The Alchemy of Cooking, Or Why to Wear Mitts
My grandma once told me that a woman must definitely be best in two places: the kitchen and the bedroom.
Leaving aside the implications the latter may suggest, (though I promise, I will write about that too in one of my next articles) I have to admit, the alchemy of cooking has always fascinated me.
The first human to drop a a piece of raw flesh into the life preserving but also death bringing fire, probably only felt the capital importance of his discovery while sensing that his /her mouth began to water from the delicious smells the meat gave.
Yamm, I'm hungry already.
The other memorable discovery that first cook probably made, very likely right after the previously described one, is that a) the food is only good if it stays in the fire exactly the right amount: taking it out too early leaves it half roasted (in case you don't like it bloody), let it burn for too long, and you'll have nothing to savor.
After this comes point b) where they realized that taking the food out of the fire isn't such a trifle as they have imagined it, and the ancient element of fire which for good reason was worshiped as god in some cultures - well, doesn't give his presents without any sacrifice from our part.
Since then a lot of trees have grown, left saplings and ended up in a campfire, grown again, left saplings and got deforested, and the sacrifices the God of Fire asks from us for our daily ham and eggs or chocolate chip cookies have been reduced to accidental gas explosions due to clumsily installed stoves and half-burned crust of apple pies left in the oven for too long.
But for handling the food and its container there are flame guard oven mitts, which prevent you from touching the hot dish with your own skin.
Designed to offer your hand dexterity you need while grabbing a saucepan or a roasting tin, you can easily rely on your capacity to hold things, even heavy ones, with maximum safety.
When you improvise two kitchen cloths into an oven mitt, you can almost be sure that something's gonna go wrong with them: they'll be too short to get from one handle to the other, too thin to keep the heath off until you move your pans around, too difficult to hold and too forecasting that you're gonna drop the whole boiling thing in your lap before it reaches destination.
The flame guard oven mitt is produced of a special fabric to make sure none of these happens, and you enjoy your roast dinner as much as the neolithic men without all the trouble the God of Hunting and of Fire can cause you.
Leaving aside the implications the latter may suggest, (though I promise, I will write about that too in one of my next articles) I have to admit, the alchemy of cooking has always fascinated me.
The first human to drop a a piece of raw flesh into the life preserving but also death bringing fire, probably only felt the capital importance of his discovery while sensing that his /her mouth began to water from the delicious smells the meat gave.
Yamm, I'm hungry already.
The other memorable discovery that first cook probably made, very likely right after the previously described one, is that a) the food is only good if it stays in the fire exactly the right amount: taking it out too early leaves it half roasted (in case you don't like it bloody), let it burn for too long, and you'll have nothing to savor.
After this comes point b) where they realized that taking the food out of the fire isn't such a trifle as they have imagined it, and the ancient element of fire which for good reason was worshiped as god in some cultures - well, doesn't give his presents without any sacrifice from our part.
Since then a lot of trees have grown, left saplings and ended up in a campfire, grown again, left saplings and got deforested, and the sacrifices the God of Fire asks from us for our daily ham and eggs or chocolate chip cookies have been reduced to accidental gas explosions due to clumsily installed stoves and half-burned crust of apple pies left in the oven for too long.
But for handling the food and its container there are flame guard oven mitts, which prevent you from touching the hot dish with your own skin.
Designed to offer your hand dexterity you need while grabbing a saucepan or a roasting tin, you can easily rely on your capacity to hold things, even heavy ones, with maximum safety.
When you improvise two kitchen cloths into an oven mitt, you can almost be sure that something's gonna go wrong with them: they'll be too short to get from one handle to the other, too thin to keep the heath off until you move your pans around, too difficult to hold and too forecasting that you're gonna drop the whole boiling thing in your lap before it reaches destination.
The flame guard oven mitt is produced of a special fabric to make sure none of these happens, and you enjoy your roast dinner as much as the neolithic men without all the trouble the God of Hunting and of Fire can cause you.