Tag Archives: Cooking

Evan finds Nestle refrigerated cookie dough; Doug cooks it (sorta)

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During the evening of Thursday, June 18, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment urged Coloradans not to eat raw Nestle Toll House cookie dough because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7.

The next morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7. At the same time, Nestlé announced a voluntary recall of all Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products, “out of an abundance of caution.”

About 4:30 p.m. central time on Friday, June 19, 2009 (happy birthday, daughter Jaucelynn, avoid the raw cookie dough) colleague Evan reported that he had successfully obtained a package of Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough (above, right, exactly as shown). I say obtained because he didn’t have to pay for it. Evan went to a local supermarket, and saw, “a young kid, armed with a box cutter, standing beside a cart full of Nestle Toll House products.

“I asked if I could have one of them, to which he replied, ‘you’re not going to get a refund for it are you?’ I told him no, but he said he had to cut open the package so I couldn’t return it. The kid wasn’t wearing any gloves and was sweating, so I’m guessing he was out there for a while handling a potentially contaminated product.”

And he gave Evan the raw cookie dough, which Evan triple-bagged and refrigerated until Saturday.

Amy and Sorenne and I went grocery shopping this morning, and observed that the Nestle refrigerated products had been dutifully cleared out (left, exactly as shown). We did, however, buy a couple of other raw cookie dough products. I never eat the stuff, but understand that many are quite passionate about their raw cookie dough.

There are at least two potential problems with raw cookie dough: eating it, and cross-contamination. Evan and I videotaped a cooking experiment and the cookies get plenty hot to kill off potential pathogens (we’ll post that later).

Bill Marler has written about the uh, inadequacies of the labels on Nestle raw cookie dough. Not that anyone reads labels, or that everyone speaks English, but maybe there shoud be more of a declaration of potential risk.

And bigger type: not to sound like ole-man-grouchy-Powell, but even with my reading glasses I could barely read a damn thing on the label. The Kroger private selection brand says,

Keep refrigerated
Use before date on package
Do not eat unbaked cookie dough.

The Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough says,

Do not microwave unbaked Poppin Fresh dough
Bake before enjoying
Do not use if unsealed.

It would seems with at least 66 people sick with a serious illness – E. coli O157:H7 – of which 25 had to be hospitalized and seven will suffer long-term kidney damage, these labels sorta suck.

Oh, and according to a story carried by Bloomberg,

“The Toll House cookie brand is named for the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, whose owner, Ruth Wakefield, is credited with inventing the chocolate chip cookie in the 1930s."
 

Man dialed 911 when lemonade ran out

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Have Americans become so self-absorbed they have to call 911 when food is not to their liking?

First it was a dude in Jacksonville, FL, who called 911 because he didn’t like the way his Subway sandwich was prepared. He could have just called Jared.

Last year, someone called 911 because she couldn’t get a cheeseburger.

On Friday, a man in Boynton Beach, FL, was arrested and charged with abuse of 911 communication after calling to complain that a local Burger King in did not have any lemonade.

If I was going to call 911 on Burger King it’d be related to that mascot that looks like a creepy Thunderbirds-clone
 

How to control squirrels in the UK? Eat ’em.

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I’m always open to trying new foods, but I don’t know if I’m all that interested in eating squirrel.  Sure they’re terribly cute with their little hands and bright eyes, but I can’t help but wonder what kinds of diseases they carry.  In terms of food I’ve always thought squirrel was more of a roadkill dish.

The Brtis sure don’t agree with my opinion of the squirrel.  There is a booming industry for squirrel meat in the UK, and the public cannot get enough of it.  In farmers’ markets, butcher shops, village pubs and elegant restaurants, squirrel is selling as fast as gamekeepers and hunters can bring it in.  It’s not just a matter of eating something trendy, culling squirrels has become a necessity with the red squirrel population being pushed out by the gray squirrels.

“The situation is more than simply a matter of having too many squirrels. In fact, there is a war raging in Squirreltown: invading interlopers (gray squirrels introduced from North America over the past century or more) are crowding out a British icon, the indigenous red squirrel immortalized by Beatrix Potter and cherished by generations since. The grays take over the reds’ habitat, eat voraciously and harbor a virus named squirrel parapox (harmless to humans) that does not harm grays but can devastate reds. (Reports indicate, though, that the reds are developing resistance.)

The “Save Our Squirrels” campaign began in 2006 to rescue Britain’s red squirrels by piquing the nation’s appetite for their marauding North American cousins. With a rallying motto of “Save a red, eat a gray!” the campaign created a market for culled squirrel meat.”

Though squirrel has been promoted as a low-fat food, discrepancies have been found in meat quality.  Nichola Fletcher, a food writer and co-owner of a venison farm, said that in her experience, “the quality and amount of fat varied from no visible fat to about 30 percent, depending on the season, their age and, especially, diet.”  I guess there’s no USDA grading system for squirrels. Though there don’t seem to be written standards in preparing a squirrel dish, food safety standards, such as handwashing and cooking meat thoroughly, should always be a top priority when preparing a meal.

“If you want to grab your shotgun, make sure you have very good aim — squirrels must be shot in the head; a body shot renders them impossible to skin or eat. (You want to get rid of the head in any event, as squirrel brains have been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease.)”

For those interested in trying squirrel, recipes can be found here and here.

Baking cookies with the Mazurs: Kids make terrible chefs

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We have a delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe in our family and it puts the icing on the cake at our family gatherings.  Over Christmas my immediate family and I spent time with my uncle and his family in Wichita, KS.  My uncle has a seven-year-old boy and three-year-old girl, and after much playing with playdoh and coloring we soon became bored and started looking for a new activity.  Why not bake chocolate chip cookies?  

Well, all we had to say was the word “cookie” and the kids were on board with this activity.  My uncle and my mom were adamant about washing the kids’ hands before we started cooking, but that was a hopeless cause.  Their hands only had a tiny bit of soap on a few fingers, and there wasn’t even much scrubbing involved.  It was just a quick rinse.  And as soon as the kids were done washing their hands, they put their hands right back in their mouths, on the floor, on the dog, who knows where else.

I pointed out to my mom that letting the kids mix the ingredients and mixing the batter was a terrible idea.  They’ll stick their fingers in it, and they’ll sneeze in it.  But it had already been decided that EVERYONE was going to help out with the baking, so the kids went ahead and both took turns stirring the cookie dough.

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a germ-a-phobe, except for some cases  and watching these kids contaminate perfectly good chocolate chip cookies just broke my heart.  I can only imagine what kinds of germs were in that cookie dough, but hopefully all of the germs were killed when the dough was put into the oven.

However, after the oven when the cookies were sitting on the cooling rack there were a few incidents of kids picking up cookies and then putting them back.  The kids were the exact opposite of food inspectors.  Instead of carefully examining the cookies with clean hands, the kids picked up the cookies with dirty hands and brought them quite close to their face (even sometimes touching it to their nose) to sniff and see if they tasted good.

Needless to say, I did not have a one of the cookies.

Handwashing is one of the major tools used to combat food borne illness.  Kids especially must be supervised to ensure that they use an adequate amount of soap and scrub their hands for at least 20-30 seconds.
 


 

Restaurant sinks are not bathtubs

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An Ohio man is in hot water for taking a hot bath in a Burger King bathtub. The video shows a man sitting in the sink, while other employees look on laughing. At one point the employee with the camera goes to ask the manager if she wants to come watch. The manager declines, but also fails to take any action. The video was then posted on Myspace. The fast food restaurant has fired all employees involved. They added that the sink was sanitized twice and all utensils were thrown out. Health officials are working with prosecutors to see if charges will be filed. However the health department has declined to issue any fines. If bathing in a kitchen sink isn’t worth a fine, what is?

The video contains some not safe for work language.
 

Burger King Employee Takes Bath In Sink – Watch more free videos

How to properly cook hamburgers

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The best way to make a hamburger is debatable. In my opinion adding Swiss cheese, pickles, onions, and mustard to a burger nearly perfects it. The one other ingredient? Temperature.
Cooking burgers to 160°F is the only sure way to tell that it is fully cooked. Cooking hamburgers to 160°F kills unwanted microorganisms such as E. coli O157:H7, a deadly ingredient. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 61 deaths a year from E. coli, and thousands more ill. Ground beef was recalled 19 different times in 2007 for E. coli contamination.
E. coli O157:H7 loves hiding in the intestines of animals, such as cows. During slaughter, if workers do not follow safe practices it can get onto the cuts of meat. Steaks can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness because any potential for microorganisms exists only on the surface. However, with ground beef the muscle is mixed up and the organisms are spread throughout the meat.
When cooking, don’t rely on the burger’s appearance to tell if it is done. Many people think a burger that is no longer pink is a done burger. This is not the case as pointed out in many studies (here, here, and here). Sometimes burgers look done well before they hit 160°F.
To measure the temperature of a burger, go out and buy a tip sensitive digital thermometer. Remove the burger from the grill or stove and insert the thermometer into the side of the meat all the way to the center. Wait until the thermometer reads 160°F before serving. Add the toppings of your choice, and enjoy!

Podcast 1
Podcast 2


References
Hunt, M.C., O. Sørheim, E. Slinde. Color and Heat Denaturation of Myoglobin Forms in Ground Beef. Journal of Food Science Volume 64 Issue 5 Page 847-851, September 1999.
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1999.tb15925.x?prevSearch=authorsfield%3A%28M.C.+Hunt%29

Ryan, Suzanne M., Mark Seyfert, Melvin C. Hunt, Richard A. Mancini. Influence of Cooking Rate, Endpoint Temperature, Post-cook Hold Time, and Myoglobin Redox State on Internal Color Development of Cooked Ground Beef Patties. Journal of Food Science. Volume 71 Issue 3 Page C216-C221, April 2006
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2006.tb15620.x?prevSearch=authorsfield%3A%28M.C.+Hunt%29

Seyfert, M., R.A. Mancini, M.C. Hunt. Internal Premature Browning in Cooked Ground Beef Patties from High-Oxygen Modified-Atmosphere Packaging. Journal of Food Science. Volume 69 Issue 9 Page C721-C725, December 2004
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.tb09923.x?prevSearch=authorsfield%3A%28M.C.+Hunt%29

Safe Food Cafe – Tailgating Tips

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This video comes from November when the iFSN checked out the food practices performed at a K-State tailgate. Our team didn’t win, but it was great to discuss food safety topics with serious grillers and sometimes, serious drinkers.

Best wishes to the University of Kansas — not Kansas State — which is playing in the Orange Bowl tonight in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, against Virginia Tech. It was a magical season for the Kansas Jayhawks until they met that other Big 12 powerhouse, Missouri.

And for you crazy, KU kids frolicking in the Florida sun, use a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer when sticking it in. Always.

How to check if a turkey is cooked: “piping hot” is not sufficient

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The Brits apparently don’t like data when it comes to cooking hamburgers, and now, turkey.

Same with the Irish.

 For the home cook, the data is the tip-sensitive digital thermometer, and a recording of 160F for hamburgers, 165F for poultry.

For the U.K.’s Food Standards Agency, it’s, "check it’s piping hot all the way through."

I have no idea what that means.

When I hear piping hot, I think of Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

Seriously, the best the taxpayer-funded FSA can come up with is:

So make sure your turkey is cooked properly:
    * check it’s piping hot all the way through
    * cut into the thickest part to check that none of the meat is pink
    * if juices run out, they should be clear.

Wow.

One of the great things about the barfblog software provided by food safety dude Bill Marler is that we can see what people are searching for. Since Thanksgiving, people are repeatedly searching for, "Where to place a thermometer in a turkey."

So, not only are they using a thermometer, they want to know how to do it properly.

Don’t ask the U.K.’s  Food Standards Agency.

Or Ireland’s safefood, which yesterday said it’s safe to cook stuffing inside the turkey and,

"remember, always make sure your cooked turkey is piping hot all the way through, with no pink meat, and all the juices run clear."

But here are some tips. And some pics from our Thanksgiving turkey.

Food safety guru Pete Snyder says,

If you have stuffed the turkey, you must cook the stuffed bird until the stuffing is above 150F. This assures a 10,000,000-to-1 kill of Salmonella. At this point, the breast will probably be 165F, which is very safe, and the thigh will be about 185F, which is necessary to make this muscle tissue soft.

Sara Moulton on ABC’s Good Morning America says:

The thermometer goes into the thickest part of the thigh and should not touch the bone.

The U.S. National Turkey Federation says to insert the thermometer 2 1/2 inches in the deepest portion of the turkey breast or into the inner thigh near the breast. Make sure the thermometer does not touch a bone. When inserting the thermometer in the turkey breast, insert it from the side. The thermometer is easier to read and more accurate than when inserted from the top.

And the U.S. Department of Agriculture says for whole turkeys, place the thermometer in the thickest part of the inner thigh. Once the thigh has reached 165 °F, check the wing and the thickest part of the breast to ensure the turkey has reached a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F throughout the product.

The Brits are right to say that people shouldn’t wash their turkeys before cooking them — a cross contamination nightmare — but why they refuse to advocate tip-sensitive digital thermometers is baffling. And risky.

And these are happy people not barfing because I used a tip-sensitive digital meat thermometer, and didn’t rely on "piping hot."

U.S. Thanksgiving treats; turkey and hairballs

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Couple of fun ones tonight, first one is a pretty sweet video about quick cooking a turkey (they do mention a thermometer, but I don’t see it being used).


A Thermite Thanksgiving

Second one is a nice food safety story about what happens when you eat your hair.  Here’s a preview picture (this was removed from an 18-year-old girl).

from a New England Journal of Medicine article covered on CNN:

She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss.
After a scan of the woman’s abdomen showed a large mass, doctors lowered a scope through her esophagus.
"On questioning, the patient stated that she had had a habit of eating her hair for many years — a condition called trichophagia," the authors of the article wrote.

My favourite part of the article is:

A year later, the pain and vomiting were gone, the patient had regained 20 pounds "and reports that she has stopped eating her hair."