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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:47 pm Post subject: Did you know?

Thought this would be a good thread to start, I'll put it as a sticky and people can add 'did you know?' bits to it... I will probably get mine from the BBC Food Newsletter!

Here's the first one...

Refried beans (common in Central and South American cuisines) are not, despite their name, fried twice. So why 'refried'? Diana Kennedy asserts that it's due to a mistranslation of their original Spanish name 'frijoles refritos'. The 're-' of 'refritos' is a prefix common in Mexican dialects, applied to give emphasis to words. 'Frijoles refritos' means 'very fried' not 'refried' beans.
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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject:

Eggs can be preserved by 'buttering'. The freshly laid egg is rolled in the palms with butter and the butter is absorbed into the porous shell of the still-warm egg. Once the egg has cooled, the butter sets and prevents the egg from absorbing air into the egg cavity. A 'buttered egg' may keep for up to six months and will have a buttery taste when cooked and eaten.
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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject:

The cashew nut is no easy thing to come by. The nut that we recognise and enjoy has to be extracted from a double-layered shell. This would be trial enough, but between the two layers of hard shell there lies a layer of tissue containing highly caustic substances so powerful that the collected tissue is put to a variety of unappetising medical uses, including burning off warts.
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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:50 pm Post subject:

Stone crabs have one claw considerably larger than the other, and as their body meat is less palatable, they are caught mainly for their claw meat. Fishermen catch the stone crabs, remove the larger claw, then throw the crabs back into the water, whereupon the crabs generally survive and grow new claws. Perhaps one of the more bizarre examples of sustainable fishery?
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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:50 pm Post subject:

Coriander's name is said to derive from the Greek 'koris' meaning bedbug. The link evidently lies in the smell of coriander leaves being compared to that of bedbug-infested bedlinen! This herb, which is understandably not to everybody's taste, is also known as cilantro and Arab parsley.
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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject:

A strawberry is a 'false' fruit. The yellow seeds that adorn the outer 'berry' are the fruit of the plant, while the 'berry' as we know it is merely an enlarged receptacle for the fruits, similar to the white cone left behind on the plant after picking a raspberry. During Wimbledon fortnight, spectators indulge in approximately 28,000kg/62,000lbs of strawberries!
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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject:

Gurnard is the common name for fish of the Triglidae family and it's been gaining popularity in the UK. Its firm, white flesh is good for frying or baking - so good in fact that celebrity chef Rick Stein has been encouraging us to cook it, sending the price rocketing in the process. This has upset lobster fisherman who can no longer afford to use it to bait lobsters.
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MissMuppet · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:51 pm Post subject:

Asparagus' high price is attributable to the difficulty with which it's grown. Once sown, an asparagus bed is completely unproductive for the following two years, thus the farmer's land is effectively out of commission for that period. Asparagus requires careful tending and hand harvesting, and there is even an historical practice of burying sheep's horns in asparagus beds to promote growth.
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hec · Pot Washer Joined: 14 Jul 2007 Posts: 42

Crazyfool · Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:43 pm Post subject: