MetaFilter posts tagged with food and pork

The Austerity Kitchen

the man of twists and turns — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:30:56 -0800

Early Southerners ate a rather limited and unvarying diet. At table the famished guest seldom found more than bacon, corn pone, and coffee sweetened with molasses. Pioneering sociologist Harriet Martineau complained that “little else than pork, under all manner of disguises” sustained her during her visit to the American SouthFor the most part, slaves observed the same diet as poor white farmers. Though many kept gardens, and thus supplemented their rations of pork and corn with a wide variety of vegetables, they had otherwise little opportunity to augment their diet.. Another traveler griped that that he had “never fallen in with any cooking so villainous.” A steady assault of “rusty salt pork, boiled or fried … and musty corn meal dodgers” brought his stomach to surrender. Rarely did “a vegetable of any description” make it on his plate, and “no milk, butter, eggs, or the semblance of a condiment” did he once see.

Christine Baumgarthuber is a writer for The New Inquiry and runs the blog The Austerity Kitchen. Austerity Kitchen has posts like: Night Moves

The hours that followed first sleep individuals passed in diverse manners; no custom or obligation imposed itself on this time between times. Ekirch writes that this period bore no name other than the “watch” or “watching.” Reluctant to leave a warm bed, many were content to do just that–watch. Others chatted with bedfellows, smoked pipes, comforted ill kinsmen or tended fires. Neighbors visited. Sometimes they broke bread. And frequently was the call of nature heeded. “When you do wake of your fyrst slepe,” counsels the medieval physician Andrew Boorde, “make water if you feel your bladder charged.”

Bundle Theory

Many thought bundling strange. One prominent New York physician called it a “ridiculous and pernicious custom.” Others blamed it for the precipitous decline in Yankee morals. But its defenders deemed it an economical and humane prelude to marriage. A couple bundled burnt no candles, they insisted, and other household members could rest easy knowing they had spared their visitor a tramp home in the winter night.

Baumgarthuber has also written pieces like: Our Daily Grub

Peppered, salted, sprinkled with finely chopped parsley, fried in butter, and dunked in vinegar, locusts make a dish whose savor is rivaled perhaps only by pan-seared stag beetles fattened on wine and flour. Browned meal worms served on a biscuit pairs well with woodlouse purée and is a terrific entrée for a main dish of grilled Buff-tip caterpillars or chafed chrysalides. Plump baked moth, oven-fresh and piping hot, is a dessert so surpassingly sweet as to upstage any visions of sugar plums that may dance in children’s heads.

Workingman's Bread

“How well can we live,” Juliet Corson asked herself, “if we are moderately poor?” On the radical origins of home economics.

Not By Bread And Marg Alone

Oleomargarine’s initial foray into the marketplace went anything but smoothly. Dairy farmers hated the stuff, and officials in the United States, Canada, and Australasia placed bans on the artificial coloring that made it resemble butter. This they hoped would render it less appealing to consumers. Such interference came to nothing; people grew to love the product, particularly those in pinched circumstances. In his 1936 novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying, George Orwell notes the “half-eaten bits of bread and margarine” strewn about the lodging-house bedroom of his narrator, a downwardly mobile advertising copywriter turned bookstore clerk. And social reformer Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree’s 1911 study on unemployment quotes the diary of a “casual worker” (a man employed only intermittently): Tuesday, July 12.—Earned a shilling at wharf for working three hours. Breakfast—bacon and bread; dinner—bacon and bread; tea—margarine and bread. Wednesday, July 13.—Went out at 5.30 A.M.; walked round to several different jobs…. Breakfast—margarine and bread; dinner—dripping and bread; tea—kipper and bread, and not much of that.

Are you paying attention, boy?

Toekneesan — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:35:33 -0800

He does not cook like you do. But I would like an invitation for dinner: Cajun Stuffed Pork Chops with Bacon Hot Pickled Eggs & Sausage Steaks 'n Gravy Smothered Pork Chops Hot Chili Dogs Crawfish Boil North Carolina Cole Slaw & Hot Dogs with Chili Seafood Filé Gumbo Cajun Boiled Peanuts Chocolate Crack BBQ Rant/Rules Just in time for the holidays... How to Cook Juicy Turkey, Part 1 How to Cook Juicy Turkey, Part 2 How to Bake a Rainbow Cake More than food: Hair Dryer Repair Tips for the Girls

wonderful magical animal

AceRock — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:47:58 -0800

Rob Levitt of Mado in Chicago butchering a pig. 19 more videos submitted by chefs and butchers to Protein University, a project that aims to "create an online resource populated with a family tree of butchery techniques from whole animal breakdowns to sausage making from across the globe". From the founder of Cochon 555, a travelling contest that has chefs prepare 5 dishes from 5 different breeds of heritage pigs. The Portland competition resulted in some arrests and some good quotes from the police report.

La Grande Confrérie du Cassoulet de Castelnaudary

Joe Beese — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:26:54 -0800

"Our sole purpose is to defend the glory and the quality of our cassoulet."

where are the jobs. where are they. also what is your favorite food

Optimus Chyme — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:38:43 -0800

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley opens up another Ask Chuck Webcast. The people respond. Grassley answers.

A glistening chunk of pork!

mrducts — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:24:08 -0800

A glistening chunk of pork! In the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, two of the most famous works on display are the "Meat-shaped Stone" and "Jadeite Cabbage". Made during the Ch'ing Dynasty (1644–1911) these two sculptures are often exhibited together for the appreciation of visitors. At first glance, this meat-shaped piece of stone looks like a luscious, mouth-watering piece of "Tung-p'o meat". Made from banded jasper, it is a naturally occurring stone that accumulates in layers over many years. Via

The unholy love child of pulled pork and pate.

1f2frfbf — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:44:40 -0800

Want to have a small bacon pick-me-up in the office or away from home? The food blog, Homesick Texan, presents the traditional recipe for Bacon Jam.

Sustainability

homunculus — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:46:13 -0800

Our Decrepit Food Factories. Michael Pollan on what sustainability is really about. [Via Gristmill.]

Swine Before Pearls

digaman — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:48:55 -0800

On ham, with a fascinating (well, unless you're kosher) history of colonial curing methods.

Needs more...pork.

vellocet — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:57:24 -0800

Salad? mmhmm. If you're not one for the ever-generic chicken caesar, well, there are alternatives. (in keeping with recent baconposts, of course.)

Hog Heaven

MattD — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 05:21:19 -0800

Pork Farmers in Hog Heaven! Atkins and skyrocketing beef prices result in pork producers "experiencing demand far in excess of anything [they]'ve seen historically." Pork prices are very high on the spot and futures market but still a value relative to meat. Perhaps this will increase the demand for tasty Berkshire hog pork, the kind that pre-dates the breeding which produced the "other white meat."

I always knew that the proper supply chain management ebusiness plan

machaus — Sun, 14 Oct 2001 17:31:52 -0800

I always knew that the proper supply chain management ebusiness plan could free me from the hell that is cleaning those pesky pig intestines.