<a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/1003/kgk100303.html" title="Kate's Global Kitchen">May I See the Beer List, Please?</a>: “Before Prohibition,” [Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery,] explains, “we had a vibrant brewing culture and thousands of breweries. Brooklyn alone had 48 breweries. But Prohibition destroyed the brewing industry, and after 12 years with no beer, the surviving breweries figured that people would be willing to drink almost anything. So they made the cheapest, blandest possible product, sold with huge amounts of advertising. Traditional beers are made from four essential ingredients: malted barley, yeast, hops and water. Some types of beers use both barley and wheat. In contrast, mass-market beers are usually made with fillers like corn or rice. It makes a big difference — it’s one of the reasons that these mass-market beers are so flavorless.” Fortunately, nearly 2,000 breweries in the U.S. today have brought real beer back to the public, and Oliver is out to educate people on how they’re made, what to look for, and what to serve with them.
Stock or Broth?
By the way, if you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a “stock” and a “broth,” relax: they’re essentially the same thing. Or at least the differences between the two definitions are minor. I have plowed through a library of cooks’ references, including Larousse Gastronomic, The New Food Lover’s Companion, Barbara Kafka’s Soup: A Way of Life, and The New Professional Chef by the Culinary Institute of America. In virtually every case, both “stock” and “broth” are defined as a liquid made from bones and meat, sometimes with vegetables, herbs and seasonings. Most definitions go further to yield circuitous references to “soup” and “bouillon,” which, in the interests of limited clarity, I’ll conveniently skip in this column.
The latest edition (1997) of the esteemed Joy of Cooking adds its own unique imprint to the murky world of stocks and broths: “Unlike stocks, which are made primarily from bones, broths are made from meat (except for vegetable broth), and they cook for shorter periods of time. The resulting liquid has a fresher, more definable flavor but less body than a stock.” Immediately following this passage is a recipe for chicken broth, which calls for simmering in water a whole chicken, presumably with bones and carcass intact.
The late Steve Holzinger, who trained many a professional chef, offered the following advice in a column printed here several years back: “A stock is a water extract of food. A broth is a stock made with meat or poultry as distinguished from one made from the bones of meat and poultry. A consommé is a finished broth, one that has great flavor due to the use of considerable amounts of meat or poultry. If properly cooked and skimmed, it will be as clear as a consommé clarified with egg whites.” Clear as mud, once again.
Actually, what all of these references seem to intend but leave a bit cloudy is that the main distinction of a stock is indeed the richness derived from the gelatin (essentially concentrated protein) released by the bones and cartilage, and to a lesser extent by tendons, skin, and other tissue. Gelatin-rich bones may or may not be dropped into a broth-pot, but even if they are included as an ingredient, it’s always to much less degree than in a stock. Shorter cooking time for a broth also yields less gelatin than a long-simmered stock; hence the resulting broth has almost no gelatin and is thinner.
When a true stock is chilled, it congeals because of the gelatin. A refrigerated broth remains liquid and flowable. But that’s not to say a broth is totally gelatin-free, as even in a short cooking period the simmered meat protein itself will still leach some gelatin; a broth just contains less gelatin than does a stock. Clear, eh? [Heyhoe]
Heyhoe, Kate. “<a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/0103/kgk011003.html" title="Kate's Global Kitchen">The Essential Chicken Stock</a>” <em><a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/" title="Kate's Global Kitchen">Kate's Global Kitchen</a></em>. 10 January 2003. <a href="http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/0103/kgk011003.html" title="Kate's Global Kitchen"><http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/kgk/2003/0103/kgk011003.html></a> (23 December 2003).
Food Log
Breakfast was a bowl of cereal. I weighed in at 158 pounds. Lunch was a bean and cheese quesadilla with bread and butter pickles and a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale.
<ins datetime="2003-12-24T09:04:00-05:00">Dinner was the last of the gratin and a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale with more cookies for dessert.</ins>
Making Cheese Is Her Calling
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/nyregion/21CONN.html?ei=5007&en=b7090c05be6532e4&ex=1387515600&partner=USERLAND&pagewanted=all&position=" title="Connecticut: Making Cheese Is Her Calling; Make That Her Second Calling">Connecticut: Making Cheese Is Her Calling; Make That Her Second Calling</a>: “When Mother Noella Marcellino first focused a microscope more than a decade ago on cheese she had made by hand at the Benedictine abbey in Bethlehem, she had no idea she would become the celebrated champion of France’s famous raw-milk cheeses, the centuries-old ways they are made, and the tiny microorganisms that help flavor them.
“Along the way, this 52-year-old former college dropout also has won a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, earned a University of Connecticut doctorate in microbiology, and achieved near rock-star status among cheesemakers and cheese-lovers, both here and abroad.
“Last week, Mother Noella was honored by the French food industry with its first French Food Spirit Award in the category of science advancement for promoting an understanding of its cheeses and helping to preserve the traditional ways of making them.
“Next year, wearing her black nun’s habit and irresistible smile, Mother Noella will star in a national PBS documentary film, called ‘The Cheese Nun: Sister Noella's Voyage of Discovery.’”
Food Log
I had a glass of orange juice for breakfast. Weighed in at 158 pounds. We went gift shopping today and stopped at the <a href="https://hbf.honeybaked.com/ohio_secure/" title="the Honeybaked Ham Company">Honeybaked Ham Company</a> and had Classic Ham sandwiches. <img src="http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/h/mhl100/images/smile.png" height="18" width="18" alt=":-)" /> Dinner was left-over butternut squash and vegetable gratin and a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale.
Protein Diet Craze, Thin Supply of Cattle Fatten Ranchers’ Wallets
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20056-2003Dec21.html" title="Protein Diet Craze, Thin Supply of Cattle Fatten Ranchers' Wallets (washingtonpost.com)">Protein Diet Craze, Thin Supply of Cattle Fatten Ranchers’ Wallets (washingtonpost.com)</a>: “Dietary fashion, having long punished ranchers for their supposed role in making Americans fat, is handsomely rewarding them for their supposed role in making Americans skinny. Here on the mountain-ringed rangeland of southwest Montana, in the heart of the state’s No. 1 beef-producing county, obesity is not an entirely discouraging word.
“‘That Atkins diet has really helped demand for beef,’ said Bill Garrison, 62, who, along with his two sons, raises cattle on 18,000 acres north of Dillon. He is also the immediate past president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. ‘Prices are higher now than I thought I would ever see.’
“Compared with last fall, Garrison and other ranchers around Dillon received about $100 more for each calf they sold in November for delivery to feedlots in Nebraska and Kansas. That spells a $40,000 spike in income for the average local rancher, who sells about 400 calves in the fall. It also means that Dillon, a beef-dependent town of 3,752, is suddenly swimming in cash…
“The nation’s taste for beef fell off the table in 1977, when a Senate select committee issued dietary recommendations that instructed Americans to eat more chicken and less red meat.
“Almost immediately, to the horror of the $93 billion cattle industry, consumers did as they were told. The year before the recommendation, per capita beef consumption was at an all-time high of nearly 89 pounds a year. Within three years, it slumped to 73 pounds a year. It finally bottomed out in 1993, at 61.2 pounds a year, which represented a 31 percent decline in beef consumption.
“It appears unlikely that Americans will ever again eat as much beef as they did in the 1970s. Although per capita consumption has increased since the mid-1990s, it was just 64.4 pounds last year.”
Food Log
Again, no real breakfast or lunch. I weighed in at 158 pounds. I did sample the cookies throughout the day, and had a Blue Moon Belgian White Belgian-Style Wheat Ale at mid day. Dinner was the butternut squash and vegetable gratin and two glasses of <a href="http://www.bolla.com/view_wine.asp?nWID=8" title="Bolla Wines of Italy - Open Up">Bolla Cabernet Sauvignon</a>.
Holiday cooking help is available on phone hot lines and online
<strong>Associated Press</strong>
<br />
<strong>December 17, 2003</strong>
Toll-free telephone services and Web sites offer a variety of specialist answers to cooking and food-safety questions during holiday preparation times. Here are some of them:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline: (888) 674-6854. Food safety specialists answer calls about meat and poultry preparation and cooking questions, year-round, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST. Recorded information is available 24 hours a day at the same number. Also available in Spanish.
-
Butterball Turkey Talk-Line: (800) 288-8372. Home economists and nutritionists answer holiday cooks’ questions, in both English and Spanish, for callers in the United States and Canada. Callers can request a free pamphlet with safety and cooking tips and recipes.
- Through Dec. 23, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST.
- Dec. 24 to Dec. 25, Christmas Eve-Christmas Day, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Dec. 26, day after Christmas, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Foster Farms Turkey Helpline: (800) 255-7227. Turkey-cooking helpline is available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST, Monday through Friday.
- Perdue consumer help line: (800) 473-7383. Consumer-relations representatives answer cooking, storage and other questions about poultry products weekdays year-round (except Christmas Day) 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. Free booklet offer with tips on safe handling of poultry.
- Shadybrook Farms Turkey Line: (888) 723-4468. An automated service offering information on buying and cooking turkeys.
- Empire Kosher poultry customer hotline: (800) 367-4734, or (717) 436-5921. Help is offered by consumer-affairs representatives year-round Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST; Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST. Program offers recipes, newsletter, tips on defrosting and cooking poultry. Closed on Jewish and secular holidays.
- Ocean Spray consumer help line (800) 662-3263. Year-round, weekdays (not Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and other major holidays) 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST. Consumer department staff field questions on cranberries, offer recipes, cooking tips, nutritional information, menu-planning worksheets, product information.
- Reynolds Turkey Tips Line (800) 745-4000. A year-round 24-hour automated hot line; through Dec. 31 offers advice on turkey defrosting, preparation and cooking options, free brochure and recipes.
On the Net:
- Cook’s Illustrated magazine’s site features detailed guidance and recipes, for preparing turkey and all the trimmings, including apple and pumpkin pies, with bright step-by-step visuals.
- The National Turkey Federation Web site has holiday recipes and cooking tips, among its year-round general information.
- The McCormick Web site includes a holiday entertaining guide.
- Star Chefs offers Christmas and holiday recipes, with tips from professional chefs and cookbook writers.
- southernfood.about.com offers Christmas and holiday recipes and turkey information and hints.
- Land O’Lakes baking assistance, cooking tips and free recipe brochure.
Garden Log
Continuing with the garden catalogs, today we look at onions.
Yellow Onions
- Candy* 85 days to harvest. Sweet, moderately pungent, short storage, day-neutral yellow. A hybrid day length neutral yellow cooking onion that can be spring seeded in all areas of the U.S. It is less pungent than other cooking types and will store well if properly cured.
- Prince* 105 days to harvest. Fusarium wilt resistant. Long storage, high yields. Big onions for long storage. A beautiful, big onion, among the most widely grown varieties in the North. The large, blocky, globe-shaped bulbs are uniform with vigorous tops that finish off to a thin, well-dried neck. Yellow skins have a distinct satiny sheen and adhere well in storage. From the same talented breeder as our enormously popular Copra, Prince is larger and stores nearly, but not quite, as well.
- Copra* 107 days to harvest. Fusarium wilt resistant. Pink root rot resistant. Agway Seedway Uniform round, high yields, pungent. Uniform, “rock-hard” storage onion with early maturity. These medium-sized, dark yellow-skinned storage onions have the preferred blocky round shape with thin necks that dry quickly. Firmness and skin are superior. Unrivaled in our yearly storage trials, remaining firm and sound after other varieties have sprouted. Highest in sugar (13°-14°) of the storage onions.
- Ailsa Craig or Kelsae 110 days to harvest. Moderately sweet. This popular English heirloom onion is renowned for producing exhibition-size 2 lb. globe-shaped onions even in areas with shorter, cooler growing seasons. The huge bulbs have straw yellow skin and sweet, firm white flesh. A long-day sweet Spanish type that stores quite well.
- Walla Walla Sweet 125 days to harvest. Truly sweet; seed or plant as early as possible. Big flattened bulbs with mild, sweet flesh. The only truly sweet and mild onion for long summer days in the northern two-thirds of the country. Brought to Washington state from Corsica around the turn of the century. Yellow skin; white, juicy flesh. Not a winter keeper.
Red Onions
- Mars* 110 days to harvest. Bright red throughout; large bulbs, high yields. Early and big. An outstanding variety that matures early and makes nice, big, round red onions. Good purple-red skin color, and well-colored interior.
White Onions
- Super Star* 100 days to harvest. Pink root rot resistant. White skin and flesh, sweet to moderately pungent; not for storage. This first hybrid onion ever to win an AAS award, Super Star will wow you! The jumbo white globes can reach over a pound apiece, and are simply crammed with thick, mild-sweet rings. Good skin retention means better storage capability, and great resistance to pink root ensures healthier plants! But the real secret of Super Star’s performance is that it’s neither a long- nor a short-day type. Instead, it’s a “mid-day” or day-neutral variety, which means that it can be grown almost anywhere in the contiguous U.S., from the far north to the deep south. And Super Star not only grows, it flourishes! Earlier, larger, and more flavorful than most long- or short-day types, it is out-of-this-world delicious!
Bunching Onions
- Long White Summer Bunching 60 days to harvest. Fusarium wilt resistant. Pink root rot resistant. Mild, for scallions, can be overwintered. An improved White Spear or Nebuka type. White shafts are 5 to 7 inches long, full, upright, dark green, non bulbing. An elite scallion.
- Deep Purple 60 days to harvest. Deep red stems. The only red buncher that is highly colored at any temperature or age. Spring or summer sowing.
- Feast 68 days to harvest. Early blight or alternaria leaf spot resistant. An improved Tokyo Long White type with tolerance to Downy Mildew and Alternaria Leaf Spot. A single stalk type, upright plant habit 16- to 20-inch long white shafts, dark green leaves. Not winter hardy.
December 21
Happy <dfn title="The point in the ecliptic at which the sun is farthest south from the equator, namely, the first point of the sign Capricorn in northern latitudes; — so called because the sun then apparently stands still in its southward motion.">Winter Solstice</dfn>.