"meal" news and stories

There is more than one way to cook a turkey, just as there is more than one way to cook just about every other type of meat, but because there is some pressure on Thanksgiving to produce a big, beautiful bird for family and friends, it's hard to know whose advice to take when prepping the turkey for the big day. If you roast it, should you brine if first? Should it be braised? Can you cook it in the microwave?

To answer these questions, you can take a look at the Turkey for the Holidays guide from the University of Illinois. They cover everything from turkey-cooking techniques, which includes guides on eleven good techniques and reasons to avoid a few bad ones, to turkey nutritional information and turkey history and trivia. Aside from the cooking techniques, which might be the most useful tips on the site for cooks, the turkey carving instructions are going to be helpful even if you buy your bird. The site seems to be a great Thanksgiving resource overall, and anything that helps decrease holiday stress really is something to be thankful for

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This year, the big question for Thanksgiving is not about how to make the gravy, keep the turkey moist or whether to serve yams or mashed potatoes with dinner, but whether dinner is going to be cooked at all. According to some food researchers, "Everyone wants to know: How do I get out of this and still make it seem homemade?" Their solution is to order the whole dinner in.

It's a sad thought for those of us who enjoy cooking in general or at least enjoy cooking for a special event with friends and family. Last year, 5 percent of consumers in the US ordered Thanksgiving to-go, and this year more than 6 percent are expected to do so. They order from local upscale restaurants or natural food grocery stores, if they're looking for organic or free-range birds. Some order the whole meal online and have it shipped to them. Others opt for make and take meal assembly stores or even local fast food places. And about 20 percent of all those who order in try to take credit for the meal.

Is it really so difficult to cook something yourself, especially considering there are so many resources to help? I know that there are at least a couple of people in my own family (who shall remain nameless) who really prefer to buy the dinner, not make it, if anyone will be heading to their house. Do you prefer to do Thanksgiving it this way, or do you stick with tradition?

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Although some children will be quick to point out which foods are healthy ones to their parents, not all children have reacted so positively to the recent changes in school lunches. At least, they haven't in the UK. The BBC conducted a survey of secondary schools (middle and high schools) and found that at 60% of them, there had been a drop in the number of students that were opting to buy the school-provided lunch since the switch to a healthier menu. Only 10% of schools had an increase in the number of students taking lunch since the change.

It's too bad that there isn't any US data on this phenomenon after so many schools and school districts have placed restrictions on what types of food are appropriate for kids to have access to during the day, but it seems likely that the problem would be a similar one, especially with older kids who can easily leave campus or go out after school to get the fries and pizzas that they have always had access to at school until now.

The problem is one that will gradually go away over time, as the kids who were used to the "old way" of doing things graduate and the number of students who think that they are entitled to something greasy and unhealthy will decrease compared to he number of children who might actually look forward to a healthier lunch.

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The single biggest factor that prompts people into overeating is portion size, and when more and more meals are eaten outside of the home, it is restaurant portion size that can cause a problem. Not only are the portions often huge, but they set a benchmark that distorts what people perceive as an appropriate amount of food.

An obesity researcher at Penn State University had 300 chefs from fine and casual dining restaurants take a survey that asked what things influence what size they make their portions. 4 out or 5 served more than the recommended portion sizes. 70% said that presentation was the biggest concern, getting a "wow" factor into the dining experience that might cause a customer to return. Value and portion size are often connected in the minds of the consumers, so larger servings come into play more than the actual plating. 65% said that cost influenced how much food they served, and 52% cited "expectations, which was primarily true of chain-restaurants and categories (like steakhouses, for example) that are known for being generous. Only 16% considered calories.

Chefs are not necessarily dieticians and their job is not to tell you what to eat or how much of you plate to clean before taking the rest home. It does make you wonder, however, if our priorities and theirs are in the right place when a 1-pound "serving" of pasta starts to look normal.

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A few months ago I wrote about a beef and potato sundae, which many found to be at the very least bizarre, if not completely unappetizing. Worth1000, the Photoshopping web site, has just wrapped up a contest that involved combining dinner with dessert. I came across it while trolling the web last night and, thus, haven't seen the results yet.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the contestants didn't actually cook anything, rather they manipulated images to combine dinner and dessert. The entries I looked at made the meat sundae seem like a four-star meal. They ranged from a corn dog coated with ice cream and chocolate to Sundae Side Up, a fried egg with stripes of hot fudge whose yolk has been replaced with a scoop of chocolate ice cream.

But the, er, best was the herring in aspic pictured here. Clearly the chocolate coating studded with nuts and the stick were meant to riff on high-end ice cream pops. I fear it may be a while before I look at herring as appetizing.