On Food and Cooking

in their dry form that we harvest most legume crops, since they can be stored indefinitely and are a conc ...

generate their own sugars by photosynthesis, making use of carbon dioxide that its enclosed seeds give off as ...

stripped away with the stem during preparation — hence the name “string beans” — were eliminated b ...

they’re picked, tender low-fiber varieties quickly become wrinkled and limp as they lose moisture and sugars. C ...

deteriorate quickly if then left at room temperature). Peas Peas come from a climbing plant nati ...

Some Vegetable Beans and Their Origins Green bean Phaseolus vulgaris Central America Lima bean Phaseolus lunatus So ...

as flavorings (p. 408). Avocado fruits are remarkable for containing little or no sugar or starch, and for being a ...

54ºF/12ºC. And the Guatemalan group, from the semitropical highlands, is intermediate in most respects; the fles ...

fruit in a paper bag with an ethylene-emitting banana. If these warm-climate fruits are refrigerated while ...

more effective than polyethylene or PVC). In the case of mashed avocado, this means pressing the wra ...

from corn, Zea mays, and is one of the two main eye-protecting antioxidants). There are also w ...

float in dissolved form in the cell fluids, yet large enough that they bind up a lot of water molecu ...

corn lovers consider them too sweet, their flavor one-dimensional. Preparing Corn While we usually prepare a ...

flavor is nuttier if the cob is first browned in the oven. Carbohydrates and the Qualities of Fresh Corn This tab ...

Baby Corn Miniature or “baby” corn consists of immature, unpollinated ears from full-sized corn var ...

mucilage. Plant mucilage is a complex mixture of long, entangled carbohydrate molecules and proteins that ...

old are the most tender. These subtropical natives are damaged by storage temperatures below about 45ºF/7ºC. Olives ...

(Wild olives are eaten and their seeds dispersed mainly by birds, which swallow them whole; mammals ...

Today, about 90% of the large worldwide crop goes to making olive oil. Making Olive Oil Olive oil is made ...

most delicate and stable, and most likely to yield “extra virgin” oil (below). Finally, ...