Kiełbasa Kryzysowa

Ciekawe co zawiera relanium czy ekstazy ?

Jak kiełbasa walczy z kryzysem
Ewa Mikule GW 2009-04-13, ostatnia aktualizacja 2009-04-13 18:48:21.0

Co jedzą poznaniacy w trudnych czasach? Podwędzaną "kiełbasę kryzysową", "recesyjne kanapki" z kwaszonym ogórkiem i skwarkami, a w restauracji drób i sałatki - oczywiście z "kryzysowego menu"


Recesja wcale nie musi oznaczać zaciskania pasa. Więcej - w czasie kryzysu z lekkim sercem (i portfelem) możemy nawet wybrać się do restauracji. Pieprz i wanilia u zbiegu ul. Koziej i Murnej oferuje "kryzysowe menu". Między godz. 12 a 16 dowolny posiłek kosztuje tu pół ceny. Np. za rybę pieczoną w folii z ryżem i warzywami zapłacimy 11 zł.

- Nowe menu wprowadziliśmy pod koniec lutego, kiedy kryzys zaczął być widoczny w restauracji - mówi jej właścicielka Zofia Golusińska. - Pracownicy okolicznych banków, którzy zazwyczaj żywili się u nas w trakcie szkoleń, nagle przestali przychodzić. Liczba firm, które organizowały u nas szkolenia, spadła o około 70 proc. To był pierwszy sygnał, że jest źle.

"Kryzysowe menu" pomogło. - Udało nam się przyciągnąć ludzi w godzinach, w których jest taniej. Mamy też dużo "wynosów" - opowiada restauratorka. - Idzie przede wszystkim drób. No i dużo sałatek. Indyka musiałam całkiem wykreślić z menu, bo w ogóle nie szedł. Co zrobić? Takie zmiany dyktuje rynek.

Ale ale! Przecież nie wszyscy tak od razu chcą do restauracji. Z kryzysową ofertą dla domatorów wyszła przed miesiącem firma Biegun, wypuszczając na rynek specjalną kiełbasę. Znaleźliśmy ją m.in. w sklepie mięsnym przy ul. 3 Maja. Wśród rozmaitych kiełbas i szynek leży tam dumna, naturalnie podwędzana "kiełbasa kryzysowa". Dumna, bo sprzedaje się lepiej niż jej koleżanki. - Cena w sam raz na ciężkie czasy - 9,90 zł, to i schodzi jak świeże bułeczki. Tygodniowo sprzedajemy 60-70 kg - mówi sprzedawczyni. Dla porównania podaje, że kiełbasy śląskiej, za której kilogram trzeba dać 15, 71 zł, tygodniowo schodzi tylko 40 kg.

A czy jest coś dla największych leni? Takich, którzy chcieliby wrzucić coś na ząb, nie wstając z fotela? Okazuje się, że tak. Wystarczy jeden telefon do Fabryki Kanapek przygotowującej je na zamówienie. - Przewidziałem kryzys już dwa lata temu, wprowadzając do menu "kanapkę recesyjną" - śmieje się właściciel firmy Tomasz Stepczyński. - Ze smalcem, kwaszonym ogórkiem i skwarkami za jedyne 3 zł. Jest najtańsza ze wszystkich, dlatego czasem nazywam ją "budżetową".

The Fungus That Conquered Europe

The Fungus That Conquered Europe

NY Times By JOHN READER
Published: March 17, 2008
London

THE feast of Ireland’s patron saint has always been an occasion for saluting the beautiful land “where the praties grow,” but it’s also a time to look again at the disaster that established around the world the Irish communities that today celebrate St. Patrick’s Day: the Great Potato Famine of 1845-6. In its wake, the Irish left the old country, with more than half a million settling in United States. The famine and the migrations changed Irish and American history, of course, but they drastically changed Britain too.

Americans may think of the disease that destroyed Ireland’s potato crops, late blight, as a European phenomenon, but its devastations actually started with them. The origin of the fungal organism responsible, Phytophthora infestans, has been traced to a valley in the highlands of central Mexico, and the first recorded instances of the disease are in the United States, with the sudden and mysterious destruction of potato crops around Philadelphia and New York in early 1843. Within months, winds spread the rapidly reproducing airborne spores of the disease, and by 1845 it had destroyed potato crops from Illinois east to Nova Scotia, and from Virginia north to Ontario.

It then crossed the Atlantic with a shipment of seed potatoes ordered by Belgian farmers. They had been hoping that fresh stock would improve their yields. Unhappily, it brought the seeds of devastation.

The warm damp spring of 1845 enabled late blight to become an epidemic. By mid-July, the disease had spread throughout Belgium and into the Netherlands. It went on to infect an area from northern Spain to the southern tips of Norway and Sweden, and east to Northern Italy. It moved inexorably through the British Isles and reached Connemara, on Ireland’s west coast, in mid-October. The ruin of Europe’s potato crops was complete.

Nothing like it had been known before. Neither the Vandal hordes nor the bubonic plague had penetrated Europe so deeply and so fast. The failure of the crop was a disaster for every farmer, market gardener and family in Europe that relied on potatoes. Few were unaffected; in Ireland, a population that in 250 years had grown from one million to more than eight million, solely because of the potato’s unrivaled quality as a staple food, was threatened with starvation.

The first intimations of Ireland’s looming calamity reached the British government in August 1845. Although Britain was responsible for the social and economic iniquities which had made Ireland so susceptible, the government of the day deserves some credit for its efforts to avert mass starvation. There were political as well as logistical difficulties.

The Conservative prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, without seeking the approval of either cabinet or Parliament, authorized the banker Sir Thomas Baring to secretly buy £100,000 of American maize for shipment to Ireland. But before any official relief program could proceed there was a political obstacle to overcome: Britain’s Corn Laws, which imposed exorbitant duties on imported grain to ensure that it could never be cheaper than home-grown produce.

To Peel it was obvious that the Corn Laws would have to go, but his electorate of large landowners was vehemently opposed to their abolition. The Duke of Wellington, leader of the House of Lords, complained that Ireland’s “rotten potatoes have done it all — they put Peel in his damned fright.” Peel drew heavily on the news from Ireland as he urged Parliament to vote for abolition:

“Are you to hesitate in averting famine which may come, because it possibly may not come? Are you to look to and depend upon chance in such an extremity? Or, good God! are you to sit in cabinet, and consider and calculate how much diarrhea, and bloody flux, and dysentery, a people can bear before it becomes necessary for you to provide them with food?”

The bill abolishing the Corn Laws was passed in May 1846 in the House of Commons, with two-thirds of Peel’s party voting against it and the entire opposition voting in favor. A month later, Peel was out of office.

As it turned out, far from Britain being flooded with cheap wheat, within weeks of the abolition the price of grain had reached heights rarely seen before. Speculation was rife, with dealers buying grain futures at two and three times the price of a few months before, draining the country’s gold reserves and eventually threatening the stability of the Bank of England itself.

Then, as fate would have it, the summer of 1847 brought news that Ireland’s potato crop, though small, was doing well. The grain harvests also promised to be exceptionally good. Prices tumbled just as the grain bought months before at inflated rates began arriving in the ports.

Dealers who had gambled on high prices now found themselves unable to recoup their investments. Twenty major grain trading companies were brought down in September with total liabilities approaching £10 million. An additional 99 trading and related firms collapsed in October as the crisis spread, bringing down 11 country banks and three of the biggest in Liverpool.

The London banks, though, survived and went on to prosperity, for Ireland’s famine, by ending the Corn Laws, prompted the beginning of the free trade that established the success of Britain’s industrial economy. Still, the banking crisis had such an impact on the British mind-set that it is the benchmark against which commentators compare subsequent banking problems.

Not since the 1840s have we seen anything like this, they declared as the Bank of England stepped in last year to save the Northern Rock bank from a collapse caused by the subprime mortgage debacle — another American-born infection. At least our potatoes are safe.

John Reader is the author, most recently, of the forthcoming “Propitious Esculent: The Potato in World History.”

Ziemniak

http://www.cipotato.org/potato/

Ziemniak jest czwartym najważniejszym produktem żywnościowym świata, po kukurydzy, pszenicy i ryżu. ONZ, która ogłosiła rok 2008 Rokiem Ziemniaka, wydała właśnie książkę „Ziemniak: dookoła świata w 200 przepisach”. W Peru skąd prawdopodobne pochodzi ziemniak jest ich ponad 3000 odmian.

Jest tam ziemniak po włosku – nadziewany serem mascarpone – i zupa ziemniaczana z Mołdawii, którą przyrządza się miksując kartofle z serem i szczypiorkiem. Jest Boranie Katschalu z Afganistanu – pieczone ziemniaki z serem, czosnkiem i miętą. Smakoszom może przypaść wenezuelski gulasz z ziemniaków, bananów, kurczaka i cielęciny. Duńczycy polecają ziemniaki w karmelu, Rosjanie – kartofle ze śledziem, marchewką, jajkami, śmietaną, majonezem i burakiem.
Bogaty w witaminę C i skrobię ziemniak jest jednym z najzdrowszych warzyw – przekonuje szef Europejskiej Komisji Ekonomicznej ONZ (UNECE) Pier Giacomo Bianchi. – Im mniej go przetwarzamy, tym jest zdrowszy. U mnie w domu gotujemy ziemniaki na parze, dodajemy trochę oliwy, warzyw i ryby i wychodzi pyszne danie – mówi Siergiej Malaniczew, szef Departamentu Standardów Produkcji Rolniczej UNECE.
Człowiek je ziemniaki od 8000 lat, ale do Europy dotarły dopiero w XVI wieku. Łatwe w uprawie i tanie warzywo wkrótce stało się jednym z podstawowych produktów żynowściowych na naszym kontynencie. Kiedy w połowie XIX wieku w Irlandii plony zniszczyła zaraza,która notabene przyjechała z Ameryki Północnej , nastała klęska głodu. Zmarło ponad milion ludzi, a wiele milionów wyemigrowało.
– Pod względem ilości przepisów na dania z ziemniaka zajęlibyśmy chyba pierwsze miejsce na świecie. Mamy na przykład wielką różnorodność klusek, które się różnią proporcjami gotowanych i surowych ziemniaków – mówi „Rz” znany kucharz i smakosz Piotr Bikont. Jego zdaniem sprzedawcy nie dość podkreślają różnorodność dostępnych w Polsce gatunków kartofli. – Chciałbym wejść do sklepu i mieć do wyboru na przykład osiem różnych rodzajów, inne na sałatkę, a inne do pieczenia – rozmarza się Bikont. Jaki przepis na ziemniaki poleca? – Szokująca kanapka z ziemniaka. Na chleb kładziemy ugotowane ziemniaki i smarujemy odrobiną majonezu. Pycha – śmieje się kucharz.
Oprócz tego, że stanowią podstawę diety w wielu krajach, ziemniaki są też ważną rośliną przemysłową wykorzystywaną do produkcji spirytusu, mąki ziemniaczanej wykorzystywanej w wielu produktach żywnościowych, czy pasz.
Jedną z największych potęg ziemniaczanych świata jest Polska. Pod względem wielkości obszarów upraw tej rośliny ustępujemy tylko Chinom, Rosji i Ukrainie. W naszym kraju jest znanych aż 135 odmian ziemniaka(100 jadalnych i 35 skrobiowych), w tym 51 pochodzących z zagranicy, a przeciętny Polak zjada 130 kilogramów kartofli rocznie. Na świecie zdumienie wywołuje informacja, że popularne gatunki polskich wódek są produkowane właśnie z ziemniaków. Polska jest prawdopodobnie jedynym krajem świata, gdzie ziemniakowi wzniesiono aż dwa pomniki, a określających go nazw (m.in. pyra, bulwa, kartofel, ziemniak, grula, bandura) mamy niewiele mniej niż Eskimosi nazw śniegu.

Za najsmaczniejsze uważa się, Orlik, Drop, Bila, Felka, Bard, Lord i Denar,Milę, Bryzę, Marynę, Aster, Irysa i Irgę. Wiele osób ceni sobie również smak białej Almy. Centralną i wschodnią Polskę opanowały Irys i Irga, twardawe ziemniaki o białokremowym miąższu. Z kolei okolice Poznania to kraina Mili i Bryzy, ziemniaków bardziej mącznych, miękkich o żółtawym kolorze miąższu.
Aby przygotować smaczną i zdrową potrawę z ziemniaków musisz zwrócić uwagę na odmianę, którą kupujesz. Ziemniaki dzielą się bowiem na twarde (typ A), zachowujące formę – takie najlepiej nadają się na sałatki, kartofle smażone i w łupince oraz na grilla, oraz średniotwarde (typ B), które przy końcu gotowania stają się kruche, zaś przy smażeniu miękkie wewnątrz, a z wierzchu chrupiące – z nich robisz wspaniałe frytki czy placki, kartofelki z wody i zupy (ale nie zupę-krem). Ostatnim rodzajem są ziemniaki mączyste, łatwo rozpadające się (typ C), doskonałe na babki, farsze, kluski czy purée albo do zagęszczania zup.
Ważny jest też wygląd bulw: czy nie są uszkodzone, chore lub nadgniłe. Takie oznaki mogą świadczyć, że ziemniaki będą się szybko psuły. Skórka bulw powinna być gładka, a miąższ o jednorodnej barwie.
Nie zapomnij o „oczkach”. Płytkie są lepsze, z uwagi na mniejsze straty witamin i składników mineralnych podczas obierania – pod tym względem wyróżniają się z odmian:
wczesnych – Drop, Augusta, Ewelina, Gracja, Velox, Impala, Korona
średnio wczesnych – Ditta, Żagiel
średnio późnych – Fianna, Syrena
późnych – Medea.


Nie obawiaj się zakupów w hipermarketach, sprzedawcy na targu nie zawsze potrafią powiedzieć, jaką odmianę oferują, ograniczając się do stwierdzenia, że są np. smaczne i sypkie. W hipermarketach z opakowania dowiesz się, jaka to odmiana ziemniaka oraz skąd pochodzi (kraj, a nawet gospodarstwo).
Zwróć także uwagę, czy ziemianki, które kupujesz, są świeże. Często bowiem bywają mało jędrne i zazielenione, co jest sygnałem, że były źle przechowywane. Zielony kolor oznacza podwyższoną zawartość solaniny. Alkaloid ten nie rozkłada się podczas gotowania i może być przyczyną zatruć pokarmowych (unikniesz go, grubo obierając ziemniaki).
Prawda, że...

* ziemniaki mają działanie lecznicze. Pomagają przy zaparciach, kłopotach z trawieniem i biegunkach. Przynoszą ulgę cierpiącym na zgagę - oczywiście te bez tłuszczu i sosu;

* pomagają na kaca. Mają dużo potasu, który reguluje gospodarkę wodną organizmu i niweluje uczucie ciężkości nóg, zmniejsza obrzęki i opuchliznę.

Nieprawda, że...

* ziemniaki mogą jeść wszyscy. Częste jedzenie ziemniaków może szkodzić ludziom z niewydolnością nerek, którzy mają we krwi nadmiar potasu. Można jednak pozbyć się tego pierwiastka: trzeba obgotować ziemniaki, odlać wodę, potem zalać świeżą i dogotować. Wystrzegać się ich powinni chorzy na reumatyzm, dosyć często powodują ból i sztywność stawów;

* ziemniaki są niewskazane dla chorych na cukrzycę - zawarta w nich skrobia wchłania się stopniowo, może więc być dobrze wykorzystana, mimo że trzustka chorego ma ograniczone możliwości wytwarzania insuliny.

W kuchni
Typy kulinarne ziemniaków
A – o dużej wilgotności i małej zawartości skrobi (sałatkowe),na kartofle smażone i w łupince oraz na grilla odmiany: Accent, Albina, Cykada, Frezja, Vineta
B – o miąższu średnio zwięzłym, nierozsypującym się (uniwersalne, doskonałe do duszenia i gotowania); odmiany: Albina, Aksamitka, Ania, Atol, Balbina, Bard ,Baszta, Beata, Bila, Danusia, Denar Drop, Fala, Felsina, Fresco, Gloria, Irga, Irys, Jagna, Jagoda, Jaśmin, Kolia, Korona Latona, Lotos, Lord ,Malwa, Maryna, Mors, Muza, Oda, Orlik, Orłan, Perkoz, Ruta, Rybitwa, Rywal, Sante, Signal, Sumak, Tara, Timate, Tokaj, Triada, Vital, Wawrzyn, Wigry, Wiking, i Wolfram
C – zawierające więcej skrobi, o jasnym i sypkim miąższu (na placki, pyzy); odmiany: Anielka, Arkadia, Aster, Barycz, Bryza, Ibis, Karlena, Koral, Kos, Lena, Mila, Salto
D – pastewne
Zalecana dawka: dwa-trzy razy w tygodniu. Kalorie na 100 g: ziemniaki młode - 69 kcal, ziemniaki stare - 77 kcal, kopytka - 155 kcal, placki ziemniaczane - 250 kcal, frytki - 303 kcal, chipsy - 550 kcal!
Kartofle, pyry, bulwy, kulochy, nagusy. Nieważne, jak je nazywamy, ważne, że są naszemu tyciu kompletnie niewinne. Winni jesteśmy my, bo poddając je kulinarnym torturom - smażąc żywcem, oblewając gorącym tłuszczem i topiąc w zawiesistych sosach - zabijamy ich smak i dietetyczną naturę. Ziemniaki saute mają pięć razy mniej kalorii niż makaron czy kasza i sporo wysmuklającego i obniżającego poziom złego cholesterolu błonnika. Skutecznie zabijają głód, więc dietetycy polecają je nawet osobom otyłym. Mają więcej witaminy C niż jabłka, dużo witaminy B, potasu obniżającego ciśnienie krwi oraz magnezu, który poprawia przemianę materii. To samo zdrowie.
O frytkach i chipsach zapominamy! Sto gramów ugotowanych ziemniaków to ok. 70 kalorii. Sto gramów frytek cztery razy tyle! Frytki wchłaniają 70 proc. tłuszczu, w którym są smażone. Podobnie chipsy - przetworzone, tłuste, słone zaśmiecacze żołądka. Zawierają dużo soli i zatykające żyły tłuszcze trans. Są szczególnie niebezpieczne dla dzieci. Jak dowiedli ostatnio polscy naukowcy, regularne jedzenie chipsów ziemniaczanych znacznie zwiększa ryzyko chorób serca.

W ziemniakach najcenniejszy jest potas – by zachować go jak najwięcej, wkładaj bulwy do niewielkiej ilości gotującej wody (powinna ledwie je zakrywać) i posól. Są one też cennym źródłem: sodu, magnezu, wapnia, manganu, żelaza, miedzi, cynku, fosforu, fluoru, chloru, jodu, karotenu, witamin K, B1, B2, B6 i C (od 11–16 mg/100 g, w zależności od pory roku), a także biotyny, fruktozy, sacharozy, skrobi oraz kwasów: nikotynowego i pantotenowego.
Najbogatszą w składniki odżywcze (białka, węglowodany i składniki mineralne) częścią ziemniaka jest warstwa znajdująca się tuż pod warstwą korową i korą pierwotną, czyli miękisz pierwotny. To dlatego ziemniaki trzeba obierać oszczędnie, a najlepiej wcale.
Niestety mitem jest, że można ochronić witaminę C. Ugotowane ziemniaki na przednówku, zawierają jej tyle co nic. Rozkłada się ona nie tylko w trakcie przechowywania i gotowania, ale także pod wpływem powietrza i promieni słonecznych, kiedy je obierasz i kroisz.
Najwięcej minerałów i witamin znajduje się tuż pod skórką. Dlatego, by stracić jak najmniej cennych składnik w, najlepiej je piec lub gotować (także na parze), i to w mundurkach. Jeśli lubimy tradycyjnie gotowane - warto obierać je cieniutko i zalać od razu jak najmniejszą ilością wrzątku, by straciły jak najmniej witamin. Solić tuż przed podaniem, by nie wchłonęły za dużo zatrzymującego wodę w organizmie sodu.
Najwięcej składników mineralnych tracą ziemniaki pokrojone i przechowywane w wodzie. Dlatego jeśli już musisz je wcześniej obrać, włóż je w całości do garnka z zimną wodą, a pokrój dopiero przed gotowaniem.
Najbardziej wartościowe pod względem odżywczym ziemniaki to te gotowane w mikrofali, na parze albo w łupinach lub pieczone, zaś najmniej – purée oraz odsmażane następnego dnia po ugotowaniu

The Maggots in Your Mushrooms

NY Times
February 13, 2009
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

By E. J. LEVY
THE Georgia peanut company at the center of one of our nation’s worst food-contamination scares has officially reached a revolting new low: a recent inspection by the Food and Drug Administration discovered that the salmonella-tainted plant was also home to mold and roaches.
You may be grossed out, but insects and mold in our food are not new. The F.D.A. actually condones a certain percentage of “natural contaminants” in our food supply — meaning, among other things, bugs, mold, rodent hairs and maggots.
In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans,” the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such “defects” for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter.
Among the booklet’s list of allowable defects are “insect filth,” “rodent filth” (both hair and excreta pellets), “mold,” “insects,” “mammalian excreta,” “rot,” “insects and larvae” (which is to say, maggots), “insects and mites,” “insects and insect eggs,” “drosophila fly,” “sand and grit,” “parasites,” “mildew” and “foreign matter” (which includes “objectionable” items like “sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc.”).
Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams.
Canned mushrooms may have “over 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or “five or more maggots two millimeters or longer per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or an “average of 75 mites” before provoking action by the F.D.A.
The sauerkraut on your hot dog may average up to 50 thrips. And when washing down those tiny, slender, winged bugs with a sip of beer, you might consider that just 10 grams of hops could have as many as 2,500 plant lice. Yum.
Giving new meaning to the idea of spicing up one’s food, curry powder is allowed 100 or more bug bits per 25 grams; ground thyme up to 925 insect fragments per 10 grams; ground pepper up to 475 insect parts per 50 grams. One small shaker of cinnamon could have more than 20 rodent hairs before being considered defective.
Peanut butter — that culinary cause célèbre — may contain approximately 145 bug parts for an 18-ounce jar; or five or more rodent hairs for that same jar; or more than 125 milligrams of grit.
In case you’re curious: you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it, a quantity of insects that clearly does not cut the mustard, even as insects may well be in the mustard.
The F.D.A. considers the significance of these defects to be “aesthetic” or “offensive to the senses,” which is to say, merely icky as opposed to the “mouth/tooth injury” one risks with, for example, insufficiently pitted prunes. This policy is justified on economic grounds, stating that it is “impractical to grow, harvest or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.”
The most recent edition of the booklet (it has been revised and edited six times since first being issued in May 1995) states that “the defect levels do not represent an average of the defects that occur in any of the products — the averages are actually much lower.” Instead, it says, “The levels represent limits at which F.D.A. will regard the food product ‘adulterated’ and subject to enforcement action.”
Bugs in our food may not be so bad — many people in the world practice entomophagy — but these harmless hazards are a reminder of the less harmless risks we run with casual regulation of our food supply. For good reason, the F.D.A. is focused on peanut butter, which the agency is considering reclassifying as high risk, like seafood, and subjecting it to special safety regulations. But the unsettling reality is that despite food’s cheery packaging and nutritional labeling, we don’t really know what we’re putting into our mouths.
Soup merits little mention among the products listed in the F.D.A.’s booklet. But, given the acceptable levels for contaminants in other foods, one imagines that the disgruntled diner’s cri de coeur — “Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!” — would be, to the F.D.A., no cause for complaint.
E. J. Levy is a professor of creative writing at the University of Missouri.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Dla konsumenta wędlin marka producenta się nie liczy!?

12-12-2008, 09:17
Aż 61proc. Polaków spośród wszystkich rodzajów wędlin wybiera szynkę. Statystyczne gospodarstwo domowe kupuje przeważnie 25-50 dag wędlin w ciągu tygodnia, głównie w wyspecjalizowanym sklepie mięsnym. Wizerunkowym liderem jest Sokołów, jednak generalnie siła marek producentów wędlin jest niska. Wędliny wkładamy więc do koszyka, często nie kojarząc z konkretną marką - wynika z raportu "Monitor rynku wędliniarskiego 2008" firmy analitycznej ARC Rynek i Opinia.
Firma przeprowadziła badania nt. tego, jak zakupy wędlin dzielą część polskich konsumentów na grupy premium, economy i eko. Przeciętne gospodarstwo domowe w ciągu tygodnia kupuje przeważnie od 25 dag do 0,5 kg wędlin. Polacy kupują wędliny przede wszystkim w wyspecjalizowanym sklepie mięsnym (61 proc.), zdecydowanie rzadziej w osiedlowych sklepach, czy supermarketach.

Ulubionym rodzajem wędlin Polaków jest szynka - gości na stołach 61 proc. konsumentów. Kiełbasy i polędwice są wybierane średnio przez co trzecie gospodarstwo domowe. Wędliny kupowane najchętniej to przede wszystkim wyroby wieprzowe - decyduje się na nie średnio 58 proc. gospodarstw domowych. Wędliny drobiowe są spo\ywane przez co trzeciego Polaka.
Polacy chcą myśleć o sobie jak o racjonalnych konsumentach. Jednak, decyzje o tym, jakie wędliny wkładają do koszyka nie są wcale tak świadome... Kupując wędliny kierujemy się przede wszystkim jej nazwą (58 proc.), nie marką producenta (36 proc.).
Nawet w przypadku najczęściej kupowanych wędlin respondenci nie są w stanie skojarzyć swoich ulubionych wędlin z firmą wędliniarską. Nazwa produktu i jego producent w świadomości większości respondentów istnieją osobno i niezależnie od siebie - mówi Justyna Malczyk, autorka raportu ARC Rynek i Opinia.
Choć generalnie na rynku wędliniarskim marka nie jest podstawowym czynnikiem wpływającym na decyzję zakupową, zdecydowanie najsilniejsza wizerunkowo jest w Polsce firma Sokołów - 16 proc. kupujących wędliny wskazuje tę markę jako znaną firmę. Trójkę najlepiej znanych marek firm wędliniarskich zamykają Morliny (8 proc.) i Krakus (5 proc.).

Okazuje się jednak, że nie wszyscy konsumenci przywiązują wagę do tych samych walorów wędliniarskich zakupów i choć łączy ich myśl, że jeśli wędlina to przede wszystkim szynka" dzielą ich kryteria wyboru dobrej wędliny. Raport ARC Rynek i Opinia wyróżnia z ogółu konsumentów trzy grupy o wyraźnie innych preferencjach i oczekiwaniach związanych z zakupem wyrobów wędliniarskich. Dobra wędlina dla Eko" konsumentów to co innego niż ta, którą wkładają do koszyka kupujący z grupy Premium", czy te\ nastawieni na niską cenę konsumenci z segmentu Economy".
95 proc. konsumentów z grupy EKO-ZDROWIE całkowicie zgadza się, że ważne jest czy producent wędlin posiada certyfikat jakości. Dla grupy Eko-zdrowie' - starannie sprawdzających skład i przywiązanych do konkretnych producentów - dobra wędlina to taka, która posiada certyfikat jakości. 79 proc. konsumentów z grupy ECONOMY zdecydowanie twierdzi, że ma ważniejsze wydatki niż zakup wędlin. Dobra wędlina według konsumentów z grupy Economy" oznacza przede wszystkim wędlinę tanią. 93 proc. konsumentów w grupie PREMIUM uznaje, że lepszy smak i wysoka jakość wędliny uzasadniają jej wyższą cenę. Grupa Premium stawia przede wszystkim na wysoką jakość i smak.
Więcej informacji: wędliny |

Mało ryby w rybie z Chin

Ekspress Ilustrowany
30-01-2009, 12:08
Sprowadzane z Chin mrożone ryby zawierają więcej lodu niż mięsa - do takiego wniosku doszli reporterzy Expressu Ilustrowanego - podaje serwis wyhacz.pl.
Dziennikarze kupili w Realu 1,016 kilograma mintaja. Rozmrozili go w kuchence mikrofalowej i zważyli - wyszło 0,485 kilograma rybiego mięsa!
Niektórzy klienci nie widzą różnicy. Pan Krzysztof powiedział: Ryba to ryba. Kompletnie nie przeszkadza mi fakt, że pochodzi z Chin. Nie ma żadnej różnicy w smaku.
Wiele osób woli jednak polskie produkty. Pracownik Reala stwierdził: Choć kosztują dwa razy więcej niż chińskie, ludzie kupują je najchętniej.
Reporterzy "Expressu" napisali: W przeciwieństwie do marketów sklepy rybne nie przestawiły się na chińszczyznę. "Kiedyś mieliśmy mintaja z Chin za ok. 10 zł, ale klienci nie chcieli go kupować, więc przestaliśmy go sprowadzać. Teraz mamy amerykańskiego za 20 zł i sprzedaje się bardzo dobrze" - mówi Irena Kowalczyk, właścicielka sklepu rybnego przy ul. Piotrkowskiej w Łodzi.
Fachowcy ostrzegają przed chińskimi rybami. Doktor Krzysztof Zając z Wydziału Biotechnologii i Nauk o Żywności Politechniki Łódzkiej powiedział: Generalnie wody w państwach azjatyckich są bardziej zanieczyszczone od europejskich i nie możemy skontrolować stosowanej przez chińskich producentów karmy dla ryb. Naukowcy polscy nie robili jednak do tej pory ich analizy chemicznej, a sanepid skupiał się na terminach przydatności do spożycia. Nie twierdzę, że należy unikać ryb z Chin, ale warto dokładnie czytać informacje na opakowaniu.

language of food love

When I first heard the cooking term meaning "to cut thin strips or shreds of vegetables" (literal translation: "made of rags"), I had to say it out loud. And then again. And then once more.

Chiffonade. Shihf-uh-NAHD. What a lovely sounding word.

Alone, it could make a person want to rush out and buy a head of escarole, just to keep it in one's aural memory.

Only a wordsmith who likes to cook could be so moved, I suppose. But then, words and food consume much of my waking hours - and happen to be two of my favorite things.

Chiffonade is far from the only pretty-sounding food word, words that seem to roll off your tongue in soothing notes. I'd put all of these in the same category:

Fromage. Aubergine. Baba ghannouj. Quinoa. Vichyssoise. Bechamel.

Froh-MAHZH. Oh-behr-ZHEEN. Bah-bah gha-NOOSH. KEEN-wah. Vihsh-ee-SWAHZ. Bay-shah-MEHL.

Whisper one of these in your loved one's ear and she'll melt in your arms. Name your firstborn after one of them and you'll be forgiven the bold departure. (Well, maybe not for Vichyssoise. . . . )

All in the name of fun, I've compiled a few random musings on words and food. (See 4G for the meanings of select words mentioned below.)

Silly-sounding food words. These words are all fun to say out loud. Try it . . . with exaggerated enunciation. I guarantee you'll feel better.

Syllabub. Blini. Fricassee.

Huitlacoche (wheet-lah-KOH-chay). Jicama (HIC-uh-muh; think hiccup). Moussaka.

Ratatouille (ra-tuh-TOO-ee or ra-tuh-TWEE - you pick). Frittata. Tzatziki. Saganaki ("Opa!").

Commonly misspelled food words. Spelling snobs live for the chance to show they can spell words like these.

Bouillabaisse (don't forget that first "i"). Hors d'oeuvre (just memorize it). Smorgasbord (not "board").

Muffuletta (two Fs, two TTs, two Us). Parmigiano (an I, not an A, follows the M). Sarsaparilla (two Rs, four As).

Turmeric (two Rs). Sherbet (no second R).

Don't confuse these. Some pairs of food words sound just enough alike to make you stop and think before you cook.

Cannelloni / cannellini (the first is a pasta, the second a bean). Enoki / gnocchi (a delicate mushroom and a small Italian dumpling). Ragout / ragu (a thick French stew and a northern Italian meat sauce).

Chamomile / Camembert (a soothing tea and a French cheese). Kedgeree / kimchee (an English breakfast dish with smoked fish and Korean fermented cabbage). Mulligan stew / mulligatawny soup (a catchall "hobo" stew of meat and vegetables and a highly seasoned soup from south India).

Pepperoni / pepperoncini (a beloved pizza sausage and an antipasto pepper).

How do you pronounce it? People worry far too much about sounding uncultured.

Bruschetta: Say it either way, broo-SKEH-tah or broo-SHEH-tah. Crepe: likewise, KREHP or KRAYP will do. Geoduck (GOO-ee duhk). Worcestershire (WOOS-tuhr-shuhr). Herb (the Brits pronounce the H; it's OK).

Get it right. Don't mix languages, please!

It's amandine (as in green beans amandine), not almondine.

Call it beef burgundy or boeuf bourguignon, but not beef bourguignon.

Speaking of beef . . . How it is that in English, we have different words for the animal and the meat?

Blame the French.

The Norman Conquest in 1066 brought the words mouton (sheep), porc (pig) and boeuf (ox) across the Channel. At the table, the French nobility who settled on the island used these same words for the meat put before them, which in time morphed into mutton, pork and beef. Likewise, the French word veneson, meaning "the game we just hunted," came to mean deer meat.

But in the pastures, fields and barns, the English words for the animals prevailed. Thus the linguistic duality.

(It is not, as some charge, a carnivore-led conspiracy to emotionally separate the animal from the food.)

What is it, anyway?

Nougat: Admit it, you don't know, either. You just know it's in some of your favorite candy bars.

Offal: And to many people it is just that. Likewise the ill-named "sweetbreads."

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Got a favorite food word to pronounce, spell, mix up or despise? Or a word you need defined? Any other food word trivia you'd care to share?

Shoot me an e-mail at nstohs@journalsentinel.com.

What do they mean?
Here are a few words from today's First Course column and their meanings, just in case any were unfamiliar:

Fromage: French for cheese.

Aubergine: French for eggplant. The British also use it.

Baba ghannouj: A Middle Eastern spread of pureed eggplant, tahini, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice.

Quinoa: A high-protein grain of South American origin.

Vichyssoise: A rich and creamy potato-leek soup, served cold.

Bechamel: White sauce, made from stirring milk into a butter-flour roux.

Syllabub: A rich, frothy drink of milk and wine, sugar and spices, originating in Old England.

Blini: Russian yeast-raised pancakes traditionally made with buckwheat flour.

Fricassee: A chunky chicken-vegetable stew.

Huitlacoche: A corn fungus that some consider a delicacy. Also called corn smut.

Jicama: A large root vegetable with brown skin and white crisp flesh.

Moussaka: A Greek dish of eggplant and ground lamb or beef.

Ratatouille: A Provençal dish of mixed vegetables simmered in olive oil.

Frittata: An Italian omelet.

Tzatziki: A cooling Greek condiment with a base of yogurt and cucumber.

Saganaki: A popular Greek appetizer in which kasseri cheese is fried and often flamed in brandy.

Bouillabaisse: A seafood stew from Provence.

Muffuletta: A hero-style sandwich popular in New Orleans.

Sarsaparilla: We picture saloons because this flavor usually is associated with a carbonated drink popular in the mid-1800s. Originally derived from the roots of the tropical smilax vines, but now an artificial flavor only.

Geoduck: A large, funny-looking soft-shell clam from the Pacific Northwest.

Nougat: A confection made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts and sometimes chopped candied fruit. It can be white or brown, soft or crunchy, with egg whites or without. Snickers, Milky Way, Three Musketeers and Baby Ruth all use a form of nougat.

Offal: British term for variety meats, animal innards and extremities used in cooking, including (but not limited to) brains, kidneys, stomach, tongue and tail.

Sweetbreads: The thymus glands and pancreas of young animals. Yes, people eat these, some diners with relish.

Paraphrased from "Food Lover's Companion" (third edition) by Sharon Tyler Herbst (Barron's, 2001)

Not so tasty
As with any category of lingo, some food words have been used so much, in so many contexts, that they've lost their meaning. Here are a few that are already there or that may be headed for that status.

Words that have lost their meaning.

Gourmet: A label as meaningless as liberal and conservative, I'd say. What is gourmet food to one person is everyday fare to another.

Natural: Where does "natural" food end and "unnatural" food begin? The FDA gave up; it has no clear official definition of the word. We should, too. (If you must have one, think "minimally processed.")

Tasty: I would hope so. After all, if a food has no taste, what's the point? What you really need to know is whether it tastes good.

Overused words.

Decadent: Yeah, yeah, it's rich and packed with fat and calories. I get it. I shouldn't eat it. I'm going to anyway.

Iconic: If it's truly iconic (Oreos, Twinkies, the hot dog), we all know it. Is there really a need to point it out?

Deathly imagery: This includes the phrase "to die for" and recipes whose titles begin with "Death by" or "Killer."

Foodie: Ack! Am I one? Are you one? If foodie means food snob, I hope not. If it means I like food, well, who doesn't? If it implies a groupie-like obsession with food, I hope I'm not so one-dimensional. If it means "gourmet . . . " see above.

Kid-friendly: Aside from that whole baby goat objection, I guess I'd have to defer to the experts - children - before daring to label any food as such. What do adults know?

On the watch list.

Local: A noble goal that is harder to achieve in practice, and with defining benchmarks that are all over the map . . . literally.

Sustainable: Likewise vague. What exactly are we sustaining? Arable land? Animal species? The family farm? Human life? All of the above, I think, but context is critical here.

Artisanal: Artisanal food generally refers to products made in small batches by highly skilled craftsmen. Cheese, chocolate, gin, bread . . . these and many more such products are now available, and in high demand. That's fine, as long as everyone's honest. Unfortunately, it's too easy to slap this word on a label or in an ad.

Salt A Whole Lotta Shakin Going On

The American Medical Association once again is sounding the alarm about salt.
Today’s Journal of the American Medical Association carries an impassioned commentary from A.M.A. officials declaring an “urgent need” to reduce sodium in our diets. Don’t worry — the group doesn’t want to take away your salt shaker. Instead, the association is calling for the Food and Drug Administration and industry to get serious about lowering the sodium content of our food, and the group is urging consumers to shop more often for lower-sodium alternatives.
(Credit: The New York Times)
Sodium has long been associated with an increased risk for high blood pressure. Notably, the World Health Organization earlier this year said the evidence linking sodium to hypertension is “conclusive.” Cutting American’s sodium intake in half, notes today’s commentary, could reduce deaths from heart disease and stroke by 23 percent. By some estimates, that could prevent 150,000 deaths every year.
Yet the Salt Institute, an industry trade group, disagrees, saying there’s no evidence to support a campaign against sodium. In fact, some people are more sensitive to the deleterious effects of sodium than others. Unfortunately, there’s no real way to figure out if you’re one of them.
The average American takes in 4,000 milligrams of sodium daily. That’s a lot more than you need. According to the F.D.A., most people can safely ingest up to 2,400 milligrams a day — which is about one teaspoon of salt. Sodium is essential to our bodies, but we don’t need much. The adequate intake for healthy body function in people younger than 50 is only 1,500 milligrams. People over age 50 need only 1,200 to 1,300 milligrams.
Any food that contains more than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving should be considered a high-sodium food, says the A.M.A. By that measure, the amount of sodium in some popular foods is shocking. One turkey panini from the Panera Bread chain contains 2,390 milligrams of sodium. Even the sweet stuff can be loaded. A Starbucks cinnamon roll contains 700 milligrams of sodium, while a large white hot chocolate at Dunkin’ Donuts holds 600 milligrams.
The fastest and easiest way to reduce sodium is to cut out processed foods and restaurant visits. Fresh vegetables and meats have far less sodium than frozen and canned foods. Only 6 percent of the sodium we ingest comes from the salt shaker at the table, while another 5 percent is added by the home cook. Most of the salt we consume — 77 percent — comes from processed and restaurant foods, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The remaining 12 percent occurs naturally in food.
For a table listing the sodium content in packaged and processed foods, click here.

The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating

Maybe you should be eating more beets, or chopped cabbage.
This post was originally published on June 30, 2008, and recently appeared on The New York Times’s list of most-viewed stories for 2008.

Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.

Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.
Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.
Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.
Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.
Pomegranate juice: Appears to lower blood pressure and loaded with antioxidants.
How to eat: Just drink it.
Dried plums: Okay, so they are really prunes, but they are packed with antioxidants.
How to eat: Wrapped in prosciutto and baked.
Pumpkin seeds: The most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium; high levels of the mineral are associated with lower risk for early death.
How to eat: Roasted as a snack, or sprinkled on salad.
Sardines: Dr. Bowden calls them “health food in a can.” They are high in omega-3’s, contain virtually no mercury and are loaded with calcium. They also contain iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese as well as a full complement of B vitamins.
How to eat: Choose sardines packed in olive or sardine oil. Eat plain, mixed with salad, on toast, or mashed with dijon mustard and onions as a spread.
Turmeric: The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties.
How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish.
Frozen blueberries: Even though freezing can degrade some of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables, frozen blueberries are available year-round and don’t spoil; associated with better memory in animal studies.
How to eat: Blended with yogurt or chocolate soy milk and sprinkled with crushed almonds.
Canned pumpkin: A low-calorie vegetable that is high in fiber and immune-stimulating vitamin A; fills you up on very few calories.
How to eat: Mix with a little butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.
You can find more details and recipes on the Men’s Health Web site, which published the original version of the list last year.

In my own house, I only have two of these items — pumpkin seeds, which I often roast and put on salads, and frozen blueberries, which I mix with milk, yogurt and other fruits for morning smoothies. How about you? Have any of these foods found their way into your shopping cart?

Fresh Start for a New Year Let’s Begin in the Kitchen

THE MINIMALIST
January 7, 2009
By MARK BITTMAN
PERHAPS, like me, you have this romantic notion of shopping daily — maybe even a mental vision of yourself making the rounds, wicker basket in hand, of your little Shropshire or Provençal or Tuscan village. The reality, of course, is that few of us provision our kitchens or cook exclusively with ultra-fresh ingredients, especially in winter, when there simply are no ultra-fresh ingredients.
But if your goal is to cook and cook quickly, to get a satisfying and enjoyable variety of real food on the table as often as possible, a well-stocked pantry and fridge can sustain you. Replenished weekly or even less frequently, with an occasional stop for fresh vegetables, meat, fish and dairy, they are the core supply houses for the home cook.
While you’re stocking up, you might clear out a bit of the detritus that’s cluttering your shelves. Some of these things take up more space than they’re worth, while others are so much better in their real forms that the difference is laughable. Sadly, some remain in common usage even among good cooks. My point here is not to criminalize their use, but to point out how easily and successfully we can substitute for them, in every case with better results.
Here, then, is my little list of items you might spurn, along with some essential pantry and long-keeping refrigerator items you might consider. Note that I’m not including the ultra-obvious, things that are more or less ubiquitous in the contemporary American pantry, like potatoes, eggs and honey.
OUT Packaged bread crumbs or croutons.
IN Take crumbs, cubes or slices of bread, and either toast evenly in a low oven until dry and lightly browned, tossing occasionally; or cook in olive oil until brown and crisp, stirring frequently. The first keep a long time, and are multipurpose; the second are best used quickly, and are incomparably delicious.
OUT Bouillon cubes or powder, or canned stock.
IN Simmer a carrot, a celery stalk and half an onion in a couple of cups of water for 10 minutes and you’re better off; if you have any chicken scraps, even a half-hour of cooking with those same vegetables will give you something 10 times better than any canned stock.
OUT Aerosol oil. At about $12 a pint, twice as expensive as halfway decent extra virgin olive oil, which spray oil most decidedly is not; and it contains additives.
IN Get some good olive oil and a hand-pumped sprayer or even simpler, a brush. Simplest: your fingers.
OUT Bottled salad dressing and marinades. The biggest rip-offs imaginable.
IN Take good oil and vinegar or lemon juice, and combine them with salt, pepper, maybe a little Dijon, in a proportion of about three parts oil to one of vinegar. Customize from there, because you may like more vinegar or less, and you undoubtedly will want a little shallot, or balsamic vinegar, or honey, or garlic, or tarragon, or soy sauce. ...
OUT Bottled lemon juice.
IN Lemons. Try buying six at a time, then experiment; I never put lemon on something and regret it. (Scramble a couple of eggs in chicken stock, then finish with a lot of lemon, black pepper and dill; call this egg-lemon soup, or avgolemono.) Don’t forget the zest: you can grate it and add it to many pan sauces, or hummus and other purées. And don’t worry about reamers, squeezers or any of that junk; squeeze from one hand into the other and let your fingers filter out the pips.
OUT Spices older than a year: smell before using; if you get a whiff of dust or must before you smell the spice, toss it. I find it easier to clean house once a year and buy new ones.
IN Fresh spices. Almost all spices are worth having. But some that you might think about using more frequently include cardamom (try a tiny bit in your next coffee cake, apple cake, spice cake or rice pilaf); ground cumin (a better starting place in chili — in fact, in many bean dishes — than chili powder); fennel seeds (these will give a Provençal flavor to any tomato sauce or soup; grind them first, or not); an assortment of dried chilies (I store them all together, because dried chipotles make the rest of them slightly smoky); fresh — or at least dried — ginger, which is lovely grated over most vegetables; pimentón, the smoked Spanish red pepper that is insanely popular in restaurants but still barely making inroads among home cooks; and good curry powder.
OUT Dried parsley and basil. They’re worthless.
IN Fresh parsley, which keeps at least a week in the refrigerator. (Try your favorite summer pesto recipe with parsley in place of basil, or simply purée some parsley with a little oil, water, salt and a whisper of garlic. Or add a chopped handful to any salad or almost anything else.) And dried tarragon, rosemary and dill, all of which I use all winter; mix a teaspoon or so of tarragon or rosemary — not more, they’re strong — with olive oil or melted butter and brush on roasted or broiled chicken while it cooks, or add a pinch to vinaigrette. Dill is also good with chicken; on plain broiled fish, with lemon; or in many simple soups.
OUT Canned beans (except in emergencies).
IN Dried beans. More economical, better tasting, space saving and available in far more varieties. Cook a pound once a week and you’ll always have them around (you can freeze small amounts in their cooking liquid, or water, indefinitely). If you’re not sold, try this: soak and cook a pound of white beans. Take some and finish with fresh chopped sage, garlic and good olive oil. Purée another cup or so with a boiled potato and lots of garlic. Mix some with a bit of cooking liquid, and add a can of tomatoes; some chopped celery, carrots and onions; cooked pasta; and cheese and call it pasta fagiole or minestrone. If there are any left, mix them with a can of olive-oil-packed tuna or sardines. And that’s just white beans.
OUT Imitation vanilla.
IN Vanilla beans. They’re expensive, but they keep. (If you look online you can find bargains in bulk, which is why I have 25 in my refrigerator.) If you slice a pod in half and simmer it with some leftover rice and any kind of milk (dairy, coconut, almond...), you’ll never go back to extract.
OUT Grated imitation “Parmesan” (beware the green cylinder, or any other pre-grated cheese for that matter).
IN Real Parmigiano-Reggiano. Wrapped well, it keeps for a year (scrape mold off if necessary). Grated over anything, there is no more magical ingredient. Think about pasta with butter and Parmesan (does your mouth water?). But also think about any egg dish, with Parmesan; anything sautéed with a coating of bread crumbs and Parmesan; or asparagus, broccoli, spinach or any other cooked vegetable, topped with Parmesan (and maybe some bread crumbs) and run under the broiler; how great. Save the rinds to throw in pots of sauce, soup, tomato-y stew or risotto.
OUT Canned peas (and most other canned vegetables, come to think of it).
IN Frozen peas. Especially if you have little kids and make pasta or rice with peas (and Parmesan!); not bad. Or purée with a little lemon juice and salt for a nice spread or dip. In fact, many frozen vegetables are better than you might think.
OUT Tomato paste in a can.
IN Tomato paste in a tube. You rarely need more than two tablespoons so you feel guilty opening a can; this solves that problem. Stir some into vegetables sautéed in olive oil, for example, then add water for fast soup. Or add a bit to almost any vegetable as it cooks in olive oil and garlic — especially cabbage, dark greens, carrots or cauliflower.
OUT Premade pie crusts. O.K., these are a real convenience, but almost all use inferior fats. I’d rather make a “pie” or quiche with no crust than use these.
IN Crumble graham crackers with melted butter and press into a pan. But really — if you put a pinch of salt, a cup of flour, a stick of very cold, cut-up butter in a food processor, then blend with a touch of water until it almost comes together — you have a dough you can refrigerate or freeze and roll out whenever you want, in five minutes.
OUT Cheap balsamic or flavored vinegars.
IN Sherry vinegar. More acidic and more genuine than all but the most expensive balsamic. Try a salad of salted cabbage (shred, then toss with a couple of tablespoons of salt in a colander for an hour or two, then rinse and drain), tossed with plenty of black pepper, a little olive oil and enough sherry vinegar to make the whole thing sharp.
OUT Minute Rice or boil-in-a-bag grains.
IN Genuine grains. Critical; as many different types as you have space for. Short grain rice — for risotto, paella, just good cooked rice — of course. Barley, pearled or not; a super rice alternative, with any kind of gravy, reduction sauce, pan drippings, what have you. Ground corn for polenta, grits, cornbread or thickener (whisk some — not much — into a soup and see what happens). Quinoa — people can’t believe how flavorful this is until they try it. Bulgur, which is ready in maybe 10 minutes (it requires only steeping), and everyone likes. If you’re in doubt about how to cook any of these, combine them with abundant salted water and cook as you would pasta, then drain when tender; you can’t go far wrong.
OUT “Pancake” syrup, which is more akin to Coke than to the real thing.
IN Real maple syrup, an indigenous gift from nature and the north country.
YOU SHOULD ALSO STOCK:
REAL BACON OR PROSCIUTTO Or other traditionally smoked or cured meat of some kind. If you have a quarter pound of prosciutto in the house at all times you can make almost anything — simple cooked grains, beans, vegetables, tomato sauces, soups — taste better. And, tightly wrapped, it’ll keep for weeks in the fridge or months in the freezer.
FISH SAUCE You have soy sauce, presumably; this is different, stronger, cruder (or should I say “less refined”?) in a way — and absolutely delicious. Use sparingly, but use; start by sprinkling a little over plain steamed vegetables, along with a lot of black pepper.
CANNED COCONUT MILK Try this: cook some onions in oil with curry powder; stir in coconut milk; poach chicken, fish, tofu, or even meat in that. Serve over rice.
MISO PASTE Never goes bad, as far as I can tell, and its flavor is incomparable. Whisk into boiling water for real soup in three minutes; thin a bit (with sake if you have it), and smear on meat or fish that’s almost done broiling; add a spoonful to vinaigrette. Etc.
CAPERS, GOOD OLIVES (BUY IN BULK, NOT CANS) AND GOOD ANCHOVIES (IN OLIVE OIL, PLEASE) The combination of the three makes a powerful paste, or pasta sauce, or dip.
WALNUTS And/or other nuts, but walnuts are most basic and useful. Try a purée with garlic, oil and a little water, as a pasta sauce, or just add to salads or cooked grains.
PIGNOLI With raisins, they make any dish Sicilian.
DRIED FRUIT For snacking, in braises (braised pork with prunes is a classic winter dish), or just soaked in water (or booze) or poached for dessert. Don’t forget dried tomatoes, too.
DRIED MUSHROOMS Don’t even bother to reconstitute if you’re cooking with liquid; just toss them in.
FROZEN SHRIMP Incredibly convenient.
WINTER SQUASH AND SWEET POTATOES These store almost as well as potatoes and are more nutritious and equally interesting. A sweet potato roasted until the exterior is nearly blackened and the interior is mush is a wonderful snack. The best winter squashes (delicata, for example) have edible skins and are amazing just chunked and roasted with a little oil (and maybe some ginger or garlic). For butternut- or acorn-type squashes, poke holes through to the center with a skewer in a few places and roast in a 400 degree oven until soft. Let cool, then peel and seed.