Category: Food & Wine

Soylent Finally Appears

A young, software engineer named Rob Rhinehart decided to create a food that would supply all the nutrients we need without the time, money and effort that usually goes into food preparation.

He developed the recipe through online research, textbooks, scientific journals and self-experimentation, and now he’s marketing the product, which he calls “Soylent”.

Yep.

Just like in the 1973 movie starring Charlton Heston about a bleak, cannibalistic future.

Hipsters will be doofuses.

In fairness, Rhinehart’s product does not contain people but rather things like fish oil, rice protein and lots of raw chemical powders.

And in further fairness, it’s not that dumb of an idea. Rhinehart seems to have his priorities correct as per this interview with Forbes.

 

Soylent Finally Appears

Soylent Finally Appears

Yuengling Rules Where It Perches

Yuengling Rules Where It Perches — TheAtlantic.com carried a story, April 15, that featured a chart showing the products produced by Pottsville-based D. G. Yuengling & Son to be the beer of choice in the states where it has significant distribution, namely Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.

The funny thing is that except for the chart the brewery was not even mentioned in the story, The State of American Beer.

It is pretty hard to beat Yuengling as a go-to beer.

 

Yuengling Rules Where It Perches

 

Yuengling Rules Where It Perches

Corned Beef Cuts

With St. Patrick’s Day arriving Monday the topic of which cut of brisket to use for corned beef is one that most certainly must be addressed.

The point cut is fattier and usually cheaper.

The flat cut is leaner.

The flat cut makes better slices. The point cut makes for better shredding, some think.

We are glad to have been of assistance with this most pressing matter.

 

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Trabant Wine TableLeaf Being Retired

Trabant Wine TableLeaf Being Retired — The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announced yesterday, Feb. 21, during an appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee that it would retire the TableLeaf brand, an exclusive label made for our government by a winery in California.

After the existing stocks are sold it is no more.

We never knew that TableLeaf was the in-house government brand albeit we are not surprised. It tasted like something we’d image the citizens of Russia were stuck with drinking circa 1989.

It’s time to retire Pennsylvania’s communistic liquor sale system albeit that’s not likely going to happen until people — from both parties — who are not beholden to getting rich off taxpayers take control of our government.

If you are a Republican consider picking Bob Guzzardi over Tom Corbett during the May 20 primary.

It would send a good message and be a good change.

Trabant Wine TableLeaf Being Retired

Trabant Wine TableLeaf Being Retired

Shad Season Starts And That Means Good Eating

Shad Season Starts  — Despite the miserable climate change — the Ice Age was climate change after all– in southeastern Pennsylvania, an absolutely wondrous season has started.

It is shad time.

The fish, also known as the river herring as it is part of the herring family, is now being sold at fish mongers and supermarkets throughout the region as their harvest has begun down south.  The spawning starts when the temperature hits 51 degrees F.

Pennsylvania has an historic connection to the fish, which is sometimes credited for saving the American Revolution. It is said that they fed the Continental Army at its most desperate time as the spawning on the Schuylkill in the spring of 1778 occurred just about the time the  army had run out of food at Valley Forge.

The illustration above is Shad Fishing at Gloucester on the Delaware River by the great Thomas Eakins painted in 1881.

Yes, it is delicious. Keep an eye on these pages. Maybe Chef Bill Sr. will explain how to cook it.

 

Shad Season Starts

Best Fast Food Nobody Orders

Have you ever had a Popeye’s apple pie? It’s said to be delicious and “old school, deep fried like the one McDonald’s ones used to be 20 years ago.” Best Fast Food Nobody Orders Have you ever had a Popeye's apple pie? It's said to be delicious and "old school, deep fried like the one McDonald's ones used to be 20 years ago."

How about Burger King’s Rodeo Burger called the “best thing ever”.

Business Insider queried fast food workers about the best things on their menus that nobody ordered. Here’s the list.

Hat tip Stephen Kruiser at PJMedia.com

Best Fast Food Nobody Orders

Honey Glazed Fried Chicken, Tonight’s Meal,

 

Honey Glazed Fried Chicken, Tonight's Meal,

As you ponder the previous article about the benefits of eating an ounce-and-a-half of nuts a day, we will describe tonight’s meal — honey glazed fried chicken. The side was french fries. The chef was Bill Jr. The wine was a box white.

The recipe was based on something seen on America’s Test Kitchen.

Brine the chicken — in this case four legs and four thighs —  for 30 minutes in a mix of a half cup of sugar and a half cup of salt in a quart of water. Make the batter which is simply 1.5 cups corn starch and a cup of water with two teaspoons of pepper and one of salt. Whisk it and let it sit in the refrigerator as the chicken brines.

Fill a Dutch oven with 2.5 quarts of vegetable oil and let it sit on the stove until it reaches 350 degrees F. I believe it took about 20 minutes to reach this point with the burner on high.

After the brining, dry the chicken — thoroughly  — with paper towels. Dip four pieces in dry corn starch, then in the batter. Place them in the hot oil. After seven minutes pull them out and place them on a wire rack, which is best placed inside a rimmed baking tray. Put the other four in after likewise dipping them in the  dry corn starch then the batter. After seven minutes pull them out and return the first batch to the oil. Seven minutes should be enough for the meat to reach 175 degrees F. Return the second batch to the oil and cook until done.

When the chicken is frying, make the glaze which is 3/4 cup of honey and two tablespoons of hot sauce cooked in a microwave for a minute and a half. Dip the finished chicken piece by piece in the glaze then pile the fowl on a serving plate and dribble the rest atop.

The french fries were from scratch and fried in the oil along with chicken during round two. Cover each fry in dry corn starch before placing in the oil.

Dessert was ripe Ukrainian persimmons and medlars straight from the tree courtesy of Karen Palinko of Oxford.

MedlarsPersimmons Honey Glazed Fried Chicken, Tonight's Meal,

 

Medlars and persimmons, the perfect dessert for honey glazed friend chicken.

Honey Glazed Fried Chicken, Tonight’s Meal,
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Eating Nuts Means Magical Healthy Life

Eating Nuts Means Magical Healthy LifeThe New England Journal of Medicine, Nov. 19, reported that those participants in a study who daily ate a 1.5 ounce  serving of nuts had a 29 percent reduction in the number of deaths from heart disease and an 11 percent reduction in the risk of dying from cancer.

More surprisingly, the nut eaters were skinnier. Those who ate nuts seven or more times a week had an average body mass index score of 24.9 verses 26.0 for the non-nutters, according to the report.

And yes, this includes peanuts along with the tree nuts such as walnuts and pistachios.

“There’s something unique about nuts,” said Charles Fuchs, director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a senior author of the report. ” We’re trying to understand why, what’s the mechanism by which these things reduce the risk of dying from heart disease and cancer, as well as reducing the risk of diabetes, and we believe that there are substances within nuts that seem to affect energy or caloric pathways that alter metabolism in a positive way that allows you to contribute to weight loss.”

Eating Nuts Means Magical Healthy Life