True or false? Food myths busted .

The following is an article from 'Stuff'.
How many did you know & can you add to the list!

True or false! Bad eggs float. Coffee is best stored in the freezer. Steaks should only be flipped once.

Kitchen lore, tips and tricks are passed from generation to generation and often accepted without question.

Advances in technology, food research and knowledge have exposed some long-held beliefs as myths, while others still ring true. We asked chefs, scientists and industry experts to sort fact from fiction.

'Bad eggs will float in cold water; fresh eggs will sink'

TRUE: The sink-or-float test sounds too simple to be true but it works, according to Tim Elwin of boutique grocery store Urban Food Market. ''There's a membrane between the egg white and the shell and as the egg gets older, the membrane pulls away from the shell, creating an air pocket,'' he says. ''As the air pocket expands, the egg will rise in water and eventually float.'' Another quick test for freshness is to look at the expiry date. ''An egg has an approximate six-week shelf life and is at its optimum in the first one-to-two weeks,'' Elwin says. ''So if you see a use-by date that's five weeks away, you know they're pretty damn fresh.''

'Food cooks faster in salted boiling water'

TRUE: ''Adding salt to water raises its boiling point and so speeds cooking,'' says Harold McGee in On Food & Cooking. ''When salt, sugar or any other water-soluble substance is added to pure water, the boiling point of the resulting solution becomes higher,'' he says. However, it takes about 30 grams of salt in a litre of water - the salinity of the ocean - to raise the boiling point by less than one degree Celsius. Rather, salt helps improve flavour. Pasta cooked in unsalted water tastes bland, McGee says, and cooking green vegetables in salted water reduces flavour loss.

'Storing coffee in the freezer helps it stay fresh longer'

FALSE: The chief executive of Vittoria Coffee, Les Schirato, says while it's true coffee goes stale quickly, freezing it affects the viscocity of essential oils in the beans. ''When you make coffee, you are trying to extract all the essential oils,'' he says. If the coffee has been frozen ''you're not getting all the benefits of the crema''. Paul Geshos of Mecca Espresso agrees. ''I would never freeze beans,'' he says. ''In my opinion, it defeats the purpose of buying fresh coffee.'' It's best to buy small amounts at a time and store in a vacuum package or airtight container in a cool, dark place.

'Placing a spoon in the neck of an open champagne bottle helps the wine stay bubbly'

FALSE: French folk wisdom prescribes if you hang a silver spoon (handle down) in the neck of a champagne bottle, the contents will still be bubbly the following day. Sommelier Thomas Hogan disagrees. ''In an unopened bottle of champagne, the carbon dioxide which gives rise to the bubbles remains dissolved under pressure. The moment you open the bottle, the pressure and the carbon dioxide begin to dissipate. A professional champagne stopper slows the rate of pressure dissipation by recreating a seal, albeit imperfectly. A spoon can't possibly do the same job,'' he says. Hogan isn't alone - numerous studies including one by the French industry body for champagne have concluded the spoon's influence seems to be non-existent.

'Mushrooms continue to grow after they're picked'

TRUE: Microbiologist Dr Noel Arrold says compared to most produce, mushrooms remain active after they are picked and can continue to grow for up to four days. Arrold says common varieties such as button and field mushrooms are best stored in paper bags to avoid condensation and spoilage. However exotic mushrooms such as shiitake, enoki, and oyster are best stored in plastic covered pre-packs, ''because if you put them into paper bags they will desiccate''.

Continued below .

'All alcohol burns off when you cook with wine or spirits'

FALSE: Coq au vin, beef bourguignon, flambes and Christmas puddings are classic dishes with alcohol as a central ingredient. But does the alcohol burn off completely when used in recipes like these! The answer is no, according to chef Ryan Flaherty. ''Alcohol burns off on a scale of time versus temperature, but some alcohol always remains, regardless of the cooking technique,'' Flaherty says. Food author Harold McGee's guide to cooking with alcohol: long-simmered stews retain about 5 per cent of the alcohol added; briefly cooked dishes, from 10 per cent to 50 per cent; and flambes can retain as much as 75 per cent.

'If a mussel doesn't open during cooking, it should be thrown out'

FALSE: Mussels that don't open during cooking can still be edible and it's easy to check, says Roberta Muir, the manager of the Sydney Seafood School. ''Pry them open with a blunt knife, like a butter knife, over the sink,'' she says. ''If they smell and look good, they're fine to eat. If they're bad, they'll have a distinctly 'off' aroma. This applies to all bivalves such as mussels, pipis, vongole and surf clams.'' Unlike most seafood, bivalves should be bought when still alive. Before cooking, it's important to check all the shells are closed - a live bivalve will close with a gentle tap on the shell. ''If the shells don't close they're not alive, so discard them,'' Muir says.

'Store a ripe banana with other fruit to help it ripen faster'

TRUE: This is due to the ethylene gas emitted by the banana as it ripens, says produce buyer Carlo Ceravolo. ''If you're trying to ripen [other] things, put them in there together,'' he says. ''If you don't want to, keep them out of the fruit bowl and on the kitchen bench.'' Avocado is another fruit that releases a high amount of ethylene gas. Ceravolo says a ripe banana can be situated next to a hard avocado to encourage it to ripen. This also works in reverse. ''That ripe banana will speed up the ripening process of the avocado and vice versa,'' he says. Some other fruits for which this applies are tomatoes, mangoes and papayas.

'When cooking pasta, drizzle olive oil in the water to stop the pasta from sticking'

FALSE: Never put oil in the water, only salt, is the advice of chef Alessandro Pavoni. The trick to stopping those strands of pasta from sticking together is to get the water to a vigorous boil. ''A lot of people think pasta has to simmer, it has to boil hard when you cook it. The boiling of the water keeps the pasta moving so it doesn't stick.'' Moving the pasta around in the pot while it is cooking is his other suggestion. ''You also needs heaps of water,'' he says.

What about when the pasta is strained, should olive oil be drizzled on then! No - this could make the pasta slippery and prevent the sauce from sticking, he says. Instead, drain the pasta and keep some of the cooking liquid aside. ''So you want to drain the pasta, two to three minutes before it is cooked and then you want to finish the pasta cooking in the sauce. The pasta will release the starch and this will make the sauce stick together with the pasta. That's the secret.'' Add some of the pasta water to the pot if needed while the cooking process finishes.

'Cooking octopus with a wine cork helps tenderise the tentacles'

ON THE FENCE: ''Nobody knows if this really works because nobody dares to cook without it,'' says restaurant owner Lucio Galletto when quizzed on the Italian tradition of cooking octopus with a wine cork. Common in kitchens across Italy, particularly in Liguria, it is claimed that an enzyme in the cork causes a chemical reaction that softens the fibres. A partner in New York's sprawling Italian marketplace Eataly, Mario Batali, also swears by the trick. But American food author Harold McGee says ''forget the wine cork'' and instead recommends brining or simmering as the best way to tenderise octopus.

'Searing a piece of meat seals in the juices'

FALSE: This is one of the more widespread misconceptions in the kitchen. While the idea has been disproved by scientists, it still lives on, even among professional chefs. American author and chemist, Harold McGee writes: ''The crust that forms around the surface of the meat is not waterproof, as any cook has experienced. The continuing sizzle of meat in the pan or grill is the sound of moisture continually escaping and vaporising.'' Instead, when meat is seared, the surface browns (the Maillard reaction) producing new, intense flavours.

There are some doozies here on the snopes website :)

http://www.snopes.com/food/food.asp

Thanks for the link Ellie . I just lost around 1/2 an hour there browsing :)

There was some debate not so long ago on here about unopened mussels being bad! Glad to see vindication here :)

Posts like these make my skin crawl.
There would of been no way I would have served any seafood that the shell needed to be prised open. It would of cost me our business, if anyone got sick. There was a case in Rotorua, one person died another was a vegetable until the day she died. Mussels were the cause.
I am one who feels if someone got sick after taking advice offered on here, the poster of that advice, should be held responsible.

Wow you do feel strongly about it, even though you are wrong!

But in this case, the poster has clearly stated it is not her personal information, but rather information she/he read in an article

Thanks for posting this.
When I was young (am 44) you were not supposed to reheat cooked spinach or mushrooms. Also my mother told me that you had to peel cucumbers from the flower to the stem, otherwise they got bitter.

I was told as a child that you must not eat pears and tomatoes together.not sure why you'd particularly choose to, but you certainly won't be poisoned ;)

I hate to admit it, but my father insisted that menstruating women would spoil food when mixing ingredinets without wearing gloves.actually even with gloves on.

I remember as a teenager going to take communion in an Orthodox church to appease my grandmother and I wasn't allowed to if I was menstruating because I was 'unclean'. How sexist! anyways it was a good way to get out of all that religious organised controlling brainwashing that nobody every questioned!Still makes me cross when I think about it.

Oh well people used to believe the world was flat too!

You mean it isn't!

I was living in Rotorua - my hometown- at the time and if memory serves me correctly the mussels had been gathered from Maketu and bottled thus the questions must be asked as to whether or not it was the mussels.the bottling process or some other factor! I have always prised open any stubborn mussels and eaten them as they are a favourite food of mine and even continued to do this when living in Britain and Belgium. I do however acknowledge that this practise is by personal choice. I do wonder how often I have eaten 'prised' mussels when eating out and I have eaten them in many countries during my travels.

So what about those of us that love mussels so much we don't actually steam them open, we prise them open from freshbecause they taste so much better.

According to the myth-buster above you're all good dezzie . "Mussels that don't open during cooking can still be edible and it's easy to check, says Roberta Muir, the manager of the Sydney Seafood School. ''Pry them open with a blunt knife, like a butter knife, over the sink,'' she says. ''If they smell and look good, they're fine to eat. If they're bad, they'll have a distinctly 'off' aroma. This applies to all bivalves such as mussels, pipis, vongole and surf clams.'' Unlike most seafood, bivalves should be bought when still alive. Before cooking, it's important to check all the shells are closed - a live bivalve will close with a gentle tap on the shell. ''If the shells don't close they're not alive, so discard them,'' Muir says."

I was told this by my exMIL who is German.
It's definitely a myth. Re-heating spinach is perfectly safe. Here's a link if anyone wants to read about it .
http://www.wolfstad.com/2009/05/reheating-spinach-dangerous-in-holland-fine-in-rest-of-world/