Alton Brown Answers, At Last

We knew this was going to take a while -- it turned out to be just about one month since the question post -- due to some show-taping problems Alton had. He was kind enough to warn us about the delay, a warning regular Slashdot Interview readers picked up. Anyway, here we go. (Warning: Reading this interview may cause hunger.)

1) My question
by mofolotopo
Something I've found as a newbie chef is that a good 75.32% of good cooking is good shopping. What tips do you have for finding good, fresh ingredients? Where the heck do you get fresh herbs etc. in a smallish town?

Alton: First off, you need to decentralize your shopping. Don't try to get everything in one place. Even if you don't have a farmers market in the area, I'm willing to bet there's a co-op or health food store that will open up your options. Ditto a butcher. As for fresh herbs, if they're really a problem to find in your area, try growing your own when and where climate allows. The rest of the time, buy dry herbs and spices over the internet from someone like Penzeys or The Spice House. Above all, do not drive yourself crazy. Learn to work with what you have. Oh, and don't forget ethnic markets; they often have the best produce as well as meat.

2) Why are some people better Cooks?
by kallistiblue
I've noticed that some people seem to be naturally better cooks than others. I've know several people that follow a recipe very exactly. The food they create just doesn't turn out very good. Personally, I'll use a recipe as a guideline and use rough estimates. Most of the time, my meals turn out pretty well. It's as if an intuitive sense is needed.

How does someone learn/teach this skill?

Alton: First, you need to become a good recipe follower. Most people who think they can't cook aren't really taking time to properly read the recipes they're working from or they don't really understand what they're being asked to do. For instance, there are plenty of recipes out there that call for "searing" a piece of meat. If you don't know what "searing" really is, you're doomed. Unfortunately most recipes are written for people that already know how to cook. So start by really paying attention to a recipe and make sure you understand it. Then cook it a few times keeping detailed notes about the process and your feelings about the final dish. Keep notebooks?write down as much as you can and slowly you'll begin to learn what you're doing. As long as you're willing to think and taste as you go, you can become a cook?I promise.

3) Vegetarians
by sammy.lost-angel.com
As a vegetarian, I'm compelled to ask this: Have you seen a trend in recent years of more vegetarians, or more dishes made without meat? Time magazine had a recent cover story about this, and my feeling is it's becoming a more important part of everyone's lives, yet whenever I catch a cooking show on TV it lacks making many vegetarian dishes.

Alton: Americans don't eat near enough vegetables. I'm not a vegetarian, though I do respect anyone who makes a hard and fast decision about what he or she is going to live on. All you have to do is look at the health statistics from countries whose cuisines are lighter on meat and heavy on veggies and fish?They live, longer. It's as simple as that. What I would hate to see is a radical swing away from meat. I think we evolved as omnivores for a reason. And that's all I have to say about that.

4) Lower Fat and Cholesterol?
by cporter
Mr. Brown, I love your recipes. In the last few weeks, I've prepared Chocolate Mousse, Party Mayonnaise, Chimney Tuna, and Baba Ganoush from "Good Eats" and Chicken Piccata from "I'm Just Here for the Food." Not all at one meal, of course.

I applaud episodes like "Good Milk Gone Bad" and "The Other Red Meat" that focus on lower fat and cholesterol foods. But many of your recipes call for butter, oil, cream, and other less than healthful foods (even bacon grease!). What do you think about some of the substitutes out there, or using ingredients like applesauce to replace butter?

Alton: There are no bad foods, only bad food habits. I eat cream, butter, and bacon; I just don't eat pounds of it at a time. I use these things when they are needed in recipes and leave them out when they're not needed. As for substitutes, I only agree with them if they really don't change a person's response to a dish. Take mashed potatoes for instance. I recently saw a recipe that suggested that the fat we all know that mashers need could be replaced with vegetable broth. Hogwash. All that does is lead to dissatisfaction and I think that dissatisfaction results in overeating. We like fats because fats satisfy. They break down in the digestive track very slowly so they keep us fuller longer. Now if I find a way to replace a fatty ingredient without missing it (I do this a lot with yogurt) then you bet I'm going to do it. But I repeat: there are no bad foods

5) Art vs. Science
by Susskins
A lot of your show is dedicated to the Science of cooking, and to the underlying physics of food. Your Grandmother (in a really cool episode about biscuits) demonstrated a wicked amount of Artistic Skill, the "look and feel" of food preparation. Do you have any thoughts about the balance of Art and Science in cooking?

Alton: No matter how much creativity goes into it, cooking is an art?or perhaps I should say a craft. It abides by absolute rules, physics, chemistry, etc. and that means that unless you understand the science you cannot reach the art. We're not talking about painting here?cooking's more like engineering. I happen to think that there is great beauty in great engineering (the wing of a Boeing 777, a suspension bridge) but they are not works of art, they are works of science. To my mind art is a matter of personal expression and the exchange of ideas; food is in the end, fuel?a means to an end. Sorry for rambling.

6) Iron Chef
by FortKnox
Seeing that all geeks love Iron Chef, I have to ask, would you be willing to go against an Iron Chef? If so, which would you pick??

Alton: I don't care about the chefs I want a shot at the goofball in the Palomino Jacket. He needs to be taken down. And the judges, oh please let me at them!

7) Elements of cooking
by SWroclawski
Mr. Brown,

I think that the most interesting part of your show to this audience is your emphasis on the science of cooking, from discussion of protein (such as in your angel food cake episode and your recent soufflé episode).

But the other difference in Good Eats is the great emphasis you place on the parts of cooking, that is the elements at a more abstract level, such as use of heat, individual ingredients (which is the topic of many of the shows) and methods of cooking (such as the right way to mix and fold). This all makes Good Eats interesting for us geeks out there who want to understand the science, but also helps us non-cooking geeks become literate in the supermarket and kitchen.

What gave you the idea to present cooking in this way and do you have any suggestions for other resources that present food and food preparation in the same way?

Alton: I approach cooking from a science angle because I need to understand how things work. If I understand the egg, I can scramble it better?it's a simple as that. There are some great food science texts out there?well, a few. Check out the bibliography in my book. (If you don't want to buy it you can just copy stuff out at the bookstore.)

8) Technical questions
by TheJerkstoreCalled
Hello! I actually watched your very first show about steak here on PBS; it was the first thing in my life that made me interested in cooking. Every time I watch an episode of Good Eats, I always end it wanting to go cook something.

I had a technical question; we always see these shots coming out of refrigerators and ovens. Do you actually have little windows in the back of your appliances or are those props built up for the shows? I always assumed they were props but you never know. Also, is that really your house you shoot in? I love the Magritte hat with chicken painting.

Alton: No windows... We actually have cameras now that are small enough to rig inside appliances. It's not easy mind you, but it's doable. That is not my house, but it is a real house. The Magritte rip was commissioned especially for Good Eats.

9) Cooking In Lava
by MrIcee
Mr. Brown. First, thank you for a wonderful television show and an excellent book. I enjoy both continually and look forward to all your new work.

Now... on to, perhaps, one of the more unusual questions you might receive. This question deals directly with how heat affects food.

Specifically... I live on the slopes of an active volcano. One of the things we like to do for fun is cook game hen and pork loins in the hot lava itself. First, let me describe our process, and then our question.

To cook a game hen we first season and then wrap the hen in about 10 Ti (or banana) leaves. These protect the hen from actually burning.

Next we find an active surface breakout of lava. We use a shovel (we also are wearing kevlar gloves that can withstand 2000 degrees of heat) and get a good shovel full of red lava. We place this on the ground a distance from the flow. We then position the Ti-wrapped hen in the middle of the blob of lava and cover it with another shovel full of lava. We try to leave a small opening to the Ti leaves, for steam to escape (or we can potentially have a steam explosion).

Now, the question. The lava is initially at 2000 degrees when we start cooking. After about 15 minutes it has cooled to around 850 degrees (outside of the rock - we read this using an infrared pyrometer). After about 45 minutes the outside is about 450 degrees. At that point we hit the rock with the shovel to open it. Only a few of the Ti leaves will remain uncharred. We remove those and the hen is then very moist and delicious.

How is it possible, using a heat source at 2000 degrees (that granted, gets cooler over time) that it still takes 45 minutes to cook the game hen? We would have thought that the cooking would have been near instantaneous - but repeated experiments at various lengths of time reveal that it takes exactly as long in the lava, as in an oven.

Alton: It's not possible. I can cook a game hen under a broiler in 15 minutes. Tell me, are there any small brown mushrooms growing around your property, and if so have you been using them in salads or pasta dishes?

10) Safe Cooking Temps
by dmaxwell
The wife and I are huge fans of your show but there is one thing we notice from time to time that we've always wondered about. For instance, your country ham recipe specifies that the ham is done when the interior temp hits 140 degrees.

However, fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/ham.htm states that "cook-before-eating hams must reach 160 F to be safely cooked before serving." I know those bad boys have been salt cured but I would still be worried about trichinosis. Your "done" temperatures for meat are often lower than what the food safety people would have them be. This is a long winded way of asking "What is your approach to food safety?" You look pretty healthy to me so I'll assume you know something those government fussbudgets don't but I'd feel better about trying out some of your recipes if I knew what that was.

Alton: I do not always agree with the government and in this case I think they're way off base. For one thing, Trichinella spiralis die at 137 degrees. Of course in this case they would have had to survive the curing process which is highly doubtful. The water activity level of a country ham is simply too low to support that kind of life. Also, T spriralis have been nearly eradicated from the American hog population through the use of better feeds. As far as I know, the only instances of trichinosis in recent years involved wild game such as bear and puma.

Comments

Volcano question

[Ratface]

Shame about the answer to the volcano question - the original poster should have sent the link to their site which has pictures showing this. I couldn't find the original site I have seen which describes this, but here's another which shows that it is indeed possible to cook a chicken atop molten lava!

http://juggle5.50megs.com/travel/Hawaii2000/Cookin g.html

Re:Volcano question

[StoryMan]

Is it possible to lavaify rock in a convection oven?

I like the idea of cooking with lava, but here in Iowa, there's not much lava. Can I make my own?

Re:Volcano question

[DJerman]

The real answer to the question is: because you're steaming it.

You may think you're roasting a chicken in lava but:
1) you wrapped it in leaves, which buffer the heat and provide moisture (for steam)
2) you've insulated it from the heat source (to prevent charring, yes)
3) the inside of the lava will cool much faster than the outside because it's in contact with water (212 degrees).

Yes you'll get some superheating at the beginning, but basically that's just searing the chicken and the leaves before the steaming process takes over. If it were continuously superheated, you'd be dodging the chicken-powered missile as it scoots around your lawn :) And the chicken would flash-fry as you expected.

BTW -- I wanna try that!

Re:Volcano question

[schon]

Is it possible to lavaify rock in a convection oven?

No. Convection ovens just don't get hot enough.

here in Iowa, there's not much lava. Can I make my own?

If this story is correct, then you just might be able to, using a microwave oven.

Re:Volcano question

[Sodium Attack]

The lava question in the interview above was shortened a bit from the original question. In that, MrIcee notes that they leave holes for the steam to vent (because one time when they didn't, it exploded). Given that, hanwen's conclusion is correct.

Re:Volcano question

[pubjames]

I also thought it was a shame that he didn't seem to take this question seriously. It was one of the most interesting questions of the lot - especially for someone who is supposed to be a scientist.

I think the key point is it sounds like the chicken is wrapped in lots of layers of leaves. This would provide insulation against the extreme heat. The outside leaves would I presume carbonize - this could also provide some protection.

Sounds like a fascinating idea to me and I see no reason why it shouldn't work if there is insulation between the bird and the molten rock.

Re:Volcano question

[coolerthanmilk]

Actually, the superheating at the beginning may do even more than sear it. You could get some interesting flavor differences through redistribution of fats. When water is superheated above the critical point, the solubility of some organic compounds is very high, as opposed to subcritical conditions when it is very low (i.e. oil & water not mixing). It could absorb some fats and carry them with the water until it cooled and they were released again. Depending on how the water moved during that time, who knows how it would end up - leaf-flavored , high fat layers in some part, or low-fat dry fowl.

Re:Volcano question

[maxwells_deamon]

The reason the volcano cooking works and takes the time it does can be seen from the question.

Foods burn when they reach excessive temperatures. If you expose the bird to a very high temperature directly to the skin, the outside will quickly get up to over 100 C and the water in the food will boil out. Then the skin will go up over 100 C and char.

When you wrap it in the layers to prevent it from burning, you have insulated it. Also the moisture driven off from the leaves and the bird is kept in a somewhat enclosed area. So the constant adding of heat such as happens in Alton's broiler is not happening here. He does not wrap his birds in leaves before putting them in the oven I bet.

To avoid burning food, cooks reduce the temperature to the point that the interior of the bird gets to a cooked temperature before the outside gets charred.

The volcanic rock may also act as an insulator. If you were to try to cook a water balloon instead of food, I would guess the inside temperature of the lava would be lower than the outside temperature.

Next time you do this try the following two experiments:

After the bird is cooked, when you crack open the lava, measure the temperature of the leaves in contact with the bird and the temperature of the lava on the inside of your oven. It should be less than the outside temperature because the water from the leaves is a much better coolant than the air.

Cook a bird in the normal manner but don't add the leaves. Remove after about 20 minutes, chip through the char and check the inside temperature. Or place it inside a haybox (http://solarcooking.org/ret-heat.htm). The outside may be a charred mess, but the inside done.

Of course, YMMV

Re:Volcano question

[rpeppe]

i'm no expert, but surely the reason that it took a while to cook the chicken in the lava was because of that hole they'd left to let the steam escape. the crucial observation is that the chicken was moist afterwards, so presumably the level of moisture is high enough that the moisture limits the temperature of the chicken to the usual 100 degrees C.

if they'd closed the hole, i imagine the chicken would cook much faster!

Re:Volcano question

[mikeee]

the inside of the lava will cool much faster than the outside because it's in contact with water (212 degrees)

Well, the key questions here have to do with how well lava conducts heat internally, and its specific heat.

Vaporizing all that water will absorb a great deal of heat from the interior of the lava ball; if it doesn't transmit well the interior will stay relatively cool. It's heat absorbtion that's key, not insulation: I'd bet $50 that if you wrapped the chicken in a dozen layers of dry aluminum foil instead of wet leaves it would be burned to a crisp.

Re:Volcano question

[R2.0]

Keep in mind that the text of the question said "game hen", which in the 48 states is a wee little thing. The ling shows something a lot bigger, which I would call a "guinea hen", which is a lot closer in size to a capon or a turkey.

Sounds like a linguistic/cultural boo-boo.

Re:Volcano question

[bokmann]

I also believe that the cooling rock is acting as an insulator itself... Just as it can be warm inside of an igloo.

The rock in immediate contact with the leaves transfers its heat into the leaves and the chicken, but that heat is not enough to cook it quickly. Tha t'cooler' layer of the rock serves as an insulator for the chicken. The rock on the outside is still giving up heat to the air (more slowly did to the chicken inside), so it still feels hot.

-db

Re:Volcano question

[EnderWiggnz]

not to be even more nitpicky,

but you are referring to a kilocalorie - which is what the popular definition of a "Calorie" is anyway...

truly, a calorie is the amount of energy it takes to heat 1g H2o, 1 degree C ...

Re:Volcano question

[foxtrot]

BTW -- I wanna try that!

Hell yeah!

I want to try it with fish, though. Many fish that are tasty as sashimi work really well cooked rare-- the inside is, well, basically still sashimi and the outside is a cooked fish, and getting them both in the same bite is really excellent-- and the way to do it is basically to use stupid-hot cooking so you sear the outside and have the inside still raw.

2000 degrees of lava sounds like the ultimate way to do this...

-JDF

Re:Volcano question

[jonadab]

> I'd bet $50 that if you wrapped the chicken in a dozen layers of
> dry aluminum foil instead of wet leaves it would be burned to a
> crisp.

I believe you're right about that, unless a "shovel full" of lava
is a lot less than I expect. Water is pretty amazing stuff -- like
magic if you don't understand the chemistry behind it. What goes on
is, first the water is raised from ambient temperature to boiling
(this will happen almost immediately), absorbing a small amount of
heat. Then the water goes from liquid to vapour, which will take
longer and absorb _considerably_ more heat, without raising the
actual temperature. Some of the steam will escape, as the original
question noted, but not all of it. That which doesn't continues to
absorb yet more heat as the temperature rises. It's that middle
part, where heat is absorbed while the temperature remains constant,
that works the magic.

There are some other notable points. The lava has already cooled
sufficiently to not damage the shovel, so it's borderline on solid
already. Then it gets carried away from the actual flow, which
gives it a chance to cool further, before the cooking process is
begun. It _is_ only a couple of shovelfuls, as has been noted, and
so while it may be pretty hot initially, the amount of heat energy
it can emmanate is limited, proportional to the mass. Compare that
to an oven, which has a continuous supply of incoming energy that
it draws from the power grid, warming everything inside the oven to
the temperature you set the oven to. With the shovelful of lava,
the chicken will not reach the temperature that the lava starts at,
or even close to it. Being insulated by the steam, it is unlikely
even to reach the final temperature of the lava (asserted to be
450F by the original question).

It still doesn't sound possible to me, but I don't know enough
about the lava in question, in terms of what kind of rock it is,
the amount of heat energy it can hold, how well it transmits heat,
and so on to rule it out as the interviewee has done. This
really is a question for a chemist, not a cook, because it's the
physical properties of the rock that really need to be explained,
not the way chicken cooks.

Re:Volcano question

[Suppafly]

That link doesn't tell how to cook on lava.. they are basically making a fire and using the heated ground and hot rocks to do the cooking.. the first reply to his actually has a link with lava cooking as described in the question.

Re:Volcano question

[motardo]

tell that to my Easy-Bake Oven :) pshaw! silly convection!

Re:Volcano question

[evilpenguin]

Yeah. I get all my science from Star Wars.

"Great movie, by the way. Very scientific."
-- Dr. Science (on John Carpenter's "The Thing")

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[Ratface]

http://www.dolphinbayhilo.com/cook.html

That was the one!

I love Good Eats, but I am a bit disappointed.

[veddermatic]

Maybe it was the questions, but I was really looking forward to a good, long read....

I'm being selfish, but damnit, I wanted PAGES of answers!!!! =)

Re:I love Good Eats, but I am a bit disappointed.

[AtariDatacenter]

I agree with you. And where Alton said he was rambling, I think he made something that barely passed as a minimum answer. I didn't like the volcano answer very much. I'm just guessing that he didn't give this a best effort. :(

Re:I love Good Eats, but I am a bit disappointed.

[Zathrus]

Same... probably because he often seems prolific in what's only a 30 minute show (which is 22-24 minutes of actual air time).

But we've also been spoiled by a few of the recent interviews that have been very, very long and prosaic.

Re:I love Good Eats, but I am a bit disappointed.

[SWroclawski]

Yes, there's also the time:word ratio...

The questions that were asked were usually no less than two or three paragraphs. They were carefully worded, open ended and often multifaceted.

Alton's answers were about two sentences each and only addressed a part of the question.

The answers would have been fine if:

1) This were not an interview (rather than a response to a personal email).

2) We didn't already know he could write (based on his books).

3) He hadn't taken more than three weeks to answer the questions presented to him.

The answers seemed hurried at best, and more than a little terse to the point of being curt. I feel like I'm taking more time to write this comment than he did to write his interview questions. :)

I hate to flame Alton, since he was nice enough to do the interview, but I think I'm actually more disapointed with these answers than I was before the interview.

- Serge Wroclawski

Trichinosis

[The Ape With No Name]

Hog feed has little to do with it. Cooking the hog feed does. Societies where hogs are fed uncooked slop experience higher rates of trichinosis, while those that boil hog slop do not see trichinosis at all. Break a link in the parasite's path to a host and incidence of the parasite diminishes. Pretty simple and exactly what cooking the pork to at least 137F does.

Re:Trichinosis

[The Ape With No Name]

In order to stop trichinosis from passing from host to host, you have to cook the food either fed to the host or the cook the food made from the host to stop the trichnosis. So if you eat a hog that has trichnosis because it was fed uncooked slop, and you get trichnosis. Subsequently, if you get eaten by something that doesn't cook you then that something will get trichnosis.

Bears in the Southeast US eat the occasional feral hog. People in the Southeast hunt bear and occasionally eat the bear. Poorly cooked bear meat is a well-known vector of trichnosis.

Re:Trichinosis

[corey_lawson]

commercially raised pigs in the US and Canada are not fed "slop" in the US any more, but grain-based feeds. Any animal-based protein in it has probably been "hydrolized" (steamed), because it's animal byproduct. Also, because their food tends to be so concentrated, their poop is also more concentrated (smells like shit and is pretty acidic. Yes, there is "good" shit, too, but it's all relative. If you live in dairy country, where the cows get to spend a lot of time in pastures, not California feed lots, their manure is less hostile to the nose. It's still shit, but I'd take living near a dairy farm than a hog or chicken farm. Oh, wait. I already have done that).

Can't say about your typical small pig operation, though.

Re:Trichinosis

[Slime-dogg]

So... Essentially it is a quality of feed issue.

Cooking the feed will cause the feed to be of a higher quality, because it does not contain the parasite. Also possible is that the feed never did contain the parasite.

I'll bet that there is little, if any, parasitic presence in the uncooked slop, and then it's probably cooked for good measure.

Re:Trichinosis

[The Ape With No Name]

"Feed" in the developed world sense is commercially bought cooked kibbles. "Feed" in the rest of the world (and in not-so-long-ago America) is slop. Slop is not homogeneous and is often includes meats, feces, dirt, plant matter, etc. It is cooked to prevent disease. Just becuase someone doesn't have a computer doesn't mean they can't cope. Often the inverse is true.

Re:Trichinosis

[The Ape With No Name]

AHHHHHHHHH! Read my reply. This is not the point. Of course hog feed is cooked now in States and Canada and primarily made of grain (and hormones and animal byproducts). It is cooked for various reasons. When you HAD to cook pig food ( slopping ) it was done so to prevent disease. This isn't a GRE reading comprehension test.

*gasp*

[FortKnox]

Alton Brown vs. Chairman Kaga?

It'll be the battle of the century! STUFF THAT YELLOW PEPPER DOWN HIS THROAT!

LOL! Thanks for the reply Alton!

Re:*gasp*

[unicron]

I saw the "Futurama" the other where Bender went up against the Iron Chef, and at the end the Chairman goes "Domo Arigoto, Mr. Roboto"..easily one of the funniest scenes ever in that show.

Did anyone else hear Alton in their head?

[bgarland]

When reading this, I couldn't help but hear the voice of AB in my head, reciting the answers in the same way he delivers the little tidbits of info on "Good Eats"... weird.

Ben

Re:Did anyone else hear Alton in their head?

[schon]

When reading this, I couldn't help but hear the voice of AB in my head, reciting the answers in the same way he delivers the little tidbits of info on "Good Eats"

Yup.. me too.. (Course maybe it helped that I just watched the salad episode..)

9) Cooking In Lava

[scaramush]

I thought this guy's claim to cooking fame was that he used a scientific approach? What's wrong with this picture?

Scientist 1: I have a phenomenon I don't understand and I want your opinion on it.

Scientist 2: Your data doesn't match up with mine. Therefore I will discredit you by suggesting you take drugs.

Scientist 1: But I have reproducible results!

Scientist 2: Nope, sorry. Talk to the hand, crack smoker.

I understand a lot of /.'ers respect this guy, but I'm not too impressed with this answer.

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[Reality Master 101]

Well, while the answer was a bit abrupt, but I think it was like a physicist trying to answer: "Why is it I can hold a hot steel ball that is 2000 degrees without getting burned?" The answer is "You can't".

In other words, the problem isn't with the laws of physics, the problem is with the questioner's data. Obviously the internal temperature of his make-shift oven isn't 2000 degrees.

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[GlassUser]

I think that's the key. The actual heating element in your conventional oven is probably about 2000 degrees (note I have never tested this), though the ambient temperature is more like a few hundred. Same thing with chicken and lava.

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[StoryMan]

I suspect that if you kill the chickens first, it'll take much less 45 minutes.

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[Anne_Nonymous]

He thinks the poster is pulling his leg.

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[consumer]

I'm guessing it's the banana leaves that make it take so long. When they put the chicken into an oven, they don't wrap it in wet banana leaves. That's probably lowering the temperature in the chicken considerably.

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[squaretorus]

Quite right. The insulation of multiple layers of banana leaves will create a steep temp gradient within the 'rock' leading to an oven like temp within the banana leave packages.

This is a common practice with Aga style ovens - you put everything into a hot oven, you wrap anything that needs a low oven in multiple layers of foil / leaves.

This guy is an ass!

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[Zinho]

I hope a website with color pictures of the process would be proof enough for you... If you don't want to keep an open mind, at least keep it well ventilated. ;)

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[crisco]

Yeah but he says he uses kevlar gloves and the guy on the website isn't wearing any gloves. There goes his credibility right there...

Seriously though, don't some volcanic eruptions involve poisonous gasses? Couldn't that poison the lava cooked meal?

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[WolfWithoutAClause]

Well, while the answer was a bit abrupt,

Good job you're not prone to that trait then!

but I think it was like a physicist trying to answer: "Why is it I can hold a hot steel ball that is 2000 degrees without getting burned?"

Yeah, it's dead like that, except he wasn't holding it, it wasn't a steel ball, and he wore gloves.

The answer is "You can't".

Oh? And you've tried this I take it?

I mean come on. There's lots going on here:

a) what's the heat conductivity of lava? Not nearly as high as a steel ball.

b) the leaves and the food are going to steam. Steam forms a good insulating layer, meaning little heat will reach the food. In an oven this steam is removed by vents.

c) the heat capacity of the food is likely to be higher than the rock. Don't forget that water has one of the higher heat capacities, and food is usually mostly water by weight.

Re:9) Cooking In Lava

[PD]

Something else not considered. In your oven a relatively small amount of the water is going to boil off the chicken. In the Lava, a large amount of water is going to boil, especially from the wet bannana leaves.

All that boiling water is known as steam and steam carries a lot of energy. So much energy in fact that it can drive a steam locomotive. Anyway, the escape of steam is what's carrying away all that extra heat from the cooking bird.

Wise Words

[Copperhead]

"All [replacing of fat] does is lead to dissatisfaction and I think that dissatisfaction results in overeating."

Very wise words. I remember hearing Julia Child saying that the reason obesity is becoming such a problem is because of fat has become taboo in cooking. It's the fat in foods that make us feel full and keep us full longer. Generally, people who eat excusively low fat foods at their main meals are those who have the most trouble keeping from snacking between meals.

I've gone from eating low fat meals and snacks to eating "sensibly", and I really am a lot less hungry, even though I'm eating less.

My rules to live by... if you're hungry, drink a glass of water, avoid eating after dinner, and never, ever eat before bed.

Re:Wise Words

[Lumpish Scholar]

I remember hearing Julia Child saying that the reason obesity is becoming such a problem is because of fat has become taboo in cooking.

And never use the "m-word"* to her. She's been known to say, "You don't have to use butter in this dish ... [wink] you can use cream instead."

Generally, people who eat excusively low fat foods at their main meals are those who have the most trouble keeping from snacking between meals

I agree with Ms. Child and Mr. Brown that "fats satisfy.... they keep us fuller longer"; but I think the extent to which people "snack" has a lot to do with how they're wired, above the neck and below. It's not so much a matter of having enough will power, but more a matter of how much or how little will power you need to have in order to deal with what your body does.

*Margarine.

Re:Wise Words

[jamesoutlaw]

I've found it's better to eat 6 (or more) small meals throughout the day- each meal totalling 300 to 600 calories. I eat a little something every 2 or 3 hours throughout the day and never get hungry- of course, it annoys my cubicle neighbors, who think I eat all the time and wonder why I am not the size of a whale :)

I think that your quote from Julia Child is right on track. I remember when low fat "snack foods" became really really popular in the early 90's- snackwells, baked potato chips, etc People would think that because it was low fat, they could eat all they wanted... I remember a friend of mine holding up a bag of Baked Tostito's Tortilla chips and exclaiming gleefully that there was only "1.5 grams of fat in the whoooooole" bag... then she promptly proceeded to eat the entire bag- completely ignoring the fact that it still contained about 1,000 (or more) calories.

It's ok to include a little fat in your diet, but as long as you don't over do it, you'll be just fine.

I eat a lot of low fat meals, but the majority of the fat I consume comes from olive oil or "fatty" fish like salmon.... the so-called "good fats".

Re:Wise Words

[ryanvm]

My rules to live by... if you're hungry, drink a glass of water, avoid eating after dinner, and never, ever eat before bed.

I never have bought this one. Sleeping is exactly what most carnivores do after eating. Have you ever seen a fat tiger? Besides, in today's sedentary society, many people are hardly more active during the day then they are asleep. Why should someone not eat before bed just to eat at 8:00 AM and sit at a desk for 9 hours?

The unfortunate truth is that The Man Show had it right with the amazing new "Stop Eating So Much Diet". Seriously, it's called "caloric restriction" and not only will you lose weight, you'll live longer (up to 150% longer in lab animals).

[*Me kisses my karma goodbye as I'm modded into oblivion by thick-fingered Slashdotters.]

Re:Wise Words

[jdreed1024]

Amen to that. The fact that the person who asked the question included an exclamation point next to "bacon grease" shows that they're just another victim of cuilinary brainwashing. The FDA, Surgeon General, and all these other people can't make up their minds as to what's good and what's bad. All they need to do is use common sense.

Yes, bacon grease is bad for you, if you chug a whole 20 oz bottle of it every day. However, it's the only way to get fried eggs crispy on the outside and still soft on the inside. Heck, I still use lard to prepare some dishes, but there is no subsitute for it. However, if you use a tablespoon of it, it won't kill you.

Substitutes are a waste of time. I'd venture that if you drank nothing but skim milk, and ate nothing but margarine, and snacked on nothing but aspartame, you'd probably die an early death too. If you want a desert dish, but don't want the cream and sugar that's in chocolate mousse, than don't make chocolate mousse. Have an apple instead or something.

Re:Wise Words

[schon]

I think the extent to which people "snack" has a lot to do with how they're wired, above the neck and below.

Actually, I read an interersting study (sorry, no link available) that measured brain activity during eating...

It seems that fat people have more activity in the brain's pleasure centre when they eat.. which suggested that food might simply "taste better" to them. If so, it follows that they might have a harder time limiting their food intake.

Re:Wise Words

[Kintanon]

Here's the deal on eatting, sleeping, and how your metabolism reacts to combinations of the above.

If you eat 2-3 large meals (most people eat a big lunch and a big dinner/supper and nothing much else) then your metabolism will start to operate slower. It will store more food for periods between meals and you won't burn calories as quickly as if you eat many small meals.

If you eat 5-6 small meals (200-300 calories each) over the day your metabolism never stops. You continue burning calories almost non-stop. If you want to lose weight, this is the best way to do it, reduce your calorie intake by eatting more small meals. And ALWAYS eat a snack before bed. that keeps your metabolism going while you are asleep and helps you burn more calories. You can really live just fine on 1800 calories per day and lose weight until you balance out. If you build muscle, you'll need more calories. And if you want to build muscle you'll need to eat more protein. But that's a whole different subject.
The bottom line is, if you want to lose weight, eat 5-6 small meals each day, make sure you eat as soon as you wake up, then every 3 hours or so until you go to bed. Make sure the snacks are relatively healthy (granola bars, etc...) avoid foods with simple sugars like soda and candy. And do 20-30 minutes of light aerobic excersise everyday, walking is fine. If you do more intense aerobics you can do 5-10 minutes per day instead. (jogging on a treadmill at 7mph for 5-10 minutes, doing jumping jacks for 5-10 minutes, jumping rope, and most excersise machines fit under this category) I don't know of any body types that don't respond to this particular treatment IF they stick to it. And I've worked with a lot of people to help them get in shape and lose weight.

Kintanon

Re:Wise Words

[TobyWong]

Don't worry about the thick fingered mods, their hands are so greasy they can't hang on to their mouse...

Re:Wise Words

[sammy baby]

Damn straight. I made the mistake of putting myself on the Atkins diet. During the intial induction phase (which is supposed to last two weeks), you're to consume less than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, but can otherwise eat pretty much what you want (although most diet sodas are considered bad too - apparently, they can trigger insulin reactions similarly to non-diet sodas). Atkins insists that it is impossible to feel "deprived" on this diet.

Lemmee tell you something: I felt deprived. Not hungry, mind, but definitely deprived. I would have killed your grandmother for a piece of Wonder Bread.

I did manage to lose weight in the - oh, four days I managed to stay on the stupid diet, but that's mostly because I was eating less in total, not because I'd entered ketosis. I was cranky all the time.

These days, I eat slowly, but eat pretty much what I want, and make a concerted effort to stop when I'm not actually hungry anymore. I'm in better shape than I've been in years. In the end, that's just about the best advice I can give anyone.

Re:Wise Words

[SerialHistorian]

"Have you ever seen a fat tiger?"

No, but I've never seen Joe Sixpack chase a zebra and kill it with his teeth, either.

Re:Wise Words

[dasmegabyte]

My rules to live by... if you're hungry, drink a glass of water, avoid eating after dinner, and never, ever eat before bed. Are you a mogwai?

Re:Wise Words

[Quixote]

Have you ever seen a fat tiger?

Have you ever seen how much a tiger has to bust his ass to get a meal? If s/he becomes fat, no more meals and its slim city for El Tigre.

Re:Wise Words

[SquadBoy]

Margarine is *evil*. http://atkinscenter.com/helpatkins/faqs/faqfood/fa qWhyismargarinetobeavoided.html

Re:Wise Words

[foobar104]

Yeah, the thing about the Atkins (or is it Adkins? I forget) diet is that you're trying to drastically change your metabolism. You can succeed, too. But if you ever go off of it, you'll be far worse off than you were before you started.

For a while, the Atkins diet was very big in the community of young doctors that I spend most of my social time with. It was always fun to listen to them talk about how they're peeing out ketones and proteins and all of this incredibly unhealthy stuff just so they can keep a 32-inch (or 24-inch, for the girls) waistline. Insane.

Of course, when you're a doctor you eat very much like a predator anyway. You'll go without eating anything for long stretches-- 18, 24, 36 hours-- and then you'll gorge yourself at a drug rep dinner and go right to sleep.

Re:Wise Words

[crawling_chaos]

Yes, bacon grease is bad for you, if you chug a whole 20 oz bottle of it every day.

Great. I hope nobody from Frito-Lay's reading Slashdot. Otherwise, we may have a new snackfood phenomenon on our hands. If they'll market Pop-Rocks, they'll try anything.

Re:Wise Words

[jamesoutlaw]

I almost never eat out during the week, so I don't have to deal with that too much. When I do, I try to order something small... I agree, though, it's a problem at times.

On a daily basis, I usually bring a bunch of food with me to work and eat it at my desk while I am working (there are no problems with me doing that here, but some places kind of frown on eating at your desk). A lot of the time I eat sandwiches during the day- I make a couple in the morning when I am fixing breakfast. Also, I eat a lot of protein bars and things like that when I don't have time to fix something special. I *really* like the Myoplex Delux bars from EAS- they've got about 340 calories, and about 24 grams of protein in them, with 40-something grams of carbohydrates. They can be kind of expensive if you buy them individually, but I usually buy a couple of boxes of them at a time from http://netrition.com - that's cheaper than buying stuff like that from GNC or your local health food/grocery store. The nice thing about them is that they taste good- and good-tasting protein bars are hard to find. I used to eat the ones from MetRX, but I just got to the point where I could not stand hte taste and the texture of them. The Zone Perfect protein bars are pretty good, but they are a little too sweet for my taste- I think they have about 240 calories and 14 grams of protein (off hand i can not remember the carb content) There are a number of other brands, but the ones from EAS are better than any of the others I have tried.

I stay away from meal replacement shakes though, they are too much trouble- you have to have a blender around or a shaker bottle that you have to wash, etc... and they are not as filling as the equivalent protein bar.

Re:Wise Words

[tswinzig]

I never have bought this one. Sleeping is exactly what most carnivores do after eating. Have you ever seen a fat tiger?

Tigers have a good diet and run around on all fours during the day when they're not sleeping. Why would a tiger get fat?

Why should someone not eat before bed just to eat at 8:00 AM and sit at a desk for 9 hours?

Because when you're sleeping, your metabolism slows waaaaay down. This is why you will get fat if you eat meals right before you go to sleep.

Re:Wise Words

[ryanvm]

Have you ever seen how much a tiger has to bust his ass to get a meal? If s/he becomes fat, no more meals and its slim city for El Tigre.

Bingo. The end result is that meals are pretty hard to come by for the tiger and it therefore ends up eating less.

Re:Wise Words

[Dixie_Flatline]

Moreover, low fat foods often have no fewer calories. For instance, low fat yoghurt is sweetened with sugar to cover up the lack of flavour from having no fat. Total calories are approximately the same, but the yoghurt isn't as satisfying. As well, it's likely to lead to an insulin spike, which prevents you from using stored fat as an energy source. (This is more of a concern if you're an athlete, however.)

Re:Wise Words

[jnd3]

It's the fat in foods that make us feel full and keep us full longer.

Ain't that the truth. Here's a neat trick: try some home made pasta. Beats the pants off the boxed stuff as far as flavor goes, and it takes about a third as much to make you full.

For a good 4-6 servings, mix up three eggs, two cups of semolina flour (or other pasta flour), and one cup of plain old white bread flour. You might need more or less flour depending on the size of the eggs. Knead it until it's nice and smooth. Run it through the pasta machine (what, you don't have a pasta machine? They're worth every penny!) and throw it in boiling water for about three minutes. Drain it, toss it in the sauce, and you're ready to go...

Re:Wise Words

[hey!]

I never have bought this one. Sleeping is exactly what most carnivores do after eating. Have you ever seen a fat tiger?

Ever see anybody who runs down their prey and kills it with the bare hands/claws/teeth get fat?

Re:Wise Words

[Elwood P Dowd]

Tigers have to struggle for their existence. They have very good reasons for wanting to conserve as much energy as possible. Tigers should *want* to become fat, because then they would have more energy to screw and make baby tigers.

People do not have to struggle for their existence. We do not need to store fat, because we are guaranteed to be able to eat later.

Our core desires and behaviors have not changed since our operational environment was more like that of tigers. So we want to sleep when after we eat large meals so we can turn it into fat. Keep in mind that evolution isn't going to necessarily favor a very long life. If we lived to be 90 years old when we were still hunters, too much of the population would not be able to produce food.

Re:Wise Words

[Fjord]

The question is, though, are do they eat a lot because the food tastes better, or does the food taste better because they've eaten so much?

This assuming the activity actually has a causual relationship to their eating.

Re:Wise Words

[Kintanon]

Me? No. All of this stuff is what I learned from taking a few nutrition classes, talking to a couple of personal trainers for a few months, and from my experience with the hundreds of Martial Artists I've known over the last 8 years. I've never read a fad diet book...

Kintanon

Mmmm...lard

[Bazzargh]

Alton: There are no bad foods, only bad food habits. I eat cream, butter, and bacon; I just don't eat pounds of it at a time...We like fats because fats satisfy.

Hmmm... reminds me of someone...

Next morning, the family tries to pry the bucket off Homer's noggin.

Bart: [tries to pull the bucket off, but fails] Sorry Dad, it just won't budge.
Marge: I tried greasing the bucket with bacon fat, but your father kept eating it.
Homer: Couldn't you try a non-delicious fat? [breaks down] Oh, there's no such thing!

Simpsons: Faith Off

Vegetarian...

[ackthpt]

Inspired somewhat by the poll and Q #3 (which I feel he kinda weaseled on) I'll pass along a tid-bit of wisdom gleaned from experience:

If you are a vegetarian and participating in a potluck/buffet with non-vegetarians (this particularly if you are one of one or two) plan for more. As much as I've got a few views on eating animals, it's been exasperating to bring the only vegetarian dish and have non-veg people suddenly decide to try them and take all before you get a chance (or just keep a private stash in a container for yourself to guarrantee you eat!)

If you want to sell people on virtues of vegetarian dining, make good dishes to share. Beats the heck out of getting into debates. :o)

Re:Vegetarian...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to get into a religious war, but some of us meatatarians don't actually eat meat in every dish. For example, I frequently eat vegetarian salad, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese (it's cheese powder) and celery sticks. Sometimes, I put a huge piece of raw ground beef on a celery stick and eat it like a lollipop, but that's only once in a while.

Re:Vegetarian...

[Buck2]

Sometimes, I put a huge piece of raw ground beef on a celery stick and eat it like a lollipop, but that's only once in a while.

You do that too? Our family always called those Meat Trees. Like, "Yay! Meat Trees for dinner! Yay!"

Re:Vegetarian...

[TobyWong]

Thanks for making me spill coffee on myself... jerk!

=P

Re:Vegetarian...

[dasmegabyte]

Oh, and if you're a vegetarian inviting your non-vegetarian friends to a potluck/buffet, make sure to cook up something with meat in it for us.

"Gross," you say? Not I. My wedding was meatless to appease my poseur vegetarian wife (a poseur vegetarian being someone who looks down a menu past all the delicious meat dishes and orders a boring vegetarian entree, despite not being a vegetarian. Or one who says "Ew, bacon!" and then eats it anyway. Or any "vegetarian" who eats chicken wings / fried catfish / filet mignon because they "miss it sometimes"). I invited four other vegetarians, all of whom really enjoyed themselves on some fantastic cusisine the caterers pulled out (frankly, I think they were excited to to have something to cook besides bland swedish meatballs and little wieners in shells). I thought the food was fantastic, but hardly anybody ate any of it. Of some 100 portions, nearly 60 were left at the end. My dad & some of my friends snuck out to a burger place midway through the reception.

Talk about embarrassing! Furthermore, people ate a lot more cake than they usually do -- meaning that there was only one slice left to save for the aniversary.

Meat satisfies, people, as much as I hate to admit it. If you can't stand cooking it, get somebody else to do it.

Re:Vegetarian...

[Suppafly]

Meat satisfies, people, as much as I hate to admit it.

I agree totally. As a meat eater, I still often try non-meat dishes (olive garden makes some really good ones) but often find them lacking.. Halfway through eating a spaghetti dish that I didn't even know was meatless when I ordered it I kept thinking it would be better with some spicy sausage instead of just tomatos and peppers and such.

Re:Vegetarian...

[jefflinwood]

That's because they were using your non-alcoholic drinks as mixers! Nothing worse than no-name sodas for your mixed drinks.

Re:Vegetarian...

[Damek]

tofu is not fake meat. Soybeans are not fake meat, and soy products like tempeh are also not fake meat. Tofu and Tempeh have been around for many hundreds of years. Unfortunately, just not in Europe or Europe's colonies, so people like you see vegetarians eating meals with tofu and think "they're just trying to substitute meat!"

In a way, soy products are a substitute - they substitute for the nutritional value of meat.

Other than that, I pretty much agree that the attempts to produce "meat look-alikes and taste-alikes" is rediculous. Although I like a nice spicy tempeh strip - all the flavor of some meats comes from the marinades, sauces, and spices, so just doing the same thing to tofu or tempeh, without processing it, results in pretty much the same flavor.

So basically I'm trying to point out that eating tofu and tempeh and other soy products is not necessarily a statement that one misses meat, but rather that one recognizes the nutritional advantages of soy, and likes to consume them with convenience.

There is only one rule in good cooking...

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

Use the timings on the instructions as a guide only.

THE PERFORMANCE OF MICROWAVE OVENS REALLY DOES VARY.

Learn how your equipment compares to the average. I have a 750 WATT microwave oven, but I know that it packs a punch like an 850 WATT microwave oven, so I follow the instructions for category "E", even though my oven is a category "D".

To many cooks, bless them, will cook something at gas mark whatever it says, for as long as it says, and not a minute less, not a minute more. They will not learn (accumulate over time / through experience) how the performance of their oven compares to the "average" (i.e. that on which the recipient was based).

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[schon]

Use the timings on the instructions as a guide only.

THE PERFORMANCE OF MICROWAVE OVENS REALLY DOES VARY.

Actually, it not just microwaves, but almost all (consumer) convection ovens aren't exact.

In my old apartment, my wife kept wondering why everything she baked/roasted never turned out properly - so after watching the good eats pork ribs episode, I put a reliable thermometer in the oven - turns out it was out by almost 60 degrees!

An interesting aside - we just bought a house, and I wanted to see how far out the oven temperature was (it's an old oven, probably 20 or 30 years old), and (amazingly enough) it was almost exact!

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[dboyles]

This reminds me of something...

What's up with those microwaves that kick on a full blast and then off for a period of time (depending on what your cooking power is set at)? I have one, and it absolutely sucks. It's pretty new, too (3 years).

What's wrong with operating at a lower power all the time rather than HIGH... off... HIGH... off... ?

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[Quikah]

My rule of good cooking is microwaves are the spawn of satan. :)

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[JabberWokky]

Using a commercial microwave is the best way to cook thick things like primerib - microwave for awhile, than transfer to a tradional oven to cook. You wind up with very juicy, evenly cooked meat with nice rare slices.

I also use my microwaves (yes, plural) for things like having hot water or broth ready for rice (which I mix with my dry ingredients like curry and other spices, a touch of oil, and heat, strring often before adding boiling water) or tea (while ceremony is nice, I only drink tea or wine (occasionally Guinness), so I make a helluva lot of tea).

A microwave is useless for most forms of cooking - but very good at heating, which is a side task that normally requires a saucepan and a burner. I've cut down my dishes for nice dinners from nine or so pots and pans to five or six by judicious use of a microwave. And, like prime rib or popcorn, there are a few very odd uses at which it's unique heating method excels.

--
Evan (no references)

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[djrogers]

AAACK!!!! Please, please, please stop doing that to your prime rib! The correct way to make a moist, jiuicy, tender prime rib is by cooking it loooow and slooow. Start with well aged beef, or age it yourself (yes, this is a key step to getting the best flavor from your roast, it allows enzymes in the beef to break down some of the proteins into amino acids and improving the flavor greatly), brown all sides on the stove (6-8 minutes total), then roast in a 200* oven until it reaches a 130* internal temperature (roughly 30 minutes/lb).

Try it once, and you'll never nuke another prime rib again!

D

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[JabberWokky]

Funny - I learned that from a chef who cooks them that way at the Breakers, a rather fine dining locale. Note that I did not say 'a microwave', but rather a 'commercial microwave' with adjustable power, even heat distribution and a thermometer jack in the top of the oven that trails down to a spike that goes into the meat. My parents have one. The chef learned his technique from a fine restaurant in France.

It's hardly simply 'nuking' the primerib - you do it to raise the internal temerature to an even medium high temperature *without* cooking it, and then place it in the oven to cook. Having the meat be very warm throughout means it cooks differently - more evenly. It's an especially good way if you really like good rare prime rib (the only way to eat meat, imo). The slightly more traditional way, incidently, is to leave the meat out in the sun, but that's frowned upon nowadays.

Incidently, talking about good aged beef and the proper starting temperature to cook meat at, there are still places in the south where you can find part of a side of beef lying across above the cooking area. When somebody orders, they hack a steak off, trim the smoke and edges, and cook it. No refrigeration. And damn fine, melt in your mouth steak it is.

Yes - aged beef is far far better for roasting. And traditonal steaks (not the uber thin ones that are in some supermarkets) should be seared, then roasted. Or, like my dad occasionally does, you can smoke them (but then, my dad smokes damn near everything - turkey, fish, duck... slow cooked and truly good eats).

--
Evan (no reference, and I'll keep 'nuking' my prime rib, but thanks for the concern)

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[DerekLyons]

It's hardly simply 'nuking' the primerib - you do it to raise the internal temerature to an even medium high temperature *without* cooking it, and then place it in the oven to cook.

Except that a microwave *doesn't* heat it to an even temperature. It works exactly like a regular oven, energy is deposited near the surface of the food, and then travels inward. (Cook a roast in a microwave, note the well done outer layers and the rarer core.)

Having the meat be very warm throughout means it cooks differently - more evenly.

Yup, and it's easy to do without a microwave. Bring the roast to room temp, place in a hot oven, drop the temperature after a few minutes, and allow to roast until done. In other words, the classical technique. (Though Alton reccomends the opposite, start slow and raise at the end.)

Funny - I learned that from a chef who cooks them that way at the Breakers, a rather fine dining locale. The chef learned his technique from a fine restaurant in France.

All he's doing is shortcutting the classical technique, not performing some magic that only a microwave can do.

Re:There is only one rule in good cooking...

[JabberWokky]

All he's doing is shortcutting the classical technique, not performing some magic that only a microwave can do.

Yep, I agree - that's why I said there are plenty of other ways of bringing the temperature up. Using a microwave to bring the temperature up to the point just below where it actually starts cooking versus leaving it out (as you say, "Bring the roast to room temp") or Alton's method of starting slow and then raising at the end. All are variations of the same theme.

All he's doing is shortcutting the classical technique, not performing some magic that only a microwave can do.

The nice thing is that it is cooked more evenly from edge to center. It's the equivelent of starting it at room temperature as you recommend - only in a really really warm room. Just as you say, there is nothing magic about a microwave, and I'll tell you is there nothing nefarious about it either - it's just a way to heat things (note I say heat, and not cook).

--
Evan (no references)

The Other Other Other White Meat

[jeffersonebell]

Mmmm.... Puma

Re:What a fucking arrogant asshole

[schon]

all geeks love Iron Chef

Are you talking about Alton, or FortKnox?

I *hate* Iron Chef. Next to Emeril, it's the worst show on Food Network.

Seems to me that speaking on behalf of "all geeks" would be MUCH more arrogant than Alton making a joke of the answer (and it was a joke - perhaps you need to check the permissions on your /dev/senseofhumor )

Puma?

[smoondog]

I've never heard of someone eating puma. Does it taste like chicken. (Or tabby?) I wonder where I could find some recipes....

-Sean

Re:Puma?

[jfengel]

I can't imagine that it tastes very good. In general, carnivorous mammals taste nasty. (Carnivorous fish are OK, and birds that eat bug's aren't too bad.)

I have no idea who would eat puma. Best guess: rich hunter manages to kill and eat a puma, only to get hit with a massive case of chronic retribution. Trichinosis is really, really unpleasant.

Recipes and Rosetta Stones

[fetta]

"Unfortunately most recipes are written for people that already know how to cook."

A good resource to deal with this is to keep a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" handy. I think the recipes in there are just okay, but it's the Rosetta Stone for cooking recipes.

Unfortunately, his statement is true of a lot of computer "recipes" as well. I always try to identify a "Rosetta Stone" book for every technology I dive into. For example, I was lost in the Linux Documentation Project until after I read Mark Sobell's A Practical Guide to Linux.

Re:Recipes and Rosetta Stones

[rolofft]

Another good cook book for beginner's is Elaine Corn's "Now You're Cooking". It has the basic information that a beginner needs to get comfortable with the essentials of cooking. It's very user friendly and has lots of good tips that would take a novice a lot of trial and error to learn otherwise.

Re:Recipes and Rosetta Stones

[abischof]

I see that there're some new books in the Joy of Cooking series:

From the makers of The Joy of Cooking comes a series of beautifully illustrated books that focus on a variety of well-loved culinary subjects. Taken from the pages of The Joy itself, with helpful additions and illustrations, these are sure to inform both the culinary novice and professional.

They now apparently have books specifically on Chicken, Cookies, and so on. Are those any good?

Re:Recipes and Rosetta Stones

[Lovejoy]

I treasure Joy, but I like How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman, even better. We have given it as a gift innumerable times and everyone just loves it. It's all scratch recipes which focus on enhancing a relatively small number ingredients, not using a million ingredients and fancy techniques.

It assumes almost zero cooking knowledge and goes from there. My wife and I both love it. Bittman says "Everyone can cook, and most people should."

Re:Recipes and Rosetta Stones

[TrinSF]

I'm pretty sure the sexual charges weren't deemed "false" -- I want to say he plead out on them, but I'm not certain.

Cooking at 2000 C

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the problem with the person asking about cooking with Lava is that just because you've encased the game hen in 2000 C lava doesn't mean that's the same as putting something in a 2000 C oven. In an oven, the temperature of the air is what cooks the food. In the lava oven, it's the lava. I don't know how well lava transfers heat (it's probably better than air), but I bet that the lava touching the hen cooled off a great deal quicker than the rest of lava, which caused the hen to cook slower. With air, there's always enough circulation that cooled air gets quickly replaced with hot air. Thus the food is cooked at a constant temperature. This wouldn't happen with the lava oven.

Either way, I doubt the poster actually did what he said, rather he copied it from a website and claimed to have done it. I hate it when people take stories from other people and claim to have done it themselves. That's why so many urban legends keep getting circulated.

Re:Cooking at 2000 C

[stratjakt]

And in an oven, elements constantly supply new heat energy. In a ball of lava, there's a fixed amount of energy which constantly dissipates.

I do recall something about lava-rock being good at spreading heat, distributing it evenly across its exposed surfaces. This is why you put a bunch of lava-rocks in your gas grill - to spread the heat evenly across your cooking surface. Maybe this has something to do with it?

I dont think Alton Brown knows alot about thermodynamics. Shame he has to resort to childish insults about drug use, rather than admit he just doesn't know.. Hey! He's now a true slashdotter.

(the last paragraph was a joke, you dorks)

Re:Cooking at 2000 C

[ceejayoz]

this is the website he likely copied it from...

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[Wanker]

From Alton's response, I think that he thought the poster was completely immersing the chicken in the Lava. Pouring hot lava over a leaf-coated chicken should work since:

a) The lava cools off fairly quickly, meaning that the bird isn't exposed to 2000degF for 45 minutes
b) All those leaves release a lot of steam which both moderates the temperature and steams the chicken. Boiling water to make steam, as any high-school chemist knows, takes a lot of extra heat energy.

The above link also explains that the lava cools to 450degF within a reasonable amount of time, which is a great temperature for cooking chicken. ;-) The original poster explained that it cooled to 850degF, still too hot for chicken.

So, in short, the poster presented an impossible situation, and Alton, like any good literalist, told them so. What he could have done was ask some counter-questions to get a better idea of what was going on before answering.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[wiredog]

Sure, a sip a cream or a pat of butter or a piece of bacon once a month wouldn't do anybody any harm.

Amounts that small will do no harm if taken daily. (Assuming you get a decent amount of exercise.) Alcohol is an industrial solvent and attacks almost every system in the body if overindulged in. Does that mean it should be completely avoided? (Well, yes if you're alcoholic.)

I bet you cook with dihydrogen monoxide, which has been found to be used by everyone who has ever developed cancer.

Cooking In Lava

[SirTreveyan]

I am really surprised at Alton's response to this question. Although IANAP I would think this is really a simple matter of the thermodynamics of state changes of matter.

An example might be in order here to explain for those who never took chemistry. Take an ice cube with a thermometer frozen within. The temperature of the ice cube will rise 0 degrees C is reached. At this point the state of the ice changes to water. However the temperature of both the water and ice remains at 0 degrees C untils ALL the ice is melted. The same holds true at the boiling point, only if the steam is allowed to maintain constant pressure. When the water boils it remains at 100 degrees C until all the water has turned to steam. If the steam had been collected at constant pressure, once the water is all gone the temperature of the steam will begin to rise.

Now how does this apply to cooking chincken in lava?

"...wrap the hen in about 10 Ti (or banana) leaves. These protect the hen from actually burning" The banana leaves im sure are rather large and contain signicant amounts of water.

"...wrapped hen in the middle of the blob of lava and cover it with another shovel full of lava. We try to leave a small opening to the Ti leaves, for steam to escape..." The water in the leaves is boiling off. The opening maintains constant pressure which results in a fairly constant temperature. As long as the steam is escaping the temperature of the hen is being regulated at a level way below the lava temperature.

If Alton would wrap his hen in banana leaves ( or even wet paper towels ) before placing it under that broiler I will gaurentee it will take longer than 15 minutes to cook.

Re:Cooking In Lava

[petepac]

Don't forget the properties of insulation. You can boil water in a paper cup because the water pervents the paper from reaching it's kindling point which is above 100C.

The leaves (10 of them in fact) traps air next to the chicken which acts like an insulator. Remember all that itchy fiberglass in you actic. Same thing, less itchy. The two properties together keep the chicken ad a comfy 100C for 45 Min. There are only a few leaves left after the process since most gave their lives up for the chicken. The lava also helps since it's made up of trapped bubbles (More Insulation!)

The last part is the hole to let steam escape. Can we all say "Pressure Cooker". This get the job done in no time. Alton, you had a show on pressure cooking to make broth. The pressure get the water above 100C. Hence faster cooking.

Cooking in lava is possible with a scienific explanation. Now if I can only find one in Delaware.

Re:Cooking In Lava

[Hoi Polloi]

I agree but I don't think the water content of the leaves is a major factor. They are quite thin and are charred, according to the lava chefs, when it is done. I suspect the leaves trap some of the moisture coming out of the hen and act as a form of insulation by retarding heat transfer via convection, plus the layer of steam that develops around the hen helps the hen cook evenly. Ever cook corn on the cob in it's leaves in hot coals? The outside leaves will be charred but peel those off and you get a cloud of steam escaping plus you have nicely cooked corn.

Re:Cooking In Lava

[Garridan]

Yup, yup. 2000 degree lava makes 100 degree water (and 100 degree lava-oven surface) until all the water is gone. All that hot, high-pressure water is getting injected into the chicken at an incredible rate, but all the tender juiciness is trapped in the banana leaves! Yum! Psychadelic mushrooms are fun and all, but not necessary for the process. (in fact, they'd make timing the process rather difficult...)

Re:Cooking In Lava

[trentfoley]

Although IANAP I would think...

I am not a Puma?

Re:What a fucking arrogant asshole

[jdreed1024]

Is this Iron Chef (the Japanese show), or Iron Chef USA that we're talking about? The latter is pretty damn funny, if for no other reason than to see William Shatner pretend like he knows what he's talking about, and the comments on food that he delivers in his classic melodramatic style. It's great!

Re:Obesity

[daeley]

Erm, I think that's what he was saying, echoing Brown's comments about there being no bad food. Portions are too big, but what's in them isn't necessarily bad in moderation.

Re:Obesity

[Reality Master 101]

Go to a restaurant in Europe, and the portions are about a third of what they would be in America.

That's because the food is so expensive. When I've travelled to Europe, I was appalled at how expensive everything was. Drinks were particularly expensive. In one place, it was like $8 for a small glass of coke! I would say that food on the average was twice as expensive as the US, and in some places (Switzerland) it was three times.

obesity is so rare as to be statistically insignificant and would attract as many stares as a guy with two heads.

What the hell are you talking about? Clearly you've never been to Germany or Italy. Maybe France, where the portions are so small that you're forced to look like a death-camp victim.

Does anyone know if his show airs in the UK?

[$rtbl_this]

After all the hype on /. I quite fancy watching Good Eats now, but I can't find any information about whether any UK channels (even satellite) have picked it up. If anyone knows whether it is shown here could they let me know where and when? Cheers!

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[david duncan scott]

He didn't say that you couldn't cook with lava, he just questioned the time involved, which is, in fact, remarkable.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[nomadic]

But you're assuming the dubious research compiled about high-fat foods causing obesity is true. Not sure why you'd "wince".

Re:What a fucking arrogant asshole

[Dirtside]

Yeah... it's dismaying to see "fellow" geeks going around stereotyping themselves. (But then, I guess some geeks are like that...) I've never watched more than two or three minutes of Iron Chef, mostly because I don't watch much TV at all (Buffy and Angel, that's it, and if they go off the air, I probably won't watch TV at all), and even if I did, I don't find cooking particularly interesting. Or sports, for that matter, which removes the competition angle. I'm not into anime at all, and I don't think Natalie Portman is even remotely hot. She's kind of pretty, but in a dead-eyed kind of way.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Fastball]

When I go to a Safeway or Wegman's and see every tenth person over 300 pounds and pushing a shopping cart loaded with milk, cheeses, beef, etc. it makes me wince when I hear this "no bad foods" kind of thinking.

No. These folks are more likely OD'ing on simple carbs late in the day or at night. Plus, they probably have to break out mutliplication tables to figure out how many calories/serving sizes their shoveling down their craws.

Has anybody else noticed . . .

[xScruffx]

. . . how much Mr. Brown looks like Thomas Dolby?

I REALLY wanted to ask if he really WAS Thomas Dolby and, if so, who the hell it was that blinded him with science back in the '80s, but alas . . . too stupid to post before the topic was locked.

Darn my lethargic self.

Re:Has anybody else noticed . . .

[Morgalyn]

He answered this question in an interview he did for his internet fan group Alton Brown Interview.. (go to page 5)

ALTON No. [chuckles] Although I did have Golden Age of Wireless when it first came out, but I didn't look anything like Thomas Dolby. I don't think I look anything like Thomas Dolby now. We both have bad haircuts and glasses. Although I often wonder about Thomas, you know. Where did he go? What did he do? He made a lot money there for a few minutes. But, no. No. I am not Thomas Dolby; I'm not related to Thomas Dolby; never met Thomas Dolby. But there are several Blinded Me With Science references in upcoming episodes.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Desert Raven]

There are no bad foods, only bad food habits. I eat cream, butter, and bacon; I just don't eat pounds of it at a time.

This kind of thinking gets people in loads of trouble. Sure, a sip a cream or a pat of butter or a piece of bacon once a month wouldn't do anybody any harm. But once these foods are included in the diet, it's easy for them to become habits. When I go to a Safeway or Wegman's and see every tenth person over 300 pounds and pushing a shopping cart loaded with milk, cheeses, beef, etc. it makes me wince when I hear this "no bad foods" kind of thinking.

No, this kind of thinking mixed with stupidity gets people in loads of trouble. I've lived by that philosophy for a long time without becoming obese. I cook using butter, I just don't use pounds of it. Trust me, you really can taste the difference. The people who abuse this theory are that same wingnuts who order double-cheeseburgers with a diet cola. If you have an over-eating problem, it really doesn't matter what you eat, you're going to be obese.

And lets not even mention the fact that a number of our healthy substitutes have turned out to be worse for us than what they were replacing.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Amazing Quantum Man]

\i{I bet you cook with dihydrogen monoxide, which has been found to be used by everyone who has ever developed cancer.}

I used either oxygen dihydride or hydrogen hydroxide. I think those are much safer.

Re:Obesity

[American AC in Paris]

Go to a restaurant in Europe, and the portions are about a third of what they would be in America.

...Unless, of course, you go to Hungary. (Meat, meat and meat with a side of goulash, all liberally covered with paprika. Mmm...)

Or Germany. (Or perhaps a nice ham hock, with sauerkraut and mashed peas and a beer that takes two hands to lift.)

Or Greece. (Olive oil, with a side of feta cheese and leg of lamb...)

Or England. (Fish, chips, and--oh, what the heck! Another pint! And that quivering blob soaking in grease, please!)

Or Spain. (Tapas! Tapas! Tapas! Perhaps...more tapas? Yes--It's only 4:30 AM!)

Or France. (Please, enjoy this perfectly reasonably-sized entree. It will be followed by a perfectly reasonably-sized plat, which will be followed in turn by a perfectly reasonably-sized salad, which will be followed in turn by a perfectly reasonably-sized cheese plate, which will be followed in turn by a perfectly reasonably-sized dessert. Kir, Wine, Wine, Congac, and Wine will be served.)

Or Italy. (As with France, but with first and second main courses! In your face, France!)

Or the Czech Republic. (Dumplings, meat, and beer that flows like the Vltava!)

Now, it's perfectly true that my fellow Merrikins eat out waaaay too often, far more frequently than your average European. It's also true that the average American gets a lot less exercise than the average European. I'd also wager that the average American eats far more processed/pre-prepared food than the average European; since most pre-fab food is both high in fat and far less tasty and satisfying than a properly-prepared meal, we get the double-whammy of high-fat diets and snacking desires. That, and we drink way too much [pop|soda|Coke] here.

But to claim that restaurant portions in Europe are smaller? I don't buy it, not for a second.

But THOSE chemicals

[wiredog]

Don't have websites pointing out the dangers of using them!

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[stratjakt]

"You want incredibly tasty food where none of the ingredients cause health problems?"

impossible. Eating any one type of food exclusively can lead to health problems. A diet of nothing but lettuce is just as unhealthy as a diet of nothing but pudding pops. And eating 6 peaches is just as sugar-laden as eating 6 bowls of jell-o.

We're omnivores, we need a variety of foods in moderation. Good dietary habits, quite frankly, aren't so simple. Doctors and researchers are still learning how the various vitamins and chemicals and whatnot interact with our bodies.

Calorie counting, deal-a-meal, shed-a-bed, and all the other 'nutrition fads' have pretty much been debunked.

Noone has the 'magic formula'. Common sense is still the way to go. If that wasn't true, we'd have the 'meal in a pill' diet that was promised us in so many 50's era sci-fi films. (Though I want the rocket pack first)

Re:Obesity

[david duncan scott]

To be fair, he did say "the South of Europe", which kind of rules out Germany. Italy certainly qualifies of course, and I don't think Greece is populated entirely by runway models either.

Joy of Cooking

[wiredog]

Use the 2nd edition. It has the recipie for real pound cake, plus howto cook squirrel. Invaluable resource.

You are right on...

[mekkab]

I've seen that Ti leaf guy's website- next time I'm on the big island, we'll have some hen!

But his website even suggests that the ti leaves are acting as insulation. FIrst you are steaming the chicken, and who knows whats happening when the steam hits some of the lava- I'm sure it cools down and the lava closest to the leaves get hard. It becomes more like a salt-crust bake (for the Iron Chef fans out there).

What Mr ICee should do is experiment in an oven: wrap a hen in some ti leaves and see what cooks.

regardless- that's a pretty frickin' neat-o trick.
I wanna play with lava.

Re:What a fucking arrogant asshole

[GMFTatsujin]

I love Iron Chef, but certainly not for the transmission of cooking expertise. How in the world can you figure out how to cook on that show?

I love it for the pomp and rhetoric. Much like pro wrestling. It's a goofy show with a goofy premise, except that instead of resulting in heads beaten in with folding chairs, you get to see inspired works of culinary art, which probably taste unusual but flavorful.

I enjoy it way more than any sports broadcast, probably because of the mystery of how the food is going to be assembled. I guess I just don't have a strategic play-by-play type of mind, but watching the cooking and construction process makes the problem-solving portion of my brain happy.

And the costumes are great.

Alton Brown's show is head and shoulders above it, though. How many other shows have you seen where the host illustrates the process of yeast fermenting by using burping sock puppets? *That's* entertainment.

GMFTatsujin

dogcow

[Erich]

haha... your sig. they say "moof" :-)

Steam stupid!!

[TheLoneCabbage]

The important part of the question was that he let's the steam escape (to prevent explosions).

Water boils at 212F (sea level, but I suspect if he's on a volcano, he may be cooking way above sea level).

Water is also one hell of a coolant. As long as steam is escaping, and the lava doesn't directly come in contact with the bird (conduction), then the chicken is only being steamed. Max temperature (for most any place but the Dead Sea) 212F.

Broiling is a dry heat cooking method. And temperatures GREATLY exceed 212F.

It's the same reason you can put pasta on a red hot stove, and it doesn't burn... untill you run out of water.

Ain't science grand?

Re:Vegetarians live longer?

[david duncan scott]

Although Africans die young from a lot of things, getting shot is among the most notable, and I don't think diet is much protection against that (unless you eat a lot of Kevlar.)

Shame shame slashdot...

[dasmegabyte]

For not properly reencoding his answers!

Those question marks? Each represents a subtle Unicode punctuation character that slashcode decided would be better served as itallicized query.

God, proper guestimation of unrepresentable characters is the first thing I learned when I started doing data transformation. Em spaces become regular spaces, not question marks. Same with "smart" quotes and long dashes.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[shaldannon]

But the meal pill would be the complete antithesis of cooking. One of the joys of cooking and eating good food is that you get to savor the process of creating it, then you get to enjoy the nuanced flavors and textures of the food. With a pill, you get it from a manufacturer, it has no flavor, and it has no texture.

Besides all that, the human body is meant to actually digest food...can you imagine the hunger pangs you'd feel if all you were doing is popping nutrient pills?

Re:Obesity

[MKalus]

>>Or Germany. (Or perhaps a nice ham hock, with sauerkraut and mashed peas and a beer that takes two hands to lift.)

If you need to hands to lift your mug you're not old enough to drink.

Simple as that.

water (212 degrees)???

[jabber01]

Do you seriously believe that steam does not exceed this temperature? If so, I've a nuclear plant with steam at over 1000 degrees to show you.

I suspect that the secret here is convection. Heat, like water and electricity, will follow the path of least resistance as it dissipates.

There will be relatively little heat flowing into the item you're cooking, unless you completely seal it in the lava.

Re:water (212 degrees)???

[drDugan]

Do you seriously believe that steam does not exceed this temperature?

there are two uses for the word water here... one is all H20 in all phases, the other is just the liquid form of H2O. When you talk about water as just the liquid phase -- then the above poster's comment makes sense. Once you raise the temp of water above 212, you no longer have water, you have steam.

Re:water (212 degrees)???

[SirTreveyan]

Water vapor will not exceed 100 degrees C in an system with constant pressure. Remember there is an opening left to allow steam to vent off, so the system maintains atmospheric pressure. Thermodynamics dictate that if pressure is constant and additional heat is added to the system the volume of the system must increase.

Nuclear plants utilize systems in which the volume of the system is constant. Pressure is maintained at a constant level by regulating the heat source.

GOD HELP US IF YOU WORK AT A NUCLEAR PLANT!

Re:water (212 degrees)???

[radja]

all depends on the pressure. water boils at 100 degrees at a pressure of 1 athmosphere. a higher pressure leads to a higher boiling temperature, which is why stuff in a pressurecooker is cooked faster (higher temperature), and also why it's bloody hard to make a decent cup of coffee on top of Mount Everest (boiling temp. approximately 75-80 degrees, IIRC) //rdj

Stop the "Low Fat" and "No Meat" Lies!

[thelizman]

Every where I go I'm inundated with low fat this, low fat that, no fat, no cholesterol, not meat, et al. It's been 20 years since the AMA dropped the bombshell that fat was killing us, and in spite of the absolute lack of information to back it up (and where it exists, lets call a spade a spade and admit that it was junk science at best). Everyone has been pushing this anti-fat nonsense, yet Americans are getting fatter and fatter, heart disease is on the up as is diabetes, and millions of Americans find that they can't control their cholesterol no matter how hard they try - and now they are on dangerous liver-killing drugs to try.

When will America cast of this "fat is bad" myth, and accept that the real evil - the only evil - in our diets is all the processed crap and high sugar/carbs we consume? In 1910, the average American consumed roughly 1.5 lbs of sugar (and it was unrefined cane sugar at that). Heart disease wasn't even something most doctors knew about because people were dying of crap like tuberculosis and influenze far more often then from heart attacks. Fast forward to today: The average American consumes some 118 lbs of refined sugar. Food makers sell prepackaged foods which are highly profitable, chocked full of artificial flavors and colors, and made mostly from fillers. Labels like "low fat" and "no fat" make people salivate like pavlovian dogs when they think that it must be heart healthy, but eveyone is ignoring the obvious. Scientists still can't tell us precisely what roles cholesterol play, they can't agree on what is good, what is bad, and nobody has a clue on how cholesterol goes from lipids in the blood stream to plaque along the artery walls.

And the diet fads: First we're told that vegetarianism is the way to go, but every vegetarian I've ever met has been relatively unremarkable in their health, and never any better off than before they made their "commitment". Then there are 'hollywood' diet plans that offer people the chance to lose gobs of weight in only weeks, but what they don't mention is that you'll gain all that weight back and then some.

The only vegetarians/vegans I respect are the ones who go on the diet because of concerns about the treatment of food animals. There are alternatives: Nuts, vitamins, soy, etc. But outside of that, anyone who foreswears meat for 'health concerns' is a stark raving fool who is willfully depriving themselves of a number of essential amino acids needed to keep the body healthy. And before you go slathering that baby back ribs with gobs of barbecue sauce, look at how much sugar/sucrose/fructrose is in there. In fact, look at all your foods. If it has "ose", "ayse", or anything you can't pronounce you should toss it in the trash. People rave about the evil of sodium, but if you're drinking water and sweating, sodium is the least of your worries. Watch your intake of sugar and simple carbs. Ban yourself from white bread, cornbread, and anythign that isn't 100% whole grain. Walk straight pass the aisle with all the potato chips, pretend you did'nt even see the pastas, and get your ass into the produce section. If you want to be healthy, make sure there is not more than a few steps between you and your food. And for those of us still eating meat - know where your meat comes from. Free range, hormone free, non-corn-fed meat is the only way to go. And if you don't have a concience, consider this: stress causes animals to pump natural hormones out that make meat taste gamy. Make sure your meat comes from animals that lived happy, and died fast.

One more thing (and I dont think anyone can disagree with this): Unplug yourself, put the remote down, and go OUT SIDE! You see that big burning ball of fire in the sky? That's called a sun. Try to expose yourself to it more often, it's a great source of vitamin D (not directly obviously). Here's a concept that works: RUN. Sweat. Give yourself some cramps somewhere besides your wrists for a change. Unless you want your legacy to be that you wrote somethign that got included in an obscure 8 digit release Linux kernal, then you died fat and alone in your one bedroom apartment in front of your computer while wearing only your underwear and clutching a twinkie in your left hand, you should excercise. Believe me, running a 100m dash in 10 seconds is just as satisfying as killing a bug in your source code.

Okay, I'm done now...oh, and if any of you are wondering what inspired this rant, it was spending the first 24 years of my life as a fat out of shape and hypertensive stress ball. Since I saw through the lies, I have lost 130 lbs. I feel great, look great, I'm happy, and I actually get laid on occasion now. Oh yeah, some light reading on the subject from the New York Times (no registration required, put it helps to have Acrobat reader installed).

Re:Stop the "Low Fat" and "No Meat" Lies!

[twisted_pickle]

Here's a concept that works: RUN. Sweat.

Hell yes, I agree!

Exercise is the key, it's as simple as that. I'm talking about the kind that gets your blood pumping and gets you breating a little bit. Ever tried to run a mile when you're out of shape? How about 1/4 mile? How do you feel afterwards?

Like you're going to throw up. Or maybe you are already throwing up. Sedentariness is an illness, and obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes etc. are the side effects.

By exercising every day, and pushing yourself a little every day, you turn your body into the lean mean machine that it was meant to be. It seems to me that, if one exercises and makes it a priority, then all that cake and excessive shit isn't going to look good anymore. The body will start regulating what you eat, and everything will fall into place. Those salads, whole grains, and lean meats are going to look very tasty, and you're not going to want to overeat because you know you'll pay the next day.

Exercise is so good. I'm saddened that so many people haven't discovered it and made it a part of their daily lives. It boosts your health, gives you more energy, more endurance, sculpts your body, and makes you better in the sack. Where is the disadvantage here?

Re:Stop the "Low Fat" and "No Meat" Lies!

[rnd()]

The article you cite from the times makes some very valid points, however I think it misleads the reader in one respect: by showing evidence that the low-fat high-carb food pyramid is flawed and then concluding that the logical alternative is to eat a high-fat low-carb diet, a la Dr. Atkins.

In reality, studies have shown that both high-carb and high-fat diets can lead to health problems.

Keep in mind, the original food pyramid myth was promoted because of discoveries during the Vietnam war that American 18 year olds had tons of plaque built up on their arteries and 18 year-old Vietnamese did not. The conclusion that was drawn was that the American high-fat diet was the cluprit. Hence, the food pyramid as we know it.

However, if you think about what the research has actually shown, the ideal diet is as follows:

Lots of vegetables, some high-fiber grains, and a small amount of meat, preferably fatty fish.

Now think for a moment about the nutritional conditions that existed during the majority of human evolution. We were engineered by evolution to consume a diet very much like the ideal diet described above. Of course, exercise is critical to health as well, and our ancestors got plenty of that in the course of their daily lives.

Re:Obesity

[sammy baby]

This is the funniest thing I've read on /. in months. Would that I could mod you up.

Re:*gasp* QWZX

[rot26]

Translation:
Thank you Mr. Roboto

I think a closer translation is "I am very very gay and I have succesfully ruined what used to be a pretty good rock band".

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[foobar104]

Drinking too much water can lead to a condition called hypervolemic hyponatremia, which can cause seizures, coma, and eventually death.

Everybody knows that the amount of sodium (and potassium, of course) in your body is a critical factor in the correct functioning of your nervous system. But not everybody realizes that the concentration of sodium is just as critical. If you throw that concentration off by drinking too much water, you can make yourself very sick.

(Don't get paranoid. To put yourself into hypervolemic hyponatremia you'd have to drink something like 10 gallons of water in a 4 hour period. Athletes can consume that much while running or bicycling long distances, but us mere mortals are in relatively little danger.)

So another way of making the same point is to say that any food, if misused, can kill you.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Quill_28]

Believe it or not, too much water can kill you(it's alot) and there have been people who become addicted to water. I undersatnd it screws around with electrolytes in the brain achieving some kind of high. So even water can be bad for you!

Re:You?re?Using?IE?Aren?tYou?

[leshert]

Maybe? so? but? Mozilla? 1.1? shows? the? same? thing.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Kintanon]

on simple carbs
Please refer to this as simple sugars. It makes a difference. Eatting carbs is no big deal, you turn it straight into energy, it's rarely stored as fat (unless you're totally sedentary), it's simple sugars (which are also called simple carbohydrates, but most people don't know them by that name, so it muddies things up) that you mean and they provide a quick boost of energy, then contribute to mood swings and lethargy if they aren't backed up by something more solid like some good starches or some protein, or more complex carbohydrates.

It's also a good idea to eat late in the evening, before you go to bed, if you are trying to lose weight, but only if you are following the multiple small meal plan I described in an earlier post here.

Kintanon

Hog Feed

[Nit Picker]

It's a little more complicated than this. When I was in elementary school in the rural south, after lunch we were supposed to dump leftover food into a barrel. One of the perks of the janitor's job was that he took the barrel home to fed to his hogs, probably without cooking. If the garbabe contained uncooked pork scraps from pigs with trichinosis, the pigs that ate it could get trichinosis.

Nowdays, most hogs are fed a factory blended food containing corn and soy meal with no garbage. Therefore, they cannot get trichinosis from their food.

In those instances where pigs are fed gargabe, I understand that the law now requires it to be cooked. (I am told that this was done to protect the pigs from some disease other than trichinosis, and the benefit to humans is accidental.)

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[Artifex]

What he could have done was ask some counter-questions to get a better idea of what was going on before answering.

This question-and-answer format doesn't allow for dialogues. However, he could easily have made some assumptions about what what really going on, and presented his opinions based on those.

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[bmwm3nut]

you also have to remember that lava (once hardened on the outside) is a very poor conductor of heat. so even though the temperature may be quite high (compared to a conventional oven) the rate of heat flow may be quite low. incidentally that's why you can walk barefoot over hot coals...it just takes too long for the heat to flow from the coals to your foot.

Jarritos???

[John Harrison]

Jarritos is high quality? I didn't know. Now Sangria Senorial, that is high quality. At least it usually is. I occasionally get a bad bottle.

Re:Vegetarians live longer?

[Kintanon]

Stupid Vegans, not Vegans in general.

The people you see who look like that are the STUPID vegans who are eatting 1300 calories worth of green vegetables every day, and nothing else. They are getting the bare minimum to survive in calories and not getting enough vitamins. I'm a Martial Artist, an Amateur Weightlifter, and a fitness consultant/personal trainer as well as the rest of my activities. I was also a vegetarian for about a year. During that time I ate healthier because I had to THINK more about what I was eatting. When I stopped going vegetarian, I kept thinking about what I was eatting. So I might have a double quarter pounder once every 3 or 4 months. My primary meat is turkey. I was very healthy when I was eatting vegetarian, and I'm very healthy now. Not because I was eatting vege then, or because I'm not eatting it now, but because I started thinking about what I was eatting and making concious decisions based on my health, not on what the cheapest thing in the store was.
Vegans who have that wan, washed out look are the ones who aren't thinking about it, they are just eatting their head of lettuce per day and drinking their water and letting it go at that. Just like the 400lb people that can barely walk aren't thinking about their diet, they are just eatting anything that comes to hand. Thought is always the primary ingredient to a healthy lifestyle. Think first, then act.

Kintanon

No kidding.

[Artifex]

THE PERFORMANCE OF MICROWAVE OVENS REALLY DOES VARY

I bought a 1500-watt microwave, because it was on sale and because "more is better." Was I ever wrong! I'm thinking about abandoning it when I move and buying a very low wattage one to replace it, simply so I can follow instructions and not have, say, my microwave popcorn burn in two minutes flat.

By the way, don't ever stick cinnamon roll dough from a can in the microwave. I ignored the "do not cook in microwave" warning, thinking that the warning was because people stuck the can in, or something, and I could just stick a couple of the rolls in for 30 seconds... by the time 30 seconds was up, my oven was unplugged and I was trying to get my front door open to shove the oven outside. It's still a nice speckly beige color inside, after scrubbing...

Re:Obesity

[ncc74656]

Go to a restaurant in Europe, and the portions are about a third of what they would be in America.

That's because the food is so expensive. When I've travelled to Europe, I was appalled at how expensive everything was. Drinks were particularly expensive. In one place, it was like $8 for a small glass of coke!

I spent two years each in England and Germany in the mid-80s, and I don't recall eating out as being outrageously expensive. I suspect prices would be higher in the big cities (London, Paris, etc.), but the same is true here in the States (NYC, San Francisco, etc.). Elsewhere, pricing tended to be more reasonable. Europeans are ripped off in a number of ways (confiscatory tax rates, $5/gallon gasoline, expensive housing), but I don't think food was one of them.

Sorry for you - the diet can work

[alexhmit01]

I've been on an Atkins diet for about 4 months, I dropped over 45 lbs, with another 50 to go. Now I'm at the gym a few days a week and feel great. My secret is really unhealthy but uses a 23 year old's metabolism... when I stop losing weight, I eat a carb heavy diet for 2-5 days. Then I go back on induction, that resumes my weight loss.

If you really want breads and pastas, this is a bad diet for you. My diet mostly consists of meats and cheeses anyways, so being on Atkins was mostly about cutting out junk.

It's all about finding a diet plan that meshes with your lifestyle. Excess sugars are bad for you, too many carbs are bad for you. Monitor your intake and work out and you'll be fine. For meat/cheese eaters, Atkins is great. By not eating carbs, your body can't fully digest the fats that you consume, helping you lose weight.

Alex

Re:Sorry for you - the diet can work

[TrinSF]

I second this guy. I went to low carb as an experiment in July, and I've stayed on it since then. I eat omelets for breakfast/lunch (with turkey bacon and cheese in them, mostly), and a meat-food dinner -- steak, tandoori chicken, In & Out burgers done protein style. I also have a fair amount of salad greens, often as a chicken caesar salad, as well as small amounts of peanut butter and almonds. When we eat out (which is several times a week), I sometimes have creme brulee (but I don't eat the brulee part!) or a little cheesecake -- so I do "cheat" some.

The result: I'm not watching calories, I'm not exercising -- which is difficult for me anyway for medical reasons -- and I'm losing about 2 pounds per week. I'm wearing clothes I haven't worn in two years, and I feel sexier and energetic and very happy with my food choices.

I wouldn't suggest low carb for everyone, but I think for a particular physiology -- lots of weight to lose, borderline Type 2 Diabetes -- it can be a really useful strategy.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[phriedom]

"When I go to a Safeway or Wegman's and see every tenth person over 300 pounds and pushing a shopping cart loaded with milk, cheeses, beef, etc. it makes me wince when I hear this "no bad foods" kind of thinking."

I took a quarter off once and bagged groceries. It is not good science, since I didn't record data and the sample was large but all from the same store in the same city. However, it was very clear to me that fat people weren't buying meat and cheese and cream, they were buying soda, chips, and prepared foods. Simple carbs, not fats, were getting them. In contrast, people buying fresh produce with or without dairy and meat, were never fat. Not once did I see a fat person buying fresh vegetables.

Good Eats, the Lost Episode

[slagdogg]

AB: You might say that we Americans have forgotten how to enjoy the
simple things in life. With our hectic schedules, the constant pressures of
society, and the plethora of fast food options, people tend to forget about
one of the most simple and pleasurable of ingredients -- psychedelic
mushrooms.

Now I know what you're thinking. Psychedelic mushrooms? Wait a second ...
aren't those ... well, you know ... [Cut to Paul in the background in a Tye-Dye T-Shirt, being arrested and
carried away by the police.] ... kind of disgusting?

Well, my fine friend, you have never truly applied
science to the equation. Now, this isn't as difficult as it might seem. If
you want difficult, try preparing some crank on a bed of lava ... but ...
well, that's another show. Now I'm not a nutritional anthropologist, but
fortunately you don't need to be in order to well ... get messed up ... and
enjoy some fine flavors on the way.

So join us as we journey through the world of psychedelic mushroom
preparation, not to mention a journey to some other worlds, as we turn
psychedelic mushrooms into ... Good Eats.

Re:Good Eats, the Lost Episode

[connorbd]

+1, Funny...

That's inspired. /Brian

basic physics of phase changes

[rhombic]

You have your own nuclear power plant? Man I'm jealous. Of course, your 1000 degree steam is under pressure, isn't it? Unvented, that is.

In a vented system (like this) with a reservoir of liquid water (the leaves) that is likewise under no pressure (like in this case) the temperature of the water in the leaves cannot exceed 212F/100C. That's why the outer several leaves char-- once all the water is gone, the temperature goes up and the cellulose and lignin convert to charcoal and then burn off, leaving the inorganic ash-- sodium and potassium nitrates & etc. As long as there are a couple of leaves left uncharred, the temperature the meat is exposed to isn't going to exceed 100C. Which is why you'll get a perfectly roasted but not browned piece of meat-- you need to evaporate off all of the water in the outer layer of meat to get some nice browning. I'd rather have it grilled on my Weber.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Lovejoy]

Wow! It looks like everyone disagrees with you. Simple carbs, white bread, potatoes, rice, and low-fat ultraprocessed packaged foods make you FAT, increase your triglycerides, LDL, and blood sugar.

Sugar & the carbs I mentioned above are the real evil for people who have developed insulin resistance and the vicious carb cycle. That is a surprisingly large number of people in the states. (I'll betcha 99% of the obese people you see in stores are victims of low-fat diets)

For everyone else, moderation works. Does Alton look unhealthy to you?

Ever been to France? They are some skinny folks. And they eat cheese, butter, bernaise, and bechamel like they're going out of style - in moderation.

Low-fat diets are a scam!

Irma Rombauer/Cincinnati

[Dirk Pitt]

Irma Rombauer, the author of JOC, is another disjoint piece of Cincinnati's strong cooking tradition.

Cincinnati is not only a relatively small 'major' city, but has strong and pervasive German heritage. And despite the fact that (IMHO) German food is not the best of culinary delights, Cincinnati continues to be a significant culinary player in the States. Maisonette is the longest-running 5-star in the US, at one time there were actually at least 3 5-stars there, Sturkey's (modern American fare) received 'Best Dessert in the Nation' from USA Today, there are actually a few decent Sushi bars despite the inland location, and there are a myriad of good (consumer) cooking schools and shops here (anyone out there know Jungle Jim's ;-)). Rombauer, BTW, has a strong German geneology.

I've always found this a strange phenomenon. The art community there is also very strong, despite the rest of the city being a boring/backwards midwest ultra-conservative city. Anyone care to hazard a theory?

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[davebooth]

Agreed absolutely. YES you can taste the difference between the "real" fats and their "healthier" substitutes. YES you can eat it in moderation without ill effects. I cook with and eat the same fats that were in my diet as a kid in the sixties - my pan-frying uses lard where appropriate, I use butter where the recipe calls for it. The only reason I dont use old-fashioned beef dripping for some things is that its almost impossible to find an old-fashioned butcher that can sell it to you. I also eat more (in terms of overall quantity and calorific value) than most folks I know. Whilst I dont eat too many burgers (because I dont like the taste of most commercial ones) the ones I make are huge - a 1lb burger is a meal, anything smaller is a snack. If the "healthy food" zealots were to be believed I should be one of the folks over 300lb and waddling through the supermarkets. I'm positively scrawny and my lipid profile is excellent. All this whilst working a relatively sedentary job. Of course I also study martial arts and work out hard on a daily basis (because it feels good, not because I'm trying to control my weight or anything.) Whats more, on a low fat diet I literally starve - I'm constantly hungry and my weight plummets like I was an anorexic teen... On the medical evidence I'd say my diet exactly fits my own physiology and lifestyle, and that is the important thing, not what components actually go into it.

margarine = trans fat

[Lovejoy]

Amen.

But margarine will kill you! Not kidding. Watch out for trans-fats. They are evil, artificial, broken fats.

Check out the Washington Post article.

Exceptions: Brummel & Brown is yummy and has no trans fat. (Don't have any stock in or relation to whatever company makes Brummel & Brown)

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[tswinzig]

From Alton's response, I think that he thought the poster was completely immersing the chicken in the Lava.

So Alton can cook well, but is unable to read?

Re:Good Reading

[i give up there are]

CI also has a TV show, America's Test Kitchen on PBS. It's not as goofy as GE, but very good.

There's another worthwhile magazine, Fine Cooking. It does accept ads, and isn't as good as CI, but better than Bon Appetit or Gormet, or any of the other "lifestyle" cooking magazines.

Re:Obesity

[American AC in Paris]

I sorta buy it, judging from my recent trip to Paris.

Refelctions from a guy who lived there for a year:

• Breakfast bread is loaded with butter and oil. Croissants are essentially sticks of butter that get transmogrified into pastry.
• Lunch is considerably more involved than salad and/or bread, especially for the one or two Parisians that hold down a job. If said job requires a degree of client interaction, you can be assured of regular large meals at lunchtime--business and food are intertwined. Even the techs and peons take healthy lunches, though. Since it's techinically illegal to eat or drink at your desk, virtually everybody goes to the cafeteria/brasserie for lunch, and virtually everyone chows down on what would be a very generous lunch by many American standards (1/4 roasted chicken, a big pile o' fries, and creme caramel, for example, is a fairly common lunch.)
• Sandwiches are indeed universally big. If you get a crepe or a sandwich grec, you're looking at an even more caloric/fat-filled experience.
• You're dead on about dinners--even when my wife and I ate in without guests, we'd generally make dinner the focal point of the evening--prep, eating, enjoying a bottle of cheap, tasty wine, and long conversation. (It's a habit we've brought back to the States with us.)
• Cassoulet is the nectar of the gods.
• There are indeed fat people in Paris, and there are indeed many places to buy "normal" and "large" clothing in Paris. Tati springs immediately to mind as a prime example, as do any number of shops at Les Halles and La Defense. Tourists generally aren't going to go to these places, though, as they're crowded shopping malls that don't feature anything terribly special.
• If you leave Paris, you'll begin to see "larger" people more often. I suspect this has something to do with the mad amount of walking you need to do in Paris, coupled with the stress of living there and the added energy you body uses to combat the chonically bad air in the city.

Cordially,
American AC in Paris

Respecting vegetarians...

[BlaisePascal]

I've been a vegetarian (ovo-lacto) from birth. My rule is "if you have to kill and animal to get it, I won't eat it. I will eat gametes but not zygotes." My reasons for being vegetarian have nothing to do with the well-being of the animals; I use leather, prefer eggs from factory-raised hens (held in small cages and fed hormone-laden feed, with no exercise, turning them into egg-producing machines) to free-range hens (who have better overall health and living conditions, but also have access to roosters). I feel I'm living proof you can get fat and diabetic from a vegetarian diet, and I'm reasonably happy with my health. I recognise that I have canines for tearing flesh and an intestinal tract short enoug to clear itself of meat, but I won't eat it to test that. It probably would be healthier to consume some meat, but I don't care.

I'm vegetarian for personal religious reasons. I don't insist that others be vegetarian.

Can you respect my vegetarianism?

Re:Respecting vegetarians...

[gblues]

To get those vetetables, nuts, beans, and whatnot, millions upon millions of insects, arachnids, and other small creatures must be mass-slaughtered.

What, you'll cry over a horse but not over a horsefly?

I disrespect your blatant hypocrisy.

Nathan

Re:*gasp* QWZX

[unicron]

Yeah, that's one of the great paradoxes of modern rock. Easily their best selling song, and it ruined their career.

Re:Ti leaves...

[Tackhead]

> Y'know, when I first read the questions for the interview (and the actual article about the lava cooking), I kept thinking, "Gee, cooking with molten lava is nifty and all, but titanium leaves just seems to be going a little overboard."
>
> I suppose it'd get you that "extra-crispy" skin on your chicken...

D00d!

I 0vercl0x0r3d my 0v3n with l4v4, it gets 2000 d3gr33z! Check out my case mod! Pure t1t4n1um! Ti-m0dd3d ch1ck3n 0wnz 4ll j00r b4s3! :)

Blantant plug.

[laserjet]

What a perfect time to plug my cooking store. IE or Mozilla/Netscape6 is (javascript) is required.

http://www.easycookin.com

Re:What a fucking arrogant asshole

[Tackhead]

> Is this Iron Chef (the Japanese show), or Iron Chef USA that we're talking about? The latter is pretty damn funny, if for no other reason than to see William Shatner pretend like he knows what he's talking about, and the comments on food that he delivers in his classic melodramatic style.

IMHO, Iron Chef is funny, and it's great entertainment, but it's not really a cooking show, as the pace of the cooking (multiple chefs, multiple dishes per chef, dozens of sous-chefs doing the prep work simultaneously) makes it impossible to really understand what's going on and learn anything. You've got these great chefs out there, doing great things, but you end up with no idea how they did it or how to apply it to your own cooking.

Perhaps that's what the original poster was referring to when he said he didn't enjoy Iron Chef.

It's rather like watching a grandmaster-level chess match, but replayed at one move per second.

Re:Vegetarians live longer?

[L. VeGas]

I do know some vegans who are sorta funny-looking

I live in Vegas, and trust me, some of us are downright ugly.

Volcanco - heat capacity

[1qaz2wsx]

The primary reason it works is that lava has high temperature, but low heat capacity. Steam et. al. would not help if the lava was at 2000 degrees and high heat capacity. Lava walkers (walking across glowing coals) use very specific types of rock, for precisely this reason, their feet would be burnt to a crisp if you substituted a different type of rock. A more common example is aluminum foil in the oven. You can unwrap a baked potato with bare hands, but it is too hot to simply hold the unwrapped potato, even though they were both at 400 degrees.

Re:Obesity

[MKalus]

I am German ;) Believe me, you can do it one handed.

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[smoondog]

Actually there was a misunderstanding. I suspect that Alton mistook a cornish game hen with hawaiian game hens. Cornish game hens are small and can be cooked in 15 minutes. Hawaiian game hens are big like chickens (they really are just free range chickens) and cannot be cooked in 15 minutes.

=Sean

A True Guide to Being Healthy (long)

[ThaenRT]

I'll try to focus on food.

Last summer, my girlfriend and I noticed that our previously diminuitive appearances were growing a little large for our tastes in mirror appearance. As such, we decided to go on the Plan.

What 'the Plan' was, we had no idea at the time. We figured it would be good the exercise, so we joined a fitness club. We figured it would be good to eat better, so we cut fat out of our diet almost entirely.

We worked out about every day, ate two to four large meals a day, nearly devoid of fat and very high in protein and simple carbs (read: sugar), and generally did everything we could to get healthy. It was a disaster. After about 2 months of zero results, we figured we needed to ask for help.

Fortunately, a friend of mine worked at the club we'd joined and gave us both discounts on training plans. We learned how to exercise (actually, we learned _how_ to learn: the advice that the trainers gave was mediocre, at best, but they did point us toward the best magazines and books and other resources to teach ourselves.). More importantly, however, we learned how to eat.

Easily 80% of being a healthier person is what goes in your mouth. Over the last 14 months or so, I've learned quite a bit about what to eat and how to eat it. Alton's advice is damn good, ("There are no bad foods"), but his execution is a bit off (I'm sure he knows more than he's saying, just pressed for time to answer the question).

Some advice:

• Don't eat what you watch. Take control over your eating habits. Don't be drawn in by colourful pictures or the golden arches. Don't grab a bag of Cheetos just because you're hungry. Impulse eating is easily prevented by a little willpower and forsight, and will prevent that 'Geek Girdle' from forming about your waste.
• Don't wait to eat. Don't let yourself get hungry. Hungry is bad. It means your body's metabolism is slowing down, and when you finally get around to feeding it again, you won't digest your food as effectively. Admitted, this effect is often negligable (evolution has seen to it that our bodies respond rather quickly to New Food), but staying up all night and not eating from dinner to breakfast can be damaging.
• Plan ahead. Eat breakfast, then grab a bagel and put some low-fat cream cheese (it's not really that low in fat, trust me, and don't bother with that crappy tasting fat-free junk) on it for later. That way when Bob brings in donuts, or Fred offers to go to McDonald's to get everyone a Super-Size French Fry at 11:00 am, you won't be tempted, because you won't be hungry (see #1--don't eat what you watch!).
  Plan ahead for meals as well as snacks. On Monday night, make yourself a huge batch of some of Alton's quality chicken (whatever kind you like) and just freeze it. When you feel like grabbing a bad of Doritos, go dump the chicken in a skillet for 10 minutes instead. More protein, more long-chain carbs, less fat: Better balance. Which of course leads to...
• Balance, balance, balance! The hot item these days is 30-30-40: You should get 30% of you CALORIES from fat, 30% from protein, and 40% from carbohydrates. Note that a gram of fat has about 9 calories, while a gram of protein only has about 4. Watch your fat intake--it's easy to eat 1000 calories from fat in a plates of poorly-fried fish and chips! (Unless they're Alton's fish and chips, in which case eat up!)
  If you're trying to gain muscle through a program of weight lifting, eat more protein and more fat, fewer carbs. If your just trying to lose weight, 30-30-40 and a decrease in total calories should do the trick.
• One more thing, which goes right along with what Alton says: Exercise. There are no bad foods, but if you eat anything, you need to give your body a way to burn off extra calories. Now, there are a million more reasons to exercise, but shedding extra pounds is a pretty good reason, IMHO.

There are a million online resources for the this stuff, and the #1 magazine (for guys) is Men's Health. For women, it's Shape. Hands down, these are quality magazines, and I've had a subscription to both (Shape for my g/f) for about a year.

No doubt, taking cooking and shopping tips from Alton is a step toward health--he's a Seriously Intelligent Man!

thaen

Leidenfrost effect

[Chagrin]

I think you're exactly right. Alton needs to look up what the "Leidenfrost effect" is.

Re:That's a pretty rude sentiment

[dasmegabyte]

As self centered as expecting everybody to agree with your own moral standing against omivorous evolution?

Sorry, not to be rude, but I feel vegetarianism with a cause is a worse pain than religious fundamentalism. I mean, you only die once (Hindus excepted) but you eat three to seven times a day. I used to get a lecture every time I'd eat when I lived with a PETA vegan, which is why I evolved the ability to enjoy meatless meals -- they were delivered without nagging.

At the same time, saying you won't come to an event because of the menu is pretty damn antisocial. A few of my friends teased they'd toss off early for a steak, and I accepted this when we made the meal plan. I even refused my wife's relent to allow shrimp cocktail. I sort of wish I hadn't -- the menu is my only regret. Well, the menu and the hotel we stayed in the first night. Paper thin walls, mate.

Re:Obesity

[Darby]

My wife and I have the appetites of small birds.

Wow. You eat 6 times your weight a day?!?
That's crazy.

Microwave power++

[Gandalf_007]

I like my Panasonic 1100W microwave. I just have learned to not use the "Popcorn" button but instead set the timer for 95 seconds and voila, perfect popcorn. I hate using other microwaves because they take too damn long to cook stuff. Its auto-defrost works pretty well too -- simply enter the weight of the food and it runs it on defrost for the proper amount of time.

9) Cooking In Lava

[MrIcee]

I'm responding here to a number of reader comments that appear in response to the Lava Cooking question that I posted....

Water boils at 212F (sea level, but I suspect if he's on a volcano, he may be cooking way above sea level).

Just for the record... we are at nearly sea-level when we do this. The Pu'u O'o vent where the lava is currently coming out is at about 3000 ft above sealevel... but the lava pours down the lavatubes towards the ocean where occasionally it breaks out to the surface. It's these surface flows, at sealevel, that we do the cooking in.

For those of you who point out that the pictures on the website don't show us using the gloves we talk about. First, the person with the shovel doesn't need gloves, because he's a few feet from the ultra hot. Second... we can't just use any surface outbreak of lava... it has to be fluid enough and accessable enough, or our bodies, regardless of gloves, won't let us get close enough. Thirdly, it is the person that has to push the hen onto the first blob of lava that should be wearing the gloves - especially when the second blob is poured on top (the gloves we use, btw, can withstand 2000 degrees for 20 seconds of direct contact without breaching... but after 20 or so seconds, it gets very hot very quick - however, we have actually lifted fairly taffy-like flows right off the ground with the gloves - an awe-inspireing trick.

For those of you that commented about wanting to cook in lava when you visit the big island... first, let me point out that it is illegal to do this in the Volcano National Park. However, some of the time the lava is actually outside of park boundries, and near 4-wheel roads on the Puna (Kalapana) side. When that's the case we simply 4-wheel to the lava and can play to our hearts content - no rangers involved and no laws broken. (right now, however, it's totally inside park boundries and has been for about 6 or 7 months - hope it swings back soon, the rangers are no fun :).

Finally... to those of you who answered my original post before Alton responded... I think your right. Lava does lose it's heat quickly. In fact... a surface flow that has stopped forward motion will cool from 2000 degrees to walkable temperature (with boots) in 10 minutes (granted, your boots are smoking, but you can make it over and across). Additionally, I think your supicions on the steam from the leaves and hen are also correct. The inside of the oven probably drops like a rock (pun intended) while the outside is venting... so my pyrometer (which is reading the outside) is probably recording a higher-than-internal temperature. The person who suggested that I rig an internal thermometer had a good idea... but I have to look into the feasibility of doing that without damage to the cords, etc.

Finally, for those of you who actually intend on visiting the lava on the Big Island... I suggest staying at the Dolphin Bay Hotel. The owner, John Alexander, is a lava nut (and the one in the picture on the website cooking in the lava). His hotel is nice, inexpensive, and he has the low-down on all the great lava (and other) things to do on the island. For those of you who still disbelieve that we actually cook on lava, his website shows the pictures of us doing it (www.dolphinbayhotel.com -- click on Kilauea Volcano and then on Cooking In Lava at the top).

And finally to you Alton... while I didn't agree with your answer (and no... we were not taking mushrooms - but would gladly try if your supplying :))... if you ever want to visit the Big Island and the volcano - and try your hand at cooking in lava... look us up. You can get ahold of myself or John by calling the Dolphin Bay Hotel.

Aloha!!

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Fastball]

Add forty-five minutes to an hour of quality cardio exercise, and you will return to your proper weight. Of this there is no doubt.

Re:Thermal Conductivity

[Wanker]

There is another reason why this might work that people seem to be overlooking. Although the lava is very hot, pumice has an etremely low heat conductivity, which means it can't transfer heat very quickly. Even though the bird is in contact with it, the rock can't dump heat into it fast enough to cook it quickly.

After that inner crust of lava has hardened by giving up all its energy to vaporize the water in the Ti leaves, this would make a nicely formed earthenware roaster around the bird. The heat from the hotter exterior would then radiate/conduct slowly through that insulated interior crust.

It seems analagous to the "put a bunch of bricks in your oven on the clean cycle" method of roasting that Alton describes in his book.

Too bad the original poster didn't provide that link. I think it would have cleared things up nicely.

Re:There are SO bad foods!

[Scrameustache]

"There are no bad foods, only bad food habits. I eat cream, butter, and bacon; I just don't eat pounds of it at a time. "

This kind of thinking gets people in loads of trouble. Sure, a sip a cream or a pat of butter or a piece of bacon once a month wouldn't do anybody any harm. But once these foods are included in the diet, it's easy for them to become habits.

What? You disagree with what he says, and then you say the same thing in other words!

If you have a habit of eating double cheese burgers with bacon you have bad food habits!

If you eat it once in a while, you don't.
Its not eating it that's wrong, its eating it in great quantities, repeatadly.

Re:Crock of shit

[marko123]

My misreading of this comment was:

"... and I think my Higher Farmer daily for the strength to preserve"

I think it came from my memories of Mum's preserving days...

I asked that question.

[cporter]

I asked that question. And no, i'm not brainwashed - in any way. I'm quite well aware that high fat foods are not necessarily harmful in moderation. But neither have I been led into believing that Atkins-style or "Zone" diets that promote high-fat, high-protein, and low carbohydrates are healthful or that they can even deliver long term weight loss. I see that many media sources these days are making the strange leap of logic that "we've been told low-fat, but Americans are getting fatter. therefore, maybe low-fat isn't right."

After the death and taxes, the next inevitable truth:
if (calories consumed > calories burned)
then weight++;

The "common sense" for fats and cholesterol has two parts: (1) fat has about 9 calories per gram as compared to 4 calories per gram for proteins and carbohydrates. You need to know this before justifying the eating of a bag of doritos with salsa 'n queso. (2) Cholesterol kills. Medical science has advanced such that the #1 killer in the US is a lifestyle disease - heart disease - directly attributable to diet and lack of exercise. 1 egg yolk has more cholesterol than your body can healthily process in a day. And not to sob story here, but some people's genetic dispositions make them even more susceptible to these problems.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the answer I was looking for. Alton himself often shudders at the specter of high fat and high cholesterol ingredients - in one episode he "dies" of a heart attack and is lectured by god in the form of a tuna. I know that he uses yogurt in place of cream in some episodes. I wanted to know what he thought of other substitutes - natural and otherwise - that are on the market. Is margarine any better than butter, tastewise, can it be used in some of his recipes? What about the various sugar substitutes - can they be used in that chocolate mousse recipe? I grew up with applesauce in my chocolate chip cookies in place of butter - whaddya think?

This was a sensible question. I asked several and this one got modded up. Unfortunately, it probably would have been better asked in a converation rather than by send-away. I'll be sure to ask him when he's touring in support of his book!

P.S. The FDA and the surgeon general have made up their minds, and have left it alone for nearly 20 years. Low fat, high fiber, lots of vegetables and fruit. The nutrition pyramid hasn't changed since I was in 1st grade. The cover story of Time or Newsweek has.

P.P.S. Good Eats still rules. I just tend to make his Salsa, Pasta, Vegetable, and Fish recipes more than I do his deep-fried macaroni and cheese dish.

Re:Divergent Evolutions, Diverse Metabolisms

[rnd()]

I generally agree with your statement, however I think the majority of the 'evolutionary time' during which the human species evolved was pre-agricultural. Refined carbohydrates and domesticated livestock create a drastic divergence from the diet around which our species evolved.

Calories are Lies

[thelizman]

A calorie (most properly called a gram/calorie) is the amount of heat required to raise one gram of water by one degree celcius. Heat is the movement of thermal energy, NOT the amount of thermal energy involved in a reaction. A drop (1 cc) of water at a given thermal temperature has more heat than a 1 cm2 square of aluminum, because water doesn't hold its thermal energy as well.

What's the point in this remedial physics lesson? Tell me, what the hell does a 'calorie' have to do with the bodies metabolic processes? The body doesn't combust foods to generate energy, nor is the body made all of water. Even if it was, water is not consistant in its heat value because it is a fluid. So using "calories" is about the most horse-shit dead reckoning you can do. It's like saying that red cars go faster. Well, the most popular color for sports cars is red, right?

The energy in food derived from the amount of ATP that can be derived from the various chemicals in it through the least amount of digestion. Sugars pack the most, followed by starches, followed by carbs, then fats. Proteins have almost no energy (except the ATP in the cells already), we need them to provide essential amino acids for us (those are the amino acids that our body cannot make itself). Amino acids build the body.

When you buy "low fat" foods, all you are buying are un-naturally processed foods where the fats have been displaced by carbs, usually really simple ones. If you don't use those carbs, they go to fat.

For the last time, your body doesn't work like an internal combustion engine, so calories are about as worthless as tits on a boar hog. Answer me this: If calories are the ultimate measure of energy intake, than how can people who go on starvation diets (i.e., 800 calories per day or less) actually gain weight?

BTW, Average americans couldn't afford vegetables 'back in the day'. Any idiot who studied the industrial revolution knows that vegetables were far more expensive than just going out and shooting your dinner prior to the industrial revolution (when durable cans made packing and shipping veggies like corn economical).

Very True, But

[thelizman]

It appears that humans adapt very quickly to metabolic intake, and we may not even need evolution to adapt our dietary needs. As long as the available sustinance is relatively close to our typical diets. We had carbo intake even when we spent time chasing herds around, since there was a lot of gathering going on. Anthropologically speaking, setting down into agricultural societies has more to do with the ease (and safety) of gathering compared to chasing herds of pissed of bison around.

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[evilpenguin]

Hmm. I thought the reason you could walk on hot coals was (and I know I'm going to totally blow the spelling of this one) "the Liedenfost Effect," that some of the perspiration on your feet flashes to steam when you come into contact with the coals. The steam then insulates your feet from the direct conduction of the very hot coals. Again, I know I blew the spelling, but this is the same effect that makes water bead up and skitter around a hot skillet. If it didn't happen, that much water would boil away in a second or two.

Can anyone more than a decade closer to their physics/chemistry/engineering education remind me of the right name for this?

Re:Volcano question - found the right link!

[gorilla]

No. The reason you can walk on hot coals is that most people get confused about temperature and heat. To take an example, if you turn on your oven, and put a cake into it. After 30 minutes, everything is at the same temperature. If you put your hand into the oven, you'll find that you can easily bear the air. You can touch the cake, but it's uncomfortable. If you were silly enough to touch the metal rails, you'd get burned. This is because air has a poor heat capacity, it takes relativly little energy to raise it 1 degree. The metal has a high heat capacity, it takes lots of energy to raise it 1 degree. The coals, while they have a high temperature, they have a low heat capacity, and therefore there is little available energy to transfer to the firewalker's feet.

cporter

[drinkypoo]

I applaud episodes like "Good Milk Gone Bad" and "The Other Red Meat" that focus on lower fat and cholesterol foods. But many of your recipes call for butter, oil, cream, and other less than healthful foods (even bacon grease!). What do you think about some of the substitutes out there, or using ingredients like applesauce to replace butter?

Apparently you haven't read What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?.

Pardon me, I'm going to go replace my applesauce with butter.