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• Animal shortening is evil. Lard is 45% monounsaturated fat, butter is only 21%. I have lots more info – it’s a pet subject of mine. This needs its own thread.
• Mayo speeds spoilage. It’s acidic, thus a preservative. Commercial mayo is pasteurized, so even safer.
• Beans must be soaked before cooking. Discarding soak water removes a small percentage of gassy agents, but cooking is unaffected.
• Never salt beans until they’re cooked. Salting at the beginning results in saltier beans. That’s it.
• Pork must be cooked well-done. Math. Trichina die at 137 degrees, medium doneness is 150-155 degrees. Besides, they occur in • Use the pit to prevent avocado browning. Keep oxygen away (plastic wrap on the surface) or add lots of lemon juice. Period.
• Salting meat before cooking makes it dry/tough. Brined poultry, salted marinades, etc. Was it dry/tough? ‘Nuff said.
• Eating before bed makes you gain weight. Too many calories + too little exercise = weight gain. Timing doesn’t. It’s been proven over and over again.
• Milk makes scrambled eggs/omelets tough, watery. Was it Cooks Illus that proved eggs made with water were less fluffy, less soft, less tasty? Use milk. Cream works even better.

You made me think of the episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown disproves various myths...such as the one about not washing mushrooms because they'll absorb water and get tough. Foolishness...where do people get these things?

Well, my late ex-mother-in-law believed that eating fish and drinking milk at the same meal would poison the eater, so that was a source of some contention when we visited with our kids.

And I agree with all the above except the salt and cooking beans. It may be the water here, but salt or even tomato products in the bean-cooking water makes them take three or four times longer to cook. I fought this for years, thinking that it was just me. Finally stopped adding the ham bone or anything else to the beans until they were nearly done. (Simmered the bone separately, and reduced the broth while I stripped the meat off the bone; added broth at the "nearly done" spot.)

I believe the "myth" you criticize about eating before bed is in fact partially true, in that in a sleeping state calories are metabolized much slower (eventually being stored as fat) than at any other time. Even sitting idly for several hours after a meal is healthier.

Milk causes phlegm---absolutely false!

Sear the meat to seal in the juices...AAArrrrghggh. Searing meat carmelizes the sugars in the juices, creating deeper flavor - but juice will still escape.

* Salting meat before cooking makes it dry/tough. Brined poultry, salted marinades, etc. Was it dry/tough? ‘Nuff said.

This is actually true. The act of salting meat by sprinkling salt on raw meat, then storing it, will leach out all the moisture as evidenced by the pool of blood on the bottom of the container. The act of brining is different because the meat is immersed and there is pressure which ...does stuff that Shirley O. Corriher explained on an ep of Good Eats. when he raised the same question.

The myth that meat and dairy form the only good sources of protein, iron, and calcium. My relatives periodically freak out about my not eating chicken or beef, like fish (which I still eat), beans, grains, vegetables, and nuts don't contain any protein.

As far as calcium goes, Marion Nestle put it terrifically. To paraphrase, cows stop drinking milk after they're weaned as babies, yet their skeletons manage to support their 1000-plus pound bodies through adulthood. So are bones dependent on a constant milk supply? Probably not.

I'd say it's a myth that any diet is, by necessity, healthier than another. As we have discussed on this board a jillion times, a good vegan or vegetarian diet is healthier than a bad omnivorous diet, while a bad veg diet is worse than a good meat-eating diet. Likewise, it's a myth that vegetarians and vegans can't get adequate nutrition...a much more commonly-held belief than that veganism is healthier than other diets.

On another note, what about the idea that olive oil is bad for cooking? I hear this all the time, due to its purportedly low smoke point. Maybe people who say this just mean deep-frying or something? I sautee with olive oil all the time and "off flavors" never result. Is this a myth?

Hmmmm, I have a friend who deep fries everything in olive oil, from French fries to tortilla chips. They always taste fine. I've never heard the myth about olive oil before . . . so interesting.

How about the idea that margarine's so much healthier than butter? I know the scientists are split on this one, but personally, I can't see how globs of highly-processed hydrogenated oil prove so much healthier than butter, which is really just shaken milk (obviously, I'm not going to include Frankenbutter in this comparison). In baked goods, especially simple ones dependent on minimal ingredients, you can't beat butter for taste.

Excellent posts!

"Fat is bad" -- Yes, along with "cutting fat is all you have to do to lose weight"
"Fish and milk" -- I remember once being told, 'You can't put parmesan on your linguine and clams... you don't even want to know what it will do to you.' Huh? And what about herring in sourcream?
"Salted beans" -- I've seen recipes that specify bottled water for beans if yours is hard, so maybe that's when it matters?
"Milk and phlegm" -- I'm cracking up... my mom always said that! Great one!!!
"Salting meat: -- Should've been more specific. I meant just before cooking. Many people insist it CANNOT be salted till it's cooked. Hogwash.
"Bread crust" -- Wow. I've never heard THAT one! Too funny.
"Olive oil" -- Seem to remember reading that the best way to deep fry in it is not using extra virgin. Most refined oils have much higher smoke points.

"Eating before bed" -- not to be argumentative, but based on what I've learned over many years in healthcare...

On average, it takes 8-10 hours for food to be metabolized into usable nutrients and energy. It’s highly variable depending on food type, portion size, individual eater, etc., but that's the generally accepted standard. Many medical tests require a 12-14 hour fast to ensure baseline levels of blood sugar, lipids, etc. Athletes typically do their calorie-loading about 5-8 hours before an event, depending on the type of loading (carbs shorter, protein longer). Part of the importance of breakfast is preventing the common afternoon "crash".

The energy powering your body right now has typically been provided by food you ate half a day ago. With few exceptions (e.g., simple sugars), calories consumed now are irrelevant to current activities. The main drawback to eating right before bed is possible sleep disruption (heartburn, discomfort from fullness, etc.). I seem to remember something about it being bad for asthmatics, but I don't remember why.

Most studies indicate no link between meal timing and weight-gain with proper calorie consumption. HOWEVER, people tend to misjudge their calorie intake earlier in the day, and then consume too many calories at dinner or late-night snacking, relative to their overall caloric intake. And we all know if your overall caloric intake exceeds your overall energy expenditure, you will gain weight. But, it doesn't matter whether the calories were consumed at bedtime or breakfast.

Many of my German friends soldiered their way through childhood and early adulthood without eating sugar snap peas, because they had been told by their parents that raw green beans were poisonous. I'm not sure where the truth lies in this, or why it's a particularly German thing (I've never heard this in the Netherlands or Scandinavia or Britain). Obviously sugar snaps aren't poisonous, but said German friends insist that raw fava beans and raw string beans are. If anyone knows the about this, I'd be interested to hear.

Remember this oldie...chocolate and fried foods make your face break out! I know...I'm dating myself here!

JEP - explain why the milk & phlegm myth is incorrect? I'm not being contentious, I'm just curious. It's always been a problem for me ... but then again, I think I'm mildy lactose intolerant.

Kimc54 - you can't be that old; I'm only 20 and I've heard that more times than I can count!

RE: winny: " That offended me. You see, I live in Indonesia and while it might not be as bad as Africa but yes there are starving children here. "

Sorry.

There are obviously starving children, and adults, everywhere, including here in this Country.

The good news is that progress to fight famine and improve nutrition is being made world-wide. Hopefully some day children everywhere will be afforded the luxury of being fussy eaters, much to the chagrin of parents everywhere.

Interestingly, dried shelly beans (like kidneys and such) are toxic before cooked....

Pulled this from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidney_bean#Kidney_bean

"Before they are eaten, the raw bean seeds should be boiled for at least ten minutes to degrade a toxic compound - the lectin phytohaemagglutinin - found in the bean which would otherwise cause severe gastric upset. This compound is present in many varieties (and in some other species of bean), but is especially concentrated in red kidney beans. Although in the case of dry beans the ten minutes required to degrade the toxin is much shorter than the hours required to fully cook the beans themselves, outbreaks of poisoning have been associated with the use of slow cookers whose low cooking temperatures may be unable to degrade the toxin. Sprouts of pulses high in haemaglutins should not be eaten. Red kidney beans, especially, should not be sprouted."

I once read somewhere that a common Japanese superstition is that myoga makes you forgetful. I've never had myoga, can anyone back this claim up?