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Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

bbc.com

41–50 of 101 posts

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#41
post #37

I adopted a pitbull whose shelter name was "Beans". Immediately upon adopting, I dropped the name "Beans" and gave him the moniker Tatanka. My wife occasionally calls him Tonka Beans for short... He's my best friend.

tatanka like buffalo from dancing with wolves? we use that reference for the thundering footsteps of our hairy family members wrestling, playing tag, playing...

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#42
post #8

I was surprised the article didn't mention nutmeg, which is widely used despite its toxicity, so I tried to figure out how their LD50 compares (i.e. how much tonka nut you need to eat to have a 50% chance of death, and how nutmeg stacks up). I couldn't find any clear answers for tonka beans and the exact dose of course depends on body weight but the lethal doses for nutmeg were an order of magnitude higher: for nutme…

Take enough nutmeg, and you'll start hallucinating.

In a good way or a bad way?

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#43
post #38

>“I was talking to a vanilla purveyor recently and he offered me tonka bean paste,” says Raquel. “I was like ‘If I want to use tonka bean, I’ll use tonka bean.’” One of my biggest issues with mislabeling foods. Sell me vanilla at the market price, sell me tonka at the market price, but don't sell my vanilla that is actually tonka at vanilla market prices. Same with scallops and stingray, crab and surimi, calamari and…

> scallops and stingray Ray and skate is nothing like scallops. > calamari and pork Again, nothing alike. > chocolate and flavored vegetable oil Chocolate contains more elements than just cocoa butter, so you can't just replace it with vegetable oil. I'm sure there's some chocolate out there that cuts vegetable oil into the cocoa butter, but I've personally not come across it.

> Ray and skate is nothing like scallops.

They are frequently substituted, cut out in little circles, and sold as "scallops". It is legal to do so (in the US.) The poster is complaining about mislabeling.

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#44
post #38

>“I was talking to a vanilla purveyor recently and he offered me tonka bean paste,” says Raquel. “I was like ‘If I want to use tonka bean, I’ll use tonka bean.’” One of my biggest issues with mislabeling foods. Sell me vanilla at the market price, sell me tonka at the market price, but don't sell my vanilla that is actually tonka at vanilla market prices. Same with scallops and stingray, crab and surimi, calamari and…

> scallops and stingray Ray and skate is nothing like scallops. > calamari and pork Again, nothing alike. > chocolate and flavored vegetable oil Chocolate contains more elements than just cocoa butter, so you can't just replace it with vegetable oil. I'm sure there's some chocolate out there that cuts vegetable oil into the cocoa butter, but I've personally not come across it.

https://www.today.com/food/chocoholics-sour-new-hersheys-for...

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#45
post #43
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> scallops and stingray Ray and skate is nothing like scallops. > calamari and pork Again, nothing alike. > chocolate and flavored vegetable oil Chocolate contains more elements than just cocoa butter, so you can't just replace it with vegetable oil. I'm sure there's some chocolate out there that cuts vegetable oil into the cocoa butter, but I've personally not come across it.

> Ray and skate is nothing like scallops. They are frequently substituted, cut out in little circles, and sold as "scallops". It is legal to do so (in the US.) The poster is complaining about mislabeling.

Frequently where? I believe this is yet another urban legend. The meat looks different.

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#46

>“I was talking to a vanilla purveyor recently and he offered me tonka bean paste,” says Raquel. “I was like ‘If I want to use tonka bean, I’ll use tonka bean.’” One of my biggest issues with mislabeling foods. Sell me vanilla at the market price, sell me tonka at the market price, but don't sell my vanilla that is actually tonka at vanilla market prices. Same with scallops and stingray, crab and surimi, calamari and…

It sort of makes one stick with whole ingredients. If you want flour that is relatively bug free, grind your own wheat. No packaged goods. Certainly shrinks one's choices but it might be the right thing to do to encourage more transparent suppliers.

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#48

>“I was talking to a vanilla purveyor recently and he offered me tonka bean paste,” says Raquel. “I was like ‘If I want to use tonka bean, I’ll use tonka bean.’” One of my biggest issues with mislabeling foods. Sell me vanilla at the market price, sell me tonka at the market price, but don't sell my vanilla that is actually tonka at vanilla market prices. Same with scallops and stingray, crab and surimi, calamari and…

>calamari and pork I think that's an urban legend

It is an urban legend. It takes FAR too much effort to mask the flavour to make it a cost-effective substitute.

It's like the "McDonald's hamburger is really red meal worm" or "KFC is really genetically engineered boneless chicken monsters" myths.

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#49
post #37

I adopted a pitbull whose shelter name was "Beans". Immediately upon adopting, I dropped the name "Beans" and gave him the moniker Tatanka. My wife occasionally calls him Tonka Beans for short... He's my best friend.

Tangential, but I like it. Have an upvote.

Re: Tonka beans – A delicious flavour with a toxic chemical

#50
post #2

I am somewhat appalled but not at all surprised to see click bait headlines leaking into the BBC's vernacular.

What makes you file it as click bait, exactly? I thought the headline gave me a very clear idea of what the article's contents would be. How would you improve it?

Edit: Wait, the actual article says secret and on HN it says chemical. Hmm.

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