Mum was wrong, don’t keep eggs in fridge door!

PASSED down from mother to child, there are certain rules of the kitchen that are hardly ever challenged.

But, according to a book which examines the science of food, many ‘ traditional’ tips just do not work.

Author Dr Stuart Farrimond says you don’t need to add olive oil to pasta, marinate meat for more than two hours, or – unless you want ruined meringues – store your eggs in the fridge door.

Stirring your pasta will stop it sticking, not oil, the food scientist advises. And keeping eggs in the fridge door shakes up their whites. When baking, you should use eggs at room temperature anyway, so that the proteins unwind and mesh together more easily for a finer and more even crumb. Meanwhile, some chefs suggest marinating meat for hours – but a marinade can only penetrate a few millimetres into the muscle before drying on the surface.

Even worse, acidic ingredients, like lemon juice, wine or vinegar, will slowly digest the outside of the meat, turning its texture mushy and unpleasant.

And you don’t have to pick out unopened mussels from your moules mariniere, as this doesn’t mean they are raw.

Mussel shells do not always open because the molluscs have very strong muscles, called ‘adductors’, keeping them shut. They weaken when heated, but not always enough to open the shell.

Dr Farrimond, whose book is called The Science of Cooking, said: ‘People accept the advice from recipe books, celebrity chefs or their mother unquestioningly, but there can be better ways to do things.’