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Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

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Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#111
post #65

I recall reading there were zoning laws in the classical era about where you could manufacture garum (the Roman fermented fish condiment). Here's one attributable example I could find, from the tail end of the Eastern empire. This is 2.4.22 in the Hexabiblos (1344–1345) ["–" sic ] of the Byzantine jurist, Constantine Harmenopoulos of Thessalonica; it legislates a ~450–600-meter exclusion zone (three stadia ). The arc…

Petition to restore “aforestated” to common parlance.

If "aforementioned" is a word, "aforestated" is a word.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#112

Just out of curiosity, would dumping a ton of bleach into the mixture get rid of the smell by breaking apart all of the components? Or maybe high concentration acid?

Acid is a good way to modulate the flavor. There is a reason why in Vietnamese dishes are often served with limes.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#113
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian bureaucracy around food is at times insane (and vaguely racist). Just look up '1985 Jamaican patty wars'.

From cbc: >In 1985, the Canadian government tried to stop Jamaican bakeries and restaurants from using the term "beef patty." >At the time, Canada's Meat Inspection Act classified a beef patty as what goes in a hamburger. It could contain only meat and seasoning and it couldn't be encased in dough or a crust. Therefore, a Jamaican patty — widely known as a flaky pastry with a spiced beef filling — didn't meet the cri…

Any confusion can easily be resolved by asking the person offering to sell you one what it is. I do not need terminological rules between me and fast food vendors; if I buy a 'muffin hot dog parfait' and it turns out not to be the tasty dish I was expecting, I may complain about it but I have the choice to just not go there again.

I support the idea of truth in advertising laws but I think they should be limited to factual claims. Courts shouldn't entertain lawsuits over such silly things either.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#114
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having grown up in Toronto, unqualified "beef patty" means the Jamaican snack. It is extremely common junk food I would buy at a convenience store on my way home from school.

Not being from Toronto, never in a million years would I even think of that as a visitor.

How many visitors do you think would go to a restaurant intending to order a (hamburger) beef patty? The potential for confusion is overstated.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#115
post #68

Can't remember where i've read that nor even if it's a real thing or not so do take the following with caution. I think Roman Empire garum (fish sauce) factories where one of, if not the first thing in known history to trigger lawmakers to set a minimum distance from factories to residential areas (something like 1 mile iirc).

Despite the fearsome smell when it’s collected together in bulk, modern garum in the form of Colatura di Alici is a genuinely magical ingredient. It’s very similar to what the Romans used, except it’s made exclusively from anchovies whereas the Romans used many varieties of fish to make garum. I use it often in pasta dishes especially, but it’s a versatile ingredient for adding umami in general. It’s similar to ferme…

Can't recommend enough! Max Miller's Tasting History is magical. It is not just a cooking show, i'd say it is 30% cooking, and 70% history. One of my favorite things on the internet.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#116

Isn't the ocean filled with salt and already knows how to biologically degrade fish? I sort of think that you could deposit this at sea somehow, just need to spread it out sufficiently. I am sure I am overlooking something that would lead to an unintended ecological disaster.

Yes, it needs to be handled with care, but it's essentially the same procedure as with the waste products of desalination water plants. One caveat though - once you start diluting this stuff you have to keep going since the high salt content is the only thing that ensures it's fairly sterile.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#117

Just out of curiosity, would dumping a ton of bleach into the mixture get rid of the smell by breaking apart all of the components? Or maybe high concentration acid?

Rehashing another of my comments: The smell is caused by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimethylamine

From a random google search I got this report https://uvadoc.uva.es/bitstream/handle/10324/18877/TFG-I-468... (mostly in Spanish, with an English abstract). It looks serious and as far as I understand it makes sense.

One of the solutions in the report is to add iodine, so I guess bleach would work too. But I also guess the final product is more dangerous and may release other nasty fumes. Don't try it at home.

I think acid can prevent the smell to escape to the air, but I guess you need a high concentration to destroy it, perhaps add heat to make the destruction faster. Anyway, you have to neutralize the acid before releasing the leftovers, and the boiling acid nasty goo sounds dangerous. Don't try it at home.

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#118
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in no way implying or arguing celery seeds contain a great amount of vitamin C. There are of course many foods that contain more vitamin C than celery seeds. I’m stating that the naturally occurring vitamin C in celery seeds is the key difference between natural and synthetic nitrites. I guess for me it just comes down to going back to basics. Why use multiple synthetic ingredients if a natural alternative exists…

>I’m stating that the naturally occurring vitamin C in celery seeds is the key difference between natural and synthetic nitrites The original comment was about products being misleadingly labeled "nitrate free". The fact that celery seeds might have some mitigating vitamin C doesn't change this, any more than it would still be misleading to label with synthetic nitrates added as "nitrate free" if they also added vita…

Ok

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#119
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadian bureaucracy around food is at times insane (and vaguely racist). Just look up '1985 Jamaican patty wars'.

From cbc: >In 1985, the Canadian government tried to stop Jamaican bakeries and restaurants from using the term "beef patty." >At the time, Canada's Meat Inspection Act classified a beef patty as what goes in a hamburger. It could contain only meat and seasoning and it couldn't be encased in dough or a crust. Therefore, a Jamaican patty — widely known as a flaky pastry with a spiced beef filling — didn't meet the cri…

it is impossible in canada to sell swedish meatballs - cant have the onion or breadcrumbs

Re: Decades-old fish sauce at abandoned factory in Canada finally being removed

#120
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While your comment is true, it is reductive. While celery seed does in fact contain nitrates which are turned into nitrites, it’s the next step that’s important. Unlike synthetic sodium nitrite, celery seeds contain vitamin C which acts as an antioxidant that converts the nitrites into harmless nitric oxide whereas the synthetic sodium nitrite is converted into harmful nitrosamines. The subtle differences in how our…

>celery seeds contain vitamin C which acts as an antioxidant that converts the nitrites into harmless nitric oxide whereas the synthetic sodium nitrite is converted into harmful nitrosamines. This just sounds like post hoc justification. There's hardly any vitamin C in celery seeds[1][2]. Broccoli has 5x the vitamin C per 100g, despite much of it being water. Moreover, if the point is that vitamin C protects against…

why have the bacon at all when you could just eat straight protein powder or soylent though?

if you get both the nitrates and vitamin c from the cellery seeds, why bother going through the industrial processes for making the nitrates and vitamic c separate, possibly also from celery seeds, only to put them back together at the end?

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