Produce News for October 20, 2008

ONIONS (Monday, October 20):  You know, this is National Chemistry Week.  So I thought it’d be fun - let’s have some chemistry lessons in the produce department.  I always want to do this one first because this s so cool.  You know onions, everybody knows this, when you cook an onion, you sauté an onion, they get so sweet.  Oh, my goodness!  The sugars caramelize and you put it over your steak.  Oh, grilled onions are so sweet.  Of course onion rings are so sweet!  So why does an onion taste sweet after it has been cooked?  Well, if you could look in here and you could see two main chemicals in here, one are sulfuric compounds.  That’s what makes you cry.  Those are the pyruvic acids that reach up to your eyes and make you cry.  The other in here are sugars.  Here’s what happens when you cook an onion.  Are you ready for this?  Sugar level.  Acid level.  Here’s what happens when you cook an onion.  Acid level goes down, making the onion taste sweeter. 



TOMATOES PART I (Tuesday, October 21)  There are 23 of them.  That’s right - 23 volatile chemicals in a tomato that make up the flavor of a tomato.  Now you know that craps game that you have at some casinos where there are two dice, and you roll two dice, and if you get the perfect combination you win a lot of money.  Well, what if you were a scientist and you had 23 little dice, and you’re trying to roll the perfect combination of flavor.  Well, there’s one chemical in here I need to tell you about.  It’s called Z-9.  That’s actually not the name.  I just can’t pronounce the name.  And Z-9, when I just cut this tomato, I crushed thousands of cells of Z-9, and Z-9 is what you smell when you slice a tomato.  It is so good.   Now the problem with Z-9 is it dissipates.  It goes.  It leaves.  If flies away after 15 minutes.  So chemical lesson on tomatoes:  Never slice your tomatoes until just before you use them. 

TOMATOES PART II (Wednesday, October 22):  You know yesterday we were talking about when you should properly slice your tomato.  It all has to do with chemistry this week because it’s National Chemistry Week, and we’re going to have a chemistry class in the produce department.  So let’s stick with tomatoes because this is muy importante.  It is really important where you store your tomatoes and why you should store your tomatoes there.  Now, I know many people go to the store.  They buy there tomatoes just like this.   They take them home, and they put them in the refrigerator.  (Gasp)  Never in a million years should you put your tomatoes in a refrigerator.  Let me tell you something.  The tomato is a subtropical fruit just like a banana.  Right in here if you could see it, those little tiny chemicals in there, those little cell structures literally…the molecular cell structure of a tomato literally breaks down with cold temperatures – anything below 50 degrees, and your refrigerator is below 50 degrees.  That’s why when you pull a tomato out of your refrigerator, it’s just so soft. 

LEAF LETTUCE (Thursday, October 23):  Oh, my wife loves leaf lettuce!  Oh, my goodness.  You know, I’d better bring some leaf lettuce home every single week.  She’s going to make some salads.  I love green leaf.  I love red leaf.  I love Romaine.  I love all of them because they’re so colorful.  But you know when you take a leaf lettuce, for example, this nice red leaf lettuce here, the leaf of the lettuce, and you break it up.  Then you put it into a salad, and then you put some olive oil and some vinegar on it, right?  And then in about ten minutes you go to serve it to your family or somebody else, and it’s all wilted.   What in the world happened?  Well, if you could see the chemical makeup…if you could look right in here and see this under a microscope, it would look exactly like a sponge.  Sometimes there are little tiny holes in the leaf caused by little bugs or something, and you pour the olive oil and vinegar on, and guess what happens?  It finds the holes, goes into the sponge, goes throughout that sponge, and makes it wilted.  So, what’s your chemistry lesson here with leaf lettuce?  Don’t put your dressing on until just before you use it. 



POTATOES (Friday, October 24):  Hey, you know, all this week we’ve been having fun in the produce department with chemistry class.  We’ve been talking about the chemistry of some produce items.  So I thought I’d end the week… you know, we’re coming up to…it’s fall time.  I know my wife, just like yours, and maybe you are…you’re making more mashed potatoes.  It’s fall.  I love mashed potatoes.  But you know, have you ever wondered…you take those mashed potatoes and you want to make sure there are no lumps in them so you whip them and you whip them and you whip them and you mash them and you mash them, right?  And you just mash them like I’m going to have no lumps in my mashed potatoes.  Right?  That’s what you’re thinking, but you end up…you see this bowl down there with mashed potatoes in it and you wonder what in the world happened to them?  They’re like glue!  I mean you try to put your spoon in there to spoon them out on the plate and they’re like glue.  Well here’s the chemistry lesson with Russet potatoes.  They’re loaded with starch.  The more you whip up the starch cells, the more those starch cells (slurp)…yep, they hang up together and turn into glue.