Brain Teasers
Clever Jenny II
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Jenny's friend Tom had invited his boss over for dinner and asked Jenny to cook her famous Greek lamb stew for the occasion. Tom bought the lamb, olives, and wine listed in the recipe. She browned the lamb and added tomatoes, onions, and spices while Tom made a salad. Tom opened the bottle of cooking wine he had bought and poured the whole thing into the stew, which began to simmer fragrantly.
A half hour before the boss was due, Jenny tasted the stew and made a wry face, exclaiming, "Oh, this is awful! It's way too salty! Did you put more salt into the stew?"
Tom replied, "No. Except for the wine, I didn't touch the stew!"
Jenny mused, "Golly, where did so much salt come from?"
She checked the recipe to see if maybe she had added salt twice but didn't find any mistakes. Then she thought and asked, "What kind of wine did you use?"
"This cooking wine from the grocery store," he answered, handing her the empty bottle.
Reading the label, she said, "Oh, no! This brand is loaded with salt! The stew is ruined!"
Then Jenny had an idea and did something that saved the stew and the dinner.
What did she do?
A half hour before the boss was due, Jenny tasted the stew and made a wry face, exclaiming, "Oh, this is awful! It's way too salty! Did you put more salt into the stew?"
Tom replied, "No. Except for the wine, I didn't touch the stew!"
Jenny mused, "Golly, where did so much salt come from?"
She checked the recipe to see if maybe she had added salt twice but didn't find any mistakes. Then she thought and asked, "What kind of wine did you use?"
"This cooking wine from the grocery store," he answered, handing her the empty bottle.
Reading the label, she said, "Oh, no! This brand is loaded with salt! The stew is ruined!"
Then Jenny had an idea and did something that saved the stew and the dinner.
What did she do?
Hint
She added one ingredient.Answer
She peeled a potato, diced it finely, and added it to the stew. The potato absorbed the extra salt and saved the dinner.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Then what do you do with that nasty, salty Potato??
Seriously - good Teaser - I'll have to remember that next time I get too liberal with the Sodium Chloride. Thanks!!
Seriously - good Teaser - I'll have to remember that next time I get too liberal with the Sodium Chloride. Thanks!!
That's fabulous! Everybody knows liquids concentrate. Great thinking!
Awesome!
How does this work? I've never heard of potatos being able to absorb salt. Please excuse my ignorance.
Ummmm.....! (I just got home from Pennsylvania about an hour ago!) I really thought a lot of people knew about that! My grandmother and my aunties told me about it when I was a young thing lots of years ago. I'll try to find you a scientific reason for it, but I think it's because when you cook potatoes, you need to add salt, so if you add some finely diced potatoes to a stew they will absorb the salt. I'll get back to everyone on this in a day or two! I've tried it and it works!
Oh, and please don't call it "ignorance!" Call it "an inquiring mind!"
Again, relatively easy, but I personally would have added some water. Cabbage is also a good absorber, and you can't taste the salt as much in the cabbage.
i didnt know that a potato absorbed salt but i kinda figured it was somthing like that. its better then some of these teasers
I also would have just added water.
I didn't think wine had salt in it. I am not sure about cooking wine, but I know for a fact there isn't salt in regular wine. I make it regularily enough to know.
I didn't think wine had salt in it. I am not sure about cooking wine, but I know for a fact there isn't salt in regular wine. I make it regularily enough to know.
Thanks for your comment. Not many people seem to know about the salt in "cooking" wine. Regular "drinking" wine doesn't have any salt in it, at least the brands of American, French, German, Italian, and Australian wine I have had recently! But I do know that a lot of "cooking" wine does have a bunch of salt in it. I use wine in cooking, but stay away from the "cooking" stuff! Some inexpensive merlot or chablis works fine for me!
You could also add a bit of sugar to counteract the salt, but such experiments should only be performed by experienced chefs
my first thought was that jenny put a whole bunch of sugar. hehe.
Good teaser! I like your series.
Id like to marry Jenny - She is an all rounder - I hope she is not at all round though
Good teaser! I never knew that patatoes abosorbed salt.
Oooh, well done! Nice teaser!
Jun 18, 2011
About salt in cooking wine -- I believe the French say that any ingredient which is a food itself (like wine, etc.) should be good enough to use as such. I.e. in this case use a cheap real wine, not a "cooking wine", and if possible a wine that you find OK.
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