Licking the pot

[fifi]

Having finished a batch of Mexican Burnt Sugar Candy last night, this morning I have to say that I got into the "Zen" of pot licking. Here was this pot with candy clinging to it and I just couldn't submit it to the torrent of hot water without first scraping at the residue with a spoon to make a breakfast of the leavings. It was sort of like the pot had given its all, the leavings were there for the taking, and the cook really needed to do this to "honor" the pot.

I do the same thing with cookie dough in the KitchenAid bowl, with the baking pan and the pan gravy, and with the sauce pan with the Hollandaise. It is sort of like I really need to do this. I can't subject a pot to the Dawn and hot water without doing a good licking if there is anything there.

Are any of you so inclined, obsessed?

[suzilightning]

chocolate mousse and my all time favorite - angel food cake batter...

[Ling]

I always scrape up the bits in the pot, whether it's caramel or cookie dough...but this is in addition to the bowl of cookie dough I eat on the side, so it's not really a "waste" issue.

I'm not so inclined to lick the pot for anything savoury, but I do try to get every last bit of sauce or mashed potato from the pot and into the serving dish. I don't like to waste food.

[Gifted Gourmet]

It was sort of like the pot had given its all, the leavings were there for the taking, and the cook really needed to do this to "honor" the pot.

Are any of you so inclined, obsessed?

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Well put, indeed, when you "honor" the pot! I "honor" not only pots but pans, mixing bowls, spoons, you-name-it ... It is those unseen calories which don't make it into the final, formal dish, which taste oh-so-sweet! Thanks for the thread, Fifi!

[Kent Wang]

How do you lick a pot? I don't suppose you actually stick your tongue in there. More like hand (or other tool) to mouth, right?

I've been to known to lick plates and bowls directly with my tongue when noone is around. It can leave your tongue sore the next day, but I consider it a workout!

[andiesenji]

Ah yes, the favorite "clingy bits" that end up as a sort of gooey rim around the pot after jam or jelly has been ladeled out. The top edge of the cooking jam always sort of works it way up a little above the level of the jam and becomes "candied" almost the consistency of a jujube.

I have discovered that I can get the entire thing off in an unbroken string if I use a thin-bladed butter knife lightly heated over a burner flame.

[Lori in PA]

No, I don't actually lick pots -- the forefinger is perfectly shaped for bending and running around the sides, bottom, and corners of all pots -- I've never met a vessel I couldn't conquer this way.

Andiesenji, that's a refined gummy jam removal technique you have there!

Today, I licked the remains of of KA mixer bowl of pumpkin spiced cheesecake. Yum!

[avocado]

I made pumpkin cookies with penuche frosting the other day...and let me tell you, I licked the pot, the bowl, the beaters, the spoon, the spoon again, and again...oops, I guess eating the frosting before it's out of the bowl is kind of cheating.

[mizducky]

It was sort of like the pot had given its all, the leavings were there for the taking, and the cook really needed to do this to "honor" the pot.

Are any of you so inclined, obsessed?

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Well put, indeed, when you "honor" the pot! I "honor" not only pots but pans, mixing bowls, spoons, you-name-it ... It is those unseen calories which don't make it into the final, formal dish, which taste oh-so-sweet! Thanks for the thread, Fifi!

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Hey, by my rules, pot-lickings don't contain any calories. Just like the broken cookies at the bottom of the box--y'know, the process of cookie breakage causes the calories to leak out.

(Sez she who has licked a whole lotta pots, and bowls, and beaters, and etc. in her time...)

[Susan G]

Tapioca pudding remnants from the cooking pot.

[bavila]

The other day, the beaters from my daughters' birthday cupcake batter, and earlier today a bit of molasses-butter-brown sugar mixture for gingerbread cookies I'll be baking shortly.

I usually don't leave much in the pot to be licked, but I almost always lick the tool with which I remove stuff from the pot.

[andiesenji]

The other day, the beaters from my daughters' birthday cupcake batter, and earlier today a bit of molasses-butter-brown sugar mixture for gingerbread cookies I'll be baking shortly.

I usually don't leave much in the pot to be licked, but I almost always lick the tool with which I remove stuff from the pot.

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I have noticed that the "new" silicone spoon-shaped spatula/scrapers (spoonulas?) hold onto a lot more batter, frosting, whatever, that the old type rubber ones. In fact, everything seems to cling like glue to the silicone. Unless you put it aside for licking, you actually have to use something else to scrape it all off the silicone. The reason I got them was they were supposed to be "cling-free" as well as high temp safe..........

[tejon]

Drifts of whipped cream after I'd iced a cake. I shared with the boys, though mainly so the cup or so of rich cream didn't all go to me...this time .

[prasantrin]

Last night I ate some left-over popcorn (stove-popped) with salt and butter. Then I used my finger to scrape up the last drops of butter (and some of the salt) out of the bowl. I would do the same thing tonight, but I'm all out of popcorn!

[bloviatrix]

I made quince comfits per Jackal10's recipes earlier in the week. The bits stuck to the pot were really sweet and good. But I've got to hand it to my friend K. She was over the other night when I made persimmon muffins. As I filled up the last muffin cup she started giving me "basset hound" eyes and asked if she could lick out the bowl. You would have thought the bowl had been scrubbed clean when she was done with it.

[racheld]

The last time the Grandbabies were here, they "licked" the frosting bowl, with the six-year-old and her wooden spoon making neat scrapes so as to get the last little sweetness. 17-month-old sat in her highchair throne and was given my best new space-age-plastic spatula, a neat red one, with an artfully-spread thin layer of frosting covering every inch of the business end.

She licked and slurped, getting the corners into her mouth, using her little pink tongue to its utmost. After assuring that no harm could come to her from the utensil, I scrubbed a few dishes, then turned to see that she was heartily chewing away on that lovely rubbery item, giving her little jaws quite a workout.

And now, imprinted for all time in my spatula, are myriad little double fang-marks, from those two wee precious bottom teeth.

(Prequel to this story is the tale of her sister's own flyswatter. I had a neat green plastic one, which our older Granddaughter craved mightily when she was about a year old. One day in the store, she reached out those baby arms and gave forth a stream of gibberish which firmly stated that she would have that nice hot-pink plastic one hanging there in the bunch on Aisle Four.

She brought that thing home, with the absolute caveat to all in the household that it was HERS, would always be HERS, and thence was NEVER to be used for its intended purpose. She chewed it, she swung it, she danced with it, and then chewed it some more. Never since Nitti's Gat has a killing apparatus been so loved and pampered and drooled over. She loved that flyswatter with a devotion given to none of her dolls and toys and scarcely to any of the family. It slept beside her on her pillow for a while, enjoyed an occasional bubblebath, and once made its way to Sunday School under cover of a winter coat).

That nice pink swatter is still hanging in the pantry, long forgotten by its mistress and cast aside like the Velveteen Rabbit, and is now keeping company with a nice red $5.95 non-meltable, heatproof, scratchproof, everything-but-toothproof spatula.

Edited December 11, 2005 by racheld (log)

[miladyinsanity]

I lick the bowl when I melt chocolate or when my mom makes kaya--we use bread to wipe the bowl.

[SuzySushi]

(Prequel to this story is the tale of her sister's own flyswatter.  I had a neat green plastic one, which our older Granddaughter craved mightily when she was about a year old.  One day in the store, she reached out those baby arms and gave forth a stream of gibberish which firmly stated that she would have that nice hot-pink plastic one hanging there in the bunch on Aisle Four. 

She brought that thing home, with the absolute caveat to all in the household that it was HERS, would always be HERS, and thence was NEVER to be used for its intended purpose.    She chewed it, she swung it, she danced with it, and then chewed it some more.  Never since Nitti's Gat has a killing apparatus been so loved and pampered and drooled over.    She loved that flyswatter with a devotion given to none of her dolls and toys and scarcely to any of the family.  It slept beside her on her pillow for a while, enjoyed an occasional bubblebath, and once made its way to Sunday School under cover of a winter coat).

  That nice pink swatter is still hanging in the pantry, long forgotten by its mistress and cast aside like the Velveteen Rabbit, and is now keeping company with  a nice red $5.95 non-meltable, heatproof, scratchproof, everything-but-toothproof spatula. 

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Oooooooh.... cute!!! This triggers a memory of when my daughter was 3 (she's now 9) and we were traveling back East and staying at a friend's place in NYC. We'd brought along what we thought were her favorite toys... but when we were checking out Eli Zabar's Vinegar Factory, a new-to-us gourmet market, my daughter fell in love with some brightly colored plastic vegetable brushes! There was a soft-bristled yellow one meant to remove corn silk, a stiff brown one to scrub potatoes, a green one and an orange one... They were cheap enough, no more than a couple of bucks apiece, so we bought all four. And she played with them, and lined them up, and talked to them all through our trip and back home again.

I asked her just now what she thought they were, when she was talking to them. She said, "I pretended they were little humans. Okay, I pretended they were dolls. It was something to do when I was lonely."

[Daniel]

It was sort of like the pot had given its all, the leavings were there for the taking, and the cook really needed to do this to "honor" the pot.

Are any of you so inclined, obsessed?

←

Well put, indeed, when you "honor" the pot! I "honor" not only pots but pans, mixing bowls, spoons, you-name-it ... It is those unseen calories which don't make it into the final, formal dish, which taste oh-so-sweet! Thanks for the thread, Fifi!

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Melissa,

I dont even know if the unseen calories actually have an effect on the body.. Its really anything you eat on the plate that is fattening, There are many meals I cook, where I am full before I finish making..

[FabulousFoodBabe]

A particularly fine batch of Royal Icing, with just a bit of vanilla and peppermint extracts in it. Ahhhhh.

[misstenacity]

Last night I ate some left-over popcorn (stove-popped) with salt and butter.  Then I used my finger to scrape up the last drops of butter (and some of the salt) out of the bowl.  I would do the same thing tonight, but I'm all out of popcorn!

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Hehe. A bit more disgusting but a friend of mine in college would lick/scrape/eat every molecule of the artificial salty butter flavor out the inside of each bag of microwave popcorn he ever made.

Myself - yesterday I liked the whisk with which I had just made alfredo sauce. Mmmm....

I also have a fascination with milk skin and the burnt-on layer that milk makes in the bottom of a pan, such that I made a "crepe" out of one of these and blogged about it:

http://tenacity.net/2005/11/i-am-gawdamned-freak.html

Andrea

http://tenacity.net

[MicBacchus]

I'm making the Beef Rendang from the Molly Steven's book as we speak -- I can't help scraping the sides of the pot and taking a taste. By the time it's finished, I'll probably be full! Have you noticed on some of the cooking shows that they leave a lot in the bowls? Sometimes it looks like they leave at least a serving behind! That's one of my pet peeves I guess.

[Ling]

Well, choux pastry dough isn't particularly tasting, so I went for the condensed milk in the tin today.

[handmc]

I made a Tuscan pot roast with a procini red wine gravy. I took the carmelized onions, garlic, celery, porcinis and carrots it brasied in tossed in a little Demi, some red wine wizzed it and mounted it with a little butter at the end. Then I tossed in some Rosemary sprigs at the end to perfume the sauce just a little.

Man oh Man...I left that pot clean. My fussy girls devoured the roast so there is not but a quart of gravy left.

[racheld]

Well, choux pastry dough isn't particularly tasting, so I went for the condensed milk in the tin today. 

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That's how the Grandbabies learned----their Mama can hear that can opener from three rooms away, just like Kitty can. She and a can of Eagle brand and a spatula can spend an hour in bliss. I have to hide my face when she licks the lid.