"wired" news and stories

Cream cheese was developed in America in 1872. It is unusual, different from other cheeses, not because of its smooth creamy texture, but because of how it is made. While many cheeses are thickened with an enzyme in rennet, cream cheese is thickened with the addition of an acid.

That may sound like a reasonably simple process, but the truth is the cream cheese is hard to make. And when things go wrong and the cheese comes out smelling like "dirty socks, cardboard, or Robitussin," companies have to call in the experts. Enter the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Dairy Research (UWCDR), where scientists do research to unlock the secrets of cream cheese and help manufacturers solve any problems that come up.

Source

On the heels of a great Harpers article about the business of pig breeding, Wired recently ran a piece about the sequencing pig genomes. Once the process is complete, breeders will be able to determine which pigs will taste best prior to slaughter as well as which will have the best yield and be less prone to disease. From there, these qualities can be built upon and accentuated.

The gist of the Harpers piece (which I don"t think is available on-line) is that there"s currently a movement among some of America"s largest pork producers to move back to a less lean, more complexly flavored type of pork. This move away from what the author calls "the chickenifaction of the American pig" is done by introducing stock from pigs (via pig sperm banks) that have not been bred so intensely.

Both are definitely worth a read if you"re interested in the fine tuning of livestock.

[Wired article via The Food Section]