Who Put the Dog In?

July is National Hot Dog Month. Legislation (which is supposed to be like sausage-making in the sense you don’t want to watch the process, only savor the results) is not responsible for this designation; the US Chamber of Commerce decreed it in 1957 and July has been so since. Away from the calendar, there is actually a hot dog season, which, at least according to industry trade group, National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. During this 100-or-so-day period, US residents eat 7 billion hot dogs – about 25 per person, scarfing a 150 million on Independence Day alone – a much more reasonable ½ a dog per human rate of consumption.

What is a hot dog?

What actually gets stuffed in the casing has been a source of wonder and speculation for well over a century. For those who enjoy the light and lively prose of government and legal terms, you can visit the USDA site for an exact definition. Basically, hot dogs are sausages made of skeletal (as opposed to organ) meat--pork, beef, chicken or turkey. They are no more than 30% fat, 10% water, up to 3.5% filler (usually cereal or dried milk) and spices/salts/flavorings.*

The modern hot dog is a product of volume. According to the avuncular sausage maker Bruce Aidell, the hot dog is hard to produce on a small scale – custom machinery is required to keep the meat cool during processing and special products not readily available from local grocery stores help to form an emulsion to keep that hot dog texture like, well, like that of a hot dog. The popularity of the dog rose with industrialization – a steam powered meat chopper was in use as early as 1868. By the gilded age, sausages were being produced and distributed on a scale unseen before - portion controlled, industrially produced and marketed by brand name. By the early part of the 20th century, the hot dog was easily the single most iconic and popularly consumed food in the nation, America’s first fast food.

How did a Germanic sausage turn into a hot dog?

There are some apocryphal stories on how wieners (Wien is the German name for Vienna) and frankfurters became hot dogs. There is the belief the name was adopted from wiener dogs as that German butchers kept store dogs and pets. Another theory claims a popular cartoonist drew such a dog in a bun with the word 'hot dog' scribbled on the bottom because he couldn’t spell dachshund. Although I give thanks and praise to spell-check every day, it seems improbable someone working for a newspaper did not have the resources to look up the spelling of a word. Plus the whole thing suspiciously sounds like a family story – entertaining and somewhat fact-full but ultimately not factual.

Lexicographer, newspaperman and professional curmudgeon, H.L. Mencken used the word in print in 1903 but his research showed the first person to use the term to describe a bunned sausage with relish and mustard was a Polo Grounds (baseball) vendor. An alternate linguistic hypothesis places the birth of the phrase across the Long Island Sound at Yale where sophomores or sophomoric students implied the sausages from a vendor’s cart were of dubious provenance - calling them hot dogs and labeled patrons of sausage carts as members of the kennel club.

This view seems the most credible. While no one has ever been able to find the aforementioned newspaper cartoon, archival research found a reference of this usage in the Yale Record in 1895. The slur of mystery meat is still used against new waves of immigrants and their cuisine – who hasn’t heard someone refer to Indian or Chinese food with a snicker and meow? Over 100 years later and it still isn’t funny.

Hot dogs were a new food popularized by German immigrants, sold on massive scale by the new moneyed titans whose names Swift, Armour and Mayer are still associated with the product to this day. And hot dogs were food-democratic: cheap, served in public spaces such as municipal parks, baseball fields and the boardwalks of once exclusive resorts made accessible to urban residents by commuter rail service. This was a food that represented the changing face of America – urban, immigrant and mobile - thus open to ridicule from collegiate blue bloods.

A wiener may be a sausage, but it isn’t a hot dog until someone puts it in a bun.

Sausages have been around since Roman times, bread even longer but no one thought to throw the sausage in a piece of bread until…the 20th century? It is almost like the Atkins people traveled back in time to prevent carb consumption. The marriage of the bun and meat purportedly occurred at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, by a man named Anton Feuchtwanger. Although this story is most likely untrue, it's hard to pass up a reference to it because the name is so good. Wurst and milk-bun are more like the sandwich – people ate meat between pieces of bread long before the Earl of Sandwich was linked to the food.

Conspiracy theorists and observational “comedians” be damned, for this and other reasons; bakers kinda possess a masonry streak with certain numbers. As a professional group, they tend to like a base of 4. Some believe this number allows a rectangular oven to be used most efficiently with the end result that a lot of bready things are sold by the dozen. Butchers, on the other hand, work on a weight-based system and package 10 dogs per pound.

Culturally, Paradise is the name of the hot dog vendor the rotund Ignatius Reilly loves/hates in Confederacy of Dunces. 88% of people admit to ordering the food at sporting events, which means it is actually a few points higher; baseball is most closely associated with hot dogs. It is the food a recalcitrant Primo, played by Tony Shalhoub, offers to make in lieu of risotto in the film Big Night. Hot dogs have been occasionally called 'tube steaks', always with an ironic or nudge-nudge-wink-wink implication edge, but ZZ Top actually sings Tube Snake Boogie, which refers to something completely different than a hot dog (apparently it is a surfing lingo). Eating 59 1/2 hot dogs in a 12 minute period is the record for such things; I know the record holder's name but refuse to reward that behavior by linking to it. And on a more local level, hot dogs have been the subject of longest post put up here on Saucyman, which makes it time to go.


*Although soy protein can be used in part to make wieners, Soysages, beanwurst and tofu dogs are not hot dogs and are sometimes curiously referred to as meat analogues.

Hydration Headed Monster

Earlier this week, The US Conference of Mayors voted to stop spending municipal funds on bottled water. An analysis found that bottled water costs up 4000 times more than tap water despite the fact it comes from the same source 40% of the time. Compounding the cost of bottled water is the estimated 70 million dollars a year cities spend on disposing used bottles.

Not everyone is happy about this decision, Kevin Keane, a senior vice president of the American Beverage Association was quoted by Reuters as saying "It’s disappointing that some mayors find it more important to spend their time attacking a healthy beverage at a time when families are suffering from floods, rising food and fuel costs and threats to their homes and jobs".

Considering the enormity of the other problems cited by Mr. Keane, it seems reasonable to prudent that 1,100 mayors collectively decided to do something manageable and not pay for bottled water as they simultaneously pay to run municipal water works.

Perhaps the mayors had all purchased the recently released Bottlemania, to read on the plane as they traveled to the conference. Shortly before the book’s release Author Elizabeth Royte penned an Op-Ed for the NY Times extolling the virtues of public fountains. Ms. Royte even mentioned Portland’s lovely cast water bubblers – but as pretty as they are after watching enough dogs and less than healthy looking people drink from them, I am not sure I want to.

The backlash against bottled waters is on. Even self-bottled water - Nalgene bottles are no longer being clutched in clammy fingers of neohippies. As Polycarbonate has been linked to cancer. Besides affecting day-hikers and batik wearers – the material sometimes used to make baby bottles. Worse still for bottled water; its biggest and earliest proponent - celebrities - have begun to shun the Evian. Look for Liquid IVs, complete with Juicy Couture IV bags to take Hollywood by storm later this year. Even with bad press and bad news - the bottling industry will sell US residents a projected 9.4 million gallons of water in 2008, an increase of 6.7% over 2008.

But not is all well for the tap - Trace amounts of drugs than are not removed by osmosis, chlorination or filtration are conveyed by tap water. A study of Washington DC water found trace amounts of 6 kinds of drugs as well as caffeine. National tests routinely turn up synthetic birth control in water supplies – similar tests of the New York water supply found trace amounts of heart medications and tranquilizers, while San Francisco water contained a sex hormone – Just on the basis of that, San Francisco sounds like a less stressful more fun place to drink water or visit or whatever.

Thirsty? I thought so.

Next week, two new saucyposts both designed to make the reader hungry rather than ook them out - including a special feature on the bratwurst in time for holiday grilling.

Gai for Broccoli

Saucyman, What is the difference between Chinese Broccoli and Broccoli-Broccoli? - Vegger

Well broccoli-broccoli or more specifically, Brassica oleracea var. Italica is a European descendant of wild cabbage. The word broccoli gives away its specific Mediterranean roots first by ending with a vowel, then the root brocco, comes from the Italian meaning spout or shoot depending on how you translate.

Here in the states, where the taste profiles of sweet, salty, caramel and fatty win the day over what some (judgmental) people might call, more complex flavors; the veg is thought of less lovingly. Broccoli suffers the greatest indignity, worse than being baked into a hot dish or buried in a sea of cheese sauce that would make nachos envious, broccoli is thought of as ‘good for you’ instead of just good. And while nutrition and health are far more complicated than eating small portions of foods that are either (and falsely) good or bad, broccoli and other members of the cruciferous gang are sold to the public as being rich in vitamins and foods that fight cancer. A description that invites people to eat them only in times of duress.

There is only so much Chinese you can pick up by reading lower back tattoos – Stephen Colbert

Gai-lan or sometimes Kai-lan or Chinese Broccoli and sometimes known as Chinese Kale, 芥末蘭花, is loosely translated as mustard orchid, which is the greatest translation ever of anything – even better than the new translation of Anna Karenina, its rendering into English combines the beauty and fragility of a flower with the greatness of all things mustard.

Like Saucyman’s soul, the Chinese variety of the plant is dark and bitter. Unlike my soul, the Chinese variety prized more for its stems than buds or edible leaves. Actually, the plant appears to be more stem and leaf compared to the more familiar cluster of buds found in the broccoli-broccoli cultivar. Brassica alboglabra, as it is known to the biologically inclined, is a niche crop, grown in regional locales for specialty grocery and restaurants. If there were an epicenter for Gai-lan cultivation it in would be in the greater Fresno area - which has over 2000 acres of what the local paper unfortunately calls - oriental vegetables - under cultivation.

Gai-lan is not to be confused with the stem-centric rapini a.k.a broccoli raab, rabe & brocoletti, which boasts an Italian linage and appears to have been cultivated from turnip greens. At the grocery you can find the similar looking but less bitter (tasting), broccolini, which is a cross between broccoli-broccoli and Chinese broccoli.

Confused? There are more common ancestors in that mix than the Hapsburg family tree and like individual members of a royal family, there ends up being a lot of similarities in appearance. Both the Chinese and the Western broccolis are members of the cruciferous family of plants - who bring us some of the best things in life – mustard, wasabi, cauliflower, rape/canola seeds, cabbage – and its diminutive form, those wee cabbages of love: brussels sprout(s). Kale, collards, mizuna, arugula and all sorts of greens are also vegetable relatives of broccoli – And maybe I like these flavors becuase, like my soul they are bitter, they are good – Try some.

Bee-Atitude

Lest this pass unnoticed, June 22 – June 28 is National Pollinator Week, the second annual. The resolution that makes this so was passed by unanimous consent in the U.S. Senate – which means there was no roll call vote to find out who was anti-pollination.

80% of the world’s crops need pollination. Flora is dependent on 200,000 species of fauna getting the job done. As a species, bees top off the pollinating list but ants, flies - including the butter varieties, hummingbirds, the predatory wasp and even bats help out with the chore.

In 2007 Bee Movie and colony-collapse Disorder (CCD), cast the honeybee in the spotlight like a Lohan. While Barry B. Benson/Jerry Seinfeld garnered the majority of coverage, news on shrinking colonies - included a round-table (virtual) discussion at Salon.com, stories and op-eds at The NY Times and a segment on 60 Minutes (Still nothing from TMZ). As for cause of CCD, speculation originally ran from cell phone towers jamming the bees’ navigational system/instincts, to pesticides to everyone’s favorite agricultural bogeyman - genetically modified organisms.

While it is always fun to speculate and it is always popular to blame technology for the death of well, anything - it is now believed that Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) (named after the country whose scientists discovered, not caused, the virus), along with decreasing habitat, mite infestation and stress all appear to be contributors to CCD.

Busier Than A Bee

Bees who have always notably worked harder, are now actually clocking more hours than I do. On the western half of the US, colonies begin their year in the southwest, then are trucked into California to pollinate almonds, move northward for Oregon’s cherries, then spread the love with apples in Washington and wind up on the plains working the clover as fall approaches. While an individual bee, whose 6-week life span is not the one suffering the extended workload, but the toll of travel and endless pollinating on the hive cannot be underestimated in accounting for the colony's health.

Government (In)Action

The official proclamation of pollination week states:

Whereas possible declines in the health and population of pollinators pose what could be a significant threat to global food webs, the integrity of biodiversity, and human health…

Despite this and despite claiming pollinators are responsible for pollinating about 14 Billion dollars worth of crops annually - helping produce1 out 3 calories consumed, The Senate, the very same Senate, which acts like it is all pro-bee when it is expedient, did very little to promote hive health, conservation projects or subsidies to beekeepers in the massive farm bill that just passed. And was vetoed, overrode and was voted on and vetoed again due to 34 pages of text having not been sent to the White House from Capitol Hill. The bill does contain a provision funding about $75 million over five years for bee research but simultaneously promises billions in farm subsidies towards practices that could be harming the bees in the first place.

But due to the goodwill created by such hug-able resolutions as Pollinator Week, the Senate will be taking up debate on baby pandas, the playfulness of otters and kittens -cute or too cute before the current legislative session ends this year.

Rather than be cynical about human inaction, take the time this week to give thanks and praise to pollinators. Since nothing fosters appreciation like doing it yourself, go ahead try to pollinate something by hand-You’ll have a whole new level of respect for our pollen loving friends.

More Wine Please.

Wine is needlessly complicated. Serious connoisseurs are a little OCD about their habit/hobby. Collecting/hoarding bottles they won't ever open and are unable to hold a conversation with civilians about why wine is good and worth the expense. The industry as a whole is subject to whims of a few trendsetters in a way that makes fashion seem logical, predictable and rational. Most of us don’t know what is good or bad in a bottle – According to research published by Professor Larry Lockshin, the average wine buyer spends 38 seconds making their selection and the purchase decision is mostly influenced by the label. This makes me a below average wine buyer because it takes me 10 minutes to make a selection, spending more money than I intended to and completely unsure if someone who loves wine will enjoy my selection.

Saucyman has recruited a lover of wine to help bridge the knowledge gap – Our wine specialist will be posting here periodically on the condition they can do so anonymously: I’m not sure it is cool to do that on the internet, but we have already agreed to the terms. The only problem is we need a good nom de plume for our contributor:

Anonymous Bosch, Pinot Envy, Ensign Wesley Crush, In Vino, My Cousin Vino, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vino, The Sommelivelier, Oeno Wilson, Fermentism– Votes and suggestions are most welcome, but for today’s introductory post we will leave the name blank.


The average American drinks 28 gallons of beer a year but only 2.7 gallons of wine. Some feel this equation needs to be balanced by some combination of more wine and less beer, but I feel people can even the score by drinking more wine. Here is the thing, 20 years ago coffee came from a can - Juan Valdez was a symbol of purity rather than exploitation and no one with any degree of sensibility would drink an espresso, an au lait, a latte even if they could find one to order. But slowly coffee drinkers learned the difference between Sumatra and Brazil, plantation grown versus shade grown and the difference in quality between robusta and arabica beans. As people learned more about different coffee drinks, they didn't stop drinking regular coffee; they gravitated towards more, better coffee. Wine needs to undergo the same transformation - with knowledge and appreciation wine can be an enjoyable part of your meal, an essential part of your day or something to kick back with and it can do so without replacing beer.

One of the problems wine faces is an intimidation factor; Is it Syrah or Shiraz? It is both. Too many names… regions, producers, varietals, and blends. Wine labels may only list the region and expect you to know what grape or grapes are contained inside. Other wine labels may offer no clues whatsoever to its contents. So how do you get past these and other barriers to start enjoying more vino? Well, through periodic posts, I hope to make selecting wine as confident of a transaction as buying beer – and enable you to remember your first notable wine the way you remember your first Guinness – a combination of love and knowledge that everything up to that point could have been so much better.

My experience is that an open mind and an open bottle make friends, but let's start with a glass and a casual acquaintance. Here are a few tips on tasting a good wine the next time you venture out. Pick a bar or restaurant that seems to move a lot of wine - A Zagat rated location (usually indicated by a sticker on the door) is a good start. These establishments focus on wine, but in any eatery it is easy to discern from the drink list, the tables surrounding you, or the numerous bottles on the display if you are in a wine friendly place.

Beer can be monogamous, people settling in with their favorite kind brand never straying, except that one time on a business trip, far from home and alone, when you had something else. With wine you play the field - many wine bars and a few restaurants offering wine “flights”. It is like speed dating, but for wine – instead of one large glass, you will meet 3 smaller pours of wine in rapid succession. If you like one you can share a meal with it. If the restaurant doesn’t offer any tasting flights, they will normally pour taste of the wine that you are considering if it is offered by the glass. Ask servers to hook you up with something they approve of. Most of all, don't be shy and don't be afraid of running into a glass of wine you don't hit it off with, it's okay, there are others you will connect with.

Not ready to ask questions about wine while on a big date, in front of your boss or an important client, then I’ll answer your questions here. Next up: How young is too young? Pinot futures in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

The Red Menace, Averted?

The tomato returned to Taco Bell and McDonald's after a week’s absence, despite the fact the FDA has been unable to locate the source of the recent salmonella outbreak. With 277 confirmed cases of the Saintpaul strain of salmonella caused by suspected roma varieties, are tomatoes safe to eat?

Yes-ish. The first case was reported April 10, by late May authorities became aware there was an outbreak. By the end of May, the authorities linked the illness to tomatoes. The last confirmed case was reported on June 1. The FDA issued its first warning about possible danger of food borne illness from roma tomatoes shortly after that.

Tomatoes have about 3 weeks from vine to compost. Between FDA warnings and shelf life, it is probable all the suspect tomatoes have been taken out of circulation at this point. The question of why health authorities have been unable to track down the location of the outbreak still lingers.

In 2006 e-coli infected spinach was tracked down in about 2 weeks. UPC codes, present on bags of spinach made it easy to zero in on the source of the outbreak quickly. Tomatoes are some the least labeled produce and use no such tracking codes. They are sold to customers by the pound in grocery stores and by the slice in restaurants. Tomatoes are ordered by the case from purveyors – with the additional bonus of a daily delivery might contain tomatoes from 2 or more sources.

Last week industry spokespeople projected $40 million dollars in lost revenues for the Florida tomato industry. This week, estimated losses have ballooned to a half billion dollars in immediate and future sales. If $40 million seemed inflated enough to make me suspicious, $500 million makes me wonder if there is a federal disaster bail out at a certain dollar point.

Even if the industry numbers are valid, are growers willing to spend a fraction of their current losses to help track shipments of produce better?

No-ish. Caroline Smith DeWaal, the food safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the AP earlier this week, “The technology exists today that would allow for much better traceback of commodities like tomatoes, but it won't be used until the industry is required to by the government”.

Since the government has not exactly requited itself in this fiasco, it might seem reasonable not to expect much in the way of solutions or leadership from the federales. The FDA, who feel under-funded have requested an additional $125 million in their budget for food safety programs. McDonald's are Wal-Mart could require UPC codes and origin documentation and their sheer purchasing power would force growers and wholesalers to adapt standards quicker than a rule could be implemented or a law legislated.

How is that for frightening, that two corporations can be more responsive and responsible than the agency charged with protecting consumers?

The other option is the industry sets its own standards with 3rd party verification, but as we have seen with beef in Korea, giant agricultural entities would seemingly rather loose billions than spend millions to reassure its customers their product is safe.

Eat Local

An Ohio State University study has found that consumers are willing as up to twice as much for a locally produced food. The study, published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, also showed shoppers tend to favor food grown on small farms over food perceived to be grown by corporate operations.

The economy of scale could be a thing of the past as rising gas prices might dictate more local options in the future. Shipping costs have been quoted as high as $9,000 dollars to move a truck of food from the central valley in California to the east coast, it is entirely possible shoppers will not have to pay more for locally grown produce in the near future.

And speaking of local foods... Regionally, the Oregon berry crop is about 2 to 3 weeks behind schedule due to some, what I’d like to call inclement weather – except the problem has actually been it has been overly mild. I’m sure there is a word for that like uberclement or something. Funny how something I complain about every day can have an effect on something other than my occasionally sunny disposition.

By and Bivalve

Dear Mr. Saucy-Pants,

Oyster sauce! Is it made OUT OF oysters or is it a sauce FOR oysters? - On the half shell

My bottle of oyster sauce, purchased solely for its label and name: Panda Brand Oyster Flavored Sauce contains - Water, Sugar, Salt, Oyster Extractives (oyster, water, salt), MSG, modified cornstarch, wheat flour and caramel color. Not really sure what Oyster Extractives are and equally unsure that I really want to know.

The USDA is mute on the definition of Oyster Sauce; meaning you can call any sauce that goes over oysters an oyster sauce without out fear a bureaucracy will sanction you. Our government does caution to discard bottles of opened oyster sauce in event of flooding or extended power outages. In Food Culture in China, by Jacqueline M. Newman asserts that Asian countries routinely use pieces of oyster in their sauces but for import to the United States, only liquid extracted from cooked oysters can be used.

Largely the brown sauce is thought of as a condiment used in Asian food. By most accounts oyster sauce has a Cantonese provenance, but is popularly used throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. Occidentally, Isabella Mary Beeton’s The Book of Household Management, published in 1863, included recipes for oyster sauce. Oyster Sauce and eel pie was apparently a popular recipe in early US cookbooks, and given the near ubiquity of both eels and oysters in coastal areas, such a food was possibly popular with US cookbook users as well - A recipe with a title like that just seems to sully the good name of pie.

Chinese broccoli and oyster sauce is a popular dim-sum plate, but the oyster sauce glazing the green veg is not poured on straight out of the bottle like ketchup, rather it is thinned with water or stock and includes – depending on the recipe – sugar, sesame oil and/or garlic. In the Saucykitchen™, oyster sauce is used sparingly as kind of a corn syrup – helping thicken and adding sweetness to a dish, odds are the 17oz will not be used before the expiration date of October 2010.

The condiment is not especially or for that matter even remotely oystery in flavor or scent. Which would seem to make it okay to use on oysters themselves, but I cannot cite a source that does so. I was able to locate a few preparations for muscles using oyster sauce. After broccoli - beef, chicken or tofu seem to be the most referenced ingredients for use with oyster sauce but that is almost true for ranch ‘dressing’ as well.

For oysters, I’d avoid the syrupy oyster sauce and stick to a contrasting flavors – Gremolata, hot sauces and or cold beer.

A Word from the Kitchen - Pickle

A peck of pickles is 8 quarts, dry measure; as opposed to 8 quart jars of pickles. The word pickle, is the subject of this installment of A Word from the Kitchen.

Pickle

Pickle is a noun and is synonymous with brine (more on that later). Pickle is also a noun referring to the perishable goods that come out of the pickle. It’s a mess back there. Pickle has a confusing history with an unknown origin. Some say it is Scottish and stems for a word meaning trifle. Its bewildering past is partly due to the fact that all cultures pickle and have pickled. Here are just a few spellings on the long road pickle has taken to the present: peklle, pykyl, pikkyll, pyccle, pigell. The different spellings can be used as a map to chart and understand how pickle has come from many different places in many different times. Not only has everyone pickled, but traditionally, they pickled together. It was a harvest time activity, like wine-making.

Now, about brine, one could argue that a pickle, a solution of vinegar for preserving foods is profoundly different than brine, which is a solution saturated with salt. And one would be right to split hairs, but in everyday usage the terms seem to share the same ground. Language, in its enormity, lives quickly and beyond control. Dictionaries are graveyards. Words are locked and pinned to their thin pages like prized wings in a lepidopterist’s glass case. You can’t actually go to a dictionary for answers. If you want to know something, you have to ask the people talking. In the kitchen, arguing about language is like arguing with the night.

-Carl Adamshick

Nothing Better Than a Homegrown Tomato

Updated Below

20 pounds of heirloom tomatoes were waiting for me on my porch the morning after the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to avoid certain types of tomatoes due to an outbreak of the Saintpaul strain of Salmonella. My neighbor who dropped off the big beefy vegetables called later to say the tomatoes she left for me were overripe, too soft to sell. She had not given me any of the Romas suspected of carrying bacteria that she had to pull from the shelf at her work, she wasn’t trying to poison me.

As of yesterday there have been 167 confirmed cases of food related illness from suspect tomatoes resulting in 23 hospitalizations and fortunately no fatalities. On Monday, McDonald's and Wal-Mart temporarily stopped offering tomatoes to their customers as a precautionary measure. This is bad - not only because this is about as mainstream as opinion gets rather because of their purchasing power. McDonald's places a tomato on almost every burger and whether you think Wal-Mart is responsible for poorly tailored clothes, the rise of Bill Clinton and/or the dearth of middle class, they are the largest retailer in the US.

Because of the scale of the outbreak - cases reported 17 states; it is assumed tomatoes distributed nationally are responsible. Tomatoes are a big crop; the Department of Agriculture estimates sales at 1.28 billion dollars in 2007. California and Florida are the largest producers. The FDA cleared tomatoes from California for sale but grocery stores have rejected shipments possibly out of fear of the salmonella contamination or worry of not being able to convince their customers the product they are carrying is safe. Florida, the second largest agricultural state in the US, is second to no one in tomatoes, annually selling $500-700 million worth of tomatoes. At this time of year, Florida produces 90% of the tomato crop and growers in the state are currently being scrutinized as officials search for ground zero with this contamination.

According to an official speaking to Reuters News, the tomato industry in Florida stands to lose up to $40 million dollars, as tomatoes sit on the vine waiting for the clearance from the FDA to resume picking and shipping. While it is always wise never to trust industry numbers (Is that wholesale or retail value? Will all the $40 million be a complete loss or can some of that revenue be recouped through insurance, selling tomatoes at less than premium price for canning or dealing ripe tomatoes to producers of products like salsa and spaghetti sauce), this is still an astounding loss.

Last year it was the unfortunate collision of e-coli and spinach, now tomatoes and salmonella. Growers, particularly in those in Florida stand to loose serious short-term money and long term, the trust of consumers. As a general rule large agricultural interests oppose nominal reforms and regulations even when there is a benefit in helping restore public trust and safety.

Any changes that need to be made in food safety are not going to trickle down from large scale growers and retailers, instead they will have come ground up from consumers. Customers need to ask themselves if that limp tasteless tomato on their burger in February is really all that. Buyers are going to have to choose local products - national distribution can really confound a local problem. Shoppers are going to have to eat seasonally and as hokey as this word sounds, citizens are going to have to make the health and safety of the food they eat a priority with their representatives.

Update: Seoul Kitchen
Speaking of being politically active about food safety concerns, the South Koreans gave a lesson in how it is done: Street protests in Seoul, letters of resignation from cabinet members, the newly formed parliamentary government on the verge of collapse, phone calls of reassurance from President Bush.

This current uprising stems from a treaty negotiated by the newly elected, pro-US government of Lee Myung-bak to begin (re)importing beef over 30 months of age. Animals at this age are suspected to be more vulnerable to infections from mad-cow disease. Historically South Korea has been the 3rd largest market for US, but stopped imports amid safety concerns in 2003.

It is hard to imagine an analogous protest here in the US. The Seoul protest numbered between 40,000 and 100,000; if 1/10th of that many people took to the streets to protest US beef safety, the 24 hour news networks would show helicopter shots describing what the crowd is doing – riot watch, rather than addressing and reporting on the protester’s concerns. The ensuing studio debate about food safety would consist of a spokesperson from the US Beef Council saying mad cow disease is aberration of a historically safe, wholesome and American food - while a member of PETA would be shouting over him we shouldn’t be eating beef anyway.

Even though I don’t share the same concerns of beef safety, I’m liking the Korean method of direct democracy - rumor has it there is even a French delegation studying this food protest.
Stumble It!

Once Again, with Feeling

How do you feel about Molecular Gastronomy? Just Askin


I’m not sure it really matters to Molecular Gastronomy how I feel about it, but thank you for asking.

Molecular Gastronomy is an exploration of how science and food intersect. The movement looks to use the scientific method in the kitchen– experimentation, observation and replication of results only with food instead of stuff in petrie dishes. Or more specifically as Herve This’ elegantly explains in the subtitle of his book, Molecular Gastronomy, it is Exploring the Science of Flavor. The estimable Harold McGee explains the history of the movement here.

Spanish Chef Ferran Adrià is often cited as the Father of Molecular Gastronomy, it is a paternity he does not recognize and to my knowledge no one has gone to court to force the issue. Preferring to view his work more along the lines of Deconstructivism – providing food the same opportunity as literature to be over thought and analyzed rather than enjoyed and remembered.

And that is not a knock against Mr. Adrià, whose dedication to his profession, 3 Michelin Stars*, tireless experimentation and intellectual pursuits place his work on a different plane than the one most of us work from. Innovators like Adrià and his elBulli, whose very sensible and provoking manifesto, invokes the history of artists angrily breaking with tradition to begin their own schools, can be read here.

The aforementioned Herve This wrote a book containing a series of explorations such as exploring moisture content in chocolate, measuring aroma and the reporting the effects of MSG on digestion. Far from fashionable This’ book is actually pretty geeky, the equivalent of a rolling a 20 sided dice in the kitchen.

The issue is not with Molecular Gastronomy - Who could possibly be against the application of thought, observation and knowledge to aid one’s profession. The problem is what I call the Kenny G. problem. Kenny G plays a form of Jazz. Jazz's reputation of cool precedes Miles Davis' midwifery. Did Mr. G choose to call his music Jazz because it was the uncoolest music in the world, Jazz-like enough or was it somehow vaguely Jazzy? The same is true for molecular gastronomy. What began as an intellectual endeavor to improve food and craft has now turned into a free-form science fair that includes – freeze dried peas, distilled waters, vacuumed cooked steak and dry-ice capriccio. These techniques are not about using science to improve one’s offerings, rather showing off with expensive toys and techniques.

Ferran Adrià commenting on the trend of molecular gastronomy from his website–

“I think what we have here is a marketing operation and the public should not be tricked into believing molecular cuisine is a cooking style.”

The knock against chefs who used to place food on a plate like a crazed Frank Gehry wannabe is that they only made it through one semester of architecture school before flunking out, the concern about this second wave of molecular gastronomists are that they should have stayed in engineering school.



* Only 68 restaurants were awarded 3 Michelin stars in 2008. 3 Stars is the equivalent of winning the Nobel Prize, whose 6 annual awards do not include a medal and honorarium for excellence in Restauranting. Unlike Nobel Laureates, the Chefs who win their 3rd star, cannot don their medal and retreat to the bar, hoping to impress people with their success; the expectation is that they will work the rest of their lives to keep earning the 3rd star designation annually.

Pour Some Sugar on the Drink

Saucyman, What is a sling...from a bartender not an ER Doctor? Sippin’ in a hammock

Rum has been Slung. So have Gin and vodka. Geographically, the San Juan's and most notably Singapore also Sling. I thought the answer would be in the form of a Bondsian, James Bondsian, type of shaken not stirred type of designation - that a sling became a sling because of the way the ingredients were joined together. My second guess, equally as wrong, was that a sling was a style of glass or tankard. And Sling-glass does sound a little too Billy Bob Thorton to be probable.

Just as the Mojito, Cosmopolitan, and Martini are all drinks; in colonial times, the young nation was awash with punches, slings, flips and toddies.

A punch can be hold or cold, spiked with either wine or liquor or be just as punchy sans alcohol. A Toddy is sweetened, spiced and hot, although, there is a contrarian drink called the cold toddy. Historically, a Flip was beer sweetened with sugar or molasses and fortified with rum – to which a hot poker, sometimes called a flip, sometimes called a loggerhead, was inserted causing the drink to bubble and spit. The Mixmaster may have lost the flip from his repertoire but as a population we can still be at loggerheads.

According to William Grimes in Straight Up or On the Rocks, a sling was originally a drink of half water and half rum served in Colonial America. Grog was a relatively sober 2 or 3 parts water to rum. Currently, a sling connotes a drink containing hard alcohol, sugar and either still or bubbly water. Usually juice is included in sling recipes but it isn’t a requirement. Singapore may object but the mint julep is the most known sling, and does so without being all showy and putting the word in the title.

Closer to the gilded age than founding times, a Cocktail denoted a drink containing bitters, occasionally the mixture was called a bittered sling. Currently, cocktail refers to almost anything containing alcohol mixed with at least one other ingredient but that definition does little to explain the fruit and Molotov varieties.

So sling away, I am all for reviving archaic words, despite the fact my 4 year campaign to
return wee to everyday usage has not exactly gone viral, maybe now is the time for sling to return to, at the very least, the barkeeping lexicon.

Turn it off then

Saucyman,

What is with the world of hate for Rachel Ray? Only mildly annoyed

I don’t think it is a world of hate. With 4 TV shows being currently produced or continuously rerun, a half-dozen books in print, a magazine and never ending parade of commercials and endorsements, someone loves her. But you know a person is contentious when they manage to stir up controversy by wearing a scarf in a Dunkin Donuts commercial, so much for my theory scarves are the new ties.

It is the foodigentsia who despise her and/or her work. In particular, Anthony Bourdain currently uses Ms. Ray as the object of his scorn previously reserved for Emeril Lagasse. But Mr. Bourdain consistently endorses restaurant skills: His value structure dictates anyone who endures 12 hour shifts in stressful, low paid, physically taxing environments is a better cook than anyone who pulls up to a stove at home - it is the brotherhood of the checked pants that trumps all on the subject of food. I don’t agree, but at least the man has a code he lives by.

For the chefs who have put in the long hours in dedication to their craft, it is easy to understand the hatred, but it is not quite as understandable are the legions of civilians who despise her. Sites like the Rachel Ray Sucks Community, catalog every culinary transgression and annoying thing she utters. Her shows, like the boneless, skinless chicken breast she favors aren’t personal favorites because they lack complexity. That and eating on $40 dollars a day while traveling is as probable as a semi knowledgeable home cook actually completing one of her meals in 30 minutes – And yes E-V-O-O is annoying enough without then parroting Extra Virgin Olive Oil after the initials, why use the initials in the first place? As a matter of fact, why say E-V-O-O/Extra Virgin Olive Oil 6 times in 22 minutes?

The fact that she can and does, is Ms. Ray’s true skill, she can talk. Just as Mr. Bourdain uses a profound combination of snark and sincerity to sell his worldview, Ms. Ray uses words, lots and lots of words to shape her enterprise. No gaps, no downtime, no NPResque moments of dead air – intimating a level of thoughtfulness. She is constantly talking, describing what her hands are doing, complimenting her own efforts, making puns, commenting in an quasi Bob Dole 3rd person type of way- declaring something delish after she tastes…constantly firing those words out, not letting a moment pass where a viewer can be shaken from the hypnotic grip of her voice. In its own way, it is pretty amazing - addicting if not entertaining.

Maybe those verbal skills make her more qualified for a job on cable news or a co-host of The View than a cooking show host, but even if she didn’t spend 6 months over a fryalator in her youth, she does have some bona fides. Before she was a multimedia sensation, she taught cooking classes in a small store, did segments for local TV in upstate NY, which led to the publication of a moderately successful cookbook, which in turn caught the attention of the Food Network.

Here is the question that orbits around Ms. Ray – What do you expect out of every meal? Is each one going to be more memorable than the last, aren’t there just days when you want a warm comforting bowl of soup? Lets say Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray were making split pea soup. Martha might talk about the ham she is using– cured in a hand-built smoke house made from salvaged maple. The ham was brined in sea salt from the Baltic and smoked slowly over applewood, ecologically harvested from her mother’s organic orhcard in Vermont, which Martha personally stayed up 8 nights to ensure the fire was kept at the right temperature. Ms. Ray would open a carton of chicken stock and toss pre-sliced ham in the recipe and spend the next ¾ of her show explaining how to make grilled cheese by coating a frying pan with E-V-O-O, that is Extra Virgin Olive Oil, BTW. I’d choose Martha’s table every time, but aren’t both options better than opening a can of soup? Don’t you sometimes just want a meal that is quick and easy, isn’t that the standard Ms. Ray should be measured against rather than Thomas Keller, Alice Waters or Martha Stewart?

Her defenders will claim she knows how real people shop and cook and here in Slate, tell food snobs to leave her alone. Technically, I could be labeled a food snob, so I don’t want to pile on beyond this - maybe the biggest fault with Ms. Ray is her penchant for using salty, pre-sliced, pre-shredded, low fat, flavorless, processed, heavily packaged food only reinforces some ugly things about how most people really shop and cook.

Maybe before Ms. Ray finally leaves the studio kitchen to build an audience in daytime TV, where she might be more at home, she can host a show called One Really Good Meal - based on fundamental skills and planning. Even if that show goes into production, somehow I think that Long Island accent, the manufactured ditzy persona, the hawking of Ritz Crackers and rapid-fire succession of monosyllabic words are still going raise people’s ire.