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[Bauglir]

The biggest problem with nitrite is the formation of nitrosamines, which aren't an issue in vegetables because of the low protein and usual lack of charring.

[scrdest]

The biggest problem with nitrite is the formation of nitrosamines, which aren't an issue in vegetables because of the low protein and usual lack of charring.

You must be eating your vegetables wrong.

[Bauglir]

Correction: As much of an issue. I suppose vegetables with meat or eggs, though. I dunno about that.

[penguinofhonor]

I'm just fucking everything up recently.

A couple days ago I tried to cook some mustard greens in my crock pot. My dad makes some great greens whenever I'm home, and it really doesn't seem that hard. I threw in some bits of chopped onion (red and yellow), garlic, curry powder, and other spices along with a little bit of water to cook in.

After I let it stew for four hours or so, I got a spicy, nasty mess. I really didn't think this would be so hard.

Also I tried to make some quinoa pudding last night (like rice pudding but with quinoa instead). I started by heating the milk on the stovetop and woops, it separates and the cream curdles or whatever in the heat. I hope that problem can be easily solved by using homogenized milk.

[majikero]

Deep frying potatoes helps them not turn into mush. I'm frying potatoes every time from now on.

[Bauglir]

I admit I don't know how your dad does it, but 4 hours is a hell of a lot of time for leafy greens. I cook mustard greens for about 5 minutes when I make them, for reference, and they get pretty well done, although that's going to be on higher heat than you get for boiling. Quick references suggest that you might cook them for upward of 30 minutes.

[Caz]

I admit I don't know how your dad does it, but 4 hours is a hell of a lot of time for leafy greens. I cook mustard greens for about 5 minutes when I make them, for reference, and they get pretty well done, although that's going to be on higher heat than you get for boiling. Quick references suggest that you might cook them for upward of 30 minutes.

^ this.

[penguinofhonor]

30 minutes in a crock pot? I swear my dad just told me he left them on all day.

[GiglameshDespair]

Cheap oven chips? Never again. The bastards are either raw or burnt... in the same batch.

[wierd]

Mmmm... Acrylamide. Mmmm..

(Heating starchy or sugary foods above 120c results in the formation of acrylamide in the food at levels hundreds of times higher than the safe environmental dosage.)

[Korbac]

Cheap oven chips? Never again. The bastards are either raw or burnt... in the same batch.

This is a genuine problem.

[wierd]

What you need is pressure.

You can increase cooking time safely, (without burning) by increasing the pressure. This is the same reason why you cant cook a stew on top of a mountain without a pressure cooker.  Deep frying increases the pressure slightly, because the water vapor has to displace the weight of the oil above it in order to become vapor. This allows the chip's temperature to exceed 100c.

You cant get that in an oven unless you increase the pressure.

[scrdest]

Thing is, these carcinogens don't increase the odds of cancer all that much.

Massive percentage increases of tiny amounts produces...

Tiny amounts.

'Course, if you're eating carcinogens, smoking, getting X-rays every few weeks and so on, you're gonna have your odds increased to actually appreciable levels.

There's even more to it than that. Your cells aren't defenseless, there is a number of different mechanisms for fixing the DNA damage, and it would be strange if there wasn't - your DNA is being attacked by mutagens pretty much all the time, probably most commonly by light (or more accurately UV radiation). In small amounts, you can handle carcinogens pretty well.

The thing is, if your organism would fix 999 out of 1000 mutations back to the original state with no errors, if you splash it with 1000 there still be one mutation missed. Which most of the time is not that big an issue, most of the time, but it adds over time, and you can be unlucky and get the defenses damaged, increasing the likelihood of damage later on.

On top of that, add the fact that while DNA is pretty stable thanks to those, other components are far less so. RNA does not have any error-checking enzymes, nor does mitochondrial DNA, and thus your defense erodes with age, so amounts you could shrug off at the age of 18 might cause mutations at 80.

[GiglameshDespair]

Luckily, I'm closer to 18 than 80, so i'll probably be safe for now.

Next time i'll buy a bag of the more expensive kind. Not all that much more and much nicer. Seem to cook better as well.

[Sappho]

I have finally tried out quinoa. It's not cheap, but some friends keep praising it, so I finally gave in.

It's awesome. I made a bowl of it for breakfast and it's fantastic all on its own. No extra flavorings, ingredients, or cooking required.

I had leftovers from the bowl I made for lunch today, so I threw it in the fridge. Now I'm eating a nice fresh garden salad (romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrot, and red onion with olive oil and balsamic vinegar) and just dumped the remainder on top. Conclusion: it's awesome with salad, too!

Looking forward to making more varieties. I'm already running out, so I'll have to stop at the market and get more tomorrow.

Any suggestions for how to use it?