Stone age cutting implements (sharpened stones or bones) predate fire by about a million years. It’s worth reminding ourselves that for millions of years hominids survived in part by hacking and eating raw meat. Throughout our evolution, the importance of eating food meant that cutting implements always made use of the best technology available at
Meat baked in the oven is called a roast for some reason. The convective heat of the air in the oven heats the exterior of meat, and then heat from the exterior diffuses into the meat by conduction. Doing this in a ‘hot’ oven (~180C) also dehydrates the surface and triggers browning reactions[†] that give a
After a couple of posts focusing on the bad guys, I thought I should set the record straight. Ever since Louis Pasteur established germ theory about 150 years ago, it seems we’ve been trying to eradicate everything microbial from our lives. Even though we’ve tackled this with gusto and science, the task is ultimately futile
‘Kills 99.9% of household germs’ is a ubiquitous claim found on cleaning products these days, such a hand soaps and washes, but probably not for much longer. The FDA has recently (December 2013) flagged that companies claiming this have to justify its health benefits and prove its safety (they have until 2016). Given there is
Trash Cooking – it’s what René Redzepi calls it – using the parts of an ingredient that would normally be trashed automatically. René is Chef-patron at the Copenhagen restaurant Noma, which was voted the world’s top restaurant (by 900 peers) for three consecutive years. He has built a new Nordic cuisine that doesn’t have a