Is Wax On Apple Skin Is Safe To Eat

Is the wax on apples toxic?

Do you need to be wary of wax on apples? — Practise you need to be wary of wax on apples?Photograph: Marina Oliphant

Is the wax on apples toxic? L. Tan

No. It is not toxic. Apples grow with a natural wax. Pick an apple straight from the tree and it does not have that shiny supermarket lustre. However, rub a freshly picked apple with a cloth or on your thigh similar a spin bowler and information technology will quickly polish upwardly. Apples bound for the greengrocer and supermarket are generally washed, polished and coated in a food-course glazing agent. Fifteen per cent of Australian apples are coated in carnauba wax made from the leaves of a tropical palm directly from the tree. Most of the other 85 per cent are coated in shellac which is made from the lac beetle. It is non made from the beetle itself merely a secretion produced by the female lac beetle to protect her eggs. Some other picayune affair vegans need to look out for. You'll find similar glazing agents on shiny confectionary. For people who are very sensitive to bitterness the wax tin be perceived as a little bit bitter.

Can I eat the green part of the leek? P. Rodriguez

Your question coincided with the recent revelation that someone in my family suffers from tummy trouble due to FODMAP – the acronym for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. These are carbohydrates that are not digested until they get to the lower end of the gut where they crusade all sorts of mayhem. Scientists at Monash Academy have discovered that the greenish part of leeks does not contain the fermentable fructans that occur in the white bulb. Yes you can swallow the green role of the leek but because it is tougher yous need to cook it slowly for twice as long every bit the white part.

What is better – dry yeast or fresh yeast? P. Hulme

"Which" is better, not "what"! Anyhow, there is an former baker in a Barossa baker who tells the story of his father who would sleep on flour numberless spread beyond the top of the old wooden dough fermenter. In the wee hours of the morning time and warmed by the wood oven he would snooze until the dough had fermented so much that it lifted the hat enough to ship him rolling onto the bakery floor. There they still use fresh yeast plus a little of the dough from the previous day. When I was working with Melbourne bakery Phillippa Grogan on Phillippa'south Home Baking nosotros experimented using fresh and dried active yeast and found no divergence in flavour, texture or ferment times. Dried active yeast is only fresh yeast that has been freeze-dried and formed into tiny pellets. Five grams of the stuff is equivalent to 10 grams of fresh yeast. Stale active yeast, one time opened, can exist stored in the freezer.

Messages, Correction and Apologies

In regards to poaching eggs Mr A. Kortis writes, "I tried the method yous described last week (placing an egg into a sieve to remove the backlog white so sliding into a pot of simmering water). I establish information technology good to accept the pot quite full equally this helps the egg hold its shape."

brainfood@richardcornish.com.au