On November 23, 1986, I wrote to my mother, “It appears that I will be sponsoring a Thanksgiving dinner for about eight people in my room [at Keble College].
I seem to recall someone making a "green" Jello with Cottage Cheese in it. The Pop's Sparkle reminds me of that. More to the point - beyond the days of canned food defining the holidays, we are now at the end of a "fun food" era, and are entering a time where substances manufactured entirely in a laboratory can be called 100% "real" chicken - based strictly on chemical analysis. A traditional "dinner" is getting harder to find.....
I would support an heirloom food movement—I want to try some of the old things out of curiosity.
I just finished editing Ross Collin’s encyclopedia on chocolate and learned that the chocolate consumed in the eighteenth century was very different than today.
“Cocoa from nature comprises two substances: cocoa solids and fat. The fat we call cocoa butter; it represents about 50 percent of the raw product. . . . Chocolate house servers in the 1600s and 1700s commonly skimmed it with a knife. The whisking process using a molinillo and chocolate pot created froth and helped to disperse the fat into the beverage. But there was no way to remove it [until Van Houten invented a press in 1828 that removed half the cocoa butter].” Today’s chocolate may contain as little as 10% cocoa butter and sometimes that is replaced by cheaper fats like palm oil.
Heirloom chocolate would contain more cocoa butter. “Chocolate in what was then called a cake had always been available, it resembled the consistency of hard peanut butter, and somewhat gritty. The cake was nearly always grated into a liquid, usually water, and mixed with sugar and spices for a drink.”
Last night I tried one of the Taza chocolate discs that you can find at the checkout at Whole Foods. I had to grate it as described. It was much richer because of the increased cocoa butter. You can see from their processing chart that they do not press out the cocoa butter.
It is hard to create a demand for something that does not exist. But the bean-to-bar chocolate movement may see a return to older foodways, which possibly won’t taste as nice, but we should at least have the option to decide for ourselves on that matter—and to reconsider whether the less palatable food was actually healthier (milk chocolate tastes nicer, but dark chocolate is healthier).
I knew that the dark chocolate was healthier than the mike chocolate However I never eat any kind of chocolate, candy, or sugar stuff except on my birthday, and only if someone discovers that I am having a birthday and brings me cake. That did happen this year. It was very nice! She also brought more Salsa Dancers so it was a dancing birthday party with chocolate cake. This same friend is having a birthday in January so I will try to do the same for her. I plan to bring cake and invite the same Salsa Dancers.
Wow, I cannot picture preparing a meal like that in a dorm room... You must have been very determined...
I think that it was more like homesickness. It was the first Thanksgiving that I did not spend with my family.
I seem to recall someone making a "green" Jello with Cottage Cheese in it. The Pop's Sparkle reminds me of that. More to the point - beyond the days of canned food defining the holidays, we are now at the end of a "fun food" era, and are entering a time where substances manufactured entirely in a laboratory can be called 100% "real" chicken - based strictly on chemical analysis. A traditional "dinner" is getting harder to find.....
I loved that green jello stuff with the cottage cheese in it!
I would support an heirloom food movement—I want to try some of the old things out of curiosity.
I just finished editing Ross Collin’s encyclopedia on chocolate and learned that the chocolate consumed in the eighteenth century was very different than today.
“Cocoa from nature comprises two substances: cocoa solids and fat. The fat we call cocoa butter; it represents about 50 percent of the raw product. . . . Chocolate house servers in the 1600s and 1700s commonly skimmed it with a knife. The whisking process using a molinillo and chocolate pot created froth and helped to disperse the fat into the beverage. But there was no way to remove it [until Van Houten invented a press in 1828 that removed half the cocoa butter].” Today’s chocolate may contain as little as 10% cocoa butter and sometimes that is replaced by cheaper fats like palm oil.
Heirloom chocolate would contain more cocoa butter. “Chocolate in what was then called a cake had always been available, it resembled the consistency of hard peanut butter, and somewhat gritty. The cake was nearly always grated into a liquid, usually water, and mixed with sugar and spices for a drink.”
Last night I tried one of the Taza chocolate discs that you can find at the checkout at Whole Foods. I had to grate it as described. It was much richer because of the increased cocoa butter. You can see from their processing chart that they do not press out the cocoa butter.
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0974/7668/files/Taza_Chocolate_Making_Process.pdf?10043542871181577895)
It is hard to create a demand for something that does not exist. But the bean-to-bar chocolate movement may see a return to older foodways, which possibly won’t taste as nice, but we should at least have the option to decide for ourselves on that matter—and to reconsider whether the less palatable food was actually healthier (milk chocolate tastes nicer, but dark chocolate is healthier).
I knew that the dark chocolate was healthier than the mike chocolate However I never eat any kind of chocolate, candy, or sugar stuff except on my birthday, and only if someone discovers that I am having a birthday and brings me cake. That did happen this year. It was very nice! She also brought more Salsa Dancers so it was a dancing birthday party with chocolate cake. This same friend is having a birthday in January so I will try to do the same for her. I plan to bring cake and invite the same Salsa Dancers.
That sounds like a fun party. Thank you for your comments. It's nice to wake up on Thanksgiving Day and see some responses.