[at-l] Cooling in Plastic

[lwbooher@halifax.com (Leslie Booher)]

Some people say not to refill 20 oz. soda bottles with water because the
chlorine in the water leaches something out of the plastic.  I do it,
because I haven't heard anything to the contrary except by word of mouth.
anklebear

----- Original Message -----
From: David <dfaddleton@mindspring.com>
To: Jan Leitschuh <janl2@mindspring.com>; Ron Winchester
<winchester@unnet.com>; AT-List <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2002 10:06 AM
Subject: Re: [at-l] Cooling in Plastic


>   from http://www.newhaven.edu/pressreleases/patrick.html a nice
> introductory article
>
>  The Plastic Fantastic
> from the Hartford Courant, Flavor Section
> 28 June 2001
>
>
> BY BILL DALEY /COURANT STAFF WRITER PHOTO BY MARK MIRKO/ THE HARTFORD
> COURANT
>
> Kitchen confessions are big right now, but here's one professional cooking
> secret you'll likely never read in some chef 's hammy tell-all: plastic
> wrap. Yes, the very same stuff holding a moldy tomato half and the last
few
> slices of provolone cheese in your fridge has quietly become the wonder
film
> of the toque set.
>
> Chefs pound it, poach it, portion it and even hold their pants up with it.
> "If you forget your belt, a length of plastic wrap can be made into a rope
> and tied off A la Elly May Clampett," advises Tad Graham-Handley of the
> Connecticut Culinary Institute.
> While the use of plastic wrap in home kitchens has become a focus of
> controversy -particularly in connection with microwave oven use - plastic
> wrap is so ubiquitous in the professional kitchen that the garde manger
> class at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America has been
irreverently
> referred to as "The Plastic Wrap Class" by some students. Plastic wrap has
> replaced the parchment paper, cheesecloth and natural casings
traditionally
> used in restaurant kitchens to fashion sausages, dumplings, and Cooking
with
> plastic wrap has even gotten the nod from Thomas Keller, whose French
> Laundry Restaurant in California's Napa Valley is among the country's
> hottest.
>
> "A simple idea cooking in plastic wrap - can lead the imagination to
endless
> variations," Keller announced in the first of what has become an ongoing
> series of cooking lessons published in the Los Angeles Times.
>
> Yet cooking with plastic, as the chef admits, is a method used "not nearly
> enough at home."
>
> Certainly attendees at cooking demonstrations sponsored by the University
of
> New Haven's Institute of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts have been audibly
> surprised when Patrick Boisjot, the institute's director, wraps a bunch of
> herbs in plastic and plunks it into a stock pot.
>
> "The notion is plastic will melt, and it doesn't make sense to actually
cook
> with it," Boisjot says. "If you put plastic wrap in the microwave, you
> should have no hesitation about putting it in simmering liquid."
>
> Boisjot first saw plastic wrap used to form and poach a fish sausage in a
> restaurant kitchen in Lyon, France.
>
> "I was skeptical. I thought it would melt or basically not work, but it is
> very efficient," he recalls. "We would let it cool down and place it in
the
> refrigerator. The plastic wrap would shrink and, the sausage would almost
be
> vacuumpacked. We would slice the sausage through the wrap."
>
> Boisjot says he uses 10 times more plastic wrap than aluminum foil. He
> rattles off a number of uses: sausagemaking; preventing films from forming
> on sauces; pounding veal slices for scaloppine and salmon for gravlax;
> poaching cuts of meat, poultry or fish rolled into attractive cylinders.
>
> "On the whole, I've never found it to fail," adds Boisjot. "It's a way to
> hold food, to keep the moisture inside, or to shape food, either raw or
> cooked."
>
> Plastic wrap can't withstand open flame, hot oil or, some say, the high
> temperatures of conventional ovens.
>
> "Plastic wrap in oil shrinks down and shrivels like a chicken skin,"
Boisjot
> says. Yet he notes some daredevil chefs will use plastic wrap when searing
> tuna, using it like a collar or piece of string to hold the fish pieces
> together while cooking.
>
> You might want to think twice, however, before trying this or some other
> chef's tricks at home.
>
> "I have seen chefs on TV using plastic wrap in ways we wouldn't recommend
to
> consumers," says Chuck Hanson, a spokesman for Reynolds Wrap.
>
> The company frowns on using plastic wrap for poaching, steaming, or other
> uses for which the product has not been specifically designed, he says.
>
> Kerry Clair, a spokeswoman for S.J. Johnson & Son, says the company's
Saran
> Wrap is recommended for reheating foods in microwaves.
>
> "We don't encourage long-term cooking," she says. "It's not an intended
use
> for the product, and there could be migration at high temperatures."
>
> "Migration" is where the controversy lies.
>
> While chefs in professional kitchens have been cooking with plastic wrap
for
> years with little notice, the home kitchen has witnessed a battle among
> health advocates, the plastics industry and the government over using
> plastic wrap in food preparation.
>
> At issue: Whether certain types of "plasticizers" used to help some wrap
> brands "cling" better to containers are harmful to humans if they
"migrate"
> from the plastic film to the food during cooking.
>
> Plasticizers are found in wraps made of polyvinylidene chloride or
polyvinyl
> chloride (PVC), according to "The New Food Lover's Companion." Other wraps
> are made with polyethylene, whose components are not absorbed by foods to
> any degree, the book says.
>
> The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't differentiate on its
food-safety
> web page, where it advises consumers to keep plastic wrap at least
one-inch
> away from food while microwaving. It's a recommendation found on some
> cartons of plastic wrap sold in the supermarket.
>
> There's not a word, though, a-bout using plastic wrap in conventional
> cooking as restaurants do.
>
> Richard Moore, a chef-instructor at the Center for Culinary Arts in
> Crornwell, is aware of the debate over microwaving plastic but says no
> warning has been given to the restaurant industry.
>
> "Usually the FDA is pretty good in warning us about products that are
> hazardous to use. Plastic wrap has never been mentioned," he says, adding
> that if there was a problem the "safety watchdogs would be all over us."
>
> Officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency that
> regulates the use of plastics in the food industry, say they have no hard
> information on the safety of dishes cooked with plastic wrap in
restaurants.
> That research would have to come from the companies that make the
products,
> they say.
>
> "I wouldn't recommend it," says one FDA official, who asked not to be
> identified. "You might as well eat the plastic."
>
> If you do "eat" some plastic, either dining out or at home, just how
harmful
> is it?
>
> Clair Hicks, a professor of food science at the University of Kentucky,
says
> experts believe some plasticizers used in plastic wrap are bad for you.
But
> the question may not be fully answered for 10 years, he adds.
>
> "The formulas for wrap material are FDA-approved," Hicks says. "To my way
of
> thinking, they're saying it is not deleterious to health."
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jan Leitschuh" <janl2@mindspring.com>
> To: "Ron Winchester" <winchester@unnet.com>; "AT-List"
> <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2002 9:43 AM
> Subject: [at-l] Cooling in Plastic
>
>
> >
> > Here's a question for you folks cooking in plastic bags. Searching for
> some
> > conclusive info too.
> >
> >  Do you worry about the heat releasing bad stuff from the plastics?
> >
> > I know there have been reports on this, but of course, I am shooting
from
> > the hip here and don't have the data handy.
> >
> > Xenoestogens are one by-product that tickles the memory, along with a
> report
> > of Florida alligators with shrunken testicles and lowered repro rates.
> > Another was some kind of -styrene. Naturally, I can't remember where I
saw
> > this. I know other substances have been spoken of.
> >
> > Anyone know what info I'm reaching for? I would like to know more.
Cooking
> > in plastic seems convenient, but not at the possible cost to long-term
> > health.
> >
> > Ron Winchester wrote:
> > >
> > > > Some of them cook in 8-10 and some need 15-17.  If fuel use
> > > > is an issue, avoid the bowties and go with the quicker cooking pasta
> varieties
> > >
> > > The 8-10'ers can actually be cooked right in the pouch they come in,
> eliminating
> > > messy pots.  Just shake the bag before opening, pour in enough boiling
> water to
> > > cover the noodles, stir, fold over the top, lay it upright(I set it
> inside my
> > > cookpot),cover with a t-shirt or packtowel or something to insulate
the
> top, leave
> > > it as long as you can(about 20 minutes), and joila!
> > > A bag of nasty, tasteless, calorie and carbo enriched Liptons --
> mmm-mmm, good.
> > >
> > > Ron
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
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> >
> > --
> > ========================================
> >     Jan Leitschuh Sporthorses Ltd.
> >
> > Website:  http://www.mindspring.com/~janl2/index.html
> >
> > E-mail: janl2@mindspring.com
> >
> > ========================================
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