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‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

atlasobscura.com

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Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#111

Post by aidenn0 »

Groxx wrote: post #44
munificent wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it gets hot enough to polymerize, then it's probably essentially the same as a seasoned cast iron pan.

Given that 1) the coffee stays on top, away from the heat, 2) you boil water in them, which restricts the maximum temperature, and 3) they have rubber seals: unless you're disassembling them and popping them into the oven frequently, I very much expect the answer is no. Just rancid. I will caveat this with "I am not a fan of moka pot coffee" though. I think it's usually awful. Better than, like, diner coffee, but sti…

Indeed, for me moka pot is just one tiny step above percolator coffee.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#112

Post by JoeAltmaier »

A story in a magazine (when they had such things) of a young lady house-sitting, told of the soup on the stove that was 3 generations old. "Eat all you like; just throw a little something in to replace whatever you take!"

She ate some, threw some pasta in, too much. An hour later, the pot was a solid block of pasta!

So she threw it out, started over with some Campbells canned stuff and never told anybody.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#113

Post by gattilorenz »

paxys wrote: post #106
Waterluvian wrote: post #5

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

Not quite the same as Ship of Theseus because the soup will never be fully replaced. The will always be some bits of the original – no matter how small – hanging around forever.

the dilution level is presumably not the same, so I’m nitpicking, but technically it could be like with omeopathy [1], where the initial substance can be so diluted it is guaranteed that there is no trace of it at the molecular level in the final preparation.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_and_efficacy_of_hom...

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#114

Post by xyzzyz »

spike021 wrote: post #49
xyzzyz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I remember watching a YouTube video of a Japanese restaurant owner, who does the same thing: every day, he refills his broth pot to full, puts more bones in, and leaves simmering. He said that he only had to restart a decade or so because of tsunami induced flood. Sounds cool, but then if you do the math, and assume that every day he uses half of the broth, then after only 10 days, there is only around a teaspo…

>Sounds cool, but then if you do the math, and assume that every day he uses half of the broth, then after only 10 days, there is only around a teaspoon of the original broth in it, after 20 days there is only around a single drop, and after one month, you only get a thousandth part of a single drop. Shouldn't whatever is remaining still have some influence on the fresh ingredients being added?

The answer depends on whether you believe in homeopathy.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#116

Post by pazimzadeh »

mgc_mgc wrote: post #67
pazimzadeh wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spores will survive boiling, that's why autoclaves (pressure cookers) are used in medical research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoclave . But spores are in a state of dormancy, so if you never stop boiling the broth, then spores never grow into anything. The most dangerous thing would probably be to boil the broth in stops in starts

Depending on the circumstances, boiling in stops and starts may not be too bad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndallization

That is amazing! So basically you trick the bacteria into exiting their spore/dormant phase before you hit them again with another boil.

It seems risky because if you ever let the spores divide at all then you introduce further variation and a selection process into the mix, which could be disastrous.

But that reminds me of the "shock and kill" strategy used to get HIV out of its latent state before killing the virions: https://clinicalinfo.hiv.gov/en/glossary/shock-and-kill-stra...

And I guess this effect is also why chemotherapy drugs work best on fast-growing tumors.

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#117

Post by basseed »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #73
Waterluvian wrote: post #5

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

I haven't had it personally, but one of my SO's tried a famous "perpetual stew" when in France and we talked about it at one point. Her description kinda matched what I'd expect from braises that I've let go to long: you end up with bland mush. I think there's a reason very few restaurants serve this style of dish, and it's not because of health codes. We live in an era of insane abundance compared to the medeivil an…

thanks for your comment,

just a small correction, it's "medieval" and "palate"

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#118

Post by curiousllama »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #73
Waterluvian wrote: post #5

Kind of related to this is the concept of "Brunswick Stew." Look it up if you want a more accurate description, but as I recall, the idea from Colonial times in America is that there'd be a tavern/inn with a fire, constantly running, and a big cauldron of stew always topped off and ready for weary travelers. The idea is that they never "finished" a batch. They just perpetually added leftovers and foods that were at r…

I haven't had it personally, but one of my SO's tried a famous "perpetual stew" when in France and we talked about it at one point. Her description kinda matched what I'd expect from braises that I've let go to long: you end up with bland mush. I think there's a reason very few restaurants serve this style of dish, and it's not because of health codes. We live in an era of insane abundance compared to the medeivil an…

I've always thought of it more as a way to conserve the calories that food represent, rather than a delicious dish in its own right

Re: ‘Perpetual broths’ that simmer for decades

#120

Post by wonderwonder »

From a surviving poverty approach it really makes a ton of sense. You just throw whatever you have in the pot and that's breakfast and dinner. It sort of averages out nutritional content between when you have more money or less. More money and meat goes in, less money and just vegetables go in.
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