# Of cooking and food preparation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405 "2005-10-29T02:05:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/41 "2005-10-31T21:46:42Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > BTU/lb/F? I’m way too tired to try and figure out how to convert that :P. Do you have any figures for metals? It’s BTU’s per Pound per degree F. Specific heats of some other materials are (for the temperature range of 70 -150 degrees C): [ul] [li]Concrete - 0.156[/li][li]Glass - 0.16 to 0.20[/li][li]Pyrex - 0.20[/li][li]Steel - 0.12[/li][li]Aluminum - 0.23[/li][li]Copper - 0.095[/li][li]Silver - 0.05[/li][li]Iron - 0.12[/li][/ul] The specific heat for the metals increases as temperatures increase. Hope this helps! ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/42 "2005-10-31T21:48:00Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > BTU/lb/F? I’m way too tired to try and figure out how to convert that :P. Do you have any figures for metals? I should have stated that it is the same value in metric units of gram-calories per gram per degreeC! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/43 "2005-10-31T22:20:18Z")
Another vote for Alton Brown and Good Eats. Not only does he know what he’s talking about, but he’s an absolutely phenomenal teacher. He’s like Harold McGee crossed with Bill Nye the Science Guy. His TV show and his books have completely changed the way I approach food preparation. Re the “oil in the pasta water” debate above, if you’re having trouble with pasta sticking together in the pot as it boils, you’re not using enough water. Use a large or very-large pot and lots of (salted) water. You need a large vessel because a rolling boil will agitate the pasta and keep it from clumping with itself. No need for oil at all. And when it’s done, drain the pasta, then immediately add the sauce and toss. ---
**Author:** ![JustAnotherGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/44 "2005-10-31T22:29:30Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > add the sauce and toss. True. I _always_ toss with at little bit of sauce (but not the whole pan). Makes the sauce stick to pasta, keeps the pasta from sticking to the pasta, and it makes reheating a snap - nuke the sauce, boil the leftover pasta for all of 60 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/45 "2005-10-31T23:04:11Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > I find that margarine, while unhealthy (remember when they thought it was good for you?) Now now, they make _trans_-fat-free margarine these days. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/46 "2005-11-01T00:25:55Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > I found this method of pureeing garlic in a recipe recently, and it takes patience and not-awful knife skills (would never let my husband do it, for instance, he cooks like a dream but still has a habit of cutting himself.) > > Get your amount of garlic peeled and roughly chopped. Make sure you have expansive cutting board. Sprinkle a small amount of coarse salt over garlic. Rub the flat side of a knife back and forth over the garlic and salt, pressing down. The salt crystals help crush the garlic into what turns out to be a divinely smooth puree but it takes a good amount of patience and some herding of garlic pieces around the chopping board at first. Good method, but wrong tool for the job. To make delectable garlic paste, suitable for spreading on pork and lamb roasts to make them perfect, a mortar and pestle is the preferred utensil. Rough chop the garlic, then start mashing in the mortar, add a bit of coarse salt to the mix and perhaps some fresh herbs–rosemary and oregano are very nice–then when it’s all a lovely smooth paste incorporate some olive oil. Score the roast (pork shoulder butt roast is best this way, or a boned leg of lamb) in about inch wide squares, about 1/2-3/4 inch deep and spread the garlic paste liberally with a brush. Roast until the meat forms a crispy crust. Smells appalling when you begin to cook, but becomes ambrosial after a half hour or so. If you’re making the boned lamb leg use rosemary for sure in the garlic paste, and before you roll and tie the roast spread the inside with a mixture of bleu or feta cheese, shallots and olive oil pureed to a goo in a blender or food processor. Now this one stinks like dirty sweatsocks at first but by the time it’s done people a block away will be salivating. On the pasta issue, no oil, just way more salt than you’d ever think prudent–like a couple large handfuls for a good sized pot of water. Caught this trick on a cooking show about pasta–premier pasta chefs in Italy swear by it and it does make the pasta not so sticky, also makes it pre seasoned. I don’t rinse my pasta usually, only tortellini for salad. Rinsing makes the sauce not stick properly too. Don’t stop with the onion, get friendly with all of the allium family–leeks, shallots, scallions, garlic, all the lovely bulbs. Allium is our friend… ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/47 "2005-11-01T01:54:16Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Allium is our friend… Except of course for Allium-cBeal. ---
**Author:** ![MyNameIsEarl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@MyNameIsEarl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyNameIsEarl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/48 "2005-11-01T07:26:17Z")
OK, I didn’t read the entire thread (I got lost when tables and arguments about Imperial vs. Metricgot involved), but here are my two tips for you: 1. Don’t cook with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. There’s the whole “smoke point” issue, but my thing is all about taste and cost. Extra virgin oil has delicate flavors that disappear the second you heat it about 100F, so buying EV for cooking onions and garlic is silly and a waste of money. Use “pure” olive oil for cooking and save the extra virgin for salad dressings and bread dipping. 2. (I can’t believe I’m going to say this!) If you’re an inexperienced cook, perhaps you might want to start off your Food Network journey with Rachel Ray’s _30 Minute Meals_ instead of Alton Brown. I say this not because Rachel Ray is a good cook (trust me, she isn’t), but because she makes meals that (IMHO) more people are more likely to eat on a daily basis. I love Alton Brown to the very core of my being and have learned more from watching _Good Eats_ than any other cooking show ever. But sometimes the things Alton makes simply aren’t practical. You Food Network people know what I’m talking about: “Make your own cottage cheese on tonight’s _Good Eats_ - it’ll only take 22 ingredients, 37 different utensils and 19 hours of your time (plus 3 days for the cheese to set!”. Nothing Rachel Ray makes is complicated, most folks have the ingredents handy, and they’re usually portioned for 2 people. One you get the hang of just being in a kitchen, _then_ switch over to Alton. - MyNameIsEarl, co-author of _Rachel Ray’s ‘When In Doubt, Just Add Nutmeg!’_, _Rachel Ray’s 'Still In Doubt? Try Poultry Seasoning!"_ and _Rachel Ray’s 'Of Course It Only Takes 30 Minutes - My Staff Spends Hours Putting Ingredients And Pots Just Where I’ll Need Them!"_ ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405/49 "2005-11-01T08:12:47Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > Can’t remember where I heard it – might have been Jeff Smith – but I’ve been following it ever since and it seems to hold. I don’t know the science behind it. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen instructions to the contrary in a recipe. YMMV, etc. Yep, it was the “Frug”, alright. I’ve met with mixed success with this, though. And frankly, although I was a big fan of both him and his show, I found the recipes in his book to be inconsistent. Some of it was very good and some of it really wasn’t very good at all. But the stuff that was good was really good. I was surprised to hear that when he died recently he was only in his mid-sixties. I thought he was he was in his mid-sixties twenty years ago. 😛 Anyway, R.I.P, Frug. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cooking-and-food-preparation/328405.md?page=2)