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Why Do Foodies Freak Out About Ramps?
Time's Josh Ozersky tries to get at the heart of what makes ramps so friggin' beloved by foodies: "What makes ramps ramps is not their flavor, you see, but their cultural value. David Kamp, the author of The Food Snob's Dictionary, offers this explanation to Time: 'The ramp is not a salad green, but it is a green vegetable, and it is the first legitimately green thing that appears from the ground in April, a month that, in terms of farm yield, is otherwise an extension of winter. For food snobs, therefore, ramps are overcelebrated and overly scrutinized, like the first ballgame played in April, even with 161 more games ahead.'" Do you agree that's why foodies absolutely freak about ramps?Are Heirloom Wheat Varieties the Next Big Baking Trend?
"You could give me dog-shit wheat, and I could still make it taste great." —Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery [Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt] Just as tomatoes have spent the last few hundred years getting the flavor slowly sucked out of them, in favor of more convenient attributes like uniformity in size and color and resistance to the rigors of transcontinental shipping, wheat has undergone a similar process. Unlike tomatoes, which, discounting any Native American influence, have been bred for a mere few hundred years, wheat, a staple grain since the earliest civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, has had a 10,000-year breeding program. Modern wheat is designed for high yields, and to produce flours with consistently high protein contents. In the meantime,...In The News: Kill E. Coli, Heathly Food Trends, Smoking Bans
Cooking ground beef to 160°F kills E. coli (and perhaps your desire to eat it). [TCPalm] Five healthy food trends: Cooking Light identifies five good-for-you food trends. [Cooking Light/CNN] Beverly Hills institutes smoking ban in outdoor dining areas: California law prohibits smoking inside restaurants, cafes, and bars. A growing number of cities have taken things a step further by banning smoking in outdoor venues. [L.A.Times] Gamble away your money and your health: In Tunica, Mississippi, "a 560-seat Paula Deen's Buffet will be installed at the Grand Casino Resort Tunica." Deen is the woman, you'll remember, who offers a deep-fried butter recipe. [Associated Press] Battle over best way to ensure food import safety: Government and food industry officials favor high-tech...The War On Drugs, Err, Raw Milk
Time Magazine's Wendy Cole, on how law enforcement is cracking down on raw milk suppliers: Richard Hebron, 41, was driving along an anonymous stretch of highway near Ann Arbor, Mich., last October when state cops pulled him over, ordered him to put his hands on the hood of his mud-splattered truck and seized its contents: 453 gal. of milk.Yes, milk. Raw, unpasteurized milk. To supply a small but growing market among health-conscious city and suburban dwellers for milk taken straight from the udder, Hebron was dealing the stuff on behalf of a farming cooperative he runs in southwestern Michigan. An undercover agricultural investigator had infiltrated the co-op as part of a sting operation that resulted in the seizure of...Telling Diet Myths From Diet Facts
Janet Helms of the Seattle Times wrote a seven item quiz on nutrition and diet myths, to point out that much of what we probably think is true is actually anything but. My favorite item: 2. Low-fat always means low calories.Myth. If you see the word "low" on the label, that's your clue to look a little further, suggested dietitian Susan Moores, of Minneapolis. Check for serving size and the number of calories on the Nutrition Facts label. Low-fat foods often contain the same amount or even more calories than regular versions.That's particularly true for fat-free foods. If fat is taken out, something else is put back in — and that's often sugar. Some studies suggest that snacks with low-fat...Trans Fat Fight Claims Butter as a Victim
Cities like New York have already banned artificial trans-fat for health reasons, although scientists think natural trans fat might actually turn out to be beneficial. Because of an FDA ruling that says products with half a gram or more of trans-fat "can’t be called trans fat-free, even if butter is the only fat," companies like Starbucks are making their suppliers cut out butter to make their product labeling ("no trans-fat!") easier. From Trans Fat Fight Claims Butter as a Victim, by Kim Severson of the New York Times: This is an important issue because anything made with animal fats will have trans fats and make it impossible to claim trans fat-free,” said Marion Nestle, nutrition professor at New York University....Can You Tell Food Fact From Food Myth?
"Myths about nutrition seem to linger for years just like urban legends. Remember the one about grapefruit burning fat? What about coffee stunting your growth? Maybe you're still holding on to the belief that gelatin will make your nails stronger. No doubt, you've fallen for a few weight-loss myths too. It's easy to do with the continual crop of fad diets promising a quick fix. Who can forget the cider vinegar and cabbage soup diets?" March is National Nutrition Month and so Janet Helm of the Chicago Tribune has put together an eleven point quiz you can take to see if you can tell food fact from food myth....A Renaissance Of Pork
Carolyn Jung of the Mercury News, on why 2007 is a good year for pork: Foodies have long found today's conventionally raised pork too dry and flavorless to swallow. Many of them now seek out heritage breeds to deliver the full-on porky flavor they've been missing. Just as discriminating Americans learned to zero in on Kobe and Wagyu breeds for top-quality, ultra-marbled beef, so, too, are they now gravitating toward Berkshire and Duroc breeds for exceptional pork.Although the National Pork Board has no firm figures on how large this niche pork market is, it is one that is definitely growing."The kind of short-lived trend of thinking leanness meant health and quality led to the pig being ostracized somewhat," says Patrick...Ganso Iberico, The Ethical Foie Gras?
The Spanish company Pateria de Sousa produces a foie gras called Ganso Iberico, which they're marketing as an ethical foie gras because they avoid "the process known as la gavage - force-feeding birds with grain by using a metal tube - by allowing geese to stock up on extra food naturally in preparation for their normal winter migration to Africa. They are slaughtered once they have fattened themselves for their expected long flight south." Ganso Iberico is only produced once a year because of migration, and is even more expensive than traditional foie gras, which costs £10 to its £16 for just 2½oz (70g). Interesting factoid thrown out in the article: "Although the production of foie gras is banned in...Hot Topics: Technique of the Week | The Food Lab
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8 Delicious Chocolate Cakes and Pies for Valentine's Day
Some might say that chocolate on Valentine's Day is about as unoriginal as you can get. We all remember the first heart-shaped box of overly sweet chocolate bonbons from grade school Valentines. But chocolate gift-giving needn't be a cliché. This year, let's bake our sweethearts chocolate cakes and pies instead! Here are 8 delicious recipes perfect for celebrating your love (of chocolate.)
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