La Scienza Delle Verdure

Nice, not as good as La Scienza Delle Pulizie but still a good book. It explored the history behind many of today’s most eaten vegetables.

Notes

Fridge

• Shelves have different temperatures, the higher you go the warmer it is. You should keep vegetables in the lower humid drawer.
• Tomatoes lose nutrients the longer they stay cold; better to keep them on the higher, warmer shelves if you refrigerate them at all.
• Potatoes should not go in the fridge, ideally around 15 C.
• Eggs should never stay in the door rack; temperature swings can cause microfractures.
• To defrost, it is better to put food in the fridge at 4 C, or under a stream of cold water. The microwave is not ideal because it does not heat evenly.

Microwave

• A very useful tool that does more than just heat water in food. The microwaves bounce inside the metal box, generating heat, but not perfectly evenly. Some parts heat a bit more, which is why there is usually a rotating plate.
• For example, you can cook (with a little water) vegetables like zucchini, potatoes, peppers, carrots, broccoli, onions, and squash with great results, keeping some crunch and avoiding bad smells.
• In reality it has a fixed power (often about 600 W). When you set a lower power, it simply cycles off for some milliseconds to reduce the average heat.
• Not recommended for foods low in water (like stale bread). If you heat foods that absorb little, a good trick is to put a glass of water inside to absorb some of the waves, which could otherwise stress the appliance.

Vegetables

• 🧅 Onion: a trick to stop tears is to wet the knife to reduce the impact of its enzymes, and do not face the cut side toward you (dice starting from the far side).
• 🧄 Garlic: the enzyme that creates the smell reacts only when we cut or crush garlic. Avoid pre-minced garlic, which has lost its fresh aroma. Very healthy food (as he says for all vegetables). Do not crush it if you want a milder aroma. It can be stored in a cool, dark place for months.
• 🍅 Tomato: technically a berry, and beyond the fun facts about its nature and flavor it keeps well at 13 to 22 C; in the fridge it loses a lot of aroma over time. If possible, keep it somewhere cool rather than cold.
• 🫑 Peppers: a trick is to soften them a bit in the microwave, sliced, since they contain a lot of water, then finish in a pan with oil and garlic. They do not tolerate cold very well.
• 🍏 Apples and other climacteric fruits like apricot, banana, pear, and tomato ripen based on ethylene, a signal that tells them to soften, turning starches into sugars. If an apple gets bruised, it darkens and, under stress, can release ethylene to the others, making them ripen and soften.
• 🌵 Asparagus: best eaten just after harvest or soon after buying, since they keep growing fast, getting tougher and losing sugars. If it bends past 90 degrees it is not fresh; it should not be too flexible. The microwave is highly recommended to trap their flavorful juices inside and not lose them (3 to 4 minutes at 800 W). And yes, there is at least one molecule that makes them smell a bit because it is similar to what we use to odorize gas.
• 🌿 Basil: cut it chiffonade (roll the leaves, then slice into thin strips), great for salads with tomato. The best way is to buy a small plant to keep on the balcony, cutting stems and leaves 10 to 15 cm from the base, leaving two to four pairs to regrow. This way you get fresh basil for the whole summer. In the fridge it suffers from the cold; it is better to slice it and freeze it in a small bag (it will turn black, a cosmetic process similar to our tanning, but it keeps its aroma). You can also dry it in the microwave.
• 🥕 Carrots: originally yellow and purple until the 1600s, then a genetic mutation led to the selection of orange ones, which were more convenient (purple ones colored broth purple and you could not see anything). Purple ones are called black carrots and are used a lot as a colorant.
• 🫒 Oil: you can make it from many foods, olive, soy, sunflower, etc., and they are more or less interchangeable because there is no single specific molecule. They contain the same fatty acids, bound in triglycerides, in different percentages. We simplify to plant = unsaturated and animal = saturated, but not always true. Those are not interchangeable: they have different chemical properties, so replace saturated with saturated, especially in desserts. Virgin oils are made only with mechanical processes, with no chemical changes, and extra virgin have low free acids (less bitter flavor). Use extra virgin olive oil raw, and seed oils for frying and sauteing if possible.
• 🍆 Eggplant: it suffers from cold, so do not keep it too long in the fridge. Choose ones that spring back when pressed. Avoid a brown cap, which means it is old. Frying is tricky; better to give it a quick pass in the microwave for a couple of minutes so it does not absorb too much water and oil.
• 🥔 Potatoes: store outside the fridge in the dark; watch light exposure, which causes solanine production, which is toxic. For mash, better to use a ricer than a blender, which breaks too many starch chains and makes it gluey. Boil potatoes with the skin; they absorb less water and keep a bit more nutrients. You can microwave them before frying, with a lid to increase effectiveness.