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The Dorito Effect

nytimes.com

61–67 of 67 posts

Re: The Dorito Effect

#61
post #27

A significant portion of the blandness of some supermarket foods is the result of processing, with "pro-juiciness" treatments being some of the worst offenders. Chicken (even whole chickens for roasting) are injected with water, oil, and water-binding compounds to plump them up. The water mostly evaporates during cooking so the result is usually blander rather than juicier. Most hams sold today are cured by injecting…

Chicken is injected with water combos not simply to plump them up, it's called a brine. By all means buy your poultry without being brined, I prefer mine with it. Here's a nice "why" people do this: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniqu...

Brining and injecting water into birds to plump them up are not the same thing.

And either way I'd rather pay not $5/lbs or whatever for water.

Re: The Dorito Effect

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm, really? When I moved to the US, I was put off by the taste of beef; I found that corn fed just didn't taste as good. I'm curious if you just prefer what you were brought up on?

The 2nd. My dad liked cold corn grits fried in lard for breakfast. Its totally disgusting. Unless its how you got your calories on the farm during the depression - then it was heaven-sent.

I make that anytime we have left over grits, although I usually use bacon grease. My kids love it too. It's all about what you're used to.

Re: The Dorito Effect

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. The typical pork chop in the United States contains so little fat that it is closer to a chicken breast than a fatty cut of beef.

Ok, so the fat determines the way people think about it, but the meat's color is still red, right? If it were white I'd make a big circle around it since I'd assume it's spoiled.

More of a very light pink than red. I've definitely mistaken a pork chop for a chicken breast when glancing through my fridge.

Re: The Dorito Effect

#64
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back home in South Carolina, we had apple trees in our front yard. Never used any pesticides or anything, just let them grow. Anyway, they were about half the size of grocery apples, almost completely covered in insect bites, and tasted like ass. Incredibly sour, strangely dry, and very little sweetness. So thank god for pesticides and Fuji apples.

probably a "real" apple tree. Most apple varieties are created by grafting a branch of an existing variety onto a new tree. Thats why despite genetic variation, they taste pretty much the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting

It's not my experience that apple varieties in the grocery taste "pretty much the same." Maybe you meant something else?

Apple trees are grafted because the best-tasting varietals don't form the most hardy root system. You put the good-tasting apple tree on top and the hardy strain on the bottom (to become the roots)

Re: The Dorito Effect

#65
post #3

In Bangladesh, we had scrawny little chickens that you'd buy live at the market. When we moved to the U.S. I couldn't eat chicken for 6-9 months because it just tasted so bland and flavorless.

We moved out to a small acreage two years ago and raised our first batch of pastured chickens. Totally different tasting bird, I agree it's hard to go back to mass-produced after that.

I would argue though, that the breed of bird isn't as important as the method of production. I've had standard cornish rock cross that were pastured and they tasted amazing. I've also had heritage dual purpose breeds and more modern "forager" breeds like the freedom ranger.

All tasted excellent, even the cornish X which are what you would get at a grocery store. The feed and pasture make the difference.

edit: typo

Re: The Dorito Effect

#66
post #4

A great talk touching on this topic is "Law of the locust: a tale of swarms, cannibals, ageing and human obesity" " rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rV7zAGdbyA> (though I saw Dr. Simpson speak at Harvard, rather). He mentioned how the body craves protein and will over-consume carbohydrates to get enough; less so the reverse. It really messes things up when you have a starchy food laced with MSG so your…

Spectacular talk. I used to think I know quite a bit about nutrition, but I learned a lot from it.

Re: The Dorito Effect

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

probably a "real" apple tree. Most apple varieties are created by grafting a branch of an existing variety onto a new tree. Thats why despite genetic variation, they taste pretty much the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting

It's not my experience that apple varieties in the grocery taste "pretty much the same." Maybe you meant something else? Apple trees are grafted because the best-tasting varietals don't form the most hardy root system. You put the good-tasting apple tree on top and the hardy strain on the bottom (to become the roots)

Each variety tastes the same (a golden delicious apple tastes like other golden delicious apples). The grafting does that among other things "Maintain consistency". A hardy root system that you mention is one.

I started looking into it because my dad has a giant apple tree thats much bigger than the ones I've seen in an orchard, but the apples taste surprisingly bitter.

I guess another reason they like grafting is the trees stay smaller and its easier to pick the fruit.

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