The human body requires the intake of six types of substances for survival: Fats, carbohydrates, proteins, water, vitamins, and minerals. Certain fatty acids are essential to our health and fats and oils are important components of our food and their preparation. Fat is responsible for much of the texture, appearance, and taste of our baked goods. Since fat is both required for human health and an important part of our diets, we should include fat in our emergency preparedness plans–some combination of butter, margarine, vegetable oil, olive oil, and shortening. (Oils are liquid at room temperature; fats are solid.) Though we need to store these foods to maintain our lifestyles and our health, they represent a particular food storage challenge. As oils and fats age, they oxidize. Oxidation is the process that turns fats rancid. Rancid foods not only taste bad, they are unhealthy. As fats and oils breakdown, they become toxic. These oxidized oils promote arterial damage, cancer, inflammation, degenerative diseases, and premature aging. So it is important that we store fats properly, use all fatty foods well before they become rancid, and discard those foods that have been stored too long.
So what is the proper way to store fats and oils? Three conditions accelerate the oxidation of fats: the exposure to heat, to oxygen, and to light. Fats should be stored in cool or cold conditions–never in a warm pantry–in the dark, and sealed so that they are not exposed to air. We store our vegetable oil, olive oil, and shortening in a dark, fifty-degree room. Once opened, we store our vegetable and olive oils in the refrigerator.
How long can we safely store fats and oils? That, of course, depends on the storage conditions. At seventy degrees, shortening can be kept for eight months. Butter does not last long at all in the refrigerator–only two weeks–but can be stored for up to nine months in the freezer (not the freezing compartment of a refrigerator which is usually not as cold). Margarine can also be frozen though some margarine tends to be flaky once thawed. While I do not have a government source for the shelf life of vegetable oils, I would not store oils for over eight to ten months. My recommendation is to store butter in the freezer for up to nine months and store oils and shortening for eight months at seventy degrees–slightly longer at cooler temperatures. Maybe more so than any other food group, fatty foods must be carefully and conscientiously rotated to maintain adequate and healthy stocks. Use what you store and store what you use.
Not just oils and fats have to be carefully stored. Any food with a significant fat content such as nuts, cookies, or whole wheat flour is subject to rancidity. Nuts should be stored in a cool, dark environment and always checked for rancidity before they are used. Ideally, nuts should be stored in metal or metalized containers–plastic bags are permeable to air and slowly allow oxygen to seep into the package and accelerate oxidation. We keep our nuts in the freezer–even unopened bags. Freshly ground whole wheat should be kept in the refrigerator and used within two weeks. (The commercial milling process removes most of the fat from wheat. Most white flour is nearly fat free. Any whole wheat flour with a fat content higher than two percent should not be stored.) Any food that has any rancid odor should be discarded.
So what fats should we store? Flaxseed oil and safflower oil oxidize very rapidly and are not good candidates for storage. Most commonly purchased vegetable oils are extracted with heat, pressure, and chemical additives, which may accelerate oxidation. Cold pressed oils are better though more expensive. I know of no government source for the shelf life of cold pressed oils. Check any oil carefully for rancidity before using.
The modern diet is high in the consumption of Omega-6 essential fatty acids and low in Omega-3 fatty acids. Flesh from grain and corn fed animals and most vegetable oils are high in Omega-6. The National Institutes of Health urges nearly all people to reduce the consumption of the Omega-6 fatty acids and increase the consumption of Omega-3 believing that this is critical to achieving optimal brain and cardiovascular functions. Of the commonly used oils, canola oil and soybean oil contain Omega-3 fatty acids. Avocados and nutmeats, especially walnuts, are high in Omega-3.
Andrew Weil in his excellent book, Eating Well for Optimum Health, promotes olive oil as a healthy substitute for vegetable oils. It has the highest percentage (77%) of monounsaturated fats of any of the oils but is low in Omega-3. There are many different varieties of olive oil available, each with a little different flavor. Choose what you like but watch it carefully for rancidity. Stored in the refrigerator or a cool basement, olive oil may turn cloudy–but the quality is unaffected.
Nutritionists advise us to reduce our intake of hydrogenated fats-margarine and shortening. Margarine is not a healthy substitute for butter. Hydrogenated means that hydrogen atoms have been added to stabilize the oil and turn it from a liquid at room temperature to a solid. A saturated fat is a fat that has been saturated with hydrogen atoms, is stable and less prone to oxidation but the molecular composition of saturated fats is believed to raise serum cholesterol levels.
Store oils and fats–they are essential to a well-prepared household and some fat is necessary to maintain health. However, choose the right fats and oils, store them properly, rotate religiously, and discard any that happen to get old.
Get the prinatble version of Storing Fats and Oils
For more articles like this visit The Baker’s Library.
© January 15, 2003, The Prepared Pantry
Everywhere you look, there is a lot of emphasis on cutting the fat out of our daily diets, but who wants to cut out the fat if it means cutting out the flavor? When it comes to baking, there is a way to cut down on your fat intake without changing the ingredients in your favorite recipes. If you switch to nonstick silicone bakeware, you can cut down on your fat intake with minimal effort. Because the bakeware is nonstick, you never have to use butter, shortening, or grease on your pans or sheets to ensure easy food removal.
The first silicone items made exclusively for baking were small silicone mats that fit nicely on your cookie sheet and allowed you to bake cookies with out greasing the cookie sheet or worrying about the bottoms getting burned. These little mats were a huge success and stores were hard pressed to keep them in stock.
As the popularity of these mats grew, manufacturers decide to explore the idea of making more bakeware from silicone. They began making spoons, spatulas, and whisks that could withstand high heats and could be used with nonstick cookware with no fear of ruining the coating. Silicone utensils were the perfect choice for candy making or any other project that required a boiling and sticky liquid to be stirred.
Kitchen supply manufacturers also introduced silicone potholders and oven gloves. Because they can withstand heats up to 500 degrees, they are the perfect insurance that you won’t get burned when you pull a hot dish from your oven. They don’t conduct heat the way that a cloth potholder does and they are much sturdier and easy to keep clean than traditional potholders. Home canners fell in love with silicone baker’s mitts because they could actually reach into a pot of boiling water to remove a hot jar of food once it was done processing. As an added bonus these durable potholders do double duty as lid grippers making opening jars a snap.
Once silicone hit kitchens in the form of baking mats, utensils, and pot holders, kitchen experts began to see the potential of this material in everyday baking. Suddenly almost any type of bakeware that could traditionally be found in stainless steel, aluminum, glass, or stoneware was being offered in brightly colored silicone. Stores began selling muffin tins, bread loaf pans, cake pans, and pie pans. The most popular pieces tend to be the specialty designed cake pans that allow you to make cakes shaped like everything from roses to pumpkins. They even have mini cake pans that make individual, fancy shaped cakes.
The popularity of silicone bakeware skyrocketed as cooks began to see the benefits of using this material in their kitchens. Foods pop out of silicone pans with amazing ease. You never need to grease, flour, or even use cooking spray on a silicone pan and that adds up to lots of calories and fat grams saved with each meal. Because silicone is very flexible, it is easy to bend and twist it so that cakes and breads pop out easily. You never have to force baked goods out of the pan, so they retain there shape and you don’t see a lot of split and broken cakes.
Silicone is a bakers dream when it comes to making evenly cooked delicacies. The material distributes heat evenly, so you never end up with a cake that is burned around the edges and still not cooked in the middle. It also cools down quickly ensuring that you foods will not continue cooking and possibly drying out once you remove them from the oven.
Because silicone is nonstick, cleanup is a breeze. A little soap and water and any crumb left on your bakeware disappears. It is nonporous, so it never retains any odors from the foods you cook. Completely versatile it goes from oven to table to freezer and can even be thrown in the dishwasher. Once you are done cleaning it, storage is a snap. With its flexibility, you can twist it, bend it, fold it or mash it up so it can fit in the smallest of drawers or cupboards.
If you haven’t tried silicone bakeware, add a piece or two to your kitchen. You will be surprised at its quality and flexibility.
Daniel Smith writes about Cookware & Coupons and Cookware, kitchenware and houseware products
The home espresso maker was invented at the beginning of this century. Home espresso makers are much simpler to use and cheaper than commercial and semi-commercial espresso makers. There are two kinds of machines which are used as home espresso makers: the pump driven types and the steam driven types.
The earliest machine used hot water driven by steam to force through the coffee grounds. The machines later used mechanical advantages like a spring and lever.
Over time, the lever and spring were let go and replaced with electronic mechanical pumps. Its action produces a vacuum and draws water from a reservoir. A head of pressure develops as the water is forced from the other end of the vacuum. This pressure later dumps the water either through a boiler or a thermo-block.
The final product is then forced through a mound of tightly packed grounds. Espresso is the oil, flavor and aromas of the beans.
The stove top espresso machine is perfect for home use. Relatively cheap and easier to use than the other automatic and semi-automatic espresso machines, it forms the perfect option for the ones who have just stepped into the aromatic world of espresso.
Another machine used widely for making espresso is the steam-driven-espresso machine. In the steam driven espresso machine, a boiling chamber is used to heat the water. The steam created forces the water into the bed of the coffee beans.
The stove top espresso machine consists of a basket, a base, a basket screen and a collection chamber. Though it takes a comparatively longer time than automatic espresso makers to prepare espresso in the stove top espresso, the quality and consistency is one of the best.
Other than the stove top espresso machine, the automatic espresso machine is becoming more and more common in households. The espresso they produce is more consistent and the machines do not require as much fine tuning as the other versions of espresso making machines. The automatic espresso machines have a flow meter installed, which cuts the ’shot’ automatically when the pre-programmed level of water is reached.
There are various kinds of automatic espresso machines available in the market.
Espresso Machines provides detailed information on Automatic Espresso Machines, Best Espresso Machines, Commercial Espresso Machines, Espresso Cappuccino Machines and more. Espresso Machines is affiliated with Espresso Equipment.
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Heat 1 tsp. corn oil in a skillet and fry 1 small mackerel until it flakes apart easily. Remove and cool.
Pour 1/2 cup hot water into the pan and scrape the brown bits into it. Remove the bones from the
fish and mix with the juice. For dogs, serve in pieces with kibble; for cats, grind with the pan juices
As a pet owner, no doubt you want to give your dog or cat the best care possible. And caring for
your pet means feeding him the best diet you can.
Animals, because they are color blind, choose their foods by smell. Most dogs like gamey flavors
best, as well as liver, fat, garlic, onions, horsemeat, lamb, beef, cheese and fish. Cats enjoy chicken,
liver, fish, turkey, lamb, and yeast, and prefer fresh to aged flavors.
Remember that cats are fussy eaters and it is not wise to continually feed them their favorite foods.
Soon they will refuse to eat anything else; it is your job to see your cat has a balanced diet.
Animals do not need salt added to their diet as the natural salt in the food is enough for them.
Dogs may eat any vegetable they want, but cats should not have any starchy veggies, like peas and
corn. Some dogs and cats even enjoy fruits!
It’s a good idea to always add a grain, such as Kibble, wheat germ, cooked oatmeal or whole wheat
bread to meat dinners. For dogs use 75% carbohydrate foods (grains and vegetables) to 25% meat;
for cats use half carbohydrate foods to half meat.
You will find, once you begin making your own pet foods, that it is really relatively simple and you
will save some money as well. remember that all pet foods should be served at room temperature;
don’t serve food cold from the refrigerator nor hot from the stove.
Incidentally, you should know that cats should be fed three times a day, while an adult dog needs
only one meal a day.
About the Author
Grab more free recipes at http://recipe-directory.net
If you are like me and are a very lousy shopper and always end up getting everyone the wrong gift at Christmas time, think about a Gift-of-the-Month Club. G.O.M Clubs have all the things the lazy gift giver requires: Ease of purchase, no shopping at the dreaded mall and an almost guaranteed positive response accompanied by a monthly “At-A-Boy” from the recipient. And there are plenty of clubs to choose from for everyone on your gift-giving list.
First, you have to know your giftee. For instance, my dad is an avid coffee drinker. For him a coffee of the month club would be perfect…and there are plenty of choices. At www.coffeecoffee.com there are 12 different coffee clubs. You can choose anything from flavored coffees to dark roasts to a monthly sampler. Prices range from $60 to $100.
However, coffee clubs aren’t the only types of gift of the month clubs. You can get Fruit-of-the-Month clubs for the vegetarian in your life. Flower-of-the-Month clubs are popular with husbands and boyfriends who are constantly screwing up. Sign up your significant other for any of the many Flower-of-the-Month clubs and you have a ready set apology landing at her doorstep every 30 days.
There are a number of other clubs for everyone in your life: Gag-of-the-Month clubs for the prankster in your life; Wine-of-the-Month clubs for the wannabe wine connoisseur; Beer-of-the-Month clubs for the sports fan; Chocolate-of-the-Month clubs for the addicted; Pizza-of-the-Month clubs for the teen or college student; and Cigar-of-the-Month clubs for Granddad.
But how do you decide the best club? The Internet is always a good place to start your research. Go to any search engine and type in Gift of the Month clubs. You will find nearly 1,000 sites trying to sell you everything from DVDs to practical jokes…all shipped monthly to the recipient of your choice.
However, you need to read the payment and delivery plans carefully. Many DVD and CD plans require that you put in a lot of work, sending back a card every month telling them if you want their monthly selection. If you forget, you are stuck with whatever they send. But worse than that, the recipient of your “gift” is stuck with the bill. Is that really a gift?
About the Author
You may use this article on your site as long as the 2 URL’s are hyperlinked.
Allen Shaw is a successful author who provides information on gift of the month clubs and wine clubs.
Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, I still see recipes that insist you should cook meat at high temperature for the first twenty minutes or so to seal it and then lower the level for the rest of the cooking time.
This has become the fashionable way and I’m not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with a lack of time in an age when both partners tend to work for a living.
What I am certain about is that this is not the best way to treat a prime roast. Nor does it ’seal’ it. Let’s put this myth to bed once and for all.
Cooking meat at high temperature, whether in the oven, on the barbecue or in a pan does not seal it!
It burns it. That’s why it goes brown. And it introduces extra flavor, because the outside of the meat generally has a covering of fat. Fat is what gives meat it’s unique flavor.
However adding this crust to the outside of the meat will also speed up the cooking of the rest of the joint, and reduce the amount that remains rare.
It will not produce the even finish you see in hotel and restaurant carveries.
To achieve that you need slow, low temperature cooking plus regular basting.
Basting is simply taking the juices from the bottom of the pan and pouring them back over the cooking meat from time to time. By doing this, and cooking at the right temperature, you will produce far more succulent results. Browning will still take place, but gently, as part of a process.
Let’s look at the basic method.
Do you use a roasting tin? Well don’t.
It’s not a good idea to cook meat inside a roasting tin, because the bottom of it tends to be sitting in liquid, much of which is water.
A much better way is to place the joint directly on the rungs of the oven with the roasting tin underneath it. In this way, you can pack vegetables in the roasting tin and they will cook nicely in the juices from the meat.
If you don’t like that idea, because it means you have to clean the rungs after use, put the meat on top of a rack in or on the roasting tin instead. You don’t need to buy a special tin for this, simply use a cake rack or something similar. I have even used two or three kebab skewers and rested the joint on those.
However the advantage of cooking directly on the rungs is that the air circulates freely round the joint, ensuring even cooking, and you can remove the roasting tin to make your gravy while leaving the meat where it is. Of course, if you do that, you will want to put some kind of drip tray under the joint, but any ovenproof dish will do for that.
Temperatures and cooking times
Using my method (actually it’s Graham Kerr’s method which I’ve adopted but what the heck) you don’t need to learn a lot of complicated temperature/time formulas. Cook your red meat at 350F,180c,gas mark 4.
Cook poultry at 325F,160c,gas mark 3.
Calculate your cooking time as 30 minutes for every 500 grams (roughly 1lb) of meat. This will produce thoroughly cooked poultry, beef that is well cooked on the outside and rare inside, pink lamb and pork (yes you can safely eat ‘underdone’ pork providing the internal temperature reaches 145F. The danger bug is trichinae, which dies at temperatures greater than 135F).
Remember to add an extra 30 minutes if you are using stuffing.
If you want to change anything - alter your cooking times accordingly but beware. There is a very thin line between meat that is well done and boot leather. If rare meat is more than you can handle, it’s a much better idea to use my cooking times but then turn the oven off and leave the meat in it for a further 30 minutes or so.
Which brings me to one more point; it’s very important to let the meat stand for at least 20 minutes before carving.
Why? Because when you heat protein (which is what meat is) it shrinks and toughens. Allowing it to relax and cool a little restores some of its elasticity.
However it will continue to cook for a while after leaving the oven and the internal temperature will increase by as much as a further 10 degrees. Which is why you need a good 20 minutes resting time.
Just keep it in a warm place with a sheet of cooking foil over the top while you prepare the greens and gravy.
During the 1990s Michael Sheridan was head chef of the Pierre Victoire restaurant in London’s West End, specializing in French cuisine. An Australian, he is a published author on cooking matters, and runs a free membership club for busy home cooks at http://thecoolcook.com
How to Brew Green Tea
By Michael Ganzeveld
When you hear folks mention Japanese tea it invariably means
that they are talking about green tea. That is just scratching
the surface because there are many types of green tea out there;
gyokuro, sencha, macha, genmaicha, bancha, and more! To brew
green tea correctly water temperature is of the utmost
importance. When steeping you should change the temperature
depending on the kind of green tea you are drinking but here are
the basics! Here’s How: 1. Cool boiling water in a kyusu tea pot
or tea cups to the proper temperature. 2. Put green tea leaves
in an empty kyushu tea pot. 3. Pour hot water over tea leaves.
4. Cover the lid and wait for a while before serving. 5. Serve
green tea into individual yunomi (no handle) tea cups. When
serving green tea one must make sure not to leave any tea
(liquid) in the bottom of the tea pot. 7. Keep in mind that it
is also possible to brew green tea a few times using the same
tea leaves. Tips: 1. When brewing sencha green tea, use 160F
degree hot water and brew about one minute in a tea pot. 2. To
brew gyokuro green tea, use 110F degree hot water and brew about
two minutes. 3. To brew hojicha, genmaicha, and bancha, use
boiling water and brew just 15-20 seconds. 4. To drink macha
green tea, shift 1 tsp of macha green tea powder in a large tea
cup and add 1/4 cup of 160F degree hot water in it, then stir
quickly with a bamboo tea whisk. 5. Pouring hot sencha green tea
over some ice in a cup makes iced green tea
