Cooking Myths

[Yorky]

How often should a steak be flipped? The myth perpetuated by some is that it should only be flipped once.

It just isn't true. Flipping multiple times helps to evenly distribute cooking temperature within the steak and allow charring to be visual.

My steak is only in the pan for about 90 seconds - there really isn't time to flip it more than once.

 

[Yorky]

I believe durian is not allowed on planes so i would imagine that anything else that stinks badly would also not be allowed on planes.

Durian is not allowed in many hotels in Asia (possibly elsewhere also). However, some do keep special fridges for guests to store their durians. If my wife buys it at home it is transported in the rear of the pick-up and she eats it on the stoep (away from me).

 

[karadekoolaid]

My steak is only in the pan for about 90 seconds - there really isn't time to flip it more than once.

There you go - whether you flip it once or twice depends mostly on two things; how thick the steak is, and how you like it cooked. You obviously like yours rare. I had a British friend over in Venezuela who would only eat a steak if it was totally bloodless inside!

 

[Sandtree]

Salt makes water boil faster.

It just isn't true. Salt might be best added to pasta water just as it comes to a boil and its purpose is to add a little seasoning zip to the pasta when it is done.

It is true, however given the level of salinity used for cooking the effect is negligable. It takes 1Kcal to heat 1kg up by 1C however for water with the salinity of seawater it takes 0.935Kcal and given your burner gives a constant energy supply it would be quicker.

There will be no noticable difference from a taste or time perspective if you add the salt to cold water or boiling water before adding the pasta. Adding salt to boiling water can cause it to spit briefly so more from a safety perspective you may as well add it to the water earlier.

Yes, I think the only thing that affects boiling point is altitude?

Pressure changes boiling points and higher altitudes have lower pressures. This is fundamentally how a pressure cooker works, by having higher pressure the water can reach a higher temperature.

Changing the substance however also changes boiling point so making pure water into a sodium chloride solution and adding 58g of salt to 1L of pure water increases the boiling point by about 0.5C

 

[Sandtree]

Maybe I should communicate it different, there are many chefs, who are trained, or raised to use the cheapest ingredients they can find on the market and cook the best dishes that are possible.

I think there needs to be a distinction between price and value... plenty of chefs specialise in getting the best from the better value products and amazing things can be made from the better value cuts of meat than prime fillet steak.

Cheap products can be terrible value, no chef will get rave reviews from doing anything with 5 day old shellfish that got forgotten in the back of the truck even if the market sells them off dirt cheap.

Using poor quality products will result in poor quality results, price is used as a rough proxy for quality but its not really a good one. A €5 bottle of wine bought from a supermarket in the UK is a very different beast to a €5 bottle of wine bought directly from a small producer in a less famous wine producing region. The higher the proportion of the final outcome the wine will represent the more important the selection is but heat treatment is going to impact it so no point breaking open your Screaming Eagle. Personally think the rule of thumb, if you wouldn't drink it then you shouldn't cook with it is sufficient for most of us (and gives something to do with the other half the bottle)

 

[Yorky]

For about 20 years of my last working lifetime I was involved in the vacuum drying of gas pipelines prior to commissioning. This process entailed reducing the pressure in the pipeline to around 0.50 mbar (normal atmospheric pressure is around 1015 mbar at sea level) which causes the residual water in the pipeline to boil off at very low temperatures and can then be extracted by the vacuum pumps.