World Cuisines

The Egg Handling Handbook

Why is egg safety a concern?

Eggs can be part of a healthy diet. However, they are perishable, just like raw meat,poultry and fish. To be safe, they must be properly refrigerated and cooked. Also todaysome unbroken shell eggs may contain bacteria that can make you sick unless the eggsare carefully handled. This bacteria is Salmonella enteritidis. While the number of eggsaffected is less than one in ten thousand, there have been scattered outbreaks in the lastfew years. Currently the government, the egg industry and the scientific community areworking together to solve the problem.

What part of the egg carries the bacteria?

Researchers say the salmonella bacteria are usually in the yolk or yellow. But theycan't rule out its presence in egg whites. So everyone is advised against eating raw orundercooked egg yolks, whites or products containing them.

Who should be extra-careful?

People with health problems, the very young, the elderly and pregnant women ( therisk is to the unborn child) are particularly vulnerable to Salmonella enteritidisinfections. Health problems could be a chronic illness or any condition which weakensthe immune system.

What can you do at home?

Proper refrigeration, cooking and handling should solve most "egg" problems. Youcan continue to enjoy eggs and egg-rich foods if you follow these safe handling guidelines.

To be egg-safe:

1. Avoid eating raw eggs or foods that contain them. This includes "health food" milkshakes and raw eggs. Caesar salad, Hollandaise sauce, and any other food likehomemade mayonnaise, ice cream, or eggnog made from recipes in which the raw eggingredients are not cooked.

2. At the store, choose Grade A or AA eggs with clean, uncracked shells. Make sure theyhave been refrigerated in the store. Any bacteria present in an egg can grow quickly atroom temperature.

3. Refrigerating eggs - Take eggs straight home to the refrigerator. A home refrigeratorshould be running at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Store them in the grocery carton in thecoolest part of the refrigerator, not in the door. Don't wash eggs. You'll remove aprotective coating applied at the packing plant.

4. How long will eggs keep in the refrigerator? Use raw shell eggs within 3 to 5 weeks.Hard-cooked eggs will keep 1 week. Use leftover yolks and whites within 4 days.

5. How long will eggs keep frozen? About 6 months. You can freeze white separately.For whole eggs, beat yolks and whites together.If eggs freeze accidentally in their shells,keep them frozen until needed. Defrost in the refrigerator. Discard any with crackedshells.

6. Handling eggs- Wash hands, utensils, equipment and work areas with hot, soapywater before and after contact with eggs and egg-rich foods. Avoid keeping eggs out ofthe refrigerator over two hours. Serve cooked eggs and egg-rich foods immediately aftercooking, or refrigerate at once for later use. Use within 3-4 days.

7. Leftovers - Divide large amounts of egg-rich foods into small containers for quickcooling.

8. Cooking times-Fried eggs- 2 to 3 minutes on each side; 4 minutes in a covered pan.Scrambled eggs- should be cooked until firm throughout.Poached eggs- Cook 5 minutes over boiling waterSoft-cooked eggs- Cook in the shell 7 minutes.

9. Safer egg recipes- Update recipes for Caesar salad, Hollandaise sauce, homemademayonnaise, salad dressing and other uncooked egg-based sauces by using commercialpasteurized eggs or egg substitutes. Egg mixtures are safe if they reach 160 degreesFahrenheit, so you can make eggnog, ice cream and soft custards from fresh eggs if youstart with a cooked base. Use a thermometer or heat gently until the mixture coats ametal spoon.

10. Easter eggs- Cooking removes the eggshell's natural protective coating, so hardcooked eggs are more susceptible to bacteria than fresh shell eggs. Refrigerate Easter eggsimmediately after cooking and drying. Do not leave them off refrigeration for over twohours during the hunt either. After your "bunnies" have found their eggs, refrigeratethe eggs again. They should keep for about a week.

Food Guide (Food Pyramid)

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The USDA( United states Department of Agriculture ) published a guide in the year 1992 and is considered as a ready reckoner and a bible for any dietician or nutrtionist. The food guide pyramid suggested optimal nutrition guidelines for each food category, per day, using a pyramid with horizontal dividing lines, to represent suggested percentages of the daily diet for each food group.

Bread, Cereal, Rice & hoe Group

Grain products include foods derived from cereal crops. Cereals, breads, pastas, crackers, and rice all fall under this categorization. Grains supply food energy in the form of starch, and are also a source of protein. Whole grains contain dietary fiber, essential fatty acids, and other important nutrients. Milled grains, though more palatable, have many nutrients removed in the milling process and thus are not as highly recommended as whole grains. Whole grains can be found especially in oatmeal, brown rice, grits, corn tortillas and whole wheat bread. 6-11 servings of grain products are recommended per day.

Vegetable Group

A vegetable is a part of a plant consumed by humans that is generally savory (not sweet) and not considered grain, fruit, nut, spice, or herb. For example, the stem, root, flower, etc. may be eaten as vegetables. Vegetables contain many vitamins and minerals; however, different vegetables contain different spreads, so it is important to eat a wide variety of types. For example, green vegetables typically contain vitamin C, dark orange and dark green vegetables contain vitamin A,and bushy vegetables like broccoli and related plants contain iron and calcium. Vegetables are very low in fats and calories, but cooking can often add these 3-5 servings of vegetables in a day. They may be fresh, frozen, canned, or made into juices.

Fruit Group

In terms of food (rather than botany), fruits are the sweet-tasting seed-bearing parts of plants, or occasionally sweet parts of plants which do not bear seeds.
These include apples, oranges, plums, berries, and grapes, etc. Fruits are low in calories and fat and are a source of natural sugars, fibre and vitamins. Processing fruits when canning or making into juices unfortunately often adds sugars and removes nutrients; therefore fresh fruit or canned fruit packed in juice rather than syrup is recommended. The fruit food group is sometimes combined with the vegetable food group. It is best to consume 8-10 servings of fruit in a day. They may be fresh, frozen, canned, dried, or made into juice.
Note that many foods that are considered fruits in botany because they bear seeds are not considered fruits in cuisine because they lack the characteristic sweet taste.

Milk, Yogurt & Cheese Group

Dairy products are produced from the milk of mammals, most usually but not exclusively cattle. They include milk and yogurt and cheese. They are the best source for the mineral calcium, but also provide protein, phosphorus, vitamin A, and in fortified milk, vitamin D. However, many dairy products are high in fat, which is why skimmed products are available as an alternative. For adults, 2-3 servings of dairy products are recommended per day.

Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs & Nuts Group

Meat is the tissue - usually muscle - of an animal consumed by humans. Since most parts of many types of animals are edible, there is a vast variety of meats. Meat is a major source of protein, as well as iron, zinc, and vitamin B. Meats include beef, chicken, pork, salmon, tuna, and shrimp, etc.
However, since many of the same nutrients found in meat can also be found in foods like eggs, dry beans, and nuts, such foods are typically placed in the same category as meats, as meat alternatives. These include tofu, products that resemble meat or fish but are made with soy, eggs, and cheese.
Although meats provide energy and nutrients, they are often high in fat and cholesterol, and can be high in sodium. Simply trimming off fatty tissue can go a long way towards reducing this negative effect. 2-3 servings per day of meat or alternatives are recommended. For those who are ethically opposed to consuming meat or animal products (People who are vegetarians), meat analogues such as tofu are available to fill this nutritional niche.

Fats, Oils, and Sweets

Fats, Oils, and Sweets are at the top of the food pyramid because it is the smallest section, indicating that, while they do have nutritional value, they should be used sparingly.

By using this pyramid and including these in our daily diet we can lead a healthy life.

Proteins, Fats, Carbohydrates and Minerals

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Protein is the big nutrient — the primary element in the growth and repair of body tissue (such as collagen fibres, which are one of the principal components of skin, muscle, bones and cartilage, among a host of other body parts). For this reason, children who are still growing need more protein per kilogram of body weight than adults. Anyone with an infectious disease, though, will also need increased protein, as will someone on an extreme diet, since the body may burn through accumulated fat and carbohydrate reserves and begin to pillage protein resources.
The problem with that is that proteins supply some 20 amino acids, about half of which are needed for normal growth and tissue renewal, and if energy - yielding nutrients are in short supply, amino acids may be used as energy sources. This can lead to what's known as protein-calorie malnutrition, a condition apparent in the stunted growth of Third World children, who may subsist almost entirely on starchy foodstuffs derived from cereal and root staples.
Foods high in protein — most meats, fish, eggs, dairy products — are the expensive foods of the comparatively rich. Surprisingly, though, most human diets around the world only vary from about 10 to 15 per cent protein content. The big difference is in the quantity of fats and carbohydrates — as high as 90 per cent carbohydrates in poor diets and as low as 40 per cent in better diets. The remainder, if any, of the diet is made up of fats, perhaps as much as 45 per cent among wealthy eaters.

Fats and carbohydrates, though low in amino acids, are our best energy source. Fats, such as oils and especially butter, have an extremely high energy content (that is, calories) but consumed in excess they can build up as hard deposits known as plaque in the arteries, as in artherosclerosis, one of the major causes of heart attacks. Because most fats are scarce in vitamins, they're called empty calories: They've generally been considered the chief contributor to body fat, an excess of which can be a real problem for people with osteoarthritis, though recent studies have questioned — with some justification — whether in fact fats are the real culprits in excess weight.
The other main source of body energy is the carbohydrate family — sugars and starches. Most of them are loaded with energy but contain relatively little protein. Thus, a high carbohydrate diet will be short on growth potential and leave the body ill-equipped to fight infections. Some starchy foods, such as potatoes, do have protein content (though less than whole-grain cereals) and vitamins, especially C and A. Before the terrible Potato Famine in 19th-century Ireland and Scotland, many crofters survived on little else.

Foods also contain a wide array of minerals useful to normal metabolic processes. You may have two or three pounds of calcium in your body — mostly in the skeletal system — as well as magnesium, which shares some of calcium's functions. Iron, an essential component of hemoglobin in the blood and myoglobin in muscles, is of special importance to menstruating, pregnant or lactating women; it's aided in its work by copper, while cobalt helps form red blood cells. The body is a veritable mineshaft of other exotic minerals, such as zinc, manganese, selenium and molybdenum, whose functions are varied but sometimes interrelated; all are important and require the appropriate food sources.

Excerpts from - http://www.dietitians.ca.

Effects of Cooking

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The food we prepare contains a mix of nutrients and minerals and the effects of cooking on these are as below

Proteins
Edible animal material, including muscle, offal, milk and egg white, contains substantial amounts of protein. Almost all vegetable matter (in particular legumes and seeds) also includes proteins, although generally in smaller amounts. These may also be a source of essential amino acids. When proteins are heated they become de-natured and change texture. In many cases, this causes the structure of the material to become softer or more friable - meat becomes cooked. In some cases, proteins can form more rigid structures, such as the coagulation of albumen in egg whites. The formation of a relatively rigid but flexible matrix from egg white provides an important component of much cake cookery, and also underpins many desserts based on meringue.

Liquids
Cooking often involves water which is often present as other liquids, both added in order to immerse the substances being cooked (typically water, stock or wine), and released from the foods themselves. Liquids are so important to cooking that the name of the cooking method used may be based on how the liquid is combined with the food, as in steaming, simmering, boiling, braising and blanching. Heating liquid in an open container results in rapidly increased evaporation, which concentrates the remaining flavour and ingredients - this is a critical component of both stewing and sauce making.

Fat
Fats and oils come from both animal and plant sources. In cooking, fats provide tastes and textures. When used as the principal cooking medium (rather than water), they also allow the cook access to a wide range of cooking temperatures. Common oil-cooking techniques include sauteing, stir-frying, and deep-frying. Commonly used fats and oils include butter, olive oil, sunflower oil, lard, beef fat (both dripping and tallow), rapeseed oil or Canola, and peanut oil. The inclusion of fats tends to add flavour to cooked food, even though the taste of the oil on its own is often unpleasant. This fact has encouraged the popularity of high fat foods, many of which are classified as junk food.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates used in cooking include simple sugars such as glucose (from table sugar) and fructose(from fruit), and starches from sources such as cereal flour, rice, arrowroot, potato. The interaction of heat and carbohydrate is complex.
Long-chain sugars such as starch tend to break down into more simple sugars when cooked, while simple sugars can form syrups. If sugars are heated so that all water of crystallisation is driven off, then caramelisation starts, with the sugar undergoing thermal decomposition with the formation of carbon, and other breakdown products producing caramel. Similarly, the heating of sugars and proteins elicits the Maillard reaction, a basic flavor-enhancing technique.
An emulsion of starch with fat or water can, when gently heated, provide thickening to the dish being cooked. In European cooking, a mixture of butter and flour called a roux is used to thicken liquids to make stews or sauces. In Asian cooking, a similar effect is obtained from a mixture of rice or corn starch and water. These techniques rely on the properties of starches to create simpler mucilaginous saccharides during cooking, which causes the familiar thickening of sauces. This thickening will break down, however, under additional heat

Improvements you can find!!!

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In my previous post I had mentioned about updating people on various cuisines of the world, their popular dishes and the recipes with ingredients needed and cooking instructions for that recipe
It suddenly struck me that understaning how to cook and what ingredients to use would not be enough. I thought, to create wonderful dishes for our friends and family to consume we need to have greater in depth knowledge about
- The concepts of cooking,
- Dietery requirements of people,
- The food pyramid and its importance,
- The ingredients required, regionwise
- The cooking utensils you would require

Although the basic need of the blog would be fulfilled we would have these additional information for the benefit of all humanity!!! We would have a list to help cover the essentials involved in cooking, certain tips and tricks to create masterpieces in cooking.
You can always choose to click on the above links to get that cuisine's popular dishes and recipes.
Please leave a comment to help improve the blog and to contibute recipes you may know!!

Mediterranean Cuisine

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COMING SOON WITH POPULAR DISHES AND THEIR RECIPES