"corn syrup" news and stories

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• The princess of E.V.O.O., Rachael Ray, as a gas-station attendant?
• Why do some sodas contain corn syrup?
• Make a sueño before summer's end.
• Sometimes a half-empty jar is a good thing, especially when making vinaigrette.
• It's tomato season, and time to make this oft-mispronounced appetizer.
• These tips will prevent you from over-cooking pasta ever again.
• Tiramisu need not be plain -- mix it up.

When it comes to fast food, Subway is supposed to be the healthy choice – we all feel a little bit angelic when we skip high-fat burgers and fries in favor of a six-inch sub loaded with veggies and lean meats. And while the sandwiches are a better bet when it comes to calories and fat, Subway has a hidden dark side: The "healthy" 9-grain bread is a nutritional wasteland packed with high-fructose corn syrup.

David Zinczenko, author of the "Eat This, Not That" series, exposes the truth in his series The Truth About Your Food. While the bread does technically have nine grains, he says that you might as well choose white. Eight of those nine grains are basically trace amounts, listed at the bottom of the ingredient list under "contains 2% or less." The number one ingredient is regular white flour.

"Essentially this is a white-wheat hybrid with trace amounts of other whole grains like oats, barley, and rye," says Zinczenko.

Corn-syrup bashing has become one of the primary food-related preoccupations of the current era. First, a Princeton University study reported that lab rats gained more weight if fed a diet of corn syrup rather than plain old white sugar. Then obesity experts traced the rise of childhood and adult fatness at least party to humongous, "Big Gulp" servings of soda pop -- which contain large quantities of corn syrup.

Despite remonstrances on the part of agri-food giants like Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, and Corn Products International that their corn syrup remains wholesome and good for you, the public perception of corn syrup has increasingly become one of suspicion and even fear.

Is anyone else fascinated by the new campaign to change the public opinion of high fructose corn syrup?

I live in a high fructose corn syrup free household and while I've read that that high fructose corn syrup is essentially the same thing as sugar, I do find it hard to buy into the the "naturalness" of it - especially after seeing King Corn.

The image of a friend offering a popsicle with high fructose corn syrup and being treated like a drug pusher could have been taken straight out of my life. Although, at this point, our friends know better than to even offer.

What are your thoughts on high fructose corn syrup? Did the commercial and the associated web site, Sweet Surprise, change your behavior towards the sweetener?

I pulled out my cookie tome yesterday - Carole Walter's Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets - and went for the aptly-named Carole's Really Great Chocolate Chip Cookies. (I know, the name sounds like a cop-out - until you realize that these are in addition to the "Soft and Chewy Choc. Chip Cookies," the "Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies," the "Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter..." - Well, you get the point. After awhile, you run out of names.

No matter: I felt good about these babies. Of course, it was not until I walked the ten blocks home that I realized I'd forgotten the light corn syrup that the recipe called for. So, out came the laptop, in a frantic search for the proper ratio of sugar-to-liquid to make DIY corn syrup. (It's one cup granulated sugar to 1/4 cup water, cooked til thickened).

The cookies are made with 1/2 cup of 1-minute oatmeal to prevent them from spreading out too much while in the oven. It definitely seemed to help, although my first batch was a bit underdone (I cooked them for 12 minutes), and my second batch - at 14 minutes - was slightly crunchy. Although, I have to say, dipped in my coffee this morning, the latter batch was absolutely perfect. Perhaps I should have turned the cookie sheet halfway through, like Carole suggests, or gone with real corn syrup instead of my cheap-o substitute. No matter - despite my flops, they were still amazing. (Oh- and forgive the grainy laptop camera shot).

Check out the recipe after the jump.