Spoon Rests! What A Totally Superflous Kitchen Item!

[icyfroth]

I often see them in the op shops and think pffft, what a useless item. As if you couldn't use a saucer or whatever you have at hand while you're cooking. Making bolognese tonight I just rested the spoon on the side of the can.

[mtnlane]

The Irish might disagree with you about that 

[j*oono]

Rice is even grown in the Ganges. My goodness, the grooblies that are inhabiting there are horrendous.

Icy, sometimes I do prefer a good spud.  With a litte bit of butter and light sour cream.  I usually rest my spoon on the side of my plate in that situation.

[mtnlane]

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@j*oono wrote:

Rice is even grown in the Ganges. My goodness, the grooblies that are inhabiting there are horrendous.

Icy, sometimes I do prefer a good spud.  With a litte bit of butter and light sour cream.  I usually rest my spoon on the side of my plate in that situation.

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Particularly around the ghats j*oono  

Rice could call for a chop-stick rest instead of a spoon rest in some quarters 

[amber-eyed-girl]

"BUT to wash rice, place in a chinois under running cold water. rest the point in the drain hole so that the offrun water can escape easily and the water level doesn't rise in the sink immersing the rice into dirty water. Mix it around too as the water runs through, but don't scrape into the very point of the strainer. At first the water will be milky/cloudy, but eventually it will run clear, then scoop out all but the bottom bit at the point of the cone (you will see that this little bit of rice will be a different colour to the rest as all the imopurities etc have gone to the bottom and those that couldn't escape, will be caught there."

crikey, I would never, ever, not ever be resting anything I use to prepare food in the drain hole of the kitchen sink. Ever.

think about what goes down that.

hold your chinois, strainers, colanders, etc. well out of contact with the sink.

[j*oono]

Absolutely Amber.  No wonder some people get groobies or grooblies in their rice when they rest it in the drain hole over their sink.  I would never do that with any food I had to prepare.  Imagine that?

[sineaterdoodah]

fashionable? trendy? not here. every home ec. class and culinary school in america  teaches their students to add a small amount of oil and salt to pasta water,if using dried pasta. it has nothing to do with fashion,or trends,it's a basic rule of cooking.

students are also taught to wash rice,poultry, fruits and veggies before prepping or serving,not only by schools,but also because it's part of the health code laws,so ANYONE who works in food service learns that. you can't get a food handler's card without taking the classes. without that card,you don't work in food service legally,period.

we are also trained to wash ALL cans before opening,to avoid contamination. soda cans MUST be washed before installation in machines. if you get reported for dirty cans,you pay a giant fine,a second infraction gets your machines shut down for 30 days and a bigger fine,a third gets your machines shut down ,a gigantic fine,and suspension of your vendor's license. 

same for alcohol in cans at bars or restaurants,they MUST be washed before they ever go in your cooler.

as for the chinois being set in the drain hole, if those aren't scoured and bleached at least twice a day in your country,something is SERIOUSLY wrong there!!  

 i follow the same rules cooking at home that i follow at work. safety first!

[amber-eyed-girl]

Precisely.

Your chinois is resting either against the residue of poultry bacteria, for example, or bleach.

Neither of which, I would serve to myself, or to my guests.

Rest it in a stand, or hold it clear.

Chinois sets include the stand, to keep it clear and hold it steady.

[amber-eyed-girl]

So to get back on topic, a spoon rest might be superfluous, but a chinois should be purchased with the stand.

[*crikey*mate*]

ROFL

in the meantime, have you seen the bottom of a chinois?

there are no holes - it is straight metal - like a little tiny cup at the bottom

no contact with anything below it

hence why you never scrape into the point of the chinois for anything that has collected there..

The stand is a housewives invention for people who can't hold the thing up whilst working.

a bit like a rolled cloth under a mixing bowl to hold it still while you whisk.

Use stands for things like when you are making herb oils where you don't want to agitate and bruise the herb and thus discolour the oil, but don't want to stand there for 12 hours as the oil seeps through into the bowl. (For oils, you use a thing like a coffee filter to line the chinois, so the oil doesn't just go through immediately.

I make an eschallott oil. If I agitate it in any way through production, it goes kind of a cloudy green, but leave it to strain untouched, and the resultant oil is a clear dark vibrant green - almost flourescent!

it is one thing having equipment, but you also need to know HOW to use it and WHEN to use it.

and laughing at the pestle in that pic - hahahahaha talk about superflous equipment - that is truly designed for the housewife cook in the home kitchen who buys every gadget available in the hopes that it makes them a better cook.

You're not grinding the food LOL - or mashing it or pulveriszing it - you're straining it!

a chinois is a conical strainer! Not a food processor!

Save your money, or leave the pestle where it is supposed to ne and use a ladel FGS

hahahaha

I soooo love all the useless gadgets they make and sell to the housewife contingent, who buy it all up thinking it will make them better cooks.

[lloydslights]

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@am*3 wrote:

Isn't rice a bit of a non-event?  No real food value, in my opinion.  It's mostly water isn't it?

If it was mostly water, a bowl of rice being the only food some people in poor countries have to eat in a day, wouldn't fill them up?

"As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in Asia.

...rice is the most important grain with regard to human nutrition and caloric intake, providing more than one fifth of the calories consumed worldwide by humans.

Rice is vital for the nutrition of much of the population in Asia, as well as in Latin America and the Caribbean and in Africa; it is central to the food security of over half the world population."

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Perhaps I was wrong in saying it was mostly water.  

However, one can't live on a bowl of rice a day for an extended period.  Other sources of nutrition have to be added to the diet to survive and to allay disease and body malfunction. And even more nutrition is needed, to be able to physically work .  (Source: an ex Japanese POW)

People in that situation don't worry about spoon rests.

DEB