A Handful o' Myths

Us Chefs have a fun pastime (To us anyway, to others its sad…) of watching these TV characters & self proclaimed foodies do their thing from which we derive a chuckle or two from the discrepancies that have been handed down from grandmothers of grandmothers of grandmothers etc. So hence, please indulge me as I point out five kitchen related myths that are universally accepted yet utter crap.

1. Adding salt to water speeds up the boiling time.

How? Chemically speaking, salt increases the boiling point of water which is the opposite effect. Adding to that, to achieve any real effect you would have to add a tablespoon of salt per cup of water. The pinch everyone is adding does nothing. “Where should you add salt?” I hear you asking, the boiling liquids of pastas and rice. And a bit more then a pinch. For 500 gr of pasta you want to add around 2 level tablespoons. The reason is as the pasta/rice cooks it will take on the salt giving a more even seasoning to the end result.

2. Browning all sides of a steak seals in the juices.

OK. No. It doesn’t. Proof? What? The flood of juices leaking out on the plate when you done cooking it isnt proof enough? Nothing about that is sealed. Taking it a bit further, notice how a steak shrinks when its getting grilled? That’s because the heat causes the meat to constrict effectively forcing juices out. The longer the heat is applied, The more juice escapes. That is why, ladies and gents, well done steaks might as well be shoe leather. The only real reason to brown all sides of meat is for flavour.

3. Add vinegar to the water when boiling an egg, it makes it easier to peel.

Here I think the lines between poached and boiled got blurry. For this to even possibly work, the vinegar would need to penetrate the shell. A simple test involving food coloring will show it doesn’t. Keep the vinegar for the poached and stop adding salt to the boiling egg water. Cool? Awesome.

4. Adding Oil to the water when boiling pasta stops it from clumping together.

This one is probably the most famous of the lot. OK… so. Simple one. There you are boiling your pasta. You have added your oil just like you were taught. What do you see if you look properly at this situation? Why yes! You’ve got it! Pasta sits at the bottom, oil floats on the top. Bingo! The oil can’t help the pasta because it never gets to it. Don’t want your pasta sticking together? Rapidly boiling water and frequent stirring. All you guys need.

5. Avocado. All related suggestions to stop the browning of the flesh.

None of them works. Sorry ladies and gents. Here oxygen is the enemy. Vacuum packing it will help but nothing else. No pips, lemon juice or drowning it in water. It comes down to if you start it, finish it.

Thanks for reading guys, hope this has at the least fueled the odd dinner debate or two.

Cheers for now.