irisarbor wrote:SO how can you tell if you ARE buying 100% olive oil or the adulterated junk?
What's a housewife and cook to do?

(I already check the label for country of origin and for those that do label when they are a blend...)

http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/2012/09/ ... ood-prices

TIL what SWAG means.

(Here, I'll save you the Googling: TIL = Today I Learned, SWAG = Scientifically Wild-Ass Guess)

Don't get me started on this one...... Angus beef is my current rage against stupidity. Angus is a specific breed, with breed characteristics from body style to hair length. It's a registered breed just like a German Shepard in the dog world.

Now I have my doubts that 95% of the people can tell the difference in any beef (or hog for that matter), from the breed, but one of the requirements of Angus Beef is the steer has to be 50% black. It could be the biggest mutt of the beef industry, but as long as it's mostly black, it can be called angus beef, and therefore, better than anybody else's. It's like saying every black dog is a Lab.

I will give them credit for marketing though, and if it makes beef producers a little more money, more power to them.

Boneless pork chops is another of my favorite marketing blunders. I was always taught that a pork chop had a bone, if it was boneless, it was a sliced loin. This one has been going on so long, it's probably getting hard to find anybody that notices anymore. If it makes people eat pork, I'll just let it go......

Turkey ham and turkey bacon just pisses me off.......... this is just flat out false advertising.

Tim

Freezer Pig wrote:Turkey ham and turkey bacon just pisses me off.......... this is just flat out false advertising.

Tim

Maybe if they left the "turkey" part out of the description, but the terms have grown to reflect their own unique meaning.

Freezer Pig wrote:Turkey ham and turkey bacon just pisses me off.......... this is just flat out false advertising.

It is a "healthy" alternative to the real thing.

I have a family member who is vegetarian with some exceptions: turkey bacon, shrimp, crab and maybe fish. There is a favorite family dish featuring bacon, though I will make a turkey bacon variant for her. She is delighted with her bacon, though it is inferior to the real thing.

Some people want to be fooled.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote: She is delighted with her bacon, though it is inferior to the real thing.

Some people want to be fooled.

Regards,

Growing up in a Kosher house, my parents used to buy this stuff called Beef Fry, which is basically beef bacon. At least they had the good sense not to call it bacon, because it's not. That reminds me of an old margarine jingle, "If you think it's butter but it's not, it's Chiffon." Their tag line was "It's not nice to fool mother nature". I think the same can be said of these faux bacon products.

One of my favorite Vienna Beef deli products is the turkey breast pastrami, made from a whole, rack-cooked, hickory-smoked turkey breast. It's the real deal, quite tasty, and healthy.

Turkey bacon is not necessarily "better" for you than regular bacon, anyways.

TCK wrote:Turkey bacon is not necessarily "better" for you than regular bacon, anyways.

Those who want to believe otherwise will rarely reconsider their opinion. It's like politics.

Cathy2 wrote:

TCK wrote:Turkey bacon is not necessarily "better" for you than regular bacon, anyways.

Those who want to believe otherwise will rarely reconsider their opinion. It's like politics.

Less fat and just as much sodium, so it really depends on what ails you.

=R=

In what world are these potatoes "Hash Browns?" They're not hashed, they're not brown.



(sorry for the craptastic photo -- food this bad isn't worth retouching or even white balancing)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/everything-is-a-lie?bffb&utm_term=4ldqphi#.hi1QdKWpa

Jazzfood wrote:http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/everything-is-a-lie?bffb&utm_term=4ldqphi#.hi1QdKWpa

Most shocking that Captain Crunch is actually Commander Crunch.

Or a double Oreo is actually 1.86

Turkey Ham and "Krab" come in surprising handy when you are making "Jewish" Jambalaya.
Turkey bacon is Handy for jewish hot dog rumaki.

While those who know me know I don't keep kosher, occasionally I adapt my recipes for those who do,
or take a dish to a kosher-style party....

I took a minute and a half and worked a little magic to JoelF's photo above for yucks

David Hammond wrote:

Jazzfood wrote:http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/everything-is-a-lie?bffb&utm_term=4ldqphi#.hi1QdKWpa

Most shocking that Captain Crunch is actually Commander Crunch.

I loved this from the comments, "He also comes from a world where people have 4 fingers so the stripe difference may make some sense. He probably uses Base 8 math too."

Mast chocolate may be fake "artisanal" : http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/mast-brothers-chocolate-scandal

Not long ago, I bought Mast chocolate for a friend of mine recovering from eye surgery. He loves chocolate and he liked the Mast bars I brought him. It seems, though, that fancy packaging and pricing convinces us that this is a higher quality chocolate than it may actually be (wouldn't be the first time for that). If people like it, though, maybe it doesn't matter. I dunno.

David Hammond wrote:Mast chocolate may be fake "artisanal" : http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/12/mast-brothers-chocolate-scandal

Not long ago, I bought Mast chocolate for a friend of mine recovering from eye surgery. He loves chocolate and he liked the Mast bars I brought him. It seems, though, that fancy packaging and pricing convinces us that this is a higher quality chocolate than it may actually be (wouldn't be the first time for that). If people like it, though, maybe it doesn't matter. I dunno.

it really does matter. yes, you should eat what you like, but you also should pay a fair price based on what is supposed to be in that pretty wrapper you paid for. and you absolutely deserve to know what you're eating, and not be lied to about the contents of that pretty wrapper. i've been reading up on the mast brothers. they were lying about everything for their first several years in the business: from the chocolate they sourced, to their place in the hierarchy of 'true' american chocolate makers, to how much chocolate they sold, they lied. with so many other hard working chocolate companies out there, the masts dont deserve my business, even if they are finally, and truly, making bean to bar chocolate. they cannot be trusted or believed going forward, based on their past when they brazenly lied to the many, and shared some of the truth with a few. apparently, their reputation for quality was very low with the experts from almost the beginning of their career. they succeeded based on the 'wallpaper' (the attractive wrappers), rather than the contents.

to read more, i'd start with this: dallasfood.org

i don't eat much chocolate but the story of the mast brothers is interesting and it sounds like their product initially was noting like they described it and the true bean to bar chocolate without additives would have been aimed at a very small market.

The problem with big food companies where profit is number 1 motive they will do anything regardless of damage to humans to generate 1 more dollar than there competitors. It seems like you cannot buy any food in the grocery store and believe what is on the label whether it is Olive Oils, Cheese, meets, etc...

Some companies that promise 100% parmesan cheese, have been adding cellulose, a common food additive made from wood pulp, to their cheese products, according to an independent study, launched by Bloomberg News.

An independent laboratory test found that products like Walmart store's Great Value 100% grated parmesan cheese registered 7.8% cellulose, Jewel-Osco’s Essential Everyday 100% parmesan cheese was 8.8% cellulose and Kraft had 3.8% cellulose, Bloomberg reported.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nat ... /80508440/

and another article about 80% of Italian extra virgin olive oil sold in the U.S. is fake:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodr ... c5b7d75e0c

Ann apparently 100% of Forbes articles contain 99% recycled material:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmste ... b141e271be

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cathyhuyghe ... 1f5e06a367

Jewel-Osco pulls Parmesan cheese found to have high levels of wood pulp

Jewel-Osco has pulled Essential Everyday Parmesan Cheese from all 185 of its stores amid concerns that the grated cheese contains high levels of cellulose, an anti-clumping agent made from wood.

=R=

Elaine, last week, I asked Tony Mantuano the same question (I'm working on a Newcity piece on this topic), and the Cliff Notes version of his response was "Find a reliable distributor." For civilians, that could mean a place like J.P. Graziano (though perhaps not Eataly).

It's hardly difficult to find freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano at your local Italian deli or even the supermarket (OK, probably not Jewel, but Mariano's usually has it in their cheese dept.). Why would anyone in our fair city buy the stuff in the green can in the first place?

stevez wrote:It's hardly difficult to find freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano at your local Italian deli or even the supermarket (OK, probably not Jewel, but Mariano's usually has it in their cheese dept.). Why would anyone in our fair city buy the stuff in the green can in the first place?

I don't really understand the reason for not freshly grating the stuff as-needed. It's not hard and pre-grated cheese, even the good stuff, is going to oxidize and lose goodness relatively quickly.

Green can is completely out of the question. I always doubted it was actually cheese, and turns out it sometimes wasn't.

In addition to that, how tough is it to spend a little time with a solid hunk of parm and a microplane for 30 seconds or so?

I generally grate my own in enough quantity for two or three uses. It is rarely in the 'fridge for more than a week. The same goes for garlic, though I prefer to turn it into a garlic butter to prevent discoloration.

Actually, there's one utilitarian use for the stuff in the green can: when I grate something gooey, like Velveeta or American, I shake the green-can-powder (whatever it is) as a surface agent, one which has a bit of taste (?), to keep the gooey gratings somewhat individual and distinct. [Another issue one might raise, of course, is: what are you doing with gooey cheese-stuff gratings? I'll leave that for another time! ]

Geo

Geo wrote:[Another issue one might raise, of course, is: what are you doing with gooey cheese-stuff gratings? I'll leave that for another time! ]

Geo

I'm going to hazard that you're preparing Dragon Turds or some other cheese-stuffed thing.