Flash in the Pan

The Food Timeline is a fascinating exercise in the history of eating. Using historical context, written references during human existence, (presumably) archaeological evidence, and information from all over the Web, site owner Lynne Oliver has assembled a giant list in chronological order of roughly when foods and other culinary items appeared in the human diet - from water, ice, salt, and fish before recorded history to deep fried Coca-Cola. (I won't spoil the surprise - check the site and then go to the link.)

There I was, peaceably reading the New York Times online, when I came across a story about a Chicago sausage restaurant fined $250 for selling foie gras. Apparently the city council, outraged or incensed or maybe perplexed over the forced feeding of geese that leads to the over-sized livers, banned the food in April 2006. Did the council ever check what goes into Vienna sausages? Maybe France should act in equally rational measure and refuse to allow the city to serve Bordeaux and french fries.

Plastic bags for food products may be convenient packaging, but they can be annoying. Once open you now either fold the top of the bag down and use a clip to keep it closed or transfer everything to a container. If you can’t bear washing that new home for the shredded cheese, you might consider using a QuickSeal. It’s a re-closable plastic zipper, like you find on storage backs and some food packaging.

Neese Products, the manufacturer, sent me some samples to test. They come in two sizes – medium for bags up to 8-inches and large for bags up to 11-inches. Each QuickSeal looks like a sealable plastic bag with the bottom cut off and replaced by two flaps. Each flap has adhesive covered with a plastic strip. You place the QuickSeal on a flat surface, remove one of the plastic strips to expose the adhesive, and then carefully place the food bag (or even a box, as you can see in the photo) on top of it so that the bag’s open top is inside the QuickSeal. Then you expose the adhesive on the other flap and press that down on top. The QuickSeal effectively encapsulates the top of the bag to the edges; the parts of the flap that extend beyond the bag end up adhering to each other. Now when you open and close the QuickSeal, you effectively open and close the bag itself. It’s an idea slick in its simplicity. Given that you can only use a QuickSeal, that also means that you’re eventually sending even more plastic to landfills. Also, as the QuickSeals cost $1.29 for three large and three medium or $3.49 for ten each of the two sizes, that means you throw away either 17.5 or 21.5 cents every time you use one. Maybe washing that reusable plastic food container isn’t so large a burden after all.

Researchers at Saint Louis University think that sugar could be a big part of any power solution. Instead of using messy and unpleasant chemicals, they built battery cells that run on pretty much any type of sugar and that will run up to three or four times longer than lithium-ion batteries. Rumor has it that programmers around the world are waiting for the word to pour cola into their laptops.

The New York Tiems reports that fast food chain Burger King plans to start getting eggs and pork from providers that let the chickens and pigs move around. The change comes because of pressure from animal rights groups, but it will take a long time:

"The goal for the next few months, Burger King said is for 2 percent of its eggs to be “cage free,” and for 10 percent of its pork to come from farms that allow sows to move around inside pens, rather than being confined to crates."

The problem is that there aren't enough producers working this way, at competitive prices, to let the Prince of Patties switch any faster.

According to USA Today, such cities as Orlando, Dallas, and Las Vegas are making it illegal or expensive and difficult for charitable groups to feed the homeless. Some are offering all sorts of rationales, like wanting to control where the homeless congregate "so homeless people can also get services such as addiction counseling and job training." And I"m sure that they are interested in cotrolling where they gather - right outside the cities in question.

Using avocado oil - extra virgin, cold-pressed, no less - might seem to be another gimmick for a fussy foodie, but the oil from Olivado Gourmet Foods has a lot to recommend it. The company sent some samples, which I've been trying in my cooking. The straight avocado oil has good viscosity, even when hot, so it holds to food rather than puddling off. I found I could do a decent job in sauté while using maybe a half to a third of the amount of olive oil I might ordinarily use. It also has a high smoke point - at 500ºF far higher than olive oil's roughly 375ºF. Get that pan sizzling and you don't need to immediately grab for the vent fan switch. Finally, the flavor is interesting - definitely avocado overtones but, to my taste, also a little reminiscent of good olive oil. But it's a a definite positive addition to a dish. The one downside is a suggested retail price of $12.99 for a 250 ml bottle. But take into account how much less you use, and the price tag seems (a bit) more reasonable.

I tried chili and bell-pepper infused oil for cooking without noticing that chili part on the label, which meant for a pretty hot side dish I was doing. This is one where less will be more. There was also the blend of avocado, olive, and flax seed oils, which is supposed to be good for you but didn't thrill me so much. However, give the straight avocado a try.

If you ever need nuts, Suerpior Nut Company of Massachusetts is a great - nay, a superior - source. My wife first learned of them when working at a chocolatier's in greater Boston and we've happily used them ever since. If you're not looking for a "gotta get it now at the store" order, particularly of fresh bulk nuts or glazed apricots, this is a good place to head. The prices are reasonable, but more importantly we've never come across a rancid batch, which is more than we can say of some other providers.

It seems that some restaurants are reducing portions. Many consumers think portions are too large and, presumably, are getting too stuffed to leave the house and spend money at restaurants. Is this a matter of the restaurants getting their just desserts?

According to the PR reps, it’s been over 20 years since Tortuga Caribbean Rum Cakes appeared commercially on Grand Cayman, and the company send one of the smaller (1 lb.) cakes for me to test. Well, for my family to test – my wife heard rum cake and immediately stepped between the box and me.

Our reactions were mixed. My wife loved it and compared it to her mother’s sherry cake recipe, which for her is high praise. I was less taken with it – not because of any quibbling with the quality of the product (preserved only with five-year-old rum, bless ‘em), but because of the way, to me at least, that the rum overwhelms any taste of the cake. It’s a basic problem with many liquor-infused cakes. And then we get to the question of artificial flavors. Here’s what the company web site states:

Q: Are there artificial flavorings in Tortuga Rum Cakes?
A: We use the finest natural ingredients such as fresh coconut, pineapple juice and key lime juice to create our delectable flavors of Tortuga Rum Cakes. As stated on our packaging, there is 2% or less of artificial flavor used in our cakes.

Well, 2% or less leaves a lot of room. My guess is that they use synthetic vanillin rather than vanilla extract, and when you’re talking about maybe a teaspoonful per cake, the percentage is small but the effect can be great. I think that use of real vanilla would help balance the flavor equation. However, you might well agree with my wife and be happy with one. The 1 lb. versions are $25 including shipping to the US.

Via An Obsession with Food I learned about Dinner in the Sky, when you want to have people enjoy the literal height of gastronomy. Up to 22 diners get strapped into seats attached to a table suspended 50 meters (164 feet) above the ground. It starts at over $11,000 for an 8 hour rental. There is a a canopy overhead, though I suspect that's for the occasional overflying bird visitation as you'd still get soaked in the rain. However, you can get weather insurance for 10% of the total charge plus another 15% - oh, and you have to go to Belgium to try this, though apparently the owners are willing to either sell this unit or create another for you. Just what you need for that next soiree.

According to the Financial Times (sorry, no free link), Aga, which makes high-end cast iron range/oven combinations, is developing an environmentally friendly model. Yes, up until now, all their models apparently are always on - ever ready to use and, according to the article, producing upwards of 25 times the carbon as a conventional range. But people apparently like the convenience and, if you're spending literally $5,000 to $10,000 or more on the appliance, chances are that you also have money to burn - literally.

Instead of blazing away in a paraphrase of the old Tip O'Neill phrase about politics - warm globally, heat locally - there is some kind of control to put the range in a sleep mode, waking up to actually work. The upshot is that the company says that energy use would be "comparable" with an ordinary range. Funny, last I checked (which was just seconds ago), comparable can mean roughly equal, or it can mean worthy of comparison. Guess Aga finds it worthy to compare the energy use without directly addressing just how much heat it wastes.

UPDATE: We got some additional testing in, so read this review update before putting down your money.


My wife had attended a Pampered Chef party and picked up an old-styled gizmo that is supposed to peel, core, and slice apples. We had long talked about getting something like this during production mode apple pie preparation while trying to finish the rest of a holiday dinner, when anything that promised time savings would have been welcome.

The product works pretty well. First, you clamp the unit onto a table or an accessory stand that you can purchase separately. Press a lever to release a long threaded shaft with a handle on one end and three tines on the other. Pull that back, push the stem end of an apple onto the tines, then start turning. A spring-loaded blade unit presses down and removes peel in a long strip. As the apple continues its journey into certain destruction, a circular blade opposite the crank handle slices it into a spiral while removing the core.

It’s slick to watch and at the end you have a naked apple that you stretch out like an impaired Slinky. One cut down the side turns the once-whole fruit into slices. We had peel left opposite the stem end, but on reflection (and a more careful reading of the instructions) I erred in pushing the apple up against the slicer before turning the crank. If you push the apple on and immediately turn, both ends will pass under the peeler. You’ll still have a bit of peel at the top and bottom, but it’s a small amount of waste. I also thought that the peeler was taking off a lot of pulp, but my wife looked at it and immediately disagreed. I bow to her superior correctness. And if she did come to my point of view, we could adjust the peeler blade to shave less..

At $28.50 for the peeler/corer/slicer and another $13.50 for the optional stand, the total seemed a bit pricey at $28.50, so I checked the Web. It seems that expensive peelers run into the hundreds. I don’t know what the difference is and not sure I want to learn. More comparably-priced units often have a vacuum clamp at the bottom: place it on a table, flip the lever, and it holds to the surface. I remember in the past using such bases and found that while they did work, they could be finicky and it was possible to unintentionally break the vacuum seal, particularly as the unit got older and the rubber base sitting on the table aged. If you’re handy with wood and have scraps around, you could fashion a stand like that from The Pampered Chef easily; it’s just three pieces of wood held together with counter-sunk screws.

Oh, and for the best part: on our test apple, the entire thing was peeled, cored, and sliced in about 15 seconds. When you’re preparing for company and need to get the pies or cobbler or whatever into the oven, this amount of money will be the last thing on your mind.

The Associated Press reports today that a group is planning a dinner prepared before the Pyramids of Giza. It's selling 500 tickets to this meal prepared by 30 3-star Michelin rated chefs. Now for the quibbling - technically it's the restaurants that get the stars, not the chefs. Now for the next question: just what is a 3-star Michelin rated chef? Is that any chef that works at a 3-star rated spot? That would still be significant in my book, as none of these restaurants is going to have anyone on staff that is a slacker, but as there is the chef de cuisine (head of the kitchen), the sous chef (second in command), chef de poisson (the one in charge of fish), and so on, that is still a pretty loose term.

And given that the price tag per seat apparently will be in the $10,000 range, I'd say that details matter. Arranging the event is the Lebua hotel of Bangkok, which in the past hosted a $25,000 a head dinner for 40 guests and a half dozen 3-star chefs. Apparently the establishment will continue to run "Epicurean Masters of the World" dinner series. My question: do they come with doggy bags?

I was sent a Vosges Red Fire Exotic Candy Bar by a restaurant called the Vintner Grill with two locations in Las Vegas. That may seem an odd calling card; however, the restuarant is featuring a supposedly exclusive set of truffles by the chocolatier and this is part of the PR.

When I heard about the truffles - for example, olive and white chocolate with potato chips, or wasabi, ginger, black sesame seeds, and dark chocolate on top of wasabi peas - it sounded completely nutty, and I don't mean cocoa bean overtones. When it comes to creating "excitement," some chefs go off the deep end.

I've never eaten at the restaurant (and chances are that I won't, as I try to avoid Las Vegas), but even a 55% cocoa solids chocolate bar with ancho and chipotle chilis and cinnamon sounded odd, so I wasn't expecting anything positive. I was wrong. Although I wouldn't grab one of these $7 for a chocolate fix, this was one of the most remarkable uses of ingredients I can remember. The Aztecs used to mix bitter chocolate and chilis for a stimulating drink, and cinnamon certainly works with chocolate. But it was the control of the ingredient effects that wowed me. First I tasted the chocolate and cinnamon and thought to myself, "Ok, where's the hot?" A few seconds later, the spice kicked in, but subtly, just tingling my mouth.

If you love chocolate and enjoy being impressed, I can recommend spending the money on the bar for the experience.

We just came back from hours of errands and found large amounts of charcoal in the wood stove where there were logs. I'm not sure exactly how this worked and will have to do some experimenting, but we had a fire going earlier today and I wanted some heat running for the family pets. So I dropped an extra log or two onto the burning coals and closed the air vents down to keep the wood from burning through too quickly.

After a quick check on the Internet, here are instructions for making charcoal at home. From what I just read there, the wood stove acts like a natural kiln for creating charcoal (which you could use for cooking or even other purposes like drawing). I must have shut the vents just enough to let the wood smolder without extinguishing the burning process. If I had wanted to use the charcoal, I'd have had to close the vents completely (and notice that the link uses the word damper for what I would call a vent, as the damper for our stove is in the pipe leading to the chimney - not something you'd want to close while something was burning).

Ben & Jerry’s is recalling 250,000 pints of Country Peach Cobbler Ice Cream because it didn't indicate on the label that there was wheat in it. Here are the affected date codes: Jan 23, 2008; Jan 24, 2008; Feb 8, 2008; Feb 9, 2008.

While it's good that the company is recalling the product, it really makes you wonder how they could not have the labeling reflect what's inside the contents. Surely companies know that they need to do this. Wouldn't they have a process in place to make the list in an orderly and complete fashion?

Order? Thoroughness? Corporations? I forgot I was talking about large groups of mistake-prone human beings who are probably too absorbed in the meetings they must attend.

I wonder what else gets into food that we never hear about?

In a post yesterday I mentioned a Slashfood post that Häagen-Daz had used a flavor idea from a contestant in a contest it ran. Apparently there was no credit to the individual on the web site or ice cream packaging. I emailed the company's PR contact and asked if there was compensation beyond what the contest offered and if they had acknowledged the person's contribution. Here's the official company answer:

"The acknowledgement was made to the Toasted Coconut Sesame Brittle creator herself, who is thrilled that we have introduced her flavor and with its execution. The compensation that we have made to the creator is beyond what was specified in the contest rules, as the rules specified that only the winning flavor's creator would be compensated."

In other words, nope, no public word and she got something, though who knows what. I still think that a thanks on the ice cream containers would have been a nice gesture - and I suspect the creator of the flavor would have been even more "thrilled."

Slashfood had a post yesterday about Häagen-Daz happening to come out with an unusual new flavor - toasted coconut sesame brittle - a few months after that flavor was an entry in a contest the company held to find a new flavor. Unfortunately, the company (owners of the Dreyer's and Edy's brands as well) apparently doesn't give the creator any credit for having thought of it. I've got an email in to the PR representative and if I hear anything more, I'll post it.

The Tassimo beverage machine is a way for you, too, to have an automated coffee, tea, and cocoa machine in your own home. For some it will make sense, but depending on your choice of drink, you might not want to clear the counter to give it a home.

The company (actually, it appears to be cooperation between Braun and Kraft Foods) sent a unit for me to test. It works with pods: little containers of the foundations for drinks, such as coffee or tea. You put a pod into place and press the button. The Tassimo recognizes the type of beverage and produces water of what it considers the appropriate temperature.

There are a variety of products available. I tried Gevalia (too light bodied for my taste) and Seattle’s Best (as I find with many coffees from the northwest, it was over roasted for my taste). And in a way, that’s the biggest drawback. You have to buy their pods and, so, will have to be satisfied with name brand beverages. If you don’t like the names, you won’t care for the results.

If you do, and you want a single cup of coffee, then you’re in luck. I found the unit to be convenient to use – at least once I realized that I had installed the combination cup stand and drip tray in backwards and was collecting water where I didn’t want it. I don’t know the “proper” temperature for brewing coffee, but a cup of Earl Grey tea from Twinings came out at about 170º F, which is just about right. Although this sort of quick brewing of tea isn’t to my usual fancy, I thought that the results were at least acceptable.

Where things fell down a bit were when you moved out of just coffee or tea. I tried a latte, which meant using two pods: one of espresso and one of a milk-based creamer. Although the milk was right around 160ºF, where you’d want it, the bubbles were too large, so it didn’t have the texture. And the resulting latte had too thick a mouth feel because, well, even though the web site and the PR person who contacted me said that it was “real milk,” I noticed that the labeling says “from milk.” (Not that I am cynical when it comes to listening to what companies say.) The hot chocolate is made with a powder, and I’m used to mixing cocoa and sugar and then adding steamed milk, so there was no way that was going to taste as good, but it was a decent enough instant.

In short, if you want the convenience of a single cup of coffee without much fuss or mess, you might consider the Tassimo. There are two models: a regular version for $129.99 and the premium for $169.99. The premium has a larger water tank, a metallic finish (i.e., silvery plastic), and a water filter.

And let’s talk about that last feature for a moment. Different types of beverages have different requirements for water. Espresso, for example, needs some amount of minerals while regular coffee is better off without it. My advice would be get the cheaper model and use filtered water from another source for anything but the espresso.

There’s also an additional cost consideration. Getting pods for single drink servings isn’t cheap. For example, the Gevalia latte lists at $8.99 for 8 servings. The Seattle’s Best breakfast blend is $7.99 for 16 servings. In other words, you’ll be paying for that convenience every time you have a cup.

It's hard to make this stuff up: a company called Feed on the Word is putting scripture verses on its five-piece porcelain place settings. Yes, you too can contemplate the miracle of the loaves and fishes while resting your fried haddock sandwich on a plate. Not only that, but the company has serving pieces "as well as heavy-duty paper products," as a company press release says. It seems that we've gone from the Word to the Menu. At least this could be a unifying element in today's world: no matter what your approach to religion, it's hard to blieve that someone could come up with something so foolish sounding.

Ah, the air is warming, the snow is melting, and a middle-age chef’s mind turns to barbeque. I had a chance to try Taylor’s Weekend Warrior 807 Digital BBQ/Fork Thermometer – inside, actually, which shows that a name can be deceiving.

The BBQ/Fork Thermometer is exactly as it sounds: a two-tined long fork with a display built into the handle. Plunge the tines just into a steak or chops and you can get a more-or-less instant reading. I qualify that because the directions said to wait 10 seconds for the temperature, but I found that a reading kept changing for at least 15 seconds before it finally stabilized. So I’d say wait until things settle down and then go with that reading. The temperature measures seemed more or less accurate compared with an instant read thermometer I used to verify the information. If you’re working on the edge of light, natural or artificial, you’ll welcome the backlit display screen.

This thermometer won’t be terribly useful on thin slices of meat, as you might not be able to sink the sensor tips of the tines down far enough. It also felt light-weight to me, and it wouldn’t be my first choice to use as a cooking fork. That said, it does offer an advantage over traditional thermometers, in that you can reach the tine probes in without having to get your fingers too near the cooking surface, leaving them safely back. So it does seem to be a worthwhile addition if you do a lot of outdoor or indoor grilling. The list price of $17.99 is pretty easy on the wallet as well. But if like me you’d be concerned that the device wouldn’t stand up to regular use as a fork, consider Taylor’s 806 model – a digital thermometer with a single long probe – and stick with your old fork.

When I heard that New York City had decided to ban trans fats, my first question was whether butter would go out the larder window. "Oh, no," said some - not experts, but then I don't generally chat with the cognescetti.

Then the other day there was this story in the New York Times about Starbucks insisting that the network of bakers supplying baked goods for the company's 8,700 stores (I could have sworn it had hit half a million) eliminate all traces of trans fat. But there ae small amounts in butter, cheese, and meat. So no more butter in your muffin when you get that double no-fat extra hot half-caff extra sweet vanilla mint latte. One baker interviewed for the article said even finding artificial fat without any trace of trans fat is difficult.

Here's the big question - what about milk? A cup of milk, according to an information graphic in the Times story, has .24 grams of trans fat, as opposed to the 3.12 grams in a quarter pound of butter. Somehow I don't see Starbucks steaming some non-dairy creamer. But then again, I don't know that they have to list the ingredients of the coffee - just the baked goods - which means we may see whether this was really for concern about customers, or PR. Reading a bit more into the article, it seems that half a gram per serving is the cut-off point for the chain. Lucky thing that, eh?

Remember the west Belfast pub that decided to sue the Irish News? Now there's another case of a restaurant suing a paper for a bad review - this time in the US. According to a New York Times story, a Bala Cynwyd, PA restaurant called Chops sued the the Philadephia Inquirer for a review that took exception to the quality of a steak. The restaurant accused reviewer Craig LaBan of misidentifying the type of steak he had, thus criticizing a meal other than the one he ate. The reason for the distinction? I'm guessing its' because then the restaurant and its lawyer could argue that the LaBan was writing with a reckless disregard for the truth, not having asked, and that could be the opening for making a case for libel. US courts have set a high bar to sue reporters, and just disagreeing with their opinions in a review wouldn't make it. My question: What ever happened to the brotherly love?

After looking at the VacuWare (and providing an update on the shortcomings I found), I thought it would make sense to take another look at FoodSaver. The company sent a V2860 “Advanced Design” vacuum food sealer for me to test. I’m happy to say that the changes over the years have all been for the positive, with the result a much stronger product.

The FoodSaver line for years has used a dual design. To use bags for things like meat, poultry, fish, large vegetables, and even cooked entire portions, the top flips back. There’s a vacuum chamber into which you tuck one end of the bag. A sealing strip sits between the vacuum chamber and the edge of the unit so when the air is taken out, the device can use heat to close the bag. Earlier units often had the sealing strip too close to the vacuum chamber. That made it tricky sometimes to use rolls of bag material that require you to cut off a length you need and to seal one end before filling the bag and putting the remaining open end into the vacuum chamber. If the first open end was too close to the seal strip, you could find yourself with an incompletely closed edge.

That problem has pretty much disappeared in the 2860. There’s plenty of space to place the open end and get a good seal. Furthermore, the unit has a cavity that will fit one of the bag rolls and includes a cutter. When you need a bag, open the unit, pull out what you need, cut it to length, then seal, fill, and vacuum. It makes the unit a bit larger than some of the other models, but I found the trade-off of size for having that roll of bag material to be worthwhile.

Another improvement is that you flip a lever to lock the unit in place for use. That’s much better than trying to press down both edges evenly. You can also stand this unit on end for storage, saving a lot of counter space. A pulse option lets you take air out a bit at a time – important if you are trying to reduce the air volume, improving storage life, but want to cut things short for softer items, like bread, that could be crushed when the air comes out. The controls on top could be a bit clearer: the speed setting really seems to refer to the amount of air being taken out, so for a smaller bag or container you’d use a lower setting and switch to a higher one for a bigger volume.

Yes, I did mention containers. FoodSaver has a wide variety of optional falderal, including containers, a sealer for mason jars, and bottle stoppers. (I still have to try the latter with a bottle of wine, though I know from experience that removing the air lets an open bottle last days longer while retaining more of the quality.) There is also a quick marinator which supposedly draws marinade more fully into food. In a few weeks I’ll be testing that with some other approaches to fast marinating and seeing how they stand up to the traditional method, as I’m not convinced that you can necessarily rush all the effects (like increased tenderness).

The equipment is pricey. The 2860 has a suggested list of about $200, while canisters are $20 for a set of two, bottle stoppers are three for $13, and bag prices start at about $10. However, you can get the products cheaper and they work. They can save you money in the long run (and improve meals by helping eliminate things like freezer burn), though the time necessary to pay off the unit’s price would vary completely with your before and after kitchen habits.

Labels: foodsaver, product, review, storage, system, vacuum, vacuware

In my last post I mentioned that a comment added to a review of the VacuWare Fresh Food System made me suspicious that the remarks were left by someone tied to the company.

I just received an email from the company's communications director who was responding to my blog posting - the original review. In terms of the criticism, she wrote, "Based on our own evaluation of the FreshPouches and customer feedback we have received, we have found that they are too dependent on the consumer sealing them perfectly, which is not convenient for the consumer ... we are currently in the midst of developing new and improved FreshPouches."

As for waiting on line for help, she wrote, "After monitoring our call center and reviewing customer feedback, we determined that our customer service offering was not meeting the high expectations that we have set and that our customers deserve. We have taken the necessary steps to bring customer service in-house and called any customers who we saw had not been properly cared for." I hadn't received a call, but then my wife and I never actually spoke to someone there.

If I get a chance to try the new pouches - whenever they come out - I'll post an update to the review.

Labels: product, review, storage, system, vacuum, vacuware

I'm all for the free movement of ideas - when people take responsibility for what they say. Because this blog includes product/service reviews as well as original news stories, there's a good chance that someone (as in a mentioned company or a PR rep) will disagree with me. That's fine and they can even respond to a review if they want. However, that has to be an official response and not someone masquerading as a reader.

A comment on my review of the VacuWare system (storing food sans air) appeared yesterday that, frankly, made me suspicious for the following reasons:

• There were too many exclamation points. Yes, this sounds like a grammarian gone made, but it's a style often used by PR people or vendors - far too much excitement than you typically hear from people who bought a product and liked it. Ok, one, maybe two, but when you get a number of sentences with one and the post ending with, I can't remember, four or five in a row, that smacks of someone trying too hard to sound enthusiastic.
• The comment basically said that the poster not only owned a VacuWare, but also a Food Saver, a competing brand that I had mentioned in my review. I often have multiple products in a category because I review them - companies send them to get me to write my opinion. But how many people are going to buy one vacuum sealing system, put it in a cabinet to not use, and then purchase a different one?
• I also noticed a lack of consistency. On one hand, the person waxed ecstatically about using the VacuWare special containers and the lid for regular jars - and as I menioned in the review, that worked fine. What didn't work were the bags that didn't seal well. (I'll also note here that the PR firm for VacuWare emphasized all the features other than the bags.) The poster said that he or she hadn't even tried the bags, yet claimed the alleged Food Saver was in the also alleged cabinet because it wasn't good at sealing bags. Now this is odd: why would you shelve one unit because of the bag performance and not even try the new one's bags? Furthermore, even the older Food Savers could get a good seal on the bags, though sealing an end could be a little tricky. (That's changed and I'll be reviewing a newer Food Saver soon.)
• Finally, the entire post sounded like it was written by someone used to writing marketing materials.

In short, this smelled of being a phony post send by a PR person or comapny representative who didn't like my discussing the big weak point the product had and who decided to post something some time after the review to try and mitigate it. Now, I could be completely wrong. It might be that someone genuinely likes the product that much and wouldn't even try the one feature on the new purchase that made him or her stop using the old purchase. If so, my apologies to the poster. But I do have a responsibility here and so I've taken that comment off the board and have set things so that only registered users can comment. Registration is free, and someone could set up a dummy account, but I think it's a reasonable compromise. The only other option would be to prevent all comments, which isn't appealing to me. Sorry about any inconvenience to anyone.

Labels: preservation, vacuum, vacuware

I finally got a chance to test the other slow cooker that Crock-Pot sent. It’s a slightly different concept from the Versaware. The insert doesn’t go on top of a stove, which I didn’t find all that useful anyway. There is still the dual cooking heat level feature – good for better control over when a dish will be done and yet because both are still for slow cooking, the results won’t differ on the plate. You also have the warm setting to keep food safely heated without significantly further cooking and the ability to set the amount of cooking time in half-hour segments.

What the Smart-Set adds are two major things. One is a probe thermometer like the type you insert into a roast before placing it into the oven, with a wire that snakes out and plugs into a unit that displays the internal temperature. The unit can detect when food is done, though don’t expect a rare/medium/well-done choice, as this is still slow-cooking, not conventional roasting. When the food is ready, the unit drops the heat to warm so dinner is waiting when you get home or just around to eating. You won’t be able to use this with all dishes; for example, it’s great with a pot roast but useless for a stew, as the probe has to sink completely into the meat and it’s not intended for cooking a large whole vegetable.

The other feature, that works with the probe or independently is a set of cooking programs. You select the dish – say a beef roast or chicken – and the cooker will use what it considers the appropriate combination of low and high heat for pre-determined times to do the cooking. I liked being able to turn a dial and pick the type of food off the display and not have to estimate the cooking time, hoping that the dish wouldn’t be under- or over-done. And additional nicety was the hinged top, which tips back to let you check the food or serve all without having to find a safe place to set the lid down. If you’re looking for a slow cooker, this is a great choice at a suggested retail of $99.99.

Only a short entry for the moment as I'm waiting on some product photos for the next few reviews. I just saw this piece in the New York Times about a behind-the-scenes spice mover and, pardon the pun, shaker. He brings in exotic new spices and introduces them to hundreds of American chefs. His real money, I suspect, comes from the high-end cookware store he owns - Le Sanctuaire in Santa Monica, which a pair of cooking chopsticks can run $125. I'm not sure I'd want to see the price tags on the spices.

Think being a messy eater is bad on Earth? Try it on the international space station. One astronaut lost control of her wasabi. Suddenly there were letally hot green globs floating around the air, splattering on the walls, and scenting the room with the green horshradish relative's aroma.

I think this opens possibilities for new science fiction drama. Trapped, the evil Colonel whips out a tube of wasabi and sends forth spatters toward the ship's intrepid Captain who, thinking quickly, grabs a kielbasa and swings to defend himself. An intersteller food fight. Just where is a hall monitor when you need one?

There's no doubt that the SensorfreshQ - which measures bacteria coming off uncooked meat or poultry - ranks high on the perceived cool factor, but the question is how much use it's really going to be for most people.

The device looks a bit strange. You basically hold this electronic nose up to beef, poultry, lamb, or pork right after you unwrap your future meal. Electronic sensors that can detect airborne bacteria take thousands of readings. By holding it right up to the meat and away, the device compares bacteria densities (at least, that's what I think it's doing) and determines how much is coming off the rump roast.

This is a hard device to review because you have to take on faith that the company realy does use international standards for bacterial levels, that the device makes accurate readings, and that you're using it correctly. There's no way a consumer can really verify the first two and on the third, it all depends on how accurately you follow the instructions and how well the company wrote them. You have to take the measurements immediatly upon unwrapping because otherwise (again, I'm guessing) the bacteria could scatter and render a false safe reading. You get either a green (good), yellow (eat within two days), or red (may be unsafe) light.

I tried this on some steaks that came from a BJ's Wholesale Club and got a yellow, which meant fresh enough if eaten within a couple of days. (One went into our stomachs that night and the other into a vacuum-sealed bag, which will be the subject of another review.) Assuming that the meter was correct (we didn't get sick), then it's a sobering reminder just how long food sits around before you buy it.

Unfortunately, the SensorfreshQ doesn't work with produce - which, as we've recently seen in the news, can be the cause of food-borne illness - or with fish. You have to replace the sensor tip every 200 or so tests, and I don't think that the device lets you know that time's up. I also wonder how many people would actively use this device everytime they unwrapped meat. Then again, the sensor's opinions are only as good as the way consumers then store and prepare meat. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are an estimated 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses every year in this country, so perhaps spending a bit more time and effort might not be such a bad thing.

The SensorQ costs about $90 and it's about another $10 to get two replacement sensors. Each one is supposed to last about two months of "average" use, so that's $5/month past the initial investment. The Sharper Image carries it.

I'm not sure there's much to say other than New York Times food critic Frank Bruni reviewed steaks at a strip club. (And, no, I don't mean strip steak.) What's next? Sampling hors deurves at a bordello?

The New York Times reports about a plant pathologist who apparently has cultivated real truffles in the U.S. It's not the first time people have grown the fungi, but these have the blessings of top chefs like Daniel Boulud, who pronounced them "the real thing." The next step in bringing the real taste of France will be when a physical therapist learns how to duplicate the Gallic shrug.