Adam Balic

http://www.versatilevinegar.org/vinegarlore.html According to multiple Google results, they've been calling it vinegar ("laudatum acentum") since 1046. ← He, that was an interesting site, according to it balsmic made from grape must, rather then wine has only been producted since the 1860's! So the 'traditional', isn't that old a tradition. I wonder how different the products rearly are from each other.

http://www.versatilevinegar.org/vinegarlore.html According to multiple Google results, they've been calling it vinegar ("laudatum acentum") since 1046. ← Yes this is true, but I think that the distinction of "aceto" to "vinegar" labelling will tell you when the product became popular in the States.

When did it get called "vinegar"? As it isn't made from wine I guess technically it isn't a 'vinegar' (and therefore neither is malt vinegar, which is an 'alegar'?), so if you can find out when 'balsamic vinegar' became common usage, this may help to pin-point 'ground zero'.

Great images. Oysters are something I know very little about. In Melborne is it quite difficult to get oysters that haven't been pre-shucked for you and these are nearly always Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas. In NSW you get Sydney rock oysters and from the evidence on he beach I would say that there are some other native species that aren't commercailly harvested (shells look round and flattish, similar to a British native oyster). The only other oysters I have had is some Colchester Natives here in the UK. Regarding those big oysters, I once read a report on an area in Tasmania where there had been a failed attempt to farm oysters in the 60's (?), somebody found a few survivors and these were approaching 500gm in weight.

For some reason it only seems to be perishable in the States though.

I'm not sure. The may not have been any great historical consumption and hence no demand for it now, or it could be a fear of contamination etc.

As you can see from earlier on this thread, in the USA scallops must be landed as the abductor muscle only, so no roe.

Sardina pilchardus, as the name suggests called either a 'Sardine'or 'Pilchard' depending who you are or who you are trying to sell them to. Found throughout the Mediterranean to southern England, "Sardines" have become a bit of a symbol of "sun and Med. lifestyle", while "Pilchards" are what poor people eat or you feed to the cat, so they have undergone somwhat of an image makeover and the English pilchard has now become a sardine. The English population tends to get bigger then the Meds, but they taste the same. These were filleted and parmesan and herb crusted.

I was at a seminar last year where the president of the German Immunological society was speaking on bird flu. At this stage there were no outbreaks in Europe, but a lot of monitoring had taken place. Interestingly there were a great cluster of case on the Russian border in central asia (as there was no monitoring in central Asia itself, the only way to working out how widespread the virus was in these areas was by watching borders). These clusters outbreaks in cenral asia are occurng in regions were there isn't and has't been intensive poultry farms - but it is on the major migratory bird flight path. Virology isn't my thing (thank Christ), but several things seem entirely logical to me. - Bird flu has been present in bird populations for a long time - You are likely to detect virulent strains more readily in domestic birds as not body has taken much notice of of dead wild birds really (until now) - The 1959 Scottish outbreak would seem to fall into this catagorie. - lots of birds together will result in more rapid spread and potentially mutation rate of the virus - we have more chickens in the world now, so therefore virus pandemics are more likely. But, I'm also pretty sure that birds raised as free range are just as likley to be infected as much more intensively raised birds. I think that it is biomass, rather then how humane the husbandry conditions are that are the issue. I hate the way that the issue of animal welfare and product quality are ignored in the UK when it comes to chickens (if anything demostrates that the 'food revolution' in the UK is mostly bullshit, then this is it) and are a complete bore about it, but even if all the poultry farms in the UK changed to humane free range etc, this is not going to effect the likelihood of developing pathogenic viruses I would think.

A wicker basket I believe. There is also story of a bishop sewing the fins cut off by a servant back on, as they were the best bit.

A very good price then. The only problem is cooking the buggers whole.

How very foreward of them.

Maybe, but 3 kg isn't that big for a turbot (aquaculture market size fish are up to 4 kg), and as the majority of turbot I see now are farmed, I would ask if you were concerned.

Farmed or wild turbot? £18/kg seems very cheap, but the size is a little larger then the what I would expect from a farmed turbot.

It is also made in Croatia (well the Istrian bit) and has potato, so this seems to be a widespread dish in this area.

One has to wonder how intensive chicken farming was in 1878 and how avian influenza virus was identified to such a precise temporal and geographic point. H5N1 was first identified from an Aberdeen chicken, from the 1959 outbreak, but this is a very different thing to saying it 'lethal bird flu entirely man-made'. I can imagine that birds have been dropping dead from flu now and again for some time. That high stocking levels and large human populations makes pandemics a more likely prospect is not really an issue either. High population densities will result in increase diesase outcomes, not sure that this is such a surprise. The emphasis of the article is that wild birds are not to blame, but rather high stock levels. To be honest I doubt that there is such a black and white distinction between one possible source and another, it's more likely that they are inter-related. The fact that some peasants overreacted and killed some geese (from their statements and actions, the 'killing them due to flu' sounds slight dodgy), doesn't mean that national goverments are going start topping wild animals as some sort of scapegoat for these man-made issues (excepting the Canadian gov., obviously).

From the flavour of it I would say caraway. From google, I would say caraway with a few mistranslations as 'cumin'. The Swedish for caraway is "Kummin". Stupid Europeans.

Aquavit?

Did it look more like this? from what I could find, this seems to be the Asian variant. In Japan it is called nanohana. I had always assumed it was the same but I have never seen broccoli raab in the US and looking at pictures I found it does look a little different. ← "Nanohana" means "Canola" (rape/rapeseed in the UK). I assume a different form of the plant then is grown for the seeds to produce oil as these would be very tough.

Actually, having a baby has almost brought my cooking to a complete stop (although, strangely it has the opposite effect on weight gain). Burnley Pie 8 oz dried figs (rehydrated overnight) 2 eggs 4 oz suet 4 oz brown sugar 6 oz breadcrumbs 1 large tablespoon syrup milk Butter a basin very well. Mix all ingredients and added milk until a soft dropping consitency is reached. Add to basin and tie top with pleated, buttered foil. Boil for 2.5 hours. Serve with custard. It would be good with the addition of a pinch ginger, salt and mabe walnuts or pecans.

Carraway is also known as "Cumino tedesco, Carvi, Caro" in various parts of Italy. I'm rather curious about this as I know of many. many recipes that call for cabbage cooked with carraway, but not any cooked with cumin (I prefer the flavour of the later though fow what it is worth).

So what was in the cialzons?

Better cooks then me might be able to do this estimate he final flavour of stock added at the begining, but I find this difficult unless I make the stock specifically for the stock. Also, for bean soup the only stock I have made is veg. stiock made with some prosciutto fat and rind, but I can't see why a fish stock wouldn't work (I think that this would be good with chickpeas).

Cumin? But you said....

Canned beans taste of the can I'm afraid and the best you can do for them is to try and add other flavours to compensate for this, but as this is the base flavour, basically what you are doing is trying to take 'blah, flavour and make it into something not quite so blah. Try dried beans and build on that. Also a drizzle of the best quality olive oil you can get also helps. What I do is to cook the bean slowly in a minimum of water and a lot of olive oil, plus garlic and sage, pepper. Broth or water is added to make the soups as thick or as thin as I want. Salt is important with beans. People don't add enough salt to food sometimes and in somes cases like soup, often bland flavours are a result of to little salt.