Topic started by honey (@ is4.publib.saskatoon.sk.ca) on Mon Oct 2 21:33:19 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
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Does any one how to make a silver varaq. For those of who are wondering what the heck it is, it is the silver decoration on sweets. Is it even possible to make it at home. |
Responses:
- Old responses
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Mon Jan 22 09:13:21
Searched the net under various key words. Spent about half an hour. Could not find any other reports of lead poisoning due to rasam or cooking utensils in india.
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Mon Jan 22 09:52:35
I wrote to The Hindu and to the avaL vikatan
asking them to follow up on the report by Dr Cherian. uuthara sanggai uuthi vittEn. ini nadappadhellaam avan seyal. ;-)
- From: kiru (@ surf0004.sybase.com)
on: Mon Jan 22 10:21:34
Ravi,
Good job. You are doing a service by bringing these things to the fore.
BTW, do you know whether lead is used in the tinning process of cans/vessels. I am against buying any canned food. But my wife insists on eating those Jackfruit, nungku etc from cans. In India, I was against cooking even in aluminum vessels, because I could see the aluminum getting oxidised (in the vessel used for heating water).
The Irish royal family women used a lead based face powder for a long time. It was a mystery why they all died young. It was quite later that they figured out that the lead was the culprit.
- From: SUndar (@ ip9.79.blca.blazenet.net)
on: Mon Jan 22 10:54:09
Yentha Ravi Saarey!
One possible source of lead poisoning in tin vessels:
The Solders commonly used to repair or even join (eg bottom of vessel to sides) are in the lead-tin-zinc family.
So it is possible that the lead poisoning comes not from the vessel, but from the solder. A similar solder is also used to patch up brass sometimes.
As to the gentleman who sees aluminium getting oxidized: Wow! Al forms a protective oxide on its surface that prevents it from getting oxidized further. I'm amazed that your family uses such violent cooking/water boiling procedures that this oxide layer is destroyed and further oxidation occurs =) I suspect what you saw may have been hard water mineral deposits.
The current argument against Al is that they've found higher concentrations of Al in the brain tissue of Alzheimers patients. So now some people suspect a possible link to cooking in Al vessels. Personally, I don't think this can happen easily.
Now, with canned food. You are at liberty to consume it or not, as you like. However, FYI: Originally, cans consisted of a sheet of tin-plated iron that was rolled into a cylinder (known as the body), onto which the top and bottom were manually soldered. This form was replaced in the early 20th century by the modern sanitary, or open-top, can, whose constituent parts are joined by interlocking folds that are crimped, or pressed together. Polymer sealing compounds are applied to the end, or lid, seams, and the body seams can be sealed on the outside by soldering. The modern tin can is made of 98.5 percent sheet steel with a thin coating of tin (i.e., tinplate).
SO I think you're more likely to suffer in general from food that has been improperly sterilized prior to canning rather than lead poisoning from tin =)
With my best regards,
Sundar
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Mon Jan 22 14:00:19
Sundar said:
>This form was replaced in the early 20th century
>by the modern sanitary, or open-top, can, whose
>constituent parts are joined by interlocking
>folds that are crimped, or pressed together.
Well, you know how long the plant that is manufacturing Ambassador cars has been running.
I wont be surprised if the mango canning plant has been using the same machinery for 100 years! But I have seen the cans. They seem to be the modern crimped vareity. So ask her to enjoy the mangos and nungu and the thEngaayp paal and palaap pazam without any worries.
Same about aluminium. We have replaced the aluminium containers in our pressure cookers with stainless steel ones, purely due to aesthetic concerns, not any food safety issue. We still use the cast aluminium karaai rather regularly. Boiling with water never exceeds 100 deg C. But frying in oil can go up to 225 deg C. Still nothing to be concerned with. Inside
pressure cookers it can get to be 180 deg C.
I think Al is a safe cooking material.
Come on folks, we have been eating food cooked in
plastic containers in microwaves!
- From: Susmitha (@ 203.199.64.142)
on: Tue Jan 30 04:06:03
NOw, what is the final conclusion??
Can we continue cooking rasam in 'iya chombu' or not?
The whole thing has become so confusing, somebody please clarify....I make rasam practically every second day and give that to my 2 year old son too..
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Tue Jan 30 08:03:23
Susmitha Final Conclusion:
1. There is only one report in the net of lead poisoning due to rasam.
2. If iiyam is lead, it is very unlikely it has gone unnoticed for so long.
So most likely iiyam is tin not lead.
But a two year old cant tell a iiya sombu rasam from a stainless steel saucepan rasam. So to be on the safe side, dont give iiya sombu rasam to small kids. Just my opinion.
- From: Hemant (@ 202.144.107.4)
on: Tue Jan 30 10:16:16
Hello Sushmitha, Ravi and all my other friends.
I will find out about this IIYA chombu for Rasam and come back with a final word on it.
Please give me a couple of days.
- From: Susmitha (@ 203.199.64.142)
on: Thu Feb 1 05:28:45
Hemant,
Looking forward to it...
Susmitha
- From: Nehru (@ gr149191.griffin.peachnet.edu)
on: Fri Feb 23 21:49:43
I read the Food and Ag Chemistry journal off and on. Soluble Aluminum seems to be of concern especially when sour acidic ingredients such as lime/lemon juices, (Tamarind in our case),Vinegar etc are involved. Toxicity supposest the dose ingested over a prolonged period.
- From: Hemant (@ 202.86.168.81)
on: Sat Feb 24 00:21:51
Hello Sushmitha,
I have not got an opportunity to go to Madras in the last one month.I will inform you of LEAD/TIN in Rasam Iya chombu ASAP.
- From: Ravi sundaram (@ pa-bethelpark2a-530.pit.adelphia.net)
on: Sun Feb 25 21:46:47
I met the mother of one of my friends. She said the rasam vessel is veLLiiyam (white eeyam, tin) and not kaariiyam (black eeyam, plumbum). Hope she is right. No response to the emails I sent to vikatan and hindu. I think I should write to someone like Mallika Badrinath and spark an investigation.
- From: Susmitha (@ 203.199.64.142)
on: Mon Feb 26 05:25:11
Ravi, Hemant
Do something. I am waiting for a conclusion and if we are able to prove something, I think it will be useful for so many others also who drinks rasam in Iya Chombu... At least for our kids....
- From: Hemant (@ lan-202-144-107-4.maa.sify.net)
on: Mon Feb 26 11:12:39
Ravi sundaram is right.I have asked my old friends and they have confirmed that it is indeed made out of velliiyum.
In such a case, the food cooked in Brass vessels coated with velliiyum should taste the same.
I think that taste wise food cooked in Tin coated vessels tastes better than the food cooked in Steel and aluminium.
But in my experience, foods cooked in earthen pots taste THE BEST.
Especially sambars and CURRIES ARE SIMPLY SUPERB TASTING.
- From: JayBee (@ sp-74-20.tm.net.my)
on: Tue Feb 27 01:02:30
So.....
I stand cleared?
- From: Hemant (@ 203.197.150.234)
on: Tue Feb 27 02:27:57
Yes DOC !!!Always right!!!!!
Vazgu Velliiya chombu!!!!
- From: Hemant (@ 203.199.224.170)
on: Thu Mar 1 08:19:48
Hello Dr.JayBee, Sushmitha and sundar and all,
Today, I went to Triplicane Parthasarathy Kovil Agraharam and asked all the patram kadai ownners about Iiya chombu.
I have written affidavits almost from them that Iiyachombus are made only from Velliiyum and not Lead.(Pb)
I made a purchase of one Rasam vessel (not xactly a chombu)made out of Velliiyum.The shopkeeper has guaranteed purity.The oldtimer man was kind enough to explain to me that Drinking Rasam made in IIya chombu is good to prevent many diseases.
I have confirmed from Ayurvedic books that Velliiyum in small quantities is extremely lethal for bacteria deposited in Urinary system.
I may post more on this subject soon.!!
- From: ravi sundaram (@ 192.149.1.187)
on: Thu Mar 1 11:47:31
Thanks Hemant. Will call my sister in law and apologize. A little knowledge is dangerous.
- From: KITKAT (@ hlr-42-83.tm.net.my)
on: Mon Mar 19 20:19:52
The latest issue of Kumudam has revealed what goes into making Varaq, and I am shocked. It seams the makers use bladder skin of dead cows , cut them up and stack them like a book. In between the pages of this book they place silver pieces and beat them up for 8 to 10 hours. After this the varaq is ready. BUT... BUT.... BUT.... they dont even wash the varaq as it will whither. So it is distributed with all the bacteria the cow had in its bladder. This is the prevailing practise in UP area they say. Varaq manufacturers locate next to culling houses so that they can get fresh bladder skins.
Oh my God! I will never touch a milk sweet with Varaq in it henceforth.
- From: Hemant (@ 202.86.166.2)
on: Mon Mar 19 23:12:29
KITKAT,
I had posted the same info in this column sometime back.This is the reason, I have stopped the usage of VARAQ for the last ten years or so.!!
- From: KITKAT (@ 210.186.115.11)
on: Wed Mar 21 03:10:33
Ya , I went through the old responses once again. You have earlier said you stopped eating it 25 years ago and now you say 10 years or so:) Just kidding. I wonder how I overlooked the post you made anyway. Thanks.
- From: Hemant (@ 203.197.150.234)
on: Wed Mar 21 04:24:44
Hi Kit Kat,
Yes I did stop eating sweets covered with silver foil more than twi decades ago.It is so long that we tend to forget time.Allow this forgetful man some years here or there.!!
In fact I am one of the most forgetful persons.
(I never forget recipes though)
- From: pradheep (@ agent.lisco.com)
on: Sat Mar 31 17:46:39
FOOD SHOULD NEVER BE COOKED IN ALUMINUM!!!
Aluminum has been shown to be the worst invention ever for the use of preparing foods.
Boiling water in aluminum produces: hydro-oxide poison
Boiling eggs in aluminum produces: phosphate poisoning
Boiling meat in aluminum produces: chloride poisoning
Cooking bacon in aluminum produces: powerful narcotic which can cause an individual to slip into a coma & death.
Boiling soda in aluminum produces: hydro-oxide of sodium
Vegetables cooked in aluminum: are made poisonous by the production of hydro-oxide acid.
Aluminum produces a drug which neutralizes the digestive juices of the stomach, robbing them of their value to digest food and causing or producing stomach ULCERS and COLITIS. The poison produced by aluminum brings
about a condition of acidosis of the blood. This condition destroys the red blood cells which produces a condition similar to anemia.
The sale of Aluminum wear for cooking purposes is prohibited in: Germany, France, Belgium
Great Britain, Switzerland, Hungary Austria Brazil
All of the above information on aluminum products was done by McGuan for the Federal Trade
Commission of the U.S. Government. It is report #540, Washington D.C.
Per survey, 98% of the restaurants in the U.S. still use aluminum cookware to prepare the meals on their menus.
How often do you eat out?
read for more details
http://www.healthfree.com/paa/paa0008.htm
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