KRCU's Tom Harte shares a few thoughts on food and shares recipes. Listen to archived episodes and get recipes at http://krcu.org/topic/harte-appetite.
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What do award-winning cookbook author Rick Bayless, Food Network Iron Chef Bobby Flay, nationally acclaimed pastry chef Gale Gand, and Chloe, my granddaughter, have in common? They all began their culinary education by slaving over a hot light bulb.
The Romans believed cinnamon was sacred and every Roman emperor stocked cinnamon in his treasury. The Romans weren’t the only ones who valued cinnamon. The ancient Egyptians used it for witchcraft and embalming.
Ever been in a sticky situation? We all have. But probably none as sticky as the Great Molasses Flood, sometimes called the Molasses Massacre, which hit Boston in 1919.
The story of Wonder Bread started in 1921 when the Taggart Baking Company of Indianapolis was getting ready to launch its new 1 1/2 pound loaf of bread. Inspiration hit VP Elmer Cline who was attending the International Balloon Race at the Indianapolis Speedway. He became mesmerized by the hundreds of colorful balloons floating across the sky.
The word brunch is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch, indicating a meal which combines elements of both. The term first appeared in print in 1895 in an article whose author proposed its virtue thusly: “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers.”
Its more than 100,000 varieties grow on every continent except Antarctica; it feeds more people than any other crop and has for thousands of years; and it can be the principal ingredient in a wide range of dishes ranging from appetizers to desserts. I’m talking about rice.
A cobbler, after all, in the words of Nicole Weston on her Baking Bites blog, is just a pie for lazy people. As she explains, it gives you the all the character of a pie but without the hassle.
In Scotland, their oatmeal, or porridge, is a hallowed dish, celebrated every year at the World Porridge Making Championship in the village of Carrbridge.
“Beer is proof God loves us,” Ben Franklin supposedly said. If so, God must have a special fondness for the people of the Czech Republic. Beer is the most heavily consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, and the Czechs are doing their part to keep it that way. They rank #1 in world beer consumption.
For those of us used to modern conveniences, it's hard to imagine what life was like before the invention of the tin can.
Red velvet cake was all the rage years ago, but its popularity has faded since the 1970s amid safety concerns about the red food coloring in use back then to tint the cake. Perhaps it's time to bring red velvet cake back.
Sweetened condensed milk is a clear exception to the notion that when something is condensed or reduced it is inferior to the original.
