HOME & LIVING
TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021
y Do TikTok recipes live up to the hype?
By AMY WONG
The Seattle Times
As much as TikTok gets
a bad rap for being some
sort of mind-numbing Gen
Z culture pit, I will say
that if you look in the right
places, you can learn a lot
from the app. Oftentimes
I’ll fi nd myself lost in the
trenches of “FoodTok,”
discovering how to cook
things that I either didn’t
know existed or didn’t
know I could make at home.
Here are three foods
that have caught my eye
recently, how to make
them and my evaluation of
whether they’re as good as
TikTok makes them seem.
Two-ingredient ‘chicken’
This is actually just a
simplifi ed recipe for seitan,
a protein packed wheat-
gluten, that actually origi-
nated in Asian cuisine cen-
turies ago.
Combine fl our and water
in about a three to one ratio
(I used 1 1/2 cups of fl our
and 1/2 cup of water) into
a ball of dough, and let rest
for one hour. Then knead
and rinse the dough in
water, until it runs clear-ish.
Incorporate a sprinkle of
paprika, garlic powder,
BARBECUE
Continued from Page B1
beans or coleslaw are some
of the featured foods found
at barbecues. We cannot
omit the desserts either
— the fruit pies, cream
pies, cakes, ice cream and
the like.
Beef, chicken, pork and
fi sh are all healthy sources
of protein which provide
important nutrients such as
zinc, iron, Vitamin E and B
vitamins. Fish also contains
Omega3 fatty acids, which
can help with heart health.
Yet, while people are
fi nally enjoying a meal
with their loved ones and
friends, the furthest thing
from their minds is a food-
borne illness. Although
getting a foodborne illness,
usually referred to as food
poisoning, is possible any
time of the year, it seems
we hear about it more
often during the summer
months when food tends
to be left outside in the
warm weather.
Bacteria love moist,
warm environments, like
those created when maca-
roni salads or cream pies
are left on the picnic table
for more than an hour or
two. The “danger zone” for
optimum bacterial growth
is between 40 degrees
Fahrenheit and 140 degrees
Fahrenheit. Therefore, keep
cold foods cold (on ice until
served if your event is out-
side, and iced while trans-
porting) and hot foods hot
— below 40 degrees and
above 140 degrees. Food
should be refrigerated as
soon after eating as pos-
sible, but no longer than
two hours; no longer than
one hour if the temperature
outside is very hot (above
90 degrees).
Before cooking, start
with clean utensils, cut-
ting boards, plates and
hands. Hands (including
under the nails, backs
of the hands and wrists)
should be washed for 20
seconds under warm run-
ning water with soap,
rinsed thoroughly and dried
with a paper towel or clean
cloth towel.
When cooking raw meat,
it should not touch “ready
to eat” foods such as raw
fruits or vegetables, and the
same utensils and plates
used for raw meat should
not be used for cooked
meat. Doing so causes cross
contamination, which is the
transference of bacteria in
the raw meat back to the
cooked meat, or to the raw
fruits and vegetables. This
includes knives and cutting
boards — these can transfer
bacteria from raw meats to
uncooked food, too.
Incomplete cooking
is another way food-
borne illnesses are trans-
mitted. According to the
United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA),
onion powder and salt, then
let rest for another hour.
Then pan fry in a neutral oil
and boil and cover in vege-
table broth for 45 minutes.
Is it any good?: I did a
pretty hearty job of sea-
soning this, so it had a
great, garlic-chicken fl avor.
But, the texture was fairly
rubbery, almost like raw
chicken (this could be due
to the fact that the vege-
table broth I cooked it in
evaporated in 30 minutes,
rather than the recipe’s 45).
Having to let the wheat-
gluten sit for a few hours,
this was a fairly time con-
suming process, and not
one that I would replicate
for a subpar meat substi-
tution. If this is something
you’d like to try though, I’d
recommend eating it in a
sandwich — the presence
of other ingredients to add
texture would likely elevate
this to a solid meal.
Pesto eggs
This is probably one of
the most straightforward
recipes I’ve seen on TikTok:
Warm a tablespoon of pesto
in a pan, then drop two
eggs in and cook to your
liking. The sizzling oil in
the pesto helps cook the
eggs and adds fl avor during
new cooking regulations
for meat are that beef
should be cooked to an
internal temperature of
145 degrees for fresh cuts
of meat (steaks, roasts,
etc.) and then allowed to
rest for three minutes,
once removed from the
heat source. This allows
the internal temperature
to continue to rise, thor-
oughly killing all bacteria.
For ground meat (ground
beef or pork) the internal
temperature is 160 degrees,
with no rest time needed.
Fresh pork (roasts or chops)
needs to be cooked to an
internal temperature of
145 degrees and allowed
to rest for three minutes.
The internal tempera-
ture of meat can be tested
using a meat thermom-
eter. Fish should be opaque
and fl ake easily with a fork
when done. All poultry
products (i.e., drumsticks
and thighs, etc.), including
ground chicken and ground
turkey, need to be cooked
to an internal tempera-
ture of 165, with no resting
time needed.
Meats are not the only
food items which can
harbor bacteria that can
cause a foodborne illness.
Foods containing milk
or eggs are also culprits.
These may include potato
or pasta salads, cream pies,
cheesecakes, etc.
Symptoms of a food
borne illness include
nausea, vomiting and diar-
rhea, and can strike a few
hours or up to 72 hours
after the contaminated
food has been eaten and
will usually last about 24
hours. The Mayoclinic.
org website recommends
treating food poisoning
with rest, drinking clear
fl uids such as water or
club soda (as tolerated) to
replace fl uids lost through
vomiting or diarrhea, then
soft, easily, digestible foods
such as crackers, or Jell-O
(as tolerated).
Some groups are more
susceptible than others to
foodborne illnesses — chil-
dren, the elderly, pregnant
women and people with
compromised immune sys-
tems. If symptoms are
severe, one should seek
medical attention. A loss
of fl uids due to vomiting or
diarrhea can lead to dehy-
dration, which requires
medical intervention.
By following a few
simple cooking and food
safety techniques you
can ensure that your out-
door barbecue or family
get together will be
safe, fun and free of
foodborne illnesses.
Ann Bloom has worked
for the OSU Extension
Service for 15 years as a
nutrition educator. She
studied journalism and
education at Washington
State University. She lives
in Enterprise.
THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — B3
the process. You can serve
the eggs over toast with
ricotta or avocados, or just
eat it plain.
Is it any good?: Yes. If
you like pesto and you like
eggs, then you will defi -
nitely enjoy this. I don’t
think there’s anything par-
ticularly groundbreaking
about this cooking method
— spreading pesto on a
slice of toast and topping
it with a fried egg would
give you essentially the
same results — but I guess
prior to seeing this TikTok
I wouldn’t have thought to
combine the ingredients.
‘Don’t Mix It’ cake
Are your dreams
haunted by the “Don’t mix
it” lady? Because mine are.
For the uninitiated, Sophia
Wasu (@aquickspoonful)
has built an empire of
almost 700,000 followers
with her fast, simple,
“dump cake”-style recipes.
Ingredients diff er between
diff erent types of bases,
cake mixes and fi llings, but
she always has one crucial
step, in which she yells at
you with gusto: “DON’T
MIX IT.”
I chose to make one of
Wasu’s most-viewed rec-
ipes, consisting of: two
Amy Wong-Seattle Times/TNS
A dump-style cake comes out very sweet, but still edible.
packs of cinnamon rolls,
a can of whipped cream
cheese frosting, chopped
walnuts, a box of cinnamon
cake mix (NOT MIXED!),
topped with 1 3/4 cup
of butter sliced thin and
placed on top in a 9-by-13-
inch pan, then baked at 350
degrees Fahrenheit for 45
minutes. Knowing that my
roommate and I would defi -
nitely not fi nish a whole
tray, I halved the recipe in
a loaf pan and baked for
about 30 minutes.
Is it any good?: I’ll
admit, going into this
recipe, I was afraid. I was
worried about how sweet it
would be, whether the pile
of fl our on top would cook,
and most of all, the fact
that Betty Crocker cream
cheese frosting doesn’t
actually contain any dairy
in it (what is in this bioen-
gineered goop, I will never
know). That being said, it
was... pretty good. Yes, it
was painfully sweet. And
yes, I winced at the bub-
bling pools of butter on top
when I pulled it out of the
oven. But overall, I enjoyed
eating it. I’d best describe
it as a cinnamon roll
stuff ed coff ee cake — pil-
lowy rolls of dough on the
bottom with a crisp, buttery
streusel on top. I would not
recommend eating this on a
regular basis, but if you’re
itching for the occasional
indulgence, this is it.
April Gamiz/TNS
Using a meat thermometer can ensure you barbecue meat to the proper temperature to foil bacteria that can cause food poisoning.
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