Certified Sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers. Co-founder @DrinkAdversary. PhD in Neuropharmacology. Home Chef. Flyfisher. Drinks, food & fishing.
SWFL & SoCal
Joined November 2009
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Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Take deep breaths, James. Most of us, unwisely, just carefully put the blade part of the knife into the toaster slot.
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Is this the dumbest thing ever? I’m buying it immediately…
getbutterherospreader.com/1/….
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
don’t need grok to tell me that today’s market activity was caused by a mix of shifting uncertainty patterns, a risk-on atmosphere, and a perfect storm of beta meeting sigma
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Halloween could be the Super Bowl of eating bugs.
There are bugs in candy, but not all are there on purpose. Insects get into crops like cocoa, and it isn't practical to clean out every fragment, so FDA has a limit. It steps in when chocolate averages 60 or more insect fragments per 100 grams, which means a pound can carry about 270 and still pass.
The ones on purpose are on the label. Confectioner's glaze is shellac, a resin made by the lac insect, and it's the shine on Reese's Pieces, Whoppers and Hot Tamales.
FDA says fragments under its limits are not a health hazard. Halloween just puts a lot more of them in circulation. Americans are expected to spend $4.1 billion on Halloween candy this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
If you buy steak at Costco, or buy tenderized steak anywhere, this is important safety info..
Costco blade tenderizes its steaks. The label says so, and it's the reason a Costco steak comes with a cooking temperature printed on it.
Before the steak hits the case it goes through a machine that pushes rows of thin blades into the meat to cut the muscle fibers, so a Choice steak eats more tender than it would on its own. You can't see the cuts once it's done, except sometimes in the fat on a ribeye.
The catch is what rides in on the blades. E. coli lives on the outside of a cut of beef, which is why a rare steak is normally safe. The sear kills what's on the surface and the inside was never exposed. Push that surface into the middle with a blade and rare isn't safe anymore. That's why USDA says a mechanically tenderized steak gets cooked to 145F with a 3 minute rest, the same number as a pork chop, where a steak that wasn't tenderized carries no cooking instruction at all.
USDA figures about 11% of the beef sold in the US is mechanically tenderized, and since 2016 the words have to be on the label. Costco started printing them in 2012, after an E. coli outbreak in Canada was traced to its blade tenderized steaks. The ground beef isn't tenderized. If the package in your cart says blade tenderized or mechanically tenderized, cook it through.
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
An unforgettable old-fashioned needs an extraordinary Bourbon #Adversary
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
American eggs are washed. European eggs aren't. Ours are in the fridge and theirs are usually on a shelf.
A hen lays an egg with a thin coating on the shell called the cuticle, which seals the pores against bacteria. In the US, graded eggs go through a washer at 90F or hotter, at least 20F warmer than the egg so water doesn't get pulled in through the shell, then a sanitizer rinse. USDA's grading manual says most of the cuticle comes off in the wash. FDA then requires the eggs to be held at 45F or below from 36 hours after they're laid.
In the EU the rule runs the other way. Class A eggs can't be washed, so the cuticle stays on, and they aren't supposed to be chilled below 41F before the store either, because a cold egg sweats in a warm room and the condensation grows bacteria on the shell. Britain also vaccinates the hens against salmonella, which the US doesn't require. A washed egg has lost its seal, so once an egg has been in the fridge it stays in the fridge.
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
The pasta labeled bronze cut is rough on purpose. Dry pasta is made by pushing dough through a metal plate with the shape cut into it, called a die. What the die is made of changes the surface of the pasta.
Dies coated with Teflon let the dough slide through easily, so the pasta comes out smooth and a little glossy. Bronze grabs at the dough as it passes, so the surface comes out rough and dull. It's almost chalky looking. Sauce holds onto that rough surface, and more starch comes off into the cooking water, which helps the sauce stick too.
You don't need to read the bag to see the difference on the shelf. Barilla sells a separate Al Bronzo line in the US made on bronze dies for exactly this reason.
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Wholly Guacamole has no preservatives in it and it sits in the case for weeks. Here is how.
The ingredient list is Hass avocados, distilled vinegar, and under 2% water, jalapeno peppers, salt, dehydrated onion and granulated garlic.
The vinegar is there for more than flavor. It pulls the pH down low enough that bacterial spores can't grow, and that matters because pressure doesn't kill spores. Then the sealed package goes into a vessel full of water and the water gets pressurized to a level their own site describes as putting it at the bottom of the ocean. Because the pressure comes from every direction at once, the food is not crushed, just squeezed evenly. At that pressure the proteins inside bacteria and yeast unfold and stop working, so the product gets pasteurized without ever being heated.
Heat ruins fresh food. It turns avocado bitter and it cooks the fresh out of juice. Pressure kills the same bacteria and leaves the color and the flavor alone.
It's called high pressure processing or HPP. A lot of the refrigerated guacamole in the case gets it, and so does cold pressed juice and a lot of the deli meat that says no preservatives on the front.
Just found this account. Already loving it!
Eggo Chocolatey Chip waffles can't be called chocolate chip waffles. Chocolate has a federal standard. It has to be made with chocolate liquor and the fat has to be cocoa butter. Swap in a cheaper vegetable fat and you lose the word. FDA has a policy document for this, it's called Labeling Products Purporting to be Chocolate or Chocolate Flavored.
Eggo's ingredient list for this waffle has the oil as soybean, palm, palm kernel, canola and/or cottonseed. Palm kernel oil is the cocoa butter substitute. Cocoa and chocolate are both in there but they sit below salt in weight, so the chips aren't chocolate chips and the box says chocolatey instead. You'll see it everywhere now. Chocolatey, chocolate flavored, made with chocolate, fudge flavored. All the same thing, a product that didn't qualify.
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Nutella is 13% hazelnuts. The first two ingredients are sugar and palm oil and together they're more than half the jar. Ferrero doesn't hide it, the percentage is printed on the label in Europe.
Ferrero buys around a quarter of the world's hazelnut crop every year, mostly from Turkey, which grows about 70% of the supply. In 2014 they bought Turkey's biggest hazelnut company so nobody could get ahead of them.
In 2017 they changed the recipe to more sugar and more milk powder without announcing it, and a German consumer group noticed the cocoa went down too because the color got lighter.
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Two young boys walk into a pharmacy, pick out a box of tampons, and take them to the checkout.
The pharmacist looks at the older boy.
“How old are you, son?”
“Eight.”
“Do you know what these are used for?”
“Not exactly,” the boy replies. “They’re not for me. They’re for my brother. He’s four.”
“Oh, really?” the pharmacist asks.
“Yeah. We saw on TV that if you use these, you can swim, play tennis, and ride a bike. Right now, he can’t do any of those.”
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Bir Kere Girince Saatlerce Çıkamayacağınız 50 Site
1.) 'zoom.earth' — Dünyayı canlı uydu görüntüsüyle izleme
2.) 'flightradar24.com' — Şu an gökyüzündeki her uçağı görme
3.) 'marinetraffic.com' — Denizdeki tüm gemileri anlık takip
4.) 'windy.com' — Rüzgar ve fırtınaların canlı haritası
5.) 'lightningmaps.org' — Dünyaya düşen yıldırımları anlık izleme
6.) 'earthquake.usgs.gov' — Son depremlerin canlı listesi
7.) 'submarinecablemap.com' — İnterneti taşıyan okyanus kabloları
8.) 'globalforestwatch.org' — Ormanların yok oluşunu uydudan izleme
9.) 'worldometers.info' — Dünyanın istatistikleri saniye saniye
10.) 'internetlivestats.com' — Şu an atılan tweet ve arama sayısı
11.) 'thetruesize.com' — Ülkelerin gerçek boyutlarını karşılaştırma
12.) 'oldmapsonline.org' — Yüzyıllar öncesinin haritaları
13.) 'davidrumsey.com' — 150 bin tarihi harita arşivi
14.) 'openstreetmap.org' — Gönüllülerin çizdiği dünya haritası
15.) 'window-swap.com' — Rastgele birinin penceresinden dünyaya bakma
16.) 'virtualvacation.us' — Şehirlerde sanal yürüyüş
17.) 'mapcrunch.com' — Dünyanın rastgele bir noktasına ışınlanma
18.) 'atlasobscura.com' — Dünyanın en tuhaf yerlerinin kataloğu
19.) 'neal.fun' — Etkileşimli bilgi deneyimleri
20.) 'htwins.net/scale2' — Atomdan evrene ölçek yolculuğu
21.) 'eyes.nasa.gov' — Güneş sistemini 3B gezme
22.) 'stellarium-web.org' — Tarayıcıda gerçek gökyüzü haritası
23.) 'apod.nasa.gov' — NASA'nın günün astronomi fotoğrafı
24.) 'images.nasa.gov' — NASA'nın tüm görsel arşivi ücretsiz
25.) 'pudding.cool' — Veriyle anlatılan görsel makaleler
26.) 'ourworldindata.org' — Dünyanın gerçek verilerle hali
27.) 'gapminder.org' — Dünya hakkındaki yanlış bildiklerimiz
28.) 'informationisbeautiful.net' — Karmaşık veriyi görselleştirme
29.) 'data.worldbank.org' — Dünya Bankası'nın açık verileri
30.) 'data.tuik.gov.tr' — Türkiye'nin resmi istatistik veritabanı
31.) 'archive.org' — Milyonlarca kitap, film ve yazılım arşivi
32.) 'gutenberg.org' — Telifi düşmüş 70 bin ücretsiz kitap
33.) 'openlibrary.org' — Dünyanın her kitabının kaydı
34.) 'loc.gov' — ABD Kongre Kütüphanesi dijital arşivi
35.) 'europeana.eu' — Avrupa'nın kültürel miras arşivi
36.) 'dp.la' — Amerika'nın dijital kütüphane koleksiyonu
37.) 'artsandculture.google.com' — Müzeleri evden gezme
38.) 'rijksmuseum.nl' — Sanat eserlerini yüksek çözünürlükte indirme
39.) 'wikiart.org' — 250 bin sanat eserinin arşivi
40.) 'publicdomainreview.org' — Tarihin unutulmuş görsel hazineleri
41.) 'openculture.com' — Ücretsiz kültür ve eğitim arşivi
42.) 'metmuseum.org' — Met Müzesi'nin açık koleksiyonu
43.) 'musicmap.info' — Müzik türlerinin soy ağacı
44.) 'radiooooo.com' — Ülke ve on yıl seçip o dönemi dinleme
45.) 'listen.hatnote.com' — Wikipedia düzenlemelerini sese çevirme
46.) 'wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:R…' — Rastgele bilgi kuyusu
47.) 'timeanddate.com' — Zaman, gündoğumu ve gökyüzü olayları
48.) 'sciencedaily.com' — Bilim haberlerinin güncel akışı
49.) 'arxiv.org' — Bilimsel makalelerin ücretsiz ön baskıları
50.) 'observablehq.com' — Veriyi canlı kodla görselleştirme
İnternet, algoritmanın önünüze koyduğu o beş siteden ibaret değil.
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
Me: I'm going to eat healthy
Lettuce: I'm going to give you explosive diarrhea
Oreos in the pantry: I would never do that to you
Drinks, Food, & Fish by BrainWines retweeted
We thought it was our ability to love that makes us human.
Turns out it's the ability to select each image containing a crosswalk.
