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From: [email protected] (Mark Robert Thorson)
Subject: Re: Barbecued foods and health risk
This reminds me of the last Graham Kerr cooking show I saw. Today he
smoked meat on the stovetop in a big pot! He used a strange technique
I'd never seen before.
He took a big pot with lid, and placed a tray in it made from aluminum foil.
The tray was about the size and shape of a typical coffee-table ash tray,
made by crumpling a sheet of foil around the edges.
In the tray, he placed a couple spoonfuls of brown sugar, a similar
quantity of brown rice (he said any rice will do), the contents of two
teabags of Earl Grey tea, and a few cloves.
On top of this was placed an ordinary aluminum basket-type steamer, with
two chicken breasts in it. The lid was put on, and the whole assembly
went on the stovetop at high heat for 10 or 12 minutes.
Later, he removed what looked like smoked chicken breasts. What surprises
and concerns me are:
1) No wood chips. Where does the smoke flavor come from?
2) About 5 or 10 years ago, I remember hearing that carmel color
(obtained by caramelizing sugar -- a common coloring and flavoring
agent) had been found to be carcinogenic. I believe they injected
it under the skin of rats, or something. If the results were conclusive,
caramel color would not be legal in the U.S., yet it is still being
used. Was the initial research result found to be incorrect, or what?
3) About 5 or 10 years ago, I remember Earl Grey tea being implicated
as carcinogenic, because it contains oil of bergamot (an extract
from the skin of a type of citrus fruit). Does anyone know whatever
happened with that story? If it were carcinogenic, Earl Grey tea
could not have it as an additive, yet it apparently continues to do
so.
WRT natural wood smoke (I've smoking a duck right now, as it happens),
I've noticed that a heavily-smoked food item will have an unpleasant tangy
taste when eaten directly out of the smoker if the smoke has only recently
stopped flowing. I find the best taste to be had by using dry wood chips,
getting lots of smoke right up at the beginning of the cooking process,
then slowly barbequing for hours and hours without adding additional wood chips.
My theory is that the unpleasant tangy molecules are low-molecular weight
stuff, like terpenes, and that the smoky flavor molecules are some sort
of larger molecule more similar to tar. The long barbeque time after
the initial intensive smoke drives off the low-molecular weight stuff,
just leaving the flavor behind. Does anyone know if my theory is correct?
I also remember hearing that the combustion products of fat dripping
on the charcoal and burning are carcinogenic. For that reason, and because
it covers the product with soot and some unpleasant tanginess, I only grill
non-drippy meats like prawns directly over hot coals. I do stuff like this
duck by indirect heat. I have a long rectangular Weber, and I put the coals
at one end and the meat at the other end. The fat drops directly on the
floor below the meat, and next time I use the barbeque I make the fire
in that end to burn off the fat and help ignite the coals.
And yet another reason I've heard not to smoke or barbeque meat is that
smoked cured meat, like pork sausage and bacon, contains
nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic. I'm pretty sure this claim actually
has some standing, don't know about the others.
An amusing incident I recall was the Duncan Hines scandal, when it was
discovered that the people who make Duncan Hines cake mix were putting
a lot of ethylene dibromide (EDB) into the cake mix to suppress weevils.
This is a fumigant which is known to be carcinogenic.
The guy who represented the company in the press conference defended
himself by saying that the risk from eating Duncan Hines products every day
for a year would be equal to the cancer risk from eating two charcoal-
broiled steaks. What a great analogy! When I first heard that, my
immediate reaction was we should make that a standard unit! One charcoal
broiled steak would be equivalent to 0.5 Duncans!