Cooking is intuitive and experimental until something gets set on fire: FOOD

[jess]

Do kids really die from another kid at camp bringing a nut bar which doesn't get unwrapped?

No, the point was that if he had unwrapped it (which was prevented) and eaten it, then it might have exposed the other kid. They probably prohibit all nut-based products as a preventative measure, given that kids aren't always so good at washing hands and that there have been rare cases of allergy deaths when the allergen has been transmitted from kid to kid (vs directly from a food source).

[jm]

My understanding is that external exposure of any kind is generally a much smaller risk than is often stated. But I ain't no doctorb.

[peacocks]

Do kids really die from another kid at camp bringing a nut bar which doesn't get unwrapped?

have you been reading peanutfreemom's twitter?

[Bernard]

No, on the link to the bentos the mom said she felt awful for sending her kid to camp with a wrapped bar that had nuts. I thought she was saying that there was some risk of the child being exposed through the wrapper (which I wouldn't doubt is possible, having suffered the consequences of handling habaneros through too-thin gloves). I wasn't sure if a peanut allergy was something where that degree of sensitivity was typical.

[clare]

I don't get it, either the camp has a "nut-free" policy (in which case there should be no nuts there at all) or they don't. If she's worried about a store-bought bar that says "may contain traces of nuts" then usually those things are OK within a "nut-free" framework, especially if the camp also has a "no sharing food" policy. The big boy has a friend with a peanut allergy, so the school had the "nut-fee, no sharing food" thing going on. That kid also had some other food allergies that were too hard to police in the general population though. There is a spectrum of allergy - it can start with a full anaphylactic reaction, but it can also start with a mild skin/mouth reaction....I oughta read the link, maybe...

[FreddyKnuckles]

Well, she was probably feeling terrible not because the peanuts could permeate the packaging but rather because there was a chance her kid would open the thing, pass it around, and kill a kid.  

I know one person (friend of a friend) with a nasty peanut allergy.  If someone around her was eating a peanut bar it probably wouldn't effect her much, but a consumed peanut laced product is death or near death.   So it is fine now.  She knows what not to eat and to steer clear of people eating certain things, but I can imagine if you had a kid under, say 15, with a severe peanut allergy, you'd be damn nervous.

[jm]

Yeah, it's something that I know I'd be pretty paranoid about, and I'd be freaked out even if I and my family were able to stay nut-free.

[jess]

Well, she was probably feeling terrible not because the peanuts could permeate the packaging but rather because there was a chance her kid would open the thing, pass it around, and kill a kid.

This. I did read the article, and it seemed pretty clear to me based on what she said about the camp personnel catching it in time (after he brought it to camp but before it was opened) that the concern wasn't about the allergens going through the wrapper. I mean, I doubt the point of having the bar was just tote it around all day still wrapped anyway, but rather to open and eat it.

[Bernard]

eta: on re-reading I am going to guess that maybe the kid was too young to know not to eat nuts, and they were worried this lady's kid would give the nut bar to the allergic kid -- on first reading I thought she was worried because the other kid was so sensitive he could be harmed by the nuts through their wrapper
« Last Edit: Jul 14, 2011, 04:44:02 PM by Bernard »

Does that help?

[FreddyKnuckles]

Yeah that's what we're saying. Kind of a bizarre first impression though Bernard!

[jess]

Ah, I didn't see the later edit.

[Bernard]

Freddy, did you look at the timestamp and see that I edited before anybody else posted after me? In fact, you are repeating what I said, not the other way around. It's been two years since I last got more than four hours' sleep in a row -- can you please cut me some slack?

[peacocks]

I'm making burritos to take to the movie theater tonight!

[Ah_Pook]

Tatertot nachos.

that is all.

[milly balgeary]

I've got a meat-cooking problemo. First, let me preface this by saying, I am not a GOOD cook. I read a work of literature once by someone like Nabokov, or maybe it was philosophy, that went into grievous detail about how most people consider themselves really good at a lot of things, but in truth -- they are good at only 1, maybe 2 things, if they are a genius.

So basically, people think they are good 1, cooks, 2, sexually, 3, writers, 4, workers, etc, but realistically, they aren't good at any of that shit, or they are good at 1 of those things. Well, I'm not a good cook. I don't sit around like some cooky weasel trying to fool someone, because I don't particularly care if I'm good at something or not. HOWEVER.

HOWEVER. And now we're hitting the 'meat' of the 'meat'. I am a horrible cook.

I cook like a porno film's reception in a fervent church. That's fine. I don't care particularly. But, I would like to know how to cook MEAT better. Everytime I make meat, it comes out MURKY.

MURKY.

The sun turns away.

The stars evade.

A young man hears a lilting and beautiful tune in his mind and he escapes through a window, fleeing from his abusive father, to lie beside running water and ... (wait that's the movie Immortal Beloved).

No, but every time I cook meat, it comes out MURKY. I can salt it up. I can do anything. But it comes out bad.

Can someone please post their methods for making decent tasting meat. I am talking chicken mostly. Chicken is like my satanic feast. It never TASTES RIGHT when I make it. I needs the helps.

[clare]

Well, with meat in general, depending on the cut, you've either gotta cook it fast  or cook it slow. If you cook it in-between it will taste like warm boots.

Is the problem textural or flavour? I love chicken, but not so much chicken breast - it can dry out so easily, and has less flavour than almost all of the rest of it.

I reckon I can cook well when I put my mind to it, but I know I can also cook badly.

[cold before sunrise]

Darling, this is how I did it tonight:

Preheat your oven to 350. Take a whole chicken and salt the cavity, stuff it with fresh rosemary, thyme, mint, and sage. Roast 20 min. Toss 3 lbs of fresh plums, halved and pitted, with 2 tbsp honey and place in pan. Roast 20 min. Remove plums to baking sheet, dot with pats of butter plus a shake of rosemary leaves, and keep everything in the oven another 25 min. Start with a simple green salad and serve with potatoes smashed with dill and lots of butter, herb salt and fresh pepper. Hello heaven.

[Antero]

This is how my family does chicken:

Preheat oven to 450° (hot!)

Take a whole chicken.  Chop up some rosemary and garlic real fine, add salt and pepper and whatever, mix that into some olive oil.  Take that seasoning and put it under the chicken's skin.  Squeeze some lemon juice on top to help it crisp.

The chicken goes in a roasting pan surrounded by onions, potatoes, carrots, that sort of stuff.  Start with the chicken breast side down - this makes the white meat not suck.  20 minutes.  Flip it over.  20 more minutes.  Turn the oven down to 350°.  15 more minutes. 

Take it out, let it sit for ten minutes before carving.  You will look like a fucking genius.

[Bernard]

ooh, those plums sound great

[jm]

Plum is my favorite fruit, it's true.

[elpollodiablo]

Have you guys ever had a doughnut peach? They may be my favorite fruit, though I don't come across them that often.

[mixed cats]

You can get those fairly readily in NJ. They are good!

[alex]

I had to look up what that was, even though I just ate one of them 10 minutes ago - in retrospect, kind of makes sense though. Around here, they are sold as "wild peaches", a name that bothers me a bit because I am sure that they are no more or less wild than any other kind of peach I'd be able to buy at the market or my fruit and veg shop (don't think I've seen them in the supermarket yet, but they are widely available otherwise). I've been buying them quite regularly lately, although I don't think I really prefer their taste over the "normal" kind of peach; I just like the fact that I can eat them without getting juice all over my hands and face, which means that I eat more of them.

[elpollodiablo]

I don't think I really prefer their taste over the "normal" kind of peach; I just like the fact that I can eat them without getting juice all over my hands and face, which means that I eat more of them.

Agreed!

[Greg Nog]

As far as cooking chicken goes, I'm a big fan of beer can chicken.  You can get pretty creative with the spice rub, as long it's basically 1/3 salty (so: salt, or someting that's mostly salt, like Old Bay), 1/3 savory/spicy (black pepper, garlic powder, curry powder, etc) and 1/3 sweet (I usually use brown sugar).

I'm a pretty good cook but a terrible worker.