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------------------THE FOOD REFERENCE NEWSLETTER-----------------
September 28, 2005 Vol 6 #15 ISSN 1535-5659
Food Reference Website - http://www.foodreference.com
TO VIEW THIS NEWSLETTER ONLINE GO TO:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/newsletter.html
-------------------------IN THIS ISSUE--------------------------
-> Website News
-> 'Food for Thought' by Mark Vogel
-> Quotes and Trivia
-> Website of the Week
-> Food Trivia Quiz
-> Readers questions
-> Ancient & Classic Recipes
-> Did you know?
-> Who's Who in the Culinary Arts
-> Requested Recipes
-> Cooking Tips
-> Culinary Calendar - selected events
-> How To Subscribe to this Newsletter
-> How to Stop receiving this Newsletter
-> General information and Copyright
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--------------------------WEBSITE NEWS--------------------------
Well after 2 months, the newsletter is back! My move from Key West, Florida to Winona, Minnesota has been completed. Preparations, the move and setting up at my new location took much longer than anticipated. For those who have been wondering, I moved because Key West has changed much over the past 18 years - it has lost much of the character that originally attracted me, and the increased hurricane activity was also a factor. Key West is still a great place, just not for me. A long time ago I lived in Minnesota, and I still have several friends in Winona. One of them, Len Alcamo, has joined to help me with the Food Reference website. Len and his wife Janet were invaluable in making my move much easier - My thanks to both of them. Janet is an incredible gardener, and I will try to get her to some type of project for the website also. The Thursday night gathering at their house last week enabled me to renew several old friendships and meet many new friends. Winona is a friendly and beautiful place, and I plan to be here for a long time. I will be starting a new area on the website about Winona and its relation to food. The first entry is already up - check out 12 year old Grant Borkowski's Blue Ribbon Bread recipe
http://www.foodreference.com/html/grants-bread.html
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----------------'FOOD FOR THOUGHT' BY MARK VOGEL----------------
'The Root of the Matter' - Root vegetables are plants prized for their edible roots or stems. They include turnips, beets, radishes, carrots, rutabagas, salsify, parsnips, and celery root to name a few. Tubers, (potatoes or yams), and rhizomes (ginger), are technically.............
http://www.foodreference.com/html/markvogelweeklycolumn.html
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-----------------------------QUOTE------------------------------
"Italian restaurants with more than 120 entrées are always disappointing."
Miss Piggy, 'Miss Piggy's Guide to Life' (1981)
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Food Reference subscribers can get a FREE trial issue to Saveur magazine - the award winning magazine that celebrates the people, places and rituals that establish culinary traditions.
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-----------------------------TRIVIA-----------------------------
Charles Ranhofer (1936-1899) was the first internationally renowned chef of an American restaurant, Delmonico's in New York City. He published a cookbook, The Epicurean in 1893, which contained more than 3,500 recipes.
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----------------THIS WEEK'S WEBSITES OF THE WEEK----------------
Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/
Habitat for Humanity http://www.habitat.org/
Bush/Clinton Katrina Fund http://www.bushclintonkatrinafund.org/
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------------------------FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ------------------------
1) This plant is a member of the Laurel family, which includes the bay laurel and cinnamon tree. The likely origin is the area north of Mexico City, and there is evidence that the fruits were being gathered by humans by about 8,000 B.C., and were being cultivated about 1,000 years later. This fruit is a high energy food, low in sugar, chock full of vitamins, and a good source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. It is also particularly good as a first solid food for babies.
a) Pear
b) Avocado
c) Pea
d) Potato
e) Watermelon
2) Botanically, this is a strange plant - taxonomists are unable even to agree into which family it belongs. The flowers are a bright, waxy scarlet, and the fruits are topped off with a persistent calyx that resembles a tall, medieval crown which became a symbol of kingship in the Middle Ages: Henry IV adopted the fruit from the Moorish kings as his heraldic emblem, with the motto "Sour, yet sweet," and it was Catherine of Aragon's device when she married Henry VIII. They were among the first fruits to be brought into cultivation after grain-farming was invented in the Fertile Crescent between the Nile and the Indus about 10,000 years ago. Is this:
a) Fig
b) Date
c) Pomegranate
d) Apricot
e) Mulberry
3) This premier fruit crop of the temperate regions of the modern world can ripen at higher latitudes than almost any other, except the cloudberry. It is a self-incompatible species, which means that you need two trees growing near each other to achieve pollination. The fruits need 900 cold hours to produce flowers in the spring and on the whole, they dislike the subtropics and tropics. The 11th labor of Hercules involved a specific type of this fruit. Name this fruit.
4) a) Do you know who is generally considered to have invented Lemon Custard and when?
b) Who invented lemon meringue pie?
5) a) Does corn always have an odd or an even number of rows on each ear?
b) Why?
c) How many pieces of silk are there on each ear?
6) Born during the Great Depression, this snack treat was developed by bakers who tried scores of recipes before they were satisfied with the results. They were first manufactured in the company's north Philadelphia bakery, and introduced to the public in Philadelphia and Baltimore on November 21, 1934, at 19 cents per box. Success was immediate. In the first year of production, the company baked 5 billion of this snack treat, about 40 for every man, woman and child in America in 1935. They remain a best seller in its class today. Can you name this snack treat?
7) These plants, native to Central and South America are grown worldwide, both as garden flowers and for culinary uses. The brilliant yellow, orange or red flowers and peppery flavored leaves are used in salads. The flowers may also be chopped and used to flavor butters, cream cheese and vinegar; the immature flower buds and seed pods may be pickled and used like capers. There is also a species found in the Andes which is a vegetable tuber crop. Can you name this plant?
8) Nectarines are:
a) A fuzzless variety of peach.
b) A variety of plum.
c) A cross between a peach and a plum.
9) What percentage of bread was baked in the home in 1910 in the U.S.?
a) 100% b) 85% c) 70% d) 55% e) 40%
10) This product is introduced in 1911 and is advertised as "a Scientific Discovery Which Will Affect Every Kitchen In America" but women are often reluctant to accept free 1 1/2 pound cans of the product. The company issues a pamphlet in Yiddish when it finds that many of its biggest initial users are Orthodox Jews. The product gains more widespread commercial success during the First World War due to shortages of another product. Can you name this product and why it was initially popular with Orthodox Jews?
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---------------CULINARY SCHOOLS, TOURS AND CRUISES--------------
Culinary Schools & Cooking Classes - Food and Wine Tours for the amateur & the professional. U.S. and abroad.
The best of the best.
http://www.foodreference.com/html/Cooking-Schools.html
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-------------------ANSWERS TO FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ------------------
1) b) Avocado.
2) c) Pomegranate.
3) Apples. The 11th labor of Hercules was bringing home the Golden Apple of the Hesperides out of the mythical West.
4) 2) The Quakers receive credit for inventing lemon custard in the late 1700s. Philadelphian Elizabeth Coane Goodfellow, a pastry chef, businesswoman, and cooking school founder, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1806, took lemon custard to another level when she invented lemon meringue pie.
(The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark : Recipes for an Expedition, by Mary Gunderson)
http://www.foodreference.com/html/thefoodjournaloflewis.html
5) a) Corn always has an even number of rows on each ear.
b) A corn ear is actually an inflorescence that produces nearly 1,000 female flowers. These flowers, or potential kernels, are arranged in an even number of rows (usually from 8 to about 22 rows). Row number is always an even number because corn spikelets are borne in pairs, and each spikelet produces two florets: one fertile and one sterile. Stress at a particular stage in development could theoretically produce an ear with an odd number of rows - but I believe if you looked under a microscope, you would find an unseen row that failed to develop fully. Most things in nature have an even number of rows or lines. Watermelon has an even number of stripes, cantaloupe, etc. Think of it this way. One cell divides into 2 - as cell division continues, there is always an even number.
c) There is one piece of silk for each kernel.
6) Ritz Crackers, created by the National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco.
7) Common garden Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) also called Indian Cress, Mexican Cress, Peru Cress and Jesuit's Cress (not to be confused with the genus Nasturtium, which is Watercress).
8) A nectarine is a fuzzless variety of peach. It is NOT a cross between a peach and a plum.
Peach seeds may occasionally grow into trees that bear nectarines, and nectarine seeds may grow into trees that bear either nectarines or peaches. It is not possible to know which fruit will grow on trees grown from nectarine seeds, so branches from trees that produce nectarines are grafted onto peach trees to grow nectarines commercially.
9) c) 70% of the bread in the U.S. was baked at home in 1910.
10) Crisco, introduced by Proctor & Gamble. It was the first solid hydrogenated vegetable shortening, and since it contained neither lard nor butter (meat & dairy) it could used at any meal without violating kosher dietary laws. It later became more widely accepted due to wartime shortages of lard.
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------------------------READERS QUESTIONS-----------------------
QUESTION: We are watching caterpillars turn into Monarch Butterflies. I am trying to gather some information about the milkweed plant. I know it is poisonous to humans. What part of it is poisonous. If I handle it and then make sure I was my hands well soap and water immediately afterwards - is that effective? Or should I wear plastic gloves when handling / breaking leaves off the plants? Thanks for your time and for any information you can provide.
Cindy
ANSWER: There are some 200 species of milkweed, with about 120 in the U.S. To know the poisonous qualities, you need to know what species you are dealing with.
Many species of milkweed are among the most dangerous of poisonous plants; others, such as the common broad-leaved milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, of eastern North America, have little if any toxicity. Butterfly weed, A. tuberosa, and swamp milkweed, A. incarnata, are suspected of being toxic, especially the latter; these are among the more showy milkweeds and are sometimes cultivated. Some of the poisonous species of North America are the narrow-leaved labriform milkweed, A. labriformis, which is limited to Utah; the narrow-leaved whorled milkweed, A. subverticillata, of dry plains in the Southwest; and the broad-leaved woolly-pod milkweed, A. eriocarpa, of dry soils in California. The foliage of these poisonous milkweeds contains a complex resinous compound that produces acute muscle-spasm seizures, symptoms of profound depression, and weakness in animals that consume them.
Chef James
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-----------------------------TRIVIA-----------------------------
Cheese takes up about 1/10 the volume of the milk it was made from.
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--------------------------FRESH FLOWERS-------------------------
Fresh Flowers Directly from the Growers
BE TRULY ROMANTIC - GIVE FLOWERS FOR NO REASON AT ALL!
http://www.foodreference.com/html/freshflowers.html
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--------------------ANCIENT & CLASSIC RECIPES-------------------
MULAGA-TAWNY SOUP
Dr. William Kitchiner, The Cook's Oracle, (London: John Hatchard, Picadilly, 2nd edition, 1818),
"Take two quarts of water, and boil a nice fowl or chicken, then put in the following ingredients, a large white onion, a large chilly*, two teaspoonsful of ginger pounded, the same of currystuff, one teaspoonful of turmeric, and half a teaspoonful of black pepper: boil all these for half an hour, and then fry some small onions, and put them in. Season it with salt, and serve it up in a tureen. Obs. - It will be a great improvement, when the fowl is about half boiled, to take it up and cut it into pieces, and fry them and put them into the soup the last thing."
"* The pod of which Cayenne pepper is made."
SEE ALSO MODERN RECIPE FOR CHICKEN MULLIGATAWNY SOUP
http://www.foodreference.com/html/mulligatr.html
Mulligatawny soup was originally an Indian curry soup adapted by the British during colonial days.
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------------------------------QUOTE-----------------------------
"Life is a combination of magic and pasta."
Federico Fellini
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Order the world’s best and most unique Catalogs!
Plus save money with exclusive Savings Certificates from every catalog. Voted the #1 source for catalog shopping!
http://www.foodreference.com/html/freecatalogs.html
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--------------------------DID YOU KNOW?-------------------------
Chicago got it's name from the American Indian word for the wild garlic that grew around Lake Michigan - "chicagaoua".
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-----------------WHO'S WHO IN THE CULINARY ARTS-----------------
Fannie Merritt Farmer (March 23, 1857 - January 15, 1915)American culinary authority, and author of the 1896 edition of 'The Boston Cooking School Cook Book' which became known in future editions as the 'Fannie Farmer Cook Book.' Director of the Boston Cooking School, and founder of Miss Farmer's School of Cookery. She is often cited as the first cookbook author to introduce standard measurements.
Fanny Farmer had to pay the printing costs of her cookbook, The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, because Little, Brown and Company were not very enthusiastic about publishing another cookbook. By 1977, over 4 million copies had been sold, outselling any other book ever published by Little, Brown and Company.
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---------------CULINARY SCHOOLS, TOURS AND CRUISES--------------
Culinary Schools & Cooking Classes - Food and Wine Tours for the amateur & the professional. U.S. and abroad.
The best of the best.
http://www.foodreference.com/html/Cooking-Schools.html
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-----------------------------QUOTE------------------------------
"Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannt lick his own fingers. Therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me."William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 'Romeo and Juliet'
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------------------RECIPE REQUESTS FROM READERS------------------
PUMPKIN BISQUE RECIPE
Also see Article on Pumpkins
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artpumpkin.html
4 cups pumpkin pulp, chopped
1 cup leek, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, chopped
2 ounces butter
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cup white wine
1 quart water
1 pint half and half
1/2 cup maple syrup
Salt and pepper to taste
Nutmeg to taste
Angostura bitters to taste
Peel the pumpkin, cut out the pulp and chop. Briefly sauté the pulp, leek, and carrot in butter in a heavy pot. Add the garlic and bay leaf and sauté briefly. Deglaze with wine and reduce slightly. Add water and simmer until the pumpkin is soft, (about 30 minutes). Puree soup with a hand blender or in a regular blender in batches. Strain through a medium sieve. Add cream, maple syrup and seasoning. Note: the water should cover the ingredients by an inch. Adjust the amount accordingly. Also, add the nutmeg last, just before service.
(Jon Gatewood, the executive chef of Emma’s restaurant in the Silas Griffith Inn in Danby, Vermont.)
Email your recipe requests, food info or history
questions to me at james@foodreference.com
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--------------------FOOD ART AND FOOD POSTERS-------------------
The finest selection of food and beverage related posters and art work to be found anywhere. There are thousands of posters - food art, restaurant art, kitchen art, culinary art - food posters, culinary posters, food identification posters, fine art, etc, all suitable for your home, kitchen, restaurant or office.
http://www.culinaryposters.com/
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--------------------------COOKING TIPS--------------------------
If you have bitter cucumbers, cut off the stem ends and peel them. Most of the bitterness is in the stem end and the peel and just below it.
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------------CULINARY CALENDAR - A FEW SELECTED EVENTS-----------
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
1974 The TV show 'Alice' debuted. Most of the action took place in Mel’s Diner.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
1958 The Frisbee was patented. The pie tins of the Frisbee Pie Company of Connecticut were the inspiration for the creation of the Frisbee. A Wham-O employee supposedly saw drivers for the pie company showing Yale students how to throw the pie tins.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1
1913 A monument to honor sea gulls was erected in Salt Lake City. The gulls had eaten the plague of grasshoppers that threatened the Mormon settlers crops in 1848.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2
1866 J. Osterhoudt patented the first tin can with a key opener.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 3
1941 The first aerosol can was patented.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4
1979 American actress Rachael Leigh Cook was born. She began working as a model at age 10, and her picture is still used on boxes of Milk-Bone Dog Biscuits.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5
1983 Earl Silas Tupper died. The inventor of Tupperware. (Tupperware makes the containers used to conduct mold and bacterial experiments in the back of refrigerator shelves).
For a complete listing of each day's events, go here:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/HistoricEvents.html
-----------------------------SPONSOR----------------------------
---------------FREE TRIAL ISSUE OF SAVEUR MAGAZINE--------------
Food Reference subscribers can get a FREE trial issue to Saveur magazine - the award winning magazine that celebrates the people, places and rituals that establish culinary traditions.
https://secure.palmcoastd.com/pcd/document?ikey=089CFHPP1
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-----------------------------TRIVIA-----------------------------
Chocolate syrup was used for the blood in the famous shower scene in the Alfred Hitchcock movie 'Psycho'. The scene lasts for about 45 seconds in the movie, but took 7 days to film.
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-----------------------------QUOTE------------------------------
"Most people hate the taste of beer - to begin with. It is, however, a prejudice that many people have been able to overcome."
Winston Churchill
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Food Reference Newsletter ISSN 1535-5659
James T Ehler (Publisher & Editor)
3920 S Roosevelt Blvd
Suite 209 South
Key West, Florida 33040
E-mail: james@foodreference.com Phone: (305) 296-2614
Food Reference WebSite: http://www.foodreference.com
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© Copyright 1990-2005 James T Ehler. All rights reserved. You may copy and use portions of this newsletter for noncommercial, personal use only. You may forward a copy to someone else as long as the Copyright notice is included. Any other use of the materials in this newsletter without prior written permission is prohibited.
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