This bothers me

[bethzaring]

i am researching a recipe for a chicken stock that is heavy on garlic. I need to get chicken bones out of the freezer but don't have my usual stock vegetables available from the garden yet. I do have garlic and want to make a medicinal stock. My method usually yields 11 quarts of stock. I have seen things in this photo many times before and can not understand how or why chefs do this. There is soil in the roots of garlic, and onions. Why aren't the roots cut off?

 

[Termy]

It is because it is for the whole thing. If someone wants to use the root that works fine. Want them to cut them, package and weigh them ? Most will just say to try up the street. It's just asking too much.

T

 

[taxlady]

I don't even cut an onion in half without cutting off the roots. One time seeing a streak of mud on the cut onion was enough for me. Okay, I'm weird. I "shave" off the roots. I would do that if I was putting an entire bulb of garlic in a stock. I agree, get rid of the roots of onion and garlic before adding to stock.

 

[larry_stewart]

Im a root cutter offer myself. Especially being a gardener and having harvested garlic and onions many times, I know how dirty the roots can get and how sometimes difficult it can be to get them as clean as I want them. I cant see how the roots and knobby thing at the end would have any benefit ,so for the extra 10 seconds it may take, why not just clean it up a bit. But then again, Having eaten all kinds of stuff right out of the garden, I an only imagine how much dirt and bugs I've eaten over the years.

 

[blissful]

Beth, I'm kind of doubting chefs are putting the root end into the stock/broth. I'd guess most likely, it is the people setting up the pictures for photography deciding to show a root end of the garlic in the 'soup' to make the garlic recognizable.

 

[dragnlaw]

I agree with Larry and taxy. Cut the roots off. If that is a photo from a recipe book, article or something to that effect, don't forget that professional food photographers doctor the pictures to make them look scrumpdillyishious.

Which means that they will spray unfinished food with oil, use raw food, careful placing of items on top of liquids, etc.

I personally think the roots were left on for photographic reasons only. What chef wants to make extra work for themselves?

edit: doggone blissful, guess I'm typing really slow this morning! LOL

 

[taxlady]

Probably the chefs don't do it the way some of those pictures show. But, when I look for a recipe, I want one that explains the process. If the recipe is there for people to use as a recipe, then the pictures should look the way the food looks at various stages of the recipe.

If their intended audience is just people who will read the recipe and never use it, then staged pictures might be more appealing. If I can't trust the picture, can I trust the recipe?

 

[gerardj]

i am researching a recipe for a chicken stock that is heavy on garlic. I need to get chicken bones out of the freezer but don't have my usual stock vegetables available from the garden yet. I do have garlic and want to make a medicinal stock. My method usually yields 11 quarts of stock. I have seen things in this photo many times before and can not understand how or why chefs do this. There is soil in the roots of garlic, and onions. Why aren't the roots cut off?

If something bothers me I don't do it. But consider this,

The FDA allows for 5 parts per million of rat hair anywhere in the food supply chain, its impossible to be rid of it unless all food is processed like pharmaceutical companies do, then a carrot would cost $50.

Eating raw soil is a good way to contract worms, cooked soil is safe.
Not tasty but not really harmful if cooked .
In a busy production kitchen there isn't time for trimming the trimmings.

 

[bethzaring]

Probably the chefs don't do it the way some of those pictures show. But, when I look for a recipe, I want one that explains the process. If the recipe is there for people to use as a recipe, then the pictures should look the way the food looks at various stages of the recipe.

If their intended audience is just people who will read the recipe and never use it, then staged pictures might be more appealing. If I can't trust the picture, can I trust the recipe?

This is my point and concern. This is an issue I have seen many times on the internet and in instructional videos; putting untrimmed onions and garlic in cooking foods.

I understand what the FDA allows for foreign particles in commercially prepared canned goods. I ate a significant amount of dirt as a child, making mud pies. I no longer intentionally add soil to my foods or pressure canned products.

My concern is seeing soil added to food products in instructional recipes and videos. Of course I trim my vegetables and even scrape carrots because the wrinkle in the carrot skin harbors soil as well. Having taken a semester course on food safety and sanitation, I am really cautious in the way I handle raw foodstuffs.

Thank you all for your comments.

 

[gerardj]

This is my point and concern. This is an issue I have seen many times on the internet and in instructional videos; putting untrimmed onions and garlic in cooking foods.

I understand what the FDA allows for foreign particles in commercially prepared canned goods. I ate a significant amount of dirt as a child, making mud pies. I no longer intentionally add soil to my foods or pressure canned products.

My concern is seeing soil added to food products in instructional recipes and videos. Of course I trim my vegetables and even scrape carrots because the wrinkle in the carrot skin harbors soil as well. Having taken a semester course on food safety and sanitation, I am really cautious in the way I handle raw foodstuffs.

Thank you all for your comments.

The photo says to me the cook likely has some experience in a professional kitchen, no drama allowed.
In the best kitchens, carrot peel goes in the stock.
Onion end cuts go in too. Celery root and green.
All the damaged tomato.

 

[dragnlaw]

Whew! glad I don't eat at those "high-end" kitchens!

all the more reason to stay at home at eat your own.

 

[Just Cooking]

well, for shizzle!! 82 years old and I ain't never had an authentic meal, prepared by a real pro.

Ross

 

[Mary E]

My first post, but I will jump in and suggest that perhaps they cleaned up the roots?

 

[Bitser]

I scub vegs and slice off the root ends. But I also know that particles of mineral soil will end up in the dregs of the pot, so I toss out the bottom 1/4 inch. No grit in my soup!

 

[dragnlaw]

Hi there, Mary E and Welcome to DC!

 

[skilletlicker]

I respect the posters in this thread. Lots of things tickin' me off lately but not this. The root end of that onion looks like it's been cleaned pretty well but the photo looks more like an artistically arranged still life than a finished serving bowl and it certainly isn't a picture of a working stockpot.

Most folks are gonna eat their peck of dirt before the final nap. I know I have.