Stirred -- Unidirectional?

[maggiethecat]

I've been reading a late 20's cookbook for research purposes. Thrice, the authoress exhorts us to stir bechamel, cake batter etc. in one direction only.

What is up with that? Can reversing directions with the wooden spoon damage anything? The usual one- direction- only advice is applied to filing ones nails.

Is there any science going on here?

[snowangel]

no clue as to the undirectional thing, but both of my grandmothers taught me that you MUST stir in a figure eight.

And, yes, there is less slop on the sides on the pan or bowls, and my kids all know that you stir in a figure eight, just like you eat the point of a piece of pie or cake last.

[maggiethecat]

Hang head. Figure eight makes some sense, and I've never consciously F8ed. But this lady sticks, buckle and thong, to clockwise.

[srhcb]

I've been reading a late 20's cookbook for research purposes. Thrice, the authoress exhorts us to stir bechamel, cake batter etc. in one direction only.

What is up with that? Can reversing directions with the wooden spoon damage anything? The usual one- direction- only advice is  applied to filing ones nails.

Is there any science going on here?

←

And I suppose you stir the other way in the Southern Hemisphere?

SB (or if you're left-handed?)

[Carrot Top]

We return to cycles of the Moon. Be sure to howl accordingly.

QUOTE

Stirring—the biodynamic solution

Biodynamic stirring is the key to perfect risotto. For those of you not familiar with the biodynamics, this is the belief in following the rhythms of nature in agriculture and other things. One of the key elements in biodynamics is using the cycles of the moon to determine the best ways and times to accomplish this goal. These cycles are the secret to stirring risotto correctly.

At least that’s what you feel like when talking to various cooks talking about stirring risotto. It has to be stirred this way – no that way. Only counterclockwise no only clockwise. Soon it starts to sound like some mystery–maybe related to the cycles of the moon.

From eG's risotto thread by Craig Camp.

[maggiethecat]

I've been reading a late 20's cookbook for research purposes. Thrice, the authoress exhorts us to stir bechamel, cake batter etc. in one direction only.

What is up with that? Can reversing directions with the wooden spoon damage anything? The usual one- direction- only advice is  applied to filing ones nails.

Is there any science going on here?

←

And I suppose you stir the other way in the Southern Hemisphere?

SB (or if you're left-handed?)

←

I thought of the Antipodean anti-clockwise thing too. Really, it just seems so whack and arbitrary. Does not reversing directions break down the starch in a a better way?

Shall we live on the edge and change directions next time we stir a batter?

Hmmm. Biodynamics.

[srhcb]

I thought of the Antipodean  anti-clockwise thing too.  Really, it just seems so whack and arbitrary. Does not reversing directions break down the starch in a a better way?

Shall we live on the edge and change directions next time we stir a batter?

Hmmm. Biodynamics.

←

I'd heard that the Coriolis Effect causes toilets to swirl in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere.

I also heard that pigs tails all curl the same way, and wondered if the same phenomena held true in that case. I called the University of MN Ag Dept, Swine Division, but couldn't get a straight answer, (pun unintended).

SB (an idle mind is the devils workshop)

[SuzySushi]

The figure 8 is traditional for Swiss fondues, and it does make sense because it helps keep the cheese from glopping onto the spoon.

I recently learned another stirring method from a Japanese "hints" website that works very well: stir back and forth in a zig-zag. This seems to incorporate ingredients faster and more smoothly than stirring in traditional circular fashion.

[Pyewacket]

I'd heard that the Coriolis Effect causes toilets to swirl in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere.

Yeah, you gotta "flush and run" down there-otherwise, you get soaked!

[Carrot Top]

Shall we live on the edge and change directions next time we stir a batter?

Hmmm. Biodynamics.

←

It might be daring the universe in yet-unknown ways to stir any way but clockwise.

I've seen this injunction to do things clockwise in other things, too, in some old texts. One is injunctioned to sweep the floor of the house clockwise, too.

[Mallet]

I've heard the unidirectional stirring story with respect to stiring the filling in many chinese dumplings as well. No starch there though, but maybe the reasons are similar?

[Carrot Top]

Shall we live on the edge and change directions next time we stir a batter?

←

The wee folk won't like it, Maggie. I'm surprised you didn't think of that.

I've heard the unidirectional stirring story with respect to stiring the filling in many chinese dumplings as well. No starch there though, but maybe the reasons are similar?

←

I would think so.

And as you note in your sig line:

"there's nothing that spoils the taste of good ordinary food half so much as the memory of bad magic food"

-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

One just can't be too careful with these things. Whether there is a wardrobe in the house or not. Even a spoon can have magical powers. (Come to think of it, they often do.)

[djyee100]

I did a search on Google for "stirring in one direction," and I came up with some examples of why you would want to stir in one direction.

- To form a thin thread, as when making soap http://waltonfeed.com/old/soap/soapchem.html, adding wax to cosmetics, or cooking egg drop soup.

- To avoid clumps, as when making polenta.

- To develop gluten in a recipe for medieval army bread. http://dialup.pcisys.net/~mem/bread.html See "campaign bread."

A science page for kids illustrates how cream soup is an elastic substance. If you stir it in one direction and stop, the soup moves in the opposite direction. This implies that stirring these kinds of liquids in one direction minimizes sloshing (as various people on this thread have intuited). I'm guessing the fat in these liquids causes the elasticity and bounce. http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/a_stirring_sight_.html

Another possibility: The flour in the 1920s may not have been milled or sifted as finely as our flour, so you would stir in one direction to break up lumps against the side of the bowl.

The Google search also came up with some scientific papers on stirring and fluid dynamics, but those were way beyond me.

No references about multidirectional stirring and offending Those Who Must Not Be Named, but I only scanned the first 3 pages of results from the Search...

[maggiethecat]

Diyee: Wow -- thanks for the links. I'm going to read them and try to figure out if they apply to the recipes my cookbook Authoress cited.

[Maliaty]

And speaking from the southern hemisphere - I stick to clockwise. And our toilets don't spurt! Seriously, the coriolis effect is pretty weak, and I think I have read that the shape of the bowl has far more to do with it, Simpsons cartoons notwithstanding.

Cheers

Maliaty

[piperdown]

I don't think it matters on most things, but with high protein liquids I think it does matter. I think it has to do with protein coagulation (from what I remember of McGee's), and long proteins sticking to each other. I've found this to be especially true for Fondues. My friend and I were stirring a pot each on a stove, and I kept the same direction, and he mixed it up. His turned out much clumpier, and mine was pretty smooth. His end of the table got the clumpy one.

[andiesenji]

As a child, I was taught never to stir anything "widdershins" because that would "invite the devil in" - My grandfather's cook was extremely superstitious and wouldn't pick certain herbs except at the times that was deemed correct. This carried on to turning pie dough while rolling it out, always turned clockwise, and so on.

One of her daughters who began helping in the kitchen in her teens, was left-handed and always had to remind herself how to stir because it was more natural for her to stir in an outward-swirling motion, which was counter-clockwise.

I know when I make lemon curd it always turns out better if it is always stirred in the same direction - the only time I get lumps is when I deviate from this routine. And, when I found it getting difficult to do the constant stirring required for this, I bought one of the Stir-Chef automatic stirrer - and it turns clockwise!!

[Jensen]

I have a recipe of my great-grandmother's for apple cheesecake that calls for stirring the filling in one direction only. I don't know if the recipe was hers or was handed down to her. She was born in the 1880s or so.

Apple cheesecake is not what it sounds like...it's a lemon curd (something we always called "lemon cheese" when I was growing up) pie with apple slices in the filling. Interesting that Andisenji stirs her lemon cheese in one direction...

[djyee100]

As a child, I was taught never to stir anything "widdershins" because that would "invite the devil in" 

A professor of religion and myths pointed out to me that the Native American swastika symbol turns clockwise, but the Nazi swastika turns counterclockwise.