大象传媒

Most people are scared of patisserie or baking. There is no need to be, as revealed in tonight's episode of Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets. The only difference from other types of cooking is that patisserie is an exact science and often requires precise amounts in order to obtain the best results each time. For example, the difference of 2-3g of yeast less in a dough will result in a heavier dough that will not rise as much.

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So the first secret is to invest in a good pair of electronic scales. Also invest in a probe, which will give you the internal temperature of the food: cooked at 74C/165F will give you the perfect cr猫me caramel experience, meltingly delicious. Also you'll find that a Victoria sponge requires a temperature of 86C/187F.

My mother has always taught me to respect food. So here are a few baking tips that do just that:

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* When rolling pastry, place it between two sheets of cling film. The advantages are enormous. Your kitchen will remain clean, the pastry will not stick onto the warm kitchen table, and it will make the rolling so much easier. To line a tart, remove one layer of the cling film and place the pastry side down in the tart dish.

* Many recipes tell you that in order to pre-bake a tart you need to line it with greaseproof paper and beans, bake it blind, then remove the beans and paper and finish the cooking. Here is a much better way: the secret is to line your tart ring with dough, and let it rest in a refrigerator for 4-5 hours. The dough will lose its elasticity, crust lightly and can be baked directly from the fridge to the oven and will not retract while cooking.

* When baking delicate pastry, such as choux pastry, turn off the ventilated (fan) part of your oven and add 20 percent more cooking time. The force of the heat from a ventilated oven is likely to split open the choux pastry.

* When buying puff pastry avoid pastry made with margarine or hydrogenated vegetable fats, which contain unhealthy trans fats. For the ultimate glaze for puff pastry or short-crust pastry, combine one organic egg, one egg yolk and one teaspoon of single cream.

* The best investments you can make for baking and pastry-making are a wooden , a baking stone and various sized metal rings. The peel, covered with greaseproof paper, will allow bread and pastry to slide directly onto a pre-heated stone, giving you the perfect crust to pastry.

* When baking bread, add water into a hot tin in your oven; it will provide steam which will leaven the bread, and result in a beautiful crust and colour.

*By adding a tiny amount of sugar to fruit (20g/戮oz sugar for 200g/7oz fruit) when , you will increase the flavour by about 30-40 percent in my opinion. As the sugar permeates the fruit it will soften and enhance. A little dash of lemon juice or herbs will also improve the flavour.

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* Everyone must learn how to make a sabayon. You can create the lightest mousse, which can be used as a topping for seasonal fruits. The flavours you can use are endless. It is a great technique and will help extend your repertoire of desserts.
* You must try macaroons, they are so easy to make. The only difficulty is that you will need strength to stir the mix - that is where a man is helpful! By pre-heating the baking try, you will kick-start the cooking of the macaroons, giving extra rise and creating the 鈥榗ollarette鈥�. This is a sign of a great macaroon.

* Pre-cook your crumble topping first to prevent the seam from the fruit making the crumble soggy and indigestible. It will be delightfully crunchy. (By the way, did you know that the French have, at last, discovered crumble? Across France - in homes, villages, brasseries and three-star Michelin restaurants alike - one will hear the noise of crumbling; it is marvellous!).

Finally a word on chocolate

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It is common knowledge that chocolate containing 70 percent of cocoa solids is a better chocolate. Yes, it is, but beware 鈥� 70 percent of a bad cocoa will never give you a good experience, so choose your chocolate carefully and buy the better brands. Chocolate is not a prima donna. When melting chocolate I find that the burning point of chocolate is around 102C/216F and cocoa solids will start graining (cooking) at 95C/203F.

Here is a quick and easy recipe for chocolate tempering which you must all try. Melt two-thirds of your chopped chocolate up to 55C/131F. Immediately add the remaining third of chopped chocolate and stir until it reaches the temperature of 32C/90F. At this precise moment the miracle happens. At 32C/90F the cocoa butter within the chocolate will crystallise giving the chocolate a fine crackling texture and a beautiful shine. All sorts of moulded shapes can be achieved, such as my .

Have you tried Raymond's kitchen secrets at home and do you have any useful tips for making your baking look professional?

Raymond Blanc is the presenter of Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets. Get the recipes for tonight's episode on cakes and pastries.

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Eggs tend not to cross my mind when I'm devising a menu for a special听occasion. I generally start with a piece of meat or fish as the "hero piece"听around which a dish will be conceived. Eggs tend to be used more听incidentally - as a functional ingredient rather than an inspiration.听Recently, however, I was made to think about them in a completely different way.

20,000 amateur cooks applied for the latest series of MasterChef. The听numbers were gradually whittled down through a long and rigorous process of application forms, interviews and auditions. 20 of us finally donned the听coveted white aprons and filed into the studio kitchen. At the front stood听the familiar figures of John Torode and who, after what felt听like an eternity, told us that for our first challenge we would have one听hour to cook a single plate of food from the selection of ingredients听provided. So far, so expected, but then John and Gregg delivered the killer听blow.

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Having been an avid fan of the programme for years, I was all ready for an听. I had rehearsed as much as possible by imagining what听ingredients might be provided at that time of year (Gregg, as we all know,听is a big fan of seasonality), and what dishes I could create with them.听What I hadn't prepared myself for was the compulsory inclusion of an egg.听The only advice we were given was that if we were even thinking of cooking an omelette, we should find the door and take ourselves home.

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The other shocking realisation was that we had no oven. All thoughts of听蝉辞耻蹿蹿濒茅蝉 and sponges were quashed as we took stock of the single gas ring,听barbecue-style grill and hot plate.听We were given 10 minutes to select our ingredients; 10 panic stricken minutes during which ideas flew in and out of my head, the terror of being the only person in the room not to come up with a dish at all numbed my mind and finally, blissfully, a hint of an idea took hold, grew and provided my solution.

In hindsight, it's easy to think of countless dishes we could have chosen to听cook. Eggs provide the answer to so many problems in the kitchen. They听thicken, glaze and rise; they emulsify, enrich and bind; they are听self-contained, but can be separated to provide component parts - each of听which can be used in a myriad of ways.

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After a frantic and unforgettable hour, 20 plates of food paid testimony to听the versatility of the egg. They were incorporated within pasta,听hollandaise, frittata, mayonnaise and meringue; they accompanied steak;听topped haddock and coated rice noodles. Eggs play such a fundamental role in so much of what we produce in the kitchen. It was utterly appropriate that our MasterChef lives should start with them, for once, taking centre stage.

How do you like to use egg in your cooking? And if you watched the show, what did you think of the results of the Invention Test?

Annie Assheton is a contestant on 大象传媒 One's MasterChef.

, environmental groups and the government are all keen to see us try new types of fish. This is to take the pressure off fish like cod and make the most of 鈥榖ycatch鈥� fish that often gets discarded. Choosing sustainable fish helps protect fish stocks from over-fishing and guards the marine environment, but it can be confusing and the detail difficult to remember. Is this type of fish ok to eat? Where should it come from? How should it have been caught?

Fortunately the produces a pocket guide that summarises both fish to eat and those to avoid. This is being turned into an even handier smart-phone app, due this summer. And if you need more detail see the for information on over 150 fish.听

Mackerel on toast with salted cucumber and horseradish

Dr Peter Duncan, Aquaculture and Fisheries Programme Manager at the Marine Conservation Society says: 鈥淚f you have the option, choose a fish that is line-caught. This is a more sustainable way to catch fish and there is less unwanted 鈥榖ycatch鈥�. It鈥檚 also good to look for certification schemes. There is a wide spectrum of ways that fish can be caught or farmed, and certification schemes help you choose the better standards.鈥�

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The well-established is used for wild fish. Their blue tick label indicates that a fish comes from sustainable waters, is not over-exploited and is not endangered. A similar certification scheme for farmed fish and seafood is being developed by the and labelling is expected later this year.

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Currently the RSPCA Freedom Food certification assures a good standard of welfare, and organic certification for salmon and prawns verifies that certain environmental - as well as welfare - issues are covered.


Tips for choosing sustainable fish
If you don鈥檛 have a guide handy when you鈥檙e choosing fish in a shop or restaurant here are the key points to remember:

The big five
Take care with the most common fish we buy in the UK such as cod, haddock, salmon, canned tuna and prawns. Due to their popularity, there are problems with all these fish and you need to choose carefully.

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Only choose those that are certified. Tuna labelling schemes aren鈥檛 as thorough though and while the Dolphin Safe 鈥� Earth Island Institute is the strictest dolphin-friendly labelling scheme it doesn鈥檛 ensure overall sustainability. Greenpeace regularly assesses the sourcing of all top brands in their . Sainsbury鈥檚 came top of the 2011 league.

Fish in danger
Definitely avoid bluefin tuna, swordfish, skate and eel 鈥� the stocks of these are all too vulnerable. In addition to the big five there are a large number of popular fish that are best avoided unless you can be sure that they have been caught in a sustainable way (see the for more on the specifics). These include hake, halibut, plaice, sole, monkfish and seabass.

Eat more variety
Try cooking and eating a greater range of sustainable fish and seafood. It鈥檚 good to spread the load of our fish eating onto many different types of fish, not just a few. All the following get the MCS thumbs up:

• Check out alternatives to cod such as coley, pouting, pollock and pollack can all be used in many recipes in place of cod, such as fish pie, fish cakes or stews. Try Nathan Outlaw鈥檚 pollack stew, James Martin鈥檚 Indian-style pollack or Rick Stein鈥檚 Thai fishcakes.

• Try some of the bycatch fish that are often discarded, such as dab (a small member of the plaice family that you can use in similar ways) and gurnard (a firm, meaty fish that's similar to monkfish) - great in gurnard en papillote or gurnard stew.

• 

  Steamed mussels

  Give prawns a rest and discover the delights of other sustainable seafood such as mussels, clams, oysters, cockles, crab and squid (calamari). Try Rick Stein鈥檚 moules marini猫res or Nigella Lawson鈥檚 crispy squid with garlic mayonnaise. Give a boost to your omega-3s with the likes of mackerel, sardines, pilchards or trout. Try James Martin鈥檚 grilled sardines or Simon Rimmer鈥檚 stuffed trout.

If you enjoy fish it鈥檚 worth trying out the sustainable substitutes for some of your favourite dishes and get experimenting with new fish. Any changes you make are worthwhile. What are you doing to ensure the fish you buy is sustainable? Do you have any recipes to share?

Sue Todd is a food writer and former editor of the 大象传媒 Food website.

"Is there anything local on the menu?" asked Raymond Blanc. RB (as we all call him) had just arrived in Scotland for our first day filming on the second series of Kitchen Secrets and we were about to have a late supper at our hotel. The waiter looked like he might cry as he admitted the answer was "no".

I felt sorry for him, but also a little embarrassed. We were in St Andrews, the town of my birth. Like all expatriates, I was anxious that those I had brought here would understand that the beautiful was a rich and wondrous source of some of the best seafood in the world. And yet there wasn't one local crab, clam or langoustine on the menu. But we weren't here to enjoy ourselves (well, maybe a little), and eventually Raymond ordered a plain grilled lemon sole. Judging by the length of time it took to arrive, several fish were sacrificed before one was deemed good enough to put before the great Blanc.

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Fed and watered (or gently wined in Raymond's case) we went to bed early, as the next day we were to be up at 5am to head out to catch lobster in the Firth of Forth. The team consisted of Andy the cameraman, James our soundman and assistant producer Emilie. If it was too windy the boat wouldn't go out. As a producer, I long ago learned not to fret too much about weather. It is one of the few things I can鈥檛 control, so there is no point lying awake listening to the

What did keep me awake was wondering whether Raymond could actually get onto the boat. He broke his leg pretty badly last year and was understandably a bit nervous about doing anything that might set his recovery back. Nevertheless Raymond brings out a motherly instinct in me and like any good, caring Scottish mother I put a hand on his shoulder and told him to stop complaining and just get on with it.

The sea outside the harbour wall was looking a bit lumpy. Andy was particularly pleased to hear this. The sound of him retching had punctuated the soundtrack of fishing for Dover sole in the first series. But my immediate concern was getting Raymond onto the boat. First Andy jumped on and his camera was passed down to him. Now it was RB's turn. One foot on the harbour side, one foot on the gunwales of the boat and RB leapt like a gazelle onto the deck. Emilie and I almost hugged each other. He was on the boat, the camera even had a tape inside it and that fluffy thing was on the microphone听 - so barring total disaster there would be something we could film.

A couple of hours later they returned triumphant. There were lobsters in crates, Andy had seen his breakfast but only once and Raymond was smiling - only because he hadn't realised that it was now low tide and the boat was far down against the harbour wall. He'd have to climb a four metre ladder...

I'm going to gloss over exactly what happened next. . All I will say is that there was language that isn't appropriate pre-watershed, so I did what all good producers do and tried to sooth the situation with food. We headed to the , an award-winning fish and chip shop - all six of us jammed into a little booth with chairs fixed to the floor and ordered haddock and chips. This was as 'local' a specialty as we were going to get and I was confident Raymond would enjoy it.

Our overflowing paper plates arrived and it was a lunch of champions. Then I saw RB had raised his hand to wave over the waitress. "Madame, could I have a little mayonnaise, perhaps some sauce tartare?" My blood ran cold. The world was moving in slow motion. I knew what was coming. A plate arrived and on it, fanned out in their plastic perfection, was the fish bar's finest collection of condiment sachets. For a moment Raymond looked at them aghast. Then he got out his iPhone, took a picture, and mercifully, laughed.

I do hope you enjoy seeing the results of our days' fishing in the first programme of the new series of Kitchen Secrets. I look forward to reading your comments it means a lot to me to hear from people who watch the show - and hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Melanie Jappy is the series producer of Raymond Blanc's Kitchen Secrets,听which returns to 大象传媒 Two, Mondays at 8.30pm. Read more from Melanie at the 大象传媒 TV blog about what it鈥檚 like to work with Raymond Blanc.

OK, let鈥檚 get one thing straight about : you won鈥檛 have to do without. Your painful memories of scout camp or holiday stew can be made to fade away if you . You might not even have to open a tin of beans. For me, spending time in my campervan has always been about having fun, living well and not washing up piles and piles of dirty plates - as seen in my 大象传媒 Two series One Man and His Campervan. This is my guiding principle for cooking outdoors: if it takes you longer to wash up than it does to eat you鈥檝e gone wrong somewhere. So here's my advice for the ultimate meal out:

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• Avoid dishes that take hours and hours. I don't do this because I鈥檓 impatient, but because I might not have enough gas or firewood! There is nothing worse than running out half-way through a scrummy smelling hotpot. This generally means that you need to keep it simple.

• Fresh, I would argue, is best. Roadside stalls are absolutely brilliant places to find ingredients because the chances are it鈥檒l be home grown. It might be a little muddy and misshapen but then, so what? This is the country! All you have to do is stop, take what you want and put a few quid in the honesty box.

• Try a little light . I鈥檓 no expert but it gives me great pleasure to go out and find free nosh. You have to be brave and you have to be sensible, so take a guide book and don鈥檛 pick it if you aren鈥檛 100% sure. If that means all you take back is blackberries, who cares? They will taste fab with a dollop of cr猫me fra卯che. And you鈥檒l feel like a too.

• Have something up your sleeve. Couscous has always been my fallback position.听 It will go with just about anything and can be used with fresh herbs, spices and dried fruit. And all you need is boiling water and a knob of butter to cook it. If you鈥檝e picked up some fresh summer veg at a roadside stall you can make a great meal if you slice it, griddle it and mix it up with the couscous and some fresh mint and basil.

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So how are you going to cook all those amazing fresh ingredients? Whilst you鈥檝e got no oven in the outdoors you鈥檝e actually got plenty of options for creating great food. Gas stoves, open fires, barbecues, even Dutch ovens or smokers aren鈥檛 that hard to master. And almost anything is possible.

For starters, you could try a portable hot smoker. They work over any heat source. A freshly caught (or bought) fish smoked for half an hour or so will taste like fish you鈥檝e never tasted before. Try it. Otherwise take a shelf out of the oven at home and use it to cook over a fire. Chuck a big fat juicy steak from the local butcher on it, add a few griddled veg and some couscous and you鈥檝e got an easy meal. Simple. Perfect. Delicious.

What are your tips for eating outdoors or on the road?

Martin Dorey is the presenter of One Man and His Campervan on 大象传媒 Two.

Brace yourselves, good readers of the 大象传媒 website, for we are gathered here today to talk about sex. Not procreation or or any other roundabout ways of avoiding good stuff. No. We are here to talk about lovely, warm, naughty lovemaking and how food can help you get more of it.

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First the bad news: there are, despite excitable and , no foods have been reliably clinically proven to increase sexual desire. Whilst filming around the world I鈥檝e been offered gorilla paw, rhino horn, dog stew and the testicles and penises of tigers, yaks, bulls and stags, all accompanied by cast-iron guarantees that they would get me a roll in the hay (useless considering that my wife was usually several thousand miles away). But it鈥檚 nonsense. Traders will make for pretty much any food in order to make a profit.

Commercial nutritionists love sex. Gillian McKeith advises and sells Love Bites (they 鈥榝eed love organs鈥� according to Amazon) with raw sprouting daikon seeds. However,. The controversial advises 鈥榮even supplements for better sex鈥�, but I declined to pay him 拢35 for the privilege of learning what they were.

Despite millions spent on research, Big Pharma has little to offer. Viagra isn鈥檛 an aphrodisiac but a cure for erectile dysfunction, can be used to treat impotence, but offers dizziness as well as sexual excitement. can increase libido, but have a wide array of grim side-effects. is reported to cause mild nausea, yawning and spontaneous erections in trials (not the best combination). Testosterone supplements can increase sexual desire, but only if you have low testosterone already. is currently undergoing tests with mixed results, and seems to be an aphrodisiac... for rats.

Food can also be an anti-aphrodisiac: , restaurant critic for The Observer, told me 鈥渋f you get the food right, all you'll want afterwards is to go to sleep with a gentle sigh of 'night darling鈥�.

But now the good news: I鈥檝e found a way of transcending these minor obstacles. Over the last six years I鈥檝e run an ongoing survey of lovemaking to reverse-track the food-sex link. Instead of looking for a causal relationship, I ask people 鈥榃hat did you eat before you last made love?鈥� Clever, huh?

I鈥檝e had over 800 responses so far and of course the results are utterly unreliable as they come from my friends and Twitter followers, many of whom are as weird as I am. Some of the answers were unprintably filthy, others clearly fantasy, but I won鈥檛 sully them with my opinions. Here鈥檚 what people said they ate before their last night of glorious lovemaking (updated 13th Jan 2011):

1.听听 听14%听 A meal with lots of alcohol (not condoned by the 大象传媒)
2.听听 听10%听 Take-away meal
3.听听 听9%听听 听Expensive meal
4.听听 听8%听听 听Curry
5.听听 听6%听听 听Chocolate
6.听听 听5% 听听 Fish
7.听听 听5%听听 听A light meal
8.听听 听3%听听 听A meal cooked by a male partner
9.听听 听2%听听 听Oysters
10.听听 0.5% Meal at wedding (successful fertility rather than unadulterated pleasure?)

(The remaining 37.5% were pretty random eg 鈥榣unch鈥�, 鈥榮trawberries鈥�, 鈥榓 banana鈥�, or my favourite: 鈥楾offos and a can of Quattro.鈥�)

Incidentally, here鈥檚 mine: a quarter of a game pie, a goats鈥� cheese tart, masses of fruit and a bottle of non-alcoholic citrus brew, eaten on our laps whilst watching The King鈥檚 Speech. And no, we didn鈥檛 make love at the cinema. There are laws about that sort of thing.

I want 1000 responses before I stop researching, so please don鈥檛 be shy. What food floats your boat?

Stefan Gates is a 大象传媒 presenter and food writer.

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Are you all for kitsch cupcakes, pretty pink macaroons, perfectly melting (or fondues), human heart cupcakes (yes, ), or simply straight-to-the-heart steak and chips? Most of us have fussed and flapped over a Valentine鈥檚 supper at some point in a romance. It鈥檚 the time of year when the kitchenware shops wheel out heart-shaped sandwich and cookie cutters, L-O-V-E stencils or massive heart-shaped cake moulds - just in case you want to spread the love.

We鈥檝e got dishes and menus galore if you鈥檙e looking to avoid a table-for-two and obligatory rose at your local restaurant - such as this incurable romantic Valentine's dinner. But if you want corny, OK here it is. Years ago I made individual cheesy cheesecakes with 鈥渉is鈥� and 鈥渉ers鈥� drizzled over the top in chocolate. My boyfriend was pretty bewildered about it at the time. Now he鈥檚 my husband, I think he gets my (ahem) retro taste a little more.

A hopelessly romantic friend of mine put her last Rollo in a little box for a romantic gift. She later gave the same love token to a couple of different beaus, which kills the romance slightly. And then there鈥檚 the girl who makes laminated restaurant-style menus for her Valentine鈥檚 meals - romantic or just plain weird?

So can you top these romantic food gestures? What鈥檚 the tackiest Valentine鈥檚 Day food treat you鈥檝e ever made? What鈥檚 on the menu this year?

Ramona Andrews is the host of the 大象传媒 Food Q&A blog and messageboard.

On January 20th the coalition government announced a . There was plenty of coverage of the fact, but what didn鈥檛 capture the media's attention was the impact on the previous government鈥檚 commitment to getting 11-14-year-olds cooking again. The plan had been part of the former government鈥檚 attack on obesity. Teach someone to cook and they won鈥檛 spend a lifetime eating factory-prepared junk was the idea. It was to happen in 2011, but now it鈥檚 in limbo. Teachers have been retrained, school kitchens have been fitted, but the teaching and the cooking aren鈥檛 going to take place, at least not for a long time. If children are lucky their secondary school will teach 鈥樷�� and if they鈥檙e luckier, they鈥檒l get to turn ingredients into real dishes. Otherwise food tech will involve designing food packaging or theoretical sandwich fillings. Or, there won鈥檛 be any lessons involving food at all - food technology is not part of the core curriculum.

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In this week鈥檚 Food Programme we were asking 鈥榳hy have we come to this and what can we do about it?鈥� We began with a little history from about a subject that鈥檚 been taught in some form or other, mostly to girls, since the mid-1800s. And it brought me out in a rash of nostalgia. I formally learned to cook in my Lancashire village all-age school. Once a week a group of girls, from the weenies to the 15-year-olds on the brink of moving into the world of work were taken to a special cooking centre in Rawtenstall, each of us with our basket of prescribed ingredients. We learned what Dr Rutland called 鈥榩lain cooking鈥�. It seemed like good cooking to me then and still does: fairy cakes, meringues, Victoria sponges, jam tarts, apple pies, Lancashire hotpot, fish pie, cheese and onion bakes, steak and kidney pudding, and Christmas cakes and mincemeat in season.

It was a recipe list that trained us in many skills that are easy to transfer as adults to the new dishes of our lively food multiculturalism. Pizzas, stir fries, green curry, beef ragout, tiramisu? No problem. Very few of the dishes we made pass the current - and frequently misguided - 鈥榟ealthy鈥� test (suet, lovely suet!), but we were very healthy. And looking at my school photographs now I see that none of us were fat.

But it was all change during the Thatcher years when the education ministry decided that what the country needed were not cooks who could feed themselves and their families, but food technologists who could work in the nation鈥檚 food factories: people who could design a theoretical frozen pizza, but who鈥檇 not the first idea of how to make a pizza. And so we created that generation of children we saw in who don鈥檛 know a carrot from an onion and whose parents also don鈥檛 know a stick of celery from a cauliflower.

So, with compulsory cooking no longer on the agenda - or it won鈥檛 be until the curriculum review committee make a decision sometime in 2014 - what else is available? Over the last twenty years while food tech has been the official line, dozens of groups have sprung up to try to bring cooking back into children鈥檚 lives. The biggest, most ambitious and most successful has been the Soil Association-led partnership financed with 拢16.9 million from the Lottery. In hundreds of schools they鈥檝e been improving school meals as well as getting children onto farms, growing their own food and getting them cooking again.听

One of the most interesting of the smaller groups is the programme. This year they鈥檒l work with 21,000 children - a drop in the ocean, but one that makes a lot of difference to many families鈥� lives.

But is all this voluntary, entrepreneurial effort enough to impart the food skills that are necessary in rebuilding a food culture that will save this generation from the ills of mass obesity, rising rates of diabetes and a fracturing civility? Can the do it? I鈥檓 not optimistic.听听听

So tell us, do you think domestic science or food technology should be compulsory in schools? How was (or is) cooking taught in your school?

Shelia Dillon is the presenter of Radio 4鈥檚 The Food Programme.

I am ! I see it as my genetically programmed to eat everything that I possibly can, from and to and hamster food. The ability to eat pretty much anything has been vital to the survival of the human race. When certain foods like fruits became scarce, we were able to turn to others such as roots - by comparison , so when eucalyptus becomes scarce, the koala dies.

With the , we desperately need new resource-efficient food sources to sustain the human race, so exploring and experimenting is still vital to our survival.听So why are there some foods that must be available, but which we never seem to eat? Here are my top five:

Turkey eggs
7-8 million turkeys are eaten in the UK each Christmas Day, but their eggs are never sold in shops. The main reason is that turkeys lay less than chickens ( as opposed to 300 chicken eggs) so they are relatively expensive and are invariably kept for breeding.

Grass
Of course you can eat , but you can鈥檛 get any great nutritional value from it. It contains a lot of , which is a carbohydrate (a sugar) but isn鈥檛 broken down very well in the human gut, so we have difficulty extracting energy from it. Cows and sheep have bacteria called symbiotic micro-organisms in their rumen which help to digest it, but to do so . However the very indigestibility of grass means that it can provide humans with useful (roughage). Good for the stool, if you know what I mean.

Rhubarb leaves
Although rhubarb is a great delicacy, it has a high concentration of a toxin called oxalate in its leaves, which can make you ill and potentially even kill you from cardiovascular collapse, gastrointestinal problems, respiratory difficulty, convulsions and coma. You鈥檇 need to eat a heck of a lot of rhubarb to get that far 鈥� probably around 5kg of leaves 鈥� but .听

Iron

We鈥檙e told to eat foods that are high in iron, so why don鈥檛 we simply chomp a hunk of metal every now and then? Well, in a way we do: elemental iron is sometimes added to cereals in the form of tiny iron filings (although the body absorbs it less efficiently than the iron fumarate usually found in supplements). But the body would have difficulty breaking down all the iron in a large mass such as a nail before it has travelled through the body, and its shape and hardness may also pose a grave danger to our delicate digestive system. More importantly, the body only needs the fractional amounts of iron that it extracts from foods (especially red meat, lentils, beans and fortified cereals) and too much iron can be highly dangerous. Iron poisoning in children (usually from eating ferrous sulphate dietary supplements) is a huge problem 鈥� it鈥檚 .

Pigs' milk

Could you?

Although pigs鈥� milk is high in fat (around 8.5% compared to cows milk at 3.9%) and is an excellent source of nutrients, . They have around 14 teats compared to a cow鈥檚 four, and they don鈥檛 take very kindly to having them touched by humans. They also get very agitated if you try to restrain them. Pigs also have a limited milk ejection time of around 15 seconds, whereas a cow鈥檚 can be up to 10 minutes. All in all, it鈥檚 a pig-shed load of trouble to milk a porker.

听

So over to you, which foods would you like to try that aren鈥檛 in the shops?

Not many people would go for a toasted tarantula as a snack, let alone the famous found in the jungles of South America. This record-defying arachnid is said to be the largest spider in the world and can reach up to the size of a dinner plate, though it is perhaps the most unlikely addition to any menu.

The thought of spiders is enough to have many people shivering in fear. The sight of their hairy legs and fangs doesn鈥檛 exactly whet the appetite. I personally have nothing against spiders. Not that I would seek out their company as pets or roommates, but as a vegetarian, directing this sequence for the 大象传媒 One series Human Planet, I was pretty sure that seeing a spider as a snack wasn't going to break my non-meat eating resolve:

The most extraordinary thing about the filming wasn't the oversized arachnids; rather it was the young spider hunters that we were filming with. Orlando was a small boy, from the tribe of southern Venezuela. He had a cheeky smile and a particular talent for tarantula trapping. He explained that when there is little food about, a spider is a welcome bite to eat. The tarantulas themselves have an impressive set of fangs that are best admired from a distance, but they are not venomous - though they can bite.

What Orlando and his friends worry about are the irritating little hairs that an angry spider kicks out in defence from its rear. To be an expert spider hunter, the trick is to lure out the little beast by twiddling a stick down the hole where they hide out in the daytime. As soon as the tarantula is out, Orlando quickly pins it down so that its long hairy legs cannot do any damage. Now that it is unable to move, Orlando wraps it in a leaf and ties it up with a vine. This is dining al fresco in the extreme.

Gathered about a makeshift fire, Orlando and his friends first kill the spiders by a sharp tap to their bodies. They then remove the rear end where the irritating hairs can be found and using branches, the tarantulas quickly become kebabs. Before eating the spider, like a true gourmand, Orlando brings out a little seasoning. Pulling off the legs, he dips them into chilli and salt which he serves from a leaf.

Despite the name, once the legs are gone, there is not much meat on a Goliath bird-eater tarantula. But every edible piece is happily consumed and the fangs are even used as tooth picks by some. No opportunity for a quick jungle snack is wasted by Orlando and his friends, however hairy.

It鈥檚 been said that eating insects makes good sense for the environment and arguably we all anyway, but would you try these tarantulas?

Discover amazing human stories from around the world through television and radio clips from 大象传媒 programmes with the Human Planet Explorer.

Willow Murton is an Assistant Producer for Human Planet.