chromedome

Clearly it's in the zeitgeist...

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/editors-note-why-a-recipe-is-more-than-a-recipe

I'm in no position to prove/debunk the value of barding one way or another. I can attest that larding at the very least creates the perception of juiciness in lean meats, as long as it reaches a high enough temperature to melt, because of the liquefied fat. Many flavor molecules are more soluble in fat than in water, so I expect there's an impact on seasoning as well. As many of us here have said over the years, fat equals flavor.

Very nice. End grain butcher block is one option I'm seriously considering for my countertops, a few years down the road when we (hypothetically) get to build our "forever home."

Because French. Or kitchen French at least, which might not be exactly the same thing.

Nor mine. I typically support the local team and buy Brunswick brand, HQ'd a few km west of here in Black's Harbour. Occasionally I'll buy the NS-based Kersten brand at Costco, though I find those less flavorful (my dogs are less critical). Hmmm. Haven't treated the mutts to sardines for a few months, might have to do that again sometime soon.

Update: News reports this morning say it's C. botulinum.

Several flavors of Clover Leaf brand boneless sardine fillets are being recalled for "dangerous bacteria," ie they haven't narrowed it down yet but they know something's wrong. Possibly (probably!) national. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-recall-warnings-and-allergy-alerts/2021-01-22/eng/1611358226922/1611358231893?utm_source=r_listserv

Pleased to bump this thread with a good-news followup: The same Eater writer reports that the Timeline has been taken over by Virginia Tech's Special Collections Archive. https://www.eater.com/22224776/food-timeline-lynne-olver-virginia-tech-university

I'm pretty sure it was at Superstore. Not certain of the brand, because once I'd opened the bag I transferred it to a big Mason jar. It might have been Rooster brand, but I can't vouch for that.

Superstore carries a lot of specialty rices in smaller bags, Sobeys as well but to a lesser extent. You'll pay more on a per-weight basis, but it's still a useful way to try a bunch and see what you like. Also there's Bulk Barn, if you have one near you. I've just finished a bag of red Thai "cargo" rice, which I quite liked. It's basically the same thing as brown rice, except for a slightly different set of phytochemicals giving it its color. I found the flavor quite nice, with a decidedly nutty undertone. I'm also partial to the black "forbidden" rice...I usually use it to make dessert (cooked in coconut milk, you get a rice pudding with a beautiful purple color) but it also works in savory dishes. I'm probably an outlier in the current crowd, in that I favor the whole-grain rices over white for general-purpose eating. I have basmati, arborio and a run-of-the-mill Chinese long-grain white that I use for specific dishes.

I'm no expert, but IIRC birch is one of the harder woods. I seem to recall my father cussing it as he sharpened his chainsaw repeatedly.

Yeah, your first chinook is always a "WTF?" experience.

Somewhere recently online (Twitter, I think?) someone posted "Just had a perfect pear. Caught it in that 30-second window."

I love it...

We had a popular TV cook in Canada in the 80s and 90s named James Barber, a humorous English gent who'd been an engineer by trade. He was raised by his granny, who was - at least in his telling - exactly the kind of stereotypical English cook who gave English food a bad name. He only *really* got interested in food as he traveled the continents in his day job, and began to notice how often a given technique or combination of ingredients would crop up across multiple cultures. He would often make that point in his show, getting to a point in the recipe and then explaining how you could take that basic preparation and spin it into something Italian or Chinese (or whatever) by changing the next few ingredients. One one episode of his show he told the story of a mining camp where he'd worked in the 1970s, where the cook quit or left due to illness or something of that sort. The company flew in a new cook from Vancouver, but the new guy Had Ideas. He only lasted about 10 days, and was literally chased from the camp when he served the miners tofu (In my head he vanishes into the distance, burly miners in hot pursuit, wailing "...but it's GOOOD for youuuuuu!!!!"). Since it would be at least several days until a new cook could be found, Barber volunteered to give it a whirl and found he quite enjoyed himself. That led, eventually, to him becoming a popular TV host and cookbook writer.

Harvest Brand Polish sausages sold from BC to Ontario have been recalled because of undercooking. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/eng/1610661955953/1610661960835?utm_source=r_listserv

Mine seldom even gets to the freezer. Once I've made the stock, I'll usually strain out the bones/skin/mirepoix/whatever and then slap it right back into the IP with some beans. ...and personally, I keep back some of the fatty bits to put *into* the beans.

I cycle mine on an "eyeball" basis, rather than a calendar basis, because I have a large number of the thin plastic "cutting sheet" type from the dollar store. It's pretty random which one comes out when I reach into the cupboard, so they don't get consistent wear. When I notice that one is getting a bit past its prime I segregate it at one side of the cupboard, and once I've accumulated three or four I'll buy an equal number of new ones and discard the old.

My dad was much the same. In palliative care he once mentioned ruefully that he'd finished stacking the year's firewood just four weeks earlier. That being said, he'd also gotten a heat pump installed so they wouldn't have to depend on the wood stove. He was already beginning to dial back on the physical effort needed to maintain their place, since it seemed prudent to plan for that in advance instead of waiting for it to be forced on him.

My dad would have been 80 in April. The "strange" part was certainly the case with my late wife and I. She was 9 years older than me, and was herself a late child, especially by the standards of the day. Her mother had been told for decades that she could never have children, and had had three husbands (serially, I hasten to point out) with no sign of anything happening on that front, so suddenly becoming pregnant at 40 was rather a shock. Bottom line: her mother and my grandmother were born a few months apart in 1914.

Clearly camp food is not what it was "back in the day." When my father worked in a lumber camp at the end of the 50s, the staples at mealtime (including breakfast) were beans, bread, jam, tea, and never-quite-enough bacon. The tea was made in #10 cans sitting on the woodstove, and his joke was that by the end of the day you could either pour a cup or else cut a slice and spread it on your bread. Admittedly this was in northern Newfoundland, so conditions were probably 50-100 years behind what was happening on the Mainland in the same era (this is part of the reason he left home and joined the Navy). As an aside, I'll point out that one can have conversations in private messaging which needn't adhere to the main site's food-centric motif.