12 unexpected facts about food that can flash at dinner

Dinner: Chef Ivan launched a thread in which he told, without exaggeration, the most interesting life hacks and facts about food. We wrote about life hacking here.

Here are the facts about food that can flash at dinner:

1. It is impossible to get used to horseradish and mustard. Sharp will always be. To Tears. Burning mustard, wasabi and horseradish is of a different nature than in the case of chili.
2. Avocado is a berry. Botanically right. Another fact to uncertainty around the fetus. And fruit and vegetables, ripe avocado delicious raw, you can fry it on a pan and can be turned into ice cream. The leaves of the tree are aromatic and are used as a substitute Bay leaf.
3. Fresh meat is not sold in the market. Fresh it stays for no longer than 3-4 hours after slaughter. Then, numbness inevitably sets in, and the meat becomes tough and tasteless. Beef is eaten only after a day.
4. The chicken meat and wash is useless and harmful. The fabric of the meat swells from moisture, and this prevents the formation of a delicious crust on the grill. Dirty meat is better just not to buy. And washing the chicken half a meter around fly sprays that can contain dangerous bacteria. But bananas are necessary to wash. They came from far away.
5. Semolina tastier when not made from semolina. Semolina is an intermediate product of milling production, which is not suitable for making bread. And the most delicious and creamy porridge obtained from noble semolina — ground flour from durum wheat.
6. Couscous is a pasta. Despite the fact that it resembles grits, couscous is prepared from the flour of hard breeds of wheat. Flour moistened with a little water and shake before the formation of crumbs. Cooking couscous is not necessary. Simply steamed with hot water and wait.
7. Vanilla – the only genus of orchids that gives edible fruits. Other orchids may have edible flowers. Some rhizomes fry like potatoes or even make ice cream from them.
8. The sharp taste of red and black pepper can and should be used. Piperine and capsaicin activate the TRPV1 receptor, which signals the brain about pain and the burn. With the constant use of the acute response is weakened. And then you can distinguish the nuances of flavor and aromas of the peppers.
9. Birds do not feel the spiciness of chili peppers. This can be used for good cooking. For example, chef Dan Barber at his restaurant-the estate Blue Hill at Stone Barns feeding chickens paprika, chili and receives from them the eggs with red yolk. The yolk has a pronounced sharpness.
10. Small portions are better. We lose interest in monotonous food, and even within the same lunch, and new dishes continue to cause hunger. It’s called sensory-specific satiation. Small portions allow you to save appetite during a long tasting.
11. People can distinguish 5 basic tastes and a minimum of 6 additional. Usually talking about sweet, sour, bitter and salty tastes. Familiar is the so-called edible flavor, umami. As well as pungent, astringent, oily, soapy, ferrous and mint.
12. Sweet need to add salt. Sweet flavor dominates the mix, even if for syrup, add salt, acid or bitter taste. 0.3% of salt in the pastry cream doesn’t change the taste of the dessert but will make it richer.