An interesting article of TV food shows

An interesting article from one of my favorite sources, the University of Guelph, ON:

News Release
June 22, 2004

Food safety errors abound in TV cooking shows, study says
Watching TV may truly be hazardous to your health. New research from the University of Guelph reveals that chefs on popular television cooking programs make food safety errors 13 times as often as they handle food correctly.

The study, published in Food Protection Trends, says an average of seven food-handling mistakes are made during a typical 30-minute show. The most frequent errors include poor handwashing; contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food; failure to wash fresh fruits and vegetables; and inadequate washing of cooking utensils and cutting boards.

That's simultaneously surprising, amusing, depressing and completely expected, if that makes any sense.

Over the years I think I've noticed the most regular and egregious transgressions involving chicken; a particularly common one is for the host/star/chef to handle a bird or some subsection thereof and then, for example, take a pinch of salt from a bowl to season, or else to grab some other object related to seasoning, such as a pepper mill.

Sara(h?) Moulton ("executive chef of gourmet magazine"!) is fairly religious about commenting on the bad things she sometimes is forced by circumstance to do; luckily, I have learned that one can utter a magical spell which will kill all dangerous microbes: when doing something with contaminated hands, simply say something along these lines: "now, with my impeccably clean hands I will..." Apparently it works every time.

Other TV chefs are, I believe, armed with magic towels: simply wipe your hands on such a towel, and all contaminants are destroyed.

A

Hi,

When it comes to canning recommendations on television or print media, it really gets uncomfortable. Through Culinary Historians, I had the opportunity to talk to a cookbook author who also hosted a television cooking show. Annually I use one of her recipes for making tomato soup concentrate. I commented though her recommendation was water bath canning, from my experience it should be pressure canned. She acknowledged this was true but less people pressure can.

In my humble opinion, the correct recommendation should be offered from the get-go and not cow tow to people's ignorance. I do as I preach: pressure can this soup concentrate.

Cathy,

Out of curiousity, what else do you pressure can?

MAG,

You water bath can fruits, pickles and acidified tomatoes as well as some tomato based salsas.

You pressure can tomatoes, tomato sauces, meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, stock, soups.

It is all related to pH.

Regards,

Cathy,

As my family all have gardens and my in-laws have their farms, I have generally found one major difference in the way they preserve..

The city folks FREEZE everything fearing the concept of canning.

The country folks CAN everything ... stay away from them in August unless you like the insides of a Kerr jar (g).

Cathy,

Do you know a good spot up in the northern 'burbs to source canning jars and other, related supplies?

Thanks,

=R=

Surprisingly, Cub Foods at the intersection of Rand, Palatine and Arlington Heights has always had canning jars and lids when we've needed them. Probably that means that other Cub Foods locations have them too.

Otherwise, I'd try a hardware store... that's the traditional source.

RheS wrote:Surprisingly, Cub Foods at the intersection of Rand, Palatine and Arlington Heights has always had canning jars and lids when we've needed them. Probably that means that other Cub Foods locations have them too.

Otherwise, I'd try a hardware store... that's the traditional source.

Yes, excellent suggestion. On a hunch, I hit Millen's hardware store in Wilmette this morning and they had all sorts of accessories and jars. I was really pleased by the large selection. I guess canning materials are generally too inexpensive and unpopular to warrant taking up shelf space in more traditional kitchen supply stores like C&B, BB&B and W-S.

FWIW, I also discovered some excellent on-line sources but in this case I waited until the last minute, and need the stuff for this weekend, so ordering on-line was not an option.

Thanks

=R=

You might also try Loews or Home Depot. They carry them in season.