Eat at Joe's!

Thank You, FDA, Finally

MedPage Today: "FDA Bans Off-Label Cephalosporin Use in Animals"

Geeky Chemistry Question

I like to think I provide answers and information (and perhaps a little amusement) here, rather than use the blog to extract information from others.  However, the latter process seems to work pretty well on occasion.  So....

If I remove an "ice" plug from a jar containing a weak acetic acid brine, will the concentration of acetic acid in the remaining solution go up or down?  Acetic acid freezes at a higher temperature than water does, but so what?  So does sodium chloride.  :)  Acetic acid and water seem to dissolve in each other really well, too.  Assume other contaminants, especially organic ones.  I assume the NaCl concentration goes up, of course, but I want the CH₃COOH concentration to go up too, or at least stay level.

If you'd like more background: the situation involves a poorly-regulated refrigerator and a very large opened jar of pickles.  ;)  I'd like to remove the ice plug, for some reason, but don't want to reduce the concentration of salt and vinegar in the brine.  I also don't want the jar to break, of course.  The real long-term solution involves removing the the other organic contaminants, i.e., the preserved Cucumis sativus fruits.  Obviously supply exceeds demand at the moment.  Such is life.  Would that my problems were always this bad.  :)  I guess it's possible I could have another problem by over-concentrating the vinegar, but I think that's unlikely to proceed to a problematic level.  Perhaps I'm wrong.  

Any ideas, O Gentle Readers?

"I'll have the Patagonian Toothfish, please"

Wow, this is as good a renaming as "Chinese gooseberry" or "dolphinfish": 

Chilean Sea Bass

Wow, I really would love a quarter's worth of Spam squirted thru a little metal tube

http://gastromatic.net/

[Via Wine Authorities, after they clearly had too much to drink.  Dude.]

If Southern Cooking Is Bad, Why Are So Many People Fat?

I don't know that this map proves anything, but I stumbled across it, and present it for your amusement: 

The South Shall Snack Again

"It tastes like lamprey"

"Lamprey: A taste treat from prehistory?" at Science News.  I wonder if the practice of shipping lamprey to the Iberian peninsula ever caught on over the past 12 years?

At least it doesn't taste like chicken. 

[Via Jack, our former Eastern Europe correspondent, now in our West Coast offices.]

The Triangle of U

"Daddy, where do rapeseed come from?"

"Well son, it's kinda complicated.  Eat your broccoli first.  Your mother lovingly sautéed that in canola oil for you." 

"Dad, that doesn't cut the mustard."

"Too bad.  Be glad I didn't make you eat the Swedes."

"Can't I just have some bread?"

"Oh, don't even get me started!"

Diacetyl -- It's the New Deadly Threat

I can't find an article that treats this well, so I'll just link to the one with the best title:

Microwaved snack buttery time bomb?

One article even used the "C word."  I'm sure we'll soon have Federal legislation making illegal the snorting of dairy, dairy-like, or smells-like-some-dairy products.  Then we'll have a spate of kids grinding up cheap artificially-flavored butterscotch and mainlining it.  Then someone else will set up an institute to study "diacetyl's beneficial health aspects" or some such rubbish. 

Link: diacetyl on Wikipedia.

Edit: Wow -- an epidemiology blog.  The blog is already being Slashdotted about the popcorn/diacetyl issue; one more link won't hurt, right? 

It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature

Well, this should send beef prices up even more: 

Foot and mouth: new possible cases reported

And I didn't realize that the bee problem -- Colony Collapse Disorder -- was going on outside the US: 

Bee decline threatens our dinner and the countryside

I don't know why honey prices haven't gone up by like a factor of 10. 

Molecular Gastronomy, Defined

A few weeks ago, a friend and partner in crime on food expeditions told me she really wasn't sure what the term "molecular gastronomy" meant.  I think our discussion was elicited by my use of the term in a previous post.  I tried to answer the question, but couldn't say much, other than babble about science and new techniques applied to the culinary domain.  I was not satisfied with my answer. 

Now, after weeks of continuous study, drinking, and goat sacrifice, I've located a seminal paper (PDF, actually) on the subject: "Molecular gastronomy: a scientific look to cooking" by Hervé This.  Dr. This and the late Dr. Nicholas Kurti are considered the parents of the term molecular gastronomy.  The paper contains a definition of the term.  (I'm guessing the paper was originally written in another language and translated to English.) 

If you prefer the CliffsNotes-type version, Wikipedia has an article on molecular gastronomy. 

On the other hand, if you're already burned out on the term, perhaps this apparel would interest you.  :)

Why NOT To Habitually Feed Antibiotics to Food Animals

Pretty good article today in the Washington Post about a fight over an antibiotic class, currently restricted to humans, that some want to use in cattle.  My favorite line: "Guidance #152 makes it too difficult for the FDA to say no to some drugs." 

Curious Cooks Rejoice II

It turns out Harold McGee not only has his book and WWW site, but also now has a blog. 

Curious cooks, rejoice!

I just discovered Harold McGee's web site.  If you don't know who Harold McGee is -- oh, just don't bother looking then.  ;)

Attention span needed here

I re-learned something tonight:  The amount of time you can spend away from the stove is inversely proportional to the highest temperature you've left a burner set on.  If you have an attention-grabbing device in the house like a computer, it's probably more like the square of the highest temperature.  It wasn't so bad as last time though: that involved molten aluminum.