[Sca-cooks] OOP: Mystery flour-like substance in my cabinet

[ekoogler1 at comcast.net]

And to add another anecdote...When Phillip and I were first dating, he came to my apartment for a weekend.  It was cold and rainy, so we decided to make some beef stew.  Well, we got it to the point where we wanted to thicken it, so we added cornstarch.  But, oddly enough, it didn't get any thicker.  Then he tasted it.  What we were adding was confectioners' sugar!  Boy, that was the sweetest beef stew around.  A couple of weekends later, we were at his apartment and he decided to make funnel cakes.  He got them all fried up and ready to eat.  We sprinkled Confectioners' sugar on them and bit in.  Ugh.  It turned out to be cornstarch.  So we both learned to label stuff....

Kiri


> I would discard it.  I just gave my culinary students a test called "The
> White Powder Test".  It consists of 12 bags, each containing a white powder.
> The first part of the test involves identifying each one, the second part is
> to take a cake recipe and plug the appropriate ones into the ingredients
> listed (flour, gran. sugar, powdered sugar, baking powder, salt).  Other
> options in the bags include msg, dry carpet cleaner, sanitizer, sink
> cleanser, etc.  Interestingly enough, everyone I've given this test to
> included the dry carpet cleaner in their 'cake' mix.  The point being, you
> can't tell one unlabeled white powder from the next, so keep them in
> original containers if possible, and keep them labeled.  I don't think
> you've got dry carpet cleaner in your canister, but at this point, how old
> would it be anyway?
> Christianna
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sca-cooks-bounces+kingstaste=mindspring.com at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+kingstaste=mindspring.com at ansteorra.org]On
> Behalf Of Pixel, Goddess and Queen
> Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2005 2:33 PM
> To: Cooks within the SCA
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] OOP: Mystery flour-like substance in my cabinet
> 
> 
> 
> Usually I remember to label the various canisters and bottles and things
> in my cabinets, unfortunately I seem to have neglected one. I have a
> canister of some substance, in the quantities that would suggest it came
> in a 5-pound bag, that I can't identify. It might be rice flour. It is
> very white, whiter than the unbleached white wheat flour, but I think not
> quite as white as cornstarch. It is slightly granular rather than powdery.
> Is there any good way for me to confirm that this is, indeed, rice flour?
> 
> Thanks!
> Margaret Fitzwilliam
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