They’re coming for your cheese
In much of Europe, fresh, raw milk cheeses are available and loved by cheese connoisseurs. In the US the FDA requires raw milk cheeses to be aged for at least 60 days prior to sale, which limits our options but is better than nothing. David Gumpert reports that now even that option may be taken away from us:
According to a report in an industry publication, Cheese Reporter, a top dairy official at the FDA, Stephen Sundlof, director of its Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) believes that the 60-day aging period “is not effective in reducing pathogens in raw milk cheeses.” There needs to be “some other risk management steps” that could be applied. Sundlof said at a dairy conference last month. What makes him think that the 60-day period isn’t effective in reducing pathogens? A little birdie must have told him so.
A change in the aging period regulation could put a crimp on production of a number of raw milk soft cheeses like brie and camembert, among others. Some producers already struggle with the 60-day aging requirement, since certain cheeses are best sold sooner than that, and letting them age for 60 days simply reduces their viable shelf lives.
Moreover, the FDA isn’t proposing to extend the aging period, but rather to require processing of the milk, including pasteurization of milk for certain cheeses.
Unfortunately the Cheese Reporter story is no longer at the link so I have few details, but this looks like another overreaction from the FDA.
Quick Bites: Bantastic Edition
French exile TV show because it promotes wine. [Telegraph]
Italy bans molecular gastronomy. [Overlawyered]
England may ban disposing of food in the garbage bin. [Guardian]
US Senate bill would ban all junk food from schools. [Reuters]
Maryland keeps its interstate wine shipment ban in place. [Baltimore Sun]
Polar bears still OK to eat as ban fails UN vote. [AP]
That Time of Year Again: How to Make a St. Patty’s “McJito”
Quick Bites: Booze and Brine Edition
The proposal to allow Sunday sales of alcohol in Connecticut, like every previous attempt, has died an inglorious death. Thanks, Connecticut Package Stores Association! [Hartford Courant]
This popular story (yesterday on Yahoo! News, at least) about the Obama administration maybe issuing a far-reaching executive order that maybe could prohibit recreational fishing in U.S. waters maybe is more smoke than fire. Look, I don’t trust Comrade Obama either but we need to determine what the restrictions will be, who they will affect, and where and when they will take place before I can angry up my blood. [The Christian Science Monitor]
Experience has taught me the perfect oyster-shucking implement would be part ice pick, part putty knife, and part flathead screwdriver. After snapping my final paring knife during premeditated mollusk murder, Mrs. Kuhl gifted me with the Oxo Oyster Knife. It is now my weapon of choice. If the lost city of Atlantis has a post office, my mugshot hangs within. [Oxo]
This Week in Bacon
We love the folks over at Bacon Freak, who bring us Bacon of the Month clubs, Bacon Jerky (which is delicious, by the way), and the phrase “Bacon is Meat Candy.” Well Bacon Freak’s Boss Hog now has a bacon cookbook on sale and available at baconcookbook.com. What an amazing idea – a cookbook devoted solely to our favorite crispy treat! Here’s what to expect:
We reached out to some of the worlds finest and most popular chefs, who are respected and renowned throughout the culinary world for their ability to consistently find the PERFECT presentation of each food that they serve.
These gastronomical gourmands were requested to come up with their very own, unique and original recipe to best prepare Bacon Freak bacon in a meal that most truly suites its qualities, flavors, aromas and textures in an ultimate blend with other top quality foods.
We were absolutely amazed by the response that we got, not only by the prime character of the recipes that we received, but in the pure number of chefs who wanted to participate. Over an extended period of time, we were able to put together the optimum collection of gourmet bacon recipes that will make this initial collection the phenomenon that we hoped it would prove to be.
The book has recipes from chefs and baconphiles who have trained around the world, including Cambodia and France, and across the country, from LA to Atlanta to Washington, D.C. The chefs introduce their take on bacon and each brings a unique flavor to the oh-so-versatile “meat candy.” Pick up a copy today – it’ll make a great gift for you or a friend (or that extra special bacon blogger in your life . . . ahem)!
Rick Steves to Offer Gander at French Foie Gras Farm
Euro travel host nonpareil (and NORML advisory board member) Rick Steves writes at his Facebook page about how his love of of foie gras has led him to offer a tour of a French goose farm to show travelers the process of gavage, and to let them taste the delicacy:
I am fascinated that British travelers make a virtual pilgrimage to France’s Dordogne to celebrate the force-feeding of the geese and, once the geese are slaughtered, to eat their huge and tasty livers ‘ and yet, many Americans think the whole process should be outlawed. Few American anti-foie gras activists consider actually visiting a goose farm to talk with the owner and hang around for meal time (never much of a wait) to see the forced feeding. I have a favorite goose farm where our tour members could actually witness la gavage, as pulling the goose’s neck up and filling its belly with corn is called (the process reminds me of transferring cereal from one box to another). Our French guides were all for the visit, but when considering our itinerary, being there during hours the farm is formally welcoming the public would rush our Dordogne River canoe trip. I enjoy the canoe experience even more than a Mr. Rogers-type visit to a goose farm. I encouraged my staff to keep the canoe time sacred and beg the farmers for the love of goose-liver pâté to let us visit outside of regular hours. If that doesn’t work, we’ll visit an alternate farm, and have both wonderful French experiences as part of our tours in 2010.
More from Steves on his love of foie gras here and here, and a Christmas recipe here.
NY Legislator Proposes a State-Wide Ban on Using Salt in Restaurant Cooking
And that is not a headline from The Onion. The bill, which Assemblyman Felix Ortiz , D-Brooklyn, introduced on March 5, would fine restaurants $1,000 for each violation. An excerpt of the bill’s text:
No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises.
Wow. The food police are officially out of control. In his quest to promote health, Ortiz wants to limit everyone in New York to a bland, hospital diet for patients with hypertension. Salt brings out the flavor of foods and is in no way a harmful substance. Some folks need to monitor their salt intake, but most do not. To put every diner in New York on a hospital hypertension diet is an appalling and invasive use of the law to regulate private choices in dining. It is also a horrifying reach of the state into private choices and freedom.
This legislation strikes at the heart of the freedom of the individual to experience the sensual enjoyment of eating out and the role it plays in conviviality, socializing and hedonism. The last I checked, none of that was illegal. To force every restaurant in the state to not use salt is so preposterous I hope this bill will be killed. But NYC’s Orwellian-named Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been a leader in Nanny State food bans, as has Mayor Bloomberg, so New York has shown a propensity to adopt laws like this.
The opposition to this bill has been led by a nation-wide group of chefs, called My Food, My Choice.
Ball-o-nomics
If I were to add a fourth item to my Guide for Good Blogging, it might go something like “Always link to stories about mountain oysters.” I’m not going to adopt that rule but I will link to Ian Knauer’s Atlantic piece in praise of partaking of the testicle and of offal meats in general:
But who really practices true nose-to-tail eating? How many among us delight in brain, or tendon, or testicles? These nasty bits, although they have a small following, often go ignored. But in the religion of head to tail, it’s the brains and balls that promote the eater from politically correct do-gooder to enlightened food guru. And, for the record, balls (when cooked the right way) are delicious. [...]
Here’s a video demonstrating the peeling, puncturing, roasting, and slicing of a pair of deer testicles. It features Trent, Steve, Greg, and Elvis.
If you’ve come as far as where the video begins, then the hard work is done. Bread and fry the slices of balls as you would prepare fried green tomatoes. Most importantly, you can feel good about yourself as an eater knowing that none of an animal has gone to waste. Welcome to true food enlightenment; feel free to bask in the salinity.
Be sure to read the whole thing for expert advice on how to avoid the unpleasantness of mountain oysters exploding in your oven, a terrible mess to have to explain to one’s life partner, roommate, or maid.
I agree with Knauer that eating offal is a fine thing. Seared fois and crispy sweetbreads are two of the most delicious foods on Earth; I wouldn’t put either of the testicle dishes I’ve had on the same level, but they can be tasty too. However, should one really feel virtuous about eating offal?
These odd parts of animals are not often eaten by humans in the US, but that doesn’t mean they go to waste. I’m not an expert on meat processing, but my guess is they’re sold off for secondary uses like dog food, industrial feed, and lots of other products. Modern farms are anything but inefficient.
So what happens when more people start eating mountain oysters and such? One effect is that demand for offal goes up, raising its price and therefore raising the value of the entire animal. And when demand goes up, so does production. We’re reducing waste in one sense of the word, but we’re also sending more animals to slaughter, using more resources to feed them, and putting more of their methane into the atmosphere.
However there could be an offsetting substitution effect too. If people are eating offal instead of more expensive cuts of meat, that could reduce the value of whole animals, resulting in fewer animals being killed and less resources used in their production. On the other hand, the substitution effect could work the opposite way if people are choosing an offal-based appetizer to their steak dinner instead of the salad they used to eat.
I don’t know which of these effects will outweigh the others (and if anyone has any hard data, please let me know, because I’m genuinely curious). If consumers substitute unwanted offal for more expensive meats that would almost certainly be a good thing, but is that what they’re doing? Or is our new love of offal going to make our society more carnivorous, not less? If the latter we can enjoy foods like mountain oysters because they’re tasty and different, but it would arguably be more virtuous to simply eat less meat in general.
Previous ball blogging:
Great balls of fryer
The Mystery of the Five-Inch Bull Balls
Girl Scout Cookie Fry-Off!
My friend Ron from Lush Angeles was visiting Portland this weekend and crashed at my place. When Ron and I are in a kitchen together it’s a sure bet that things are going to get fried. After a dinner of delicious karaage, General Tso’s chicken, and fried mushrooms, we were looking at a big wok full of fry oil and wondering what to do next. The Girl Scout’s Tagalongs we’d bought that afternoon were about to meet an unexpected fate…
Inspired by the tastiness of our initial experiment, we decided to have a Girl Scout Cookie fry off the next day. Fueled only by bourbon and our love of crispy battered things, we put four different cookies to the test, frying them up and finishing them with a sprinkling of sea salt.
Consensus favorites of our tasting panel were the Do Si Do (below) and Dulce de Leche, both of which had the perfect texture for frying. Thin Mints are pretty much a waste and destroy the clarity of the oil. Tagalongs are also potentially messy, but the peanut butter inside is deliciously gooey when they’re fresh from the fryer. The ones photographed at the top of the post actually have pieces of bacon embedded in the batter, creating a dangerous combination of chocolate, bacon, and peanut butter.
Unsurprisingly there’s at least one State Fair booth that beat us to this. They also favor the Do Si Do:
The gals at the Fried What! stand on Main Street seem to come up with a new deep-fried item each year. This year, they’re cooking Girl Scout cookies in oil. A Do-si-do, aka Peanut Butter Sandwich, is dipped in batter, fried till golden brown, sprinkled with powdered sugar (and chocolate syrup if desired) and served four to an order for $3.50. They’ll be available only until the stand’s cookie supply runs out.
I mentioned we had bacon. Of course we couldn’t resist battering and frying that too.
All photos by Ron, whose blog will soon be covering Los Angeles’ emerging cocktail culture
The Little Market That Could Now Has an Outdoor Grill
The Broad Branch Market, now that the weather is good, has started grilling great stuff outdoors. When I visited them yesterday they were grilling hamburgers, ribs and chicken. They also have an amazing selection of condiments, including chimmichuri.
I hope that they keep on grilling and would love to see them grill their own house-made meat and seafood sausages.
They are located in Chevy Chase, DC at the intersection of Northampton and Broad Branch.
This Week in Bacon
Three months into the year, bacon remains at the forefront of our minds. Here are a few bacon bits from the past week:
Iowa, land of pigs and corn, held a Bacon Fest where it instructed the over 750 baconphiles to “drink plenty of water . . . . leave all tight fitting jewelry at home, [and] bring your favorite bacon haiku.” [Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival]
Man wins lottery, celebrates with bacon breakfast (can’t say I wouldn’t do the same). [The Daily Mirror]
Bacon jam: a new way to eat bacon for breakfast. [Skillet Street Food]
Maple-Bacon Breakfast Rolls bring home the “bacon” at 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off. [North County Times]
If you’re unemployed, try becoming a “bacon-trepreneur.” [AOL News]
And the best bacon-related quote from the week: “Neil Patrick Harris is like bacon. You can add him to most anything and it makes it better.” (on NPH being cast in Smurfs: The Movie). [Latino Review]
Big Brother With a Chip on ‘is Shoulder, Innit?
Facing a severe economic crisis and renewed tensions with Argentina over the disputed Falkland Islands, the Daily Mail reports the British government is focusing attention on the dimensions of the country’s French fries:
They have been a staple of British cuisine for more than a century.
But traditional chips are the latest target in the Government’s war on obesity.
Chip shop owners are being encouraged to produce thicker versions because they contain fewer calories and less fat.
Chippy owners, however, have condemned what they see as an attack on their cooking.
The traditional British chip is already thicker – and therefore healthier – than the French fries served by big fast-food chains.
Despite this, officials from the Food Standards Agency watchdog are encouraging chip shop owners to produce even thicker versions, much like potato wedges.
[...]
The FSA scheme will cover Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester and Northern Ireland by the end of this month. Officials will visit 80 chip shops to examine how much fat is in their chips and offer advice.
If the pilot scheme is successful it will be rolled out across the country and last two years. Other small caterers including Indian and Chinese takeaways will be included.
A spokesman for the FSA said: ‘The aim of the pilot project is to produce some targeted advice for businesses which is simple, practical and easy to implement.’
Right. Because they’re from the government and they’re here to help. Here’s some targeted advice for government: sod off.
More fry madness here.
Oysters
The New Englanders amonst us know that you NEVER eat an oyster in a month that does not contain an “R.”Yet Americans continue to do so and the FDA has come in to rescue those Americans who do not know that rule by issuing a rule that oysters served in the non “R” months be sterilized:
In an effort to reduce cases of a rare, but potentially fatal, bacterial illness contracted from raw oysters, the FDA announced new rules this month that will require any oyster served from April through October to undergo a sterilization process before it can be sold in restaurants or on the market.The rule will essentially eliminate raw oysters — at least as Louisianans know them — from restaurant menus for seven months of the year. Even oysters that will eventually be cooked during those months would have to go through the same cleansing process before being added to any dish, a move some say would undermine the culinary integrity of some of New Orleans’ most famous delicacies.
I say caveat emptor in terms of oysters. I would not eat a Gulf Coast oyster in the summer but the Feds should stay out of this and let the customer decide.
Quick Bites
Kids get 27% of their calories from junk food. And 100% of those calories are paid for by their parents. [Boston.com Moms]
The EU finally approves a GMO food (a potato). Except it’s inedible. [BusinessWeek]
If your milkshake doesn’t bring all the boys to the yard, bring your milkshake to the boys. Or the yard. Or whatever best completes the word switcharoo. [Dining@Large, with props to commenter Sam Sessa]
Dubai’s got camel burgers. [Telegraph]
Costa Rican paper on halal burgers in France. [Nacion]
Former NBA staf Chris Webber is being sued over a shuttered restaurant. [Sacto Bee]
Cities Demand Suds on the Sabbath
The mayors of the three largest cities in Connecticut who want to revoke the state-wide ban on Sunday alcohol sales are facing opposition — but not from moralizing politicians or teetotalers:
The group that would sell most of that alcohol, the Connecticut Package Stores Association, has blocked Sunday sales multiple times during the past five years in one of the most heavily lobbied issues at the Capitol. The association says the extra day would not mean any extra money for the state or the stores because it would simply spread existing sales over seven days instead of six — while adding an extra day of operating costs.
Geographically, all three cities — Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven — are located far from the border. The mayors hope repeal will stop Sunday six-pack runs across state lines, with the resulting tax revenue trickling back to them. Failing that, the mayors say they’ll seek exceptions for their cities. I have to wonder if that isn’t their true goal: the cities would become wet islands, attracting folks from satellite towns. The mayors could then enact local taxes on the sales without having to wait for the money to first filter through the capital.
