ohio, amongst many other places, is now on lockdown; i assume (read: HOPE) the rest of the country will soon follow suit. so for those just joining us in cooking food at home, here are these tips again, with a couple additions i forgot below:
if you bought frozen fish in a vacuum sealed package: TAKE IT OUT OF THE PACKAGE BEFORE YOU THAW IT. otherwise, you may receive the worst gift a fish can give you: botulism
if you cut RAW MEAT, POULTRY OR SEAFOOD, you must CHANGE your knife AND your cutting board, or at least wash them, before you cut up anything else! cross contamination is real and it’s not great, bob
heard a couple different people say “i’m a vegan so this doesn’t apply to me” in reply to the original thread, which i found deeply alarming!! the bacterial hot zone is the bacterial hot zone regardless of how vegan your food is!! don’t get food poisoning!!
speaking of which, can’t believe i forgot this: WASH! YOUR! GREENS! remember all the romaine lettuce recalls last year? that was bc a fuckload of it turned up with e. coli, and i can’t imagine in these conditions that those issues are going to... improve
proper way to wash greens: submerge them in a bowl of water, swish, let them hang out for at least 90 seconds. if the water turns gross and brown, change the water until it stops turning gross and brown. dry. (a salad spinner can help with this.)
some greens you should wash this way: lettuces, collards, chard, HERBS, kale (which is gonna be sandy). leeks and scallions need a heavy washing too, but you should be rinsing and scrubbing the sand out of each layer and/or top for those.
i feel like this one goes without saying but i’ve known some people even pre-virus who have needed to hear this: if you are hiking/walking to pass the time, and you find some mushrooms, and you’re not an expert in mushroom foraging? don’t EAT them they might KILL you
basic fridge rules: things most likely to contaminate other foods (meat, seafood, eggs) go on the bottom shelf, where they can’t drip on anything else. things you’re thawing go on the bottom shelf too, ideally in a bowl or dish of some kind to catch thaw runoff
take a tip from restaurants everywhere and sort your fridge (and pantry) so the things that are going to go out first are in the front, and the stuff that’s got longer to live is in the back. work through the short dated stuff first and rotate that longer-lasting stuff up!
less “don’t get food poisoning” and more “don’t burn your house down” on this one: DO NOT pour WATER on a GREASE FIRE. a grease fire MUST be SMOTHERED; water, counterintuitive though this is, will make a grease fire WORSE, not better
(a grease fire is when your cooking oil gets so hot it catches fire. if cooking w/ oil, especially for frying applications requiring a lot of it, try to use a pan w/ a LID that FITS so you can, if a grease fire occurs, cut the heat & slap the lid on. SMOTHER 👏 THAT 👏 SHIT 👏)
okay i think?? that’s everything i came to say but i’m sure i forgot something; as it turns out a pandemic isn’t great for ADHD & depression, so i’m a little less w/ it than i’d like to be these days. BE SAFE. BE WELL. BE KIND. thank you so much for your attention and support 💜
