THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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COOKING VIDEO: How To Bake Acorn Squash

 

Many people shy away from baking acorn squash at home. We don’t blame them: Unless you know how to cut one properly, the prospect of using a big knife to cut open a thick winter squash can be scary. The thick, green, ribbed skin can seem impenetrable.

Yet the yellow-orange flesh inside is delicious: sweet, nutty and simple to bake.

In this video, you’ll see how easy it is to cut and bake acorn squash. Instead of the cinnamon and clove used in the video, you can brush maple syrup on the squash for a different flavor profile.

Acorn squash is loaded with the powerful antioxidant beta-carotene (it’s what gives the orange color to vegetables; the body converts it to vitamin A). A one-cup serving has about 115 calories—less than a cup of potatoes—plus 9g of dietary fiber, 2g of protein, manganese, magnesium, potassium and vitamins A, B1 (thiamine), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6, B9 (folate) and C.

And it’s so yummy!

Get cooking:

   

   

Do you know your acorn and butternut squash from your Hubbard and kabocha? Check out all the different types of squash in our Squash Glossary.

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TIP OF THE DAY: How To Keep Produce Fresh

Today’s tip comes from a reader question to The New York Times: Does the mist that grocers spray on fresh vegetables keep them fresh or hasten spoilage?

It depends. Without spraying, many vegetables would wilt, since, after harvest, they go into a drier environment and cannot replenish water through their roots.

On the other hand, the water spray enables micro-organisms to start degrading the plant tissue.

Below, Dr. Randy W. Worobo, an associate professor of food microbiology at Cornell University, suggests the best way to store your produce once you get it home.

 
 

How To Extend The Life Of Fresh Produce

 

Extend the life of your produce with these
tips. Photo courtesy GrowingVegetables.com.

 
You can throw away less produce—and save hundreds of dollars a year—with these simple steps.

  • Submerge produce in cold tap water for 5 to 15 minutes, until it is fully hydrated.
  • Drain and dry off the remaining moisture by blotting, using a salad spinner or simply letting the water evaporate at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes.
  • Wrap the produce in a paper towel to absorb excess water, place it in a plastic bag (with the paper towel) and refrigerate.
  •  
    Storing herbs is a bit different.

  • Basil, Cilantro & Parsley. Certain herbs, like basil, are damaged by the cold in the refrigerator; the leaves will start to turn black. Instead of refrigerating, trim the ends and keep the herbs in an inch or two of water in a container on the counter, changing the water daily as with fresh flowers. Other long-stemmed herbs, such as cilantro and parsley, should be kept the same way.
  • Chives, Rosemary & Thyme. These herbs do go into the fridge, with a different treatment. Wrap them loosely in a paper towel and then in a plastic bag. Air needs to circulate, or the trapped moisture will attract mold. Place these herbs in the produce compartment or the butter compartment on the door, both of which are warmer than the rest of the fridge.
  •  
    As with all produce, don’t rinse herbs until you are ready to use them.

    Try A Freshness Extender

    You can buy freshness extenders for the produce drawer that dissipate the ethylene and keep the food fresher for longer. They’ve been a godsend in keeping our berries from rotting!

    The ethylene gas emitted by some types of produce hastens ripening—and then, spoilage. That’s why you can put green bananas in a closed bag for a day or two, which concentrates the gas for quick ripening.

    Apricots, kiwi fruits, peaches, pears and plums are also good ethylene producers. If any of these fruits are in a closed produce drawer with other items, the ethylene in the closed space will begin to degrade the neighboring produce.
      

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    PRODUCT: BaconLube Massage Oil

    It’s a massage oil. It’s a personal lubricant.
    It’s Baconlube. Photo courtesy J&D’s.

      According to a recent survey by Maple Leaf Foods, Canada’s market leader in the bacon category, when asked to choose between bacon and sex, more than four in 10 responders (43%) chose bacon.

    But they don’t have to make that decision with J&D’s Baconlube, a new, water-based lubricant that the company calls “the McRib of sex.”

    It’s a limited edition product: Only 3,000 bottles have been made. Get yours at Baconlube.com for $11.99.

    It could be this season’s quirkiest holiday gift.

    But our favorite product from J&D’s remains Baconnaise: a bacon-flavored, kosher-certified mayonnaise that lets us make mock BLTs without having to clean up the bacon grease.

    We buy it by the case to give as gifts.

    Do You Know Where Bacon Comes From?

    Yes, it comes from a pig, but what part of the pig? Learn your pork parts in our delicious Pork Cuts Glossary.

     

      

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    FOOD HOLIDAY: National Fast Food Day

    Today is National Fast Food Day, a very American holiday.

    The U.S. has more than 300 fast food chains, representing 40% of the nation’s total restaurant sales. Americans spend more than $110 billion on fast food annually, on cuisine that ranges from barbecue, fried chicken and pizza to Chinese food and Tex-Mex.

    A fast food restaurant is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast food cuisine, and has minimal or no table service. There is a limited menu, the food is cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, and it is then finished and packaged to order. Many customers buy it as take-out.

    Per Wikipedia, the term “fast food” first appeared in the Merriam–Webster in 1951.

    As the concept grew, fast food restaurants developed into chains or franchise operations. In the industry, fast food restaurants are known as a quick service restaurants—QSRs.
     
     
    THE HISTORY OF FAST FOOD

    For millennia, since the dawn of towns, there has been street food. It was sold by vendors who fed nearby workers and folks passing through, as well as neighborhood residents who had no fireplace in which to cook food.

    Street food has been called, incorrectly, “the world’s first fast food.” Fast food is defined as a meal that can be prepared quickly and easily, to be consumed on premises or taken out.

    Street vendors can spend hours cooking and preparing dosas, kebabs, tacos and other foods before bringing them to sell from a cart or a portable stand.

    While America is now witnessing a growth in street food—particularly food trucks—the popularity of street food waned in the early 20th century with the birth of burger stands, coffee shops, diners, drive-ins and sandwich shops—all places where one could get a quick meal. Are they fast food?

    Street food is on the rise again, with the growing convenience and popularity of food trucks, which sell everything from comfort foods like tacos to gourmet burgers and lobster rolls.

    There are many “fast casual” restaurants. Not to be confused with casual restaurant chains that offer full table service—like Applebee’s, IHOP and the pioneer Howard Johnson’s, which prepare food to order—fast casual restaurants provide a higher quality of food than fast food places, in an atmosphere somewhat better than a typical fast food restaurant.

    Chipotle Mexican Grill and Five Guys Burgers are examples.
     
     
    THE RISE OF FAST FOOD

    Arguably, the first fast food restaurants originated in the United States with the first White Castle in 1921, and A&W in 1923.

    White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, by a fry-cook and businessman. It spawned a burger chain that was followed by A&W (1923), KFC (1952) and Ray Kroc’s McDonald’s (1961).

    White Castle was a burger game-changer: The burgers were cooked on grills at 500°F, onions grilled alongside in the meat juices, and the biggest change: it was served on a white bun instead of sliced bread.

    How Fast Food Is Different

    Fast food uses preheated or precooked ingredients. Those fries and burgers are pre-cooked and sitting under a heat lamp awaiting an order.

      Original White Castle Rataurant
    [1] The second White Castle restaurant, circa 1921.

    A&W 1950s Car Hop
    [2] By the 1950s, car hop service was the rage at chains like A&W. Some chains had waitresses on roller skates.

    Old McDonald's Restaurant
    [3] Before there were golden arches, there were the McDonald brothers. In 1940 they started a barbecue restaurant, which they reorganized as a hamburger stand in 1948. It used modern production line principles.

    [4] Today, the iconic fast-food fries (photo courtesy McDonalds).

     

    The food is served to the customer not on a plate, but in disposable packaging that can be brought elsewhere as take-out, or taken to a table provided by the establishment.

    The Father Of Fast Food

    There were burger entrepreneurs who preceded him, but the game-changing attribution is given to the businessman who took a single McDonald’s roadside restaurant and turned it into a global powerhouse?

    In 1954, a milkshake machine salesman named Ray Kroc started the momentum leading to America’s fast-food phenomenon.

    Kroc was a milkshake machine salesman in California. He then became the exclusive distributor of a speedier milkshake machine, the Multimixer. One of his clients was the McDonald’s hamburger stand in San Bernardino, owned by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald.

    Kroc inadvertently invented modern fast food with his vision of franchising the McDonald’s concept, in order to sell several Multimixers to each location. He offered his services as their franchising agent. Six years later, he bought the brothers out.

    In 1961, Kroc began to create what would become the world’ largest restaurant chain. He created the modern fast food model, standardizing portions and processes, keeping prices down and creating a culture of quick service and cleanliness.

    Today McDonald’s is the largest restaurant company in the world, with 31,000 restaurants located in 126 countries. The Moscow location is the busiest in the world; the largest location is in Orlando, Florida. It would be hard to find a meat-eating American who has never eaten at McDonald’s.

    Happy Fast Food Day to all fast food fans.
      

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    THANKSGIVING: Save Time With Pepperidge Farm Stuffing Mix

    Which of the five flavors of Pepperidge Farm
    stuffing will we use in our final recipe? Tune
    in next week. Photo courtesy Pepperidge
    Farm.

      We have a friend who bakes cornbread from scratch the day before Thanksgiving, just to make her signature cornbread stuffing.

    At the opposite end of the spectrum, our Mom—a great cook by anyone’s account—always starts with a base of packaged Pepperidge Farm Stuffing.

    Not only are Pepperidge Farm stuffings delicious to her ever-so-picky palate, but they also save time—which nobody has to spare when preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

    (In addition to turkey, stuffing and homemade gravy, Mom whips up two different types of cranberry sauce, both white and sweet potato dishes, two green vegetable dishes, hot biscuits, a green salad, a relish tray, fresh fruit salad and two different pies. If I’ve forgotten something, Mom, chime in.)

    In our youth, there was only one style of Pepperidge Farm Stuffing: herb-seasoned cubes of bread. Today, busy cooks have five choices: Herb Seasoned, Herb Seasoned Cubed, Cornbread, Country Cubed and Sage and Onion cubed.

     

    This Year, It’s Pepperidge Farm For Us
    After years of making stuffing from every type of bread we came across—one year, we spent a fortune on brioche—we’re excited to return to our roots. We’ve accepted a challenge from Pepperidge Farm to create an original stuffing recipe based on one of their stuffing mixes.

    The biggest challenge for us is where to begin—we’d like to make all five flavors.

    And we just may do so, since in exchange for our recipe, Pepperidge Farm will reimburse us for ingredients and time. And of course, we get to eat all the stuffing!

  • Watch. Stay tuned for our recipe as well as our recommendations on how to use leftover stuffing.
  • Share. If you have favorite stuffing add-ins or other shortcuts that save time in the preparation and serving of holiday meals, let us know. We’ll post them next week.
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