55
votes
Does the fruit label get put on a bad spot, or does the bad spot develop as a result of the label?
A few years ago I had the rare chance to take a look behind the scenes of the largest manufacturer of fruit sorting, labeling and packaging equipment in the Pacific Northwest and it was impressive to ...
- 58.5k
51
votes
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What kind of pickle was this?
It sounds like you may be describing a caper berry. Most folks are familiar with capers, which are the pickled or salted flower bud from the caper plant. However, if the buds are left to mature into ...
- 9,047
46
votes
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What is the point of washing produce in cold water?
For the most part, rinsing produce in cold water is for the purpose of removing pesticides and soil that may contain bacteria. You're not washing off bacterial colonies - whole peel-on vegetables and ...
- 5,683
44
votes
What's (really) the difference between fruit and vegetables?
There is no real black and white definition of that difference, because where the line is drawn varies from crowd to crowd.
Botanically speaking, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops ...
- 2,407
43
votes
Accepted
Why are certain fruit & veg bought in UK supermarkets tasteless?
Non-native and out of season fruits and vegetables that are available in northern countries (e.g. UK, Canada) need to be shipped from far away and will be picked before they are naturally ripe (under ...
- 20.5k
37
votes
Why are certain fruit & veg bought in UK supermarkets tasteless?
In addition to Max's answer, much UK supermarket fruits and vegetables are from varieties grown to have tough skins (so they don't damage in transit), have a long shelf life (so they can be ...
- 1,025
36
votes
Why are berries so expensive?
It is a combination of many factors. To sell you one perfect apple, one perfect bunch of bananas, or one perfect half-pint of berries requires:
the land to grow on
workers to plant, tend, weed, and ...
- 11.3k
31
votes
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What was this pickled vegetable which I was served at a middle eastern restaurant?
I suspect that these will be pickled almonds. Almonds are a favorite ingredient in many middle-Eastern dishes. The green color and fuzz give it away, most other fruits like apricots and plums lack ...
- 13.8k
29
votes
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How does one alter a recipe that calls for one fruit with another fruit of differing water content?
There's no trick, there's math. 100g of banana is about 75g of water (1g of water is 1ml, so easy to measure), 12g of sugar, and 13g of fiber and other stuff. A pumpkin is about 92g of water and 3 ...
- 75.4k
23
votes
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Can salted butter be used to make lemon curd?
Often, at least in the US, recipes will specifically call for unsalted butter, then call for salt to be added to the recipe — which causes many to scratch their heads.
There are three main uses that ...
- 8,673
23
votes
Accepted
Are there tables of wastage rates for different fruit and veg?
The USDA has a handbook of yield ratios for various raw ingredients. Note that some goods have a high variance in yield, from the foods themselves as well as how you prepare them; your own kitchen ...
- 26.9k
20
votes
Why are berries so expensive?
There's a variety of reasons I can imagine:
They're more delicate than most other fruits, so shipping without damaging is harder. Loss due to crushing is expected.
They go bad quickly, which can ...
- 16.5k
19
votes
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Mixing pineapple with Curd/Milk
Pineapple contains bromelain, which is a powerful enzyme that breaks down most animal proteins. As such fresh pineapple will always curdle milk. The bitter flavor is a side-effect of this curdling.
...
- 61.2k
18
votes
What's the difference between a cobbler, crisp, crumble, buckle, and betty?
Some of the terms may be regional but they do generally describe variations on a theme.
My general understanding of the differences are as follows:
Cobbler - A cobbler is generally a thickened fruit ...
- 16.5k
17
votes
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How can I examine fruits or vegetables in a market, while minimizing mechanical damage?
The first step is to only pick up items you're likely to buy. Then you should only have to put down items that have an actual problem already.
For some things you want to check for ripeness, but ...
- 43.7k
16
votes
What's (really) the difference between fruit and vegetables?
All of your observations are correct - both the distinguishing factors and the fact that there are foods whose belonging to a category is unclear.
The reason behind this has nothing to do with ...
- 136k
14
votes
Accepted
Why is my avocado tough and rubbery?
It's simply not ripe yet.
Don't buy avocados or any other fruit and vegetable in pre-packed bags, because you cannot tell what state they are in.
Buy from a local grocer whom you can trust, and ...
- 25.1k
14
votes
What's (really) the difference between fruit and vegetables?
The wikipedia article distinguishes between botanical fruits and culinary fruits. (Interestingly, both German ("Obst" vs. "Frucht") and Spanish ("Fruta" vs. "Fruto") have distinct terms for these.)
...
- 584
12
votes
How do I ripen unripe oranges and grapefruits?
I agree with the suggestion that it is best to buy ripe citrus fruits. I respectfully disagree with the assertion that they don't ripen after picking.
I stumbled across this ancient question today ...
- 2,986
12
votes
What was this pickled vegetable which I was served at a middle eastern restaurant?
It's probably green almonds like bob1 suggested. We eat them raw as a fruit or they can be pickled. They are called Oja in the Syrian region عوجا.
- 121
12
votes
Can salted butter be used to make lemon curd?
Using salted butter would result in a perceivably salty curd - probably not what you want when expecting a sweet lemon curd. The general rule of thumb is to use unsalted butter for sweet dishes and ...
- 58.5k
12
votes
Can salted butter be used to make lemon curd?
I disagree with Stephie's answer above. I find using salted butter does not give a perceptively salty taste but instead helps to bring out the lemon flavour. A pinch of salt or salted butter is ...
- 2,406
11
votes
Why are certain fruit & veg bought in UK supermarkets tasteless?
You have fallen to false believe that fruits from Spain are grown on the fields. Where they are planted in soil by Jose and they go through full vegetation cycle under the Spanish sky.
In fact, ...
- 4,121
11
votes
What's (really) the difference between fruit and vegetables?
There's a bit of confusion here because there are two senses of the word "fruit": the botanical sense with a more precise definition (plant parts with seeds), and the common everyday culinary usage ...
- 58.2k
11
votes
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How can I make raisins really hard & chewy?
I think you just need to dehydrate them some more to get that effect. I assume granola and muesli tend to use drier raisins because they will keep longer, and not affect the rest of the cereal with ...
- 11.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Can I simply soak fruit and vegetables in water for several hours to sanitize them?
Washing fruit and vegetables in water is less an exercise in sterilisation and more a case of simply washing off any mud or debris. Soaking in still water does nothing to clean, well, anything really. ...
- 43.5k
11
votes
Does the fruit label get put on a bad spot, or does the bad spot develop as a result of the label?
I've often wondered the same thing. Here's a video of stickers being applied to fruit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62nJzuKjUBc
Since it's done mechanically, there's no way to intentionally cover ...
- 211
11
votes
Are there tables of wastage rates for different fruit and veg?
Wastage rates for industrially-processed food are unlikely to be the same as for a home cook.
For example different methods of removing stones from stone fruit, cores from apples, etc. will be used ...
- 43.7k
10
votes
Accepted
What are berry grains?
The term rouhe in Finnish means "something coarsely ground" [1], [2]. (Google translates it as "groats", but that's a bit too simple.)
Double-checking with the English, German and Italian version of ...
- 58.5k
10
votes
What is the point of washing produce in cold water?
It's worth noting that from a food safety perspective, washing is not about eliminating all harmful bacteria and viruses, but reducing their amount to the extent possible (in addition to removal of ...
- 213
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