With popular television franchises like CSI, Law & Order and NCIS, detective culture has finally seeped into specialty food.

The perps (actually, they’re the good guys) moved from Europe to Los Angeles to form their artisan jam agency (“a top secret covert organization”).

Agent Copperpot hails from France, where she learned the craft of small batch jam making from both of her grandmothers. Chester Pinkerton, born and raised in Switzerland, is a professional illustrator.

They created the Dept. of Sweet Diversions with a primary objective “to create delicious little diversions so you can treat yourself to something truly special.”

Otherwise stated, their goal is to elevate the art of preserving to inspire people to try new fruit and flavor combinations.

They source local organic and/or sustainably grown fruit in bountiful southern California, and make jams, jellies, marmalades and fruit butters. (Check out the different types of jam and other spreads.) Most of the ingredients come from farmers markets within a 12 mile radius of their kitchen.

The jam is made by hand in small batches using traditional techniques. Each flavor features organic ingredients and is completely free of preservatives. Nothing is processed (even the pectin is homemade).

The pair are quick to note that “Breakfast isn’t the only meal of the day that should feature jam, it’s just the first!”

Their jams pair exquisitely with fine cheeses, mixed into cocktails and served as a condiment with fish and meat dishes. But don’t stop there: Here are 20 of THE NIBBLE’s favorite ways to use fine jam.

And we’ll be trying more flavors, too. A six-ounce jar is $12, or $14 with Top Secret gift wrap.

Discover more at Dept.OfSweetDiversions.com.

For the cheese course, Castello used its Castello Alps Selection Classic, an Alpine-style cheese (the category of semifirm cheeses that includes Appenzeller, Gruyère, Raclette and Vacherin Mont-d’Or, among others).

It’s easy to make.

Ingredients For 2 Servings

 
Preparation

1. ARRANGE cheese and optional salad on two plates. Add bacon.

2. TOP with capers. Sprinkle cheese with olive oil and fresh-cracked pepper.

3. ADD the lemon wedges and serve.

Semihard is a classification of cheese based upon the body of the cheese, based mainly on the moisture content. Most semihard (and hard) cheeses are pressed during production to remove moisture. As they age, they become firmer, more pungent and crumbly.

What about semisoft cheeses? Semisoft cheese contains more than 45% water, while semihard cheese contains 30% to 45%. A cheese can start as semisoft, then move to semihard as it ages and moisture evaporates.

Because semihard cheeses contain less moisture than the soft and soft-ripened types, they hold their shape much better and can be easily sliced—a requirement for the recipe above.

The semihard category includes a broad range of textures and ages, from semifirm to very firm and from cheeses that are only weeks old to those aged for several months or more.

Find more of the different types of cheese in our Cheese Glossary.

Learn more about Castello cheeses, and check out the delicious recipes.
  

[2] You can make a Grasshopper milkshake with mint ice cream and creme de menthe instead of the Guinness (photo © Sincerely Media | Unsplash).

Get ready for tomorrow, June 20th: National Vanilla Milkshake Day. Here are two spiked milkshake recipes made with vanilla ice cream, courtesy of the Hard Rock Cafe.

You can substitute chocolate ice cream, coffee ice cream, or other flavor of choice.
 
 
RECIPE #1: SALTED CARAMEL VANILLA MILKSHAKE WITH
GUINNESS & SPICED RUM

Hard Rock calls this the “Twist and Shout.”

Ingredients For 1 Shake

1. COMBINE ingredients in a blender. Pour into a tall glass.

2. GARNISH as desired and serve.
 
 
RECIPE #2: VANILLA & PEAR MILKSHAKE WITH BEER & VODKA

Want something fruitier? Hard Rock’s “Voodoo Brew” is a beer-based shake with blueberry vodka and pear syrup.

Ingredients For 1 Shake

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE ingredients in a blender. Pour into a tall glass.

2. GARNISH as desired and serve.
 

Here’s another vanilla milkshake recipe and the history of the milkshake.
 
 
MORE MIKSHAKE RECIPES

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

[1] Homemade raspberry seltzer (photo © Spoonful Of Flour).

You can use fresh or frozen and leave the drink unsweetened, like commercial flavored seltzer. Or, add sugar to turn it into…soda pop.

You can use different fruits; although tender berries dissolve the most easily into syrup.
 
 
RECIPE: HOMEMADE FLAVORED SELTZER

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• Optional: 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (or other fruit)
• Seltzer or club soda, chilled (club soda has added salt; see glossary below)
• Optional: squeeze of lime or lemon juice

1. BOIL water. If using sweetener, add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

2. ADD raspberries and stir. Cook 3 to 5 minutes. Strain out seeds or purée as desired. Let cool (store in the fridge in a closed container).

3. MAKE drink: Add 2-3 tablespoons of raspberry syrup to a glass (more if desired). Add cold seltzer water and optional lemon or lime juice. Stir gently and serve straight up, or over ice.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLUB SODA & SELTZER

 
A Glossary Of Sparkling Waters

Any effervescent water belongs to the category of carbonated water, also called soda water: water into which carbon dioxide gas under pressure has been dissolved, causing the water to become effervescent. The carbon dioxide can be natural, as in some spring waters and mineral waters, or can be added in the bottling process. (In fact, even some naturally carbonated waters are enhanced with more carbonation at the bottling plant.)

Carbonated Water

In the U.S., carbonated water was known as soda water until after World War II, due to the sodium salts it contained. While today we think of “soda” as a carbonated beverage, the word originally refers to a chemical salts, also called carbonate of soda (sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, sodium monoxide).

The salts were added as flavoring and acidity regulator, to mimic the taste of a natural mineral water.

After the war, terms such as sparkling water and seltzer water gained favor.

[2] No time to make your own flavored seltzer? Just toss in fresh fruit. It will infuse very slightly (photo © Polar Seltzer).

Club Soda

Like the original carbonated water, club soda is enhanced with some sodium salts.

Fizzy Water

Another term for carbonated water.

Seltzer or Seltzer Water

Seltzer is carbonated water with no sodium salts added. The term derives from the town of Selters in central Germany, which is renowned for its mineral springs. The naturally carbonated spring water—which contains naturally dissolved salts—has been commercially bottled and shipped around the world since at least the 18th century. When seltzer is made by carbonating tap water, some salts are added for the slightest hint of flavor. And that’s the difference between seltzer and club soda: Club soda is salt-free.

Soda Water

Another word for club soda. It usually refers to that which is dispensed with a siphon.

Sparkling Water

Another term for carbonated water/soda water. It can also refer to sparkling mineral water, which is pumped from underground aquifers. Note that not all sparkling mineral waters are naturally effervescent. Many are actually carbonated from still mineral water. Some are lightly carbonated by nature, but have extra carbonation added at bottling to meet consumer preferences.

Two Cents Plain

Another word for soda water, coined during the Great Depression, when plain soda water was the cheapest drink at the soda fountain.
 
 
MORE TYPES OF WATER

Check out our Water Glossary for the different types of water, including the difference between mineral water and spring water.

June 18th is National Cherry Tart Day. You’d be surprised how easy it is to make a delicious cherry tart—or any fruit tart.

This recipe works for any fruit tart. Pick any seasonal pie fruit—including, currently, apricots, figs, nectarines, plums and strawberries. Don’t bother with a filling: You won’t notice it with the delicious fruit and the delicious crust.

You can buy or make crème fraîche; here’s a recipe. Or, substitute vanilla ice cream.

Prep time is 90 minutes.
 
 
RECIPE: EASY FRUIT TART

Ingredients

1. PREHEAT oven to 375°F. COMBINE flour, salt and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl or food processor. Dice 8 tablespoons of the butter. Use a pastry blender or two knives to blend the flour mixture and butter in a bowl until crumbly, or pulse them together in a food processor.

2. BEAT the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons of cold water. Dribble over the flour mixture, then stir (in bowl) or pulse slowly (in food processor) until the mixture starts clumping together. Add more water as necessary. Shape the dough into a loose ball and form into a disk on a lightly floured surface.

3. ROLL out the dough and line a 10-inch loose-bottom fluted tart pan. Cover the pastry with a sheet of foil and place pastry weights or dry beans on top. Bake for 12 minutes, then remove foil and weights from the crust. Return the crust to the oven and continue baking until it is lightly browned, another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven; increase temperature to 400°F.

4. PIT and slice the fruit: cherries in half, most other fruit in eighths, figs or other small fruit in fourths.

5. BRUSH the crust with the melted preserves (this prevents the crust from becoming soggy). Arrange the fruit in tight concentric circles, skin side down, starting with the perimeter. The fruit should “stand up.”

6. MELT the remaining butter on low and cook until it turns a light nut brown. Brush the fruit with the butter and dust with the remaining sugar.

7. BAKE 35 to 40 minutes, until the edges of the crust have browned but fruit is still perky (not collapsed). Cool and serve with crème fraîche.