[HN Gopher] Milk watcher
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Milk watcher
        
       Author : bookofjoe
       Score  : 65 points
       Date   : 2024-05-26 19:00 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (en.wikipedia.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (en.wikipedia.org)
        
       | lbotos wrote:
       | Does anyone use this?
       | 
       | I'm surprised in my multi-cultural familial exposure, I'm not
       | aware of any aunts/uncles using this in cooking, or cousins
       | finding one in a drawer.
        
         | brabarossa wrote:
         | Yep, used a stainless steel one. Works great. I'm from Russia.
        
         | ioblomov wrote:
         | Judging by the quoted patent dates, guessing it was most useful
         | when mothers were still cooking for large families (and so had
         | multiple pans/pots going on).
        
           | brabarossa wrote:
           | It's still useful if buying raw milk is cheaper then getting
           | pasteurized one from the store.
        
             | jamiek88 wrote:
             | Nowhere in the developed world is that true though. Economy
             | of scale forbids it.
        
       | cooper_ganglia wrote:
       | Neat, I'll have to pick one up now!
        
       | SomewhatLikely wrote:
       | I wonder if this would work in a rice cooker or if there's
       | something equivalent. If I don't wash the rice beforehand it will
       | tend to bubble starchy bubbles through the top that makes a mess
        
         | softskunk wrote:
         | not washing the rice is generally a bad idea even disregarding
         | this factor, because the texture of the rice will come out
         | quite wrong.
        
           | ioblomov wrote:
           | I normally rinse the rice too, but some think rinsing washes
           | out some vitamins. I suppose the tradeoff is less vitamins or
           | more pesticides?
        
             | janalsncm wrote:
             | Rinsing it can remove some of the toxic arsenic.
             | 
             | https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-
             | nutrition/how-t...
        
               | NeoTar wrote:
               | But only about 20% of the arsenic.
               | 
               | If you want to significantly reduce the arsenic, it is
               | apparently better to cook rice like pasta in a large
               | amount of water, and then drain it (in a sieve /
               | strainer)
        
               | CoastalCoder wrote:
               | I fancy myself a pretty decent cook, but rice has been
               | the bane of my existence. I don't own a rice cooker, and
               | I could _never_ get it right.
               | 
               | Then I learned about the pasta method. It probably closed
               | about 80% of the quality gap in my finished product.
        
           | z2h-a6n wrote:
           | > the texture of the rice will come out quite wrong.
           | 
           | Out of curiosity, in what sense can the texture be wrong? I
           | never wash my rice, and I like the texture.
        
             | janalsncm wrote:
             | Rice contains a lot of arsenic. Washing it can remove some
             | of it. This article also recommends pouring off some water
             | during cooking as well.
             | 
             | https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-
             | nutrition/how-t...
        
               | pavel_lishin wrote:
               | This doesn't answer the texture question.
        
             | kibwen wrote:
             | Washing rice is one of those hygienic practices that
             | evolved into a social more and was incorporated into
             | regional cuisine thereafter. If you're living in a
             | developed country with effective food safety regulations,
             | you don't need to wash your rice.
             | 
             | Which doesn't mean that it's a bad idea to wash your rice.
             | But it's certainly not inherently _wrong_ to not wash rice.
             | For certain cuisines you 're actually supposed to _not_
             | wash the rice, like when making risotto or paella.
        
             | dbmikus wrote:
             | Unwashed rice is normally gummier or more starchy
        
         | CarVac wrote:
         | Tatung rice cookers double-boil the rice so you don't get
         | bubbles everywhere with brown rice.
        
       | inanutshellus wrote:
       | There are so many things in my kitchen that we've gotten from
       | relatives that have no discernible purpose.
       | 
       | Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved blade,
       | rounded tip, and blunt edge. Or a serrated knife with that curves
       | back on itself. I keep them because... one day, surely, I'll
       | realize what they're for.
       | 
       | These things need labels, people!
       | 
       | Here's a good example, a little tiny hammer that you'd never ever
       | use for anything. Oh wait, there's a label on it. Hm. Lemme look
       | that up. OH IT'S FOR MAKING CANDY.
       | 
       | https://i.etsystatic.com/7417371/r/il/5caf0a/4106895282/il_f...
       | 
       | I have one of these (though it just says "CHOCOLATE") and I
       | mainly keep it around so that when I see it and feel that warm
       | glow of knowledge, I can then be spitefully angry at all the
       | mysterious, unlabeled niche-problem-solver tools in my kitchen.
        
         | derefr wrote:
         | These are the sorts of things that won't yield to a _specific_
         | keyword search (because you aren 't giving the search engine
         | the "terms of art" used people who use the thing), but where
         | you can probably figure these out pretty quickly if you just do
         | a search to find some kind of index for the category-of-thing
         | and start browsing.
         | 
         | I'd recommend search queries like "types of knives", "obscure
         | kitchen utensils", "what is this knife", etc.
         | 
         | You can also try giving /r/tipofmytongue or a related subreddit
         | a very detailed description of the object. Some of the results
         | from the above queries point to people asking questions like
         | this on subreddits like /r/tools.
         | 
         | (Or you could do the same thing with ChatGPT -- but that'll
         | only work if someone has ever before _described_ the object in
         | a book or on the Internet somewhere, in the terms you 're
         | using. ChatGPT can only match your verbal questions to verbal
         | memories. Whereas a person on a subreddit can take your
         | description, conjure a mental image of it, and then correlate
         | that mental image with a visual memory.)
         | 
         | I'll also take a shot at giving you starting points, just
         | because I happen to find learning about weird kitchen tools
         | fascinating:
         | 
         | > Like a ridiculously long knife with a slightly curved blade,
         | rounded tip, and blunt edge.
         | 
         | A cake-icing spatula of some kind? I would imagine one made
         | specifically for smoothing the icing on the side of a
         | cylindrical layer cake would have this shape.
         | 
         | Usually cake spatulas are also offset (blade makes two
         | complementary bends and so ends up parallel to, but not in line
         | with, the handle), but they don't have to be.
         | 
         | > Or a serrated knife with that curves back on itself.
         | 
         | If the end can also be used as a fork, then that's a cheese
         | knife.
        
           | robotnikman wrote:
           | I would also add /r/whatisthisthing to your list of
           | subreddits as well. I subscribe to it just to learn about all
           | kinds of obscure tools and utensils.
        
             | derefr wrote:
             | Ironically, that was the subreddit I wanted to use as the
             | best example of a place to ask questions... but I just
             | couldn't think of its name. :)
        
         | cjs_ac wrote:
         | I'm pretty sure the hammers are for breaking up large blocks of
         | chocolate; I've got them with blocks from old-fashioned
         | chocolatiers that don't score their blocks.
        
           | whenc wrote:
           | I know it as a "toffee hammer".
        
       | ZeljkoS wrote:
       | In action: https://youtu.be/eVQDUoD_cJY?si=qNL3NZNQPGJCHMPn&t=40
        
         | metadat wrote:
         | Wow, to my surprise, the sound is incredibly annoying and
         | stress-inducing.
         | 
         | At first I wasn't sure if it's some kind of poor-taste
         | soundtrack, but that is only the background tune. The tap tap
         | tap is the stainless steel device.
         | 
         | Edit: @hombre_fatal - Steel on steel will always clang.
        
       | logrot wrote:
       | Would that not increase the chances of things getting burnt at
       | the base?
        
         | ajb wrote:
         | Not really, since milk contains water the max temperature you
         | can reach is 100 degrees (given it has a path to atmospheric
         | pressure). So the bottom can only burn if all the water boils
         | off.
        
           | BugsJustFindMe wrote:
           | "contains water" is very obviously insufficient for this to
           | be anywhere close to true.
        
       | em-bee wrote:
       | i recently discovered that if i heat up milk in a waterbath (a
       | pot of milk inside a pot of water) it also prevents boiling over.
       | most likely because it doesn't actually bring the milk to a boil,
       | but keeps it a few degrees below the boiling point.
       | 
       | in most cases i just want to have hot milk, and i don't need the
       | milk to have actually reached the boiling point.
       | 
       | are there any cases where that is not enough? (assuming already
       | pasteurized store bought milk)
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-05-26 23:00 UTC)