Remember ham glazed with Coke?

[Chad]

Dang, Coke's PR people are busy this morning.

In what is surely one of the most unholy alliances ever, the CIA has whored itself out to the Coca-Cola company.

"With more home cooks experimenting in the kitchen, we asked The Culinary Institute of America to explore the flavors our wide array of beverages can bring to cooking," said Donna Shields, M.S., R.D., manager of health and nutrition strategic communications at The Coca-Cola Company. "These new recipes demonstrate how beverages can be incorporated into every-day recipes to deliver contemporary, big flavors, with moderate calories in mind."

Cooking with carbonated beverages has roots dating back to the 1950s when Coca-Cola Classic® was used in cakes, ham glazes and pot roasts. Today, however, this culinary technique transcends Coca-Cola Classic® and features the expanded family of Coca-Cola beverages including diet Coke®, Sprite®, Vanilla Coke®, Barq's® regular and diet Root Beer, Minute Maid® Premium Orange Juice, Minute Maid® Lemonade and Odwalla® juice. The nineteen recipes created by The Culinary Institute of America for The Coca-Cola Company feature appetizers, breakfast foods, dishes for dinner, beverages and desserts.

The recipes include new twists on traditional favorites, such as Lemony- Honey Glazed Pork Chops, made with Diet Lemon Coke®; Oven-baked Chicken Wings with Sweet & Tangy Mustard Sauce made with Barq's Root Beer; and Light Lime Cheesecake created with Minute Maid® Limonada. They also include more modern favorites, such as Baked Nachos with Braised Chicken, Peppers and Onions, made with diet Coke; Lemonade-Yogurt-Granola Breakfast Parfait which uses Minute Maid® Light Lemonade; and Mango Passion Sorbet, made with Odwalla® Mango Tango Juice and Minute Maid® Premium Orange Passion Juice Blend.

Nasty.

If you want to learn how to create these taste sensations, check 'em out here.

Chad

[fresco]

If you're inclined to drink Coke or its corporate cousins, it probably doesn't seem like a big departure to cook with it, or them. I'll stick with wine for drinking and cooking.

[alacarte]

Hilarious.

I have a copy of The Gallery of Regrettable Food -- there's a whole retro-section on recipes with 7-up from (I think?) the late 50s/early 60s. Every recipe sounds perfectly awful and was justly mocked in the book.

This sounds very familar.

[Jinmyo]

Perhaps Chef Ricky B can get in on this action.

[Chad]

Ya know, they obviously spent some time and money on this project. The website is well designed and the photography is top notch. What weirds me out is stuff like this:

Chef Stephanie’s Personal Philosophy on Cooking Healthy

Good food and good health naturally go together. When you use fresh, natural ingredients in creating your meals, those flavors shine and it just so happens that you get the benefit of good nutrition along with that great tasting meal.

Really? By dumping a couple of cups of Coke into a dish?

Chad

[thin mint]

I replaced the bourbon in Alton's city ham glaze/crust recipe with Dr. Pepper, and came out very good.

[Keith Talent]

Ironic, because I replaced the Dr. Pepper in my glass with bourbon last time I was thirsty and that too turned out well. Who knew Dr. Pepper and bourbon were interchangeable.

[Chris Cognac]

I cant believe nobody here has made Coca Cola pot roast.....can of tomato sauce, package of onion soup mix, can of coke...pour it over the roast and cook that bad boy. I made 2 for thanksgiving a few years ago and they were a big hit!

Maybe if they had a Coca Cola, fois gras, truffle dish more people here would have tried!

[Pan]

Just remember, there's no accounting for taste.

[fifi]

Coke glazed ham is an old southern classic. Beyond that, I would NOT go.

[Pan]

Can't be really old.

[docsconz]

Bon Appetit had cherry coke marinated ribs as a cover recipe last summer. The ribs were outstanding. The acid in the soda makes a great tenderizer. Don't knock it till you try it.

[fifi]

You dear sweet boy.

I know it is older than 50 years. By first hand experience. My mother used to make it.

[Mabelline]

From everything I ever heard, during war ration years, sometimes people could not get sugars or syrups, and that's when the phenominal numbers of sody pop recipes came to be. Don't knock em til you try em; they are good.

[Pan]

Fifi, how old is Coke? Late 19th century, right (and in those days, it contained cocaine)? Surely not as old as collards and sweet potato pie and blackeyed peas and all the other things that make up classic Southern cuisine.

[caroline]

We have to get Swiss Miss in on this. She has a great line on the use of Coke in cooking.

Rachel

[fifi]

Fifi, how old is Coke? Late 19th century, right (and in those days, it contained cocaine)? Surely not as old as collards and sweet potato pie and blackeyed peas and all the other things that make up classic Southern cuisine.

Now that you mention it but I am not quite sure how old Coke is. But it is certainly older than me. I think you are pretty close on the history.

Now I am curious as to when it was first applied to ham. I know my mother and grandmother did it during the war, probably because of the sugar rationing thing. My sister remembers them doing that before I was born. I think they would also get some of the syrup from Mr. Balfanz at the drugstore with the typical soda fountain to "kick it up". At least, that is what my sister remembers.

[Jinmyo]

From everything I ever heard, during war ration years, sometimes people could not get sugars or syrups, and that's when the phenominal numbers of sody pop recipes came to be. Don't knock em til you try em; they are good.

Your first point makes very good sense. Thank you.

Your second is dubious at best. One doesn't need to consume garbage to know thatr it will taste like it smells.

[docsconz]

Your second is dubious at best. One doesn't need to consume garbage to know thatr it will taste like it smells.

Dos that apply to stinky cheese. Not IMO. I'll repeat, don't knock it til you try it. It really is good. And yes, I like fois gras and uni and epoisses too

[Jinmyo]

Welcome to it.

And stinky cheese stinks deliciously.

[dumpling]

Bon Appetit had cherry coke marinated ribs as a cover recipe last summer. The ribs were outstanding. The acid in the soda makes a great tenderizer. Don't knock it till you try it.

Hey made that a lot last summer. My family went ga ga over it.

[Mayhaw Man]

Coke glazed ham is an old southern classic. Beyond that, I would NOT go.

Invented in Atlanta by a pharmacist, John Pemberton .

Bottled in Vicksburg, MS and Monroe, LA (cool museum in Vicksburg if you are ever passing through on I-20) by Joe Biedenharn (who incidentally also helped found Delta Airlines which started in Monroe, LA as a offshoot of a crop dusting service).

This was actual classroom learning where I grew up, as it had a great deal to do with the history and development of Monroe, my humble hometown.

Incidentally, just to get back on topic-I like Coca Cola basted ham. And for those of you that have it (I saw it over and over again in the cookbook thread, so I assuming at least some of you do) The Cotton Country Collection has a recipe for Coca Cola Chocolate Poundcake. The cake is o.k. but I make the icing all of the time for a number of different confections. It is pretty knocked out.

[Pan]

Thanks for that link, Brooks. I actually Googled for "Coca Cola history" and wasn't able to find what I was looking for.

[Chad]

Coke glazed ham is an old southern classic. Beyond that, I would NOT go.

Invented in Atlanta by a pharmacist, John Pemberton .

Bottled in Vicksburg, MS and Monroe, LA (cool museum in Vicksburg if you are ever passing through on I-20) by Joe Biedenharn (who incidentally also helped found Delta Airlines which started in Monroe, LA as a offshoot of a crop dusting service).

This was actual classroom learning where I grew up, as it had a great deal to do with the history and development of Monroe, my humble hometown.

Incidentally, just to get back on topic-I like Coca Cola basted ham. And for those of you that have it (I saw it over and over again in the cookbook thread, so I assuming at least some of you do) The Cotton Country Collection has a recipe for Coca Cola Chocolate Poundcake. The cake is o.k. but I make the icing all of the time for a number of different confections. It is pretty knocked out.

Two points. One, Brooks and I are gonna have to duke it out over our Coca-Cola history.

• May 8, 1886 - First Coca-Cola served in Jacob's Pharmacy, Atlanta
  
• May 29, 1886 - An ad appears for Coca-Cola in the Atlanta Journal. This is the earliest known ad for the soft drink
  
• June 28, 1887 - The name Coca-Cola is trademarked by John S. Pemberton
  
• April 14, 1891 - Asa Chandler completes his purchase of Coca-Cola
  
• January 29, 1892 - Coca-Cola is incorporated.
  January 31, 1893 - Coca-Cola patented
  
• July 21, 1899 - Bejamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead, two Chattanooga (History of Chattanooga, Tennessee) businessmen, receive approval on their plan to bottle Coca-Cola
  

Proving conclusively that Coca-Cola was first bottled in my hometown of Chattanooga, TN (also home of the Moon Pie). Don't ever let this obviously confused Louisiana boy lead you astray.

Second point. Coke-glazed ham is indeed a southern classic. I don't like it, but I'm not dissing it, either.

HOWEVER, does anyone see the value in French Toast that contains 3, count them 3, cups of Vanilla Coke? Or salmon that requires 1-1/2 cups of Coke? Does that make sense to anyone? And it's especially galling after platitudes like this

Chef Stephanie’s Word-to-the-Wise

Think of how to make a meal more nutritious by adding healthy ingredients, as opposed to taking away your favorite foods.

Hrumph!

Chad

[Andy Lynes]

Nigella Lawson cooked ham in coke on her British TV series so at least there is some sort of precedent for the CIA.