pen_h

You've hit the nail on the head here. Humans, as omnivores, have natural reactions to certain flavors and mouthfeels to protect us from poisoning. We're designed not to like bitter, moldy, slimy, grainy... and foamy. Foams can be the result of certain bacteria. The "ewww" factor is built-in. However, certain societies have overcome some of those tendencies - some of us eat blue cheese (mold), okra (slime), etc. When we're surrounded by people we trust and they encourage us to eat a food, and have obvious enjoyment in eating it themselves, we overcome our natural tendencies and may grow to love that food too. The younger you are when first encouraged to do this, the easier it is. Also, there's the spit association - in many cultures eating someone else's spit is viewed with disgust. Observant Brahmins (hindu) might even avoid food that someone else has tasted, because it might be contaminated by their saliva. On the other extreme, in traditional cultures mothers might chew food and spit it out to give to their young children. It's not only for kids - some versions of chicha beer call for the corn to be chewed by someone before the beer is brewed. I would guess that an unusually large proportion of people on this list are neophiles who like to try new things. Neophobes eat what they're used to, and don't like change. Later in life, neophiles are more likely to be able to overcome their natural disgust mechanism to try new things like foam on food.

I've been accused of buying any book I see with "food" or "cooking" in the title. And that might be true. Here's one I bought some time ago - Cooking as Therapy by Louis Parrish, M.D., 1975. Contents include: The Compulsive Cook; Accepting Failure; The Cooking Compromise; The Psychology of Leftovers; Using Hostility; Shopping Therapy; Releasing Tension in the Kitchen; Pounding and Hacking; Preventative Eating; Role-Playing in the Kitchen; The Seduction Dinners,; Cooking As Tranquilizer; The Elusiveness of Perfection He's got some interesting points - such as that if you're down, you shouldn't try a new recipe - if it fails you'll be even more depressed.

Is celery root / celeriac included in the discussion? Of the two roots, I definitely prefer carrots. I like celery leaves (in moderation; they're bitter) and often use them as a substitute for parsley in cooking. Chinese celery can be gorgeous - again, with all those leaves, it's bitter raw. A gorgeous recipe that includes carrots and chinese celery, from Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider - rice noodles, chinese celery, carrots, cilantro, scallions, peanut oil, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, sweet pickled ginger, chillis, sesame seeds. Very lightly cooked, the sweet of the carrots plays against the bitter of the celery leaves and the sour of the lime juice, wonderfully refreshing summer dish.

I'm jealous of all that well-seasoned cast iron! The oldest thing in my kitchen with a date on it is an Old Mr. Boston De Luxe Official Bartender's Guide, 6th printing, November 1946. The oldest thing without a date - Any ideas what this might be? It's in my kitchen, apartment in New York City built in around 1923. It's under the window on an outside wall, so it gets cold in the winter. Metal, and I apologize for the poor quality photo! My great aunt used to keep soda pop in it in the winter.

I'm not sure that there's a single set of food rules that is going to work for everyone. Eastern medicine has different recommendations for different people who have what appears to be the same condition, depending on their body type and personality - this method was used for thousands of years in the West, until only a couple hundred years ago. Some people may benefit from lowering saturated fat intake. Some might even benefit from low-fat dairy products, although it's possible that the body doesn't recognize them as low fat and sends funny signals to the brain. Some may benefit from general weight loss, or more exercise, or reducing processed foods, or... And some might even benefit from adding a supplement or eating a lot of a specific ingredient. But supplements are processed and don't necessarily contain everything that the original ingredient has - something may be missing. And single ingredients as "heal-alls" go in and out of fashion. Oh, except garlic, which has been called a cure for all kinds of things for at least 3,000 years!

The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclair in 1905, was about the plight of the working class and also brought to light corruption in the meatpacking industry. Most readers ignored the plight stuff and concentrated on the corruption - as Sinclair said, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." Foreign sales of American meat fell by one half, and US sales of prepacked meat also fell by one half. Let's say that it wasn't the cleanest, healthiest meat that was ending up in cans.

An amazing book - Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by renowned primatologist Richard Wrangham. Highly recommended study of how our evolution was based in a large part on cooking. Another book that talks about human evolution and diet is Why Some Like It Hot - Food, Genes, And Cultural Diversity by ethnobiologist and nutritional ecologist Gary Paul Nabhan. A lot of interesting information on genetics and food. The author discusses and rejects neolithic diets (and there have been many of them). For there to be one diet that all our ancestors ate, the food must have been the same wherever humans lived. Floras and faunas can change in the matter of just ten miles, and the human diet must shift as it adapts to newly occupied habitats. Humans in Northwest Europe and parts of Eastern Africa were at times mainly herding, and they may have had milk as a major part of their diet in some situations - the genetic mutation of lactose tolerance must have allowed them to live through tough times when there was little else to eat. Genetic mutations like this can happen fairly quickly, becoming prevalent in hundreds or thousands of years rather than millions. How many other personal quirks do each of us have that are related to genetics? Is one diet suitable for everyone? I think not.

I got a cotton jelly bag - something like this (you can also get one with a stand, like this)- and it's much less messy than using cheesecloth or muslin for something like this. The squeezing-through trick works great. And I also use it for draining yogurt - there was a yogurt string here a few months ago but I can't find it. Anyway, that's off-topic...

Watercress, Belgian endive, oranges, and cilantro, in a very light orange juice/olive oil dressing. Refreshing and hearty, a good winter salad. Pear and fennel with lots of shavings of parmigiano, with as much fruity olive oil and fresh-ground tellicherry pepper as you think you can get away with. Warms you up a little; a good reason to look forward to fall. Arugula, mozzarella, and (once again) olive oil and pepper Any Thai salad, although I usually end up with the green papaya at a minimum. Thai food is too addictive. And it should be hot enough that it's "so good you can't breathe"

There's nothing like being away to appreciate what you always had so easily before. Since moving to New York six years ago I've managed to find some UK ingredients and substitute others. Talk of butterscotch angel delight makes me want to hop on a plane - but maybe my tastes have changed since I was six as well. And lamb neck was always one of my top treats as a student... you can barely get lamb over here, the cuts are very limited. But salad cream is something I know I've grown out of - last time I had it I asked myself what on earth I'd been craving it for? Vinegar- and artificial-stuff-flavoured miracle whip. But I have to admit, it is good mashed up with hard boiled eggs...

Intellectual property protection for recipes is notoriously weak, unless you want to spend a lot of time and money and get a patent. A patent would give you the right to be the only person or company to use the recipe. You'd have to patent in all the countries you feel you would be at risk or would want to protect yourself, and you'd have to keep an eye out and sue anyone infringing your patent - it's only a right to protect yourself, the government doesn't police this at all. This is an extremely expensive proposition. Patents - This route is usually only used by large food manufacturing companies, as they can afford to use it. For an example, go to www.uspto.gov and search for patent 6,783,782 - Grooved freezer-to-oven pizza crust - owned by Pillsbury. They note the size, shape, position of grooves, and other detailed information. If they found anyone else doing the same thing, they could sue them for infringement. You could put together your own US patent for a few thousand dollars (plus renewal fees), but if you brought in a lawyer it could easily cost tens of thousands. And that's before you sue anyone. Design patents - Design patents are utilized to protect the novel ornamental features of a utilitarian object. I haven't looked at how this applies to recipes, but especially with visual presentations, this may be a way forward. But again, it would be expensive (although much cheaper than a utility patent) and will need to be defended. Copyright - A mere listing of ingredients for a recipe is not copyrightable. However, if eg. a cookbook or other author spices up his or her recipes with explanatory material, such material is protectible. One court has suggested that this could include advice on wines to go with the meal, hints on place settings and appropriate music, or tales of a recipe’s historical or ethnic origin. (Publications Int’l Ltd v. Meredith Corp., 88 F.3d 473 (7th Cir. 1996) http://www.pddoc.com/copyright/publications_v_meredith.htm. Photographs or drawings included in a cookbook would also be copyrightable unless taken from other public domain sources. Keep in mind, however, that it is only the individual bare-bones recipes that are in the public domain. A collection of numerous recipes can be protected as a compilation. But in this event the copyright only extends to the selection and arrangements of the recipes as a whole. The individual recipes are still not protected. Copyright of photographs - Only photos that are original can have copyright protection. What can be protected is: - The way the photograph is made – choice of time, light exposure, camera angle or perspective, etc - The arrangement of the people, scenery, or other subjects depicted - A photo that recreates a scene unlikely to recur, eg a battle between an elephant and a tiger So, the item that is photographed can't really be protected - you could photograph a similar subject with different artistic choices without infringing photograph copyright. This information all comes from various NOLO books, especially The public domain – how to find & use copyright-free writings, music, art & more by Stephen Fishman, 2004. NOLO have easy-to-read legal books, and I love them.