chromedome

Ontario only, but Crescent brand pastrami and Tuscan-flavored turkey breast are recalled for possible Listeria contamination. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/crescent-brand-pastrami-and-turkey-breast-tuscan-flavoured-recalled-due-listeria?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23&

That was my first thought, too.

Cool. One of those was among the tools I inherited from my father, and I hadn't (yet) thought of using it on foods.

You'd think the WSJ could afford a copy editor who knows the difference between "cache" and "cachet."

I freeze a whole piece of ginger in a Ziploc, and then microplane it as needed. I tend to use it sporadically - a lot for a short time, then none for a long time - so this makes sense for me. As for garlic, I typically puree most of my garden's harvest with a bit of oil and pack it flat (and thin) in Ziploc bags for the freezer. Once the held-back fresh portion of my harvest is past its prime I switch to the frozen, taking it out and breaking off a corner (or more often, a big ol' chunk) as needed.

I'm sorry, I don't know why it's so small. In the first frame the tea drinker snarls "Coffee is disgusting! I only drink the finest leaves!" In the second frame the coffee drinker scowls and opines that "Tea is just pompous water! Real adults drink coffee." In the third frame, the cocoa drinker - wrapped in a comfy, fuzzy hoodie with blissed-out cartoon eyes - says "Sometimes I add rainbow sprinkles."

In an entirely predictable outcome, the editor-in-chief of SciAm has been targeted online for publishing this piece: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eating-too-much-protein-makes-pee-a-problem-pollutant-in-the-u-s/ For those who have access to such things through work or a library, here's the study itself: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/fee.2531

Sweet!

https://www.science.org/content/article/supercharged-biotech-rice-yields-40-more-grain

LOL My friends and family think it's odd for someone who spent so much time in retail electronics, and who writes/researches technology topics on a regular basis, to be such a Luddite when it comes to "smart" products. I always tell them that's exactly *why* I'm such a Luddite!

This is not a food recall as such, but it's at least food-adjacent so I'm going to post it. If anyone here takes magnesium citrate for (ahem) digestive difficulties, be aware that the Equate brand (Walmart), Life brand (Shoppers) and Personelle brand (Jean Coutu) have been recalled for bacterial contamination. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/magnesium-citrate-oral-solution-microbial-contamination?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23&

My mom had the Tupperware equivalent, X2.

It is axiomatic that it's best for one's landlord to know as little as possible.

For me it was one of the definitive childhood summer memories. When blueberries were in season, we'd pick them from the sunny bank across from my grandmother's house (a subdivision now, for lo these many decades) and then have them for breakfast with milk and a sprinkle of sugar. That's the taste of summer for me, to this day. I'll still have a bowl of them at least once each summer, and last year served it to my grandkids (to their delight).

These specific examples are pretty dubious, but the need for adaptive/accessibility gizmos in the kitchen (and prepared "convenience" ingredients) is pretty significant. My GF isn't yet 50, but because of her rheumatoid arthritis she struggles now with any meal requiring more than a pop into the microwave (and even those can be problematic, if the packaging isn't easy to open). Of course she has a personal chef, so it's not as big an issue as it might be, but I'm not always home and doubtless will not always be healthy (fingers crossed on that front). A Canadian site recently published this article by a Toronto-based writer, which I found pretty compelling. In this instance it's focused on ingredients, but the point holds. We've discussed adaptive cooking options in the past, I know, and have touched on some similar themes. https://thewalrus.ca/garlic-in-a-jar/

One of our mass-market ice cream brands here (Chapman's) is using "shrinkflation" in its ads, by pointing out that its 2 litre size remains 2 litres, while many others are not. It's a bit disingenuous - the reason many brands sell a 1.89 litre size is that it's two American quarts - but I'm sure it has been effective for them. ETA: Not that this is pertinent to restaurants, of course. On the whole I'm in the "restaurant meals are too frikkin' big anyway" camp, but for a lot of eateries that's very much their brand. I can understand why customers would get upset at shinkage, but (shrug) margins have to come from somewhere.

My cousin was out running errands last night, and received this heated text from her daughter: "What kind of sociopath serves lemonade at dinner and then puts an unlabeled pitcher of vegetable stock in the fridge?"

GF cookies from the Enjoy Life brand are being recalled for the presence of pieces of plastic. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-enjoy-life-brand-soft-baked-cookies-chocolate-chip-recalled-due-possible?utm_source=gc-notify

I remember Zig Ziglar mentioning in one of his books that a Gulf Coast wedding-day prank in his day was prying the hubcaps from the groom's car, filling them with shrimp, and replacing them. By the second or third day of the honeymoon, in the Texas heat, things would get a bit fragrant...

Just 'cause...

Is everyone familiar with "the law of unintended consequences"? An interesting discussion of how the move away from hydrogenated oils, and toward plant-based foods, has created some issues around the supply of culinary fats. https://www.the-angry-chef.com/blog/big-fat-problems

The average in the US, per the CDC, is 10-16 cases per year. They're almost invariably from eating undercooked game, though there are occasional cases caused by backyard hogs as well. Getting trichinellosis from commercially-raised pork is vanishingly rare, and has been for decades. That's why the USDA eventually dropped its recommended temperature for pork to 145F, the same as for other meats. The numbers are similarly low in Canada (our regulations for pork-rearing are slightly more stringent than in the US), though our government still clings to the 165F guideline.