Snow What?

     I've been having a lot of fun reading excerpts from Ken Jennings' book Because I Said So.  One final warning that I'll comment on today is the one we have all heard as we were growing up:

"Don't eat snow -- It'll make you sick!"

 

     Findings published in Science in 2008 revealed that some snowflakes form around a "seed" of bacteria such as Pseudomonas syringae -- which led to "Why snow might be killing your kid" teasers in newscasts.  But Pseudomonas syringae causes a fatal disease in beans and tomatoes, not people.  And the human stomach is acidic enough to kill bacteria in snow.

 

     However, there are worse things in the air -- such as sulfates, nitrates, even lead --and snow might contain any of them.  Catching flakes on your tongue is no big deal, but any kid putting away buckets of the white stuff may want to ease up.

 

     Whew!  I was worried there for a minute that catching those snowflakes on my tongue as a kid was going to do me in half a century later.

 







Under Water

     Another issue that Ken Jennings addresses in his book Because I Said So is the 8x8 rule.  This came primarily from those well meaning junior high teachers in health class.  It went something like this:

"Drink 8 Eight ounce glasses of water a day."

 

And that carried with it another rule:  not milk, not juice, it had to be water.  In 2002, a kidney specialist named Heinz Valtin, M.D., concluded that this rule was an accident.  Back in the 1940s, the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council recommended "one milliliter of water for each calorie of food."  Thus, a 1,900 calorie diet would indeed work out to about 64 ounces of water daily.  But everyone seems to have forgotten the next sentence:  "Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods."

 

     That's right.  Most of our water gets to us in non-water form.  In fact, a National Institutes of Health doctor tole the Los Angeles Times that a healthy adult in a temperate climate could replace his or her body's daily water loss with food alone.

 

     So now what do I do with all those nalgene water containers I have at home?

Motherly Mandates

     Ken Jennings (remember him from Jeopardy?) has written a book entitled, "Because I Said So."  In it he lists many of the things our mother (and father, too) warned us as we were growing up.  They are a sort of parental proclamations akin to urban legends.  Some are true, others are not.  In his listing of these mandates are some that are food related and I found them interesting.  Here is one we have all heard, especially at this time of the year:

     "Stay away from the poinsettia!  The leaves are poisonous." 

 

The truth is, says Jennings, it's probably safer to eat an entire potted poinsettia then Grandma's fruitcake.  Unlike other plants in its genus, the poinsettia isn't dangerously toxic.  Poison control centers say you'll have to gorge on 600 leaves to get a meaningful dose of irritating compounds, and even then the symptoms would be no worse than a bellyache. (Probably not much different from the bellyache you'd get by eating 600 leaves of anything.)

 

 



Orzo What?

     Recently I found a recipe for a chicken soup that called for orzo to be toasted and included in the broth.  Having none on hand, I went to the local grocery store to purchase some.  But I wasn't sure what I was looking for, or even worse, where to find it.  What exactly is orzo?  Is it a grain, like rice or quinoa?  Would it be in the health food section, or over with the other shapes of pasta.  When I asked the young employee, she was very kind but also had no idea what we were looking for.  Eventually I did locate a small bag of DaVinci brand imported Italian orzo and happily brought it home so I could make the soup on a chilly December day.

     Once back in the kitchen I took some time to read the package and discovered that orzo is comprised of durum wheat semolina.  So it's pasta!  Turns out it's a pasta made in the shape of a grain of rice, thus the source of my confusion.  Even more confusing is that the Italian word orzo translates in English as barley.  And if that weren't confusing enough, this versatile little pasta is also known by a variety of different names: kritharaka, manestra, rosa marina, reiskornpasta, pasta gallo pion and risoni, depending on the country where it is cooked.  It is very popular in Greece and is also a chef's favorite in other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations.  As I soon discovered it is a welcome addition in soups but is not limited to just that.  It can be served alone as are other pastas and it readily takes on supportive flavors combined with it.  It can also be an integral part of a salad or pilaf and can be baked into a casserole.  Orzo's only limitation is the creativity of the person preparing it.



Dancing Sugarplums

    

     Remember the line about "sugarplums dancing in their heads" from The Night Before Christmas?  What exactly is a sugarplum?  Well, Kitchen Kapers has provided us the answer to that question.

     Popular in the Victorian era, sugarplums were a sweet delicacy of dried fruits, nuts, and spices.  Sort of a mini version of the ever present fruit cake that gets sent to unwitting recipients.  Finely chopped, the ingredients form a stiff paste, perfect for rolling and molding into tiny plum-like shapes.  A coating in sanding sugar adds a touch of holiday glitter and a whole clove "stem" completes the charming little morsels.  They are low in fat and contain no wheat products, much to the delight of those who are gluten intolerant.

     To read the recipe, click on this link:  http://www.acornadvisors.com/2012_KNews/11-29-12_Gifts/Recipes_Gifts/KK_Plums.html

Taking Stock

     Under the catagory of "Right Stuff" the Nutrition Action Healthletter wrote recently of a commercially produced cooking stock that did not contain all the usual additives, like sodium and MSG. 

     "Kitchen Basics Unsalted Chicken Stock relies on the same ingredients you'd use to make homemade stock, and it has no added salt, and it's the best tasting unsalted cooking stock out there"  so they claim.  The same company also makes vegetable and beef versions, too.  The label reveals an interesting amalgam of ingredients, from chicken stock and flavor, to vegetable stock from carrot, onion, mushroom and celery.  Also on the list are honey, bay, thyme and pepper.  But the star of the show is, as it should be, the chicken.  So much so that each cup of stock contains 5 grams of protein.

     It's not sodium free, however, due to the fact that celery and chicken both contain naturally occurring sodium.  But at 150 milligrams per cup it has a fraction of the competition.  Progresso Chicken Broth, for example, has a whopping 850 mg of sodium per cup, not to mention chicken powder, chicken fat, autolyzed yeast extract and other extraneous ingredients to pump up the flavor.

     I've always been an advocate of low sodium brands and was pleased to read about this.  But there are also others on the store shelf that can make the same claim and with less added salt.  One of my favorites is Pacific Natural Foods Low Sodium.  It claims on the label to be "All Natural" and "organic" (whatever that really means.  But that's a story for another VinnyPost.)  The nutrition facts chart states only 80 mg of sodium per cup.  And recently I purchased a case lot of the Whole Food 365 Low Sodium Chicken Broth at an attractive discounted price.  It listed some ingredients unfamiliar to me, like gum arabic, but with a caveat that it was less than 2% of the total.  The sodium level per cup is 140 mg.

     There are healthy food products available.  But it still remains "buyer beware!"  Read the labels, including the fine print, carefully.

Broth or Stock?

      I've never been quite sure about the difference between broth and stock.  I often use the terms interchangeably.  But the two are not the same.  After some investigation I discovered that you can use stock to make broth, but not the other way around.  They differ both culturally  and in colloquial terminology.

     Stock is the thin liquid that is produced by simmering raw ingredients, then removing the solids.  This leaves a thin, highly flavored and concentrated liquid.  There are several classic stocks made from beef, veal, chicken, fish and vegetables, like mirepoix, a combination of onions, carrots and celery.

     Broth, on the other hand, is more of a soup where solid pieces of the flavoring meat, or fish, or vegetables remain in the simmering liquid.

     According to Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking:  The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, the word stock as it's applied in the kitchen reflects the professional cook's approach to sauce making.  It derives from an old Germanic root meaning "tree trunk," and has more than 60 related meanings revolving around the idea of basic materials, sources, and supplies.  It's thus the culinary application of a very general term, and was first used in the 18th Century.  Much more specific and ancient is broth, which goes back to 1000 CE and a Germanic root bru meaning "to prepare by boiling" and the material so prepared, both it and the boiling liquid.

     Still confused?  So am I.