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Real Simple is my wife’s second-favorite magazine. Each month she makes me a little smarter. This month, her passing of wisdom coincided with my blogging time. So let me channel her, and share some knowledge about the kitchen.
• “Did you know we should only be cooking with cold water?”
Hot water, you see, can leach lead out of pipes. Especially in older houses. Fusing pipes with lead was only made illegal in 1991. I have a sense my wife had an ulterior motive in telling me this. Our cold water faucet is leaking, and my solution had been to shut it off and exclusively use the hot. Anyone know a good plumber in North Jersey?
• “Hey, we can use the wooden cutting board for meat.”
I’ve always thought the grooves would get all meaty and gross and possibly toxic. But according to Real Simple, as long as I clean it with soap and really hot water, we’ll live to tell about it.
• “Let’s throw out all those plastic Chinese food containers.”
On occasion, I will transport leftovers using plastic containers we acquired through the purchase of Chinese food. At work, I will heat said leftovers in said containers. This is not a great idea. Certain additives used to make plastic more flexible can dissolve in food. Unless the plastic is FDA-labeled “microwave safe,” heat your food in other vessels.
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Re not to drink hot water:
There are some otehr reasons…
1. If you ever drain any water from the spigot on your hot water tank, you’ll see there accumulates in there a LOT of crud and mineral deposits. It probably won’t make you sick, but it is a bit nasty.
2. This one is a bit more serious… There are some micro-organisms that can happily hang out in the not-quite-hot-enough water of hot water tanks. This can be minimized somewhat by running the temperature up, but the risk of someone (especially little kids and older folks) getting seriously scalded (or worse) goes WAY up at temperatures over 120F, the setting typically recommended. Industry experts and safety ‘experts’ weigh these things, and the burn risk is a lot higher than the critter risk. Thus, it’s best to only use cold water for drinking & cooking.
posted by Jim on 3-26-2007 at 2:14 pm
Jason – if you find a good plumer in North Jersey (Denville) let ME know!
;)
posted by Jane on 3-26-2007 at 2:46 pm
Sure, wash your wooden cutting board in hot water to kill the gunkies, but then the lead’ll kill you.
posted by Dave on 3-26-2007 at 3:04 pm
I suggest checking with Snopes.com about the plastic. There have been all kinds of rumors about reheating in plastic containers.
posted by Barbara on 3-26-2007 at 10:08 pm
You’re also not supposed to refill and freeze water bottles. I think it breaks down the plastic or something.
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 3-27-2007 at 12:38 pm