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2002

TODAY's CASES:

Rain to Snow

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dorothy
  To: phaedrus
  Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 4:12 PM
  Subject: snow

  HI ! I would like to know how much rain does it take to make 1 inch of snow..
Thanks,
Dorothy

Hi Dorothy,

It depends on the type of snow. Some snowflakes are light and fluffy, while others are heavy and dense. One inch of rain will make twelve inches of the light fluffy kind of snow, but it will only make six inches of the dense, heavy kind. The experts say the average for all kinds of snow is roughly 10 inches. So, 1/10 of an inch of rain will make 1 inch of snow, average.

You can read more about it at these websites:

Starry Skies

Weatherwise

Phaed


Rocky Mountain Cake

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Doris 
  To: phaed
  Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 8:59 PM
  Subject: Find Recipe

  Can you find a recipe called "Rocky Mountain Cake"?  I just learned 
  it is an "old" recipe of numerous layers.

  Thanks for any information you might have or find.

Hi Doris,

Sure. Below are two recipes.

Phaed

  Rocky Mountain Cake
  
  Batter:
  3 eggs
  2 cups plain flour
  11/2 cups sugar
  2 teaspoons baking powder
  1/2 cup sweet milk
  1 cup butter
  Vanilla flavoring to taste
  Beat eggs separately. Cream butter and sugar. Sift flour and baking 
  powder twice. Add milk and flavoring to eggs, then butter and sugar, 
  then flour and baking powder. Makes 3 layers.

  Filling:
  2 cups sweet milk
  1 cup sugar
  2 tablespoons flour or cornstarch
  2 egg whites, beaten
  1 grated coconut
  1 box raisins, ground
  1 cup chopped nuts

  Heat milk in double boiler. Mix sugar and flour and dissolve in milk. 
  Cook until thick, then add grated coconut, raisins and nuts. Then add 
  beaten egg whites. Spread between layers, on top and sides of cake.
  ------------------------------------
  Rocky Mountain Cake

  1 cup shortening
  3 cups flour
  1 cup milk
  2 cups sugar
  4 eggs
  Flavoring
  Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs, beat until creamy. Add flour 
  and milk gradually. Beat until smooth; add flavoring. Makes 3 large 
  or 4 small layers. Bake at 325 degrees F.

  Filling:
  2 cups dark brown sugar
  1 cup milk from coconut
  1 cup white sugar
  3 tablespoons butter
  1 medium-size coconut
  1 box raisins
  1 pound walnuts (before shelled)
  Juice of one lemon
  1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

  Cook sugars and coconut milk, until thick, stirring occasionally. 
  Add butter. Beat until it is thick. Add grated coconut meat, raisins 
  and walnuts. Mix all together and add juice of 1 lemon and 1 tablespoon 
  grated lemon rind.

Puff'd Rice

----- Original Message -----
From: frank
To: phaedrus
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 9:33 AM
Subject: INQUIRY

>
> Dear Sirs,
>
> Kindly be of assistance.
>
> How do you prepare the following:
>
> (a)Puffed/Popped rice and
> (b) Puffed wheat?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Frank

Hello Frank,

Ok, first let's talk about popcorn. Popcorn pops due to two thing: pressure and moisture. Popcorn has a hard outer shell and a soft, moist inside. When you heat popcorn, the moisture inside turns to steam and the hot steam gelatinizes the soft inside of the corn kernel. When the pressure builds up enough, the hard shell cracks, and the gelatinized inside expands outward.

With rice and wheat, you don't have the hard outside shell surrounding a moist inside. So... how do you puff it?

An American biochemist discovered how to puff rice in 1902, when he stuffed rice into an old cannon, a relic from the Spanish-American war. Today puffed rice and wheat are made in a machine that uses tremendous steam pressure to produce a similar result to the cannon.

The essence of puffing is to gelatinise the starch in wheat or rice in a hot pressure chamber and then suddenly release the pressure, so that the grain expands to several times its original size.

The first step is to deliver a measured quantity of grain into a pressure chamber (known as `the gun') and heat it by high pressure steam to almost 200° C. This is achieved in less than a minute. The pressure is then released, expanding the grains and shooting them into a large chamber (referred to as `firing the gun').

Loose bran is aspirated off and vitamins are added to the puffed grains (called `berries' at this stage).

The coated berries are then carried on a conveyor belt into a hot air oven to dry to a moisture content of 3%. the dried berries pass over a sieve, so that only puffed wheat or rice grains of the correct size (over 6mm) remain.

So, the bottom line is that you can't puff rice or wheat at home. You gotta have an expensive machine or a cannon.

Phaed *****

----- Original Message -----
From: frank
To: phaedrus
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 10:06 AM
Subject: INQUIRY

>
>Phaed
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> My most sincere thanks for the prompt reply and the
> efforts taken in searching.
> I have noted the contents i.e. rice and wheat are
> puffed mainly in large machines.
> However, I have read of the following methods of rice
> puffing:
>
> a) "Puffed or popped rice, is made by heating rice in
> sealed containers for a hour at 55 degrees Centigrade;
> the moisture in the grain is converted into steam
> which, when the pressure is released expands the
> grains to several times the original size". From
> "RICE" by R. Digest (fifth edition).
>
> b) Parboiled rice is cooked for 5 hours under 15 lb.
> steam pressure.
>
> c) By extruder
>
> d) By oven.
>
> I believe I can do (a) at home. However I am of the
> view the author would have included the moisture
> content.
>
> Extruder /Oven
> I believe there are small extruders and puffing ovens,
> which are domestic.
>
> By the way what is the difference between puffed rice
> and popped rice?
>
> I have also come across puffed wheat and expanded
> wheat. What is the difference?
>
> Please kindly advise again.
>
> My sincere thanks.
>
> Best regards,
> Frank

Hello Frank,

From what I have read, "popped", "puffed", and "expanded" all generally mean the same thing. However, deep-fried rice is also called "popped rice" by some.

I, too found a reference that gave some simpler ways to pop or puff rice:
Puffing Grain

However, if you are looking to make a product like "Rice Krispies", I don't think you are going to have much success with these methods. The reason is that it's not enough to just heat the rice under pressure. To make it "puff" properly, you must release the pressure suddenly, explosively, and I think it will require special equipment to do this.

Let me know how your experimenting turns out.

Phaed

George writes:

Uncle,

Years ago, I saw a TV show that made puffed rice using leftover rice.
It was a Chinese cooking show (I don't remember which one).  What I
remembered was that they spread the leftover rice in a pan and left it
overnight (in the refrigerator?)  The next day they put it into hot
oil to puff it.  Remembering that much simplified my search.

The Baker Who Cooks

Almost half way down the page, she tells you how to puff rice. https://www.chooseindia.com/recipe/tips.htm Has the comment, "Dehydrate leftover rice in an oven or sundry, till brittle. Puff up some by deep frying as required, add to soups as rice crispies." under soups, about half way down the page.

Pings This website has a complete recipe from dry rice to puffed rice. I like your web site. George


Bobo Newsom

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: dorothy 
  To: phaedrus
  Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 4:06 PM
  Subject: person?

  Hello! I am trying to find out who Bobo Newsom is. I been told he 
  was a baseball player and I would like to know who he played for 
  and when.  A highway in SC is named after him and was just wondering 
  who he is exactly and why they named it that...
   Thank you! 
  Dorothy

Hi Dorothy,

Bobo Newsom was indeed a baseball player, a pitcher. he died December 7, 1962 in Orlando, Florida. Winner of 211 games, he was also the loser of 222 games. Newsome began his major league career pitching with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1929. He ended up with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1953. In between he played for many different teams. Newsom was a native of Hartsville, SC.

You can read his detailed obituary at:
Bobo's Obit

Phaed


Basa Fish, Yet Again

   ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rich
  To: phaedrus
  Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 5:04 PM
  Subject: Basa Fish???

  My sister lives just outside of Miami, Florida and has been talking a
  bout BASA fish.  I'm sorry to say that I have not heard much about this 
  fish here in southern New Jersey.  Do you have anything you can send me 
  on this topic?  Thanks for your help, Rich. 

Hi Rich,

I get more mail about Basa fish than anything else, except maybe requests for recipes for a Magic Chef donut maker...

Basa fish is a cousin of the American catfish. These fish are raised in small wooden cages in the Mekong River by the Vietnamese. Basa fish exporting is the fastest growing exported fish business in the world. They are a mild, white fish, and can be used in any fish recipe that calls for white fish. They are sold under several names, including "white roughy". Mississippi recently passed a law that Basa fish cannot be sold in that state under the name "catfish" because they are not "true" catfish, and because they were seen as unfair competition for Mississippi's catfish cultivation business.

Phaed

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