"test" news and stories

Photo: Orlando's World of Photos/flickr.

If eggs Benedict is what you're after this Sunday morning, you may have to look no further than the nearest Ruby Tuesday.

Based in Maryville, Tenn., the restaurant chain is expanding testing of its brunch menu on Aug. 30 to hundreds of locations across the country in the wake of a successful run in some 50 Ruby Tuesday restaurants this summer, Nation's Restaurant News reports.

Locations offering brunch will open two hours early, at 9 a.m., and offer brunch until noon. The regular menu will be available starting at 11 a.m.

By now, you've probably stopped reading articles about the food crisis by now. You probably read a few at first, and a few turned to two a week, at best. Now your eyes skim by as journalists continue to cover this problem that's plaguing people around the world. But as long as it doesn't directly affect you (except where prices are concerned), who cares, right?

For a pared-down, concise, but still informative look at what you do (but mostly what you don't) know about the food crisis, check out National Geographic's quiz, What's up with the food crisis?

The quiz discloses the answers to such questions as "does buying U.S.-grown rice deprive struggling economies of income?" and "which two countries are having the greatest effect on the global grain market?"

And if you're not completely depressed by the results to the food crisis quiz, see how much you know about the safety of your produce.

I am a big fan of my Baker's Edge pan and use it just about every time that I bake bar cookies or other treats I might ordinarily use a rectangular pan for, including brownies and cheesecake bars. The pan's unique design allows for more even cooking and a higher crust-to-center ratio for baked goods. Cooking for Engineers set out to scientifically test the pan in a side-by-side bake off with a 9"x13" rectangular pan. Their goal was to test the evenness of the cooking, as compared with the standard pan, and to see how the crustier batch appealed to tasters.

The Baker's Edge cooked very evenly and produced pieces with appealingly chewy edges (unlike the hard edges that can result in regular pans), but the brownies weren't quite as popular with center-piece lovers as the brownies from the larger, more traditional pan. A few batches later and C for E found that a slightly shorter baking time made the whole batch of Baker's Edge brownies just like center-pieces.

Their overall verdict was that the pan worked extremely well, with the only real drawback being that it was difficult to get out the first piece. Of course, as the chef, having a sample piece for yourself isn't such a bad thing, is it?

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Have you ever seen someone using a fork, knife or another eating utensil in a way that seems incredibly awkward? Because the ability to use a knife and fork is a mark of a well-socialized individual and is a skill that is typically picked up from observing others, it is hard not to wonder they picked up such unusual habits. In Japan, some schools are wondering the same thing and want to make sure that such sloppy, untraditional habits of chopstick use are stopped before they spread any further. The Hisatagakuen Sasebo Girls' High School will be testing students on their skill with chopsticks as part of their entrance examinations. The 10-minute test will require that students "transfer beads, marbles, dice and beans from one plate to another."

Administrators say that the purpose of this test is to show respect for "the Japanese spirit" but, in light of the decline of chopstick use among Japanese children, it also seems like a rather unusual way to make sure everyone has good table manners.

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While I have experimented with different butters in baking, I'm not sure that I'd want to participate in a butter taste test - particularly not when one of the tastings involves eating butters plain to "experience their melting properties directly on the tongue." That being said, I do appreciate the efforts of the tasters from Cooks Illustrated who participated in a premium butter tasting, eating butter both plain and on baguettes to try to pick out the top butter.

The butters tested all had butterfat contents of at least 82%, higher than the standard 80%, with the exception of Land O'Lakes, which was included as a benchmark. Every single butter tested - seven unsalted and six salted - were recommended including the non-premium benchmark butter, so it sounds like you can't go wrong by choosing a name-brand butter or a butter that is "european-style." The butters were ultimately ranked by preference, but not one was a loser:

Unsalted:

• Land O'Lakes Ultra Creamy butter
• Presidente Unsalted butter
• Celles Sur Belle Premium Churn
• Land O'Lakes Unsalted Sweet butter (benchmark)
• Organic Valley European-style butter
• Plugra European-style butter
• Jana Valley Imported Sweet Cream Butter

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