Odd food news - ancient spices, dishwasher cooking...?

[Cat]

Couple of things I found tonight.

6,100-year-old crock pot has earliest evidence of food spicing (and it's still delicious)

About 6,100 years ago, an unnamed Stone Age chef made culinary history when she flavored a simple dish of deer meat or fish, cooking in clay pot over an open wood fire, with the pungent ground seeds of the garlic mustard plant.

Perhaps it was inventive genius at work, perhaps it was a stroke of luck — those details have been lost over time. But the recipe — the earliest evidence of humans flavoring their cooking with spice — has survived.

Researchers at the University of York analyzed burnt food remains from clay cooking pots found in Neolithic dwellings in Denmark and Germany. On the clay, along with meat fats or traces of fish, they found the distinct remains of garlic mustard seeds.

"What we found is that it's definitely being cooked with, mixed with the food," Hayley Saul, a lecturer in York's department of archeology, told NBC News. While cumin, coriander, capers, basil, poppy and dill have been collected at other sites in southern Europe, the Middle East and India, some older, they may have been around for medicinal or even decorative purposes. This is the earliest conclusive evidence of a spice's use in ancient cuisine.

(REST AT SITE)

Nidhi Subbaraman NBC News
Aug. 21, 2013 at 4:59 PM ET
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/6-100-year-old-crock-pot-has-earliest-evidence-food-6C10960587?lite&lite=obnetwork


And who knew...? You can use your dishwasher to cook food while washing dishes???

OK, *I* can't, because my hands are my dishwasher, but anyone ever think of trying this? I've heard of car-engine cooking. Not this!

Dishwasher Cooking: Make Your Dinner While Cleaning The Plates

A handful of YouTube videos and food blogs are showing off the method. And even Oprah a recipe for an entire lunch — noodles, asparagus and salmon — prepared in the dishwasher.

So how does it work?

You wrap the salmon tightly in aluminum foil or a cooking bag. Add a lemon wedge, oil and some spices — cilantro, ginger or really, anything that you want. Put the foil package on the top rack and start a normal washing cycle, without adding soap.

That's the traditional method. And it works great. The hot water and steam essentially poach the salmon. And at the low temperature, about 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit, the fish cooks very slowly, so it turns creamy and soft, as Dan Pashman of the podcast tells Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin.

(MORE AT SITE)
by Michaeleen Doucleff
August 25, 2013 5:17 AM

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/08/25/214799882/dishwasher-cooking-make-your-dinner-while-cleaning-the-plates?utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130825

 

 

[sassenach]

I saw a pic on fb tonight about a gal that puts her homecanned food, in the jar right in dishwasher while the dishes are washing and drying and then serves dinner. saves on pans I guess? seems risky but in a pinch maybe its ok? * shrugs.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Steamed Fish , wraped in tinfoil,like that years ago and it wasn't that bad (back in my other Live!)

 

Anybody old enough to remember the very old days when you could travel from state to state-

You put your meat (seasoned) in tinfoil and then put on your engin e block and when you got to the camp site Dinner was ready to eat!
also put potoes and onions on the same way but had to stop and take them off so they didn't burn? Can't remember how many miles you had to drive?
.... ..... .......

[Pigzzilla]

Back in the mid-70's I had a job driving tractor. A big old John Deere 4430 if I remember right. Most of the crew, including me, would put a can of stew or Chef Boy-r-Dee on the manifold for an hour or so to heat up. Sometimes there would be a stew explosion and things smelled burnt for awhile. The boss wasn't too happy with that. ...........pigz