Cooking cakes on asbestos mats

Question

My mother tells me when she was young her mother would bake cakes on an asbestos mat inside a lidded electric frypan. I'd assume the practice is gone now because of the reputation of asbestos, but what was the idea behind the asbestos--a simple heat spreader?

Asked by jontyc

Answer

Health Risks Associated with Asbestos

The reputation of asbestos is indeed well-deserved. Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause a wide range of potentially fatal conditions. It is unlikely that normal home use of a product that contains asbestos will expose one to asbestos fibers. However, people who work with asbestos, whether mining the raw materials or processing the asbestos into finished products, are at much higher risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma than the general population.

In other words, as long as no one ground up your grandmother's asbestos mat and blew it out into the room, there is no reason to be afraid of it. However, the people who mined the asbestos and the people who formed it into a mat at the factory may have gotten very sick later in life.

Thermodynamic Properties of Asbestos

Specific Heat Capacity

The reason why asbestos was a good choice for your grandmother's baking rig, other than the fact it wouldn't catch fire, is that it has a high specific heat. Specific heat is essentially a measure of how much energy it takes to raise the temperature of a given material.

Other consequences of a high specific heat are that the material will both heat evenly and loose temperature slowly. Water, for example, has a very high heat capacity. So, water takes a relatively long time to heat up, heats evenly, and cools down slowly. Of course, you can't make a baking mat out of water....

Looking at a table of specific heat capacities of various materials, we can see that the specific heat capacity of asbestos is only about one quarter that of water, but is more that twice the heat capacity of iron. If you made a mat out of iron, it would have to mass more than twice as much as the asbestos mat to have an equal heat capacity.

However, heat capacity is not the whole story.

Thermal Conduction

Thermal conduction is the transfer of heat between two objects that are in contact with each other. For example, cast iron transfers its heat to what it touches about 400 times faster than asbestos mill board. So, an iron mat would not work well at all, because it would, as you'd expect, burn the bottom of the cake.

Your grandmother needed a material with a high specific heat capacity, but low thermal conductivity.

Ovens

Baking cakes in a normal oven works similarly to how your grandmother baked cakes, and for the same reasons. The air in an oven also has a high specific heat capacity (about the same as asbestos), but very low thermal conductivity (about 1/6th that of asbestos).

An oven is much more expensive than an asbestos mat and an electric fry pan, and will take up a lot more space. It's just a trade-off.

Answered by Adam Fineman

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What is the origin of cheese dip?

Question

I want to know where cheese dip was invented. Based on this article it was invented in Arkansas.

This documentary goes into more detail about it being from Mexico Chiquito, a restaurant in Arkansas.

Answer

If we're going to define "cheese dip" as "some substance made from cheese for the purpose of dipping other food in" - which seems like the only rational definition given no other context - then I'd have to pinpoint its origin as being fondue.

According to Wikipedia, the earliest known recipe for fondue comes from the Swiss cookbook, Kochbuch von Anna Margaretha Gessnerin, ein gebohrne Kittin, first published in 1699.

That predates the Arkansas claim of 1935 by at least a few centuries, if we assume that Wikipedia does indeed list the earliest source.

There's also Queso Chihuahua which was supposedly brought to Mexico by the Mennonites, which would place its origin in Mexico sometime in the 1920s - assuming that the Mennonites themselves did not simply adapt the recipe from something known even earlier.

I'd have to say that the Arkansas tourism board seems to be trying to pull a fast one on us, laying claim to this "invention". Maybe they're defining cheese dip as the specific kind of cheese dip they came up with, which would of course be a tautology.

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Why are salt and pepper the “classic” dinner table seasoning?

Question

Is there a reason we use salt and pepper on so many dishes and can be found in any kitchen table at dinner time? Does it have to do with their flavor synergies or were they just more available "back in the day"?

Answer

Salt is perhaps the most basic and effective flavour enhancer, and so it's fairly obvious why we have it on our dinner tables.

The popularity of pepper is down to the Romans, who were crazy about it. Thanks to the longevity of the Roman Empire, pepper was imported for hundreds of years, helping to establish it as the most popular spice, and keeping the price high.

Bill Bryson reports in At Home that:

When the Goths threatened to sack Rome in 408, the Romans bought them off with three thousand pounds of pepper.

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How spicy is authentic, traditional Palak paneer?

Question

I have heard that the spiciness of Palak paneer is regional, but I don't have any historical or geographical facts to confirm this. So, is there anybody around here that knows if a proper, old-school traditional Palak paneer is hot spicy, medium or mild, and which are the various regional traditions?

Answer

Hot, medium and mild are very subjective terms, which is why it is difficult to qualify regional variations in India. I have had palak paneer in north India and south India. Generally, this dish is hotter in south India. I am a south Indian, but have lived in north India for most of my life, and would call the north Indian (traditional) variety medium. Again, what I consider medium may be mild for some people, whereas for others it may be hot.

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Did tomato paste come in only one size of can in the 1950s?

Question

I found an old cookery book while on holiday at the german coast, it was published by Peter Pauper press, Mt. Vernon, New York in 1959.

All recipes that use tomato paste just say "1/2 can tomato paste (italian style)" without giving any weights or other measurements.

So, did tomato paste only come in one size in the 1950s? If so, which size was it? And would "italian style" denote anything special like it containing herbs or anything like it?

(I'd like to try some of the recipes at some point, but currently I've got no idea how much to use and if it should be anything other than plain tomato paste...)

Answer

From: http://www.ellenskitchen.com/pantry/cansize.html

Can sizes change over time, important if you are adapting an older recipe. Prior to 1980's), #303 was the popular size for most fruits and vegetables.;

No. 303 = 16-17 oz.(1 lb.-1 lb.-1 oz.) = 2 cups = 4 servings;

Principal size for fruits and vegetables. Also some meat products, ready-to-serve soups, specialties.

Tomato paste has, as far as I know, always come in size 1/2 (6 ounce) cans, at least since I began using it, starting in the mid 1960s.

Think this is what you are looking for.

There are lots of information bits on line, search; 'can sizes'.

cheers

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Forties dinner buffet

Question

I'm serving food to 11 people in a dinner that is supposed to be set at the house of the Deputy Mayor of Casablanca in 1942. I can't seat that many people at table, so the food will have to be capable of being eat from laps - I'm thinking of nibbles for a starter, followed by either a fork buffet or fork food such as a boeuf bourguignon.

Does anyone have any suggestions for my menu? I'm based in the UK.

Answer

The Los Angeles public library has a historical restaurant menu archive online, which will allow you to search restaurant menus for specific years. It will give you an idea of what fashionable people were eating at that time. The menu archive is a GREAT way to find ideas for period cuisine.

EDIT: I have a second historical menu archive for you! Collectiblemeals hosts a collection of menus for famous meals, including many presidential dinners.

Add in some Moroccan fare and a splash of French haute cuisine, and you should be able to build a historical and delicious menu.

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Where does the shape of pretzels come from?

Question

I wonder where the shape of pretzels originated.

My guesses:

1. The holes make it easy to put them on a stick or rope and store them in a place (under the roof?) where mice would not get it.
2. Originally the pretzel was a long thin stick, but it was impractical to transport. The pretzel shape provided stability to carry it around. It could be broken into smaller stick-like pieces and eaten.
3. It resembles some symbol.
4. Just for fun, because the kids liked it.

Answer

According to the Wikipedia article, the following is a likely story (or something similar to it, anyway) but may not be exactly right:

The very beginning of this youtube video of Alton Brown's Good Eats explains it rather well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZR_evWiDbY

Essentially, it was created by a monk as a reward for children who did their daily prayers. The shape looks somewhat like a person folding their arms across their chest, which is an older way to pray.

There is also the possibility that the loops make it practical to hang on sticks, more for display than for keeping the food safe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretzel

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