Safer Food
Andre Willers
20 Apr 2013
Synopsis :
Reduce the chances of bacterial contamination with style .
Discussion :
This is not medical advice .
0. Contamination can only take place with contact , except
for Staphylococcus aureus found on humans and in the
environment in dust, air, and sewage. http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Food+Poisoning
. So there is always air-contamination .
1.Take a nice meat stew that has simmered for 3 hours . All
the bacteria in it has been killed .
2.It can only be contaminated from the outside .
3. Sealing it hermetically gives canning , but we want to
eat now .
4. Look at the route from the pot to the mouth :
4.1 Dishing-up spoon
4.2 Plate
4.3 Knife , fork , spoon
5. Critical element :
The dishing-up spoon must be as bacteria-free as possible ,
as it is the only utensil that enters the cooking pot .
Use a microwavable spoon (ceramic , plastic ,etc) . Rinse it
and pop it into the microwave for about 8 seconds on full power .
(The rinsing is to give a thin layer of water for the
microwaves to work on)
See Appendix A for pasteurization temperatures .
Do not touch it or use it again after tasting from it .
6. Second critical element :
The plates . After dishing up , the food sits on the plate
for long enough for bacteria to multiply explosively . Especially if the conversation
is good and the wine better (or at least more plentiful) .
I thought that heated plates was an affectation , but it is
actually quite important .
Remember , plates are handled . Contamination occurs from
the hands , cloths , oven gloves , etc .
Notice that cultures where heated plates are not used tend
to gulp their food .
Microwave the plates after rinsing for about 8 seconds on
full power .
Use sterilized oven gloves (boiling water , or just pop
silicone ones in the microwave) . Just to reduce the bacterial load .
7. The third critical element : knives , forks and spoons .
Especially serrated knives and between the tines of forks .
Just microwave them as above .
For pictures of stylish ceramic cutlery , see https://www.google.co.za/search?q=ceramic+cutlery&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RNNyUYTgDofX7AbN_oCQCg&sqi=2&ved=0CE4QsAQ&biw=1241&bih=584
8. Cups or glasses (ceramic or glass) : just nuke them .
9. What is really important ?
I am only going to make sure of the dishing-up spoon and
heating the plates .
This should remove about 80 % of the risk .
10. Refrigerate the pot as soon as possible . Immediately
after serving . Extra-helpings can be nuked .
11. Those ceramic knives look quite tuxedo in a 007 fashion . Maybe I’ll get some .
12.Finger foods :
Humans are actually quite fastidious about touching food
other people are going to eat (mutual manners) .
It is fascinating to speculate that there is a mirror-neuron
network in every human that has ever shared a pizza that sits and watches every
slice that has been touched by another person , and avoids it .
The mass behaviour that will then evolve is to only touch what
you are going to eat .
The penalties are severe , ranging a frown to expulsion from
the communal food source .
13. That leftover pizza standing overnight is then less
contaminated than a pot with a dirty serving spoons or contaminated plates .
Cowabunga !
The nostalgic can see Appendix B for the origin of saying .
(Or just for the hell of it )
Andre
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Appendix A
TemperatureTimePasteurization
63ºC (145ºF) 30 minutes
72ºC (161ºF) 15 seconds
89ºC (191ºF) 1.0 second
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Appendix B
Cowabunga! - The Origin.
14 Jan 2007
Andre Willers
The origin : Covadonga
Literally : Cova Domenica , latin for Cavern of our Lady .
The
term seems to have originated as a battlecry , denoting delight in the forces
of the right inflicting a defeat on the unrighteous against overwhelming odds .
The
Battle of Covadonga refers .
By
721 AD , the only Visigoth resistance left against Muslim expansion in the
Spanish peninsula was in the mountainous northern areas of Spain called Asturia
. A local aristocrat called Pelagius ( Pelayo) managed to defeat them at the
Battle of Covadonga . The Christian kingdom of Asturias resulted , later
forming the core of the Kingdom of Castile . This was the start of
the Christian reconquistada of Spain
Units
of the Spanish army are still referenced by Covadonga .
Google
together to see that the same sense remains .
Morphing
:
The “V” comes from Latin spelling , which had no separate character for the Germanic “W” sound .
The “V” comes from Latin spelling , which had no separate character for the Germanic “W” sound .
Cova Domenica -> Covadonga ( a shift due to extremely
reduced literacy and bureaucracy of an insignificant place after the collapse
of the Roman empire )
Covadonga -> Covadunga ( the second is
easier to pronounce aloud)
Covadunga -> Covabunga ( the second is
easier to pronounce aloud)
Covabunga -> Cowabunga ( the second is
easier to pronounce aloud for germanic speakers )
Past
Significance :
As
a marker in the turning of the tide in the Christian-Muslim conflict in Spain ,
it’s reputation grew in myth and legend , then dimmed in the ensuing tumultuous
centuries as the Christian-Muslim conflict ebbed and Spanish influence waned .
It
still has deep cultural roots in Spain and previous Spanish colonies .
Imagistics
Put yourself in the place of an inhabitant of the Iberian
peninsula circa 720 AD . They were a post-collapse melange composed of old Roman families (large
landowners mostly ) like Pelagius , the recent Visigothic conquerors
and the ex-latifunda slaves , all
battling to survive and establish some equilibrium . All Christians of various
persuasions .
As a fighting force , this mixture was not up to resisting
the thrust and momentum of a century of Muslim conquest in Egypt and North
Africa .
The Visigoth mounted horse attempted a defense under King
Roderick , but was heavily defeated in 711 by an Arab expeditionary force .
Light cavalry routed heavy cavalry when heavy cavalry are unsupported by
fortresses and infantry ( something that happened with tedious regularity all
over the remnants of the Roman Empire)
The Arabs rolled over Spain in a seemingly unstoppable wave
.
At
Covadonga the wave hit a rock .
The
rock seems to have been a method of combining
1.
the few remaining heavy cavalry (Visigoths) ,
2.
the infantry (local farmers with shields , swords and spears dating back to
great- grandfather’s mustering out of
the Roman legions )
3.
and most importantly , the majority of the population . The
ex-slaves .
To
mobilise the ex-slaves , the Church was necessary . These people had been kept
in subjugation mainly by “learned helplessness” conditioning . The Christian
religion already had the tools ( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
: “forgiveness is free , the last shall be first”) to break this conditioning .
This
was the crucial development for the next millennia . (It is still on-going)
An
indication:
There
is little hard evidence of the battle , not even the date . But one bit that survived was that “God turned the
arrows around in mid-flight and turned them back against them.”
We
can surmise that the Christian infantry and archers stood firm on the defensive
. The Arabs then attacked in waves of mounted archers . The standard tactic was
to exhaust the defenders’ supply of arrows (remember , the Arabs were a professional
force with huge supplies , while the defenders were a bunch of yokels ) until
the defenders had no distance-weapons left . Then a swift charge on the weakest
point settled matters .
However
, the normally indifferent bottom-of-social heap went into the no-man’s land to
pick up arrows and give them to the defenders . Hence the “turned-around
arrows” .
This
was unheard of . Slaves were slaves , conditioned into it . The rebellious ones
had been culled long ago . Large numbers of slaves could not fight effectively
, even if commanded to .
The
“Learned-helplessness” conditioning is a true neural-level , nuts-and-bolts
level conditioning .
The
only way to break it is at a self-consciousness level
( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com
: “The Religious Experience and Proximal rewards” )
This
battle was very closely studied and copied all over Europe .
The
military ecology paradigm shift .
To
reiterate , Covadonga was a combination of defensive , offensive and unfriendly
military ecology .
The
military ecology was new . No previous civilizations had the technology to
break the learned-helplessness conditioning , as well as the will .
Total
war was born .
This
same recipe was followed in the Reconquistada and in Spanish territories in
South America .
This
meme propagated via Martel and Holy Roman empire to the rest of Europe .
It
is interesting to note that slavery is incompatible with this meme .
Indeed
, the meme that Christians may not own Christian slaves , whereas Muslims were
allowed to own Muslim slaves led to the historic reductio-ad-absurdems of
general-franchise England and all-slaves-except-Sultan Ottomans . The
battlefield results are known as well .
At
last! A Proximal reward reason why general slavery was not re-established in
Europe .
The
mobilization of the Christian Church as an essential part in the military
paradigm would obviously lead to purely military considerations of the role of
the Vatican . However , this would conflict with basic Christian assumptions .
This would lead to internal roiling . As usual , a merry time is had by all .
The
Crusades , the mass production of spectacles , printing , protestantism , the
age of reason , nationalism , democracy , capitalism , communism are all only
possible because of the paradigm established at
Covadonga .
It
is interesting that Cowabunga should resurface from the cultural
collective-mind at a similar time as a steep escalation of the Christian-Muslim
conflict . Whether it is a natural or engineered process , more of a similar
nature can be expected .
Not bad , Pelagius .
Your paradigm of deconditioning learned-helplessness has not
only changed the preceding millennia , but will change the succeeding ones as
well .
It has changed human history .
Pelagius , I salute you .
Andre
Willers
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