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"Baby" Vegetables


rotuts

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Baby this and Baby that

 

that baby spinach you get at TJ's has no flavor at all.

 

those baby carrots , you see on your plate at the Three Star /

 

this is ConAqgra and AggrqaCon 

 

doing a bate and Switch 

 

if CA and AC sell you their stuff 

 

Early  

 

they get their money now.  not after the 

 

e.coli and pests reduce their profit. 

 

mature spoinach is a gift from the garden

 

baby spinach is flavorless.

 

cheers and thanks for all your pic of the food your are making.

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16 hours ago, rotuts said:

that baby spinach you get at TJ's has no flavor at all.

 

those baby carrots , you see on your plate at the Three Star /

 

I've always felt this and agree with @rotuts - the baby vegetables are, for the most part, tasteless. I got some local spinach, still in bunches with dirt clinging to it. After lots of cleaning, and a simple sauté, the difference in taste between this stuff and the clamshell crap, is night and day.

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Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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3 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I've always felt this and agree with @rotuts - the baby vegetables are, for the most part, tasteless. I got some local spinach, still in bunches with dirt clinging to it. After lots of cleaning, and a simple sauté, the difference in taste between this stuff and the clamshell crap, is night and day.

Agree on the packaged "baby" - curse of the 80's .However freshly harvested from garden or from farmers market there is an innocent sweetness. Tiny zucchini are delightful. Spinach though - no baby please. I want that mineral taste. I have been known to "educate" people in line at market. I see the bag of baby spinach, ask what it is destined for, and strongly suggest even the frozen mature if you want to actually taste spinach.

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8 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

I've always felt this and agree with @rotuts - the baby vegetables are, for the most part, tasteless. I got some local spinach, still in bunches with dirt clinging to it. After lots of cleaning, and a simple sauté, the difference in taste between this stuff and the clamshell crap, is night and day.

One baby veg that's awfully good is baby collards. They can be sautéed like chard, quickly, with no need to boil. I admit I am no fan of long cooked collards, but if you chiffonade the baby ones and cook them with garlic, then add some smoky broth and simmer for ten minutes or so, they are really good. Finish with a splash of vinegar and a tsp of Steen's.

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5 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

One baby veg that's awfully good is baby collards. They can be sautéed like chard, quickly, with no need to boil. I admit I am no fan of long cooked collards, but if you chiffonade the baby ones and cook them with garlic, then add some smoky broth and simmer for ten minutes or so, they are really good. Finish with a splash of vinegar and a tsp of Steen's.

This is fine, as long as the huge, tough leaves are also available.  My idea of heaven is porky, long cooked collards with a hint of sweetness, a touch of vinegar and showers of black pepper.  If I were confronted with only "baby" collards, I would be tempted to toss them in the face of the produce manager.  😁

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4 hours ago, Kim Shook said:

This is fine, as long as the huge, tough leaves are also available.  My idea of heaven is porky, long cooked collards with a hint of sweetness, a touch of vinegar and showers of black pepper.  If I were confronted with only "baby" collards, I would be tempted to toss them in the face of the produce manager.  😁

Baby collard sellers take note. Kim's a comin' for y'all!

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What next?  Some chef is going to fill a salad bowl with lettuce, carrot, spinach and radish seeds and call it "Unborn Veggie Salad".

All the foodies looking for the latest trend will worship at his feet.  Baby carrots are usually just old tough ones peeled down to

almost their cores and pretty tasteless.  

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13 hours ago, IowaDee said:

Baby carrots are usually just old tough ones peeled down to almost their cores and pretty tasteless.  

 

Not necessarily. For sure, that was how "old tough ones peeled down" were and are marketed, all ready to eat.

 

But I see real immature carrots at farmer's market and other places I shop for produce. Both of which are pretty tasteless. And require some prep.

 

Haricots verts were never really marketed as baby vegetables (I  don't think). But the French have always been cooler than us when it comes to produce.

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Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

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15 hours ago, IowaDee said:

Baby carrots are usually just old tough ones peeled down to almost their cores and pretty tasteless.  

 

You need to change your grocer. Baby carrots are a thing and it's easy to tell the difference between them and carved old tough ones. Whether they are worth eating is a whole other question. I have no problem with them.

 

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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17 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

You need to change your grocer. Baby carrots are a thing and it's easy to tell the difference between them and carved old tough ones. Whether they are worth eating is a whole other question. I have no problem with them.

 

Yes, but unfortunately the majority of shoppers (perhaps more so on this continent) are clueless and see a bag of pre-cut, nearly perfectly uniform shaped 'baby' carrots and gobble them up.  Unbeknownst to them they are, as mentioned, just whittled away larger carrots that have been soaked in a sugar bath solution to create the impression of a sweet 'baby' carrot. 

 

Now, baby bok choi, baby zucchini, baby potatoes, and certainly baby lettuces - sign me up all day long.

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I currently have one grocery store and no farmers' market.  The store likes the idea of bigger is better when it come to carrots, cukes, zucchinis and more.  The baby carrots are pre-packaged and from out of state.  Will be very happy when shopping trips involve choices again!  

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