Sweetness

Because Christmas is coming.

"Truly" mad

"For me, a crust should be thin in the middle, thicker at the edge, and crisp with holes in it, like an artisanal rustic loaf. It should offer up a bit of chew, but never be bready or dense, and it should have a hint of char in places - ideally on the bubbles that arise around the edge and underneath. 

"Most of all it should be light and have a slightly complex flavor to it, not floury or yeasty tasting...

"The temperature in your kitchen, how accurately you measure your ingredients, whether you leave your dough in the fridge to thaw, how long you leave it wrapped on the counter before stretching it, how long you let it sit on the peel before putting it in the oven, and of course, how hot (or not) your oven is. 

"All of these things and more will contribute to each pie being slightly different, but that doesn't mean they won't all be delicious." 

Suzanne Lenzer in "Truly Madly Pizza: One Incredibly Easy Crust, Countless Inspired Combinations & Other Tidbits to Make Pizza a Nightly Affair"

Reconsidering beef

Those already ambivalent about beef won't be surprised by the revelations in Denis Hayes and Gail Boyer Hayes' book "Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 Million Cows on America's Health, Economy, Politics, Culture and Environment."

Much of what the authors say regarding the cattle industry will sound familiar. They echo sentiments expressed by Frances Moore Lappe ("Diet for a Small Planet"), Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") and Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma").

In this substantial volume, the Hayeses, longtime sustainability advocates, rail against the treatment of livestock in feedlots across the country. They bemoan factory farming where animals are treated "with about the same level of respect that an automobile manufacturer feels for a piece of sheet metal." They find themselves championing alternatives such as "organic foods, locally grown foods and vegetarian diets." 

The Hayeses recognize from the outset the tremendous carbon footprints cows leave. Feedlot beef, for example, "produces five times more global warming per calorie" than pork or poultry. It takes 11 times more water and uses 28 times as much land. 

The conditions in which cows are often raised are frightening to consider. A place "that is hell for cows is paradise for germs." Pollutants in feedlots and lagoons, where farmers store animal sewage, can "rise into the air and travel long distances on the wind," and also sink into groundwater.

Discussions on processed beef filled with "nitrates and nitrites (and sometimes nitrosamines)" and bull castration make meat consumption less than appetizing as well. The authors present a strong case here against feedlot beef, giving readers significant and serious food for thought.

(A version of this review appeared originally at Publishers Weekly.)

To be "Wary"

Fears about food safety in the United States run rampant. Instances of food contamination during the manufacturing process or food poisoning often make national headlines. 

In "Eat, Drink, and Be Wary: How Unsafe is Our Food?" veteran journalist Charles M. Duncan proves these fears are not unfounded. Bit by bit, he examines the "scope of each dangerous issue," the reasons why the government has failed to protect consumers, and the consequences of such lax oversight.

Contamination can affect every "phase of our food chain, from the wheat and corn fields, grazing cattle, slaughterhouses, egg farms and dairies to our oceans and bays." Global imports generally do not get properly or sufficiently inspected either.

The FDA, for example, inspects less than two percent of foods shipped from China. Meanwhile, more than half of Chinese food processing and packaging firms regularly fail that country's own safety inspections.

Chapters on items such as produce, poultry and eggs highlight similar themes. According to Duncan, the American government drags its feet and occasionally keeps secret public information about enforcement, closures and seizures. It protects big businesses at the expense of individuals.

Subsequent discussions on milk, seafood and processed meats strike cautionary tones as well. Cases of fish fraud are especially worrisome.

Though not the most optimistic - or appetizing, for that matter - volume on modern-day food production, Duncan's work is comprehensive. Readers concerned with the safety and reliability of their foods will certainly appreciate his efforts.

(A version of this review appeared originally at Publishers Weekly.)

The lentil underground

"As I listened to the people who came up to chat after my shows, it dawned on me that life in the heartland was not what I'd thought. 

"Farming had become a grueling industrial occupation, squeezed between the corporations that sold farmers their chemicals and the corporations that bought their grain. 

"To my disappointment, I discovered that most American farmers weren't actually growing food but rather raw ingredients for big food processors. These multinational corporations dictated everything their growers did, from the seeds they planted to the expensive fertilizers and herbicides they needed to grow them. 

"It was a losing game for the farmers, who kept sinking further into debt as their input costs rose and grain prices fell. But the arrangement was great for the corporations, which kept right on dealing chemicals to their captive suppliers of cheap corn, soy and wheat. 

"Flush with marketing dollars, Big Food was working hard to convince middle America that their folksy branded products were the protectors of the family farm and its wholesome values."

Liz Carlisle in "Lentil Underground: Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America"

Dense and dark

Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake from Nigella Lawson

from Kristen Miglore's "Food52 Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook"

1 cup soft unsalted butter
1 2/3 cups packed dark brown or dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup plus 2 Tbsps. boiling water

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put a baking sheet on a lower rack in case of sticky drips later. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper. The lining is important as this is a very damp cake. Use parchment paper or one of those loaf-pan-shaped paper liners.

Cream the butter and brown sugar, either with a wooden spoon or with an electric mixer, then add the eggs and vanilla, beating in well. Next fold in the melted and now slightly cooled chocolate, taking care to blend well but being careful not to overbeat. You want the ingredients combined. You don't want a light, airy mass.

Mix the flour and baking soda and gently add the flour mixture to the batter, alternately spoon by spoon with the boiling water until you have a smooth and fairly liquid batter. Pour into the lined loaf pan. (Note: Don't let this batter come closer than 1 inch from the rim of the loaf pan or it risks overflowing. Pour any excess into a smaller cake or muffin pan.) Bake for 30 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 325 degrees F and continue to bake for another 15 minutes. The cake will still be a bit squidgy inside, so an inserted cake tester or skewer won't come out completely clean.

Place the loaf pan on a rack and leave it to get completely cold before turning it out. (Lawson often leaves it for a day or so. Like gingerbread, it improves.) Don't worry if it sinks in the middle. Indeed it will do so because it's such a dense and damp cake. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Eating local

"Because barbecue is connected so strongly to place, it has always inspired a certain amount of local chauvinism. Have I engaged in any of this smoky braggadocio myself? Are the beef brisket sandwiches and short ribs I eat in my hometown heavily laced with nostalgia? 

"Was I accurately described by a newspaper reporter and trencherman I'll call Charlie Plum when he referred to me in print as someone who 'has built a career on exaggerating the virtues of his hometown's barbecue'? Well, yes, of course...

"Despite what was implied by Plum, who grew up in Akron at a time when that city was noted for fashioning objects out of rubber in both its tire factories and its restaurants, a little local pride is nothing to be ashamed of."

Calvin Trillin in "Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, From Kansas City to Cuzco"

Bread

"All sorrows are less with bread."

Miguel de Cervantes

Peaches in pie

Georgia Peach Pie

from Cheryl Day and Griffith Day's "Back in the Day Bakery Made with Love"

1 extra-flaky pie crust

2 1/2 pounds peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/4-inch slices

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. fine sea salt

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1 large egg, lightly beaten with a pinch of fine sea salt for egg wash

coarse sugar or raw sugar for sprinkling

Roll out one disk of dough, fit it into a 9-inch pie pan, and refrigerate for 30 minutes, then "dock" the bottom of the crust and return it to the refrigerator. 

Roll out the second disk, cut into lattice strips, place on a baking sheet and refrigerate.

Put the peaches in a large bowl, add the lemon zest and lemon juice, and toss gently.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, allspice and ginger. Gently toss the peaches with this mixture.

Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust. Use the chilled dough strips to form a lattice over the filling crust. Put the pie on a rimmed baking sheet and put in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to set the crust.

Meanwhile, position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove the pie from the refrigerator and brush the pie crust with the egg wash. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. 

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling. 

Remove the pie from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 2 to 3 hours.

The pie can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 day or refrigerated for up to 2 days. Makes 8 servings.

for the extra-flaky pie crust:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. fine sea salt

1/2 cup ice water

1 Tbsp. cider vinegar

1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter cut into 1-inch cubes

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a measuring cup or a small bowl, combine the water and cider vinegar. Set aside.

Toss the butter in the flour mixture to gently coat it. Then use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour. You should have various-sized pieces of butter, ranging from sandy patches to pea-sized chunks, with some larger bits as well. 

Drizzle in about half of the ice water mixture and stir lightly with a fork until the flour is evenly moistened and the dough starts to come together. 

If the dough seems dry, add a little more ice water 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time. The dough will still look a bit shaggy at this point. If you grab a small piece of dough and press it slightly with your hand, it should mostly hold together.

Dump the dough out onto an un-floured work surface and gather it together into a tight mound. 

Using the heel of your hand, smear the dough a little at a time, pushing it away from you and working your way down the mass of dough to create flat layers of flour and butter. 

Then gather the dough back together with a bench scraper, layering the clumps of dough on top of one another. 

Repeat the process once or twice more; the dough should still have some big pieces of butter visible.

Cut the dough in half. Shape each piece into a disk and flatten it. Wrap the disks in plastic and put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or overnight, to rest.

The dough can be stored for 3 days in the refrigerator or up to 1 month in the freezer. If frozen, defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Makes 2 9-inch pie crusts.

Pure "Genius"

"These recipes are about reworking what we've been taught and skipping past all the canonical versions to a smarter way...

"Here in this collection are more than one hundred of the most surprising and essential genius recipes. Some are greatest hits from the column that keep inspiring new conversations and winning new fans... My hope is that this book, held together, can act as an alternative kitchen eduction of sorts..."

Kristen Miglore in "Food52 Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook"

Cookie monsters

"A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand."

Barbara Johnson

Guy walks into a bar

"A guy walks into a bar. It's the oldest setup there is. But what happens next?

"I was at my local pub contemplating a water-ringed beer list, a wall of tap handles, and a packed fridge. I saw a pale ale brewed 20 million gallons at a time and a triple IPA made in a jerry-rigged turkey frier in a garage down the street. 

"I saw a traditional, light-bodied British porter and an extra-strong, cacao-infused imperial stout stored in bourbon barrels. One beer was brewed with hours-old hops, freshly plucked in an Oregon field; another had been aged for eighteen months with acidic bacteria - critters more common in vinegar and pickle brines.

"There were pilsners and ambers, red ales and browns, wheat beers and rye beers and spelt beers; there were three-dollar happy hour specials and thirty-dollar vintage bottles, corked and foil-wrapped like fine Champagne. 

"Bitter or sweet, smooth or strong, fruity or dry, dark or light, it was all there, in dizzying glory. So - the bartender tapped his fingers - what'll it be?"

William Bostwick in "The Brewer's Tale: A History of the World According to Beer"

A veggie diet

"Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie."

Jim Davis

And then some

Few things in the food world offer as much comfort consistently.

On Champagne and shoes

"I prefer to spend my money on a bottle of Champagne at the Ritz in Paris than on a pair of shoes. I'll always remember the Champagne. I'll never remember the shoes."

Ferran Adria

Simple truths

"Culinary art is not solely the making of a sumptuous dish; not at all! It can be magnificently achieved in preparing the most common and simple dishes.

"Do you think it is easy to prepare a fried egg without the white being tough, the yolk heated but not overdone? Have you often had fried potatoes golden brown to a turn, creamily soft inside and crusty? And the ordinary pot-au-feu of our grandmothers. Have you often tasted it with appreciation and surprise? That is when it is deliciously perfumed, soft and juicy but still firm.

"The triumph of cooking is to be able to produce the simple things so that they taste as they were meant to."

James Beard in "Delights and Prejudices"

"Appetites..."

"From the cooks in the kitchen, local island women, I ordered curried chicken or lamb stew or fried conch fritters, depending on my mood. If they were not too busy, they let me watch as they cleaned redeye fish or gutted chicken cavities, wiping scales and blood across their apron fronts and singing songs about the island, about whalers out to sea and the heartbreak of poor Josiah Moody, abandoned by his cheating wife.

"When I joined in singing the parts I'd learned, they chuckled. 'Funny child! Don't you have better things to do than watch a bunch of biddies work!' I shrugged and then shook my head, which only made them chuckle more. 'Will you sing the one about the fisherman's daughter?' I would ask.

"Usually they gave in, sometimes sharing with me the hunks of papaya or toasted coconut they munched from bowls. Then when they tired of singing, I carried my plate to the bamboo love seat against the wall of the hotel.

"I took tiny swallows of soda and poked at my conch or chunks of lamb, trying to make my supper last, passing the time until the dinner crowd thinned and I could rejoin Mother."

Pamela Moses in "The Appetites of Girls: A Novel"