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Sweetbread

Sweetbread

Sweetbread is the name of a dish made of the thymus or the pancreas of an animal younger than one year old. These animals are usually piglets or calves. However, lambs may also be preferred. The two organs serve very different biological purposes, but look fairly similar and so are considered, when cooking, to be comparable. Thymus sweetbreads are slightly longer and more irregular, with pancreas sweetbreads being larger and more rounded. Sweetbread is highly perishable and is considered a good source of vitamins and minerals. Sweetbreads are simple to prepare and cook, unlike kidneys which require salting and soaking, sweetbread is simply seasoned and fried, with a knob of butter to finish. A popular recipe is where sweetbreads are first boiled with carrots, celery stalks, shallots, garlic, and aromatic herbs, then taken out and dried before getting dipped into wheat flour and fried in a pan with butter. Fried sweetbreads are served with beurre noir spilled over them.

External link

- [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_055a.html What are sweetbreads really?] (from The Straight Dope) Category:Offal

Thymus

:This article discusses the thymus, a bodily organ. For the herb genus Thymus, see Thyme. In human anatomy, the thymus is a ductless gland located in the upper anterior portion of the chest cavity. It is most active during puberty, after which it shrinks in size and activity in most individuals and is replaced with fat. The thymus plays an important role in the development of the immune system in early life, and its cells form a part of the body's normal immune system. The thymus is also present in many other animals. When animal thymus tissue is sold in a butcher shop or at a meat counter, thymus is known as sweetbread.

Function

The thymus is part of the immune system. In its lobules lymphocytes mature into T cells (where T stands for “thymus”) (Miller JF, 2002, Immunol Rev 185:7-14). An important function of the thymus is the selection of the T cell repertoire the immune system uses to combat infections. This involves selection of T cells that are functional (positive selection), and elimination of T cells that are autoreactive (negative selection). Cells that pass both levels of selection are released into the bloodstream to perform vital immune functions. Negative selection is not 100% complete. Some autoreactive T cells escape thymic censorship, and are released into the circulation. Peripheral mechanisms of tolerance exist to silence these cells such as anergy, deletion, cross-tolerance and regulatory T cells. If these mechanisms also fail, autoimmunity arises.

Anatomy

The thymus will, if examined when its growth is most active, be found to consist of two lateral lobes placed in close contact along the middle line, situated partly in the thorax, partly in the neck, and extending from the fourth costal cartilage upward, as high as the lower border of the thyroid gland. It is covered by the sternum, and by the origins of the Sternohyoidei and Sternothyreoidei. Below, it rests upon the pericardium, being separated from the aortic arch and great vessels by a layer of fascia. In the neck it lies on the front and sides of the trachea, behind the Sternohyoidei and Sternothyreoidei. The two lobes generally differ in size; they are occasionally united, so as to form a single mass; and sometimes separated by an intermediate lobe. The thymus is of a pinkish-gray color, soft, and lobulated on its surfaces. It is about 5 cm in length, 4 cm in breadth below, and about 6 mm in thickness. At birth it weighs about 15 grams, at puberty it weighs about 35 grams; after this it gradually decreases to 25 grams at twenty-five years, less than 15 grams at sixty, and about 6 grams at seventy years.

Development

The thymus appears in the form of two flask-shaped endodermal diverticula, which arise, one on either side, from the third branchial pouch, and extend lateralward and backward into the surrounding mesoderm and neural crest-derived mesenchyme in front of the ventral aorta. Here they meet and become joined to one another by connective tissue, but there is never any fusion of the thymus tissue proper. The pharyngeal opening of each diverticulum is soon obliterated, but the neck of the flask persists for some time as a cellular cord. By further proliferation of the cells lining the flask, buds of cells are formed, which become surrounded and isolated by the invading mesoderm. In the latter, numerous lymphoid cells make their appearance, and are aggregated to form lymphoid follicles. These lymphoid cells are probably derivatives of the entodermal cells which lined the original diverticula and their subdivisions. Additional portions of thymus tissue are sometimes developed from the fourth branchial pouches. Thymus continues to grow until the time of puberty and then begins to atrophy.

Structure

Each lateral lobe is composed of numerous lobules held together by delicate areolar tissue; the entire gland being enclosed in an investing capsule of a similar but denser structure. The primary lobules vary in size from that of a pin's head to that of a small pea, and are made up of a number of small nodules or follicles, which are irregular in shape and are more or less fused together, especially toward the interior of the gland. Each follicle is from 1 to 2 mm. in diameter and consists of a medullary and a cortical portion, and these differ in many essential particulars from each other. The cortical portion is mainly composed of lymphoid cells, supported by a network of finely branched epithelial cells, which is continuous with a similar network in the medullary portion. This network forms an adventitia to the bloodvessels. In the medullary portion the reticulum is coarser than in the cortex, the lymphoid cells are relatively fewer in number, and there are found peculiar nest-like bodies, the concentric corpuscles of Hassall. These concentric corpuscles are composed of a central mass, consisting of one or more granular cells, and of a capsule which is formed of epithelioid cells . They are the remains of the epithelial tubes which grow out from the third branchial pouches of the embryo to form the thymus. Each follicle is surrounded by a vascular plexus, from which vessels pass into the interior, and radiate from the periphery toward the center, forming a second zone just within the margin of the medullary portion. In the center of the medullary portion there are very few vessels, and they are of minute size. The arteries supplying the thymus are derived from the internal mammary, and from the superior and inferior thyroids. The veins end in the left innominate vein, and in the thyroid veins. The nerves are exceedingly minute; they are derived from the vagi and sympathetic. Branches from the descendens hypoglossi and phrenic reach the investing capsule, but do not penetrate into the substance of the gland.

Cancer

Tumors of the thymus are found in about 10% of patients with myasthenia gravis. Thymus tumors tend to develop undetected since they find enough space for growths. Symptoms are confused with a bronchitis or a strong cough because the tumor presses on the cough nerve. Spreading of the tumor cells is likely.

Animal

:For the Muppet Show character, see Animal (Muppet). For the professional wrestler, see Joseph Laurinaitis.

- Porifera (sponges)
- Ctenophora (comb jellies)
- Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anenomes)
- Placozoa (trichoplax)
- Subregnum Bilateria (bilateral symmetry)
- Acoelomorpha (basal)
- Orthonectida (flatworms, echinoderms, etc.)
- Rhombozoa (dicyemids)
- Myxozoa (slime animals)
- Superphylum Deuterostomia (blastopore becomes anus)
- Chordata (vertebrates, etc.)
- Hemichordata (acorn worms)
- Echinodermata (starfish, urchins)
- Chaetognatha (arrow worms)
- Superphylum Ecdysozoa (shed exoskeleton)
- Kinorhyncha (mud dragons)
- Loricifera
- Priapulida (priapulid worms)
- Nematoda (roundworms)
- Nematomorpha (horsehair worms)
- Onychophora (velvet worms)
- Tardigrada (water bears)
- Arthropoda (insects, etc.)
- Superphylum Platyzoa
- Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
- Gastrotricha (gastrotrichs)
- Rotifera (rotifers)
- Acanthocephala (acanthocephalans)
- Gnathostomulida (jaw worms)
- Micrognathozoa (limnognathia)
- Cycliophora (pandora)
- Superphylum Lophotrochozoa (trochophore larvae / lophophores)
- Sipuncula (peanut worms)
- Nemertea (ribbon worms)
- Phoronida (horseshoe worms)
- Ectoprocta (moss animals)
- Entoprocta (goblet worms)
- Brachiopoda (brachipods)
- Mollusca (mollusks)
- Annelida (segmented worms) Animals are a major group of organisms, classified as the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. In general they are multicellular, capable of locomotion and responsive to their environment, and feed by consuming other organisms. Their body plan becomes fixed as they develop, usually early on in their development as embryos, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on. Along with sponges, gastropods, emus, dolphins and all other animals, Homo sapiens sapiens meet all the criteria above for membership in the group of organisms known as animals and they do not meet the criteria of the other groups. Some humans often consider themselves separate from animals, not on the grounds of biology, but through the use of "other contexts". Whilst self-delusion may be a unique characteristic of the human species it is not cause for exclusion from the Kingdom Animalia. The name animal comes from the Latin word animal, of which animalia is the plural, and ultimately from anima, meaning vital breath or soul.

Characteristics

Aristotle divided the living world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carolus Linnaeus in the first hierarchical classification. Since then biologists have begun emphasizing evolutionary relationships, and so these groups have been restricted somewhat. For instance, microscopic protozoa were originally considered animals because they move, but are now treated separately. Kingdom Animalia has several characteristics that set it apart from other living things. First, animals are eukaryotic. This separates them from the Kingdom Monera. Second, animals are multicellular, which separates them from Kingdom Protista. Third, they are heterotrophic, setting them apart from Kingdom Plantae and several plant-like protists. Finally, Kingdom Animalia consists of organisms without cell walls, which makes it unique compared to Kingdom Plantae, algae, and Kingdom Fungi.

Structure

With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges (Phylum Porifera), animals have bodies differentiated into separate tissues. These include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and a nervous system, which sends and processes signals. There is also typically an internal digestive chamber, with one or two openings. Animals with this sort of organization are called metazoans, or eumetazoans when the former is used for animals in general. All animals have eukaryotic cells, surrounded by a characteristic extracellular matrix composed of collagen and elastic glycoproteins. This may be calcified to form structures like shells, bones, and spicules. During development it forms a relatively flexible framework upon which cells can move about and be reorganized, making complex structures possible. In contrast, other multicellular organisms like plants and fungi have cells held in place by cell walls, so develop by progressive growth. Also, unique to animal cells are the following intercellular junctions: tight junctions, gap junctions, and desmosomes.

Reproduction and development

Nearly all animals undergo some form of sexual reproduction. Adults are diploid or occasionally polyploid. They have a few specialized reproductive cells, which undergo meiosis to produce smaller motile spermatozoa or larger non-motile ova. These fuse to form zygotes, which develop into new individuals. Many animals are also capable of asexual reproduction. This may take place through parthenogenesis, where fertile eggs are produced without mating, or in some cases through fragmentation. A zygote initially develops into a hollow sphere, called a blastula, which undergoes rearrangement and differentiation. In sponges, blastula larvae swim to a new location and develop into a new sponge. In most other groups, the blastula undergoes more complicated rearrangement. It first invaginates to form a gastrula with a digestive chamber, and two separate germ layers - an external ectoderm and an internal endoderm. In most cases, a mesoderm also develops between them. These germ layers then differentiate to form tissues and organs. Animals grow by indirectly using the energy of sunlight. Plants use this energy to turn air into simple sugars using a process known as photosynthesis. These sugars are then used as the building blocks which allow the plant to grow. When animals eat these plants (or eat other animals which have eaten plants), the sugars produced by the plant are used by the animal. They are either used directly to help the animal grow, or broken down, releasing stored solar energy, and giving the animal the energy required for motion. This process is known as glycolysis.

Origin and fossil record

Animals are generally considered to have evolved from flagellate protozoa. Their closest living relatives are the choanoflagellates, collared flagellates that have the same structure as certain sponge cells do. Molecular studies place them in a supergroup called the opisthokonts, which also include the fungi and a few small parasitic protists. The name comes from the posterior location of the flagellum in motile cells, such as most animal sperm, whereas other eukaryotes tend to have anterior flagella. The first fossils that might represent animals appear towards the end of the Precambrian, around 600 million years ago, and are known as the Vendian biota. These are difficult to relate to later fossils, however. Some may represent precursors of modern phyla, but they may be separate groups, and it is possible they are not really animals at all. Aside from them, most animal phyla with known phyla make a more or less simultaneous appearance during the Cambrian period, about 570 million years ago. It is still disputed whether this event, called the Cambrian explosion, represents a rapid divergence between different groups or a change in conditions that made fossilization possible.

Groups of animals

The sponges (Porifera) diverged from other animals early. As mentioned, they lack the complex organization found in most other phyla. Their cells are differentiated, but not organized into distinct tissues. Sponges are sessile and typically feed by drawing in water through pores all over the body, which is supported by a skeleton typically divided into spicules. The extinct Archaeocyatha, which have fused skeletons, may represent sponges or a separate phylum. Among the eumetazoan phyla, two are radially symmetric and have digestive chambers with a single opening, which serves as both the mouth and the anus. These are the Cnidaria, which include anemones, corals, and jellyfish, and the Ctenophora or comb jellies. Both have distinct tissues, but they are not organized into organs. There are only two main germ layers, the ectoderm and endoderm, with only scattered cells between them. As such, these animals are sometimes called diploblastic. The tiny phylum Placozoa is similar, but individuals do not have a permanent digestive chamber. The remaining animals form a monophyletic group called the Bilateria. For the most part, they are bilaterally symmetric, and often have a specialized head with feeding and sensory organs. The body is triploblastic, i.e. all three germ layers are well-developed, and tissues form distinct organs. The digestive chamber has two openings, a mouth and an anus, and there is also an internal body cavity called a coelom or pseudocoelom. There are exceptions to each of these characteristics, however - for instance adult echinoderms are radially symmetric, and certain parasitic worms have extremely simplified body structures. Genetic studies have considerably changed our understanding of the relationships within the Bilateria. Most appear to belong to four major lineages: # Deuterostomes # Ecdysozoa # Platyzoa # Lophotrochozoa In addition to these, there are a few small groups of bilaterians with relatively similar structure that appear to have diverged before these major groups. These include the Acoelomorpha, Rhombozoa, and Orthonectida. The Myxozoa, single-celled parasites that were originally considered Protozoa, are now believed to have developed from the Bilateria as well.

Deuterostomes

Deuterostomes differ from the other Bilateria, called protostomes, in several ways. In both cases there is a complete digestive tract. However, in protostomes the initial opening (the archenteron) develops into the mouth, and an anus forms separately. In deuterostomes this is reversed. In most protostomes cells simply fill in the interior of the gastrula to form the mesoderm, called schizocoelous development, but in deuterostomes it forms through evagination of the endoderm, called enterocoelic pouching. Deuterostomes also have a dorsal, rather than a ventral, nerve chord and their embryos undergo different cleavage. All this suggests the deuterostomes and protostomes are separate, monophyletic lineages. The main phyla of deuterostomes are the Echinodermata and Chordata. The former are radially symmetric and exclusively marine, such as sea stars, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. The latter are dominated by the vertebrates, animals with backbones. These include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. In addition to these, the deuterostomes also include the Hemichordata or acorn worms. Although they are not especially prominent today, the important fossil graptolites may belong to this group. The Chaetognatha or arrow worms may also be deuterostomes, but this is less certain.

Ecdysozoa

The Ecdysozoa are protostomes, named after the common trait of growth by moulting or ecdysis. The largest animal phylum belongs here, the Arthropoda, including insects, spiders, crabs, and their kin. All these organisms have a body divided into repeating segments, typically with paired appendages. Two smaller phyla, the Onychophora and Tardigrada, are close relatives of the arthropods and share these traits. The ecdysozoans also include the Nematoda or roundworms, the second largest animal phylum. Roundworms are typically microscopic, and occur in nearly every environment where there is water. A number are important parasites. Smaller phyla related to them are the Nematomorpha or horsehair worms, which are visible to the unaided eye, and the Kinorhyncha, Priapulida, and Loricifera, which are all microscopic. These groups have a reduced coelom, called a pseudocoelom. The remaining two groups of protostomes are sometimes grouped together as the Spiralia, since in both embryos develop with spiral cleavage.

Platyzoa

The Platyzoa include the phylum Platyhelminthes, the flatworms. These were originally considered some of the most primitive Bilateria, but it now appears they developed from more complex ancestors. A number of parasites are included in this group, such as the flukes and tapeworms. Flatworms lack a coelom, as do their closest relatives, the microscopic Gastrotricha. The other platyzoan phyla are microscopic and pseudocoelomate. The most prominent are the Rotifera or rotifers, which are common in aqueous environments. They also include the Acanthocephala or spiny-headed worms, the Gnathostomulida, Micrognathozoa, and possibly the Cycliophora. These groups share the presence of complex jaws, from which they are called the Gnathifera.

Lophotrochozoa

The Lophotrochozoa include two of the most successful animal phyla, the Mollusca and Annelida. The former includes animals such as snails, clams, and squids, and the latter comprises the segmented worms, such as earthworms and leeches. These two groups have long been considered close relatives because of the common presence of trochophore larvae, but the annelids were considered closer to the arthropods, because they are both segmented. Now this is generally considered convergent evolution, owing to many morphological and genetic differences between the two phyla. The Lophotrochozoa also include the Nemertea or ribbon worms, the Sipuncula, and several phyla that have a fan of cilia around the mouth, called a lophophore. These were traditionally grouped together as the lophophorates, but it now appears they are paraphyletic, some closer to the Nemertea and some to the Mollusca and Annelida. They include the Brachiopoda or lamp shells, which are prominent in the fossil record, the Entoprocta, the Phoronida, and possibly the Ectoprocta or moss animals.

History of classification

In Linnaeus' original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, the Chordata, whereas the various other forms have been separated out. The above lists represent our current understanding of the group, though there is some variation from source to source.

Usage of the word animal

In everyday usage animal refers to any member of the animal kingdom that is not a human being, and sometimes excludes insects (although including such arthropods as crabs). This confusion stems primarily from the familiarity with zoo animals, farm animals and pets, not from an analytical distinction between insects, humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.

Examples

Some well-known types of animals, listed by their common names:
- alpaca, ant, antelope, badger, bat, bear, bee, beetle, bird, bison, butterfly, cat, chicken, cockroach, coral, cow, deer, dinosaur, dog, dolphin, earthworm, elephant, elk, fish, fly, fox, frog, giraffe, goat, gorilla, hippopotamus, horse, human, iguana, jellyfish, kangaroo, lion, lizard, llama, lynx, monkey, mouse, nightingale, octopus, owl, ox, parrot, penguin, pig, quail, rabbit, rat, rhinoceros, salamander, scorpion, seahorse, shark, sheep, sloth, snake, spider, squid, starfish, tiger, turtle, urial, vole, whale, wolf, yak, zebra

References

External links

- [http://www.animool.com/animals/index.jsp Animals Search Engine]
- [http://www.wikianimals.com wikianimals.com] - Documenting the animal kingdom
- [http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Animals&contgroup=Eukaryotes Tree of Life]
- [http://www.arkive.org A Multimedia Database of Various UK or Endangered Species]
- [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wakefield/animals.html Animals and Birds Names] - Large table of words: animal, collective, male, female, young, & home
- [http://www273.pair.com/med/words/animal_adjectives.htm English Animal Adjectives]
- [http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/animals.html Sounds of the World's Animals] - animal sounds in many languages
- [http://www.findsounds.com/ FindSounds - Search the Web for Sounds] - sound files including animal sound files
- [http://www.australianfauna.com/ Australian Animals]
- [http://www.animalreviews.com AnimalReviews] - animals reviewed and evaluated
- [http://animals.timduru.org/ The animal photo archive] - Photos of animals
- [http://www.wildlife-photo.org Photo gallery of animals pictures from the entire world.]
- [http://www.wildlife-photo.org/birds_list.htm Birds Name Check List in Latin, English, Russian and Hebrew.]
- [http://www.wildanimalsonline.com Wild Animals Online] - an online encyclopedia of wild animals - facts, photos Category:Animals zh-min-nan:Tōng-bu̍t ko:동물 ms:Haiwan ja:動物 simple:Animal th:สัตว์

Piglet

Piglet can refer to:
- A juvenile pig.
- Piglet, the fictional character from A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books and the subsequent Disney productions.

Calf

For the anatomical feature, see calf muscle. calf muscle Calves are young animals. The term is mainly used for cattle, although deer, whales and elephants also have calves. A cattle calf is a child of a cow and a bull and a calf that has lost its mother is referred to as a dogie. The plural is calves. With respect to cattle calves, calf meat is called veal; fine calf skin used for pages in early codexes is called pergamon. Calves feed from their mother's udders for a few weeks before eating solid food. pergamon

Lamb.

Aylmer Bourke Lambert (February 2, 1761 - January 10, 1842) was a British botanist, one of the first fellows of the Linnaean Society. He is best known for his work A description of the genus Pinus, issued in several parts 1803-1824, a sumptuously illustrated folio volume detailing all of the conifers then known. A second folio edition was produced between 1828-1837, and a third, smaller (octavo) edition in 1832. Many of the new conifers discovered by David Douglas and others, including the Coast Redwood, were described for the first time in Lambert's books; several of these were actually described by collaborating authors, notably David Don, who included their work in Lambert's book. The standard botanical author abbreviation Lamb. is applied to species he described. Lambert is honoured in the botanical name of the Sugar Pine Pinus lambertiana.

External link

- http://www.barnelms.com/aylmerbourkelambert.htm#top Lambert, Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Aylmer Bourke

Carrot

The carrot is a root vegetable, typically orange or white in colour with a woody texture. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot.

Uses

Carrots can be eaten raw, whole, chopped or shaved into salads for colour, and are also often chopped and cooked in soups and stews. A well known dish is Carrots Julienne. One can also make carrot cake and carrot pudding. The greens are edible as a leaf vegetable, but are rarely eaten. Together with onion and celery, carrots are one of the primary vegetables used in a mirepoix to make various broths. Since the late 1980s, baby carrots or mini carrots, carrots that have been chopped and peeled into uniform 5 cm (2 inch) cylinders, have been a popular ready-to-eat snack food in many supermarkets. Beta carotene, a dimer of Vitamin A, is abundant in the carrot and gives this vegetable its characteristic orange colour. Furthermore, carrots are rich in dietary fiber, antioxidants, and minerals and are an alkaline food. Carrot juice is also widely marketed.

History

Carrot juice The wild ancestors of the carrot are likely to have come from Afghanistan which remains the centre of diversity of D. carota. The familiar wild plant wild carrot, often called "Queen Anne's lace", is a relative of the garden carrot; garden carrots that run to seed soon revert to their wild prototype, with a forking carroty-smelling, edible root that quickly becomes too woody and bitter to eat. The Parsnip is a close relative of the carrot.

Cultivars

Carrot cultivars can be grouped into two broad classes, eastern carrots and western carrots.

Eastern carrots

Eastern carrots were domesticated in Central Asia, probably in modern-day Afghanistan in the 10th century or possibly earlier. Those of the eastern carrot that survive to the present day are commonly purple or yellow in colour, and often have branched roots. The purple colour common in these carrots comes from anthocyanin pigments.

Western carrots

The Western carrot emerged in the Netherlands in the 15th or 16th century, its orange colour making it popular in those countries as an emblem of the House of Orange and the struggle for Dutch independence. The orange colour results from abundant carotenes in these cultivars. While orange carrots are nearly ubiquitous in the West, other colours do exist, including white, yellow, red, and purple. These other colours of carrot are raised primarily as novelty crops. The Vegetable Improvement Center at Texas A&M University has developed a purple-skinned, orange-fleshed carrot, the BetaSweet, with substances to prevent cancer, which has recently entered commercial distribution. Western carrot cultivars are commonly classified by their root shape:
- Imperator carrots are the carrots most commonly sold whole in U.S. supermarkets; their roots are longer than other cultivars of carrot, and taper to a point at the tip.
- Nantes carrots are nearly cylindrical in shape, and are blunt and rounded at both the top and tip. Nantes cultivars are often sweeter than other carrots.
- Danvers carrots have a conical shape, having well-defined shoulders and tapering to a point at the tip. They are somewhat shorter than Imperator cultivars, but more tolerant of heavy soil. Danvers cultivars are often pureed as baby food.
- Chantenay carrots are shorter than other cultivars, but have greater girth, sometimes growing up to 8 cm (3 inches) in diameter. Shapewise, they have broad shoulders and taper towards a blunt, rounded tip. They are most commonly diced for use in canned or prepared foods. While any carrot can be harvested before reaching its full size as a more tender "baby" carrot, some fast-maturing cultivars have been bred to produce smaller roots ordinarily. The most extreme examples produce round roots about 2.5 cm (1 inch) in diameter. These small cultivars are also more tolerant of heavy or stony soil than long-rooted cultivars such as 'Nantes' or 'Imperator'. The "baby carrots" sold ready-to-eat in supermarkets, are however often not from a smaller cultivar of carrot, but are simply full-sized carrots that have been sliced and peeled to make carrot sticks of a uniform shape and size. Carrots are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Common Swift, Garden Dart, Ghost Moth, Large Yellow Underwing and Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Trivia

In 2005, a poll of 2,000 people revealed that the carrot was Britain's 3rd favourite culinary vegetable. For the purposes of the European Union's "Council Directive 2001/113/EC of 20 December 2001 relating to fruit jams, jellies and marmalades and sweetened chestnut purée intended for human consumption" carrots can be defined as a fruit as well as a vegetable. This is because carrot jam is a Portuguese delicacy. A common urban legend is that carrots help with a persons night vision. It is believed that it was disinformation introducted in 1940 by John "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham during the Battle of Britain as an attempt to cover up the discovery and use of radar technologies (see Snopes investigation in the external links). It reinforced existing German folklore and helped to encourage children to eat the vegetable. The world's largest carrot was grown in Palmer, Alaska by John Evans in 1998. It weighed 18.99 pounds (8.614 kg)! Carrots are also traditionally used as noses when building snowmen. There is a large statue of a carrot in Ohakune, New Zealand.

External links

- [http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-carrot011000000000000000000.html Complete nutritional info.]
- [http://vic.tamu.edu/main/VFICIndex/Web%20pages/f&vresearchpgs/betasweetnews/newmightmaroon.htm BetaSweet purple carrot at Texas A&M]
- [http://dmoz.org/Home/Cooking/Fruits_and_Vegetables/Carrots/ Recipes with carrots]
- [http://www.carrotmuseum.com World Carrot Museum]
- [http://growingtaste.com/vegetables/carrot.shtml Carrots for the home gardener]
- [http://www.nsac.ns.ca/pas/instind/pcrp/index.htm Processing Carrot Research Program, Nova Scotia Agricultural College]
- [http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/carrots.asp The claim that eating carrots results in improved vision is false] (from Snopes.com)
- [http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1392430.htm Carrots improve night vision is a myth] Category:Root vegetables Category:Apiaceae ms:Lobak ja:ニンジン

Shallot

Shallot as the word is commonly used, refers to two different Allium species of plant. The French grey shallot or griselle, which has been considered to be the "true shallot" by many, is Allium oschaninii, a species which grows wild from Central to Southwest Asia. Other varieties of shallot are Allium cepa var. aggregatum (multiplier onions). [http://www.cabi-publishing.org/pdf/Books/0851995101/0851995101Ch1.pdf] Shallots are extensively cultivated and much used in cookery, in addition to being excellent when pickled. Their flavor is more delicate than that of onions. Finely sliced deep-fried shallots are used as a condiment in Asian cuisine. Shallots tend to be considerably more expensive than onions, especially in the United States where they are almost exclusively imported from France. Shallots are propagated by offsets, which are often planted in September or October, but the principal crop should not be harvested 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. Like onions, when sliced raw shallots release chemicals that irritate the eye, resulting in tears. See onion for a discussion of this phenomenon.

External links

- [http://www.shallot.com/gb/index.html Shallot.com]
- [http://www.healthinfoforyou.com/an/shallots%20as%20alternative%20medicine.htm] Category:Liliaceae Category:Root vegetables ja:エシャロット

Wheat flour

An ingredient used in many foods, flour is a fine powder made from cereals or other starchy food sources. It is most commonly made from wheat, but also maize (aka corn), rye, barley and rice, amongst many other grasses and non-grain plants (including many Australian species of acacia). Flour is the key ingredient of bread, which is the staple food in many countries, and therefore the availability of adequate supplies of flour has often been a major economic and political issue. Flour is always based on the presence of starches, which are complex carbohydrates. Usually, the word "flour" used alone refers to wheat flour, which is one of the most important foods in European and American culture. Wheat flour is the main ingredient in most types of breads and pastries. Wheat is so widely used because of an important property: when wheat flour is mixed with water, a complex protein called gluten develops. The gluten development is what gives wheat dough an elastic structure that allows it to be worked in a variety of ways, and which allows the retention of gas bubbles in an intact structure, resulting in a sponge-like texture to the final product. This is highly desired for breads, cakes and other baked products. A coarser preparation, somewhat granular rather than a fine dust, is often called meal.

Types of flour

gluten
- The vast majority of today's flour consumption is wheat flour. :Wheat varieties are typically known as 'White' or Brown if they have high gluten content, and soft or weak flour if gluten content is low. Hard flour, or bread" flour, is high in gluten and so forms a certain toughness which holds its shape well once baked. Soft flour is comparatively low in gluten and so results in a finer texture. Soft flour is usually divided into cake flour, which is the lowest in gluten, and pastry flour, which has slightly more gluten than cake flour. :All-purpose flour is a blended wheat flour with an intermediate gluten level which is marketed as an acceptable compromise for most household baking needs. :In terms of the parts of the grain (the grass seed) used in flour -- the endosperm or starchy part, the germ or protein part, and the bran or fiber part -- there are three general types of flour. White flour is made from the endosperm only. Whole grain flour is made from the entire grain including bran, endosperm, and germ. A germ flour is made from the endosperm and germ, excluding the bran. :Whole-wheat flour is wholegrain wheat flour. :Bleached flour is flour that was subjected to flour bleaching agents in order to whiten it (freshly milled flour is yellowish) and give it more gluten-producing potential. Similar effect can be achieved by letting the flour slowly oxidize with oxygen in the air ("natural aging"), however this process is too slow to be commercially viable. Oxidizing agents are therefore employed, most commonly organic peroxides like acetone peroxide or benzoyl peroxide, nitrogen dioxide, or chlorine. :Bromated flour is flour with a maturing agent added. The agent's role is to help with developing gluten, a role similar to the flour bleaching agents. Bromate is usually used. Other choices are phosphates, ascorbic acid, and malted barley. :Cake flour is a finely milled flour made from soft wheat. It has very low gluten content, making it suitable for soft-textured cakes and cookies. Higher gluten content of other flours would make the cakes tough. :Graham flour is a special type of whole wheat flour. The endosperm is finely ground, as in white flour, while the bran and germ are coarsely ground. Graham flour is uncommon outside of the USA. It is the basis of true graham crackers. Many graham crackers on the market are actually imitation grahams because they do not contain graham flour or even whole-wheat flour. :Pastry flour (also called cookie flour or cracker flour) is flour with gluten content slightly higher than cake flour, but lower than all-purpose flour. It is suitable for fine, light-textured pastries. :Self-rising or self-raising flour is "white" wheat flour that is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents. It was invented by Henry Jones. Typical ratios are: ::U.S. customary: :::one cup flour :::1 to 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder :::a pinch to 1/2 teaspoon salt ::Metric: :::100 g flour :::3 g baking powder :::1 g or less salt :Corn flour is very popular in the southern United States and in Mexico. Coarse whole-grain corn flour is usually called corn meal. Corn meal which has been leached with lye is called masa harina and is used to make tortillas and tamales in Mexican cooking. Corn flour should never be confused with cornstarch, which is known as cornflour in British English. :Durum flour is a flour made of durum wheat. It has the highest protein content, and it is an important component of nearly all noodles and pastas. :100% Rye flour is used to bake the traditional sourdough breads of Germany and Scandinavia. Most rye breads use a mix of rye and wheat flours because rye has a low gluten content. Pumpernickel bread is usually made exclusively of rye, and contains a mixture of rye flour and rye meal. :Rice flour is of great importance in Southeast Asian cuisine. Also edible rice paper can be made from it. Most rice flour is made from white rice, thus is essentially a pure starch, but whole-grain brown rice flour is commercially available. :Chestnut flour is popular in Corsica, the Périgord and Lunigiana. In Corsica, it is used to cook the local variety of polenta. In Italy, it is mainly used for desserts. :Chickpea flour (besan) is of great importance in Indian cuisine, and in Italy, where it is used for the Ligurian farinata. :Flour can also be made from soy beans, arrowroot, potatoes, taro, cattail and other non-grain foodstuffs. :Tang flour is a kind of wheat flour used in Chinese cooking that is suitable for making the outer layer of dumplings and buns. It is also called wheat starch. You can find it in any Chinese supermarket. It does not resemble Tang.

Flour type numbers

In some markets, the different available flour varieties are labeled according to the ash mass ("mineral content") that remains after a sample was incinerated in a laboratory oven (typically at 550 °C or 900 °C, see international standards ISO 2171 and ICC [http://www.icc.or.at/methods3.php#ICC104 104/1]). This is an easy to verify indicator for the fraction of the whole grain that ended up in the flour, because the mineral content of the starchy endosperm is much lower than that of the outer parts of the grain. Flour made from all parts of the grain (extraction rate: 100%) leaves about 2 g ash or more per 100 g dry flour. Plain white flour (extraction rate: 50-60%) leaves only about 0.4 g.
- German flour type numbers (Mehltype) indicate the amount of ash (measured in milligrams) obtained from 100 g of the dry mass of this flour. Standard wheat flours (defined in DIN 10355) range from type 405 for normal white wheat flour for baking, to strong bread flour types 550, 650, 812, and the darker types 1050 and 1600 for wholegrain breads.
- French flour type numbers (type de farine) are a factor 10 smaller than those used in Germany, that is they indicate the mineral content (in milligrams) per 10 g flour. Type 45 is the standard white flour for baking, types 65, 80, and 110 are strong bread flours of increasing darkness, and type 150 is a wholemeal flour.

Flour production

Milling of flour is accomplished by grinding grain between stones or steel wheels. Today, "stone-ground" usually means that the grain has been ground in a water-operated mill, in which a revolving stone wheel turns over a stationary stone wheel, with the grain in between. Many small appliance mills are now available, both hand-cranked and electric. Flour dust suspended in air is explosive, as is any mixture of a finely powdered flammable substance with air see Lycopodium. Some of the worst civilian fatalities from explosions have been at flour mills.

History

In history, both large and hand mills were operated. Until modern times, much flour contained minute amounts of grit, either the result of poor sifting of the grain or of grinding stones together. This grit strongly abraded teeth. One of the most ancient methods of grinding to produce flour was by using a pair of quern-stones. These were made out of rock, and were ground together by hand. They were generally replaced by millstones once mechanised forms of milling appeared, particularly the water mill and the windmill, although animals were also used to operate the millstones.

Flour products

Bread, pasta, crackers, many cakes, amongst many other foods, are made using flour. Wheat flour is also used to make a roux as a base for gravy and sauces. White wheat flour is the traditional base for wallpaper paste. It is also the base for papier-mâché. Cornstarch is a principal ingredient of many puddings.

External links

- [http://www.professionalpasta.it/dir_1/flour_1.htm Grain and wheat flour]
- [http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article.php?id=63 Cooking For Engineers - Kitchen Notes: Wheat Flour]

References

- [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1998/19980141.htm The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998], United Kingdom Category:Food ingredients ja:小麦粉

Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is an everyday food in many parts of the world. Butter consists of butterfat surrounding miniscule droplets consisting mostly of water and milk proteins. Butter from cow's milk is most common, but butter is made from the milk of other mammals as well, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt, flavorings, or preservatives are sometimes added. Butter is used as a condiment and in cooking applications including baking, sauce making, and frying. Butter can be rendered to produce clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat. Butter is a firm solid when refrigerated, softening to a speadable consistency at room temperatures. It melts to a thin liquid consistency at a range of around 32–35 °C (90–95 °F). Butter's color is generally a pale yellow, but can vary from deep yellow to nearly white. The color of the butter depends on the animal's feed and is sometimes manipulated with food colorings, most commonly annatto or carotene. The term "butter" is used in the names of products made from pureed nuts or peanuts, such as peanut butter, or from fruits, such as apple butter. Other fats solid at room temperature are also known as "butters"; examples include cocoa butter and shea butter. In general use, the term "butter", unqualified, almost always refers to the dairy product. The word butter, in the English language, derives (via Germanic languages) from the Latin butyrum, borrowed from the Greek boutyron. This may have been a construction meaning "cow-cheese" (bous "ox, cow" + tyros "cheese), or the word may have been borrowed from another language, possibly Scythian.

Butter making

Scythian :Main article: Churning (butter) Unhomogenized milk and cream contain butterfat in the form of microscopic globules, each of which is surrounded by a membrane made of phospholipids (fatty acid emulsifiers) and proteins. These membranes are what prevents the fat in milk from pooling together into a single mass. Making butter involves agitating cream to damage the fat globule membranes, allowing the fats to come together and separate from the other parts of the cream. The specific details of how this is done can create butters with different consistencies, mostly due to the butterfat composition in the finished product. Butter contains its fat in three separate forms: free butterfat, butterfat crystals, and undamaged fat globules. In finished butter, different proportions of the three forms of fat result in different consistencies: butters with many crystals are harder than butters dominated by free fats. Almost all commercially-made butter today starts with pasteurized cream, usually heated to a relatively high pasteurization temperature above 80 °C (180 °F). Before it is churned, the cream is cooled to about 5 °C (40 °F) and allowed to remain at that temperature for at least eight hours; under these conditions about half the butterfat in the cream crystallizes. The jagged crystals of fat inflict damage upon the fat globule membranes during churning, speeding the butter-making process. Churning produces small butter grains floating in the water-based portion of the cream. This watery stuff is buttermilk—although the buttermilk most common today is instead a directly fermented skim milk. The buttermilk is drained off; sometimes more buttermilk is removed by rinsing the grains with water. Then the grains are "worked": pressed and kneaded together. This consolidates the butter into a solid mass and breaks up embedded pockets of buttermilk or water into tiny droplets. Commercial butter is about 80% butterfat and 15% water; traditionally-made butter may have as little as 65% fat and 30% water. Butterfat consists of many moderate-sized, saturated hydrocarbon chains. It is a triglyceride, an ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acid groups. Butter becomes rancid when these chains break down into smaller components, like butyric acid and diacetyl.

Types of butter

Before modern factory butter making, cream was usually collected from several milkings and was therefore several days old and somewhat fermented by the time it was made into butter. Butter made from a fermented cream is known as cultured butter. During fermentation, the cream naturally sours as bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid. The fermentation produces additional aroma compounds, including diacetyl, which makes for a fuller-flavored and more "buttery" tasting product. Today, cultured butter is usually made from pasteurized cream whose fermentation is produced by the introduction of Lactococcus and Leuconostoc bacteria. Another method for producing cultured butter, developed in the 1970s, is to produce butter from fresh cream and then incorporate bacterial cultures and lactic acid. Using this method, the cultured butter flavor grows as the butter is aged in cold storage. For manufacturers, this method is more efficient since aging the cream used to make butter takes significantly more space than simply storing the finished butter product. A similar and even more efficient method is to add lactic acid and flavor compounds directly to the fresh-cream butter; while this more efficient process simulates the taste of cultured butter, the product produced is not considered real cultured butter. Leuconostoc Today, dairy products are often pasturized during production to kill bacteria and other pathogens. Butter made from pasteurized fresh cream is called sweet cream butter. Production of sweet cream butter first became common in the 19th century, with the development of refrigeration and the mechanical cream separator. Butter made from fresh or cultured unpasteurized cream is called raw cream butter. Raw cream butter has a "cleaner" cream flavor, without the cooked-milk notes that pasteurization introduces. Cultured butter is the most common type of butter in continental Europe, while sweet cream butter dominates in the United States and the United Kingdom. Because of this, cultured butter is sometimes labeled European-style butter in the United States. Raw cream butter is virtually unheard-of in the United States and is rare in Europe as well. Several spreadable butters have been developed; these remain softer at colder temperatures and are therefore easier to use directly out of refrigeration. Some modify the makeup of the butter's fat through chemical manipulation of the finished product, some through manipulation of the cattle's feed, and some by incorporating vegetable oils into the butter. Whipped butter, another product designed to be more spreadable, is aerated via the incorporation of nitrogen gas— normal air is not used, as doing so would encourage oxidation and rancidity. All categories of butter are sold in both salted and unsalted forms. Salted butters have either fine, granular salt or a strong brine added to them during the working. Nations that favor sweet cream butter tend to favor salted butter as well, possibly reflecting the blander taste of uncultured butter. In addition to flavoring the butter, the addition of salt also acts as a preservative. Another important aspect of production is the amount of butterfat in the finished product. In the United States, all products sold as "butter" must contain a minimum of 80% butterfat by weight; most American butters contain only slightly more than that, averaging around 81%. European-style butters generally have a higher ratio of up to 85% butterfat. Clarified butter is butter with almost all of its water and milk solids removed, leaving almost-pure butterfat. Clarified butter is made by heating butter to its melting point and then allowing it to cool off; after settling, the remaining components separate by density. At the top, Whey proteins form a skin which is removed, and the resulting butterfat is then poured off from the mixture of water and casein proteins that settle to the bottom. Ghee is clarified butter which is brought to higher temperatures (120 °C/250 °F) once the water has cooked off, allowing the milk solids to brown. This process flavors the ghee, and also produces antioxidants which help protect it longer from rancidity. Because of this, ghee can keep for six to eight months under normal conditions.

History

antioxidant Since even accidental agitation can turn cream into butter, it is likely that the invention of butter goes back to the earliest days of dairying, perhaps in the Mesopotamian area between 9000 and 8000 BCE. The earliest butter would have been from sheep or goat's milk; cattle are not thought to have been domesticated for another thousand years or so. An ancient method of butter making, still used today in some parts of Africa and the Near East, is shown in the photo at right, taken in Palestine. A goat skin is half filled with milk, then inflated with air and sealed. It is hung with ropes on a tripod of sticks and rocked to and fro until the butter is formed. Butter was certainly known in the classical Mediterranean civilizations, but it does not seem to have been a common food, especially in Ancient Greece or Rome. In the warm Mediterranean climate, unclarified butter would spoil very quickly— unlike cheese, it was not a practical method of preserving the benefits of milk. The people of ancient Greece and Rome seemed to consider butter a food fit more for the northern barbarians. A play by the Greek philospher Anaxandrides refers to Thracians as boutyrophagoi, "butter-eaters". Pliny's Natural History calls butter "the most delicate of food among barbarous nations", and goes on to describe its medicinal properties. Historian and linguist Andrew Dalby says that most references to butter in ancient Near Eastern texts should actually be translated instead as ghee. Ghee is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as a typical trade article around the 1st century CE Arabian Sea, and Roman geographer Strabo describes it as a commodity of Arabia and Sudan. In India, ghee has been a symbol of purity and an offering to the gods—especially Agni, the Hindu god of fire—for more than 3000 years; references to ghee's sacred nature appear numerous times in the Rig Veda, circa 1500–1200 BCE. The tale of the child Krishna stealing butter remains a popular children's story in India today. Since India's prehistory, ghee has been both a staple food and used for ceremonial purposes such as fueling holy lamps and funeral pyres. staple food Cooler climates in northern Europe allowed butter to be kept longer before spoiling. Scandinavia has the longest history in Europe of a butter export trade, dating at least to the 12th century. Across most of Europe after the fall of Rome and through much of the Middle ages, butter was a common food, but one with a low reputation; it was consumed principally by peasants. It slowly became more accepted by the upper class, especially when, in the early 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church permitted its consumption during Lent. Bread and butter became common fare among the new middle class, and the English, in particular, gained a reputation for their liberal use of melted butter as a sauce for meats and vegetables. Across far-northern Europe—Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, and Scandinavia—butter was sometimes treated in a manner unheard-of today: it was packed into barrels (firkins) and buried it in peat bogs, perhaps for years. Such "bog butter" would develop a strong flavor as it aged, but remain edible, in large part because of the unique cool, airless, antiseptic and acidic environment of a peat bog. Firkins of such buried butter are a common archaeological find in Ireland; the Irish National Museum has some containing "a grayish cheese-like substance, partially hardened, not much like butter, and quite free from putrefaction." The practice was most common in Ireland in the 11th to 14th centuries; it ended entirely before the 19th century. France, like Ireland, became well-known for its butter, particularly in the Normandy and Brittany regions. By the 1860s, butter had become so in demand in France that Emperor Napoleon III offered prize money for an inexpensive substitute to supplement France's inadequate butter supplies. In 1869, a French chemist claimed the prize with the invention of margarine. The first margarine was beef tallow flavored with milk and worked like butter; vegetable margarines followed after the development of hydrogenated oils around 1900. Until the 19th century, the vast majority of butter was made by hand, on farms. The first butter factories appeared in the United States in the early 1860s, after the successful introduction of cheese factories a decade earlier. In the late 1870s, the centrifugal cream separator was introduced, marketed most successfully by Swedish engineer Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval. This dramatically sped the butter-making process by eliminating the slow step of letting cream naturally rise to the top of milk. Initially, whole milk was shipped to the butter factories, and the cream separation took place there. Soon, though, cream-separation technology became small and inexpensive enough to introduce an additional efficiency: the separation was accomplished on the farm, and the cream alone shipped to the factory. By 1900, more than half the butter produced in the United States was factory made; Europe followed suit shortly after. Per-capita butter consumption declined in most western nations during the 20th century, in large part because of the rising populatity of margarine, which is less expensive and, until recent years, was perceived as being healthier. In the United States, margarine consumption overtook butter during the 1950s and it is still the case today that more margarine than butter is eaten in the U.S. and most other nations that track such data.

Worldwide

India produces and consumes more butter than any other nation, dedicating almost half of its annual milk production to making butter or ghee. In 1997, India produced 1,470,000 metric tons of butter, consuming almost all of it. Second in production was the United States (522,000 tons), then France (466,000), Germany (442,000), and New Zealand (307,000). In terms of consumption, Germany was second after India, using 578,000 tons of butter in 1997, followed by France (528,000), Russia (514,000), and the United States (505,000). Most nations produce and consume the bulk of their butter domestically. New Zealand, Australia, and the Ukraine are among the few nations that export a significant percentage of the butter they produce. Around the world can be found many types of butter quite alien to the West. Smen is a spiced Moroccan clarified butter, buried in the ground and aged for months or years. Yak butter is important in Tibet; tsampa, barley flour mixed with yak butter, is a staple food. Butter tea is consumed in the Himalayan regions of Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and India. It consists of tea served with intensely flavored — or "rancid"—yak butter and salt. In African and Asian developing nations, butter is traditionally made from sour milk rather than cream. It can take several hours of churning to produce workable butter grains from fermented milk.

Storage and cooking

Normal butter softens to a spreadable consistency around 15 °C (60 °F), well above refrigerator temperatures. The "butter compartment" found in many refrigerators may be one of the warmer sections inside, but it still leaves butter quite hard. Until recently, many refrigerators sold in New Zealand featured a "butter conditioner", a compartment kept warmer than the rest of the refrigerator—but still cooler than room temperature—with a small heater. Keeping butter tightly wrapped delays rancidity, which is hastened by exposure to light or air, and also helps prevent it from picking up other odors. Once butter is softened, spices, herbs, or other flavoring agents can be mixed into it, producing what is called a composed butter. Composed butters can be used as spreads, or cooled, sliced, and placed onto hot food to melt into a sauce. Sweetened composed butters can be served with desserts; such hard sauces are often flavored with spirits. spirits and potatoes.]] Melted butter plays an important role in the preparation of sauces, most obviously in French cuisine. Beurre noisette (hazel butter) and Beurre noir (black butter) are sauces of melted butter cooked until the milk solids and sugars have turned golden or dark brown; they are often finished with an addition of vinegar or lemon juice. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are emulsions of egg yolk and melted butter; they are in essence mayonnaises made with butter instead of oil. Hollandaise and béarnaise sauces are stabilized with the powerful emulsifiers in the egg yolks, but butter itself contains enough emulsifiers—mostly remnants of the fat globule membranes—to form a stable emulsion on its own. Beurre blanc (white butter) is made by whisking butter into reduced vinegar or wine, forming an emulsion with the texture of thick cream. Beurre monté (prepared butter) is an unflavored beurre blanc made from water instead of vinegar or wine; it lends its name to the practice of "mounting" a sauce with butter: whisking cold butter into any water-based sauce at the end of cooking, giving the sauce a thicker body and a glossy shine—as well as a buttery taste. Butter is used for sautéing and frying, although its milk solids brown and burn above 150 °C (250 °F)—a rather low temperature for most applications. The actual smoke point of butterfat is around 200 °C (400 °F), so clarified butter or ghee is better suited to frying. Ghee has always been a common frying medium in India, where many avoid other animal fats for cultural or religious reasons. Butter fills several roles in baking, where it is used in a similar manner as other solid fats like lard, suet, or shortening, but has a flavor that may better complement sweet baked goods. Many cookie doughs and some cake batters are leavened, at least in part, by creaming butter and sugar together, which introduces air bubbles into the butter. The tiny bubbles locked within the butter expand in the heat of baking and aerate the cookie or cake. Some cookies like shortbread may have no other source of moisture but the water in the butter. Pastries like pie dough incorporate pieces of solid fat into the dough, which become flat layers of fat when the dough is rolled out. During baking, the fat melts away, leaving a flaky texture. Butter, because of its flavor, is a common choice for the fat in such a dough, but it can be more difficult to work with than shortening because of its low melting point. Pastry makers often chill all their ingredients and utensils while working with a butter dough.

Health and nutrition

According to USDA figures, one tablespoon of butter (14 grams) contains 100 calories, all from fat, 11 grams of fat, of which seven grams are saturated fat, and 30 milligrams of cholesterol. In other words, butter consists mostly of saturated fat and is a significant source of dietary cholesterol. For these reasons, butter has been generally considered to be a contributor to health problems, especially heart disease. For many years, vegetable margarine was recommended as a substitute, since it is an unsaturated fat and contains little or no cholesterol. In recent decades, though, it has become accepted that the trans fats contained in hydrogenated margarines significantly raise "bad" LDL cholesterol levels, possibly to a worse extent than butter. Small amounts of butter contain only traces of lactose, so moderate consumption of butter is not generally a problem for those with lactose intolerance. People with milk allergies do need to avoid butter, which does contain enough of the allergy-causing proteins to cause reactions.

Notes

# Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary entry for [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=butter butter]. Retrieved 27 November 2005. # McGee p. 35. # McGee p. 33. # McGee p. 34. # McGee p. 37. # Dates from McGee p. 10. # Dalby p. 65. # Bostock and Riley translation. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137;query=chapter%3D%232043;layout=;loc=28.36|Book Book 28, chapter 35]. # Dalby p. 65. # Web Exhibits: Butter. [http://webexhibits.org/butter/history-firkins.html Ancient Firkins]. # McGee p. 33, "Ancient, Once Unfashionable". # Web Exhibits: Butter. [http://webexhibits.org/butter/history-firkins.html Ancient Firkins]. # Web Exhibits: Butter. [http://webexhibits.org/butter/consumption-butter-fat.html Eating less butter, and more fat].] # See for example [http://www.imace.org/graphique/prod-eu.htm this chart] from International Margarine Association of the Countries of Europe [http://www.imace.org/margarine/stat.htm statistics]. Retrieved 4 December 2005. # Statistics from USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (1999). [http://www.fas.usda.gov/dlp2/circular/1999/99-07dairy/toc.htm Dairy: Word Markets and Trade]. Retrieved 1 December 2005. Note that the export and import figures do not include trade between nations within the European Union, and that there are inconsistencies regarding the inclusion of clarified butterfat products (explaining why New Zealand is shown exporting more butter in 1997 than was produced). # Crawford et al, part B, section III, ch. 1: [http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0251e/T0251E15.htm#ch1 Butter]. Retrieved 28 November 2005. # [http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=668 Bring back butter conditioners]. Retrieved 27 November 2005. The feature has been phased out for energy conservation reasons. # Sauce information from McGee, pp. 36 (beurre noisette and beurre noir), 632 (beurre blanc and beurre monté), and 635–636 (hollandaise and béarnaise). # McGee p. 37. # Data from [http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-A00001-01c0000.html nutritiondata.com]. Retrieved 27 November 2005. # From data [http://www.gastro.net.au/diets/lactose.html here], one teaspoon of butter contains 0.03 grams of lactose; a cup of milk contains 400 times that amount. # Allergy Society of South Africa. [http://www.allergysa.org/milk.htm Milk Allergy & Intolerance]. Retrieved 27 November 2005.

References

- pp 33-39, "Butter and Margarine"
- Dalby, Andrew (2003). [http://print.google.com/print?id=FtIXAe2qYDgC&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=ancient+butter&prev=http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3Dancient%2Bbutter&sig=v4KcVHbXcBCMmULupU9KFzYnlXg&pli=1&auth=DQAAAHAAAACYAYxkiTnWQ0KAe-pRGBmICRGf4VimZixegL-rO7AefEADSeL6thpbja9LWlwSM4q-WeiSoMP5lcSgYFwL-K2PlkuXV0nBolXoV0JwLiCVBmvIGHwc6C07ulnlPccx95CDDkDvA1Wa9WBClyLkoEFf Food in the Ancient World from A to Z], 65. Google Print. ISBN 0415232597 (accessed November 16, 2005). Also available in print from Routledge (UK).
- Michael Douma (editor). [http://webexhibits.org/butter WebExhibits' Butter pages]. Retrieved November 21, 2005.
- [http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/t0251e/T0251E00.htm Full text online]
- Grigg, David B. (Nov 7, 1974). [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&id=16-ejysyRCgC&dq=butter+laval&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Fq%3Dbutter%2Blaval&lpg=PA196&pg=PA196&sig=FMjjtQ1Ex4GVeE4TE1rZpl2ESlw The Agricultural Systems of the World: An Evolutionary Approach], 196-198. Google Print. ISBN 0521098432 (accessed November 28, 2005). Also available in print from Cambridge University Press.

External links

- [http://www.milkingredients.ca/dcp/article_e.asp?catid=145&page=216 Composition and characteristics of butter, The Canadian Dairy Commission]
- [http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/butter.html Manufacture of butter, The University of Guelph] Category:Dairy products Category:Spreads Category:Condiments Category:Cooking fats als:Butter ja:バター simple:Butter

Beurre noir

Beurre noir (French: black butter) is melted butter that is cooked over low heat until the milk solids turn a very dark brown. As soon as this happens acid is carefully added to the hot butter, usually lemon juice or a type of vinegar. Some recipies also add a sprig of parsley, which is removed from the hot butter before the acid is added. Beurre noir is typically served with eggs, fish and certain types of vegetable.

Category:Offal

Category:Meat

Caspian plover

The Caspian Plover (Charadrius asiaticus) is a wader in the plover family of birds. It breeds on open grassland in central Asia, mainly to the north and east of the Caspian Sea. This bird breeds in loose colonies, with three eggs being laid in a ground nest. These birds migrate south in winter to east Africa, usually still on grassland or arable. This plover is a very rare vagrant in western Europe. It feeds in a similar way to other plovers picking insects and other small prey mainly from grassland or arable. This attractive plover is slightly larger than Ringed Plover, and it recalls Greater Sandplover and Lesser Sandplover in appearance. It is slimmer and longer-legged than the sandplovers, and has a much stronger white supercilium, and a long thin bill. It also lacks white tail sides and a weak wing bar. Summer males have grey-brown backs and a white face and belly. The breast is chestnut, bordered black below. Other plumages have a grey-brown breast band, although the summer female may show a hint of chestnut. The call is a sharp chip. Category:Charadrius

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Caspian plover

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