Adding salt to beans makes them tough. You must use a double boiler to melt chocolate. Searing meat seals in the juices. Kitchen myths like these live on far after science renders them inaccurate. While these myths should be debunked, we shouldn't forget the history that created them, says Bee Wilson of The Telegraph.
Ms. Wilson explores myths debunked in James Steen's recent book The Kitchen Magpie as well as other kitchen lore. Although we understand the science behind cooking much better than in generations past, Ms. Wilson argues that we should keep in mind the conditions in which our ancestors were operating when these myths came into being. Much of the lore belongs "to an era in which ingredients behaved differently. The advice to 'desalt' aubergines to draw out the bitter juices made sense when aubergines were acrid and full of seeds."
Likewise, Steen notes in his book that the chocolate melting rule made sense "when our mothers used that cheap chocolate-flavour covering" that separated easily. So even though we should lose the fear of checking souffles because we believe opening the oven door will make them collapse (it won't), we should not forget the lore entirely. "Right or wrong, these quaint rules are a reminder of how many cooks toiled before us in the kitchen."
Do you find any kitchen myths charming even though you know they aren't true?
4 comments
FuzzyChef
darcie_b
mr.paul
But, to be fair, I'm a data and science junkie. I do, however, find how they came about interesting. The why behind behaviour is often interesting. But I'm not charmed, and would sooner put my efforts in cooking somewhere productive.
hillsboroks