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Self-Rising Flour May Have Too Much Bang For Fruitcake

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By Mary A. Keith

Tribune correspondent

Published: December 15, 2008

Q. Can I make Mrs. Harvey's white fruitcake using self-rising flour, or do I need to go get regular flour?

A. The cake won't be ruined, but it won't be the usual, either, if you use self-rising flour. Self-rising flour has 11/2 teaspoon of baking powder in each cup of flour. The fruitcake recipe calls for only 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder for 13/4 cup of flour. That means you'll get a lot more leavening if you use self-rising. The cake will rise more, but the fruit may sink to the bottom. It won't be the usual pound-cake texture of usual fruit cake.

Q. How do these new "green bags" for storing fruit and vegetables work? Are they safe? Are they worth the money?

A. They work because they are coated with a type of clay that absorbs ethylene. That's a gas that some fruits produce as they ripen.

It makes other fruits ripen faster. So by tying up that gas, the bags slow down the ripening. If fruit doesn't get too ripe, too soft and mushy, then it's harder for molds and bacteria to start growing. So there is some science behind how they work. And, yes, they are safe. Whether they are worth the money is up to you. By leaving fruit in open air, never in plastic bags, most of the ethylene will be diluted and blown away just by air currents. Do you need a bag to do that? Some people think they're wonderful, others don't think they improve much.

Q. Is it OK to freeze tomatillos? I got a whole bucket of them and can't make or use that much green sauce before they spoil.

A. They can be frozen. It's better to chop and partly cook them before you freeze them. Some vegetables develop a very grasslike flavor if they're not blanched or parboiled first. Since they'll be cooked when you make green sauce, you'll have a half-step done when you go to use them.

Q. Can the tiny little decorative pumpkins be eaten? My daughter got a lot for Halloween and now we're sitting here wondering what to do with them.

A. They're not going to make you sick, but they probably don't have enough "meat" in them to be worth the work. You could cut one in half, top to bottom through the stem, scoop out the seeds, and see if there's enough meat on the skin to make it worthwhile to cook them all. If so, cook them like acorn squash or pumpkin.

Q. My grandson froze some strawberries in sugar last year. Now he wants to make some strawberry jam. Will those frozen berries work?

A. In general, frozen berries will work, but the problem is that you say he added some sugar when he froze them. Unless he knows exactly how much sugar he added, it will be very difficult to get the exact right amount of sugar in the jam. Strawberries don't have enough pectin of their own to gel, and most commercial pectins are very picky about how much sugar they need to set. The only one I know of that should work is Mrs. Wages Light Home Jel. This is specially purified pectin that gels no matter how much or little sugar there is. Look for it in your grocery, then follow the directions in the box.

Q. Can we use the oil from frying the Thanksgiving turkey to fry another turkey for Christmas? Can we use it to fry other foods, like fish?

A. Heat a small amount and smell it. If it still smells fresh enough, then use it. If it smells like old paint or rancid cheese, well ... If you strained the oil after Thanksgiving and stored it in a cool, dark place and in full containers, it should be OK. The more heat, light or air get to it, the faster it will start going rancid. Once that starts, you can't fix it. It can be used for other foods, too, but often after it's been used to fry fish it makes the rest of the foods taste fishy too. So keep that separate.

Mary A. Keith, a nutrition and health agent at Hillsborough County Extension, can be reached at (813) 744-5519 or mkeith@ufl.edu.

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