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Boiling vegetables in Plastic bags

Bloated

By Bloated
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Bloated

Bloated

Posted
Posted

I am planning to boil potatoes sealed with single cream inside a plastic bag- then mash it all up together.

Does anyone know what grade plastic bag would be safe/suitable? Could I use a sandwich bag and tie it up?

PS by all means knock this mashed potato experiment but do answer the plastic bag question as well!

thank you

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Suzanne F

Suzanne F

Posted
Posted

I rather doubt that the kind of bag you'd need is readily available to the general public -- unless you have one of those "vacuum sealing" (sous vide) systems. What you need is something quite heavy that can take heat without softening. Something that can be used for cooking in a microwave, perhaps. A regular sandwich bag would certainly NOT do -- too flimsy.

As for knocking your experiment -- not I. :biggrin: I just wonder WHY you want to try it.

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
Posted

Bloated, you would definitely need cryovac quality plastic.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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elyse

elyse

Posted
Posted (edited)

>>What you need is something quite heavy that can take >>heat without softening. Something that can be used >>for cooking in a microwave, perhaps. A regular >>sandwich bag would certainly NOT do -- too flimsy.

Sorry I can't answer your question Bloated, but I wanted to throw out a word of caution about microwaving in plastic. Chemicals leech out into the food from certain plastics (I don't trust any of them) and cause all sorts of maladies.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=10&...ch=&safe=images

Jeez, that's a long address, but if you want to read about it, copy and paste. I know microwaving isn't the point of this thread, but it may be importantish to someone.

For some reason, before this was posted, the address was endless. On the board, quite short. If it doesn't work, I went to google, advanced search, and wrote "do not microwave in plastic" in the exact phrase section.

Edited by elyse (log)
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tommy

tommy

Posted
Posted

a sandwich bad seems right out. i'm pretty sure they're not made for heat, and probably don't have a very tight seal. i'm guessing the heat from boiling will blow the seal on practically any zip loc. you might want to test without cream or potatoes first.

and, of course, why are you doing this? others might phrase that question in the less elegant, although completely effective, manner of :blink::blink::blink: . one question i have is what is going to happen to the cream as it's exposed to 212 degrees for that long? perhaps nothing bad, but that might be a consideration. i know some people boil potatoes in milk, but i've heard nothing markedly positive coming from that.

tommy:eats.com
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torakris

torakris

Posted
Posted

When camping we sometimes make scrambled eggs in ziploc freezer bags with out a problem.

Don't know how they would work with longer cooking potatoes though

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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col klink

col klink

Posted
Posted

I don't know about cooking from scratch in plastic bags, but on several occasions I've vacuum sealed bbq, froze it (or not) and reheated it in the very same bags via boiling in water and microwave and they come out at least 85% - 90% as good as when I took them off the smoker. I highly recomend getting a vacuum sealer.

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
Posted

Nick, cryovac bags are commonly used for poaching. But what I mean is that grade of plastic.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Ladybug

Ladybug

Posted
Posted

The only reason I can think of for attempting such a thing is to prevent the potatoes from absorbing any water as they cook. Hmmmmm. Might be an interesting experiment with the right sort of plastic, but I'd add the cream afterwards.

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Nick

Nick

Posted
Posted

Jin, before I posted my above, I did a google search on "cryovac plastic" and came up with quite a bit of stuff (a lot from manufacturers) and couldn't find any reference to using with heat. It all seemed to be about storage - and it is great for that. So, it reinforced my feeling that food should not be heated in it. I know there are miracle plastics out there, but I have my doubts about using any of them around heat. While I've never made a terrine, I sort of shudder at the thought of lining the mold with plastic wrap as called for in many recipes.

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
Posted

Nick, I wouldn't do it either. But some others have.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Jon Tseng

Jon Tseng

Posted
Posted (edited)

have you thought about using double cream instead of single

single splits at high heat - though to be honest don't know off hand if 100c is hot enough to do any damage

I've seen similar recipes for spuds cooked in a bag with a little bit of goose fat, sometimes called "fondant potatos". Supposed to be good. Of course they don't go and mash them afterwards, which would make the difference

cheerio

J

Edited by Jon Tseng (log)
More Cookbooks than Sense - my new Cookbook blog!
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