The Chemist in the Kitchen

Yesterday's mail brought an offer to subscribe to Cook's Illustrated which boasts "no advertising; you can trust our recommendations" for the paltry sum of $9.95 for a full year which is not as cool as it sounds; it comes out every two months.

I'd taken it before and liked the many drawings of tools and b/w photos of food.  So I whipped out my check book and took them up on it.  Then I settled down to read the issue included.

And that's when I realized why I'd let the first subscription die out.  The bits on how to do things; the questions answered - all were quite interesting.  But what wasn't was:  

On making perfect scrambled eggs - "As the proteins in the eggs continue to heat, they unfold and then bond together to form a latticed gel in a process known as coagulation."   

The real problem was that he was using a rubber spatula instead of a whisk to stir them around in a 12-in. skillet.  A 10-in. and a whisk are the way to go.

His ideas on softening brown sugar - either put it in a bowl with a slice of sandwich bread over it and microwave it for 10-20 seconds or store it in a sealed container with a piece of terra cotta.

But instead of de-crystallizing honey by nuking it - be sure you uncap the plastic bottle first - his way is to put the glass  jar in water  and heat the water to 160 degrees.  Why one and not the other?

He and his staff tested 10 vegetable peelers.  There were two clear winners - the Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss peeler (this is the Y-shaped one) ($3.50) and the Messermeister Pro-Touch Fine Edge Swivel Peeler ($10) which is the type I use but not for $10 - try $7.99 for the OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler. ..