All about Cheddar Cheese

Cheddar is one of the most popular cheeses in the world and one of my favorites. It originally came from Somerset, in England but is now produced in many  parts of the English speaking world and beyond. But only 14 makers are licensed to use the EU Protected Designation of Origin “West Country Farmhouse Cheddar” which indicates it's still made in the traditional way.

The process for making cheddar is similar to other cow's milk cheeses, with the addition of a unique process that has taken on the name "cheddaring." Slabs of curd are stretched, then piled on top of each other to help drain the whey. This helps to harden the cheese and develop acidity and flavor. Farmhouse cheddars are traditionally wrapped in cloth and then aged. Good English cheddar should be buttery and nutty in flavor and should have a soft crumbly texture. Cheddar improves with age, developing those crunchy crystals of calcium lactate you find in other aged cheese, like Parmigiano Reggiano. 

I recently got a chance to try some Westminster cheddar, and am happy to report that it is very widely available in supermarkets. Westminster aged cheddar cheese is made on England’s oldest cheddar making farm in North Somerset only 15 miles from the village of Cheddar. The Barber family has been making cheddar since 1833 and is reputedly to be the oldest cheddar making family in the world. The milk from their cheddar comes from Holstein Freisian cows. The cows are grass fed for 8-9 months of the year depending on the weather ( free from growth hormones, RBGH or RBST). As with all cheeses, the flavor is very much an expression of what the animals eat. What sets their cheddar apart? They hand turn the cheddar and it's not blast chilled, this lets the starter culture have more time to develop. They also mature the cheese at a slightly higher temperature to let the cheese mature again and develop in flavor. 

While the popularity of cheddar has a lot to do with the influence of the expansion of the British Empire and milk rationing during WWII (cheddar was virtually the only cheese made in England during the war), it's versatility in cooking is also undeniable. If you are enjoying aged cheddar, it's good to at least try it on its own. Here are my tasting notes:

Farmhouse

Aged 10 months, it's buttery, creamy texture that melts and lasts on the finish, much sharper than domestic "extra sharp" cheddar with a richer flavor but not acidic. 

Sharp

Aged 12 months, it is both sharper and drier than the 10 month, but still very creamy with no bitterness, a bit fruity.

Vintage 

Aged15 months, it's even sharper, but less salty, little bit of crunch from the crystals, nutty.

Farmer's Reserve

Aged 2 years it represents only 2% of total production. It's the driest, with more crunch, complex but still creamy and earthiness.

Some of my favorite ways to use cheddar:

* Grilled cheese sandwiches

* Served with my favorite chutney and bread

* In macaroni and cheese with Spanish peppers

* In cheddar biscuits

* As a topping on chipotle chili 

* In fondue

* In a souffle

* On double stuffed baked potatoes

* In cream of broccoli soup

* In chile cheddar bacon waffles

* In corn chowder

Disclaimer: My thanks to Westminster Cheddar for supplying me with samples. 

A little bit of summer stored in a jar ...

Raspberries from the bushes outside our kitchen window, turned into jam last July.

Agricultural producer support declining over time

We hear all sorts of generalizations about U.S. farm policy.

Some say U.S. farm programs are too stingy and should provide more help to farmers, especially small farmers. Others say U.S. farm programs are a boondoggle that just makes rich farmers richer. Still others say farm programs make consumers fat by encouraging too much cheap food.

Instead of generalizing, it is important to think quantitatively.

One good data source is the Producer Support Estimates (PSE) from the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (a club for the world's upper-income countries). I use this data source in several chapters of my forthcoming book from Routledge/Earthscan called Food Policy in the United States: An Introduction.

The PSE data measure diverse agricultural programs and policies in a consistent way across countries and over time.  One problem with the PSE is that it can seem a little complex.  To provide an orientation, Rebecca Nemec and I created the following data gadget.  Nemec is a graduate student at the Friedman School at Tufts and the teaching assistant for my class on U.S. Food Policy.  The top panel shows broad categories of support for agricultural producers.  The bottom panel shows more detail about each broad category in turn.   

Just click on each colored broad category in the top panel to see the corresponding detail in the bottom panel.

Working from top to bottom, we learn about trends in several major categories of producer support.

• Price supports and deficiency payments help farmers in years when prices are low.  OECD worries about these programs because they distort international trade and hurt farmers overseas.  Michael Pollan criticizes deficiency payments for making corn too cheap.  Notice that in recent years -- with greater scarcity and higher prices -- these distorting policies have fallen to almost nothing under current policy.
• Conservation programs have been growing in recent years, and also do not respond to price fluctuations as wildly as deficiency payments do.
• The other payments category includes direct payments, which pay farmers regardless of the current price.  These direct payments may end under some current farm bill proposals.  They do not distort agricultural markets very much, but it is unpopular to pay farmers when they are prospering during high-price years.
• Market Price Support represents the economic impact of the trade barriers that protect some producers, especially for milk and sugar, from imports.  Although they do not have a budget cost, these supports benefit farmers at the expense of consumers.  As with deficiency payments, the impact of these trade barriers has declined to almost nothing in recent high-price years.

An especially clever feature is that PSE data allow sensible comparisons across two seemingly different types of policies:

• payments to farmers at the taxpayers' expense (the first three broad categories), and
• trade policies that support farmers at the consumers' expense (the fourth broad category).

To speak coherently about U.S. agricultural policy, one must make important distinctions across several types of programs and be aware of rapid changes in program impacts from one year to the next.

There are a couple limitations that I should mention.  First, the OECD data may have some limitations of their own.  Second, while I did the best I could to classify programs from the OECD data into sensible categories, I did make some judgement calls about these program classifications.

In general, U.S. support for farmers has been declining in recent years, mainly because of high food prices that result from greater scarcity on world markets.  Though some people are more optimistic, I think population and environmental constraints may generally keep prices fairly high in the future.

This means that governmental support for U.S. farmers can be smaller over time, unless legislators replace existing programs with new and poorly designed alternatives.  For example, I worry about new and potentially expensive crop insurance programs that have been proposed in draft farm bills.

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Giving the Gift of Experience 2012

I'm sure you've heard that experiences are appreciated and more memorable than things. Speaking personally, I have no more room for stuff. If it doesn't fit in the refrigerator or my jewelry box, it's going to be tough to find a place in my overstuffed apartment. But a tour or a class is something I always appreciate. You know what they say, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Here are my ideas for the best experiences in San Francisco and beyond...

A stop at Craftsman & Wolves for a treat

Edible Excursions
Neighborhood food walking tours are not just for tourists! In fact, most of the people who go on Edible Excursion tours are locals. Even if you know your own neighborhood, have you really dug into Japantown or the up and coming parts of the Mission? Nothing could be better than going with an expert.

I've been on several of Edible Excursions tours and loved all of them. The most recent tour is of the 18th Street corridor and what could be more fun than hanging out with one of the tour guides, local DIY diva Karen Solomon! She not only lives in the Mission but can make great personal recommendations for where to eat, drink and shop in the area. See the murals at the Women's Building, nibble on pizza, slurp a sangria and have a lick of ice cream all the while learning about new and not so new hot spots on 18th Street and Valencia Street. Tours range from $50-75 and are well worth the price given how much food you'll eat and fun you'll have.

San Francisco Cooking School
Just last month I got a chance to take a tour of the newly launched school and to chat with some of the instructors. I was really impressed. The space on Van Ness is gorgeous and the teachers experienced and enthusiastic. What sets this school apart is that even the classes for non-professionals are hand's on, not just demos. Learn how to make and decorate cupcakes from Kara of Kara's Cupcakes! Learn to make pasta from Viola Buitoni! Buitoni, a name synonymous with pasta. Make Asian dumplings with Andrea Nguyen, author of the book, Asian Dumplings.

The Boothby Center for the Beverage Arts
I have a confession to make, I am lousy at creating cocktails. Oh I can follow a recipe like anyone else, but coming up with something new is a challenge. I love learning about spirits and playing with them. In San Francisco we actually have a non-profit organization dedicated to to preserving the cultural heritage of saloons and their cocktails in San Francisco, while also celebrating California's culinary philosophy and tradition via special public events, publications and educational seminars. I would LOVE to take a class with one of my (and I think everyone's) favorite local bartenders, Reza Esmaili and learn to make market fresh cocktails! But check out the schedule and find something that rings your bell.

Forage SF
I've been fascinated by the foraging trend. I grew up in the Bay Area and ate fish and seafood, mushrooms and fruit all harvested locally by family and friends. I've been on many nature walks and mushroom hunts and always learned a lot. Forage doesn't just hold markets and dinners, but wild food walks. They are two hours, held in both San Francisco and the East Bay and cost only $40. If no one buys me this as a gift, I plan on buying it for myself!

Autumn in Italy
Are your ready for the trip of a lifetime? I just came back from Emilia Romagna, and created a slide show for Frommer's on what has to be one of the best food destinations in the Italy. My friends and fellow bloggers and Italian food enthusiasts Hedonia blogger Sean Timberlake and Italy in SF blogger Vanessa DellaPasqua who runs Global Epicurean have put together a second trip to Italy (on the heels of their sold out first trip), this time to focus on gathering porcini mushrooms, but also to try formaggio di fossa, visit a tartufo festival, learn to make pasta and piadina and of course get up close and personal with Parmigiano Reggiano, prosciutto and balsamic vinegar in their birthplace. And so much more! Check out the full itinerary and make someone's dream come true.

Rocky Road Recipe

Did you know that Rocky Road was invented in Australia? It seems like such an American candy, but there are different versions in other parts of the world. In Australia the candy has things like coconut and fruit jellies in it. The Rocky Road in the United Kingdom has marshmallows, cookies (or biscuits as they call them), chocolate, raisins and a dusting of powdered sugar. While I like the idea of adding crisp cookies to Rocky Road, it just does't seem like Rocky Road to me without nuts, and toasted walnuts in particular.

I blame Tori Ritchie for making me take on Rocky Road. Her email newsletter this week had a recipe for it and after that I was a goner. Rocky Road is one of those things you can't really mess up. I think the easier the better. With all due respect to Michael Ruhlman, the ratios are a bit fluid here, you can add more or less chocolate or nuts as you like. I've seen recipes that have 1 part chocolate to 1 part marshmallows and others have 2 parts chocolate to 1 part marshmallows. Of course, the better ingredients you use the better it will taste. But honestly I made this with supermarket chocolate chips and it was pretty darn good! 

This would be a fun thing to make with kids and makes a nice gift too. My version uses nuts, marshmallows and cookies, but no raisins or powdered sugar. The cookies really add a nice crunch and make the candy seem a little less rich somehow (so I end up eating more?). Try it with different kinds of cookies and let me know what you think. I used Anna's Orange Thins in mine but I bet Ginger Thins or Almondina cookies would be good too. 

Rocky Road

Ingredients

3 cups chocolate chips, bittersweet or semi sweet or a combination

2 cups mini marshmallows

1 cup toasted chopped walnuts

1 cup crushed shards of thin crunchy cookies such as Swedish thins or Moravian cookies

Instructions

Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 2 minutes at 50% power. Remove from the oven and stir, then repeat as necessary until the chips are melted and smooth. Do not overheat them. 

Add the marshmallows, toasted walnuts and cookies to the bowl melted chocolate and stir gently with a rubber or silicone spatula until all the ingredients are coated in chocolate. Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet and allow to cool and harden. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container. 

Enjoy!

More Books for Cooks 2012

You know the drill, if you want your gift to arrive by December 24th, today is the last day to order with free Super Saver Shipping on Amazon. Of course, you could just go to a bookstore instead! 

Every year there is a whole new batch of cookie books. Dozens I dare say. Here are a few worth your while. The Daily Cookie is written by a blogger I consider a friend, Anna Ginsburg. She is a baking whiz! Her blog is Cookie Madness and she is a past winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Anna's recipes are very well-tested and never terribly complicated. Bar cookies, drop cookies, sandwich cookies and brownies are all included. Most recipes have photos and for each cookie and each day of the year there is a holiday or special event you can learn about. 

Simply Sensational Cookies is another major cookie compendium. What I like about this book is that each recipe is rated--from easy to complicated so you know what to expect. The lovely photos are from White on Rice Couple bloggers, Diane Cru and Todd Porter. 

Tate's Bake Shop: Baking for Friends is a more general baking book, but I include it because I think many will be familiar with the cookies from Tate's Bake Shop. The recipes in this book are very clear and easy to follow. 

Cookies for Grown-Ups is a truly unique book, with lots of savory cookies, sophisticated flavors (like pink grapefruit and poppyseed or green apple, horseradish and ginger) and boozy ones like lime and tequila or Cookie Mary with all the flavors of a bloody mary! Ok, it's a little wacky, but fun. 

For those who choose savory over sweet, a nice option is Salty Snacks, which features recipes for chips, crackers, pretzels, dips, crostini, and all kind of goodies that go with drinks. It's a great book for those who like to throw cocktail parties. 

Another cool book inspired by a farmer's market is In Season, by food editors from New York magazine. This is not a regional book and should be useful for just about anyone in the country (ok maybe not Alaska or Hawaii!) The recipes come from different restaurant chefs and I like that recipes are from all corners of the globe, some traditional and many are modern. I have bookmarked Michael Anthony's Green Garlic Sauce, Cauliflower Tabbouleh and Sake-Poached Cherries. I just wish the book wasn't organized by season since in many places seasons overlap. 

Most regional and farmer's market books disappoint me. But two really impressed me this year. My favorite was Pike Place Market Recipes. Seattle local Jess Thomson has gathered and developed recipes using the abundance of that legendary market. But you don't have to live in Seattle to make recipes like Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Stumptown Barbecue Sauce, Carrot Soup with Cumin and Honey, Hot Sweet Mango Pickles or Marche's Mussels with Pernod Cream. I particularly like the 10 Ways tips that feature suggestions for how to use apples or bread or charcuterie. The photos of locals vendors and dishes add to the pleasure of this smaller format volume. 

A lot of pretty books this year didn't have much substance when I digger deep into them, and a few failed when I tried some recipes. But Southern Comfort really impressed me. Recipes like Oyster Swiss Chard Grain with Country Bacon, Grilled Calamari stuffed with Cornbread and Collards and Potato Gnocchi with Mustard Green Pesto all feel new and exciting yet familiar. I think this book went largely under the radar for most people but it's a good one. 

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. 

Easy Almond Cookies Recipe

This is the easiest almond cookie recipe ever. And I bet you could use an easy cookie recipe about now. It requires only a few ingredients and you prepare the dough in the food processor so making them takes maybe 10 minutes and there's barely any clean up. They are a variation of almond macaroons, rich and chewy with just a little crunch from the almond on top. The secret is a hint of almond extract, and to really processing the ingredients until they make a very easy to work with dough.

I was recently sent some almonds from the Almond Board and I was looking for a good way to use them. There are lots of similar recipes to this one, but the comments on Epicurious led me to make a crucial change in the recipe. I cut the sugar in half. I also made slightly larger cookies than the recipe calls for and skipped dusting them in confectioners sugar. It might seem odd to add almond extract to almond cookies, but without it they can be a little bland. Because they are such dense little bites, they won't crumble making them good for travel or shipping. They are gluten free and have no added oil or butter.

While no one eats cookies for health purposes, these are pretty healthy. Lots of research has been done on almonds and they are a true nutritional powerhouse very high in manganese, vitamin E and magnesium and eating them lowers cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart attack. So eat them in good health!

Easy Almond Cookies
Makes 14 cookies, but recipe can easily be multiplied
adapted from a recipe published in Gourmet magazine, 1997

Ingredients

1 cup blanched almonds, whole or slivered
1/3 cup sugar
Pinch salt
1 egg white
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
14 whole almonds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor combine the almonds, sugar and salt. Process until very finely ground. Add the egg white and almond extract and pulse until the dough comes together. Roll the dough into 14 evenly sized balls, and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press one almond into the center of each cookie, pressing down slightly.

Bake for 10 minutes or until just starting to show a hint of gold. Let cookies cool on the pan, then transfer to an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Saeco Syntia Focus Espresso Machine Review

The Saeco Syntia Focus espresso machine is the most impressive kitchen appliance I have ever had the pleasure of reviewing. I never thought I would actually be reviewing any kind of coffee maker because while I frequently drink espresso in Italy (as in multiple times a day) I rarely drink coffee at all in the US. So no regular coffee maker fits the bill for me. It's either an Italian espresso machine and a top quality Italian brand of coffee (illy is my preference) or why bother? 

First a little story. When I was in Italy this past October I ended up in Parma a little too early for an appointment with my guide, so I went to get an espresso with my driver, Gianni. He told me he had an espresso machine at home that he and his wife use every day, and proudly that it came from Saeco, a company headquartered near Bologna, his home town. Saeco first launched a completely automatic espresso machine for home use in 1985 and purchased the iconic Italian brand Gaggia in 1999, and then in turn was purchased by electronics giant Philips in 2009. 

I have not tested other espresso machines, but I can tell you what I consider the top 10 advantages of the Saeco Syntia Focus. 

1. Small. The machine take up less counter space than a traditional coffee machine and grinder.

2. Flexible. Each cup is brewed exactly as you like (espresso or "long" American style) or hot water.

3. Easy. Actually it's super easy to use, no fancy settings or complicated programming options.

4. Economical. Because you only make what you want, not a whole pot. 

5. Versatile. A small second reservoir allows you to add another kind of ground coffee (like decaf). 

6. Fresh. It uses a ceramic grinder to grind each cup to order.

7. Quick. Start up takes less than a minute and a half out of stand by mode.

8. High quality. It produces great cups of coffee including espresso with real crema.

9. Sleek. This is a stylish machine you enjoy having on display on your counter.

10. Foam. It features a steamer for quickly frothing and heating milk. 

The negatives for this machine would be if you prefer super oily dark roasts, those beans can clog the grinder over time. Or if you are a real control freak and want a less automated machine. And it's pricey. I've seen it on sale with free shipping for as low as $699 but the list price is $999.

So is the Saeco Syntia Focus right for you? If you want to enjoy espresso and cappuccino at home, in addition to regular American style cups of coffee, it just might be worth the splurge. And you know, this is the season for splurges.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me for review purposes. I was not paid to write this or any other post.  

FDA urged to make public information about antibiotic use

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and the Government Accountability Project have spent a couple years asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release information about the amount of antibiotic use in farm animals.  Overuse of antibiotics in farm animals may lead to the evolution of more dangerous drug-resistant strains.

FDA releases some summary data each year, but denied the request for more detailed tabulations,citing an exemption in freedom-of-information law that applies to commercial information and trade secrets.  This seems wrong.  Misuse of antibiotics is an important public health issue, and the aggregated data requested were not firm-specific.

In response, the Center for a Livable Future and the Government Accountability Project brought a lawsuit this month.  The Center's director Robert Lawrence explains this week:

Since 2008, when the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA) began requiring drug companies to report basic information about antibiotic sales to FDA, the agency has released limited summaries of these data to the public. Sadly, though, the FDA conceals most of what gets reported by the drug companies. This concealment protects the producers and the drug companies, both of which make tidy profits from injudicious dosing of food animals.

In the meantime, the Center's staff has done some clever sleuthing, exploiting a glitch in FDA's annual release of summary data, which was followed by a correction to the agency's numbers.  The Center tracked down the source of the change in order to conjecture about the amount of antibiotics used in one particular category called arsenicals.

My Favorite Neighborhood Shops for Speciality Foods

The Candy Store is a cute as a button (make that button candy) little shop with sweet staff including the ebullient proprietor, Diane and her husband turned candymaker Brian. If you're a brittle fan do try Brian's coconut curry cashew brittle. I could tell you about my favorite candies in this store like the marshmallow ropes, peanut butter malt balls, or the realistic French "river stones" each filled with a surprise of apricot paste, marzipan, almonds and a thin layer of chocolate, but really, what fun would that be?

Head over to the store to discover something that makes you happy--something from abroad like a Cadbury Flake bar, or from your childhood like Zotz or Pop Rocks. Try a sample of matcha caramels or chocolate covered pistachios. Some items available online. Candy is one of the last affordable luxuries and it makes people smile! If that isn't reason enough to indulge, I don't know what is.

Cheese Plus is hands down, the best specialty food store near my home. The prices can be a bit on the high side, but owner Ray Bair carefully chooses every item and if you want a great bottle of jam or my friend Alison's fabulous chutney or fresh pasta, the best couscous, or outstanding salami, this is the place. It's not a big store, but there is plenty to choose from and I've never bought anything that disappointed me. You can easily put together a picnic basket, gift box or find just the right hostess gift here not to mention holiday gift. 

Right now they have those exquisite Robert Lambert fruit cakes with rare citrus, Rustichella d'Abruzzo panettone in flavors like fig and chocolate or cherry. A perfect stocking stuffer? The truffle trio with honey, salt and carpaccio at a very attractive price. The store really knows cheese well, as you might expect. In fact, right now if you sign up for their cheese of the month club you'll get a pound and a half of cheese each month and won't pay a penny for shipping. If you have questions or want to find something special in that department, this is a good place to look.

David's Tea is a Montreal based tea company with stores all over the place and a huge selection of tea. I spoke with the David Segal, the co-founder and he told me all about the teas and blends he creates and carries--black, green, herbal and even non-tea varieties such as his fruit and vegetable based infusions. I think its fair to say it's his passion for tea and sharing the pleasure of tea that has led to his success. Visiting the store I've always been warmly greeted and offered a sample or two plus the opportunity to smell any of the teas I like.

David's Tea strives to make tea accessible for the newbie with creative and exciting flavors like Vanilla Orchid, Coco Chai Rooibos and Ice Cream Cake, a black tea flavored with white chocolate, vanilla, carob, sprinkles and little bits of freeze-dried ice cream, and yet satisfies the tea connoisseur with a great selection of oolong and puerh teas and more. They also carry a nice selection of exclusively designed unique tea accessories like tea cups and infusers and have lots available online. The tea collections are seasonal so of course, there's a Winter season collection with flavors like Cookie Dough, Banana Dream Pie. Chocolate Chili Chai and Alpine Punch. 

Buyer's Best Friend Mercato is a tiny retail store in North Beach. I've been told the Haight location is much bigger but this is the one that's closest to me. I like being able to find local treats like Clarines Florentines, Oren's Kitchen enticing nut mixes (like wild rosemary almonds or Indian Ajwain cashews) and Dang Foods utterly addictive toasted coconut chips. North Beach is looking up these days with more and more great restaurants and shops. Don't miss this one if you're in the area.

Bonus online store
I have been lucky enough to try a sampling of some of the items available from New York Mouth. While the name might suggest only items from or for New Yorkers, they actually have good stuff from all over the country. And by good stuff I mean artisanal and hand made edibles. Some of my favorites have been  Kings County Jerky Co. sweet and garlic Korean beef jerky, Spoonables thick and rich caramel sauce with sesame seeds, zingy Rick's Picks handy corn relish, The Uncommon Pickle's pickled cherries and award winning Sour Puss Pickles pickled ramps. While this is only an online store, shopping, picking goodies or gift collections is as much fun as receiving the treats creatively wrapped up in corrugated cardboard, orange tape and a reusable canvas bag. 

The Candy Store
1507 Vallejo St @ Polk
San Francisco

Cheese Plus
2001 Polk St @ Pacific
San Francisco

David's Tea
2123 Polk St @ Broadway
San Francisco

Buyer's Best Friend Mercato
450 Columbus Ave @ Vallejo
San Francisco

New York Mouth (online only)

Disclaimer: I have received some review samples from David's Tea and New York Mouth. 

Home-made cheese

I have been preparing home-made soft cheeses for the past couple years, working my way through the recipes in Ricki Carroll's book on Home Cheese Making.  Here is a photograph of neufchatel curds draining in my kitchen last week.

In a future post, I will tell about building a makeshift cheese press with my son this month at the holiday Craft Day, an inspiring Boston area tradition organized each year by Carolyn Mugar (who is executive director of Farm Aid).  For more than a year, I had promised myself not to take up more arduous hard cheese making as a new hobby until I submitted a manuscript for my food policy book, but that goal was completed this fall.  So this weekend, armed with the new press, I claimed my reward and began my first attempt at cheddar.

For entertainment during the waiting periods for that project last night, I sat, with a beer in hand, reading the relevant sections of Harold McGee's classic, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.  You will think I was tipsy if I tell you it felt like grasping a thin and nearly invisible thread connecting my kitchen to 5,000 years of kitchens inhabited by inventive cheese makers (and brewers) responsible for a truly remarkable group of technologies using living microorganisms to convert perishable foods into shelf-stable treasures.  McGee writes:

Cheese is one of the great achievements of humankind.  Not any cheese in particular, but cheese in its astonishing multiplicity....

Minor Update 12/13/2012: According to an NPR story by Adam Cole and Helen Thompson today, based on an article from Nature, the thread is even longer, connecting 7,000 years of kitchens!

FDA is missing deadlines for implementation of complex food safety rules

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been missing the implementation deadlines that Congress set in 2009 as part of the landmark FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). 

Food safety advocates have sued the agency because of the delays.  In a legal motion to dismiss (.pdf) filed today, FDA argues that the courts should not hold the agency liable for this failure to implement the law:

The sole remedy available for an unreasonable agency delay claim is for the court to compel agency action, such as by issuing an order requiring the agency to act, without directing the substantive content of the decision....  Although FDA has been unable to meet the aggressive statutory timelines for the seven new rules, there is no indication that Congress believed that strict adherence to those timetables is more important than careful consideration and development of these complex regulations to create an effective and modernized food safety system, provide clear guidance to the industry, and minimize later challenges or revisions to hastily adopted regulations. Accordingly, judicial intervention is not warranted at this time.

There is a certain sad logic to this argument! The courts should mind their own business, because the only possible punishment is to order the very same achievements that FDA already is failing to achieve.

I considered disputing FDA's claim about there being "no indication" of Congressional intentions for adherence to timetables.  After all, Congress did write these timetables into law.  On the other hand, Congress has not given FDA sufficient funding to meet all of its food safety objectives in the past year, and of course the next year looks even more bleak.  Although food safety advocates are unimpressed with the agency's excuses, FDA really does seem justified in implying that Congress has sent mixed signals about prioritizing food safety implementation.

I think we'll just have to be patient ... and go easy on the peanut butter.

Kitchen Gift Guide 2012

I've already written about many of my favorite kitchen goodies from silicone spatulas to Microplane graters and the Vita-Mix blender. Here are some more things I appreciate most in the kitchen. They have each withstood the test of time, especially the cookware. Buy them for yourself or someone you love. 

I have every brand of cookware possible--Calphalon, All-Clad, Le Creuset--you name it. But the pots I use the most are from the Anolon Chef Clad line. They are handsome brushed aluminum with stainless steel and can be used on all cooktops and even under the broiler. In my experience they really hold up better than the other top brands and are cheaper. What more could you ask for? Right now the best deals (good discount and free shipping) are on the Anolon site. There is also a lifetime warranty. 

As much as I'd like to, I can't quite give up on non-stick pans. With every non-stick pan I've always found there are some compromises but the Zwilling Spirit line of non-stick pans give me everything I want. They are easy to clean, with a great non-stick Thermalon ceramic surface that has not chipped after almost 6 months of use. The pans are PTFE and PFOA free, heat resistant to 500 degrees! and really substantial with good weight and even heating, so no hot spots or buckling. The pans are pricier than some non-stick, but totally worth it. A must for crepes and eggs. 

I wouldn't have thought that I would get that much use out of this set of Trudeau colanders but I probably use them daily. They are just perfect for washing vegetables and fruit and draining pasta, I especially like the small one for berries. 

I have lots of ramekins and prep dishes, but I use these Trudeau silicone pinch bowls the most. They are very stable, grooved so they don't slip in your hands, yet bend for easy pouring. They wash up easily and I must say they are much prettier in real life than they are in this photo.

You are probably thinking I have lost my mind, but my Brother label maker now is permanently in the kitchen. I label almost everything that goes into the refrigerator and freezer. The labels peel off only when I want them to and there are no longer mystery containers lurking. My model is no longer available but any Brother model should be fine. 

More kitchen gifts and goodies 

Disclaimer: I received the Trudeau and Zwilling products as review samples. This post contains some affiliate links.

New Entry Sustainable Farming Project

Tufts University's New Entry Sustainable Farming Project was covered this week in the Boston Globe, which described the project's matchmaking service connecting new farmers to both mentors and tillable land.

New Entry uses GIS mapping data to screen for potential farm plots.

The map sets contain a long list of criteria to distinguish individual parcels. For example, New Entry can filter the parcels based on size, ownership, zoned usage, and the quality of the soil.

The system is so sophisticated it can pick out suburban homesteads with large patches of unused land, so New Entry was no longer limited to looking at obvious candidates, such as existing farms.

The screenings are used to narrow the farmland hunt to the best candidates to approach about allowing use their land.

Once New Entry identifies sites, it approaches agricultural officials in the towns involved to work with landowners interested in turning over property to farmers.

See the project's website for an inspiring array of resources and training programs for both farmers (including a special focus on small-scale immigrant farmers in Massachusetts) and consumers.

Holiday Gift Fairs 2012

If you are interested in San Francisco Bay Area made treats and treasures, these three gift fairs should be on your radar for this weekend, December 7 - 9, 2012. 

La Cocina Gift Bazaar
This year the La Cocina Gift Bazaar is taking place downtown! It will be at the Crocker Galleria at 50 Post St from Friday, December 7th from 1 pm - 7 pm. There will be live music and plenty of delicious things to eat and give as gifts. Some of my favorites include Kika's Treats, Global Grub, Maite Catering, Love & Hummus and Azalina's. This is a great event, put on by San Francisco's first non-profit incubator kitchen.  I've gone every year. Don't miss it! 

Speakeasy Holiday Indie Mart
Hosted by Indie Mart this Saturday, December 8th, from 12 pm - 6 pm is the Speakeasy Holiday Indie Mart at Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, 1195 Evans Ave, Bayview. Tour the brewery, purchase packaged foods and sweets or find something to eat at one of the food trucks. A shuttle will be available for $3 to get you there, look for details coming soon. Sorry I don't have a listing of vendors, but I'm sure this will be a worthwhile event.


SFMade Holiday Gift Fair
I'm a big fan of the Fort Mason farmer's market and this weekend there is even more reason to go, the SFMade Holiday Gift Fair will be taking place from 10 am - 6 pm at the Herbst Pavilion. Keep an eye out for local favorites including Bi-Rite, Heath Ceramics, The Chai Cart, Poco Dolce, also NeoCocoa and Clairesquares (both of whom will also be at the La Cocina event on Friday). 

A proposal for a global ban on trans fats

While labeling strategies provide a sound public policy response to some food ingredient dilemmas, in other cases it is simpler and more effective to make do without the ingredient altogether.  Some argue that trans fats fall into the category of ingredients that should just be eliminated (with the exception of the small amount of trans fat that occurs naturally in animal food products).  These fats replaced healthier traditional oils and fats just a few decades ago, and some countries have recently been rapidly shifting back away from their use without any major food system damage.

In a commentary this week for the World Public Health Nutrition Association, Vivica Kraak, Uriyoán Colón-Ramos, and Rafael Monge-Rojas recommend a near-complete global ban on trans fats.

This commentary presents a case for public health professionals, practitioners, academics, industry and government representatives, funders, public-interest non-governmental organisations and consumer advocates, to collaborate to support a global trans-fat ban. Coordinated actions to remove this harmful substance from our food and eating environments will be able to contribute to reducing chronic non-communicable disease mortality by 2025.

New book: US Programs Affecting Food and Agricultural Marketing

The new book edited by Walter Armbruster and Ronald Knutson is titled: US Programs Affecting Food and Agricultural Marketing (published by Springer).  I have ordered it from my university library and look forward to reading it.  It includes many chapter authors whose work is covered here from time to time.  A theme appears to be that food policies may need to change over time, just as the private sector markets have been undergoing dramatic transformations over the years.

Holiday Cookbook Gift Guide 2012

 Here are my picks for great gift worthy cookbooks! From coffee table books, to DIY books and more... 

Big and beautiful coffee table books

Some cookbooks are really coffee table books. They are large, filled with glossy photos and tell intriguing stories--they are the anti-ebook. The recipes and the restaurant recommendations are kind of secondary. These two books will satisfy the armchair traveler who loves to eat.

Lonely Planet's Food Lover's Guide to the World: Experience the Great Global Cuisines is over 300 pages of stories, photographs, recipes, and recommendations for where to find some of the most iconic dishes in the world--everything from Korean Bibimbap to Argentinian Empanadas and French Tart Tatin. Along the way you'll find food festivals and drinks, rules of etiquette, cooking schools, ingredients and markets. This is a book probably written using clips from guide books and then some. It definitely is the right book for someone who travels a lot or plans to. There is plenty of advice and direction for where to go, what to eat and even how to eat it. The recipes are definitely secondary. Some of them are not terribly well written but they do add flavor to the book.

Saveur The Way We Cook: Portraits from Around the World is a glossy book of full page photographs, there are some stories too, but mostly it's photos. At the back of the book are 50 recipes including Bistro French Fries, Layered Herring Salad and Dry Cured Olives with Rosemary and Orange. It's a book to get lost in, not so much for planning trips like the Lonely Planet book. It's as if Gourmet and National Geographic somehow came together in one. It's a book that truly appreciates the food ways of foreign places--be they in Tennessee or Tehran.This book is for anyone who enjoys photography as much as travel and exploration. 

Make it

For DIY types, a how to book and a jar of something delicious is probably the best gift of all. I've picked three that I think really stand out.

Mother in Law's Kimchi is the best kimchi I have ever eaten. Really. So I couldn't be happier to see The Kimchi Cookbook, filled with recipes for making spicy succulent kimchi and using it, from Lauryn Chun. The photos make kimchi sexy! I've bookmarked Quick Cucumber and Chive Kimchi and French Breakfast Radish Kimchi. There are recipes for kimchi and recipes using kimchi, like Kimchi Cornmeal Pancakes.

The ingredient section will help get you up to speed on what's necessary to create authentic Korean flavors. But the uses of kimchi are not all traditional. Pair this book with a jar of kimchi (perhaps even homemade!) and give it to your favorite chile head. 

Jams are hot stuff. I am going to share some of my favorites in another post for now let me say, making jam rivals eating it. It's an outlet for creativity and allows us to preserve the best of every season. I've reviewed jam cookbooks in the past, but I particularly like Jam On (from Laena McCarthy of Anarchy in a Jar)because it enables you to customize and come up with your own flavors, there's also pickled fruit, fruit butter and shrub recipes and some nice suggestions for ways to use jams and marmalades you might not have considered like in a roast chicken recipe, in cocktails and even risotto. I tried Anarchy in a Jar jams and was mightily impressed. My favorite was the Grapefruit and Smoked Salt Marmalade, but any jar plus this book would make a truly fine gift for the DIY maven in your midst. 

For the hardcore DIY types, kimchi and jam may be child's play. But I bet making salami isn't. Michael Ruhlman's Salumi will walk you through the steps and techniques to making Italian style salami and many variations. Cotechino, pancetta, lonza, coppa, even culatello which is not imported from Italy to the US, t's all here.

There are also recipes for using your homemade product like Coppa, Orange & Onion Salad and Spuma di Mortadella.

For someone who has already taken on charcuterie, this is what comes next.

And now for something completely different

Perhaps it's because I went to Israel this year, but Jerusalem is the cookbook I keep gravitating towards. The sensibility is just different. And yet very appealing.

Written by a Jew and an Arab both from Jerusalem, it's hard to put your finger on because the dishes featured have Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Sephardic roots. But it has a freshness and vibrancy that speaks to the place that inspired it. So some of these recipes may be familiar, but many are combinations that will excite you! Roast Chicken with Clementines & Arak, Butternut Squash & Tahini Spread, Lamb Stuffed Quince with Pomegranate & Cilantro and Swiss Chard Fritters are just a few of the intriguing recipes in the book.

Wild and wonderful 

This is a trend I predicted for 2012. And it continues to take off with two fantastic books that help you find you to find, cook and enjoy foraged wild ingredients. 

The first recommendation is for Foraged Flavor. This book really makes it easy to explore and identify edibles in your backyard and beyond. The photos are great. The recipes are eclectic with Italian, French and Asian playing starring roles. They are mostly very easy and very appealing.

Recipes include Daylillies stuffed with Lobster, Avocado and Sushi Rice, Purslane Eggplant Caponata and Dandelion Flower Jelly.

A Feast of Weeds is a bit more academic, not surprising since it was written by an Italian professor. The book explores the literary side of the plants that you can find and cook. The recipes are solidly Italian and anything but run-of-the-mill! Consider Pomegranate Risotto, Polenta with Nettles and Spaghetti with Wild Arugula. Talk about cucina povera. This is the real deal.

While written by a professor the book is very approachable and easy to use and appreciate.

The book features lovely drawings but no photos. The essays that go with each ingredient are less field guide and more Humanities or Classics major. You can read an excerpt.


So pretty! 

For someone who loves to entertain, nothing could be a more welcome gift than this gorgeous gold trimmed little volume--Ladurée: Entertaining: Recipes, Ideas & Inspiration which comes packed in tissue in it's own box.

While not terribly practical for weeknight dinners, it will be a great source of inspiration with stylish tips and modern recipes like  Lobster Rose Petal Carpaccio and Sea  Bass Tartar with  Grapefruit and finally classics like Orange-Passion Fruit Macarons, Tableware, glassware, and yes, etiquette are all addressed. For the girliest girl (or boy) on your list or that relative that has everything. 

For other books I've recommended this year:
Mexican Cookbook Roundup

The Epicurious Cookbook & MyRecipes America's Favorite Recipes

Food Blogging Resources

Cookbooks for Right Now

DIY Canning & Preserving

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links

New USDA organic agriculture survey

USDA in October released results from its 2011 survey of certified organic production.  Previously, the most recent such statistics came from a 2008 survey. 

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition explains how the survey results could be used to make crop insurance more accessible to organic producers.  Carolyn Dimitri, who used to do economic research on organic agriculture for USDA, and who now teaches and blogs at New York University, summarizes the differences in methods and results from 2008 to 2011.

The one sweeping generalization that I quickly reached is that the number of certified farms with sales declined between 2008 and 2011 for most, but not all of the commodity categories. At the same time, the value of sales increased for most categories, even for those with a decline in the number of farms. Several possible explanations come to mind: (1) farms exited the organic industry after 2008 because of the recession; (2) farms grew larger in terms of acres, which I can check (but haven’t yet); (3) the value of farm sales increased because prices farmers were paid increased, or because they were more productive, or a combination.

Pork alliance removes National Pork Board from Alliance Partners list

U.S. Food Policy reported on Wednesday that the National Pork Board (a federal checkoff program) was listed as an Alliance Partner on the website of the Pork Alliance, a lobbying entity sponsored by the National Pork Producers Council (a private-sector trade association).

It is against the law for federal checkoff funds to be used for lobbying.

I see today that the Pork Alliance website no longer lists the National Pork Board.  The alliance must have removed the board from the list in the past 3 days, after a complaint was filed by the Humane Society of the United States.

Here, for the historical record, is my screen capture from last Wednesday (click the image for a higher-resolution view).  The National Pork Board appears right below Merck Animal Health.