Conference turris::cooks

    Mark, did you say *butter*?  ;-)
    
    Here's one from The Joy of Pasta: (I haven't tried it)
    
    
    			Butter, Cheese, and Garlic Sauce
    
    
    1/2 pound butter, at room temperature
    3 cloves garlic, very finely minced
    1 tsp salt
    1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
    freshly ground black pepper
    
    Cream together the butter, garlic, and salt until the mixture is
    smooth.
    
    When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain well and turn it into a 
    warmed, buttered, serving dish.  Quickly mix in garlic butter and
    grated cheese.  Serve in warmed dishes and sprinkle on pepper.
    
    Note:  Above 1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh herbs may be added to the
    garlic butter; parsley, scallion tops, or basil would be appropriate.
    
    Serves 4 - for 1 pound spaghettini.
    
    
    Enjoy!
    
    --Sharon
    

    IS THAT 1/2 POUND OF BUTTER?? 2 STICKS!!!

    If this recipe serves four people, then thats 1/2 stick of better 
    per person!

    Oh, why are all the good things so fattening.  This recipe sounds
    great but I don't know if I would dare try it.

    Actually, I had a similar recipe at a restaurant in Quebec.  The
    dish consisted of spagetti in a garlic butter sauce, topped with
    a huge meatball, sauce, some type of cheese (not parmesan) and
    it was baked.  It was SOOOO good but I'd never made it at home!
    I only blow my diet in restaurants!

    Karen

    My gogh, that's enough colesterol for 100 people!
    
    I use just 1/4 stick of margerine NOT butter, (colesterol-free) and 3 gloves
    of garlic. but the best is to use extra virgin olive oil... and 1 beaten
    egg to add moisture to the sauce, it is quick, it is safe, and it is
    good!  ( don't think I could try that much butter myself because I
    don't like fatty stuff of any kind from either vegetal or animal
    sources...)
    
    Second method: Beat well one egg, add 3 gloves crushed garlic or more
    to taste, then pour over spagettis and just cook for a minute or two,
    just to let the egg "cuddle" a little bit. it is very tasty and
    healthy. If too dry, add a bit of milk and of course, add plenty of
    shreded cheese or romano... whatever is on hand.
    
    Bon apetit!

�but the best is to use extra virgin olive oil... and 1 beaten
�    egg to add moisture to the sauce, 
    
    If you really want to lower fat and cholesterol, replace that beaten
    egg with 2 egg whites or the appropriate amount of egg substitute.
    
    You can also reduce fat, cholesterol, calories, etc., by not serving
    this at every meal.  Moderation is key.

RE: .3

    My gogh, that's enough colesterol for 100 people!
    ...
    ( don't think I could try that much butter myself because I
    don't like fatty stuff of any kind from either vegetal or animal
    sources...)

Then you don't have to cook it or eat it.  But that doesn't give you any right 
to spoil the fun for the rest of us.  I'm getting tired of people who criticize 
a recipe because it doesn't happen to conform to their particular food 
fetishes.

    it is very tasty and healthy. 

Perhaps, but it ain't the same sauce.  Both the taste and texture are 
different.

--PSW

    I don't think the author of .3 was trying to spoil anyone's fun.  When
    people believe they've found a "higher road", they're sometimes anxious
    to share the news.  The only problem is, I'm not sure that .3 really
    understands how fat and cholesterol are related, and so some of the
    information seems a bit contradictory.
  
    >but the best is to use extra virgin olive oil... and 1 beaten
    >egg to add moisture to the sauce, it is quick, it is safe, and it is
    >good!  ( don't think I could try that much butter myself because I
    >don't like fatty stuff of any kind from either vegetal or animal
    >sources...)
    
    But olive oil *is* "fatty stuff" from a vegetable source!  Granted, it's
    cholesterol-free, but it is still pure fat.
    
    And as for your second method, (which sounds rather tasty, actually) 
    understand that adding "plenty of shredded cheese or romano" is going
    to transform your "healthy" alternative into a fat- and
    cholesterol-laden meal.  So it's not as healthy as you think.
    
    Oh well, back to our regularly scheduled topic.  

    re .5
    
    Yes!  If someone is looking for low-fat food, what on earth are they
    doing reading a note about garlic butter sauce!  I think this sauce
    sounds wonderful.  

        I printed out .1 recipe and had planned to make it last night but
        forgot to pick it up at the printer so I improvised and it came out
        great!  This is the recipe I followed (somewhat similiar)
    
        � pound butter/marg.
        approx 8 cloves of garlic!
        dashes of garlic powder
        just under 3 oz. of parmesan
        parsley
    
    
        It was a hit and plan to make it again!!

    
    	At the risk of going down a rathole�, I will try to walk the
    	semantic tightrope labelled 'fat".
    
    	Granted, olive oil is just a liquified fat, but most people
    	seem to associate the word with semisolid stuff that contains
    	cholesterol (animal-based) or can be turned into cholesterol
    	(saturated fat).  Since olive oil does not match this perception,
    	most people do not think of it as a fat.
    
    	Olive oil contains a bazillion calories, but, being monosaturated,
    	does not contain cholesterol, cannot be turned into LDL cholesterol,
    	and according to most researchers helps create HDL cholesterol.
    	In other words, it is good for you.
    
    	My grandfather's diet was probably 70% olive_oil_fried foods.  He
    	lived to be 97, never had any heart problems, and had arteries you
    	could drive a truck through.
    
    -rjc-
    

RE: .10

The biochemist's perspective:

1) An "oil" is any non-water-soluble (aka hydrophobic) organic liquid.

2) A "fat" is any fatty acid triester of glycerol.  All of the lards, fats, 
shortenings, and cooking oils are close to 100% fat.  Those that are liquid at 
room temperature are also oils, since fats are hydrophobic organic compounds.  
Aside from the melting point, there is no difference between the cooking "oils" 
and the cooking "fats".  If you refrigerate peanut oil, you'll find that it 
solidifies into something that behaves indistinguishably from lard.

3) Fats can be roughly categorized as "saturated" or "unsaturated".  All fatty 
acids are alpha-monocarboxylic acids with an unbranched, unsubstituted carbon 
chain.  If there are no double bonds in the chain, the fatty acid has the 
maximal hydrogen content (is saturated with hydrogen) and thus is called 
"saturated".  If there are one or more double bonds in the chain, the fatty 
acid is called unsaturated.  A fat containing unsaturated fatty acids is called 
unsaturated fat.

4) No pure fat contains cholesterol.  Lard, butter, and other impure fats from 
animal sources tend to have cholesterol dissolved in the fat.  All fats from 
plant sources are free of cholesterol.

5) Olive oil contains 3500 kilocalories (what dieticians call "calories") per 
pound.  This is true of all fats, regardless of the source and exact chemical
composition.

6) Saturated fats and some monounsaturated fats are the direct biochemical 
precursors of cholesterol, and, in many if not all people, the liver tends to 
synthesize more cholesterol when the diet contains these sorts of fats.  
Furthermore, this cholesterol tends to be shipped around the body in the form 
of low-density lipoprotein/cholesterol amalgams (LDL cholesterol), which has 
been linked to atherosclerosis and heart disease.

7) The particular monounsaturated fats contained in olive oil are not direct 
biochemical precursors of cholesterol and can only be converted to cholesterol 
with difficulty (but they CAN be converted).  The liver usually doesn't bother. 
 In the presence of significant amounts of this sort of fat in the diet, the 
liver tends to produce high-density lipoprotein/cholesterol amalgams (HDL 
cholesterol), which is believed to have a beneficial effect.  This does NOT 
mean that lots of olive oil is necessarily good for you.  If it's still excess 
caloric intake, what you don't burn off will eventually end up being stored as 
depot fat, which is saturated, and when broken down will be transferred around 
in LDL lipoproteins. Plus there's the general health risks associated with 
obesity to consider.

8) Nobody knows the biomedical mechanics of how dietary fat intake, 
omega-3 fatty acids, cholesterol synthesis and excretion, LDL and HDL synthesis 
and breakdown, buildup of atherosclerotic plaques, and breakdown of such 
plaques are all related.  The most that we have is some statistical trends:
there are statistically significant correlations between dietary unsaturated 
fat and cholesterol intake, high blood LDL levels, and heart disease.  What 
causes what, how, and why is unknown.

There's a lot of individual variation in all this.  For example,  my 
grandfather's diet was and is the traditional Swedish diet high in eggs, 
butter, whole milk and other "dreadful" things.  He's 94 and still going.  On 
the other side of the coin, some people can have a diet completely free of 
saturated fat and cholesterol and still have high blood LDL levels and develop 
atherosclerosis and heart disease.  As with a lot of things in dietary 
medicine, "your milage may vary".


The only conclusions that one can draw are some general rules of thumb.  A diet 
low in fat intake seems to be better than a high-fat one on several counts, as 
does a diet low in cholesterol and saturated fat.  This doesn't mean you must 
never eat anything containing butter or eggs.  It does mean that moderation is 
a virtue.

--PSW

    Does that mean that if I HAVE to have cooking oil whether for cooking
    or salad dressings that I should choose Olive Oil???  ie. oil when
    cooking pasta, oil to keep anything from sticking to the pan...
    
    
    Lee

    Olive Oil is a good choice if you don't mind adding the flavor to the
    food.  

    RE: .11
    
    	What he said.   (thanks, Paul, especially for the information
    			 about depot fat.)
    
    	Canola Oil seems to be the latest flavor of the month for cooking.
    	It has neutral taste, is mono[un?]saturated, has a high smoking
    	point, and is cheaper than olive oil.
    
    -rjc-