Did you know that the common belief of searing meat on all sides on high heat to seal in the juices before putting it in the oven to cook doesn’t hold true?  Or that adding oil to a pot of cooking pasta won’t keep the pasta from sticking after it’s cooked?

Well, until I watched an episode of Good Eats last year, I really thought that searing the meat on high heat would help hold in the juices.  In fact, all the high heat does is push the water out of the muscle fibers, resulting in a sizzle once the piece of meat hits the pan.  As for the oil in the pasta, I kind of figured that out on my own when my pasta kept sticking to each other after I cooked it in a pot with water and oil.

Check out this article for other tidbits on common kitchen chemistry.