Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food and Cooking . . . Plus 25 Recipes to Get It Right Every Time, by Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough
Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food And Cooking . . . Plus 25 Recipes To Get It Right Every Time, By Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough How can you transform your mind to be more open? There several resources that can help you to boost your ideas. It can be from the other experiences and story from some people. Book Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food And Cooking . . . Plus 25 Recipes To Get It Right Every Time, By Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough is one of the trusted sources to obtain. You can find so many publications that we share right here in this website. And also now, we show you one of the very best, the Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food And Cooking . . . Plus 25 Recipes To Get It Right Every Time, By Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough
Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food and Cooking . . . Plus 25 Recipes to Get It Right Every Time, by Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough
Free Ebook PDF Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food and Cooking . . . Plus 25 Recipes to Get It Right Every Time, by Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough
Is the five-second rule for real? Will eating carrots improve your eyesight? Is your cookware a health hazard? Do spicy foods cool you down? Has your grandmother been lying to you all these years? No, no, no, no, and . . . probably. In this entertaining and informative reference guide, award-winning cookbook authors Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough take on more than one hundred popular kitchen myths and dish up answers to all your burning questions about food science and lore. No longer must you wait for your butter to reach room temperature before you bake or panic because you forgot to soak your dried beans for dinner. This handy book explains how knowing the truth behind these urban legends can help you be a better chef in your own home and offers twenty-five delicious recipes so you can practice. Whether you’re a serious foodie, an avid dieter, a trivia lover, or are just searching for the secret to the perfect cup of coffee, Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them is essential countertop reading and a whole lot of fun.
Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food and Cooking . . . Plus 25 Recipes to Get It Right Every Time, by Bruce Weinstein, Mark Scarbrough- Amazon Sales Rank: #1196934 in eBooks
- Published on: 2011-07-12
- Released on: 2011-07-12
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review “If you consider yourself a foodie, love to eat, or are a fan of Alton Brown’s food-meets-science approach, you’ll enjoy Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them.” –Kirkus"I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to food myths—or at least when it comes to debunking them—which is why I figured out awhile ago that putting an avocado pit in guacamole does not keep it from turning brown. But a new book, Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them: And 100 Other Myths About Food and Cooking by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, helped me to understand why." --Lynn Andriani, Life Lift, The Oprah Blog"My first thought when I saw the title of Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them was please, spare me from another irreverent take on serious kitchen happenings. Relief came when I spotted the authors names. Team Bruce Weinstein (chef) and Mark Scarbrough (food writer) have collected culinary notches on their apron belts with a James Beard nomination for Ham: An Obsession with Hindquarters, as authors of the Ultimate series of cookbooks, and as contributors and columnists for food publications -- Cooking Light, Leite's Culinaria, and Weight Watchers." --Carol Blonder, The Phoenix New Times
About the Author BRUCE WEINSTEIN and MARK SCARBROUGH are the authors of nineteen books about food, including Real Food Has Curves; the bestselling, multi-volume Ultimate Cook Book series; Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter; Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese; and Cooking Know-How, winner of a 2009 Gourmand World Award. They are online columnists for Weight Watchers ("A Cut Above"), have been spokespeople for the U. S. Potato Board and the California Milk Advisory Board, and regularly contribute to Fine Cooking, Cooking Light, Eating Well, Relish, and The Washington Post. They live in Litchfield County, Connecticut.BRUCE WEINSTEIN and MARK SCARBROUGH are the authors of nineteen books about food, including Real Food Has Curves; the bestselling, multi-volume Ultimate Cook Book series; Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter; Goat: Meat, Milk, Cheese; and Cooking Know-How, winner of a 2009 Gourmand World Award. They are online columnists for Weight Watchers ("A Cut Above"), have been spokespeople for the U. S. Potato Board and the California Milk Advisory Board, and regularly contribute to Fine Cooking, Cooking Light, Eating Well, Relish, and The Washington Post. They live in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 1BECAUSE WE’VE ALWAYS DONE IT THAT WAYThe Ten Classics Repeat a lie enough and it starts to sound like the truth. Publish it enough and it starts to become the truth. After years of reading cookbooks and food articles, we’ve seen our share of unsubstantiated food mythology pass into the realm of received wisdom. We’ve done our best to set the record straight, but spreading the word at Q & A sessions after cooking demonstrations has felt a lot like lobbing pebbles at Cossacks. The following ten myths are the ones that we have identified as the most pervasive forms of erroneous common knowledge. Call these the culinary equivalents of “blondes have more fun.” FOR BAKING, THE BUTTER SHOULD BE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. ALMOST NEVER. Ever read a cookie or cake recipe that calls for unsalted butter, at room temperature? Too bad such advice leads to flatter cookies, denser cakes, and tough quick breads. Why? Natch, it goes back to chemistry. Butter is an emulsion of fat and water, with some dairy solids in the mix. Emulsions are unstable by nature. Their parts do not fuse despite being homogenized. Instead, they remain separate in tiny droplets evenly distributed throughout. A vinaigrette is an emulsion of oil and vinegar with some herbs thrown in for good measure. The fizzy foam on a cup of espresso is another emulsion—this time, of coffee oils and water. Both lead short lives. Oil and vinegar separate; the foam dissolves into the espresso. So it is with butter. It can fall apart, particularly when warm. Just above 67°F, it starts to lose its coherence. Several degrees more and it becomes the soft spread that makes the desiccated hunk of bread we call toast edible. As the temperature rises, butter continues to lose coherence. It soon spreads out, no longer able to hold even its basic shape—mostly because the solid fat in the emulsion is starting to liquefy. It used to hold the water in place; now it’s letting go, loosening up, getting more Unitarian. But below 67°F, the fat is stiffer, more Presbyterian. It can hold its water. And it can catch air. Hold it, too. Which is why you beat a batter in the first place: to trap air, particularly in the fat. Thus, in most cases cool butter builds better batters. Cookies won’t be flat; cakes will rise properly. Even cinnamon rolls will be more irresistible. (Oh, great.) Yes, there are some specialty recipes in which the butter must be at room temperature—for example, when you’re laminating a dough to make croissants, repeatedly working the butter into the dough through incessant rolling. But these sorts of things are unusual, laborious, pastry-chef tasks. For most cakes, cookies, and quick breads, for anything where the beaten butter is to provide airy heft, cold butter is the way to go. So how did this culinary zinger get started? Blame it on the ’50s. Gone were the stand mixers, the behemoths our great-grandmothers hauled out to the counter. Every June Cleaver wanted a tidy hand mixer. Unfortunately, this modern appliance couldn’t handle chilled butter. Bits spun around the bowl like lottery balls. The motor was weaker, too; it burned out quickly. And so arose a misguided attempt at making baking easier on the gadgetry, but not necessarily better all-around—that is, the myth of room-temperature butter. These days, we’re back to the backbreaking stand mixers—they can handle the cool butter you’ve got in the fridge. Admittedly, that butter is a little too cold—the fat is way beyond Presbyterian, more like Dutch Reformed, probably around 40°F. Here’s the problem: you need the butter cool enough to trap air but not so hard that it’s petrified. The solution? Drag the butter out of the chill, cut it into small bits, and drop them into the mixing bowl. By the time you’ve got the other ingredients out of the pantry, the butter bits will have warmed up just enough that they won’t burn out the motor but will still grab the air and hang on tight. Without a moment’s hesitation, make that batter or dough! Because a better cookie is the whole reason anyone would ever want one of those honkin’ big stand mixers that take up so much cabinet space. Note CHOCOLATE CHUNK CINNAMON OAT COOKIES Makes about 4 dozen cookies Although salted butter outsells unsalted seven to one in the United States, unsalted butter is still the culinary standard. First off, the extra salt can lead to melting and boiling point differentials which may affect more temperamental recipes. But secondly, why should someone else determine the sodium content of your food? Yes, these crisp, flavorful cookies are better with a pinch of salt—but not the heavier pour in salted butter. 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2 cup rolled oats (do not use quick-cooking or steel-cut oats) 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 16 tablespoons (2 sticks or 1/2 pound) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small bits 1 cup packed light brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated white sugar 2 large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 pound bittersweet chocolate bars, broken and cut into 1/4-inch chunks 1 cup chopped walnuts 1. Position the rack in the center of the oven; preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a reusable silicone baking mat. 2. In a medium bowl, use a whisk or a fork to mix the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. (Why? So the leavening and flavorings are evenly distributed in the dry ingredients.) 3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy, and until most of the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes. You’ll need to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula. But don’t be tempted to run that big mixer at a higher speed. More friction means more heat. Which means warmer butter. 4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the inside of the bowl a few times and making sure the eggs are thoroughly incorporated in the batter. Beat in the vanilla. 5. Stop the beaters; pour in the flour mixture. Turn the beaters on low and mix in the flour, just until most of the white pockets have disappeared, not a moment more. 6. Turn off and remove the beaters; scrape any batter back into the bowl. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the chocolate and walnuts, thereby also fully incorporating the flour. 7. Roll heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls between your palms. Set the balls on the prepared baking sheet, a couple of inches apart. Bake for 10 minutes. 8. Use a hot pad to pick up the baking sheet and give it a good rap against the baking rack. Continue baking for 2 minutes. Then do it again: a good rap against the baking rack. Continue baking until the cookies are brown and set, about 3 more minutes. Put the baking sheet on a wire rack and cool for 2 minutes, then use a thin spatula to transfer the cookies to the wire rack itself to continue cooling. Cool the baking sheet for 5 minutes before making another batch. Check to see if you need to replace the parchment paper because it’s too fried from having dried out. HOT SKILLET, COLD OIL. ONLY ON RARE, CHEFFY OCCASIONS. Ah, the ’80s. It was a heady time in the American culinary scene. A bunch of wide-load Cajuns and a galloping gourmet lit a mania for food and cooking from Julia Child’s smoldering spark. They did it with suspenders and shoulder pads. And this dead-wrong myth. The oil in the skillet or pan must be hot, not “to seal in the juices” (we’ll come back to that one), but to keep the meat or vegetables from sticking. Here’s why: • First, fat smoothes things out. Believe it or not, the inside of your skillet or saucepan is not flat. It’s landscaped with microscopic grooves, ridges, and gashes. Oil (or any melted fat, for that matter) fills these in. Likewise, cuts of meat or chopped vegetables are microscopically uneven. A thin layer of fat evens them out, too. So why do we care about smoothing things out? Because … • Second, fat is a lubricant. Now that the topography of your skillet is smoothed out, those many nicks and gashes don’t snag your food. Thus, less sticking—which means less tearing, chipping, and even scorching. • Finally, fat gets really hot. Way beyond the boiling point of water. When food hits the hot oil, you get a good sizzle because the extraneous surface water on the meat or vegetable is instantly vaporized. The piece of food is then raised slightly above the skillet’s hot surface, riding on a tiny layer of steam. Thus, the caramelizing sugars don’t fuse to the surface below. And by the time all that vaporizing is over, the meat or vegetable has a dried-out, crunchy crust. You know, the best part of the meal. But that crust also serves a culinary purpose. Crunchy things usually don’t stick together very well—if at all. It’s also why patchouli-soaked hippie communes fail. If you think about it: How could oil ever stay cool in a hot skillet? A tablespoon or two in a preheated 300°F to 500°F skillet instantly spreads out into a thin sheet and pops up to the skillet’s surface temperature in milliseconds. There’s no way you can work quickly enough for there to be a hot skillet with cool oil in it. That said, sometimes you want cool oil in a skillet, particularly for very cheffy reasons. Like when you want to infuse the fat with herbs, or other flavors, so that the items to be sautéed pick up more sophisticated flavors. To pull this off, pour pantry-temperature oil into a cold skillet off the heat, add a star anise pod or slivered garlic cloves or Sichuan peppercorns or red pepper flakes or fresh rosemary spears, and set the contraption over medium-low heat. As the oil comes up to a sizzle, those spices or herbs release their flavors into the fat for a more satisfying meal. When the oil is finally hot, remove the flavoring agents and you’ve got infused oil that’ll crisp whatever you’re cooking and impress even Cajun cooks as well as any gourmets who insist on galloping. YOUR TONGUE HAS FOUR KINDS OF TASTE BUDS: SWEET, SALTY, SOUR, AND BITTER. AND DO CHICKENS HAVE LIPS? So much bad information gets bandied about in elementary school. Eating paste won’t make you sick. Holding it in all day gives you character. And the darn tongue map: sweet on the tip, salty at the sides, sour farther back on the sides, and bitter way back in the center by the epiglottis. Okay, debunking this myth is easy. Get up and go in the kitchen. We’ll wait. Get a pinch of salt. Put it on the tip of your tongue, the part that’s supposed to taste sweet. Do you taste salt? Yes. Still don’t buy it? Now get a pinch of sugar. Put it way back on the center of your tongue, on the alleged bitter receptors. Do you still taste sweet? Yes. Done. And by the way, holding it in all day doesn’t give you character. So how’d this tenacious tongue myth get started? Back in 1901, a German professor, D. P. Hanig, conducted an “experiment” (we use the term loosely, as in “a state-funded science fair project”) in which he asked people their subjective experience of taste. Here ist ein apple. Vere do you taste eet on your tongue? He used no controls nor any critical apparatus to judge the answers he got. Maybe he had no time, what with Kaiser Wilhelm II driving the country into war. Still, Hanig blocked out the results of all that anecdotal evidence on the now-familiar map of the tongue. It soon got foisted got off onto children. Here are the facts:
- By the 1970s, researchers believed there were differences in taste centers on the tongue; but they also thought these could move around, depending on a person’s history, proclivities, and age.
- By the late 1980s, researchers had finally come to the conclusion that the actual differences between these tasting centers were, at best, minimal.
- Then in 2006, researchers actually found one of the many proteins that allow us to taste sour. And they found it all over the tongue, not just in one area.
- If about thirty-five shrimp (tails) make a pound, we’re talking medium-size shrimp, good for stir-frying and such.
- If twenty make a pound, we’re talking much bigger ones, perfect for shrimp cocktail.
- And if ten make a pound, we’re talking a knife-and-fork affair.
- Beyond ten per pound, we get into categories the industry calls U. As in U-5s. That is, it takes fewer than (or under) five shrimp (tails) to make a pound, each one ringing in at a little less than a quarter pound.
- And U-2s? We’re back to the Nessies, each tail weighing in at a little over half a pound.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful. A hilarious trip through the kitchen By BLehner Time to fess up. I am not much of a cook. I may be capable of making delicious pasta with a nice salad, but that's about it. Yet I'm still not too old to maybe learn a thing or two, so when I had the chance to read Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them I took it.Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough have once again stirred up a book in their kitchen, this time with an emphasis on all kinds of myths about food and cooking. No matter whether you're a seasoned cook, or more like myself, you will probably have heard that spicy foods will cool you down, that you shouldn't wash mushrooms, or that you can tell if a steak is done by the way it feels. I hate to break the news to you, but it's just not that simple, and sometimes outright wrong.Seasoned with various recipes, which I admittedly didn't try out, this book is such a humorous and at the same time informative page-turner that I pretty much finished reading it in one sitting. The only breaks I took were those when I couldn't continue, because I had to laugh so hard. Who would have thought that a book about cooking could be so very entertaining? I loved it.And no, they don't scream. No vocal cords, you know.In short: A wonderfully hilarious eye-opener for everyone who's fallen victim to cooking myths before!Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the Simon & Schuster Galley Grab book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. A MUST Have Cookbook in Your Pantry By The Not So Perfect Housewife The name of my blog is The Not So Perfect Housewife..One of the reasons I came up with that name is because although I LOVE to cook and spend LOTS of time in the kitchen... sometimes I REALLY mess things up.. thus.. I'm not perfect.Yet after sitting down and reading this book, I'm realizing it wasn't all genetics, stupidity, or lack of talent.. it was all because of the lies my elder family members told me about cooking.JUST KIDDING MOM!!It's NOT REALLY their fault. Really it's not.. they were told the same kitchen myths and wives tales that I was.And thanks to this book.. I just want to stand on top of my kitchen roof with the Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them book in hand and scream to all who would listen.."STOP Letting your butter get room temperature for Baking!""Heating Olive Oil DOES NOT Destroy It's Benefits!""Don't Store Your Coffee in The Freezer!"and SOO Much more!!All these myths and TONS more are exposed, debunked, and explained in the HILARIOUS book Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them.Release your inner Master Chef and Baker by reading this book.Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough have put together a wonderful book that serious foodie, trivia lover, fact finder, or housewife would love.Each chapter is centered around a theme. Such as:Because We've Always Done It That Way - The Ten ClassicsYou're So Cute When You're Drunk - Myths About AlcoholGrilling is Man's Work - Myths Told Before an Open FireSome Day Your Prince Will Come - Myths You May Have Been Told By Your Bubbe, Abuela, MeeMaw, or some other Random Old PersonBeing a sarcastic person myself, I enjoyed how each chapter was titled like:Myth #44 - Chickens in the Wild Would Be All Dark MeatIf This Sounds Reasonable, Up Your MedicationAlso included in this book are recipes that are tasty, healthy, and of real. With cooking instructions that will not steer you wrong and will allow you to cook an awesome meal.I'm truly thinking of stocking up on this book for Christmas and Wedding gifts!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Laughter Through Cooking, My Favorite Emotion By Deborah Montgomery I thought this book was hilarious and informative. It was a fun, easy read, and the title reminded me of that scene from Annie Hall when Diane Keaton and Woody Allen were having a lobster boil. But they had me after the first article that dispelled the myth on using room temperature butter when baking cookies. I KNEW it from my first batch of Tollhouse cookies in the 70's, but I'd never actually heard anybody say it was just wrong. And I'm embarrassed to admit that I have been keeping my decaf coffee beans in the freezer. Not anymore! I laughed out loud so much that I took it to the office, where it was "borrowed." Hopefully that person will bring it back sans food stains. I'm buying it for a couple of my friends who enjoy cooking as a Christmas gift, but it defintely qualifies as a coffee table humor book or a reference book. Two thumbs up!
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