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


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TIP OF THE DAY: Put A Cap On The Coffee

As tempting as it may be to buy two different
bags, don’t buy more than a week’s worth.
Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

If you want your home-brewed coffee to taste as good as café-brewed, don’t brew “old” coffee. Air is the enemy of ground coffee—you can notice the decline in flavor at the end of the first day.

Whole beans aren’t impervious; they are at peak flavor when fresh-roasted, but then start to decline—though not as quickly as ground coffee.

For a more flavorful cup:

• Don’t buy more coffee than you can use in a week.

• Store the coffee bag in a plastic storage bag; squeeze out the excess air before sealing.

• Keep the bag in a cool, dry, dark place—but not the fridge, which has very moist air.

Now that you’ve got the beans down, here’s how to brew a great cup of coffee.

Find our favorite coffee (including organic and Fair Trade), plus lots of great coffee information, in our Gourmet Coffee section.

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PRODUCT: Island Treasures Rum Cake

We taste a lot of rum cake. Some of it does not pass the taste test of a picky palate. Some lines taste artificially flavored—or don’t taste like very much at all.

Island Treasures Gourmet rum cake—rum-infused pound cakes in Banana, Chocolate, Cinnamon Pecan Streusel Coconut, Lemon, Raspberry, Vanilla (Original)—is the latest we’ve tasted, and it’s good.

We enjoyed all of the flavors except Raspberry, which obviously appeals to a lot of people or they wouldn’t be selling it. We felt that the raspberry flavor needs some tweaking.

The cakes are very lightly infused with rum—just a touch. Some people may not even realize it’s there, it so harmoniously blends with the buttery pound cake. This brand will appeal to those who don’t like a liquor-soaked cake.

While we ate every bite and called for more, we do like “soaked” rum cakes, so we made a batch of rum syrup to pour over it. We preferred it; most of the other tasters enjoyed the cakes as is—without the syrup.

Enjoy a slice any time of the day. Photo by
Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

Rum Syrup Recipe

1. Bring 1 cup sugar and 1-1/2 cups water to a boil. Stir constantly until sugar has dissolved; then stop stirring.
2. Bring syrup to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Remove pan from heat; stir in 2 tablespoons light rum.
4. Let cool completely. Pour into a pitcher to serve at the table.

You also can serve the cake in simple slices at any time of day, or make a fancier dessert with plain or rum-infused ice cream and a side of berries, sliced peaches, bananas or other fruit.

The cakes are available in a 32-ounce size bundt and a 5-ounce mini loaf that serves one cake enthusiast or two people who want a smaller piece. Read the full review of Island Treasure Gourmet Rum Cakes.

Find more of our favorite cakes and recipes in our Gourmet Cakes section.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: The Perfect Hard-Cooked Egg

Yolk perfectly centered, no green tinge!
Photo by Pontus Edenberg | SXC.

June 3rd is National Egg Day. Learn how to make perfect hard-boiled eggs—or more correctly, hard-cooked eggs.

Think about it: The eggs are not actually boiled.

Although the cooking water must come to a full boil, the pan is immediately removed from the heat so that the eggs cook gently in the hot—not boiling–water. If they were to boil throughout the cooking process, you’d get rubbery eggs!

Check out these egg-cooking tips, and you’ll never again have rubbery, green-tinged eggs with hard-to-peel shells.

• Learn your egg types in our Egg Glossary.

• Visit our Eggs Section for more egg information and recipes.

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Allen Brothers Steaks

For more than a century, Allen Brothers Steaks of Chicago has been providing USDA Prime beef and other top meats to the nation’s most renowned steakhouses.

Morton’s The Steakhouse, Gene & Georgetti, Lawry’s The Prime Rib and other fine meateries serve Allen Brothers products. Emeril Lagasse, Art Smith, Charlie Trotter and other chefs of renown buy it for their restaurants (and no doubt, for their home cooking).

And now you can enjoy it without ever leaving your home.

We chose Allen Brothers Steaks as our Top Pick Of The Week because Father’s Day is in a mere 19 days. And most dads don’t want another tie, wallet or cologne. They want prime meat. (For kosher, halal, vegetarian and vegan folks, we have six pages of Father’s Day gift recommendations.)

Allen Brothers has been “meat-ing” the beef dreams of men (and of course, other prime meat and seafood dreams, and in women’s dreams, too) since 1893. Maybe it’s time to send some to your favorite dad (or client or other important person in your life).

 

From top left: USDA Prime strip steak,
Porterhouse (t-bone), lamb chop, pork chop,
Wagyu strip steak and filet mignon. Photo
courtesy Allen Brothers Steak.

You don’t have to show up at the party with a box of meat: Elegant gift cards are available.

If the meat lover in your life likes to grill, grilling doesn’t get better than this.

• Read the full review.

• Learn your cuts in our Beef Glossary, Lamb Glossary and Pork Glossary.

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TIP OF THE DAY: Eat Your Fruits & Veggies…& Discover New Ones

  


One of the 30 varieties of pluot, FlavorKing (photo courtesy Baldor Foods).
 

June is National Fruits & Vegetables Month.

The USDA used to suggest five portions a day. The latest dietary guidelines call for five to thirteen servings of fruits and vegetables a day (2½ to 6½ cups, not including potatoes, which are considered a starch rather than a vegetable).

The amount depends on one’s caloric intake. For a 2,000-calories-a-day diet, this translates into nine servings, or 4½ cups per day. Think of it as 2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of vegetables.

It’s a great month to up your intake. June is busting out all over with apricots, berries (blackberries and blueberries become plentiful while raspberries and strawberries become less expensive), cherries, melons (including watermelon), peaches and plums.

For veggies, try beets, dandelion greens, okra, peas, sorrel and summer squash.

 
THE VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

Make an adventure of discovering new fruits and vegetables—like pluots and apriums.

A cross of plums and apricots, pluots were first bred in the late 20th century and are grown in Washington and California. They have more plum parentage (70%), so they have smooth skin like plums. One variety is called the Dinosaur Egg because of its dappled skin. The brother of the pluot is the aprium, a plum and apricot hybrid with mostly apricot parentage. Like apricots, apriums have a slightly fuzzy skin.

Fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidants. The latest research suggests that the biggest payoff from eating fruits and vegetables is heart health. Learn more from the Harvard School Of Public Health.

Here’s more on fruit and vegetable guidelines from the Centers For Disease Control.

Check out our favorite fruits, vegetables and recipes.

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