Hamburger: More of a purist than you. If there’s seasoning mixed in, it ceases to be a burger and becomes a sausage patty you’re going to make a sandwich of. Not that there’s anything wrong with a sausage sandwich, but a burger is just meat. You can salt the outside when it’s done, but no salt mixed in. Mixing in salt = automatic beef sausage.
Garlic: Semi-purist. Until recently, I believed all garlic had to be used fresh or not at all. But then my boyfriend started making scrambled eggs with garlic powder in them and OH WOW MAGIC, so now I allow for garlic powder in certain conditions. Also very useful for hobo dinners if you don’t want to deal with garlic cloves.
Ketchup: Heinz
Peanut butter: peanuts and salt only; or just peanuts
Perfume: Chanel #5
Sheets: cotton only (flannel or percale, but must be cotton) Anti-Purist:
I agree. I’m a member of allrecipes.com, which of course means there are some pretty clunky recipes out there…but for god’s sake, people. When you are reviewing a recipe and you say something like “this is soOOoooo good! I replaced the sugar with splenda, and used I can’t believe it’s not butter instead of butter, and left out the cinnamon 'cuz I don’t like it…” guess what? You’re not reviewing the same recipe. You’re reviewing your own. Are there good reasons to alter a recipe? Of course. But make (and review) the original FIRST.
Also, someone mentioned sweetened vanilla, which I didn’t know existed, but I find the very idea just bizarre. It suggests a profound misunderstanding of how flavoring works: namely, you have a certain flavor without any other enhancers, because YOU are the one who’s going to be doing the enhancing. When the flavor is enhanced for you, you have less control over how sweet/salty/etc. the final product is going to be. Sure, the flavors by themselves might not be appetizing…but they’re not supposed to be. It’s the COMBINED flavors that are appetizing.
(Although isn’t it more of a purist thing to use vanilla bean instead of extract? ;))
You misunderstood me. I meant salt & pepper on the outside of the patty, not the inside. It’s ambiguous the way I wrote it, but I absolutely agree, no salt and pepper in the meat. Salt in the meat screws up the texture. It needs to be freshly ground meat, handled as little as possible–just enough so it forms patties.
Not only that, but sometimes with food coloring laden red cakes, one might think he just shat his intestines out the next day. The coloring doesn’t get altered by digestion.
For me, though:
PURIST: Steak sauce is a venial sin. Ketchup on a steak is a cardinal sin punishable by flogging. If you see me putting steak sauce on my plate, it means the steak is terrible.
PURIST: Medium rare (even the lower end) or nothing with my steak. Anything higher is ruining a perfectly good cut of meat.
ANTI-PURIST: I don’t care what kind of beer or wine anyone else drinks. Just because I prefer my beer free of corn or rice as mentioned above, that is no reason for me to stare down my snoot at someone just because they like Budweiser and Boone’s Farm.
Come to think of it, even the things I am a purist about don’t give me any right to judge others for their opinions. My girlfriend will turn a filet mignon into shoe leather without batting an eyelash, but I don’t harass her for it.
Anti-Purist: Books. Having completed a MA in British Literature and being a writer, I meet a lot of book fetishists (not to mention all the ones who are on this very board). People who go on and on about the smell of leather binding, the feel of the pages between your fingertips, the distinct scent of a library, the satisfaction of going to the store, buying a new book, and taking it hope to read with a nice cup of tea. For book purists, the entire experience is very sensual.
Fuck that shit. I don’t even like to hold books. I hate books. I hate how easy it is to bend the pages. I hate how you have to treat them so gentle because a single crease on the cover is akin to a war crime. I hate how the big ones are uncomfortable to hold when you’re laying down. I hate how easy it is for me to lose my place. I hate how heavy they are. I hate that they take some valuable space in my house. I love digital books. They’re the answers to all my prayers, and I could not be happier than e-readers are getting more popular by the month (also, since I make a living on digital books/ereaders, I’m inordinately fond of them).
All right, let me rephrase. Specifically in the realm of black teas (because I do drink green tea, red [rooibos] and occasional herbal teas) only Earl Grey Tea. Not Lipton, Tetley, Luzianne or store brand stuff. Also, not English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast or other such things. No Lapsang Souchong, no Assam, etc. Just Earl Grey.
Purist: Tea. I’m not fussy about the actual tea, being a Tetley man, but it really doesn’t taste the same if it isn’t in my mug. My half-pint mug with the chip on the rim. I love that mug.
Ah, okay. And now it looks like you’re more of a purist: I don’t insist on freshly ground meat. My hamburger comes in frozen blocks from our meat processor, and we thaw it and shape patties just before cooking dinner.
It’s fine if you don’t want to eat meat, but don’t go parading around eating imitation meat and saying you don’t like meat-- you’re eating stuff whose sole purpose is to taste more like meat without eating it. I’m fine with, say, a black bean patty, but tofurky, soy cheese, and soy bacon all scream “I don’t know how to eat without meat and dairy at the forefront of my meals”. So many wonderful ways to eat in a vegetarian manner without making beautiful soy beans into overprocessed crap with good stuff around it as garnish. I’m fine with soy beans and basic tofu, but processed beyond traditional Asian uses, and I’m grossed out by soy protein foods. Much like other legumes, it’s not meant to be a universal visual meat replacement.
I prefer BPAL, if only for the fact that I’m attracted to relatively unusual/unpopular scents. I’ll also mix in Samsara by Guerlain and Crystal Noir by Versace, but I prefer perfume oils.
I use the name Purist(and Purism) as my handle in video games, does that count?
Purist: Soda, Mexican/Kosher coke is far superior to regular coke. I can barely drink the regular stuff anymore.
Purist: Pizza, New York-style plain. Perhaps, a sausage topping if I’m feeling ambitious. I’m not really sure how other styles proliferate to the extent that they do, some even encroaching upon NY’s real estate.
Non-Purist: Wearing pajamas while grocery shopping at 7AM. Why does wearing comfortable clothing draw the ire of so many people? I’ll never know.
Purist: I don’t care who you are or how great of a cook you/your grandmother/your aunt are…your macaroni and cheese will never taste as good as the way my mom makes it from the Kraft box. End of story.
Purist: Football stadiums and fields. Football is meant to be played on grass, under the sky, in the wind or the rain or the snow. Playing on carpet under a dome - especially if you are a team in the South or Southwest (I’m looking at you, Atlanta Falcons).
A green field, at that. Boise State deserves to be left out of the BCS just for that abomination that they play on. <Shudder.>
Football uniforms. Keep 'em simple and classic. Clashing colors, bling, and graphic busyness are verboten. An example, you ask? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for clashing colors, the Dallas Cowboys for bling, and the Cinncinnati Bengals for overly busy unis (those stupid tiger stripes).
Perfection? The Packers, the Browns, the Steelers, the Bears.
Semi-important nitpick for shopping purposes. All Coke is kosher. You’re talking about kosher for Passover Coke, which has real sugar because corn isn’t allowed for the majority of American Jews. Think of it as a time-limited extra enhanced level of kosher.
PURIST: Rice Krispies Treats should be Rice Krispies and marshmallow only. The adulterated versions they sell nowadays with chocolate chips and/or peanut butter and/or whatever else they can think of to throw in are abominations.
Not quite, but close. Wine isn’t supposed to be served at room temperature; it should be served at cellar temperature. That’s usually somewhere just north of 50 degrees, which is why Americans who don’t have wine storage systems throw their bottles in the fridge for a bit.