Things my parents didn't tell me about food...

I can't believe I was over the hill before I learned these things!

Red beet coloring goes in one end and comes out the other.  I nearly panicked for my life the first time I discovered this!

Sauerkraut doesn't have vinegar in it, is healthy, and very easy to make.  I had no clue until a month ago.

I never made the connection between consuming asparagus and foul smelling urine.  Now that I know, it's rather humerous...no more sneaking garden asparagus when my wife's not around!

What have you learned about food that you wonder why you never knew it earlier in your lifetime?

Till about 3 years ago I never knew that sugars , flour cooked with palm oil  or artificial fat in it or margarines were going to wreck my health by the time I was 40 and I'd not know it till 20 years later when it was too late. .

For years the medical fraternity were telling me to use sugars for energy , eat a balance meal and substitute butter with margarine  or other hydrolysed fats..

Broccoli through a cat is MUCH worse than broccoli through a human  

GG

Chickens like their potatoes baked!

Mashed potatoes do not always come as flakes out of a box.

yolos wrote:Mashed potatoes do not always come as flakes out of a box.

I think those are the "potato seeds" 

I never knew what made tomato sauce taste like spaghetti sauce until I was in my 20's. Just by random accident, I one day discovered it was oregano.

I didn't know how flexible you could be when buying hamburger. If you want lower fat hamburger, all you have to do to get it is cook higher fat hamburger a little slower and/or longer, and the fat will come out.

I didn't know how easy simple everyday cooking was. I had been very intimidated until I found out you can usually eat your mistakes unless they're much worse than you're likely to make, and that it's more natural than not to do a little (or even a lot) better every tine.

I had no idea that, outside of holding garlic powder, spice jars could be used for anything besides display.

I had no idea how flexible you could be with recipes; I thought every recipe was one false move away fro disaster, and that to change a cooking temperature or substitute a spice would be disaster.

I didn't know what real spinach looked or tasted like until my 20's. Growing up in the tropics, I only got the salty yellowish, soggy canned stuff. I was amazed that fresh spinach looked and tasted nothing at all like the canned stuff.

I didn't know how fanatically picky some people could be about food. For instance, I was stunned when a fellow said that any browning of the egg in an omelet completely ruins it. Coming from a big family, I just ate what was in front of me, glad to get it before one of my brothers did.

It wasn't until I was in my fifties that I learned if I kept my guests waiting for dinner until they were famished, anything and everything I served them was delicious!

I love it, Boffer!

Marc Iverson wrote:I didn't know how fanatically picky some people could be about food.  For instance, I was stunned when a fellow said that any browning of the egg in an omelet completely ruins it.  Coming from a big family, I just ate what was in front of me, glad to get it before one of my brothers did.

Hubby was raised to believe that if something was browned, it was burned.  It took close to a decade but I was finally able to convince him of the distinction between 'browned' flavor and 'burned' - mainly because my browned potatoes looked and smelled so good but he wouldn't have any because they were 'burned'.  He still prefers his eggs without brown, but it won't keep him from eating them, especially since he does NOT cook!  The downside is that I now have to share my crunch-fried potatoes with him!

GG

Nothing quite so annoying as a food perfectionist who doesn't cook! Glad you got him to be more reasonable.

Re browning, on most things, that's what adds so much flavor! Not everything is a fit target for that kind of treatment, but browning and searing so commonly amplify flavor and create new flavors that it is one of the most common cooking techniques, embraced by lousy cooks and world-class chefs alike. It's weird to have such hard and fast, finicky "rules," especially when they're the type that make you enjoy life less rather than more.

Fun topic.

I never knew that roasted beets would make me nauseous.  I mean no offense to beet lovers.  While roasting, they smelled so good, oiled, salted and peppered.  But the actual taste was awful to me.  I've always prided myself in being able to choke down almost anything.  I found that beets are part of my almost anything.

Goosegirl wrote:

Marc Iverson wrote:I didn't know how fanatically picky some people could be about food.  For instance, I was stunned when a fellow said that any browning of the egg in an omelet completely ruins it.  Coming from a big family, I just ate what was in front of me, glad to get it before one of my brothers did.

Hubby was raised to believe that if something was browned, it was burned.  It took close to a decade but I was finally able to convince him of the distinction between 'browned' flavor and 'burned' - mainly because my browned potatoes looked and smelled so good but he wouldn't have any because they were 'burned'.  He still prefers his eggs without brown, but it won't keep him from eating them, especially since he does NOT cook!  The downside is that I now have to share my crunch-fried potatoes with him!

GG

GG ,
Give him an egg fried in a clean frying pan , in very hot clean natural fat such as beef or pork  dripping.

Learn how to get a side just lace doily light brow with a fine outer ring of slightly darker brown and flip it over to the other side  for just under  the same time .
Serve  it up with crispy bacon done in the same manner and some baked beans in tomato sauce or  a couple of  canned plum tomatoes.

Serve everything at the same time on a hot food plate .... eat whilst the yolk inside the fried egg  is still bread dippy runny.

Before you give up on beets Sanderson try the golden beets. I was visiting my son and family this fall and bought some at a farmers market. I cooked them for dinner and gave some to my very picky granddaughters ( 4 and 6) and they loved them. In fact they ate all of them. Their mother was shocked and so was I.

Beets are weird to me because they taste like dirt. Which is not precisely a bad taste, I don't mean "dirt" as a pejorative, but ... I find it hard to believe people would enjoy the taste of dirt. But I suppose they do.

Perhaps the best introduction to beets (besides pickled beets), is the soup called borscht. It doesn't have the earthy flavor. It comes from Russia/Ukraine, and the ingredients are as simple or complex as one chooses.

Borscht is beet based, but beyond that, our family treats it like we do American stew: we open up the fridge and see what we have on hand to throw in. With or without meat, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, turnips, celery, or onion.

It's wonderfully satisfying on a cold winter day, and healthy too.

Here's one simple recipe:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/borscht/

Marc Iverson wrote:Beets are weird to me because they taste like dirt.  Which is not precisely a bad taste, I don't mean "dirt" as a pejorative, but ... I find it hard to believe people would enjoy the taste of dirt.  But I suppose they do.

It's called, " An earthy taste " . 

 Grown in quality ( soil free )  MM  they are not so strong to my minds eye , harvest when small and young ....  the earthy taste almost disappears  .

Boffer,  Mother made Borscht once when I was around 20, with a dollop of sour cream.  I could not finish the bowl.  We had a German restaurant when I was little.  The cooks were German but they were Volga Germans.  Maybe that's where she got the idea to make the soup.

That looks better than the recipe I tried, boffer, which was kind of sour. Maybe I'll continue to experiment to see if I can do better. I think I've only had borscht twice in my life, and both times it was sour and disappointing.

Marc Iverson wrote:...Maybe I'll continue to experiment to see if I can do better.  I think I've only had borscht twice in my life, and both times it was sour and disappointing.

More bacon!  

Marc, it may just be your palate and beets really do taste like dirt. I love Indian food, but a friend of mine doesn't because it tastes like dirt to her. Just one of those things I suppose. 

Boffer - more bacon 

sanderson wrote:Fun topic.

I never knew that roasted beets would make me nauseous.  I mean no offense to beet lovers.  While roasting, they smelled so good, oiled, salted and peppered.  But the actual taste was awful to me.  I've always prided myself in being able to choke down almost anything.  I found that beets are part of my almost anything.

+1Kay