NEARENOUGH’s Profile
Recent Comments
Paula Deen Is Trying to Kill Us, Part 5: Butter, Mayo, Whiz Cheese Spread
Cream cheese is a pernicious ingredient, made up from some milk product and coagulated with gums (arabic, guar, carrageenan, other bean gums). I love it when somebody boasts they made "cheese cake" when it was made from cream cheese, eggs, etc. The true foodie knows cheesecake is really made from pot cheese or ricotta cheese (light cream curds) and not the "Philadelphia" brand of opaque white gummy bear product.
By the way, has anyone anywhere ever found "creme fraiche" (with all the required uppity diacritical marks) in any American market? I went to several supermarkets and they didn't know what I was talking about.
Top 10 ingredients I will never have in my kitchen
1. Most supermarket fruit or even most any market fruit. Fruit is raised and harvested mainly for appearance and resistance to bruising and blemishing during shipping, never for taste and flavor. Has anyone ever bought a cantaloupe that smelled and tasted aromatically fruity, was soft and succulent, juicy and truly edible only with a spoon and not a chainsaw? No. Except in some private small sellers in Japan. All melons in the States are suitable only for bowling.
2. Any tomato in the States. Tough perfectly shiny plastic skins requiring a spit-out; tasteless woody/fibrous flesh, no aroma.
3. Meat in supermarkets that swims in transparent red to pink fluid in the styrofoam container, that when opened the underside revealing something that resembles a used woman's sanitary napkin.
4. Ground beef that has a brown surface and a pink interior, usually marketed as 75% off with an expiration date of tomorrow, sometimes today.
5. King Crab, always frozen, that usually possesses spotty repulsive off-flavors, musty sometimes almost rotten aromas near the cut ends. Has anyone ever eaten a fresh one?
6. Tofu. But I do use it as patching material.
7. Bing Cherries. I am eating through a box right now and every one lacks a distinctive taste. I suspect they are raised for appearance only. [I wonder who dreamed up the "cherry" flavor found in candies and lollipops?]
8. One vote FOR monosodium glutamate. This is just a harmless tangy/salty amino acid. About 40 years ago a letter was published in the New England Journal of Medicine claiming it caused flushing, sweating and other symptoms, subsequently dubbed the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome." This was never confirmed, and to my knowledge it causes no harm. I specify it be added to my meals in asian restaurants.
9. Frozen Crab cakes. No matter what the box says, these are inedible hockey pucks composed of shredded leg meat and bread filler.
10. Instant Chocolate Pudding. Pasty to granular off-putting milky flavor with not the slightest resemblance to any true cocoa product ever marketed.
See more comments by NEARENOUGH »
Recent Posts
NEARENOUGH hasn't written a post yet.
Recent Favorites
NEARENOUGH hasn't favorited a post yet.
Recent Polls
NEARENOUGH hasn't answered any polls yet.
Recent Quizzes
NEARENOUGH hasn't taken any quizzes yet.
Probably the best and safest (and most tasty) way to make a burger is to get the meat whole (in large chunks) and grind it fresh. This reduces the danger of bacterial contamination of ground meat that has been purchased from a market under unknown storage times. It also allows "medium rare."
Mustard is for hot dogs; ketchup is for burgers.
Also raw onion, tomato, relish and lettuce. Anything more and it becomes impossible to take a bite of everything. May thin jalapeno slices could be added. The bun must be toasted.
Charcoal and/or wood fire please. No gas or electric grills. Frying no allowed.
Cheese makes the burger fatty and slimy.
That's my opinionated opinion.