5 Biggest Food Stories of the Year

2009 was the year of dismaying food safety news, lightened with some truly awful cakes.

1. Bisphenol-A or BPA is turning up everywhere.  Although savvy health conscious foodies have known about BPA for several years now, 2009 is the year when Bisphenol-A's terrible effects first became known to the general public.  Bisphenol-A is the reason why everyone threw away their plastic water bottles in 2009, and invested in sleek aluminum water bottles instead.

(I resisted picking up an aluminum water bottle for most of the year, due mostly to the cost.  I finally bought one a few weeks ago, priced at $2.99 at the discount store in my town.  Not bad!  The only down side to the aluminum bottle is that it seems much more inclined to sweat when I fill it with cold water.)

Bisphenol-A has been linked to breast cancer, increased estrogen levels, the possible feminization of unborn fetuses, and digestive system disorders.  It is found in almost every plastic, although we don't know how much of it leaches out or why.  Most experts agree that heating foods in plastic will increase the release of Bisphenol-A into your food, and suggest that you reheat leftovers on a plate or in a ceramic bowl.  

Plastic is also used as a liner in cans, which came as a surprise to many.  Acidic foods like tomatoes can hasten the release of Bisphenol-A into the contents.

2. Bacon continues to capture the hearts and minds of the internet, and of America at large.  Baconnaise ("It's our dream to make everything taste like bacon") hit the market with a splash, greatly assisted by a Daily Show bit in which Jon Stewart ate a bacon-wrapped sausage dipped in Baconnaise on air in February.  He didn't care for the results, but the public was charmed.

3. Sous Vide was surely the technique of the year, pioneered by molecular gastronomy, but becoming known as a popular "meat hack" for cooking deliciously tender cuts of meat.  According to Google Trends, "sous vide" enjoyed a surprising upswing in popularity during 2009, culminating in the production of a sous vide machine for the home chef.  

(Why grill a perfectly good steak, when you can buy a sous vide machine for $449?  That is a question that someone who isn't a vegetarian - i.e. not me - will have to answer for us!)

4. Speaking of vegetarianism, 2009 was a banner year for giving up meat - either totally or partially.  Al Gore had been muttering about the carbon footprint of meat, but in 2009 he finally seemed to find his voice, and openly admit that vegetarianism is better for the planet. 


Even famed omnivore Michael Pollan pointed out that "a meat eater in a Prius has a bigger carbon footprint than a vegetarian in a Hummer."  And a lot of people have discovered that skipping meat even just one day a week is a painless way to eat healthier while saving the planet.

5. And finally, 2009 brought us Cake Wrecks, the site that let us know it's okay to laugh again.  Targeting only professional cakes (in order to keep things fair), Cake Wrecks not only consistently brought the funny day after day, it also took a break every Sunday to showcase the best cakes of the week.  Six days of disaster + one day of beauty = win!

Popcorn: Edible Holiday Craft

There's a lot you can do with popcorn,

especially during the holiday season. And fun, cheap, edible holiday activities work really well with kids. One of the many fabulous things about popcorn is that it's exceedingly inexpensive if you buy unpopped corn in bulk, rather than the standard microwave-ready-seasoned-popcorn-packets. The first step before doing anything with popcorn is of course to actually pop the pop corn; this is best done either using the easy old-fashioned stove top method, or a hot air popper. Butter, salt and season it to taste if you're planning to eat it as is—a perfectly reasonable thing to do while you watch one of the traditional holiday movies with your kids.

There are a number of fairly simple but deliciously edible delights you can make with popcorn, all of which can be made with juvenile assistance, and all of which make lovely gifts for colleagues, neighbors, teachers and friends. Carmel corn is surprisingly simple to make, and much less expensive than the purchased variety. Popcorn balls are a perennial favorite, and look festive enough to hang on tree once you've wrapped them in plastic wrap and added a bow. Seasoned popcorn is a thoughtful gift that can be surprisingly healthy, and is fun to present in a quirky container of holiday tin box.

Popcorn has also been used for ages as a tree-trimming material, not only as the very traditional popcorn strands, but also as popcorn wreaths, both of which can be enhanced by the addition of cranberries.

Christmas Party Food: Chex Mix

Chex mix seems like it has been a party food staple forever, but in fact it was only invented in 1952, when the recipe began appearing on the back of the box.  Chex mix was almost a diabolical invention in the way that it requires you to purchase three entire boxes of cereal in order to complete the recipe.  But you know that it isn't going to be as good if you don't!  (I have tried making Chex mix with only one kind of Chex.  It did not turn out well.)

Chex mix also occupies an interesting historical niche as being one of many "TV mixes" which were invented in the 1950s for people to eat while watching that newfangled television.  Most of these snacks were brand oriented, as you might expect from the heyday of brand recognition and faith in the corporatized food supply.  (Kix has nutrients!  Cigarettes relax your lungs!)

Technically if you make Chex mix yourself, you are making "Chex party mix."  The name "Chex Mix" is officially reserved for the pre-bagged Chex mix that you can buy at the grocery store.  These mixes come in a variety of flavors, but if you ask me, they all taste the same (i.e. like salt).  In addition the pre-made mixes are expensive, although perhaps not as expensive as buying three boxes of cereal, considering today's cereal prices.

Regardless, homemade Chex party mix is far more delicious than the commercial Chex mix.  And probably better for you, considering the breadth and depth of artificial flavorings and preservatives in the commercial bagged Chex mixes.  

I found the original historical Chex party mix recipe thanks to Wikipedia, in the form of a magazine ad scan.  (This must have been back in the days of yore, when recipes in magazine ads were actually tasty.  Have you seen some of the recipes in magazine ads today?  Half of them make me want to retch just reading them.)  This is also the simplest Chex mix recipe I have seen, as it calls for just butter, Worcestershire sauce, two cups of each Chex cereal, "nuts," salt, and garlic salt.  

This, I feel, is the One True Chex Mix Recipe.  It's what I remember my grandmother making at Christmas time.  (She insisted on using Spanish peanuts, with the assertion that they were "the fancy kind, for company."  And always served her Chex mix in a large porcelain serving dish shaped like a banana leaf.)  I have found a lot of other recipes which claim to be "the original," but clearly are not.  Unless I'm wrong, and it was actually possible - nay, easy - to find bagel chips back in the 1950s.

General Mills ran a survey recently (one which I'm sure was completely unbiased) which found that Chex mix is "America's favorite," but Muddy Buddies were the next runner up.  This is basically chocolate Chex mix, a cousin to the classic 1950s haystack cookie.  Instead of using fried chow mein noodles for the structure (as with haystack cookies), Muddy Buddies use Chex cereal.  The classic Muddy Buddies recipe can be found here on the Chex website.

Vat Meat, Coming Soon to a Christmas Dinner Near You?

Scientists recently announced limited success in creating "in vitro meat," known also as IVM.  This vat grown meat is being hailed as one of the greatest accomplishments of modern society, an end to animal suffering, an answer to our carbon footprint woes, and a boon for the boutique meat market all in one.  But is it really?

The claim: IVM is more humane than factory farming.  

On this count, the IVM fans are absolutely correct.  Vat grown meat does not have nerve cells, and therefore cannot feel pain.  And being simply a collection of muscle cells, it has nothing that even approaches consciousness.  Factory farming is one of the greatest atrocities of the western world today, and anything that hastens its demise is a benefit to the world as a whole.

However, unless there is a huge leap forward in the science involved, vat meat requires a great deal of first generation fetal cells and fluids in order to grow.  This means sacrificing a lot of baby cows in order to get a vat of meat.  And there will still be a market for dairy products and eggs, and the suffering that the factory farming of those items entails.

The claim: vat meat has a much smaller carbon footprint

Yes and no.  Like Michael Pollan says, a meat eater in a Prius has a larger carbon footprint than a vegetarian in an SUV.  Farm animals contribute a significant amount of greenhouse gases directly, in the form of methane burps and farts.  And in order to feed farm animals, we have to grow plants (with petroleum fertilizers) and ship grain (on gas-burning trucks).  

Neither of these will contribute to the overhead of IVF, but it will require a lot of electricity to support it through an entire growth cycle.  How much is unclear at this point.  But it's unreasonable to expect that IVF will be a carbon footprint magic bullet.  

The claim: the boutique meat market will flourish with cloned exotic animal meat

Perhaps so, but the most likely use of IVF will be to replace your bottom tier meats.  Cheap deli meat, pepperoni for your pizza, whatever it is that they put inside Hot Pockets, all of these meats could easily be replaced by IVF.  (I like the idea of a world where an animal doesn't have to die in order to bring a Lean Cuisine frozen dinner to market.)

Most of the flavor and texture which makes an exotic meat unique comes from the animal's living habits and diet.  These factors will be difficult to reproduce in IVF.  There will undoubtedly be a small novelty factor, but no one goes out deer or duck hunting because of the taste.

The claim: vegetarians will finally be able to eat meat guilt-free

I'm not so sure about this.  Most non-vegetarians seem to assume that all vegetarians desperately miss eating meat.  I can't speak for all vegetarians, but I certainly don't feel that way, and I don't happen to know any vegetarians who do.

Granted, it will be nice to have another option.  Particularly at sandwich shops, because I get tired of eating one sprout-filled sandwich after another.  And if the family can agree on a vat grown turkey for holiday dinner, all the better!

The Truffle Hunt is On!

Everyone has heard of truffles of course (the mushroom kind, not the chocolate kind).  I have to confess, I have never actually tasted one.  Nevertheless, I always wanted to, because hey, they must be good, right?  Anything that costs $500 per pound must be good!

Last week I learned that I may yet be in luck.  It turns out that there are several species of truffles which are native to the Pacific Northwest, and that they may in fact be a lot more common than anyone originally thought.  The two main native species are the Oregon white truffle and the Oregon black truffle.  Oregon whites are found in springtime, around May and June.  Oregon blacks can be found in - guess what! - the month of November.

To find an Oregon black truffle, you need to find their symbiotic tree, a Douglas fir.  The truffles will be growing between the layer of duff (needles and such) and the actual ground proper.  Hunt for them by using a rake to scratch around, looking for something that apparently resembles a clod of dirt or (if you ask me) a cat turd.  And that presumably smells tasty.

How to know if you have found a clod of dirt, a cat turd, or an Oregon black truffle?  If you cut it open, it should look mushroom-y inside.  The smell should also be a tip-off.  Truffles produce something remarkably similar to hog androgen, which is why lady pigs are used to hunt for them.

Although they smell like the scent of love to a sow, to humans the truffle smells like "a freshly opened can of creamed corn" or like "like fruit, meat, mushrooms, incense, cheese, licorice, good wine and sometimes pleasant herbs." Or "all that is dark and alluring about the human body and soul." Or maybe like "earth, tree roots and old cheese"

Funny, but this isn't really helping me any.  

Add to which the classic warning for the amateur thinking about hunting mushrooms: don't. As one website warns, you can mistake the small button stage of a poisonous mushroom for a truffle, and die.  Literally die.  Are you willing to risk death for a truffle?  I'm not sure that I am, but if the weather ever clears, I might give it a shot.

Meanwhile, the truffle's hoity toity exclusive image is being tarnished by some Commie in Tennessee, who found a way to raise the truffles reliably.  The truffle's crazy price has been sustained by its rarity - unlike any other common vegetable, the truffle still has to be hunted in the wild, using dogs and pigs to locate its source.  

GQ has recently published an article about just such a man, who claims to have unlocked the secret to farming truffles, and is poised to set the truffle world afire.  This is the black Perigord truffle, the king of the truffle world,

Truffles live in concert with host plants, dwelling among their surface roots.  The relationship between the truffle and its host is still somewhat mysterious, but they have definite preferences.  Almost every tree has a symbiotic truffle (or false truffle) associated with it.  Although the truffle hides its mystery well - or could that just be the smell of marketing wafting past?

Delicious Menu for Hungry People on Thanksgiving

* Meatless and soy-free vegan "turkey" roast

* Crimini mushroom dressing with vegan gravy

* Homemade cranberry sauce with blood orange juice, cinammon, and cloves

* "Mashed potatoes"-style parsnips

* Rosemary-roasted brussels sprouts

* Braised green salad with beets and carrots

* Butternut squash custard with vegan whipped cream

 

Do The Mashed Potato(es)!

Mashed potatoes are an excellent side dish, and can even be a main course if you treat them right.  Growing up, I was led to believe that mashed potatoes were time consuming and difficult to make by hand.  In hindsight, I think my mother just was not a very good cook!  It turns out that few things could be easier than making mashed potatoes.

Your first job is to select the potatoes.  You want some starch in classic mashed potatoes, and the best starch potato is the classic Idaho russet baker.  Yukon gold is also a fine and delicious potato to use as a masher.  Many people do half and half, half russets and half Yukons.

Honestly, I can't be bothered with that level of detail.  I always have a sack of baby red potatoes in the kitchen, and these are what I use for mashed potatoes.  I am pleased to report that they taste just fine, and the texture is perfectly lovely.

Skin off or on?  I like to peel Idaho russet potatoes, because the boiled peel of a baker potato is just not that delicious.  However, I leave the peel on for baby white, Yukon gold, and baby red potatoes.  I think the red peel of the baby red potatoes is a nice visual addition.  Plus I've always heard that the skin is where all the nutrients are.  Is that even true?  Who knows.  Anyway, it's also less work this way.

I always put some garlic in with my mashed potatoes.  Please be aware that this is considered HERESY by many.  If you are going to serve your potatoes to mixed company, you may want to err on the safe side and leave out the garlic.  

I don't mince or chop the garlic.  I just peel the skin off the cloves, and toss them in with the potatoes to boil.

Now for the cooking details!  I cut the potatoes into chunks about the size of a golf ball.  For a baby red potato, this will mean cutting it into quarters.  There's no need to get too detailed about the job, you're just making it a little bit easier for them to cook.  Drop the potatoes, plus the garlic, into a pot filled with cold salted water.  

Bring the water to a boil, and let it boil gently until the potatoes are fork tender.  "Fork tender" in this case means that you can poke a fork right into the potato chunks without meeting any resistance.  This will usually take between 20 and 30 minutes of gentle boiling for most potatoes.

Drain the potatoes and garlic cloves in a colander, then put them into a large bowl.  Mash everything well.  If you don't have a potato masher (I didn't for many years) just use a fork.  A fork works fine!  After all that cooking, the garlic cloves will mash right up with the potatoes.

Now add "some" butter and "some" milk or cream.  Don't you hate directions like that?  But it's true.  The specific amounts will depend on how much potato mash you have, what kind of texture you're going for (lumpy or creamy), and how badly you want to clog your arteries.  There is no wrong answer here.  Start with a few tablespoons of each, mix it up (with a wooden spoon by hand, no need to get a mixer involved) and see what you think.

Add a bit of salt if you think it needs it, possibly a dash of pepper, and voila!

A Survey of Mac and Cheese Recipes

For many of us, "macaroni and cheese" will always be inextricably tied in our memories with a bright blue box, and fluorescent orange sauce.  But should you choose to venture beyond the world of Kraft, homemade macaroni and cheese can be an absolute revelation.

There are as many different ways to make homemade macaroni and cheese as there are people who make homemade macaroni and cheese.  Some of the most common additions (beyond the basic macaroni and dairy) are bits of bacon, chopped caramelized onion, minced garlic, or minced jalapenos.  If you want to fancy it up, you will want to prepare your additives first (cooking the bacon, caramelizing the onion, whatever).

I believe the basic macaroni and cheese is a bechamel sauce mixed with cheese and applied to cooked macaroni noodles.  At any rate, you will certainly want to start by cooking a pound of elbow macaroni.  You can use other pasta shapes, but why would you?  That is not macaroni and cheese.

I have run across several recipes recently which turn out perfectly well, and which have you just toss the ingredients in with the macaroni and cook it.  Nigella Lawson's recipe is one of these.  I made it earlier this week, and it turned out pretty well.  Although I could definitely taste the "canned" flavor of the evaporated milk.  (I had to omit nutmeg because I didn't have any on hand.  It's possible that the nutmeg helps to camouflage the "canned" taste.  Can't say for sure, but just thought I would mention it.)  It was nice to be able to make an express version, but I rarely find myself in a predicament where I desperately want macaroni and cheese, but can't spare the five minutes to make a proper sauce.  

Another "all in one" recipe comes from The Awl, and is not only intriguing but also hilarious.  The author's Fundamentalist Macaroni and Cheese calls for macaroni, cheese, and a splash of milk.  Add them all to a casserole dish, stick it in the oven, and you're done.  This is essentially the same as Nigella's recipe, except that it uses more cheese and substitutes real milk for evaporated milk.  I suspect it would be just as easy as Nigella's, but without that funky canned food taste.  Either way, it's definitely worth a try.  

A more traditional recipe would have you make roux, then add cream, then add the cheese.  Roux is one of those basic Frenchy techniques that really is simple, delicious, and relatively easy to master. But it sounds really impressive when you tell people that "I start by making a roux."  I talked about roux at length in my Green Bean Casserole post.

This recipe for Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese at Allrecipes.com is an excellent starter recipe for the macaroni and cheese beginner.  It could stand to have that one direction expanded into several different steps, but I always smile at the thought of Step 1 being "do these five different things."  It's a good starting point, and from there you can try baking it, adjusting the proportion of cheese to milk, adding other flavor ingredients, and so forth.

Thanksgiving Alternatives

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and those of us in the United States (or homesick expats) who are planning our holiday dinners might want to re-think some of the classics. I'm not saying you should skip on the turkey (that would be insane), but there are some Thanksgiving standards that I think deserve to be seen with fresh eyes. Traditions ought to be perpetuated because they're good or necessary, not just because that's the way people have always done things. If we applied the same logic to cars as we do to Thanksgiving, we wouldn't have standard seatbelts or air conditioning in modern models. I have a wishbone to pick with a few side dishes on the Thanksgiving table and some suggestions for how they can be coaxed into a more pleasing complement to the meal.

First, let's talk Cranberry Sauce. I don't doubt that one out of every thousand or so cooks can make an agreeable fruit relish to join the Thanksgiving feast, but what's the point? Cranberry sauce, even when it's good, is a distraction in both texture and flavor. It doesn't really go on anything like gravy and if it stands alone it usually takes the shape of an unpleasant jelly. Why not skip the sauce entirely and let the noble cranberry take a more respectable form? I suggest two versions of a simple cranberry cocktail. For folks who want to start their meal with a kick, mix up a simple Vodka and Cranberry Juice Cocktail using whatever proportions suit your tastes. It's important to use unsweetened, pure cranberry juice as most store-bought brands are really just mixes with apple or other kinds of juice. Of course, for the non-drinkers at the meal, a simple cranberry juice mix with lemon-lime soda should do the trick as well.

The next target on the list is the arch nemesis of many a Thanksgiving guest: Stuffing. Any cook with his or her salt won't even dare making that objectionable bread stuffing that has plagued the meal for generations, opting instead for a lively apple stuffing or an herb concoction. I'm all in favor of this, though I do think that bread deserves a place at the table. Why not toss out those boring dinner rolls and replace them with a loaf of Homemade Wheat Bread with Whipped Maple Butter? It's simple, unpretentious and it keeps the meal nice and hearty.

The last item I think needs to be re-worked for Thanksgiving is Corn. Anyone who serves corn on the cob at a large, well-attended meal is obviously inconsiderate of guests. Corn on the cob, while delicious, is messy and generally inconvenient. It leaves a big, unsightly cob after the fact that simply can't be pushed aside gracefully. Still, no meal celebrating the American harvest would be complete without America's native cereal. That's why every table ought to have plenty of Savory Corn Pudding. The dish brings out all that's good about corn without any of the drawbacks and it's easy to share with a lot of guests. Make sure not to mix up your recipe with the sweet variety of corn pudding, as that lends itself better to barbecue meals than autumnal feasts like Thanksgiving.

 

For what is the most iconic meal in American culture, it's important not to fix what isn't broken. That doesn't mean the Thanksgiving our grandparents ate was the perfect version. There's a lot to love at our harvest holiday and there's no such thing as a dish that can't be adjusted to perfection.

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