Entries Tagged 'Interesting Facts' ↓

Does honey ever go bad?
If it’s a tad too moist, honey might ferment and turn into mead, but barring that, honey kept tightly covered in a dark place can last indefinitely. Crystallization, which occurs more rapidly at lower temperatures, can be reversed by placing the container in hot water for fifteen minutes.
Fun facts: Honey can be used as an antibacterial solution, and reportedly edible honey was discovered in King Tut’s tomb. Children under the age of one should not consume honey, as it carries spores that can cause infant botulism.

Why do some potato chips have a green splotch?
Potatoes spend the majority of their life cycle underground, but every once in a while some part of the tuber catches a bit of excess light. This targeted photosynthesis results in a spot of bright green chlorophyll. Quality control in most plants tends to weed out the greenies, but every once in a while, things just get all spudded up.

What is that stringy thing in an egg white?
That white, slightly tough thing is the chalaza, which anchors the yolk in place.
Fun fact: Brown shells are thicker than white shells, and thus more crack-resistant, making them ideal for hard boiling. There’s no other differences between white and brown eggs — they just come from different breeds of hen.

Why can’t fresh pineapple be used in Jelly?
Fresh pineapple seems like it’d be ideal in a molded Jelly salad, but it contains a natural enzyme called bromelain, which degrades the protein in gelatin and keeps it from setting. There’s always room for canned pineapple, though, since it’s been heated to a temperature that denatures the enzyme. Other non-gelatin-friendly fruits include fresh ginger root, kiwi, papaya, guava and figs.
Fun fact: The same properties that nix bromelain as a gelatin add-in make it an excellent meat tenderizer. Pork and pineapple, anyone?

Why does the slam of an oven door cause a souffle to fall?
It’s not, as old cartoons might have you believe, the loud bang or vibration, but rather that the sudden drop in temperature causes the eggs’ still-forming air bubbles to collapse. Once the proteins have coagulated, they won’t re-inflate, and the top will stay a flop. Keep it closed for a high-flying souffle.

Where does cream of tartar come from and what does it do?
This baking staple starts life as a white sediment that lines the inside of wine casks after fermentation. This tartaric acid is scraped off, purified and ground down to the miraculous powder that lofts our pie toppings and allows our favorite cakes to let their frosting peaks soar. In a pinch, just sub in three times the amount of vinegar or lemon juice.

Where does cream of tartar come from and what does it do?
This baking staple starts life as a white sediment that lines the inside of wine casks after fermentation. This tartaric acid is scraped off, purified and ground down to the miraculous powder that lofts our pie toppings and allows our favorite cakes to let their frosting peaks soar. In a pinch, just sub in three times the amount of vinegar or lemon juice.

Why do some people say that cilantro tastes like soap?
Folks who detest the leafy herb are in pretty sophisticated company, as celebrated chef Julia Child professed to detest the stuff. While scientists have yet to arrive at a consensus, some studies point to the “soapy” taste interpretation of cilantro as being the result of a mild allergy. Others cite the possibly genetic presence or absence of an enzyme that affects how a person processes the flavor of cilantro.
Fun fact: The seeds of the cilantro plant are called coriander, and are a staple in cuisines from around the globe. The leaf’s lovers and loathers alike can find much to squabble about at ihatecilantro.com.

Why doesn’t water tame the burn of a too-hot chilli pepper?
A pepper’s blaze is brought about by capsaicinoids, which are odor and flavor-free, but act directly on pain receptors. The primary one, capsaicin, is an oil, so the frantic chugging of water following a too-hot bite just serves to slosh the pain to other parts of the mouth. Milk, on the other hand, contains casein, which surrounds and absorbs the fatty capsacin and washes it away.
Fun fact: Most of a pepper’s heat is found in its ribs and seeds. Strip this away (carefully, with gloves) to take the flame down a notch.

What’s the difference between baking powder and baking soda?
Both of them make baked goods rise, but they’re not interchangeable. Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, which when combined with an acidic component will cause carbon dioxide bubbles to rise, and food to expand in the oven. Baking powder, on the other hand, is a mixture of sodium bicarbonate, an acid and a drying agent. The most common format is a double-acting baking powder which, mixed with a liquid, sets off an initial reaction at room temperate, and a second one at baking temperatures.
Fun fact: Baking power cannot be subbed in for baking soda as it’ll introduce excess acidity, but baking soda, an equal amount of cornstarch, and double that quantity of cream of tartar can combine into a baking powder stand-in.

Do recipes really have to be readjusted for higher altitudes?
Indeed they do. Water actually boils at a lower temperature than it does at sea level, but boiled food takes longer to cook thoroughly. Baking can prove especially tricky above 3500 feet, as the air is thinner, and for the most part drier, so leavening agents, ingredient ratios and cooking times have to be calibrated accordingly. Consult your local county extension office to find the best adjustments for your area.

What is a nonreactive pan?
Let’s start on the reactive side. Copper and aluminum conduct heat incredibly well, but they react chemically with foods. Acidic food can pick up a metallic taste, and light-colored soups and sauces can be slightly discolored. Many copper pans are covered with tin to prevent reaction, but since it’s thin and scratches easily, the copper can easily be exposed. Cast iron pans are also considered reactive, but if they’re well-seasoned, the effects are not especially evident.
Popular non-reactive cookware materials include stainless steel, glass, enamel, clay and plastic. These don’t tend to conduct or retain heat as efficiently, but some stainless steel pans have aluminum or copper bonded to the bottom between layers of steel.

Who or what is a vinegar mother?
There’s a fungus among us, and it’s here to make vinegar. Micoderma aceti, a single-cell fungus related to yeast, comes to roost in solutions of limited acidity, a concentration of alcohol, and certain nutritive proteins — wine, for example — and form a grayish mass, which can be either whisper-thin or more solid. This “mother” draws oxygen from the air and converts alcohol into acetic acid. In a solution with water, this constitutes vinegar. The mother can be added to cider, wine, or other alcohols to facilitate the vinegar making process.

Interesting Medications from the past

Bayer’s Heroin

A bottle of Bayer’s heroin. Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. It was also used to treat children with a strong cough.

Coca Wine

Metcalf Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market. Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.

Mariani wine

Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of its time. Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time. He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.

Maltine

Produced by Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York . It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal. Children should take half a glass.

A paper weight

A paper weight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne ( Mannheim , Germany ). They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world of products containing Quinine and Cocaine.

Opium for Asthma

Cocaine tablets (1900)

All stage actors, singers’ teachers and preachers had to have them for a maximum performance. Great to “smooth” the voice.

Cocaine drops for toothache

Very popular for children in 1885. Not only they relieved the pain, they made the children happy!

Opium for new-borns

I’m sure this would make them sleep well (not only the Opium, but 46% alcohol!!!!!)

And we worry about aspirin for children today??

• The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.
• No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven times. Oh go ahead…I’ll wait…
• Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes or shark attacks. (So, watch your Ass )
• You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
• Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
• The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum.
• The King of Hearts is the only king WITHOUT A MUSTACHE
• American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
• Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. (Since Venus is normally associated with women, what does this tell you? That women are going the ‘right’ direction…!)
• Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
• Most dust particles in your house are made from DEAD SKIN!
• The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. So did the first ‘Marlboro Man’.
• Walt Disney was afraid OF MICE!
• PEARLS MELT IN VINEGAR!
• The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
• It is possible to lead a cow upstairs… but, not downstairs.
• A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.
• Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least six (6) feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. (I keep my toothbrush in the living room now!)

And the best for last….

• Turtles can breathe through their butts.   (I know some people like that, don’t YOU?)

For all my fellow SIMS fans, SIMS 3 is soon to be released – June 2nd, its supposed to be on the shelves!! I’m extremely curious to see what they’ve come up with, and cannot wait to get my hands on it.

In the meantime, if you’re as bored with the old SIMS as me, here are some ways to kill your SIMS…

Electrocution. Really too random to be an effective murder tool. If a Sim with no Mechanical points attempts to repair an appliance, the result is almost always fatal. There is also a 1% chance of electrocution while changing a light bulb, regardless of Mechanical skill. This death can only affect family members, not neighbors or most NPC’s. Sims can also be electrocuted if they attempt to use an electric appliance while they are standing in water. This CAN kill neighbors and NPC’s.

Guinea Pig Disease. Again, another death that’s fairly random. If you don’t take proper care of the guinea pig, it may bite and infect your Sim with the dreaded Guinea Pig Disease. Unless steps are taken, the Sim will die from it. The disease apparently does not affect neighbors or NPC’s. The disease starts as mild cold, with minor coughing and the occasional sneeze, gradually progressing to a major illness, and eventually death. See below for cures, if you want to save your Sims for some weird reason.

Woodworkers Disease. One of the rarest deaths, continuously operating the woodworking table in a room with no windows may result in a Sim becoming ill. Cures are probably similar to those for the Guinea Pig Disease. This disease probably does not affect neighbors or NPC’s.

Spontaneous Combustion. The most extremely rare form of Sim death. I’ve only heard of this one, and never seen it. There is no known cause. The Sim just randomly bursts into flames. It is unknown if neighbors or NPC’s can suffer from this.

Slurm Overdose. The Slurm Vending Machine (It’s highly addictive!) is a download available on the Internet, it does not come with the Sims. It’s a fairly cheap vending machine, a mere $100. However, if your Sim drinks too much Slurm, he/she will double over in pain, collapse, and die. This may affect neighbors, but probably will not affect NPC’s.

Starve them. Remove all fridges, phones, anything that’s a way of getting your Sim fed. Removing the phone is important, because otherwise your Sims will keep calling for pizza (or Chinese after you have University). Your Sim will whine, cry, and yell at you for not feeding them, but ignore it. After they whine and cry for awhile, they’ll curl up into a ball and die.

Death via broken elevator.
This one took me a while to discover, as I hadn’t really made use of the extra building tools that came with the Open For Business expansion pack. The advent of elevators, however, has ‘opened new doors’ in the death arena. If you’ve got no handy mechanical Sims in your house (and are too cheap to hire a repairman), a poorly repaired elevator can send your Sim plummeting to his or her death in a quick trip to the bottom floor. Just like a bad soap opera.

Fire – rocket. You know those really cool outdoor rockets you can buy? Ever set one up inside? With lots of carpets surrounding it? And your Sim in the middle?

Burn them. Get a Sim that is bad at cooking. Buy the cheapest stove – or even better, a microwave. Cook a big dinner. Then let it burn away. For maximum effect, fill the room with wooden furniture and plants, and delete the door. Remember to remove any fire alarms, as this will automatically call the fire brigade. If all of your Sims are good cooks, buy the decoration that shoots fire. You can find it in Decorative/Misc. Simply place it adjacent to any item in the room, including your Sim.
Buy a fireplace and a heart-shaped rug. Place the rug in front of the fireplace and light a fire. Before long, the rug will catch fire. You can also buy a rug made of flowers, found in the Decorative/Misc. section

Fire Storm. The absolute most spectacular way to commit mass-murder. Simply place rugs through a room, so that the rugs overlap each other. Leave one square uncovered. Then place the model rocket launcher in the room. When someone launches a rocket, it will land in that one empty square and the entire room will ignite at once. The number of flames appearing could potentially crash a slower computer, so try not to make the fire too big. Because you can easily kill a dozen or more Sims at once, it may take the Grim Reaper several minutes to collect all the dead. This will kill anything in the room, including neighbors and NPC’s.

Drown them. Get a pool with no ladder, just a diving board. Make your Sim jump into it. They will soon drown. Or, if you have Seasons, tell them to jump into the pool; you won’t need a diving board. A relative can’t plead with the grim reaper because they can’t access the death site, so the drowned Sim has no opportunity to be revived.

Do a double whammy. Create a family of about 8 Sims and just put them on a lot. No house, nothing else and just hit that fast-forward key until the grim reaper shows up. Once everyone’s dead, exit, but do not bulldoze the lot. Place another family on the lot (feel free to build a house this time if you like). Do this often enough and you will have a lot full of urns and tombstones in no time.

Watch clouds/stargaze without a telescope. If you wait long enough, a satellite will fall down and crush your Sim.

Make them talk on the phone a long time. Each time they use the phone (not the cell phone that comes with University) there is a small chance the phone will burst into flames. This only works if they are cooking in a different room.

Scare your sim to death. After you’ve killed all of the other Sims, their ghosts may very well scare the living daylights out of your survivors.

Allow your Sim to be eaten alive by vicious bugs. Put your Sim in a narrow hallway filled with rotting food/dirty dishes. Stepping on a tile with rotten food carries a small chance that a swarm of flies will engulf your Sim.

Refuse to care for a sick Sim, and it will die from its own illness (unless that illness is morning sickness). Also, you can’t die from a cold, but colds turn into pneumonia, which can kill you.

Build a small room to trap them in (1X1 with no door should be fine). Enable the movement cheat (type “moveObjects on” exactly as it is seen here, minus the quotes, into the cheat box. The cheat box can be displayed by pressing Ctrl, Shift, and C at the same time) and, in Buy Mode or Build mode, use the Hand tool to drop your Sim into the room.

Bring up the cheat box and type “boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true”, and then hold down the shift button and click on the Sim you want to kill. Go through the menu until you see the spawn option. Click on it, then go to Rodneys death creator. A little tombstone will appear next to your Sim, click on it, and chose the way your Sim dies.

Get a Sim to use the most expensive telescope for a very long time. Every time he uses the telescope between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. there is a 5% chance he will be abducted by aliens. Rarely, the aliens do not return him. If it is an adult male, and he is returned, he will return pregnant with an alien baby.

Download the InSimenator. This program comes with many of the methods listed above, such as “Dying of Fright”, sickness, fire, satellite, so on and so forth. There is also an option to have your sim of old age. Find it here [1]. You must register for a free account first, however.

Laganaphyllis Simnovorii. Otherwise known as a ‘Cow Plant’, the Laganaphyllis Simnovorii dangles a piece of something that looks like cake from its mouth, luring your guests into its clutches and an early death. Your Sim, meanwhile, gets to enjoy another full five days of life from the resulting elixir. You couldn’t ask for a better pet really. The Laganaphyllis Simnovorii also makes up for having to wear nothing but fig leaves once you’ve reached the top of the Natural Science career path. I thought nothing could beat the Cow Plant, until I remembered the dread…

Death Island. Are those pesky visitors always annoying you? Then here’s an easy and fun way to get rid of them! Build your dream house and add a little something extra. A Swimming Pool Moat all the way round your house. On the side the side-walk is on, place a diving board. On the side your house is on, place a ladder. This means that your visitors come along, dive into your moat and climb up on the other side to ring your doorbell. But when they leave they climb into the moat but can’t get out as there is only a diving board there. Their only option is to return to Death Island, but instead they drown or die of hunger.

I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve been told that certain members of the ruling classes are weird, but this might be the first time you’ve heard some of these exceptionally strange tales of royal weirdness.

The Cucumber King of Burma

In 931, King Theinhko of Burma ate the cucumbers of a local villager without asking first. The angry farmer murdered Theinhko and then took over the throne as King Nyanng-u Sawrahan. The queen welcomed him, in an effort to prevent political unrest. Nyanng-u was forever after known as ‘The Cucumber King.’ He
reigned over Burma for 33 years until he was overthrown.

Nine Months of French Bastards

King Philip Augustus of France was married to his second wife, Ingeborg of Denmark, in 1193. Sadly, Augustus found Ingeborg to be absolutely revolting and filed for a divorce on the grounds that the marriage was not yet consummated. His wife, however, argued that they had consummated the marriage. As a result, Pope Celestine III refused to grant the king a divorce.

Philip was not easily defeated. He ignored the decision and went on to marry Agnes of Marania.

The pope ordered him to return to Ineborg and to make his point, he imposed an interdict on December 12, 1199. During this time, all churches were closed and the pope determined that as long as the king wasn’t sleeping with his wife, his subjects were not allowed to sleep with theirs. As a result, all children born in this period were deemed illegitimate. The interdict continued until September 7, 1200 –resulting in nine months of bastards born in France. Augustus eventually did return to Ineborg, but not until 1213.

A Dead Woman Crowned Queen

Ines de Castro was a loving mistress to Dom Pedro, heir of the Portuguese throne. Unfortunately, the current ruler, King Alfonso, was paranoid that the pair was plotting against him and ordered Ines to be assassinated in 1355.

When Pedro was crowned as king in 1357, his love for Ines had not yet faded. He sought revenge on the assassins and made them suffer through horrendous tortures. That wasn’t enough though, Pedro was still determined that Ines should take her seat beside him as queen. He had her body exhumed, dressed in proper royal attire and the entire candlelit coronation ceremony proceeded as usual. Ines’s body was anointed and crowned, the subjects were made to swear allegiance to her, and the nobles were required to kneel and kiss her cold, two-years-dead hand.

The Ghastly Death of Mary Queen of Scots

If you ever played Bloody Mary in the mirror as a youth, you know that it is quite a terrifying ghost story. While there are many proposed “Marys” that could be referenced in the story, Mary Queen of Scots has a terrifying ghost story thanks to her botched execution.

On February 8, 1587, Mary was led to the execution block. The executioner, likely drunk, failed to knock off her head on the first blow. Instead, he hit the back of her head, at which time, her servants reported that she muttered “Sweet Jesus.” He managed to remove her head on the second blow and he lifted her head up by the auburn hair on her head, right then, her head fell from his hands, revealing that she actually had short gray hair covered by thick wig. Also strange, her lips continued moving for the next fifteen minutes, likely caused by a nerve damaged during the first execution attempt.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Mary’s dog was discovered to be hiding under her skirts. When the pet was pulled out, it insisted on lying between the shoulders and decapitated head of her body. Eventually, Mary’s servants took the dog, but not until it was thoroughly soaked in its dead master’s blood.

Even for the people of the time, jaded from by frequent public executions, Mary’s beheading was full of exceptionally terrifying surprises.

A Strange ‘Divine Right’

Normally a king’s “divine rights” seem to include things like violating virgins and taking food and money, however, in 1627, Charles I decided to declare rights of a much different nature. He ordered all of his subjects to turn in their urine to official collectors once a day in the summer and once every other day in the winter. These collections were to help the country create saltpeter, a component of gunpowder. Charles also claimed rights to all soil loaded with animal waste. The so-called ‘Saltpeter Men’ were permitted to dig up the floors of stables, slaughterhouses and other areas without permission of the property owners.

Louis The XIV’s Enema Obsession

Imagine trying to hold a conversation with someone receiving an enema. Now imagine that someone was King and he was holding court throughout the experience. King Louis XIV was known for performing this type of activity regularly. The enema was a quite popular medical procedure at this time, but few people seemed to love the activity nearly as much as the king who is said to have received over 2,000 enemas throughout his lifetime – many of them in public.

The King of Debt

King Theodore of Corsica wasn’t much of a king. For one thing, he wasn’t nobility by birth, he was merely a soldier who asked to be king in exchange for helping aid the Corsicans in a revolt. When the revolt had proven to be ineffective and a the Genovese government put a price on his head, Theodore started to lose popularity amongst his people. He decided that he would be better off ruling overseas.

Unfortunately, once he left the country, he was never able to return to his kingdom. Eventually, he ended up in debtors prison in Amsterdam, and later, London. He was freed from Holland’s prison easy enough, but the only way he could earn release from the London jail was by giving Corsica to his creditors.

When he died in London in 1756, his epitaph read:

Theodore this moral learned ere dead:

Fate poured its lessons on his living head,

Bestowed a kingdom, and denied him bread.

After his death, an opera was made from his tale in 1784. Additionally, ‘King Theodore of Corsica’ started to be used as a nickname for gin, joining the ranks of ‘Cuckold’s Comfort’ as a slang for the drink.

Madness Doth Not A Kingdom Make

Nouvelle France was a South American territory also called the Kingdom of Araucanìa and Patagonia. The area’s first (and only) king, elected in 1860, was Orelie-Antoine de Tounens, a French lawyer. He supported the local people’s efforts to resist takeover by Chile and Argentina. The people of the area, called Mapuche, thought that Tounens may help aid their cause as he was a skilled European negotiator. He helped the locals draft a constitution and mint coins, but Chile largely ignored him. Tounens tried to convince France to come to his aid and after a short investigation, they determined him to be crazy.

He was arrested by the Chilean government within two years of becoming king. France managed to secure his release from prison by convincing his jailers that he was insane. After his release, he was deported back to France and Tounens then spent the rest of his life trying to take over his kingdom again. In 1869, he made it back to the country, but soon returned to France to gather more money. Tounens attempted to return two more times afterward, but both times he was
captured by Chilean authorities and deported. He eventually died in squalor in France in 1878.

His relatives periodically continued to claim their rightful place as ruler of the country, although the most recent heir has renounced the claim. Since the establishment of Nouvelle France, no sovereign state has ever recognized the territory as a legitimate country.

The Long-Lasting Legacy of Nobility

In 1888, Charles-Marie David de Mayrena elected himself Marie the First, King of the Sedang. Marie was an eccentric French adventurer and he arranged his kingdom to rule over a number of small tribes. King Marie declared the official religion of the country to be Roman Catholic although most of its residents were Muslims and he later adopted the Islamic faith himself. He awarded titles of nobility to his supporters during his two-year rule. He attempted to trade his kingdom to the French, English and Belgium governments in exchange for a trading monopoly, but he received little interest. When he tried to return to his kingdom though, the French prevented him from entering any port in Indochina. He died in 1890, and the details of this death remain a mystery –some sources claim it was by duel, others say it was poison and yet other reports argue he was bitten by a snake.

Over 100 years later, the Assembly for the Restoration of the Sedang Nobility was established in Montreal in 1995. This group consisted of descendants of those who bestowed with titles of nobility by King Marie. The organization claims it seeks to “re-establish and promote the social institutions of monarchy and nobility and practice their principles in a world which has largely forgotten them: chivalry, honor, duty, loyalty, respect, enlightenment, tolerance.” At the same time, they are glad to renounce their claims to the territory, admitting it is undisputedly part of Vietnam. Three years later, they changed their name to the Sedang Royalist Assembly. Although genealogists helped the group find an heir of King Marie, the descendant was uninterested in claiming his title. This organization is
still around and is headquartered in Montreal.

Technicalities Galore

What happens when your country’s official constitution and other historical documents fail to mention one small town? If that unmentioned village happens to be Seborga (flag shown above), you may end up with an “independent principality” smack dab in the middle of your country. The area, that should be part of Italy, declared its independence in 1967 and elected the head of the flower growing collective, Giorgio Carbone, to be the country’s head of state or “Giorgio I, Prince of Seborga.” Giorgio is officially addressed as “Your Tremendousness” by his followers.

Giorgio and other members of the village claim that Seborga was never incorporated into Italy. Although it was sold to the king of Savoy and Sardinia in 1729, the sale was not registered. On top of that, the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the 1861 Act of Unification and the constitution written in 1946 all fail to mention Seborga. Scholars have proven that regardless, the area is still part of Italy, but Seborgians defy this logic.

The principality mints its own currency, the luigino, currently valued at $6 – meaning if it were recognized as a legitimate legal tender, it would be the most valuable currency in the world. Regardless of the area’s claim to independence, most of the residents follow the laws of Italy, pay taxes and vote in national elections.

In 2006, a woman named Yasmine von Hohenstaufen Anjou Plantagenet, who claims to be heir to Roman Emperor Fredrick II and the rightful ruler of Seborga, tried to return the ‘country’ to Italy. The majority of villagers were notably upset and Prince Giorgio commented “The girl cannot give away something she does not own.”

Weirdness is not limited to the paupers, as we can clearly see, and it almost seems as though the royals have a strange right to be odd? If it this is any consolation to me, I’m probably not weird enough to be a royal!!

I found that questions several times as a comment to my post on Chocolate Cake In A Mug, and I decided to do a whole post about cake flour. It never occurred to me that there might be other countries in which cake flour isn’t as popular or widely available as in South Africa.  For those of you who mostly use all purpose flour, I have below the definition of what cake flour is, and then also a substitute for it

When I searched the internet for a proper explanation, I found this…

Cake flour is a highly specialized type of wheat flour, intended for use in making cakes, cookies, and other delicate baked goods. Several characteristics differentiate cake flour from other wheat flours, making it unsuitable for certain tasks like baking bread. Many markets carry cake flour, and in a pinch a substitute can be made with ¾ cup sifted bleached all purpose flour and two tablespoons of cornstarch.

When baking a cake, most cooks aim to create a light, fluffy cake with a tender crumb. This requires a flour with a low protein content, as protein promotes the production of gluten, which can make baked goods more tough. It also means that the flour must be very finely milled, to keep baked goods from getting heavy. Finally, a flour which is starchy and able to hold large amounts of fat and sugar without collapsing is required.

All of these needs are addressed with cake flour, which is made from the endosperm of soft wheat. The endosperm is the softest part of the wheat kernel, making cake flour the finest flour available. As cake flour is milled, it is heavily bleached, not only to make it white but to break down the protein in the flour. Typically, cake flour is around seven percent protein, much lower than other flours; bread flour, for example, has twice that amount of protein.

The delicate, fine texture of cake flour is accomplished by heavy milling. The fine grain absorbs fat readily, ensuring that butter and other fats in cakes are well distributed throughout the batter. Cake flour can also carry a high volume of sugar when compared to higher protein flours. Since cake flour is a high-starch flour, it is extremely well suited for certain baking tasks. Cake flour is also lighter than conventional flour, which is why the substitution above falls short of a full cup.

Cookie and cake recipes which call for cake flour should be made using cake flour, if possible. In the production of certain other baked goods, cake flour can replace ordinary flour for a lighter end product, using one cup and two tablespoons of cake flour for every cup of flour called for in the recipe. Cake flour should not be used to make breads and other leavened products, as it is not strong enough. Also, as a general rule, a recipe which calls for “sifted flour” requires the cook to sift the flour before measuring, while “flour, sifted” is flour which is measured and then sifted. Since sifting changes the volume of flour, this seemingly petty distinction is actually very important.

However interesting it might be to know what cake flour really is, I managed to also find a substitute for it, which might be a bit more interesting for you if you want to use a recipe which uses cake flour.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch

Directions
To make two cups of cake flour combine 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch; proceed with your recipe.

Someone recently asked me what I knew about “the pill”, also known as oral contraceptives.  Though I knew the facts which were passed onto me via the grapevine, I hadn’t ever done proper research about the pill, what it does, its what side effects it might have.

I found a very informative
website, which seems to give solid facts based on Randy Alcorn’s research, and the research done by various pharmaceutical companies as well as medical docters.

There was a quite a number facts which I’ve never been aware of, specially such as the evolution of the pill from the 1960’s until now, but also that it has three main mechanisms  – not only one.

The pill was introduced commercially sometime in the 1960’s, and its estrogen content back then was a very high 150 micrograms.  After proving that this had some serious side effects, the estrogen dosage was reduced to a mere 35 microgames in the late 1980’s, and today the dosage varies between 20 – 35 micrograms.

Serious negative side effects of estrogen had been clearly proven. These included blurred vision, nausea, cramping, irregular menstrual bleeding, headaches, increased incidence of breast cancer, strokes, and heart attacks, some of which led to fatalities.

The highest available dosage today being 50 micrograms, but this isn’t readily available, and I would assume that you need to get a docter to recommend this for you in order to use it.

Below are the three main  mechanisms of birth control pills:

1.      inhibiting ovulation (the primary mechanism),

2.      thickening the cervical mucus, thereby making it more difficult for sperm to travel to the egg, and

3.      thinning and shriveling the lining of the uterus to the point that it is unable or less able to facilitate the implantation of the newly fertilized egg.

The first two mechanisms are contraceptive. The third is abortive.

The reason why I’m going on about the dosage is that the research done, basically implies that the contraceptives with a high dosage would inhibit ovulation, the the contraceptives with a low dosage would not necesarily ensure that ovulation doesn’t occur, but the chances that the uterus lining will be too thin for the fertilized egg to implant itself is pretty good.

Its for this reason that people have been saying that oral contraceptives are just much an abortion as when you go to an abortion clinic to get it done, but sadly a lot of people are not aware of this, or they’re just too ignorant to investigate.  I guess in the end its still something each woman has to decide for herself, but its just good to have the facts straight when making your decision.

I love Mentos, and while having some this week, noticed the word “dragees” on the packet – obviously describing the sweets, but I had no idea what it meant. Thanx to Google I managed to find the definition

More at Wikipedia