THE PROBLEM:
Well folks, it's official: The Head Zoo no longer cooks with aluminium foil. I posted the link to the actual study done in Dubai on my facebook, but the gist of the study is that it is NOT SAFE to cook with foil in any capacity. It's not safe to have it touching the food or even not touching. The acidity of the food doesn't matter all that much; more acidic foods (like tomatoes, vinegar, citrus) are worse but even non-acidic foods are bad enough.
The study concluded that enough aluminium migrated from the foil to the food, which is then ingested, to cause alarming levels of the metal in our bodies. Furthermore, the study reviewed past studies showing that there is NO SAFE amount of aluminium for humans to ingest. Pardon my all caps phrases, but this is just one of the billion things that I'm learning about that is scary, scary, scary.
Aluminium buildup can cause a number of issues in the body, but by and far the biggest issue, is that it has been implicated in Alzheimers and other degenerative brain diseases.
THE ANNOYED ANDRIA:
I think another reason why this study bothers me so much is because we use foil for EVERYTHING. I'm serious. If I can avoid scrubbing by slathering on a layer of foil, then roll it out. I love to wrap any number of foods in it (beets, other veggies, meats, fish....) and use it to cover food.
The most annoying part of all of this is that there isn't a simple solution. In the past, if I found out my handsoap was bad for me or my family, I'd research a different brand and have it shipped to the house a few days later. Simple. Easy. Worth a little extra money. But foil?? There just isn't another magical material that comes on a roll with the same low-cost, easy-to use, love-this-stuff convenience.
THE SOLUTION:
Well, I haven't found a perfect one. I'm working on it.
For lining my pans, I did find that true parchment paper is oven-safe up to 425F for an hour. Sweet. Easy, cheap, available in most grocery stores. (I found ours at Albertsons and didn't even note the price once I noted it was oven-safe.
For roasting veggies....yeah, still haven't found a really good alternative. My goal is to research cloth roasting bags this next week when I have the time, I guess. Until then, we'll be trying to steam/bake/saute/any other cooking method for our favorite veggies instead of lovingly wrapping them up in foil as gifts to our tastebuds.
For my super easy, super delicious, makes me feel like Martha rib recipe.....UGH. Well, the plan was to make ribs tonight until I realized the trick to making them awesome is to slather them in acidic bbq sauce, wrap them in foil, bake for an hour, unwrap, and bake for another hour. Can I tell you how tempted I was to hold up my middle finger in the general direction of Dubai and just make the damn ribs in foil?! But no, I cannot. I just cannot. I am pregnant so the world no longer revolves around me and my tastebuds. I'm sure baby G will enjoy the taste of the ribs so much that she won't mind the extra helping of aluminium, but they do say that babies in-utero have twice the number of tastebuds as adults so maybe she would taste the offending metals and be annoyed? Plus, her brain is still forming. I may not be able to protect her from picking gum off of the sidewalk and sticking it in her mouth in a few years, but I can protect her from aluminium now.
So, this is what I've decided: I'm going to put the ribs on a baking sheet and cap them with another baking pan, perhaps a pyrex? It seems like this will seal in the juices reasonably well, right? I might be embarking on a mission to ruin $10 worth of meat, but guess what? I'm super blessed with a husband who will happily eat anything I cook, even if it sucks, so it won't be a total bust. Wish me luck. Oh, and send me your best foil-be-gone solutions, ok???
No comments:
Post a Comment