Stout has never tasted better. Photo courtesy Spielgau.

Last year right before Father’s Day, we featured the first variety-specific beer glass, an IPA glass from Spielgau, specially contoured to enhance the flavors and aromas of IPA beer.

This year, Spielgau—a 500 year-old company that was purchased by Riedel in 2004—adds the world’s first stout-specific glass. The company hopes to do for beer what its parent company has done for wine.

Stout is a heavier style of beer characterized dark color, malty flavor, and thick, foamy head. The wide mouth of the 21-ounce Spiegelau Stout glass is conducive to pouring a strong head, while the flared base helps focus the beer’s aromas, which can then emanate from the glass’s wide opening. (See the different types of beers.)

The stout glass was developed and tested with two American craft brewers of stout: Left Hand Brewing Company of Colorado and Rogue Ales of Oregon. A set of two glasses is $25 at SpielgauUSA.com. Branded versions of the glass with brewery logos are available through LeftHandBrewing.com and Rogue.com, respectively.

Hundreds of glasses pulled from Spiegelau’s glassware archive were tested against a variety of the brewers’ own stouts to find the glass shape that had the most profound effect on the aromas and flavor profiles of each stout beer. After narrowing the options to a handful of shapes, Spiegelau’s German factory created six final prototypes for testing all stouts, varying by several millimeters in height, bowl width, angle and capacity.

After many deliberations, Left Hand Brewing Company and Rogue Ales separately and unanimously determined that the Prototype “C” stout glass delivered the optimal taste, aroma and mouth feel to enhance stout beers. The winning shape has:

 
So the next great gift for a beer lover: Spielgau stout glasses with a selection of artisan stouts.

ABOUT STOUT

The darkest and heartiest of beers, a stout is top fermented and differentiated from a regular ale by its brown-black color, chocolate-coffee flavors and fuller body. This is achieved by brewing with barley that has been dark-roasted to the point of charring (think of espresso beans, compared to a medium-roast coffee). Stout is thus both darker and maltier than porter, has a more pronounced hop aroma, and may reach an alcoholic content of 6% to 7%.

Stout originated in Ireland, where most traditional stouts are very rich, yet sharp and slightly bitter. Stout is well-paired with strong cheese and a spicy sausage such as andouille. There are different types of stout:

Chef Gordon Smith has cooked for royalty, celebrities, executives, and Olympic athletes. Now, in his mission to “save the males,” he tells men what they need to know to survive on their own—by cooking good food at home instead of resorting to less-good-for-you fast food and take-out.

His book, Save the Males: A Kitchen Survival Cookbook, is a fun gift for single men as well as husbands, significant others and other men who have to fend for themselves in the kitchen, whether full-time or on occasion. It’s a practical culinary foundation for the novice and a great refresher course for any home cook.

(If you’re buying the book on Amazon.com, note that there’s another book named Save The Males, about relationships. Don’t let it confuse you. The one you want is co-authored by Reparata Mazzola and Gordon Smith.)

The underlying goal of “Save the Males” is fun, as Chef Gordon teaches readers how to switch from prepared foods to foods they prepare. An empty kitchen goes from foreboding to a place fragrant with delicious meals they cook meals for themselves, family and friends.

Chef Gordon Smith is a regular guy who knows from experience that cooking improves one’s health and appearance (eat better!) as well as one’s sex life (a home cooked dinner is romantic!).

Cooking for oneself is not only empowering; it could lead to a new hobby—or at least, it could get the man in your life to prepare dinner more often.

And that’s the reason to give copies to dads, grads, brothers, sons and friends.
  

The recipe for Hummingbird Cake, a southern tradition like Red Velvet Cake, was first submitted by a reader to Southern Living magazine and published in the February 1978 issue. Here’s that first printed recipe for Hummingbird Cake.

There was no explanation of the name (we have it below), but Food Timeline cites a 1985 article in the Arkansas Gazette that says the cake also was called Cake That Doesn’t Last, Cake That Won’t Last, Granny’s Best Cake and Never Ending Cake. (We’re down with Hummingbird Cake.)

Originally made as a layer cake (but also made into cupcakes), the batter includes bananas, crushed pineapple, and pecans or walnuts. The cake is filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting and typically topped with more chopped nuts. Think banana nut cake with pineapple and cinnamon.

It’s popular for Mother’s Day, but why not make one for Dad?
 
 
> The history of Hummingbird Cake is below.

> The history of cake.

> The different types of cake, in our Cake Glossary.
 
 
RECIPE: HUMMINGBIRD COFFEE CAKE

This recipe is by Annie for GoBoldWithButter.com. She adapted the layer cake into a brunch coffee cake.

Annie writes: “This year I decided to put a brunch-worthy spin on this classic Mother’s Day cake. The banana, pineapple, and yogurt all ensure that this cake stays moist and tender. This cake is very simple to put together and is a lovely contribution for any brunch, Mother’s Day or otherwise.”

She incorporated better-for-you ingredients, including whole wheat flour and low-fat yogurt. (It’s not a healthy recipe, but every little bit helps!)

Ingredients For 1 Cake/16 Servings

For The Cake

 
For The Glaze

 
For The Garnish

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Thoroughly butter a bundt pan. Coat the inside with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. COMBINE 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Whisk to blend; set aside.

3. COMBINE butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla and coconut extracts. Beat in the yogurt until well incorporated.

4. TURN the mixer to low speed and beat in half of the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. Beat in the mashed bananas and then the remaining dry ingredients, again mixing just until incorporated. With a silicone spatula, gently fold in the coconut and chopped pineapple.

5. TRANSFER the batter to the prepared Bundt pan and smooth it into an even layer. Bake, rotating halfway through baking until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 50-55 minutes. Let it cool for 20-30 minutes in the pan placed on a wire rack. Gently loosen the cake from the sides of the pan with a knife, and carefully turn it out onto the cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool completely.

6. MAKE the glaze: Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. If the glaze is too thin, whisk in more confectioners’ sugar. If the glaze is too thick, whisk in additional milk 1 teaspoon at a time. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cooled cake. Sprinkle with shredded coconut and chopped nuts for garnish. Let glaze set before slicing and serving.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

Many people think of Hummingbird Cake as an invention of the southern U.S. But according to chef Jamie Oliver, “The giveaway to the Hummingbird cake’s birthplace…is in the key ingredients: bananas and pineapple.”

[1] Hummingbird Cake, a traditional southern layer cake, is reinterpreted as a coffee bundt cake. The recipe is below (photo © Go Bold With Butter).

[2] A classic Hummingbird Cake (photo © Allen Brothers).

[3] Whether you put them on top, around the side, and/or in the filling, pecans are a must. Here’s the recipe (photo © Southern Living).

[4] You can make a simple two-layer cake. Here’s the recipe (photo © McCormick).

[5] Or go fancy with four layers. Here are different ways to enjoy the flavors of Hummingbird Cake (photo © Southern Weddings).

[5] The swallow-tailed hummingbird, for whom Hummingbird Cake was named (photo © Dave Curtis | eBird | Macaulay Library).

Originally, it was called the “Doctor Bird Cake,”, a nickname for a Jamaican variety of hummingbird called swallow-tailed hummingbird*.

Why Doctor Bird? The bird probes flowers with its long beak, which inspired the original namer who thought it resembled a doctor inspecting a patient.

In 1968, the Jamaican Tourist Board launched a marketing campaign to attract U.S. tourists. The press kits contained a few recipes from the island, including one for the Doctor Bird Cake.

Over the next few years, similar recipes appeared in local papers and community cookbooks across the South under various different names, including “Cake That Doesn’t Last” (presumably because it’s so good, it quickly gets consumed.

Most food historians agree the first printed recipe for Hummingbird cake was by one Mrs. L. H. Wiggin, who sent the recipe to Southern Living magazine, which published it in February 1978.

But even before then, there are countless references to Hummingbird Cake in county fair reports and baking competitions across southern America.

So who turned the doctor bird into the hummingbird? We have yet to uncover that tidbit of culinary history.
 
 
________________
 
*The swallow tail hummingbird (Trochilus Polytmus and Eupetomena macroura), is one of the largest of the 320 species of hummingbirds. It lives only in Jamaica. [source].
 
 

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[2] Mac and cheese: who resist (photo © Mackenzie Ltd).

[3] Fried chicken is a perennial favorite (photo © Honey Butter Fried Chicken | Chicago).

December 5th is National Comfort Food Day.

A tweet from FoodTimeline.org sent us to the site to drill down on the origins of comfort food.

According to the site, the first record in print is in the magazine section of the Washington Post of December 25, 1977: “Along with grits, one of the comfort foods of the South is black-eyed peas.”

Judith Olney’s book Comforting Food, published in 1979, began the discussion.

There is no single definition or list of “comfort food.”

Food psychologists note that provide solace and food feelings, and are typically items our loved ones cooked for us when we were children.

Thus, favorite comfort foods are based on where you grew up and your heritage; for example, hush puppies or grits for Mississippians and bagels and lox or cheesecake for New Yorkers.

Typically, comfort foods are:

 
 
AMERICA’S FAVORITE COMFORT FOODS

Here’s what comes up on the list of all-American comfort foods on About.com. In alphabetical order, we present what would be quite a buffet feast of the 25 top comfort foods:

 
 
Hey, what happened to grilled cheese and rice pudding?

Is your favorite on the list?

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Some people prefer a banana, others an apple. Our go-to hand fruit is a bright, juicy orange. We eat enough of them to engender the question of how to repurpose the peel.

Beyond zesting and making candied orange peel, we published a piece on what to do with leftover orange peels around the house.

But with the arrival of warmer weather this spring, another use emerged. We found ourselves brewing lots of iced tea. One day, we were drinking a glass while peeling an orange.

And then, like the apocryphal story of the boy with the chocolate running into the boy with peanut butter (voilà: peanut butter cups), we put the two together.