If you didn’t like recipes in structure diagram format, you could take a look at Elise Bauer’s whole food Simply Recipes instead. Interesting recipes and very few ingredients that come out of tins or packets – yum!
The BBC has run a poll on 50 things you should eat before you die. I’ve got nine still to go, mostly from the southern hemisphere, but I have to admit I’ve never tried haggis, which comes from nearer to home.
You’d think after the BSE skandal in the 1990’s (which was most probably precipitated by feeding cattle with ground-up bones and carcasses) that we would have learnt the error of our ways, but I see that it is now standard practice in Asia to feed chicken dung to fish. It is a United Nations recommended fish-farming technique, the Independent reports today:
... a technique firmly backed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as a primary means of providing protein for mushrooming populations in developing countries.The only reason it has come to the fore at the moment is because experts fear the the dung may represent a reservior (pun intended) of disease which is then transferred to migrating birds.
Known as integrated livestock-fish farming, the technique involves transferring the wastes from raising pigs, ducks or chickens directly to fish farms.
Phenolic compounds in olive oil, which have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting properties, may explain cardiovascular health benefits associated with the so-called Mediterranean Diet, according to a new study in the Nov. 15, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
A ten year project to develop genetically modified peas, by adding a protein from beans that causes them to be resistant to pea weevil pests, has been abandoned after it was shown that although the protein alone does not cause an allergic reaction in mice or people, the treated peas cause a lung allergy in mice. Researchers think the allergy is caused by subtle differences in the structure of the protein after it is introduced into the peas.
(A similar experiment had to be halted in the early 1990’s when researchers at a company called Pioneer Hi-Bred International engineered a more nutritious strain of soya bean for use in cattle feed by adding a gene taken from brazil nuts. It was considered possible that the nut protein could enter the human food chain and after it was discovered that the modification was likely to trigger a major attack in people with brazil nut allergies, the project was stopped.)
Oil? Apples? Well, if you are in the group of 36% of the British children aged 8 – 14 who didn’t know, that could be what you think:
... a British Heart Foundation (BHF) survey found that 36 per cent of youngsters aged eight-14 could not correctly identify the main ingredient of chips as potato.The BHF is worried that kids need better nutrition education, as they don’t understand the consequences of unhealthy eating. They are running a campaign to try and wean (well, scare) them off eating fast food, by showing photographs of images of burger rolls filled with gristle, connective tissue, bone and the other ingredients that go into burgers, chicken nuggets and hot dogs.
Nearly one in 10 (nine per cent) of the children questioned thought chips were made of oil, with others suggesting eggs, flour and apples.
More than a third of children (37 per cent) also failed to identify that cheese was mostly made of milk.
Marc wrote recently about the British serving chicken frequently when they invite people for a meal. Well, here’s a reason to switch to something else – the BBC reports that over a third of chickens sold in the UK could be infected with E.coli germs resistant to the antibiotic Trimethaprim which is used to treat bladder infections. VRE (Vancomycin Resistant Enteroccci) were in 1 in 25 of samples taken by the BBC and 12 of 147 chickens had antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter. Over half the birds sampled came from outside the UK.
I can’t speak for the first two germs, but from personal experience, Campylobacter is really unpleasant and very easily spread to humans. And the thought that over 8% of the chickens contained an antibiotic-resistant strain is not pleasant at all.
The Observer is running an article today, based on an interview with British Telecom’s Ian Pearson, head of their futurology unit, suggesting that by the middle of this century, the rich will be able to download their brains into super-computers to ensure their immortality (If you don’t have enough cash, wait another 25 – 30 years until it has become mainstream technology and everyone is doing it). You may also be able to hold a breakfast conversation with your yoghurt before you eat it:
‘If you draw the timelines, realistically by 2050 we would expect to be able to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it’s not a major career problem,’ Pearson told The Observer. ‘If you’re rich enough then by 2050 it’s feasible. If you’re poor you’ll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it’s routine. We are very serious about it. That’s how fast this technology is moving: 45 years is a hell of a long time in IT.’...Read the rest of this entry »
...’We can already use DNA, for example, to make electronic circuits so it’s possible to think of a smart yoghurt some time after 2020 or 2025, where the yoghurt has got a whole stack of electronics in every single bacterium. You could have a conversation with your strawberry yogurt before you eat it.’
If you ever start cooking, only to discover that you are missing a vital ingredient, or the ingredient called for doesn’t seem to be available locally, then The Cook’s Thesaurus is the place to turn to. Lets say you don’t have any endives (chicory, if you are British), this is what the Cook’s Thesaurus has to say:
Belgian endive = French endive = witloof = witloof chicory = chicory (in Britain) = Belgium chicory = blanching chicory = Dutch chicory = green-leaved blanching chicory = chicon
Notes: These crunchy, slightly bitter leaves are often used to make hors d’oeuvres, but they can also be chopped and added to salads, or braised to make an exquisite (and expensive) side dish. Select heads with yellow tips; those with green tips are more bitter. Their peak season is the late fall and winter. Substitutes: radicchio (similar flavor) OR arugula OR watercress
Oh dear, Worcester Sauce, a great British food tradition (almost on a par with Marmite), falls from favour spectacularly this week:
Fresh and canned foods, ready meals and cooking sauces were removed from sale on the orders of government food watchdogs after the chance discovery in Italy 11 days ago of an illegal, potentially cancer-causing dye ingredient in a bottle of Crosse & Blackwell Worcester sauce…
...The alert relates to 357 products with Worcester sauce flavouring, and the figure may rise. It follows 18 months of more low-level warnings involving 200 products – including pickles, cooking oils and sauces – to consumers, retailers, manufacturers and importers over the inclusion of the dye, which is banned in Europe.