I'm the clumsiest person ever -- a likely candidate for finger loss in the kitchen. To protect myself (and my cooking skills), I've tried to research some tips for disaster-proofing my workspace.
Posts with tag fire
...But think of the marshmallows!
When you're making S'mores, all you think about is getting your chocolate-marshmallow fix, right?
But does anyone ever think of the marshmallows? What about how they feel, getting jabbed onto the end of a dirty branch and thrust into a hot flame?
Well, let me tell you: they hate it. And they'd take any opportunity to get revenge. Gee, if only there were a t-shirt to illustrate this point...
But wait! There is! Check out the "Let's Go Camping" tee on Barry's Farm, a fantastic new crafty site that also features laptop covers that look like furry monsters and cute lil' change purses. The best part? Barry's shirts come in tons of sizes.
Should chefs be required to wear a cup while cooking?
I have a recurring nightmare in which I am quickly chopping up a whole bunch of veggies for a quick stir fry when I realize that I haven't been being particularly careful and accidentally cut into a finger instead of a carrot. Thankfully, during my waking hours I've never had that happen, but the thought of it made me work on improving my knife skills to further protect my precious digits.
Sadly, British TV chef Gordon Ramsay recently experienced one of those moments you think could only happen in the worst of anxiety dreams. He set his crotch on fire. While going commando. It adds a whole other level to taking precautions while in the kitchen, now doesn't it.
Via Food for Thought
Warning about silicone and using the broiler
The heat resistant nature of silicone kitchen and bakeware is usually much-touted to home cooks by the manufacturers. This property is very useful for kitchen tools and, for example, pot holders, but the manufacturers often fail to mention the fact that silicone is so good at keeping the heat down that it can prevent your baked foods from browning in the same way that they ordinarily would if baked in or on a regular metal pan or some kind.
There is not much that can be done about an under-browned cookie without baking up a new batch, but with some foods (roasted vegetables or oven-fried chicken, for example), the reaction of many cooks is to slide the under-browned food under the broiler to finish it off. Do not do this if you are using any kind of silicone cook/bakeware, including a nonstick silpat. As some have found out, the heat from the broiler is so great that a kitchen fire can result very, very quickly. Stick to a tried-and-true metal baking sheet.
The history of... s'mores
Somehow, the fact that August 10th is National S'mores Day managed to sneak by us, but these delicious treats are worth a mention, even if it is a bit belated.
If you're not familiar with s'mores, they are made by sandwiching a toasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate in between two graham crackers. The name of the treat comes from the two words "some more," clearly combined because people often wanted to have at least a second serving after having one s'more. The treat was developed by campers in the early part of the 20th century, making use of the fairly new mass-produced marshmallows. Marshmallows were easy to transport, as were candy bars and graham crackers, and the marshmallows could be warmed easily over a fire to make a delicious treat in a situation where other types of sweets would have been difficult to come by.
Tapioca tanker
Like the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, the story of a Swiss freighter that almost exploded with cooked tapioca is safely behind us but still bears mentioning. In August 1972, the cargo of the Cassarate included timber and tapioca. The former caught fire and the hot water and steam created while dousing the blaze caused the 1,500 tons of Thai tapioca below deck to swell in the oven-like conditions. The Cassarate made an emergency stop in Wales, where the fires were finally extinguished. The hundreds of thousands of portions of tapioca, bound for Holland, never did wind up bursting the ship's hull. A recently updated Snopes page has excerpts from local newspapers that covered the incident. Flaming Jell-O shots
Those of you that are familiar with the Jell-O experiments of MyScienceProject.org will be glad to know that a new batch of tests was added this month. Apparently the folks at MyScienceProject got lots of responses from their previous attempts to pack as much booze into a Jell-O shot as possible. On the new page, they're testing the benefits of using unflavored gelatin (yum), blooming it first, and then cutting it with grain alcohol or Bacardi 151 instead of vodka. After producing plenty of barely palatable Jell-O shots, the only logical thing to do was set them on fire. It's a shame there wasn't a buffet nearby.As a side note, NPR recently featured a story about wine-infused gelatin.
[Photo: MyScienceProject.org]
Fire from chocolate and aluminum
I know some of you may already be familiar with
this "trick," but I think it bears repeating. Even if it's just a good way to justify bringing some extra
chocolate with you when you go camping. TrackerTrail.com has step by step instructions for how to create fire with
nothing more than some chocolate and an aluminum can. The concave shape of the bottom of the can can be used to focus
light from the sun, much like a magnifying glass does. However, since the surface of the can is rather dull, it can't
focus light very precisely. That's where the chocolate comes in. Buffing the bottom of the can with the abrasive
chocolate will make it much shinier. Once you have your highly reflective can, it's just a matter of concentrating the
refracted light onto something that will catch fire. [Photo Trackertrail.com]
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