Special to Slashfood from AOL Health's Mary Kearl

Like many, I may claim to be adventurous about food, drinks, condiments and above all desserts, but when it comes down to it, things like flavored mayo (and mayo in general) and multi-flavored soy milk are a bit off-putting.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: Dining on Cloned Beef

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The law in Alaska forbids a governor from officially lobbying for or against a ballot initiative such as Ballot Measure 4. To get around the law, Palin exercised what she called "personal privilege" when she said to reporters, "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop 4-I vote no on that."

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: Salmongate

Permalink | Email this | Comments

It contains a paper by a group of researchers at the University of Texas who report that fructose, the primary sugar in HFCS (which finds its way into just about every non-diet soft drink sold), made subjects of a study fatter than glucose, another sugar.

"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose," said Elizabeth Parks of the Southwestern Medical Center.

It also may explain why the current obesity epidemic in this country dates back to 1980, the year HFCS entered our diet. Starting from zero, Americans now gulp an average of 66 pounds of the stuff each year.

And it shows.

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: How Sweet It Isn't

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Comments

With the possible exception of the Martini, there is no cocktail more personal than the Bloody Mary. Love it or loathe it, everyone seems to have an opinion about this tomato-based drink. After years of bartending and bringing along my personal variation to countless friendly gatherings, I have come up with what I can confidently call a crowd-pleasing mix. If you're already a Bloody Mary-lover there's no doubt you'll have your own personal tweaks, but if you're new to the mixology of the Mary, this recipe is guaranteed to provide you with a yummy starting point.

Recipe after the jump.

Continue reading PhebeGB's Stylelicious Bloody Mary

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Gourmet's Barry Estabrook makes sense of the battle over the benefits of organic food. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.

"You know anything about this?" she asked ominously.

The release came from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Made public on Tuesday, it was headlined: "Scientist Debunks Myth of Organic Nutritional Superiority," and, not surprisingly, it received considerable media attention.

The myth that was supposedly debunked was featured in this space a few months ago. It was a study co-authored by Dr. Charles Benbrook of the Organic Center, an affiliate of the Organic Trade Association, an industry group, which reported on the results of a review of nearly 100 scientific papers examining levels of nutrients in organic versus conventional crops. Benbrook and his associates concluded that organic food was on average 25 percent more nutrient-dense. Their work was regarded as one of the first scientifically valid research projects that clearly showed such an advantage. Earlier studies had been inconclusive. I felt some vindication for my own preference for organic foods and applauded the findings.

The release from the ACSH sharply criticized Benbrook's paper. Its condemnation of his work was based on a critical review written by Joseph D. Rosen, emeritus professor of food science at Rutgers University. To be kind, it is scathing. Some choice arguments...

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Carnivore's Delight

It's not often that you'll find this space singing the praises of vertical integration in agriculture, but I was heartened to read this week that Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (the subject of a September 2002 profile in Gourmet who became the national face of sustainable food production after being featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma) had bought the small, 70-year-old slaughterhouse in Virginia that processes his grass-fed cattle.

This is good news because small meatpacking operations in this country have been closing in droves, unable in many cases to comply with stringent USDA regulations designed for the enormous facilities that handle most American meat today. As a result, sustainable livestock farmers have had to truck their animals over great distances, or in some cases cease raising cattle, sheep, and hogs altogether for want of an approved slaughterhouse. T&E Meats, as Salatin's company is known, will continue processing his animals and also those of nearby small producers.

I'm going to knock on wood, but I dare say Salatin may be part of a trend here. Earlier this spring, two other grass-fed beef producers, White Oak Pastures in Georgia and Paicines Ranch in California, opened their own slaughterhouses.

The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: A Clear Conscience

Permalink | Email this | Comments

That dispatch was sent early this week from Jack Schultheis, operations director of Kwik'pak Fisheries, a processor of salmon caught out of the lower Yukon River in remote western Alaska, to Jon Rowley, who handles communications for the small, Eskimo-owned company. (Rowley is also a Gourmet contributing editor.)

In the last year or so, Yukon River kings have become the "new" Copper River salmon, the most sought-after catch-of-the-day at top-end seafood restaurants because of their unusually high oil content. For a while, it looked like everyone was winning. The salmon were moist, tasty, and healthful. Exports to the Lower 48 provided vital income (sometimes the only income) for struggling native Yup'ik fishing families that use earnings from the fishery to purchase gasoline (currently $7.60 a gallon up there) for necessary subsistence activities such as hunting moose and gathering berries. And, better yet, the stocks were sustainably managed.

Then disaster struck. So few king salmon returned to the Yukon River this month that fishery managers ordered drastic cuts to subsistence fishing. There will be no commercial harvest.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Special to AOL Food by Joanna Pruess

People have always loved bacon. Its smell carries us back to comforting times. For me, I'm a child again in a warm kitchen laughing with my siblings and my mother, who served a pound-and-a-half of it every morning for breakfast. Always very crisp, always thinly sliced.

Whether it's eggs or maple syrup-drenched waffles with crispy slices of bacon to begin the day, a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich or juicy bacon cheeseburger deluxe for lunch, or a hearty stew perfumed with cubes of bacon or fish simply wrapped in it and grilled, the juxtaposition of salty, sweet, smoky and ever-so-slightly bitter tastes tantalize our taste buds.

Continue reading Bacon

Permalink | Email this | Comments