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Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

newengland.com

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Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#101
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The local supermarket sells whole roasted chickens that you can buy hot and ready to eat. The ones that don't sell are deboned and shredded and used for chicken salad, barbeque "pulled" chicken, etc.

And these roasted chickens were previously on the shelves as raw whole chicken that was pulled and cooked when they hit their “sell by” date.

Try finding chickens that small in the aisles.

Depends on the grocery chain, but many places use separate stock for them.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly nobody under the age of 35 is aware that popcorn used to taste like corn. Not like modern ears of corn, which are bred mostly for sweetness; more like tortilla chips, whose corn is still (somehow) cultivated for corn flavor. Corny. [edit] … also I’m baffled by how, every time I “hold the tomatoes” on my burger or salad, someone will invariably say “don’t you like tomatoes?” and I have to go on this dumb rant a…

you would probably love the dorito effect https://www.amazon.com/Dorito-Effect-Surprising-Truth-Flavor... Its a book about the incentives and technologies that came together to result in the deflavorization of food and the rise of the "flavoring" industry as a whole. Of the interesting things in there is one guy using a mass spectrometer to identify flavor compounds at scale to engineer a tomato that is hardy and shi…

I have a feeling that “love” might not be the right word, but adding it to the queue ;)

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#103
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Marzanos are origin-protected in Italy, so if you get Italian San Marzano's they're legally limited in ways that promote quality. Unfortunately, there is a large black market in mis-labeled San Marzanos, so it's not a full guarantee of quality. But it's something that they're at least working on, rather than just giving up.

>> San Marzanos are origin-protected in Italy What does that mean? Protected under what laws?

It's like trademark but instead of:

"only this company can decide who can use the trademark"

It's like:

"only if it's production fulfills certain criteria can you use the name"

It's made as a consumer protection so that people can not just claim their product is this kind of "traditional" product when it isn't. Except that it's less used like a consumer protection as it's mainly used like a trademark. Controlled by a small group of people and directly profiting some regional government/economy.

Most commonly it requires the main ingredient to come from a specific region (also e.g. used for Wine or Sect).

EDIT: I kinda did throw different regulations into one explanation here.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#104
post #89
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just move to Europe.

Sorry to tell you tomatoes are flavourless in Europe as well.

I lived almost 7 years in Germany, and the average tomato at a supermarket was lightyears beyond the US. Then farmers markets are even better.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#106
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i too stopped ordering tomatos for this reason some people mentioned looking for places that advertise using heirloom tomatos, but you still have to give them a good pinch of salt would love to join a startup that re-engineers flavor back into commercially-viable crops

Just move to Europe.

Just always get beefsteak tomatoes for burgers

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#107
post #2

> “It turns out that a lot of the genes that coded for the flavor-producing compounds were on the same chromosomes as the genes for the yellow striped skin,” Traverso explains, “so as you favored the more consistently colored apples, you were essentially disfavoring the same genes that coded for great flavor. This is also why so many cultivars of tomato and cucumber taste like moist cardboard. Once you taste what the…

Nearly nobody under the age of 35 is aware that popcorn used to taste like corn. Not like modern ears of corn, which are bred mostly for sweetness; more like tortilla chips, whose corn is still (somehow) cultivated for corn flavor. Corny. [edit] … also I’m baffled by how, every time I “hold the tomatoes” on my burger or salad, someone will invariably say “don’t you like tomatoes?” and I have to go on this dumb rant a…

Not just flavor. Also nutrition. You can’t make something good from just water and cotton balls.

Although we’re very good at that here in NL

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought tomatoes were pretty good and then I had tomatoes in Europe.

I guess that means you had them in a Mediterranean country, because elsewhere in Europe they still are rather bland in my (northern European) opinion

Yes this is the key. Most of Europe is in the same boat. Eating produce in Greece however is astoundingly better. Italy was less consistent on this but still better.

Which leads me to wonder if its really the genetic choices or is it just something about the farming, nutritional rich soils, or transportation/timing?

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