Disgusting! Well, now I know what Ludovic meant, and I’ll never touch Bombay Sapphire again!
No, but seriously, Ludovic, what is it all about? I have been to Wales twice (in 1971 and 1976) and found it a beautiful country. I’m an American, and I have an impression that some Brits look down on Wales as being somewhat provincial, but I don’t get why a Welsh reservoir would be perceived as less wholesome than a reservoir anywhere else. Does it have something to do with the association of Wales with coal mining?
Well, that’s an excellent example of “how on EARTH did someone decide that this is edible?”.
A lot of foods must go through significant processing to be safe to eat - e.g. cassava (cyanide, anyone?), castor oil (the beans are poisonous), lima and kidney beans (genuinely toxic if not properly cooked). Who figured all that out? (Cassava in particular stumps me).
Then there are the things like fish sauce, Tabasco sauce (aged for years), huitlacoche (diseased corn, sold as a “delicacy”). I know food standards were not up to 21st century levels when those were all developed, but even 200 years ago people knew that food that had gone off might make you ill.
And some have to be chalked up to desperation: eat that spoiled food or you’re gonna starve (blue cheese, casu marzu, natto and so on).
Oooh: and who figured out that taking milk, tossing in a chunk of a calf’s stomach, and letting it rot would result in cheese to begin with?
I used to be a big fan of McDonald’s chicken nuggets until I saw how they were made in a documentary photo. I think it’s now been 10 years since I last ate one and I may never eat one again.
That’s the story I heard is that they did this- more like a wineskin that just happened to have rennet built-in.
From there, I’m guessing that someone figured out that if you pressed out the whey, you ended up with longer-lasting curds, and the same for salting them (probably putting them in brine for primitive feta actually). And various molds and bacteria grew in/on them naturally, so someone likely figured out that pressed, salted curds were better the longer they were kept. Or that more/less salt, more/less pressing, storing here vs. there, etc… made differences.
Keep that going over a long time, and you end up with distinct types of cheeses that we now know.
And I’m with everyone else- what’s the big deal with Bombay Sapphire and Welsh water? Even the stuff they cut it with is purified before they add it, and the lake they use is also used for Liverpool’s water, so it’s not like it’s some godawful cesspit.
Even as a teen I just couldn’t stomach most of their food, and truly failed to see the appeal, as a result. So I’d just have a coke and fries if going along with others.
Then I learned both how many ingredients go into those fries, (19), AND how they are grown. The potato breed they demand is prone to a particular blight, only preventable by use of a frightening chemical cocktail. After it’s sprayed on the crop, no one can go into the fields for weeks, without risking neurological damage! The potatoes, when harvested, are spread out in barns for weeks of offgasing so they are not toxic.
This is some Michael Pollan thing? Looks like he claims it’s 1 variety of potato, except that it’s a bog standard variety (Russet Burbank). Everything I can find suggests they use up to 7 varieties of potato, all pretty standard. His information seems misinformed and maybe downright quackery.
It looks like the pesticide hasn’t been used since 2009. By anybody.
More info
As for nuggets, the main thing to realize is that it’s not a chunk of a chicken so much as a slurry made from many chickens. Not just McDonald’s even. I can’t stomach their food but more due to their burgers and the smell of their particular fries.
It’s what they were doing at the time I quit, many years ago. I haven’t bothered to keep up with their latest practices.
That they EVER found that acceptable is enough to keep me from going there. Ever again.
Um… where else & how else would they have stored salted fish? The whole point of salting fish is to preserve it at room temperature for a very long time. Fish sauce or garum date back at least to ancient Greece.
It used to be lard for a long time. I find cites that it became certified kosher in 1997, and some say that’s when the lard was removed, but I suspect it may have been earlier than that, as it could have been made with vegetable oils and still not been kosher certified. Wikipedia says early 90s is when they switched to vegetable shortening.
The texture is kind of creamy and lumpy at the same time, a bit like a firm tofu crossed with scrambled eggs. The taste is relatively mild, not organ-y in the liver or kidney sort of way, but definitely tastes different. I’ve had it in tacos and some type of curry (bheja fry) when I was visiting Mumbai. I believe that one was goat or sheep brain.
I like “real” beef jerky, but I also like a ‘Slim Jim’ once in a while. I have a hunch this wouldn’t be so anymore if I saw how they were made, or from exactly what they were made from.
Oddly enough, I prefer the chicken slurry nuggets to whole muscle chicken nuggets. Or, rather, I should say they are two different things. Chick Fil A has great nuggets, but goddamned if I don’t love the texture and taste of McD’s nuggets, “pink slime” and all. Doesn’t bug me a single bit.
I’m bothered more when I bite into a vein in a whole chicken piece than I do eating a McNugget.
I forget which comedian said this, but it goes: “Two breasts, two wings, two thighs, two drumsticks…what’s left is the McNugget!”. I used to repeat that and it put my ex off McNuggets permanently.
BTW, smoked turkey butts are great! Chicken butts, not so much.
