Archive for January, 2007

WHY????

Monday, January 8th, 2007

Is anyone else as freaked out by the FDA’s preliminary approval of clones in the food chain as I am?

This is one of those situations where I’m convinced that industry lobbyists have more power than is good for us. Yes, I know that the FDA’s preliminary approval comes after five years of study, and I also know that their exhaustive study has found that milk and dairy from cloned bovine, goats, and swine (but notably not sheep) is indistinguishable from that of naturally-bred animals. I also understand, as the FDA’s press release describes it, that “Because of their cost and rarity, clones will be used as are any other elite breeding stock — to pass on naturally-occurring, desirable traits such as disease resistance and higher quality meat to production herds. Because clones will be used primarily for breeding, almost all of the food that comes from the cloning process is expected to be from sexually-reproduced offspring and descendents of clones, and not the clones themselves.”

What I don’t understand is, if the clones are indistinguishable, why bother using them in the first place? I mean, why not just let a bull hump a cow like nature intended? (I know, mass-market meat is already beyond that process; instead they inject sperm from a bull into a cow when thermometer readings have shown that the cow is most fertile and therefore most ready to make use of the commodity…)

Key word from the FDA’s quote describing where cloned animals will wind up: almost all of the food…. But basically, yeah, once that breeder’s put in her time and she’s not spittin’ ‘em out as reliably as she was a year ago, it’s straight to the processing plant with her so she can be made into hamburger meat. But that’s also assuming that as a food-purchasing public, we’re going to be comfortable with the breeders and the bulls being the same breeders and bulls, generation after generation because somebody decided that this matched pair makes beautiful angus steaks together. Am I being unreasonable here when the only response I can come up with to this situation is, Because it’s just not natural, that’s why!?

I suspect that I am, which is why I’m going to wait a couple of days and try to come up with a more eloquent objection to make before I submit my comment to the FDA. However, I encourage everyone to take advantage of the limited window that the bureaucracy gives us to voice our opinions and submit a comment before April 10, 2007.

Really, though, it’s remarkable that the FDA is only allowing a three-month window for public comments to be submitted. They’ve got five pages worth of topics on which they’re currently accepting comments, many of which have comment periods of a year or more. If they spent five years doing the preliminary research on this subject, why not wait another year and have a longer period of public commentary about what is almost certain to be the most contentious issue on their docket? I just don’t understand….

I’m Going Bananas!

Friday, January 5th, 2007

Peeling bananas minutely more quickly

The time difference this tip makes is admittedly miniscule if you’re only cutting a banana or two; but, believe me, if you’re preparing bananas foster for a banquet of 500, those milliseconds add up.

Instead of peeling the banana and then cutting it down, cut off each end of the banana and then slice it in half lengthwise before peeling it.

slice banana lengthwise first

Once you’ve done so, it will easily come free of its peel with none of those annoying strings attached.

peel the sliced banana with no strings attached

Then, you’re ready to make a banana split; or, slice it crosswise and combine it with citrus and kiwi for a tasty fruit salad.

fruit salad!

Peeling a Kiwi

Thursday, January 4th, 2007

The knife skill that isn’t

Sometimes the key to having great knife skills is knowing when to use a different tool. For instance, if you want to peel a kiwi (perhaps to add it to the fruit salad we started yesterday by cutting citrus sections free of their pith and membrane), you’ll only need your knife very briefly, to cut off each end of the fruit and cut the fruit in half. Then, reach for an ordinary spoon and use it to separate the fruit from the peel.

using a spoon to peel a kiwi

It’s the easiest way I know of to get that soft, tasty fruit out of its hairy skin.

Vote Early, Vote Often

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

Word just came through that Corduroy Orange has been named one of the five finalists for Best Food Blog by a Chef in the Wellfed Network’s best food blog awards. So, please help me out and vote. Vote your conscience, of course (but only if it tells you that Corduroy Orange deserves the award).

http://wellfed.net/2007/01/03/top-5-best-food-blog-chef/

Polls close at midnight EST January 9.

Sectioning Citrus

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007

Get perfect, pithless results in minutes

Even if I’m happy to peel an orange and eat it out of the hand with each section in its membrane, I find the membrane to be distracting in a fruit salad. As for a grapefruit, if I’m eating it by its lonesome, I don’t peel it out of hand; I cut it in half and section it with a spoon. My friend Tom used to peel grapefruits and eat them, but even he didn’t eat the tough membrane of that fruit. Instead, he’d bite it open and pull it aside with his teeth and then gnaw out the flavorful juice cells: a messy project that left his hands dripping with sticky juice. There’s no need to go through that trouble (and if you’re making a fruit salad that I might eat, please don’t do it that way). Instead, pull out your chef’s knife and follow these steps toward perfect citrus sections.

1) Cut off both ends. This will give you a stable surface to work with and also expose the pith line.

the pith line as marked by the knife tip

Pith is that bitter white stuff that lines the inside of the peel.You want to cut away both it and the exterior membrane wall to expose the juice pockets.

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Overpriced and Oversalted

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

Dining at the Sunnyledge Boutique Hotel

The Sunnyledge wants to make sure you know that they are an exclusive and upper-crusty establishment. The decor says it all: oak paneling, lined drapes, and crystal chandeliers. In case you can’t visit, though, they spell it out for you in their promotional brochure, “Boutique Hotels are recognized for their elegance and personalized attention. Sunnyledge offers modern luxury in its finest form.” Its services for guests include “twice-daily maid service” and its accommodations include an “open-air veranda [that] offers a spectacular view of ‘Millionaire’s Row’ while enjoying one of our chef’s specialties.” At least the hotel’s promotional staff knew enough not to name their chef specifically; following a sequence of personnel troubles, the current executive chef, Heather Buechel, has not yet finished culinary school and is serving in an interim capacity.

The fare relies heavily on salt for its flavor, to the extent that your mouth puckers when eating some of the selections.

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