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Any of a class of sweet,Soluble Carbohydrate,as sucrose,glucose,sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beets.

We get our energy from the nutrients in food. The main sources of energy are carbohydrates (starches and sugars), fats and proteins. The body can be compared to an engine that converts the energy in food into the energy we need to live. Sugars and starches are forms of carbohydrate. Nutritionists recommend that about half of our energy should be supplied by carbohydrates. The majority of this should be from starchy foods like cereals, rice, potatoes, pasta or bread, with the remainder coming from sugars. During digestion (the process by which we break down food substances ready for absorption and use by the body) complex starchy foods are broken down into sugars.

Marination, also known as marinating, is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking. The origins of the word allude to the use of brine (aqua marina) in the pickling process, which led to the technique of adding flavor by immersion in liquid. The liquid in question, the 'marinade' can be acidic with ingredients such as vinegar, lemon juice, or wine, or savory with soy sauce, brine or other prepared sauces. Along with these liquids, a marinade often contains oils, herbs, and spices to further flavor the food items.



It is commonly used to flavor foods. The process may last seconds or days. Different marinades are used in different cuisines. For example, in Indian cuisine the marinade is usually prepared with yoghurt and spices.

The term shallot is used to describe two different Allium species of plant. The French grey challot or griselle, which has been considered to be the “true shallot” by many, is Allium oschaninii, a species that grows wild from Central to Southwest Asia. Other varieties of shallot are Allium cepa var. aggregatum (multiplier onions), also known as A. ascalonicum.[citation needed]



The botanical name of shallot is Allium ascalonicum Linn and it belongs to the family Liliaceae. Indian names are Ek-kanda-lasun or Gandana (Hindi, Marwari and Punjabi) or Gundhun (Bengali).



Shallots probably originated in Asia, traveling from there to India and the eastern Mediterranean. The name “shallot” comes from Ashkelon, a city in Israel, where people in classical Greek times believed shallots originated.



Like garlic, shallots are formed in clusters of offsets with a head composed of multiple cloves. Their skin color can vary from golden brown to gray to rose red, and their off-white flesh is usually tinged with green or magenta. Shallots are much favored by chefs because of their firm texture and sweet, aromatic, yet pungent, flavor.



This ambiguity[clarification needed] is further confused with scallions, also known as spring or green onions. In some countries, green onions are called shallots, and shallots are referred to by alternative names such as eschallot or eschalotte.



The shallot is a relative of the onion, and tastes a bit like an onion, but has a sweeter, milder flavor. They tend to be more expensive than onions, especially in the United States. They can be stored for at least 6 months.[1]



Shallots are extensively cultivated and much used in cookery, in addition to being pickled. Finely sliced deep-fried shallots are used as a condiment in Asian cuisine.



Shallots are propagated by offsets, which, in the Northern Hemisphere, are often planted in September or October, but the principal crop should not be planted earlier than February or the beginning of March. In planting, the tops of the bulbs should be kept a little above ground, and it is a commendable plan to draw away the soil surrounding the bulbs when their roots have taken hold. They should not be planted on ground recently manured. They come to maturity about July or August, although they can now be found year-round in supermarkets.



Similar to onions, raw shallots release chemicals that irritate the eye when sliced, resulting in tears. See onion for a discussion of this phenomenon.





Onion and shallot output in 2005Shallots appear to contain more flavonoids and phenols than other members of the onion family.[1]



In Australia, the foodstuff industry has renamed a number of vegetables. The name shallot has been applied to scallions, normally called spring onions in Australia, and shallots have been renamed eschalotte. The term French shallot has also been used for Allium oschaninii.[citation needed]



There is a very specific region of shallot gardening in southeastern Ghana.

The Galangal plant (Galanga, Blue Ginger) is a rhizome with culinary and medicinal uses (Lao: ??? "Kha", Thai: ??? "Kha", Malay: lengkuas (Alpinia galangal), Traditional Mandarin: ??, Simplified Mandarin: ??, T:???/S:???, Cantonese: lam keong, ??, Vietnamese: Ri?ng). It is used in various oriental cuisines (for example in Thai cuisine Tom Yum soups and Dtom Kha Gai, Vietnamese Huenian cuisine (Tre) and throughout Indonesian cuisine, for example, in Soto. Though it is related to and resembles ginger, there is little similarity in taste.



In its raw form, galangal has a citrusy, earthy aroma, with hints of pine and soap in the flavor. It is available as a whole root, cut or powdered. The whole fresh root is very hard, and slicing it requires a sharp knife. A mixture of galangal and lime juice is used as a tonic in parts of Southeast Asia. It is said to have the effect of an aphrodisiac, and acts as a stimulant. In the Indonesian language, greater galangal is called lengkuas or laos and lesser galangal is called kencur. It is also known as galanggal, and somewhat confusingly galingale, which is also the name for several plants of the unrelated Cyperus genus of sedges (also with aromatic rhizomes). In Thai language, greater galangal is called "???" (Kha) or "???????" (Kha yai), while lesser galangal is called "????????" (Kha ta daeng).



The word galangal, or its variant galanga is used as a common name for all members of the genus Alpinia, and in common usage can refer to four plants, all in the Zingiberaceae (ginger family):



Alpinia galanga or greater galangal

Alpinia officinarum or lesser galangal

Kaempferia galanga, also called kencur, aromatic ginger or sand ginger

Boesenbergia pandurata, also called Chinese ginger or fingerroot

Alpinia galanga is also known as Chewing John, Little John Chew and galanga root. It is used in African-American folk medicine and hoodoo folk magic.

For most people garlic is eaten only in small quantities so is more important for its great taste than nutritional value. However, recent research has reported that garlic has the ability to reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood, a property attributed to the sulphur containing substance, allicin. Garlic is also supposed to be a natural antiseptic and to cure colds.

Related to the onion, garlic is a small bulb consisting of "cloves". The cloves should be peeled prior to using. The leaves are grass like and the flower rises from a single central stem. When harvesting or purchasing bulbs, they should be white to off white / light yellow and firm. Avoid bulbs which are mushy or soft.

Garlic may be used in many forms such as fresh, dried, processed into supplements and cooking.



Actions / Properties:

Internally - antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, antiseptic, antiviral, hypotensive-vasodilator, cholagogue, antispasmodic, decreases blood cholesterol, increases HDL, anti-atheromatic, PAF antagonist, increases fibrinolytic activity, hypoglycemic, expectorant, diaphoretic, antioxidant, antitumour, antineoplastic, antimutagenic, diuretic, carminative, emmenagogue.

Topcal Uses - antimicrobial, antifungal, expectorant



Flavored oils can add excitement to salads, marinades and sauces but infused oils have the potential to support the growth of Clostridium (C.) botulinum. Although the oil by itself does not pose a risk for botulism, the trendy addition of vegetables, herbs and fruits to oils, to make an oil infusion, can make this product potentially unsafe.



Vegetables, herbs, and fruits are likely to have some degree of soil contamination, especially those that grow on or under the ground. Soil contamination introduces the possibility that C botulinum spores may be added as an unwelcome ingredient in a recipe. If the produce is put into an anaerobic environment, such as a container of oil, Botulism Toxin can be produced and botulism may result upon consumption. Several cases of botulism involving garlic-in-oil preparations brought this hazard to light in the 1980's. In 1985, Vancouver, BC, 37 people got botulism from a garlic-in-oil preparation. This was followed by a 1988 laboratory investigation into the survival of and toxin production by C botulinum in garlic-in-oil preparations. In 1989, 3 people in Kingston, NY, became ill, also from a garlic-in-oil infusion. Thus, in 1989 the FDA issued a ruling, ordering the removal from store shelves of all commercial garlic-in-oil preparations that lacked an acidifying agent, followed by a mandate requiring the addition of an acidifying agent (such as phosphoric or citric acid) to all commercial garlic-in-oil preparations. Acid prevents the growth of the C botulinum, so any spores that might be present in an infusion will not be able to flourish and produce toxin. The acid must be added as the recipe is being prepared.



Are people aware of the slight, but deadly risk presented when these oil infusions are not prepared properly? Consumers need to understand the potentially life-threatening hazard of oil infusions. Oil infusion recipes can still be tasty and safe as long as the following precautions are clearly stated and adhered to:



Wash all soil-contaminated produce before adding it to an oil infusion,

Add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil,

Keep oil infusions refrigerated in order to retard the growth of any microbes,

Discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop and,

When in doubt, throw it out.

Source: Food Safety Notebook, Vol. 9, No. 4, April 1998.

Source:http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/safefood/NEWSLTR/v2n4s08.html

Palm sugar was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm or the date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and may be sold as "coconut sugar." The sugar is a golden brown paste, sold in tubes, blocks or tin cans. It may be light-colored or dark, soft and gooey or hard. As a lightly-processed product of cottage industry, it varies greatly from batch to batch.



In Thai cuisine, palm and "coconut sugar" (nahm dtahn bpeep/buk and nahm dtahn maprao) are used interchangeably. However, it may be an important distinction that "coconut sugar" is not derived from the coconut fruit itself. "Although the names are used interchangeably, palm sugar and coconut sugar are not the same. One comes from the palmyra or sugar palm and the other from coconut palm, but both are produced from the sweet, watery sap that drips from cut flower buds." Kasma Loha-unchit, Exploring Thai Food & Culture: Palm & Coconut Sugar



In Indonesia, sugar made from the Borassus (Palmyra palm) is known as Gula Jawa ("Javanese sugar") or gula merah (red sugar).[1]





A bowl of Gula Melaka Sago.Gula melaka is made by making several slits into the bud of a coconut tree and collecting the sap. Then, the sap is boiled until it thickens after which, in the traditional way, it is poured into bamboo tubes between 3-5 inches in length, and left to solidify to form cylindrical cake blocks. Alternatively it can be poured into glass jars or plastic bags. Gula melaka is used in some savory dishes but mainly in the local desserts and cakes of the Southeast Asian region. Gula Melaka Sago pudding, shown in the picture, is one of many desserts made with gula melaka. It is among some of the more popular gastronomic delights of Peranakan (Chinese-Malay) origin. This dish consists of a bland sago pudding served with gula melaka syrup. In some ways it resembles the international Creme Caramel and differ only in the ingredients used. It can be served either cold or hot. To enrich the pudding, coconut milk or 'santan' its Malay name, is added. Santan is the South-East Asian non-dairy counterpart of the dairy cream, the latter either whipped or in liquid form, is used mainly in Western cuisines but both add richness or provide viscosity when these are required.



Indians have two varieties of Palmyra sugar. One is unrefined and is in the form of hard blocks of dark brown sugar. This known as Karuppatti in Tamil. Kerala in India also has this palm sugar known as karipotti and is used to make coffee known as karipotti kapi.This is used as a sweetener for making certain types of cakes and biscuits. The other is refined and is available as granules of crystalline sugar. This is known as Panam KaRkaNdu. This has medicinal value. It has the power to liquefy phlegm from the lungs. It is also profusely used in treatment of sore throat when dissolved in boiled concentrated milk. Musicians use it on a regular basis in combination with other medicinal spices and herbs.



Palm sugar is often used to sweeten savory food to balance out the salty flavor of fish. Its primary use in Thai cuisine is in sweets and desserts, and somewhat less often in curries and sauces.

Any of a class of sweet,Soluble Carbohydrate,as sucrose,glucose,sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beets.

We get our energy from the nutrients in food. The main sources of energy are carbohydrates (starches and sugars), fats and proteins. The body can be compared to an engine that converts the energy in food into the energy we need to live. Sugars and starches are forms of carbohydrate. Nutritionists recommend that about half of our energy should be supplied by carbohydrates. The majority of this should be from starchy foods like cereals, rice, potatoes, pasta or bread, with the remainder coming from sugars. During digestion (the process by which we break down food substances ready for absorption and use by the body) complex starchy foods are broken down into sugars.

Currently, tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables eaten by Americans. Tomatoes are members of the fruit family, but they are served and prepared as a vegetable. This is why most people consider them a vegetable and not a fruit. They are high in vitamin C and also provide beta-carotene. The National Cancer Institute published a study that showed an association between consuming a diet rich in tomato-based foods and a decreased risk of prostate cancer.



Tomatoes contain large amounts of an antioxidant called lycopene, which may be responsible for this possible positive effect. Tomato paste and sauces contain a greater amount of lycopene, because they are more concentrated than fresh tomatoes.



Lycopene is a bright red carotenoid pigment (phytochemical) found in tomatoes and other red fruits. Lycopene is the most common carotenoid in the human body and is one of the most potent carotenoid antioxidants. Its name is derived from the tomato's species classification, Solanum lycopersicum. Ironically, the highest natural concentrations of lycopene in food are found not in tomatoes, but in watermelon. Almost all dietary lycopene comes from tomato products, however.



Recent research has indicated that lycopene, a carotenoid with potent antioxidant effects which is found in raw tomatoes, may be responsible for the protection against cancers. This is possibly the reason why people living in the Mediterranean who eat lots of tomatoes have a lower rate of some cancers.

Tomato paste, which is available in cans and tubes, consists of tomatoes that have been cooked for several hours, strained and reduced to a deep red, richly flavored concentrate.

Derived from the French vin aigre, "sour wine," vinegar is made by bacterial activity thats converts fermented liquids such as wine, beer or cider into a weak solution of ACETIC ACID (the constituent that makes it sour). Vinegar has been used for centuries for everything from beverages, to an odor-diminisher for strong foods such as cabbage and onions, to a hair rinse and softener. There are a multitude of vinegar varieties available today.



a liquid produced from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid. The acetic acid concentration ranges typically from 4 to 8 percent by volume for table vinegar (typically 5%) and higher concentrations for pickling (up to 18%) although in some countries the minimum strength may be less. Natural vinegars also contain smaller amounts of tartaric acid, citric acid, and other acids. It has been used since ancient times, and is an important element in Western and European, Asian, and other traditional cuisines of the world.



The word "vinegar" derives from the Old French vin aigre, meaning "sour wine." Louis Pasteur showed in 1864 that vinegar results from a natural fermentation process.

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

Genetically Modified soybeans and corn make up the largest portion of genetically engineered crops. When looking at a product label, if any of the following ingredients are listed there’s a good chance it has come from GM corn or soy (unless it’s listed as organic.



Due to cross contamination, wheat may be present. Read food label carefully to ensure it is Gluten Free.

Pungent or aromatic seasonings obtained from thebark, buds, fruit, roots, seeds or stems of various plants and trees (whereasHERBS usually come from theleafy part of a plant). Spices were prized long before recorded history. Thoughthey've always been used to flavor food and drink, throughout the eons spiceshave also been favored for a plethora of other uses including crowning emperors,making medicines and perfumes, religious ceremonies and as burial accoutrementsfor the wealthy. Over 3,000 years ago the Arabs monopolized the spice trade,bringing their rare cargo back from India and the Orient by arduous camelcaravans.

The basic recipe for modern ketchup is tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, allspice, cloves and cinnamon. Onions, celery and other spices are frequent additions.



Most of the lycopene in our diet comes from tomatoes and evidence implies that it is also a powerful antioxidant with potentially positive health benefits.



The word Ketchup is thought to derive from the Chinese word ke-tsiap, (which actually means pickled fish). Ketchup in the 1800s referred to any sauce made with vinegar.

Soya can mean:soybean



The soybean (U.S. and UK) or soya bean (UK) (Glycine max) is a species of legume native to Eastern Asia. It is an annual plant that may vary in growth habit and height. It may grow prostrate, not growing higher than 20 cm (7.8 inches), or even stiffly erect up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) in height. The pods, stems, and leaves are covered with fine brown or gray pubescence. The leaves are trifoliate (sometimes with 5 leaflets), and the leaflets are 6-15 cm (2-6 inches) long and 2-7 cm (1-3 inches) broad; they fall before the seeds are mature. The small, inconspicuous, self-fertile flowers are borne in the axil of the leaf and are either white or purple. The fruit is a hairy pod that grows in clusters of 3-5, with each pod 3-8 cm (1-3 inches) long and usually containing 2-4 (rarely more) seeds 5-11 mm in diameter.



Like corn and some other crops of long domestication, the relationship of the modern soybean to wild-growing species can no longer be traced with any degree of certainty. It is a cultural variety (a cultigen) with a very large number of cultivars. However, it is known that the progenitor of the modern soybean was a vine-like plant, that grew prone on the ground.



Beans are classed as pulses whereas soybeans are classed as oilseeds. The word soy is derived from the Japanese word shoyu (soy sauce/soya sauce).

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean



Extract

The distilled or evaporated oils of foods or plants (such as nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, bark, buds, roots, leaves, meat, poultry, seafood, fish, dairy foods, or eggs) that are dissolved in an alcohol base or allowed to dry to be used as a flavoring. Food extracts as they are often labeled, are used to add a concentrated flavor to many food dishes, especially baked goods and desserts, without adding additional volume. Available in solid (cubes, granules or powdered), liquid or jelled form, extracts may be labeled as pure, natural or artificial. Pure and natural extracts are governed by laws in many countries that require compliance with procedures that take the extract ingredients directly from the named flavor, such as extracting oils directly from the vanilla bean to make pure or natural vanilla extract. Artificial extracts are flavors that do not necessarily use any ingredients directly from a source named for the extract but instead used combinations of ingredients to arrive at a flavor representative of the named food extract, such as artificial lemon extract. Some of the most widely used extracts include vanilla, almond, anise, maple, peppermint, and numerous solid or jelled extracts such as beef and chicken bouillon or meat demi-glaces. As an example of how the pure and natural extract is made, vanilla extract is created by soaking vanilla beans in water and an alcohol-based solution where it ages for several months, during which time the vanilla flavor is extracted from the bean. Anise extract, a sweet licorice tasting flavoring, is produced by dissolving the oil of anise seeds into alcohol.



Grape extract is produced to assist with the wine making process. Compounds from the skin of grapes are extracted and added to the wine in order to impart tannin, color, and body into a wine. The characteristics of the wine can be changed dramatically by the amount of time the wine is in contact with the skins. If the grapes are in contact for too long, the resulting wine may be too potent, or what is sometimes called “over-extracted”.



Juices of fruits and vegetables are often extracted as juice extracts to be used similar to other food extracts, as a flavoring when preparing foods. A common utensil for the purpose of extracting lemon juice is available to assist with home recipes requiring a lemon flavoring.

Wheat flour is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates. Other than gluten flour, all types of wheat flour derive at least 80 percent of their calories from carbohydrates. Depending on the flour type, the percent of calories from protein ranges from 9 to 15 percent, except from gluten, which has a 45 percent protein content. Calories from fat are never more than 5 percent.



In addition, wheat flour provides from 3 g (cake flour) to 15 g (whole-wheat flour) of dietary fiber per 1-cup serving. Wheat flour contains B vitamins, calcium, folacin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium zinc and other trace elements, and minimal amounts of sodium.



Wheat is the most important cereal crop in the world and ubiquitous in our culture. Bread, pasta, bagels, crackers, cakes, muffins and other wheat containing products line our supermarket shelves and fill our grocery baskets. It is luck for us that this popular grain is available throughout the year.



Classes used in the United States are



Durum - Very hard, translucent, light colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta.

Hard Red Spring - Hard, brownish, high protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods.

Hard Red Winter - Hard, brownish, very high protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein.

Soft Red Winter - Soft, brownish, medium protein wheat used for bread.

Hard White - Hard, light colored, opaque, chalky, medium protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing

Soft White - Soft, light colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for bread.

Hard wheats are harder to process and red wheats may need bleaching. Therefore, soft and white wheats usually command higher prices than hard and red wheats on the commodities market.



Wheat, in its natural unrefined state, features a host of important nutrients.



Therefore, to receive benefit from the wholesomeness of wheat it is important to choose wheat products made from whole wheat flour rather than those that are refined and stripped of their natural goodness.



The health benefits of wheat depend entirely on the form in which you eat it. These benefits will be few if you select wheat that has been processed into 60% extraction, bleached white flour. 60% extraction - the standard for most wheat products in the United States, including breads, noodles and pastas, baked goods like rolls or biscuits, and cookies - means that 40% of the original wheat grain was removed, and only 60% is left. Unfortunately, the 40% that gets removed includes the bran and the germ of the wheat grain - its most nutrient-rich parts. In the process of making 60% extraction flour, over half of the vitamin B1, B2, B3, E, folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, iron, and fiber are lost.



Since 1941, laws in the United States have required "enrichment" of processed wheat flour with vitamins B1, B2, B3 and iron in response to the problems created by 60% extraction. Although not nearly as much of these B vitamins and iron are replaced as are removed from 60% extraction flour, "enriched" seems an odd word to describe this process. If you select 100% whole wheat products, however, the bran and the germ of the wheat will remain in your meals, and the health benefits will be impressive! Our food ranking qualified whole wheat (in its original non-enriched form) as a very good source of dietary fiber and manganese, and as a good source of magnesium.



Bran is made up of the outer layers of the wheat kernel. Bran is used in whole wheat flour. It is also used in breakfast cereals.



The germ is tiny - about 2 1/2% of the whole wheat kernel. The germ is the part that will sprout and grow into a new wheat plant if the kernel is planted. Wheat germ is sold in grocery stores and food markets. Whole wheat flour also contains wheat germ.

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

Any of a class of sweet,Soluble Carbohydrate,as sucrose,glucose,sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beets.

We get our energy from the nutrients in food. The main sources of energy are carbohydrates (starches and sugars), fats and proteins. The body can be compared to an engine that converts the energy in food into the energy we need to live. Sugars and starches are forms of carbohydrate. Nutritionists recommend that about half of our energy should be supplied by carbohydrates. The majority of this should be from starchy foods like cereals, rice, potatoes, pasta or bread, with the remainder coming from sugars. During digestion (the process by which we break down food substances ready for absorption and use by the body) complex starchy foods are broken down into sugars.

One of the most widely used colors is caramel, the color of burnt sugar.



There are many different types of caramel color, each engineered to serve a particular purpose in food chemistry. They are all based on the cooking of sugars and starches. Sometimes acids such as acetic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, or phosphoric acid, are used to break the bonds between sugars to create invert sugars, or to make sugars from starches, before the sugars are raised to a higher temperature for carmelization.



The heat is carefully controlled during carmelization to get the right products from the reaction. Besides acids, alkalies and salts may be used to further control the process.



Caramel color is a colloid, a mixture in which solid particles are suspended in water. The particles in colloids have electric charges that keep the particles from clumping together and settling out of solution. The charges can be positive or negative. If a negative coloid is added to a product that has positive colloidal particles in it, the two will attract one another and clump up, making the product cloudy.



Caramel color can be made with either positively or negatively charged particles. This allows manufacturers to use negative colloidal caramel in acidic soft drinks, and positive in beers and soy sauces. Beer has positively charged proteins suspended in it, and soy sauce has a high salt content that requires the more salt-tolerant positive caramel color.



Caramel color is an emulsifying agent as well as a colorant. In soft drinks, it helps keep the flavor oils suspended in the solution.



In chocolate milk, the muddy color of caramel is darkened by the addition of FD&C Red #40 to give what the industry refers to as a "Dutch" chocolate shade. Blues and yellows are sometimes used to give a more brown color.



Caramel color is added to baked goods, to poultry, to milk to give an "eggnog" color, to malt vinegars, canned meats, syrups, and soups, stews, and gravies.



If caramel color is made in North America it is likely to be gluten-free.



The problem with caramel color is that it may or may not contain gluten depending on how it is manufactured. In the USA caramel color must conform with the FDA standard of identity from 21CFR CH.1. This statute says: "the color additive caramel is the dark-brown liquid or solid material resulting from the carefully controlled heat treatment of the following food-grade carbohydrates: Dextrose (corn sugar), invert sugar, lactose (milk sugar), malt syrup (usually from barley malt), molasses (from cane), starch hydrolysates and fractions thereof (can include wheat), sucrose (cane or beet)." Also, acids, alkalis and salts are listed as additives which may be employed to assist the caramelization process.



Source: http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/fdc_colors.html

Used in cooking since 600 B.C., turmeric is the root of a tropical plant related to GINGER. Though native to the Orient, this spice is now also cultivated in India and the Caribbean. It has a bitter, pungent flavor and an intense yellow-orange color. In Biblical times, turmeric was often used to make perfume, a comment on its rather exotic fragrance. Today it's used mainly to add both flavor and color to food. Turmeric is very popular in East Indian cooking and is almost always used in CURRY preparations. It's also a primary ingredient in MUSTARD and is what gives American-style prepared mustard its bright yellow color.

Description

Black and White Pepper are both obtained from the small dried berry of the vine Piper nigrum. For White Pepper, the berry is picked when fully ripe. The outer layer of shunken skin is removed, leaving the dried, grayish-white kernel. It has a milder, more delicate flavor than Black Pepper.



Uses

White Pepper is used whole in pickling spices and marinades. Ground White Pepper is used in light colored foods such as sauces and soups. It is especially popular in European cuisine.



Origins

The major exporter of White Pepper is Indonesia, but other important sources are Malaysia (Sawawak) and Brazil. Indonesian or Muntok White Pepper has a good overall appearance and distinctive flavor. Sarawak Pepper is bolder and more uniform in color than the Muntok variety, but little is imported into the United States. Brazilian Pepper is the mildest flavored.



(Reprint:http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?id=10078)

Coriander is the seed of a small plant. The seeds are almost spherical, one end being slightly pointed, the other slightly flattened. There are many longitudinal ridges. The length of the seed is 3 - 5 mm (1/8” - 3/16”) and the colour, when dried, is usually brown, but may be green or off white. The seed is generally sold dried and in this state is apt to split into halves to reveal two partially hollow hemispheres and occasionally some internal powdery matter. Coriander is available both whole and ground. The fresh leaves of the plant are called cilantro and are used as an herb.

Bouquet: Seeds are sweet and aromatic when ripe. Unripe seeds are said to have an offensive smell. The leaves have a distinctive fragrance.

Flavour: The seeds are warm, mild and sweetish. There is a citrus undertone similar to orange peel. The leaves combine well with many pungent dishes from India, Mexico and the Middle East.

Cumin is the seed of a small umbelliferous plant. The seeds come as paired or separate carpels, and are 3-6mm (1/8-1/4 in) long. They have a striped pattern of nine ridges and oil canals, and are hairy, brownish in colour, boat-shaped, tapering at each extremity, with tiny stalks attached. They resemble caraway seeds, but are lighter in colour and unlike caraway, have minute bristles hardly visible to the naked eye

Cumin is used mainly where highly spiced foods are preferred. It features in Indian, Eastern, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Portuguese and Spanish cookery. It is an ingredient of most curry powders and many savoury spice mixtures, and is used in stews, grills - especially lamb - and chicken dishes. It gives bite to plain rice, and to beans and cakes. Small amounts can be usefully used in aubergine and kidney bean dishes. Cumin is essential in spicy Mexican foods such as chile con carne, casseroled pork and enchiladas with chili sauce

Pungent or aromatic seasonings obtained from thebark, buds, fruit, roots, seeds or stems of various plants and trees (whereasHERBS usually come from theleafy part of a plant). Spices were prized long before recorded history. Thoughthey've always been used to flavor food and drink, throughout the eons spiceshave also been favored for a plethora of other uses including crowning emperors,making medicines and perfumes, religious ceremonies and as burial accoutrementsfor the wealthy. Over 3,000 years ago the Arabs monopolized the spice trade,bringing their rare cargo back from India and the Orient by arduous camelcaravans.

There are numberous cultivated varieties of fennel, including the showy bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var., purpureum)-which has feathery copper-colored leaves, blushed with a dark purple tinge-and Florence fennel, or finocchio (F. vulgare var azoricum)-which swells at the base of the stem to form an edible bulb.



Fennel seed is a small, greenish-brown seed from the "common fennel," one of the two fennel types, and used to flavor cookies, Italian sausages, roasts and liqueurs. Florence fennel, the other type, is a celerylike plant with leathery foliage and a bulbous base that's eaten as a vegetable, sauteed or raw in salads.



FENNEL is another herb which has a hot, sweet flavor. Fennel comes in seed form and adds zest to pies and baked fruit desserts.

Native to China and Vietnam, star anise is today grown almost exclusively in southern China, Indo-China, and Japan. It was first introduced into Europe in the seventeenth century. The oil, produced by a process of steam extraction, is substituted for European aniseed in commercial drinks.



Star anise is the unusual fruit of a small oriental tree. It is, as the name suggests, star shaped, radiating between five and ten pointed boat-shaped sections, about eight on average. These hard sections are seed pods. Tough skinned and rust coloured, they measure up to 3cm (1-1/4”) long. The fruit is picked before it can ripen, and dried. The stars are available whole, or ground to a red-brown powder.

Like anise, star anise has carminative, stomachic, stimulant and diuretic properties. In the East it is used to combat colic and rheumatism. It is a common flavouring for medicinal teas, cough mixtures and pastilles.

A curry is any of a variety of distinctively spiced dishes, best-known in Indian, Thai and other South Asian cuisines, but curry has been adopted into all of the mainstream cuisines of the Asia-Pacific area. Along with tea, curry is one of the few dishes or drinks that is truly "pan-Asian", but specifically, its roots come from India. Curry was later brought to the West by British colonialists in India from the 18th century.

A common ingredient in South East Asian cookery, both the bulbous base and the long lemon flavored leaves are used. The base should be peeled and chopped finely before use. It freezes well. Use anywhere you want an aromatic lemony flavour, it is especially nice with fish, chicken, rice and vegetable dishes. Try adding some leaves to water as you cook rice, or wrapping around a whole fish before cooking. The leaves are generally discarded just before serving like bay leaves. A couple of leaves added to your tea pot when making your usual tea makes a delicious variation.



For most people herbs are eaten in small quantities so they are more important for their taste than nutritional value. Many herbs are reputed to have different health giving properties.

Although most chili peppers are indigenous to South America, they are used and grown around the world. Hot peppers are used in abundance in Mexican, South American, Indonesian, African and Oriental cooking, while the milder peppers are common in European and North American recipes. And, peppers have been cultivated for thousands of years for their medicinal properties, known for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, in addition to their culinary purposes.

The Scoville Unit rating of a pepper is determined by a dilution taste test. Pure ground chili peppers are blended with a sugar-water solution. A panel of testers sips the mixture in increasingly diluted concentrations until it no longer burns the mouth. The Scoville Unit number is based on how much the ground chili needs to be diluted before no heat is detected. (Nowadays, liquid chromatography, rather than Scoville's dilution taste test, is used to evaluate the heat of chili peppers.)

Also known as Indian date, the tamarind is the fruit of a tall shade tree native to Asia and northern Africa and widely grown in India. The large (about 5-inch-long) pods contain small seeds and a sour-sweet pulp that, when dried, becomes extremely sour. Tamarind pulp concentrate is popular as a flavoring in East Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines much like lemon juice is in Western culture

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

This delicious CRUSTACEAN is America's favorite SHELLFISH. Most of the shrimp in the United States comes from bordering waters, notably the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf Coast. There are hundreds of shrimp species, most of which can be divided into two broad classifications-warm-water shrimp and cold-water shrimp. As a broad and general rule, the colder the water, the smaller and more succulent the shrimp. Shrimp come in all manner of colors including reddish- to light brown, pink, deep red, grayish-white, yellow, gray-green and dark green. Some have color striations or mottling on their shells. Because of a heat-caused chemical change, most shrimp shells change color (such as from pale pink to bright red or from red to black) when cooked.

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

This delicious CRUSTACEAN is America's favorite SHELLFISH. Most of the shrimp in the United States comes from bordering waters, notably the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf Coast. There are hundreds of shrimp species, most of which can be divided into two broad classifications-warm-water shrimp and cold-water shrimp. As a broad and general rule, the colder the water, the smaller and more succulent the shrimp. Shrimp come in all manner of colors including reddish- to light brown, pink, deep red, grayish-white, yellow, gray-green and dark green. Some have color striations or mottling on their shells. Because of a heat-caused chemical change, most shrimp shells change color (such as from pale pink to bright red or from red to black) when cooked.

Yeast Extract is an often used synonym for Monosodium Glutimate (MSG), to which many people have an adverse reaction to.

Extract

The distilled or evaporated oils of foods or plants (such as nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, bark, buds, roots, leaves, meat, poultry, seafood, fish, dairy foods, or eggs) that are dissolved in an alcohol base or allowed to dry to be used as a flavoring. Food extracts as they are often labeled, are used to add a concentrated flavor to many food dishes, especially baked goods and desserts, without adding additional volume. Available in solid (cubes, granules or powdered), liquid or jelled form, extracts may be labeled as pure, natural or artificial. Pure and natural extracts are governed by laws in many countries that require compliance with procedures that take the extract ingredients directly from the named flavor, such as extracting oils directly from the vanilla bean to make pure or natural vanilla extract. Artificial extracts are flavors that do not necessarily use any ingredients directly from a source named for the extract but instead used combinations of ingredients to arrive at a flavor representative of the named food extract, such as artificial lemon extract. Some of the most widely used extracts include vanilla, almond, anise, maple, peppermint, and numerous solid or jelled extracts such as beef and chicken bouillon or meat demi-glaces. As an example of how the pure and natural extract is made, vanilla extract is created by soaking vanilla beans in water and an alcohol-based solution where it ages for several months, during which time the vanilla flavor is extracted from the bean. Anise extract, a sweet licorice tasting flavoring, is produced by dissolving the oil of anise seeds into alcohol.



Grape extract is produced to assist with the wine making process. Compounds from the skin of grapes are extracted and added to the wine in order to impart tannin, color, and body into a wine. The characteristics of the wine can be changed dramatically by the amount of time the wine is in contact with the skins. If the grapes are in contact for too long, the resulting wine may be too potent, or what is sometimes called “over-extracted”.



Juices of fruits and vegetables are often extracted as juice extracts to be used similar to other food extracts, as a flavoring when preparing foods. A common utensil for the purpose of extracting lemon juice is available to assist with home recipes requiring a lemon flavoring.

Any of a class of sweet,Soluble Carbohydrate,as sucrose,glucose,sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beets.

We get our energy from the nutrients in food. The main sources of energy are carbohydrates (starches and sugars), fats and proteins. The body can be compared to an engine that converts the energy in food into the energy we need to live. Sugars and starches are forms of carbohydrate. Nutritionists recommend that about half of our energy should be supplied by carbohydrates. The majority of this should be from starchy foods like cereals, rice, potatoes, pasta or bread, with the remainder coming from sugars. During digestion (the process by which we break down food substances ready for absorption and use by the body) complex starchy foods are broken down into sugars.

Without doubt the onion is the most used flavoring vegetable in the world. There is hardly a savoury dish that doesn't include onions or one of its relatives - white and red onions, garlic, chives, shallots, spring onions and leeks. Members of the onion family vary enormously in shape, size, colour, texture and intensity of flavor. Onions, particularly garlic, have also been used as medicines. The ancient Egyptians worshipped onions and during the Middle Ages they were used as currency. Onions give you some vitamin C and fiber. Scientists have recently discovered that flavenoids found in onions may protect people from heart disease.



Cocktail onions

These tiny onions have a sweet white flesh and are sold pickled in vinegar. They are the smallest variety available.

Uses: Serve pickled cocktail onions with a selection of cold meats or with crusty bread and mature Cheddar cheese.

To store: Keep in a cool, dark place for up to 1 year.



Pearl onions

Also known as button or baby onions, these are larger than pickling onions and have a sweet, delicate flavour.

Uses: Add whole to stews and casseroles or cook them very gently in a little butter and a splash of balsamic vinegar for 20-30 minutes until tender, serve with roasted meat.



Pickling onions

These are maincrop onions, picked when they are still small. Available only in the autumn, they have a strong, pungent flavour.

Seasonal availability: September to November.

Uses: Preserve them in vinegar, leave to mature and enjoy them with cheese and cold meats. They can also be added whole to casseroles in place of shallots or standard onions.

To store: Store in a dark, cool, airy place.

To prepare: Chop off the neck and just a little of the base to help the onion stay together. Score a line down the side of the onion and peel away the outer skin and first layer of flesh. To make peeling easier, soak the onions in warm water to soften the skins.



Red onions

Red onions have a mild sweet flavour and an attractive colour.

Uses: As a garnish or combine with tomatoes and red leaf lettuce for a colourful salad, or include in homemade chutneys to serve with cheese and cold meats. Try them quartered and roasted in olive oil.

Seasonal availability: All year, English from October to April.

To store: Store in a dark, cool, airy place.

To prepare: Cut the neck and base away, then score down the side of the onion and remove the skin and first layer of flesh. To help hold back the tears during preparation, chill the onion first for 30 minutes and always remove the root end last. The root contains the largest concentration of sulphuric compounds which make the eyes water.



Shallots

These are not baby onions (as pickling onions are) but a close relation of the onion. They have a mild, delicate flavour which is less overpowering than most onions so do try to use shallots where a recipe specifies if possible. Shallots grow in a similar way to garlic - when you peel one there may be two or three held together at the root.

Seasonal availability: All year.

Uses: Use in recipes where a small amount of onion is used or where a subtle onion flavour is needed. They are often included in rich, creamy sauces where just a hint of onion flavour is needed.

To store: Keep in a cool, dry place.

To prepare: Top and tail shallots and then peel the outer skin away. If there are several bulbs, pull them apart and then slice.



Spanish onions

Onions grown in warm climates are milder than those from cooler regions, consequently Spanish onions have a mild, sweet flavour. Their skins are a rich golden colour and they are one of the largest varieties available.

Seasonal availability: All year.

Uses: Serve raw in salads, stuff and bake them or add to any savoury dish where a subtle onion flavour is required.

To store: Store in a dark, cool, airy place.

To prepare: Cut the neck and base away, then score down the side of the onion and remove the skin and first layer of flesh. To help hold back the tears during preparation, chill them first for 30 minutes and always remove the root end last. The root contains the largest concentration of sulphuric compounds which make the eyes water.



Spring onions

Also known as salad onions, these are onions that have been harvested at a very young age. They have green shoots and a creamy white bulb, both of which can be eaten. They have a mild flavour and are often eaten raw.

Seasonal availability: May to September.

Uses: In salads, stir-fries, omelettes or sandwich fillings.

To store: Keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.

To prepare: Trim off the root and the outer leaves. Serve whole or sliced, the green tops can be snipped using kitchen scissors.



White onions

With a strong, pungent flavour and distinctive white skin and flesh, white onions are increasingly popular.

Uses: Ideal for serving raw in salads or cooked they are very versatile.



Yellow onions

These are the most commonly used onions and they have a golden brown skin. They have a pungent aroma, a strong flavour and are a good all-round onion.

Seasonal availability: All year.

Uses: In a wide variety of dishes from casseroles, pies and quiches to stir-fries, sauces and pizzas.

To store: Keep in a dark, airy place.

To prepare: Cut the neck and base away, then score down the side of the onion and remove the skin and first layer of flesh. To help hold back the tears during preparation, chill them first for 30 minutes and always remove the root end last. The root contains the largest concentration of sulphuric compounds which make the eyes water.

Palm Fruit Oil (PFO) from the spineless palm tree (Elaesis guineensis) Palm Fruit Olein is the light oil fraction from the pressing of the palm fruit, and is approximately 40% saturated and 60% unsaturated fat. Palm Olein is liquid and contains no tranisomerized fats which are found in hydrogenated oils. It is used in a variety of baking applications where a liquid oil is desired. It also has a wide acceptance as a deep fat frying oil due to its natural resistance to oxidation.

Any of various edible oils made from a plant source, such as vegetables, nuts or seeds. See also ALMOND OIL; CANOLA OIL; CORN OIL; COTTONSEED OIL; FATS AND OILS; GRAPESEED OIL; HAZELNUT OIL; OLIVE OIL; PEANUT OIL; PUMPKIN SEED OIL; SAFFLOWER OIL; SESAME OIL; SOYBEAN OIL; SUNFLOWER SEED OIL; WALNUT OIL

Currently, tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables eaten by Americans. Tomatoes are members of the fruit family, but they are served and prepared as a vegetable. This is why most people consider them a vegetable and not a fruit. They are high in vitamin C and also provide beta-carotene. The National Cancer Institute published a study that showed an association between consuming a diet rich in tomato-based foods and a decreased risk of prostate cancer.



Tomatoes contain large amounts of an antioxidant called lycopene, which may be responsible for this possible positive effect. Tomato paste and sauces contain a greater amount of lycopene, because they are more concentrated than fresh tomatoes.



Lycopene is a bright red carotenoid pigment (phytochemical) found in tomatoes and other red fruits. Lycopene is the most common carotenoid in the human body and is one of the most potent carotenoid antioxidants. Its name is derived from the tomato's species classification, Solanum lycopersicum. Ironically, the highest natural concentrations of lycopene in food are found not in tomatoes, but in watermelon. Almost all dietary lycopene comes from tomato products, however.



Recent research has indicated that lycopene, a carotenoid with potent antioxidant effects which is found in raw tomatoes, may be responsible for the protection against cancers. This is possibly the reason why people living in the Mediterranean who eat lots of tomatoes have a lower rate of some cancers.

Although most chili peppers are indigenous to South America, they are used and grown around the world. Hot peppers are used in abundance in Mexican, South American, Indonesian, African and Oriental cooking, while the milder peppers are common in European and North American recipes. And, peppers have been cultivated for thousands of years for their medicinal properties, known for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, in addition to their culinary purposes.

The Scoville Unit rating of a pepper is determined by a dilution taste test. Pure ground chili peppers are blended with a sugar-water solution. A panel of testers sips the mixture in increasingly diluted concentrations until it no longer burns the mouth. The Scoville Unit number is based on how much the ground chili needs to be diluted before no heat is detected. (Nowadays, liquid chromatography, rather than Scoville's dilution taste test, is used to evaluate the heat of chili peppers.)

For most people garlic is eaten only in small quantities so is more important for its great taste than nutritional value. However, recent research has reported that garlic has the ability to reduce levels of cholesterol in the blood, a property attributed to the sulphur containing substance, allicin. Garlic is also supposed to be a natural antiseptic and to cure colds.

Related to the onion, garlic is a small bulb consisting of "cloves". The cloves should be peeled prior to using. The leaves are grass like and the flower rises from a single central stem. When harvesting or purchasing bulbs, they should be white to off white / light yellow and firm. Avoid bulbs which are mushy or soft.

Garlic may be used in many forms such as fresh, dried, processed into supplements and cooking.



Actions / Properties:

Internally - antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anthelmintic, antiseptic, antiviral, hypotensive-vasodilator, cholagogue, antispasmodic, decreases blood cholesterol, increases HDL, anti-atheromatic, PAF antagonist, increases fibrinolytic activity, hypoglycemic, expectorant, diaphoretic, antioxidant, antitumour, antineoplastic, antimutagenic, diuretic, carminative, emmenagogue.

Topcal Uses - antimicrobial, antifungal, expectorant



Flavored oils can add excitement to salads, marinades and sauces but infused oils have the potential to support the growth of Clostridium (C.) botulinum. Although the oil by itself does not pose a risk for botulism, the trendy addition of vegetables, herbs and fruits to oils, to make an oil infusion, can make this product potentially unsafe.



Vegetables, herbs, and fruits are likely to have some degree of soil contamination, especially those that grow on or under the ground. Soil contamination introduces the possibility that C botulinum spores may be added as an unwelcome ingredient in a recipe. If the produce is put into an anaerobic environment, such as a container of oil, Botulism Toxin can be produced and botulism may result upon consumption. Several cases of botulism involving garlic-in-oil preparations brought this hazard to light in the 1980's. In 1985, Vancouver, BC, 37 people got botulism from a garlic-in-oil preparation. This was followed by a 1988 laboratory investigation into the survival of and toxin production by C botulinum in garlic-in-oil preparations. In 1989, 3 people in Kingston, NY, became ill, also from a garlic-in-oil infusion. Thus, in 1989 the FDA issued a ruling, ordering the removal from store shelves of all commercial garlic-in-oil preparations that lacked an acidifying agent, followed by a mandate requiring the addition of an acidifying agent (such as phosphoric or citric acid) to all commercial garlic-in-oil preparations. Acid prevents the growth of the C botulinum, so any spores that might be present in an infusion will not be able to flourish and produce toxin. The acid must be added as the recipe is being prepared.



Are people aware of the slight, but deadly risk presented when these oil infusions are not prepared properly? Consumers need to understand the potentially life-threatening hazard of oil infusions. Oil infusion recipes can still be tasty and safe as long as the following precautions are clearly stated and adhered to:



Wash all soil-contaminated produce before adding it to an oil infusion,

Add an acidifying agent such as lemon juice or vinegar to the recipe at the rate of one tablespoon per cup of oil,

Keep oil infusions refrigerated in order to retard the growth of any microbes,

Discard infusions after one week, or sooner if apparent cloudiness, gas bubbles, or foul odor develop and,

When in doubt, throw it out.

Source: Food Safety Notebook, Vol. 9, No. 4, April 1998.

Source:http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/safefood/NEWSLTR/v2n4s08.html

Palm sugar was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm or the date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and may be sold as "coconut sugar." The sugar is a golden brown paste, sold in tubes, blocks or tin cans. It may be light-colored or dark, soft and gooey or hard. As a lightly-processed product of cottage industry, it varies greatly from batch to batch.



In Thai cuisine, palm and "coconut sugar" (nahm dtahn bpeep/buk and nahm dtahn maprao) are used interchangeably. However, it may be an important distinction that "coconut sugar" is not derived from the coconut fruit itself. "Although the names are used interchangeably, palm sugar and coconut sugar are not the same. One comes from the palmyra or sugar palm and the other from coconut palm, but both are produced from the sweet, watery sap that drips from cut flower buds." Kasma Loha-unchit, Exploring Thai Food & Culture: Palm & Coconut Sugar



In Indonesia, sugar made from the Borassus (Palmyra palm) is known as Gula Jawa ("Javanese sugar") or gula merah (red sugar).[1]





A bowl of Gula Melaka Sago.Gula melaka is made by making several slits into the bud of a coconut tree and collecting the sap. Then, the sap is boiled until it thickens after which, in the traditional way, it is poured into bamboo tubes between 3-5 inches in length, and left to solidify to form cylindrical cake blocks. Alternatively it can be poured into glass jars or plastic bags. Gula melaka is used in some savory dishes but mainly in the local desserts and cakes of the Southeast Asian region. Gula Melaka Sago pudding, shown in the picture, is one of many desserts made with gula melaka. It is among some of the more popular gastronomic delights of Peranakan (Chinese-Malay) origin. This dish consists of a bland sago pudding served with gula melaka syrup. In some ways it resembles the international Creme Caramel and differ only in the ingredients used. It can be served either cold or hot. To enrich the pudding, coconut milk or 'santan' its Malay name, is added. Santan is the South-East Asian non-dairy counterpart of the dairy cream, the latter either whipped or in liquid form, is used mainly in Western cuisines but both add richness or provide viscosity when these are required.



Indians have two varieties of Palmyra sugar. One is unrefined and is in the form of hard blocks of dark brown sugar. This known as Karuppatti in Tamil. Kerala in India also has this palm sugar known as karipotti and is used to make coffee known as karipotti kapi.This is used as a sweetener for making certain types of cakes and biscuits. The other is refined and is available as granules of crystalline sugar. This is known as Panam KaRkaNdu. This has medicinal value. It has the power to liquefy phlegm from the lungs. It is also profusely used in treatment of sore throat when dissolved in boiled concentrated milk. Musicians use it on a regular basis in combination with other medicinal spices and herbs.



Palm sugar is often used to sweeten savory food to balance out the salty flavor of fish. Its primary use in Thai cuisine is in sweets and desserts, and somewhat less often in curries and sauces.

Growth Habit: The pineapple plant is a herbaceous perennial, 2-1/2 to 5 ft. high with a spread of 3 to 4 ft. It is essentially a short, stout stem with a rosette of waxy, straplike leaves.

Foliage: The long-pointed leaves are 20 - 72 in. in length, usually needle tipped and generally bearing sharp, upcurved spines on the margins. They may be all green or variously striped with red, yellow or ivory down the middle or near the margins. As the stem continues to grow, it acquires at its apex a compact tuft of stiff, short leaves called the crown or top. Occasionally a plant may bear 2 or more heads instead of the normal one.



Flowers: At blooming time, the stem elongates and enlarges near the apex and puts forth an inflorescence of small purple or red flowers. The flowers are pollinated by humming-birds, and these flowers usually develop small, hard seeds. Seeds are generally not found in commercially grown pineapple.



Fruit: The oval to cylindrical-shaped, compound fruit develops from many small fruits fused together. It is both juicy and fleshy with the stem serving as the fibrous core. The tough, waxy rind may be dark green, yellow, orange-yellow or reddish when the fruit is ripe. The flesh ranges from nearly white to yellow. In size the fruits are up to 12 in. long and weigh 1 to 10 pounds or more.



The presence of pineapples on Caribbean islands was not a natural event, but rather the result of centuries of indian migration and commerce. Accomplished dugout canoe navigators, the maritime tribes explored, raided and traded across a vast expanse of tropical oceans, seas and river systems. The herbaceous plant they called "anana," or "excellent fruit," originally evolved in the inland areas of what is now Brazil and Paraguay and was widely transplanted and cultivated. Highly regarded for its intense sweetness, the "excellent fruit" was a staple of indian feasts and rites related to tribal affirmation. It was also used to produce Indian wine.



The first encounter between a European and a pineapple occurred in November, 1493, when Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage to the Caribbean region, lowered anchor in a cove off the lush, volcanic island of Guadaloupe and went ashore to inspect a deserted Carib village. There, amidst parrot-flecked jungle foliage and wooden pillars spiraled with serpent carvings, his crew came upon cook pots filled with human body parts. Nearby were piles of freshly gathered vegetables and fruits, including pineapples. The European sailors ate, enjoyed and recorded the curious new fruit which had an abrasive, segmented exterior like a pine cone and a firm interior pulp like an apple.

Beans are low in fat and loaded with nutrients, and we'd probably eat more of them if they weren't also loaded with flatulence-producing enzymes. There are ways to enjoy beans without having to forego social appointments, however. One is to change the water from time to time while you're soaking or cooking the beans. Pouring off the water helps gets rid of the indigestible complex sugars that create gas in your intestine. It also helps to cook the beans thoroughly, until they can be easily mashed with a fork. Most bean aficionados prefer dried beans, but canned beans are also available. These don't need to be cooked, but they tend to be saltier and less flavorful than reconstituted dried beans.

Any of a class of sweet,Soluble Carbohydrate,as sucrose,glucose,sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beets.

We get our energy from the nutrients in food. The main sources of energy are carbohydrates (starches and sugars), fats and proteins. The body can be compared to an engine that converts the energy in food into the energy we need to live. Sugars and starches are forms of carbohydrate. Nutritionists recommend that about half of our energy should be supplied by carbohydrates. The majority of this should be from starchy foods like cereals, rice, potatoes, pasta or bread, with the remainder coming from sugars. During digestion (the process by which we break down food substances ready for absorption and use by the body) complex starchy foods are broken down into sugars.

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

A common ingredient in South East Asian cookery, both the bulbous base and the long lemon flavored leaves are used. The base should be peeled and chopped finely before use. It freezes well. Use anywhere you want an aromatic lemony flavour, it is especially nice with fish, chicken, rice and vegetable dishes. Try adding some leaves to water as you cook rice, or wrapping around a whole fish before cooking. The leaves are generally discarded just before serving like bay leaves. A couple of leaves added to your tea pot when making your usual tea makes a delicious variation.



For most people herbs are eaten in small quantities so they are more important for their taste than nutritional value. Many herbs are reputed to have different health giving properties.

Cumin is the seed of a small umbelliferous plant. The seeds come as paired or separate carpels, and are 3-6mm (1/8-1/4 in) long. They have a striped pattern of nine ridges and oil canals, and are hairy, brownish in colour, boat-shaped, tapering at each extremity, with tiny stalks attached. They resemble caraway seeds, but are lighter in colour and unlike caraway, have minute bristles hardly visible to the naked eye

Cumin is used mainly where highly spiced foods are preferred. It features in Indian, Eastern, Middle Eastern, Mexican, Portuguese and Spanish cookery. It is an ingredient of most curry powders and many savoury spice mixtures, and is used in stews, grills - especially lamb - and chicken dishes. It gives bite to plain rice, and to beans and cakes. Small amounts can be usefully used in aubergine and kidney bean dishes. Cumin is essential in spicy Mexican foods such as chile con carne, casseroled pork and enchiladas with chili sauce

Pungent or aromatic seasonings obtained from thebark, buds, fruit, roots, seeds or stems of various plants and trees (whereasHERBS usually come from theleafy part of a plant). Spices were prized long before recorded history. Thoughthey've always been used to flavor food and drink, throughout the eons spiceshave also been favored for a plethora of other uses including crowning emperors,making medicines and perfumes, religious ceremonies and as burial accoutrementsfor the wealthy. Over 3,000 years ago the Arabs monopolized the spice trade,bringing their rare cargo back from India and the Orient by arduous camelcaravans.

Coriander is the seed of a small plant. The seeds are almost spherical, one end being slightly pointed, the other slightly flattened. There are many longitudinal ridges. The length of the seed is 3 - 5 mm (1/8” - 3/16”) and the colour, when dried, is usually brown, but may be green or off white. The seed is generally sold dried and in this state is apt to split into halves to reveal two partially hollow hemispheres and occasionally some internal powdery matter. Coriander is available both whole and ground. The fresh leaves of the plant are called cilantro and are used as an herb.

Bouquet: Seeds are sweet and aromatic when ripe. Unripe seeds are said to have an offensive smell. The leaves have a distinctive fragrance.

Flavour: The seeds are warm, mild and sweetish. There is a citrus undertone similar to orange peel. The leaves combine well with many pungent dishes from India, Mexico and the Middle East.

There are numberous cultivated varieties of fennel, including the showy bronze fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var., purpureum)-which has feathery copper-colored leaves, blushed with a dark purple tinge-and Florence fennel, or finocchio (F. vulgare var azoricum)-which swells at the base of the stem to form an edible bulb.



Fennel seed is a small, greenish-brown seed from the "common fennel," one of the two fennel types, and used to flavor cookies, Italian sausages, roasts and liqueurs. Florence fennel, the other type, is a celerylike plant with leathery foliage and a bulbous base that's eaten as a vegetable, sauteed or raw in salads.



FENNEL is another herb which has a hot, sweet flavor. Fennel comes in seed form and adds zest to pies and baked fruit desserts.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is a small drupe approximately five millimetres in diameter, dark red when fully mature, containing a single seed. Peppercorns, and the powdered pepper derived from grinding them, may be described as black pepper, white pepper, green pepper, and very often simply pepper. The terms pink peppercorns, red pepper (as in bell or chile), and green pepper (as in bell or chile) are also used to describe the fruits of other, unrelated plants. However, green peppercorns are simply the immature black peppercorns.



Black pepper is native to South India (Tamil:milagu, ?????; Kannada:meNasu, ?????; Malayalam:kurumulaku, ?????????; Telugu:miriyam, ??????; Konkani:miriya konu, Marathi: Miri ????) and is extensively cultivated there and elsewhere in tropical regions. Black pepper is also cultivated in the Coorg area of Karnataka.



Dried ground pepper is one of the most common spices in European cuisine and its descendants, having been known and prized since antiquity for both its flavor and its use as a medicine. The spiciness of black pepper is due to the chemical piperine. It may be found on nearly every dinner table in some parts of the world, often alongside table salt.



The word "pepper" is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit pippali, the word for long pepper[2] via the Latin piper which was used by the Romans to refer both to pepper and long pepper, as the Romans erroneously believed that both of these spices were derived from the same plant.[citation needed] The English word for pepper is derived from the Old English pipor. The Latin word is also the source of German Pfeffer, French poivre, Dutch peper, and other similar forms. In the 16th century, pepper started referring to the unrelated New World chile peppers as well. "Pepper" was used in a figurative sense to mean "spirit" or "energy" at least as far back as the 1840s; in the early 20th century, this was shortened to pep

Used in cooking since 600 B.C., turmeric is the root of a tropical plant related to GINGER. Though native to the Orient, this spice is now also cultivated in India and the Caribbean. It has a bitter, pungent flavor and an intense yellow-orange color. In Biblical times, turmeric was often used to make perfume, a comment on its rather exotic fragrance. Today it's used mainly to add both flavor and color to food. Turmeric is very popular in East Indian cooking and is almost always used in CURRY preparations. It's also a primary ingredient in MUSTARD and is what gives American-style prepared mustard its bright yellow color.

A curry is any of a variety of distinctively spiced dishes, best-known in Indian, Thai and other South Asian cuisines, but curry has been adopted into all of the mainstream cuisines of the Asia-Pacific area. Along with tea, curry is one of the few dishes or drinks that is truly "pan-Asian", but specifically, its roots come from India. Curry was later brought to the West by British colonialists in India from the 18th century.

The Galangal plant (Galanga, Blue Ginger) is a rhizome with culinary and medicinal uses (Lao: ??? "Kha", Thai: ??? "Kha", Malay: lengkuas (Alpinia galangal), Traditional Mandarin: ??, Simplified Mandarin: ??, T:???/S:???, Cantonese: lam keong, ??, Vietnamese: Ri?ng). It is used in various oriental cuisines (for example in Thai cuisine Tom Yum soups and Dtom Kha Gai, Vietnamese Huenian cuisine (Tre) and throughout Indonesian cuisine, for example, in Soto. Though it is related to and resembles ginger, there is little similarity in taste.



In its raw form, galangal has a citrusy, earthy aroma, with hints of pine and soap in the flavor. It is available as a whole root, cut or powdered. The whole fresh root is very hard, and slicing it requires a sharp knife. A mixture of galangal and lime juice is used as a tonic in parts of Southeast Asia. It is said to have the effect of an aphrodisiac, and acts as a stimulant. In the Indonesian language, greater galangal is called lengkuas or laos and lesser galangal is called kencur. It is also known as galanggal, and somewhat confusingly galingale, which is also the name for several plants of the unrelated Cyperus genus of sedges (also with aromatic rhizomes). In Thai language, greater galangal is called "???" (Kha) or "???????" (Kha yai), while lesser galangal is called "????????" (Kha ta daeng).



The word galangal, or its variant galanga is used as a common name for all members of the genus Alpinia, and in common usage can refer to four plants, all in the Zingiberaceae (ginger family):



Alpinia galanga or greater galangal

Alpinia officinarum or lesser galangal

Kaempferia galanga, also called kencur, aromatic ginger or sand ginger

Boesenbergia pandurata, also called Chinese ginger or fingerroot

Alpinia galanga is also known as Chewing John, Little John Chew and galanga root. It is used in African-American folk medicine and hoodoo folk magic.

Of African origin but now common in tropical and sub-tropical Asia. An oil is extracted from the seed and used for cooking, salad oil and margarines. It is also available as toasted sesame oil for oriental cooking. The whole seeds can also be eaten and are most often seen as a decoration on cakes, confectionery etc. Sesame seed paste, tahini, is used in many dishes e.g. hummus. Halva, a sweet made from sesame seeds is often found in health food shops. A good source of protein and calcium,

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

Cornstarch, or cornflour, is the starch of the maize grain, commonly known as corn. It is also ground from the endosperm, or white heart, of the corn kernel. It has a distinctive appearance and feel when mixed raw with water or milk, giving easily to gentle pressure but resisting sudden pressure. It is usually included as an anti-caking agent in powdered sugar (10X or confectioner's sugar). For this reason, recipes calling for powdered sugar often call for at least light cooking to remove the raw cornstarch taste.



Cornstarch is often used as a binder in puddings and similar foods. Most of the packaged pudding mixes available in grocery stores include cornstarch. Cornstarch puddings may be easily made at home, benefiting from the use of a double boiler. The most basic such pudding may be made only from milk, sugar, cornstarch and a flavoring agent.



It is also used as a thickener in many recipes. Cornstarch is best dissolved in cold water, as it forms obstinate lumps when mixed with warm or hot water.



Cornstarch also has many uses in the manufacturing of environmentally-friendly products. For example, in 2004, the Japanese company Pioneer announced a biodegradable Blu-Ray disc made out of cornstarch.



Cornstarch has been used as a replacement for talcum powder by some.



Due to cross contamination, wheat may be present. Read food label carefully to ensure it is Gluten Free.

Corn starch does not trigger the autoimmune response in celiac disease. It contains a form of gluten (a type of combined grain protein), but not the same form as wheat, barley, rye, kamut, spelt, and triticale. ??If the corn starch is not contaminated, it is safe for celiacs



Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornstarch

The anchovies are a family (Engraulidae) of small, common salt-water fish. The anchovy is a small green fish with blue reflections due to a silver longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. It is maximum nine inches (~23 cm) in length and body shape is variable with more slender fish in northern populations. The snout is blunt with small, sharp teeth in both jaws. The mouth is larger than those of herrings and silversides, two fish which they closely resemble. It eats plankton and fry (recently-hatched fish).

They are found in scattered areas throughout the world's oceans, but are concentrated in temperate waters, and are rare or absent in very cold or very warm seas. It is generally very accepting of a wide range of temperatures and salinity. Large schools can be found in shallow, brackish areas with muddy bottoms, as in estuaries and bays. Anchovies are abundant in the Mediterranean, and are regularly caught on the coasts of Sicily, Italy, France, and Spain. They are also found on the coast of northern Africa. The range of the species also extends along the Atlantic coast of Europe to the south of Norway. Spawning occurs between October and March, but not in water colder than 12° C (53.6° F). The anchovy appears to spawn at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the shore, near the surface of the water.



Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchovy

This delicious CRUSTACEAN is America's favorite SHELLFISH. Most of the shrimp in the United States comes from bordering waters, notably the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf Coast. There are hundreds of shrimp species, most of which can be divided into two broad classifications-warm-water shrimp and cold-water shrimp. As a broad and general rule, the colder the water, the smaller and more succulent the shrimp. Shrimp come in all manner of colors including reddish- to light brown, pink, deep red, grayish-white, yellow, gray-green and dark green. Some have color striations or mottling on their shells. Because of a heat-caused chemical change, most shrimp shells change color (such as from pale pink to bright red or from red to black) when cooked.

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

This delicious CRUSTACEAN is America's favorite SHELLFISH. Most of the shrimp in the United States comes from bordering waters, notably the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf Coast. There are hundreds of shrimp species, most of which can be divided into two broad classifications-warm-water shrimp and cold-water shrimp. As a broad and general rule, the colder the water, the smaller and more succulent the shrimp. Shrimp come in all manner of colors including reddish- to light brown, pink, deep red, grayish-white, yellow, gray-green and dark green. Some have color striations or mottling on their shells. Because of a heat-caused chemical change, most shrimp shells change color (such as from pale pink to bright red or from red to black) when cooked.

Soya can mean:soybean



The soybean (U.S. and UK) or soya bean (UK) (Glycine max) is a species of legume native to Eastern Asia. It is an annual plant that may vary in growth habit and height. It may grow prostrate, not growing higher than 20 cm (7.8 inches), or even stiffly erect up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) in height. The pods, stems, and leaves are covered with fine brown or gray pubescence. The leaves are trifoliate (sometimes with 5 leaflets), and the leaflets are 6-15 cm (2-6 inches) long and 2-7 cm (1-3 inches) broad; they fall before the seeds are mature. The small, inconspicuous, self-fertile flowers are borne in the axil of the leaf and are either white or purple. The fruit is a hairy pod that grows in clusters of 3-5, with each pod 3-8 cm (1-3 inches) long and usually containing 2-4 (rarely more) seeds 5-11 mm in diameter.



Like corn and some other crops of long domestication, the relationship of the modern soybean to wild-growing species can no longer be traced with any degree of certainty. It is a cultural variety (a cultigen) with a very large number of cultivars. However, it is known that the progenitor of the modern soybean was a vine-like plant, that grew prone on the ground.



Beans are classed as pulses whereas soybeans are classed as oilseeds. The word soy is derived from the Japanese word shoyu (soy sauce/soya sauce).

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean



Extract

The distilled or evaporated oils of foods or plants (such as nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, bark, buds, roots, leaves, meat, poultry, seafood, fish, dairy foods, or eggs) that are dissolved in an alcohol base or allowed to dry to be used as a flavoring. Food extracts as they are often labeled, are used to add a concentrated flavor to many food dishes, especially baked goods and desserts, without adding additional volume. Available in solid (cubes, granules or powdered), liquid or jelled form, extracts may be labeled as pure, natural or artificial. Pure and natural extracts are governed by laws in many countries that require compliance with procedures that take the extract ingredients directly from the named flavor, such as extracting oils directly from the vanilla bean to make pure or natural vanilla extract. Artificial extracts are flavors that do not necessarily use any ingredients directly from a source named for the extract but instead used combinations of ingredients to arrive at a flavor representative of the named food extract, such as artificial lemon extract. Some of the most widely used extracts include vanilla, almond, anise, maple, peppermint, and numerous solid or jelled extracts such as beef and chicken bouillon or meat demi-glaces. As an example of how the pure and natural extract is made, vanilla extract is created by soaking vanilla beans in water and an alcohol-based solution where it ages for several months, during which time the vanilla flavor is extracted from the bean. Anise extract, a sweet licorice tasting flavoring, is produced by dissolving the oil of anise seeds into alcohol.



Grape extract is produced to assist with the wine making process. Compounds from the skin of grapes are extracted and added to the wine in order to impart tannin, color, and body into a wine. The characteristics of the wine can be changed dramatically by the amount of time the wine is in contact with the skins. If the grapes are in contact for too long, the resulting wine may be too potent, or what is sometimes called “over-extracted”.



Juices of fruits and vegetables are often extracted as juice extracts to be used similar to other food extracts, as a flavoring when preparing foods. A common utensil for the purpose of extracting lemon juice is available to assist with home recipes requiring a lemon flavoring.

Wheat flour is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates. Other than gluten flour, all types of wheat flour derive at least 80 percent of their calories from carbohydrates. Depending on the flour type, the percent of calories from protein ranges from 9 to 15 percent, except from gluten, which has a 45 percent protein content. Calories from fat are never more than 5 percent.



In addition, wheat flour provides from 3 g (cake flour) to 15 g (whole-wheat flour) of dietary fiber per 1-cup serving. Wheat flour contains B vitamins, calcium, folacin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium zinc and other trace elements, and minimal amounts of sodium.



Wheat is the most important cereal crop in the world and ubiquitous in our culture. Bread, pasta, bagels, crackers, cakes, muffins and other wheat containing products line our supermarket shelves and fill our grocery baskets. It is luck for us that this popular grain is available throughout the year.



Classes used in the United States are



Durum - Very hard, translucent, light colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta.

Hard Red Spring - Hard, brownish, high protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods.

Hard Red Winter - Hard, brownish, very high protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein.

Soft Red Winter - Soft, brownish, medium protein wheat used for bread.

Hard White - Hard, light colored, opaque, chalky, medium protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing

Soft White - Soft, light colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for bread.

Hard wheats are harder to process and red wheats may need bleaching. Therefore, soft and white wheats usually command higher prices than hard and red wheats on the commodities market.



Wheat, in its natural unrefined state, features a host of important nutrients.



Therefore, to receive benefit from the wholesomeness of wheat it is important to choose wheat products made from whole wheat flour rather than those that are refined and stripped of their natural goodness.



The health benefits of wheat depend entirely on the form in which you eat it. These benefits will be few if you select wheat that has been processed into 60% extraction, bleached white flour. 60% extraction - the standard for most wheat products in the United States, including breads, noodles and pastas, baked goods like rolls or biscuits, and cookies - means that 40% of the original wheat grain was removed, and only 60% is left. Unfortunately, the 40% that gets removed includes the bran and the germ of the wheat grain - its most nutrient-rich parts. In the process of making 60% extraction flour, over half of the vitamin B1, B2, B3, E, folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, iron, and fiber are lost.



Since 1941, laws in the United States have required "enrichment" of processed wheat flour with vitamins B1, B2, B3 and iron in response to the problems created by 60% extraction. Although not nearly as much of these B vitamins and iron are replaced as are removed from 60% extraction flour, "enriched" seems an odd word to describe this process. If you select 100% whole wheat products, however, the bran and the germ of the wheat will remain in your meals, and the health benefits will be impressive! Our food ranking qualified whole wheat (in its original non-enriched form) as a very good source of dietary fiber and manganese, and as a good source of magnesium.



Bran is made up of the outer layers of the wheat kernel. Bran is used in whole wheat flour. It is also used in breakfast cereals.



The germ is tiny - about 2 1/2% of the whole wheat kernel. The germ is the part that will sprout and grow into a new wheat plant if the kernel is planted. Wheat germ is sold in grocery stores and food markets. Whole wheat flour also contains wheat germ.

Salt is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients around. Those who think of salt only as something used to perk up flavor might wonder what could possibly give this ingredient the level of importance it has gained through the ages. In reality, there is much more to this crystalline cube than first meets the eye.



Besides enhancing taste, salt has several other functions in food products. It acts as an antimicrobial or microbiological control agent. It contributes to certain chemical reactions that create a wide variety of food characteristics.



Sometimes the terms "salt" and "sodium" are used interchangeably, but technically this is not correct. "Salt" is sodium chloride. By weight, it is 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride.

Most foods and tap water contain sodium and chloride. Sodium is an essential nutrient, a mineral that the body cannot manufacture itself.

Because of sodium's importance to your body, the excretory and nervous systems guard against under-consumption of salt, which is a threat to your body's nerves and muscles. Other ions such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium are also very important. Concentrations of these ions are held in narrow ranges by the kidney.



The association between eating salt and the risk of blood pressure increasing is difficult to quantify. Some people are sensitive to changes in salt intake whereas others can adjust so that blood pressure does not rise at all.



Americans typically consume 4,000-8,000 mg each day, well above their daily needs. A goal for moderation for all adults, (including pregnancy and lactation) is approximately 2,400 mg of sodium per day.

Any of a class of sweet,Soluble Carbohydrate,as sucrose,glucose,sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beets.

We get our energy from the nutrients in food. The main sources of energy are carbohydrates (starches and sugars), fats and proteins. The body can be compared to an engine that converts the energy in food into the energy we need to live. Sugars and starches are forms of carbohydrate. Nutritionists recommend that about half of our energy should be supplied by carbohydrates. The majority of this should be from starchy foods like cereals, rice, potatoes, pasta or bread, with the remainder coming from sugars. During digestion (the process by which we break down food substances ready for absorption and use by the body) complex starchy foods are broken down into sugars.

One of the most widely used colors is caramel, the color of burnt sugar.



There are many different types of caramel color, each engineered to serve a particular purpose in food chemistry. They are all based on the cooking of sugars and starches. Sometimes acids such as acetic acid, citric acid, lactic acid, or phosphoric acid, are used to break the bonds between sugars to create invert sugars, or to make sugars from starches, before the sugars are raised to a higher temperature for carmelization.



The heat is carefully controlled during carmelization to get the right products from the reaction. Besides acids, alkalies and salts may be used to further control the process.



Caramel color is a colloid, a mixture in which solid particles are suspended in water. The particles in colloids have electric charges that keep the particles from clumping together and settling out of solution. The charges can be positive or negative. If a negative coloid is added to a product that has positive colloidal particles in it, the two will attract one another and clump up, making the product cloudy.



Caramel color can be made with either positively or negatively charged particles. This allows manufacturers to use negative colloidal caramel in acidic soft drinks, and positive in beers and soy sauces. Beer has positively charged proteins suspended in it, and soy sauce has a high salt content that requires the more salt-tolerant positive caramel color.



Caramel color is an emulsifying agent as well as a colorant. In soft drinks, it helps keep the flavor oils suspended in the solution.



In chocolate milk, the muddy color of caramel is darkened by the addition of FD&C Red #40 to give what the industry refers to as a "Dutch" chocolate shade. Blues and yellows are sometimes used to give a more brown color.



Caramel color is added to baked goods, to poultry, to milk to give an "eggnog" color, to malt vinegars, canned meats, syrups, and soups, stews, and gravies.



If caramel color is made in North America it is likely to be gluten-free.



The problem with caramel color is that it may or may not contain gluten depending on how it is manufactured. In the USA caramel color must conform with the FDA standard of identity from 21CFR CH.1. This statute says: "the color additive caramel is the dark-brown liquid or solid material resulting from the carefully controlled heat treatment of the following food-grade carbohydrates: Dextrose (corn sugar), invert sugar, lactose (milk sugar), malt syrup (usually from barley malt), molasses (from cane), starch hydrolysates and fractions thereof (can include wheat), sucrose (cane or beet)." Also, acids, alkalis and salts are listed as additives which may be employed to assist the caramelization process.



Source: http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/fdc_colors.html

This delicious CRUSTACEAN is America's favorite SHELLFISH. Most of the shrimp in the United States comes from bordering waters, notably the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf Coast. There are hundreds of shrimp species, most of which can be divided into two broad classifications-warm-water shrimp and cold-water shrimp. As a broad and general rule, the colder the water, the smaller and more succulent the shrimp. Shrimp come in all manner of colors including reddish- to light brown, pink, deep red, grayish-white, yellow, gray-green and dark green. Some have color striations or mottling on their shells. Because of a heat-caused chemical change, most shrimp shells change color (such as from pale pink to bright red or from red to black) when cooked.

Yeast Extract is an often used synonym for Monosodium Glutimate (MSG), to which many people have an adverse reaction to.

Extract

The distilled or evaporated oils of foods or plants (such as nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, bark, buds, roots, leaves, meat, poultry, seafood, fish, dairy foods, or eggs) that are dissolved in an alcohol base or allowed to dry to be used as a flavoring. Food extracts as they are often labeled, are used to add a concentrated flavor to many food dishes, especially baked goods and desserts, without adding additional volume. Available in solid (cubes, granules or powdered), liquid or jelled form, extracts may be labeled as pure, natural or artificial. Pure and natural extracts are governed by laws in many countries that require compliance with procedures that take the extract ingredients directly from the named flavor, such as extracting oils directly from the vanilla bean to make pure or natural vanilla extract. Artificial extracts are flavors that do not necessarily use any ingredients directly from a source named for the extract but instead used combinations of ingredients to arrive at a flavor representative of the named food extract, such as artificial lemon extract. Some of the most widely used extracts include vanilla, almond, anise, maple, peppermint, and numerous solid or jelled extracts such as beef and chicken bouillon or meat demi-glaces. As an example of how the pure and natural extract is made, vanilla extract is created by soaking vanilla beans in water and an alcohol-based solution where it ages for several months, during which time the vanilla flavor is extracted from the bean. Anise extract, a sweet licorice tasting flavoring, is produced by dissolving the oil of anise seeds into alcohol.



Grape extract is produced to assist with the wine making process. Compounds from the skin of grapes are extracted and added to the wine in order to impart tannin, color, and body into a wine. The characteristics of the wine can be changed dramatically by the amount of time the wine is in contact with the skins. If the grapes are in contact for too long, the resulting wine may be too potent, or what is sometimes called “over-extracted”.



Juices of fruits and vegetables are often extracted as juice extracts to be used similar to other food extracts, as a flavoring when preparing foods. A common utensil for the purpose of extracting lemon juice is available to assist with home recipes requiring a lemon flavoring.

A colorless, crystalline organic compound belonging to the family of carboxylic acids, present in practically all plants and in many animal tissues and fluids. It is one of a series of compounds involved in the physiological oxidation of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and water.



First isolated from lemon juice by a Swedish chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in 1784, citric acid is manufactured by fermentation of cane sugar or molasses in the presence of a fungus, Aspergillus niger. It is used in confections and soft drinks (as a flavoring agent), in metal-cleaning compositions, and in improving the stability of foods and other organic substances (by suppressing the deleterious action of dissolved metal salts)."



Citrus fruits are notable for their fragrance, and most are juice-laden. They contain a high proportion of citric acid giving them their characteristic astringent odour and flavour. They are also good sources of vitamin C. In botanical terms, "The fruit of all Citrus trees, in which the true fruit is the peel, [is] made up of an outer layer, brightly colored and rich in glands, a spongey whitish mesocarp, and a membraneous endocarp surrounding the segments. The succulent parts we eat is only a secondary tissue developed as a filler"



List of citrus fruits:

Amanatsu

Bergamot orange

Bitter orange (Seville Orange)

Calamondin (Calamansi)

Citron

Clementine

Golden Lime - hybrid between the genus Citrus and the genus Fortunella

Daidai

Dancy

Grapefruit

Ichang Lemon

Iyokan

Kaffir lime

Key lime

Kumquat - in the related genus Fortunella, not Citrus; forms hybrids with Citrus

Lemon

Lime

Limequat

Mandarin Lime

Mandarin Orange

Meyer Lemon

Mikan

Minneola

Natsumikan

Orange

Orangelo (Chironja)

Orangequat

Persian lime (Tahiti lime)

Pomelo (Pummelo, Shaddock)

Ponkan

Rangpur (Lemanderin)

Rough Lemon

Satsuma

Shekwasha (Taiwan Tangerine)

Sudachi

Sweetie

Tachibana Orange

Tangelo

Tangerine

Tangor

Ugli

Yuzu



Some brands of Citric Acid may be made from wheat, however this is very rare.

The scientific name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid helps maintain the red color of cured meat and prevents the formation of nitrosamines, which promote cancer (see SODIUM NITRITE). It helps prevent loss of color and flavor by reacting with unwanted oxygen. It is used as a nutrient additive in drinks and breakfast cereals. Sodium ascorbate is a more soluble form of ascorbic acid. ERYTHORBIC ACID is very similar to ascorbic acid, but has no value as a vitamin. Large amounts of ascorbic acid may reduce the severity of colds and offer other health benefits.

The peanut, or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the legume family Fabaceae native to South America. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm (1 to 1 1/2 feet) tall. The leaves are opposite, pinnate with four leaflets (two opposite pairs; no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 1 to 7 cm (1/3 to 2.75 inches) long and 1 to 3 cm (1/3 to 1 inch) broad. The flowers are a typical peaflower in shape, 2 to 4 cm (3/4 to one and a half inches) across, yellow with reddish veining. After pollination, the fruit develops into a legume 3 to 7 cm (1 to 2 inches) long containing 1 to 3 (rarely 4) seeds, which forces its way underground to mature.



Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the peanut is a woody, indehiscent legume or pod and not technically a nut.



Peanuts are also known as earthnuts, goobers, goober peas, pindas, jack nuts, pinders, manila nuts and monkey nuts (the last of these is often used to mean the entire pod, not just the seeds).

Peanuts are a rich source of proteins (roughly 30 grams per cup after roasting) and Monounsaturated fat. Recent research on peanuts and nuts in general has found anti-oxidants and other chemicals that may provide health benefits. [7] Peanuts are a significant source of resveratrol, a chemical studied for potential anti-aging effects.



Because peanuts are considered an incomplete protein, containing relatively low amounts of the essential amino acids Lysine, Cystine, and Methionine, it is advised to be sure that a diet or meal with peanuts as a staple also include complementary foods such as dairy or whole grain



Although many people enjoy foods made with peanuts, some people have severe allergic reactions. For people with peanut allergy, exposure can cause fatal anaphylactic shock. For these individuals, eating a single peanut or just breathing the dust from peanuts can cause a fatal reaction. An allergic reaction also can be triggered by eating foods that have been processed with machines that have previously processed peanuts, making avoiding such foods difficult.



A theory of the development of peanut allergy has to do with the way that peanuts are processed in North America versus other countries like China and India. Peanuts are widely eaten in China and India but peanut allergies are almost unheard of there. According to a 2003 study, roasting peanuts, as more commonly done in North America, causes the major peanut allergen Ara h2 to become a stronger inhibitor of the digestive enzyme trypsin, making it more resistant to digestion.[2] Additionally, this allergen has also been shown to protect Ara h1, another major peanut allergen, from digestion - a characteristic further enhanced by roasting.

Palm Fruit Oil (PFO) from the spineless palm tree (Elaesis guineensis) Palm Fruit Olein is the light oil fraction from the pressing of the palm fruit, and is approximately 40% saturated and 60% unsaturated fat. Palm Olein is liquid and contains no tranisomerized fats which are found in hydrogenated oils. It is used in a variety of baking applications where a liquid oil is desired. It also has a wide acceptance as a deep fat frying oil due to its natural resistance to oxidation.

Any of various edible oils made from a plant source, such as vegetables, nuts or seeds. See also ALMOND OIL; CANOLA OIL; CORN OIL; COTTONSEED OIL; FATS AND OILS; GRAPESEED OIL; HAZELNUT OIL; OLIVE OIL; PEANUT OIL; PUMPKIN SEED OIL; SAFFLOWER OIL; SESAME OIL; SOYBEAN OIL; SUNFLOWER SEED OIL; WALNUT OIL