paulraphael

Repercussions: https://arstechnica.com/health/2024/12/journal-that-published-faulty-black-plastic-study-removed-from-science-index/ "The publisher of a high-profile, now-corrected study on black plastics has been removed from a critical index of academic journals amid questions about quality criteria, according to a report by Retraction Watch."

Or you can just dream about it ...

Without takeout containers my life would not work. I'm not afraid of polyethylene or polypropylene. I did replace my black plastic rectangular takeout containers with white ones after the scare article came out (and before the partial retraction). But not with any real sense of urgency. I remember when research first showed that BPA was harmful. I was struck by an interview with one of the molecular biologists on the research team. She was asked if she was going to get rid of all the polycarbonate in her life, and she said maybe she'd ditch old baby bottles if she had an infant. And she'd look for canned tomatoes in BPA-free cans. But she wasn't giving up her polycarbonate water bottle! And neither did I. No one can have my vintage '80s and '90s Nalgene bottles. They're too good. The amount of bad stuff that gets absorbed is a factor of time exposed, temperature, and acidity. Canned tomatoes are a perfect storm of bad news. Cold water in a hiking water bottle? You are guaranteed to die of something else.

Yup. They were off by an order of magnitude. They now think the daily exposure from using bad spatulas is less than a 10th the reference dose (EPA maximum safe daily dose, established by giving diseases to mice).

Cool, thanks for the updates. I haven't heard of flax fiber (besides as a laxative!). Will check out the video.

Has anyone done a proper triangle test to see if there's a real flavor difference? I'd bet against it. Iodized salt is less than 1 part in 22,000 iodine. And the remaining parts are salt—which has a pretty overwhelming flavor. You want to control for both bias and texture. Which means making something like a 2% solution in pure water. Everyone who tries the test gets three cups ... 2 with one kind of salt, one with the other. Their only job is to identify which one is different. I believe the old standard is that 9 out of 15 participants need to get it right to show a statistically significant difference. If anyone here is a math wiz, please correct this. It doesn't matter how strongly you think you can taste a difference in an uncontrolled test. Human minds (yours and mine included) are too wily to be trusted unless tricked into objectivity.

A few years ago, my parents were on their way to a friend's for thanksgiving. They got on the elevator in their building with a neighbor who was holding a huge covered platter, and looked consumed with rage. When they all got off the elevator, the neighbor muttered, "this is the last time I ask if I can bring anything."

I didn't. Trouble is you can't really know where in the temp/time curve you are. As the bird rests, interior temps rise a few degrees, and then drop. Without a graphing thermometer you won't know what the peak was, which determines how "well done" it is. Older experiments tell me I'm aiming for about 150F in the thigh and 145F in the breast. A few degrees higher is not a problem (and the breast always goes at least a little higher).

The question is all about probe placement. It's so easy to get bad readings (probe end too close to the surface, in an air pocket, touching a bone, etc.) What's your method for poking the bird?

There's a place called East Coast Retinning that's still in business. No experience with them. Or if you're a bit of an adrenaline junkie: https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Hand-Wiped-Tinning-of-Old-Copper-PotsPans-Inst/

The founder of Boardsmith used to participate in kitchen knife forums. He freely gave advice on how to make them yourself. Someone once asked him why he would give away his professional secrets. He said he knew that anyone who tried would report back to the forum how much work it was, and how they'd never try it again. And he was right!

I just cooked what's probably my dozenth turkey, using variations on the same method, and my 4th since getting a fancy multiprobe thermocouple thermometer. As I gloated in that former EG post, the thermocouple-headed hydra promised to vanquish any remaining shreds of stress or guesswork. Sadly, it doesn't. It works almost perfectly with more geometrically simple dinners (rib roasts, etc.). But there's something about a bird that defies reliable measurement, at least for me and my various thermometers. This year, I put more care than usual into probe placement. One of them went into what I thought was the thickest part of the thigh, inserted horizontally from the front. The other went into what I thought was the thickest part of the breast, also horizontally from the front. The third was an ambient probe for oven temperature. I think that ambient probe did its job, which was to tell me that the oven in my new house doesn't actually reach 500°F. Even when you crank it to 525. My IR thermometer concurred. This was an embarrassing thing to notice after roasting in it for 2 years. The worse part was that despite all my tricks, the breast probe was galloping off into the 160°F range (target was 143) while the thigh languished in the low 140s (target was 147). I messed with my foil barding and with rotating the bird and with switching between bake and broil to get the top to brown adequately, and finally just resigned myself to an overcooked bird. Which for me justifies creating an awkward moment for guests as I commit seppuku at the dining table with a carving knife. But alas—good news for me, bad news for the thermometer—the bird was close to perfect. I'm happy with the result, but not the process. It would have been easier and lower stress to just eyeball it. I have not tested the probes yet in boiling water. My strong guess is that they'll be fine. Within a degree or so. Which means that the problem, as it usually is, is with how to put them in the right place. Does anyone have the holy grail of poultry probing wisdom? Or should I surrender, and just eyeball it the old fashioned way?

I like arrowroot the best for sauces. My final thickening touch up for most sauces is 1 : 10 xanthan and arrowroot. Makes a slurry easily and just needs a low simmer to activate the starch. I'm experimenting with replacing the xanthan with tara gum. Arrowroot isn't good for things that will freeze, or for dairy. It's terrible in ice cream stabilizers. Tapioca is much better in these cases. I only like corn starch for where it's traditional. Chinese sauces etc. It has a very assertive texture and look.

This is my thinking also. The recipes that usually lean on the baking soda have buttermilk or yogurt or something else tangy ... I don't want to kill that flavor. I often adjust these recipes to use just a little baking soda, and get most of the leavening from powder. I try not to go too far, because baking powder's bitterness can be noticeable if you use enough.

We have a Zojirushi rice cooker, and lately I've been impatient and have just been making rice in the pressure cooker. It started when my girlfriend had bogarted the cooker to make brown rice, which is her private pleasure, and was hungry for some man rice. It was so easy I kept doing it. I've been making jasmine rice, 1 : 1:5 water ratio. Throw it in the pressure cooker, turn up the heat. Once it comes to pressure, cook for 4 minutes. Take off the heat and rest for 10. Done. Probably in a side-by-side test, rice from the Zojirushi robot would win. But the PC rice is just fine.