Kitchen "Wives tales."

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

You have to cook a turkey breast side down to have juicy and tender breast meat. Ask anyone who has eaten my roasted or barbecued turkey. I have proof, or at least witnesses.

And for the tin foil, if you are using it as a reflective tent, it is marginally better to place the shiny side away from the food. It reflects more heat away.

Hot water freezes faster than cold water. This myth is based on the idea that the greater the temperature differential between to substances, the faster energy will flow from the warmer to the colder, hence, cooling the warmer substance faster.

The problem with this idea is that when you first place, say, a hot liquid into the cold environment, there is indeed a greater transfer of energy. But that energy transfer slows as the hotter liquid cools. It will eventually reach the same transfer rate as another container of cold liquid placed into the freezer, at which point, if the volumes are the same, it will chill at the same rate as the liquid that was place in at the colder temperature. So you get the same chill rate as with the colder liquid, which means the same time for the liquid to freeze, plus the time required for it to chill to the temperature of the other liquid. There is no such thing as "energy inertia".

Northerners can't make proper fried chicken. All I can say to that is /

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Barbara L]

At least you said "your wife" instead of "the wife." Kind of a pet peve for me. I think I would have to at least hurt my husband if he sad "the wife" but I could just get him back with something worse smelling if he rubbed the onion smell in my hair. I know where he sleeps!

Anyway...I just thought of another one my Grandma used to say; "Roll up a ball of tin foil and throw it in the dryer instead of fabric softener to get rid of the static cling."

"The wife" is a big pet peeve of mine as well. My first husband (over 30 years ago, thank goodness) called me that a lot. Whenever he said that I would say, "THE wife, THE car, THE dog."

 

[babetoo]

It's the stainless steel. You can even buy squares of SS just for this purpose. I have a SS sink. It does work! Lemon juice works too.

i have one of those bars. it is in a drawer and i never use it. i wait for the soapy water that my hands are in, a lot. no smell there, either. lol

 

[jennyema]

I think the potato in too-salty dishes works.

I also think this one works....to get the odor of onions or garlic off of your hands, rub them well on your kitchen faucet. Something in the metal seems to cancel out the smell. Of course sometimes, I don't mind the smell on my hands.......especially if I've also been chopping fresh cilantro.

The stainless does work but the potato myth has been proven false by food scientists as well as home cooks. It doesn't work.

 

[CraigC]

Tree ripened avacados.

Craig

 

[luvs]

"The wife" is a big pet peeve of mine as well. My first husband (over 30 years ago, thank goodness) called me that a lot. Whenever he said that I would say, "THE wife, THE car, THE dog."

i think that ending that was a great choice; your james luvs u so!

 

[Barbara L]

Tree ripened avacados.

Craig

According to information I read put out by Avocado growers, they are ripe when they come off the tree--they just aren't soft enough to eat yet.

When I lived in Vista, CA there were quite a few avocado groves around, and we often heard coyotes howling from them at night. I read that coyotes would take fallen avocados and bury them. When they were soft they would dig them up and eat them.

 

[CraigC]

Hey BarbaraL, maybe so. I have a tree in my back yard, they are not Hass but another variety. They take 5-7 days once picked to ripen enough to eat. IMHO, if you can't pick it from the tree and eat it right away, then it really isn't ripe. Also remember that these Associations have an agenda. They want to sell avacados.

Craig

 

[TheNoodleIncident]

Hot water freezes faster than cold water.

do people actually believe/debate this?

 

[FrankZ]

Yes, people debate that.

 

[TheNoodleIncident]

Yes, people debate that.

wow

EDIT: ok, looks like under certain specific, rare circumstances, this actually CAN happen...though anyone heating their water with the intent of freezing it is still fooling themselves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpemba_effect

 

[DaveSoMD]

Boy do they debate it....

dose hot water freeze faster than cold? - Topic Powered by Social Strata

 

[Barbara L]

Hey BarbaraL, maybe so. I have a tree in my back yard, they are not Hass but another variety. They take 5-7 days once picked to ripen enough to eat. IMHO, if you can't pick it from the tree and eat it right away, then it really isn't ripe. Also remember that these Associations have an agenda. They want to sell avacados.

Craig

Yes, but as illustrated by the coyote story, they apparently fall off the tree before they are soft.

No matter, whenever I have a hard avocado I say it isn't ripe yet. To me soft = ripe.

Barbara

 

[Zhizara]

Yes, but as illustrated by the coyote story, they apparently fall off the tree before they are soft.

No matter, whenever I have a hard avocado I say it isn't ripe yet. To me soft = ripe.

Barbara

I lived next to a fertile avocado tree when they were ripe. They weren't soft enough to eat until they fell off the tree.

I'd stand right there, peel and eat the one that just fell off the tree. Mmmmm, just ripe.

 

[Barbara L]

I lived next to a fertile avocado tree when they were ripe. They weren't soft enough to eat until they fell off the tree.

I'd stand right there, peel and eat the one that just fell off the tree. Mmmmm, just ripe.

Yeah, I've never been fortunate enough to go through an avocado grove and have to wait for them in the store. Probably the hard ones that came off were blown off by a storm? It is probably a good thing I don't have an avocado grove--I'd be twice the size I am now!

Barbara

 

[chopper]

"The wife" is much better than "ole lady" which I dare my honey to say when referencing me...

Wouldn't aluminum foil scratch the finish on the inside of the dryer?

Yeah, DH doesn't say that one either!

OK, I tried the foil in the dryer thing just for you. It actually worked-no static cling. And so far...no scratches. I only dryed two loads though.

 

[cmarchibald]

Has anyone brought up the "salt makes water boil faster" yet? I was always told that it helps the water boil faster because the addition of the solvent "activates" the water molecules yada yada yada.....

I think my father the civil engineer just knew I was bad enough at math and science that I'd never question his logic. I was actually dead certain this was true until this thread came along and I decided to look it up.

Answers.com - Does adding salt to water make it boil faster

Oops....

 

[Skittle68]

Has anyone brought up the "salt makes water boil faster" yet? I was always told that it helps the water boil faster because the addition of the solvent "activates" the water molecules yada yada yada.....

I think my father the civil engineer just knew I was bad enough at math and science that I'd never question his logic. I was actually dead certain this was true until this thread came along and I decided to look it up.

Answers.com - Does adding salt to water make it boil faster

Oops....

I was always told the salt makes the noodles cook faster, due to the higher temperature of the water. As the website explains, this would be true if you added enough salt to choke a horse, but with the amount of salt the average person uses in a pot of pasta, it doesn't change the temperature even one degree.

Oh, and I already knew this- my chemistry teacher told us in high school!

 

[chopper]

I was always told the salt makes the noodles cook faster, due to the higher temperature of the water. As the website explains, this would be true if you added enough salt to choke a horse, but with the amount of salt the average person uses in a pot of pasta, it doesn't change the temperature even one degree.

Oh, and I already knew this- my chemistry teacher told us in high school!

At least the salt makes the pasta taste better!

 

[licia]

Yeah, I've never been fortunate enough to go through an avocado grove and have to wait for them in the store. Probably the hard ones that came off were blown off by a storm? It is probably a good thing I don't have an avocado grove--I'd be twice the size I am now!

Barbara

Barbara, the fat in avocados is really good for us. It is the other kind that we need to watch. I'd rather have mine from avocados than most other ways.