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jfultz's Profile

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Location: Minneapolis

About: I have been cooking at home on some level for 3/4's of my life and if that isn't enough, I have been in food product development for half of my life. (for those of you that don't like word problems - I am 45, cooking for 35 and working for almost 23)

Favorite foods: Beef stews of nearly any type with with my favorites being Mom's then Carbonade then Beef Bourguignon, Gin & Tonic, Sal's cheese steaks in New Holland PA, Beans & Cornbread

Last bite on earth: Assuming a meal, Confit de Canard with pommes de terre sarladaises and salade périgourdine

The Ten Most Recent Comments By jfultz

From Required Eating

Adventures in Shoo-Fly Pie

I lived in Lancaster County for 15 years ('88-'03). I had my first taste of Shoo-Fly at Yoder's Restaurant in New Holland. Warm with whipped cream, it is amazing.

One of my favorite jokes that I fell for was from my boss at the time (he was French) when we were at lunch one day. I ordered the Shoo-Fly and he told me I shouldn't have ordered that. He was quite the foodie so I thought he was just being snobbish. I asked him why, and with the straightest face, he told me it was because flies were not in season so it wouldn't be fresh!

jfultz at 8:23PM on 07/13/08

From Required Eating

The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars

I work in the dairy industry and can tell you that the specks are mainly for show. Someone else mentioned that they could be ground up pods and that is essentially correct. When they make vanilla extract the pods and seeds are mashed up and soaked in ethanol to extract the flavor components. Once the extract is removed, the pods and seeds are dried and ground further to make the specks. There may be some residual flavor in the specks but not much. An ice cream manufacturer will buy those specks from a vanilla supplier by the boxful and add them to the ice cream along with extract to get the flavor.

A better indicator of quality is whether the flavor is vanilla extract only since that is a defined flavoring. If the label says vanilla and other natural flavors, that means the flavor company has padded out the natural vanilla with additional natural flavor components to tweak the profile. And, of course, when the labels starts talking about artifical flavor and vanillin, walk away.

jfultz at 11:10AM on 06/27/08

From Required Eating

Candidate Ice Cream Flavors

How about White McCain-adamia Nuts? Vanilla ice cream with white chocolate chunks and white macadamia nuts.

Now, if I could only figure out how to work "Aged" into the recipe...?

jfultz at 10:14AM on 03/10/08

From Required Eating

Traitor Joe's?

As a former employee of one of those contract manufacturers, I saw first hand how Trader Joe's worked. They bought one cheese spread from us with their brand name in addition to one product with one of our own brands. Their approach was to buy a bunch of product at once in cartons with a large number of units to keep costs down.

And if anyone is worried that this somehow compromises their quality, I have this story. The product we made for them was without preservative (potassium sorbate) but we also made versions of the same product for others that included preservatives. Try as we might to keep their product separate, one batch had some trivial carryover of the preservative at a level that was below an effective level but was detected by their quality team. As they should have, they rejected that load but they went the step further of ending our contract because of that one slip.

They were a tough customer when it came to anything quality related.

jfultz at 3:14PM on 03/05/08

From Required Eating

For a Drink You Can't Put Down: Bottoms Up

It makes me think of an after dinner drink (sake?) I had in an Asian restaurant in France. It was a porcelain cup with a sort of glass "bubble" on the inside at the bottom of the cup. When it was empty, the glass distorted whatever pattern was underneath. When the alcoholic drink was put inside, it changed the refractive properties of the glass and the pattern was revealed as a partially clothed woman or man depending on your gender.

jfultz at 12:31PM on 02/21/08

Responses to Comments by jfultz

From Required Eating

Adventures in Shoo-Fly Pie

I agree with most posts - the peanut butter is just wrong. Coming from good PA Dutch stock, I know that no one - and I mean no one - would ever think of such a thing. While you may enjoy adding the peanut butter, in my opinion it is not longer shoo fly pie once you do it.

But that's just my opinion...I believe in variation. But please don't call it shoo fly pie...

reader110 at 12:12PM on 07/16/08

From Required Eating

Adventures in Shoo-Fly Pie

Pouring the foaming molasses mixture into the crumbs was the method used by the folks who introduced me to this delightful pie, and this is the first recipe I've read that tells you to do that. The peanut butter, however, I can do without. My taste in molasses runs (slowly, of course) to the heavy and barely sweet, but even when using the lighter stuff I think the molasses flavor should dominate.

willowen at 12:48PM on 07/14/08

From Required Eating

Adventures in Shoo-Fly Pie

@holdthemayo... Yes! Funny cake! It's sooooooooooo good. Lordy.

Stufsocker at 8:45AM on 07/14/08

From Required Eating

The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars

The specks annoy me, however I do like green mint ice cream (which bothers my mom...).

If I have to have vanilla, I prefer the French Vanilla from Vic's in Sacramento. (they have two vanillas)

cmtigger at 5:38AM on 07/03/08

From Required Eating

The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars

Breyers vanilla bean!

spartana07 at 10:38AM on 06/28/08

From Required Eating

The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars

So, the question must be asked, what is the best vanilla ice cream (with or without specks)?

peggywm at 1:05PM on 06/27/08

From Required Eating

The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars

I don't think so. Actually, I tried the Green & Black vanilla pictured in the post, and it was good of course, but not amazing.

gillsnthrills at 12:08PM on 06/27/08

From Required Eating

The Vanilla Ice Cream Wars

Years ago, it was supposed to imply (and it usually did) that the ice cream was of premium quality. Today however, I firmly believe it is more "eye candy" than anything else.

Boscompb at 11:20AM on 06/27/08

From Required Eating

Candidate Ice Cream Flavors

ag3206 is SO funny. for the first time ever, I find myself wishing Huckabee were still running. That is so perfect "Vanilla Huckabean"!

Sfcrotty - those are very nice.

The New York official state tree is the Sugar Maple. State fruit the apple (NY state apples are excellent, I know and I live in a big apple-growing state) There must be a apple/maple ice cream in there for Hillary.

Fluffnik at 2:30PM on 03/10/08

From Required Eating

Traitor Joe's?

It's no secret that TJs sells private label items made by other companies. They happen to have a high quality standard to match the more reasonable price point. Unlike most shops doing this and placing them alongside brand names, they'll only carry limited varieties of an item. If you want a taste of this on a more budget level, check out ALDI. Yes, the place where you have to pay 25c deposit to use a shopping cart. They're about the most fantastic low end supermarket ever. No frills, mostly private label, and unbeatable prices. Same great satisfaction guarantee as TJs. I miss their $1.69 monster box of Frosted Mini Wheats dearly. And guess what - ALDI owns TJs.

jraphs at 10:25AM on 03/08/08