Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A Sweet Solution

     Most people toss cut apples and other fruits prone to browning in lemon juice.  But here's another way:  Toss them in honey water.  According to the folks at Cook's Illustrated, you can dilute 2 tablespoons of honey with 1 cup of water.  An apple slice soaked in the solution kept bright for more than 24 hours as compared to an untreated slice which began to brown within a few minutes.

     This is because browning is caused by the action of an enzyme known as polyphenol oxidase, and a peptide compound found in honey deactivates it just as the acid in lemon juice does.  Even better: they found that the fruit needed only a 30 second dunk in the solution to inhibit browning for a solid 8 hours.  Incidently, honey seems to work just as well at stopping browning in vegetables, such as potatoes.

     Now you know.

1 comment:

  1. that would taste MUCH better than the apple i bit into over thanksgiving. YUCK!

    ReplyDelete