IS THE MAIN INGREDIENT IN YOUR DISH RUINING THE RECIPE?
Every one of your favorite dishes has at least one ingredient in common. From your grandmother’s famous Matzah Ball soup to your toddler’s favorite spaghetti and meatballs, each dish starts with water!
After slaving over a precise recipe and finally joining your family at the table, you might find that your hard work has resulted in a dish that tastes inexplicably “off”.
If your home has hard water, and 80% of American households do, it might be throwing the smell and taste of your favorite foods off!
Baking Trouble
Unlike a lot of art, baking is an exact science. Each ingredient must be weighed, measured, and added precisely. But when you add water to your ingredients, have you accounted for the iron, calcium, and dissolved minerals you’re adding to your very delicate mix?
Not only can these unwanted additions change the flavor of your pastry, but the minerals actually have the ability to change the structure of gluten, and even alter the yeast reaction you need for proper rising. The harder your water is, the more likely it will be that you end up with tough, rubbery baked goods.
King Arthur Flour’s website offers more insight into the chemical reaction, showing how hard water can slow yeast’s fermentation process, resulting in tightening, rather than the full expansion you’re hoping for.
Ever wonder why New York pizza crust has a different texture than ANY OTHER pizza, and why you can’t get a real New York crust out side of the city? It’s because New York water has a very unique PH balance. The PH level of your water changes based on how hard or soft it is. Hard water is more alkaline, while softer water is more acid, or lower PH. Yeast performs best at a PH of just below 7, or base.
Cooking Gets Hard
If it weren’t enough that water can change the chemical reaction in your food, it can change the texture of just about anything you cook it in. For instance, if you are boiling vegetables, or even blanching them in hard water, they may become tough and woody. They’re also likely to lose much of the color, and with it, many nutrients.
Harder water also takes longer to reach a boiling point, because the boiling point of hard water is actually higher! This means that boiling rice, pasta, and beans will take a little longer, sure. But you have to also consider that those foods are also likely to become a bit gummy in this process. They’re not meant to be in boiling water for more than standard cooking time, and as the gluten reacts in the boiling water, you get broken down under cooked foods.
If your kids complain that your macaroni and cheese just isn’t as good as grandma’s, it’s not because you’re not adding enough love. Blame your water supply.
You work hard to keep cleaning products out of your children’s reach, but every sip of water contains chlorine, which is actually required to make your water safe to drink. If you can smell or taste chlorine in your supply, it’s likely that it’s also affecting the taste (and color) of the dishes you serve your family. If you don’t like drinking it, cooking with it isn’t going to go any better at all!
Weigh and Measure Your Options!
There are a lot of options for making sure your water measures up! One excellent choice is a Reverse Osmosis filtration system installed directly beneath your kitchen sink. An RO system uses a multi-step filtration method to remove almost every single impurity and additive in your water supply before it reaches your family. This leaves you with the cleanest, most refreshing water you’ve ever had from a tap.
And while your family will enjoy the health benefits of drinking more water, you’ll also appreciate that your coffee and tea both taste better! Starting with clean water gives your favorite flavors a chance to really come through, whether it’s soup or spaghetti, iced tea or just plain ice! Everything tastes better clean!
In fact, the first step to recreating your favorite restaurant’s famous dish is to start with an RO system in your home. That’s because Reverse Osmosis Filtration is the leading choice among restaurants and top chefs everywhere!
And while the benefits of having RO water in your home are too numerous to count here, it might seem like something that’s just too good to be true. Many families find themselves surprised to learn that an in-home filtration system is much more affordable than they expect!
When you’re ready to take your cooking skills to new heights, give us a call! We’d be happy to come out and help you assess your water, and give you an estimate for your home!