Cooking Myths

I received the book "Lobsters Scream When You Boil Them" by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough a few months ago.  It's a funny, witty book about popular myths that many of us buy in to while cooking.  The book has 101 popular cooking myths that they debunk.  Here are my top 10 most surprising cooking myths:

1.  Food prepared at home is safer than food prepared in a restaurant.
Restaurants have to keep up with a strict cleanliness code and if they don't, they will be fined or even shut down. I know that my kitchen is nowhere near as clean as a restaurant (this is referring mainly to fine dining- not fast food joints)

2.  All the alcohol cooks out of a dish.
Nope, not true.  85% of alcohol is still left after 1 min. of a full simmer, 25% is left after an hour, and 3.75% is still left after 7 hours.

3.  Store coffee beans in the freezer or the refrigerator.
I buy into this one and still keep my beans in the freezer.  However, to get the best coffee, buy whole beans, store in an air tight container away from sunlight, and ground right before you brew.

4.  To eat better, shop the perimeter of your supermarket.
I've heard this one a lot from various diets because the perimeter is where you find the fresh fruits, veggies, dairy, and fresh meats.  However, the inside of the aisles contain healthy beans, oatmeal, olive oils and vinegars, so don't be afraid to venture inside the aisles.

5.  Eating turkey makes you sleepy.
Turkey contains L-tryptophan and that's often blamed for people feeling sleepy after a large turkey dinner.  However, eggs, soybeans, chicken, cheese, and edamame all have it too and we never blame these foods for making us fall asleep.  We often feel sleepy after Thanksgiving due to the amount of food consumed, not just the turkey.

6.  Range free chickens are range free.
I wish that this were true.  However, chicken farmers can get away with saying that they're range free if the chicken even has 1 inch of outside space and is allowed access to that space.  It doesn't mean that the chickens are frolicking in the sunlight like we all wish.  However, if you can get quality truly free range chickens from a local farmer, then do it and feel less guilty.

7.  You crave sugar, fat, and salt because you're addicted to them.
Addiction has turned into the cop-out for everything.  Most food "addictions" are food dependencies that we have come to rely on.  Our palates are used to sweeter/saltier things and therefore, we depend on our food to taste a certain way.  Addiction is too harsh of a term to use for food.

8.  French women don't get fat.
Remember the book "French Women Don't Get Fat"?  I read it too and thought is was pretty much BS.  A statistic says that as of 2007, "42% of French women were obese" (however, 65% of American women are obese).  Their diets are probably better than ours with heart healthy fats and including red wine with meals, but they're getting to be a society of overweight people, just like here in America.

9.  Sugar leads to hyperactivity.
I liked how the book debunked this myth.  They said that people think this because when children are at a party and consume a lot of sugar, they are more hyper.  The authors point out that while there's sugar involved, there's also a lot of playing, games, singing, and toys.  Furthermore, I know plenty of adults that eat large amounts of sugar and they just sit on the couch- they're not running around like crazy.  So, don't blame the sugar.

10.  An open box of baking soda in the fridge absorbs odors.
I also still buy into this one even though I know better now.  Before I read this I did an experiment.  I cut 2 onions and placed them in my fridge, uncovered, by the brand new baking soda I just bought.  A few hours later, my fridge smelled like onions and pretty bad.  The authors state that the baking soda isn't acidic enough to absorb the many odors flying around in your fridge.  Bummer.  The best solution to make your fridge smell good?  Keep it clean and don't keep nasty smelling foods in there in the first place.