[Sca-cooks] OT: Tornados

[Diana Skaggs]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]

I grew up in Illinois, but on the Mississippi River (Alton, IL).  I was used to looking out my window and knowing what type of weather the day would bring. I only remember one tornado during the 20 years I grew up there.  It went down the river. Then, I moved to Oklahoma.  The weather here is not as predictable. Given the opportunity, I prefer having a storm shelter or safe room nearby.  But I don't worry about them from day to day.
Weather does affect cooking.  "Joy of Cooking" said not to make mayonaisse when thunderstorms threatened. So, the next time it was storming, I tried to make mayonaisse.  It didn't bind.  The next day was clear and my mayonaisse was perfect.  Not to limit myself to one test, I did it again the next time it was threatening  rain.  Again, the egg did not bind.  One other thing I've tested for myself - don't even try to make divinity if the humidity is high.  Either the eggs won't whip up well, or the divinity will not set.  At first I blamed the recipe and my ignorance.  Then I was given a "fool-proof" recipe by my mom.  Of course, I tried it on a gloomy afternoon.  I called her and told her I was more of a fool than the recipe expected.  She asked me if it was raining, and if it was, to try it again on a dry, sunny day.
I still haven't proven whether or not canning pickles during a certain portion of a woman's hormonal cycle causes the pickles to be soft.  I haven't had time to test the theory.
Liadan
 Butterflye <butterflye at runbox.com> wrote:Actually, when you live in tornado country long enough, you can tell the
weather on a day when a tornado is likely, and keep an eye out. (snipped) I grew up in central Illinois where there are tornados every spring, and I can wake up in the morning and look at the sky and know that there will probably be a tornado that day, just by the look of it.

Now to relate this to cooking in some way, just to stay on topic a little,
if the barometer is dropping such that there could be a tornado or a
hurricane, it's not a good day to put up preserves. I don't know why, I just
know that it's so.