a cut lemon half. She said your hands will smell like a summer day. Not quite, but we tested this method and it works. It also works for removing beet stains. Some methods suggested for removing beet stains were downright dangerous and disgusting. One website suggested rubbing hands with Vaseline before grating beets. I see a slippery accident about to happen. Another suggested using hand lotion before handling beets. I taste Jergens in my beet salad.
Bryan Futterman, a chef at Nick and Toni’s, came up with a doozie. He recalled another chef always boiling squid with a wine bottle cork in the belief that this keeps it tender. This, too, is a bunch of hooey from somebody’s nonni’s cucina.
Does searing meat seal in the juices? No, but it does cause the Maillard reaction, creating a delicious, caramelized crust. Letting the meat sit for a few minutes after cooking is what seals in the juices.
Cooking dried beans in salted water is a big boo-boo. Colin Ambrose of Estia’s Little Kitchen pointed this one out. You shouldn’t salt the water until the beans have softened. How about baking soda added to boiling vegetables like our grandmas used to do? Chef Kevin Penner supports this philosophy, saying “green vegetables stay greener in an alkaline environment.” Harold McGee, author of “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” disagrees, explaining that baking soda can “turn vegetable texture to mush, speed the destruction of vitamins, and leave a soapy aftertaste.” I’m staying out of this one because I steam my vegetables anyway.
What about only eating oysters and other mollusca shellfish in months with an “R”? This is a complicated one, but nowadays you can generally enjoy oysters year round, just be sure your source is reliable. How about not ordering fish in restaurants on Mondays? Nonsense, fresh fish is delivered all through the week to reputable restaurants.
Whoever made up the rule “no swimming for 45 minutes after eating?” Cruella DeVille? What if you just ate half a cantaloupe? Suppose you consumed a pastrami on rye with an egg cream and a side of fries? Use your own judgment on this arbitrary rule.
Do older eggs whites whip up better than fresh ones? Yes, but they have less structure, as will room temperature eggs. So use fresh, cold egg whites for whipping, it takes a bit more time but the tight little proteins will have stronger, more uniform bubbles.
There are many nutrition myths that come and go. Egg yolks are bad for you; just eat the white. Not true, the whole egg is a perfect little ovoid of protein. Agave syrup is good. No, it’s not. Fresh vegetables are better than frozen, so not necessarily true. Your “fresh” vegetables may have come from another continent and be weeks old. Frozen vegetables have been frozen right after harvesting. Chocolate, red wine, nuts, and oils have all gone from one end of the bad-for-you food spectrum to the other.
Aluminum pots do not cause Alzheimer’s. Olive oil does not lose its nutritional value when heated. Cucumber seeds do cause indigestion. Brown eggs are not more nutritious than white. Chicken soup is good for a cold. And no, you cannot determine the sex of a bell pepper by the number of bumps on the bottom. Peppers come from flowers possessing male and female sex organs, but the peppers themselves are hermaphrodites.
Lastly, boiling water beforehand will not make for crystal clear ice cubes. So there you have it, many canards and myths and old wives’ tales of the food world debunked or proven true, a few even supported by actual scientific experiments.
Now that you can handle stinky fish with alacrity and chop those onions and garlic without fear, here are some tasty recipes utilizing a few of those previously offending ingredients.
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