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


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TIP OF THE DAY: Better Burgers

Most cookbooks advise using ground chuck for burgers, but many top chefs use brisket. It has a better proportion of fat and a better flavor. But brisket is a tough cut, so you need to have it ground twice. With any ground meat, when shaping patties, do it lightly—squeezing them into a solid mound makes them tougher and less juicy. And don’t press down on the burger with a spatula—it presses the juice out!

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PRODUCT: Resveratrol, The Antioxidant In Red Wine, In Capsules

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Beware of antioxidant hype. You’d have to
drink a gallon of red wine a day to get the
antioxidant benefit of resveratrol.
Fortunately, this is one antioxidant you can
buy in capsule form. Photo courtesy of
VitaminShoppe.com.

Resveratrol is an antioxidant that has gotten a lot of press in the last few years: a polyphenol found in the skins, seeds and stems of grapes. Studies in mice have shown that it increases cellular productivity and longevity, leading to a longer and healthier life. Where can you find resveratrol? In red wine!

Now, there are resveratrol supplements, enabling you to “enjoy all the health benefits of red wine, without the adverse effects of alcohol.” Otherwise, you would need to drink a gallon of red wine a day to show the effects observed in mice. That’s not doable for the population at large because of the cost, the calories, and, oh yes, the need to be sober and carry on with one’s life.

ReserveAge Organics is one brand of resveratrol dietary supplement capsules. Sixty capsules, a two-month supply, have a suggested retail price of $39.99. You can find them discounted to $30.99 on Drugstore.com and $29.99 on VitaminShoppe.com (which lists the suggested retail as $35.99).

Is it worth $360 a year for whatever “longer and healthier life” you’ll get from a daily capsule of resveratrol? You be the judge. (You can give up cholesterol, start exercising, etc. for free.) The bigger point is that, every time you read an article about the antioxidants in chocolate or whatever, remember the

resveratrol example: a gallon of red wine a day. The press is very big on spreading the hype, without providing the essential details. You generally need to consume a lot of something to get the antioxidant benefit—more than is feasible to consume. The exception is green tea: eight cups a day should do it.

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RECIPE: Lemon & Crystallized Ginger Yogurt Sorbet

There’s nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than a bowl of lemon sorbet—but there’s a lot of sugar in sorbet. Here’s a recipe, courtesy of Chobani Greek style yogurt (one of our favorite yogurts), that will satisfy your sweet tooth and keep you cool without all that refined sugar.

This recipe uses lower glycemic honey as a sweetener. Yes, there’s some sugar in the crystallized ginger, but you still save on the refined sugar. If you’ve never had yogurt sorbet, we think you’ll be hooked!

iStock-lemon-sorbet-230

Love sorbet but not all the sugar—then try
this delicious yogurt sorbet. Photo by Liv Friis-Larsen | IST.

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TIP OF THE DAY: Table Art

From 18th-century to ultra-modern, sugar bowls, creamers, salt-and-pepper shakers and other accessories add personality to any table. Why not collect them and use a different one each month? They don’t have to match your dishes, they don’t take up much storage space and you can find them at yard sales. In fact, look for old-fashioned salt cellars for the newly-popular artisan salts.  Let the kids make the monthly selection, and give them the job of switching over the sugar, salt and pepper on the first day of the month.

  • Take a look at the many different kinds of artisan salt.
  • You’ll love our Tabletop Section! Find out everything you need to know for a beautiful presentation.

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Curdelicious Fruit Curd

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Tartlets with four different flavors of
Curdelicious fruit curd: An easy and very
satisfying dessert. Guests will clamor for
more! Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE
NIBBLE.

Do you use fruit curd? Lemon curd is perhaps the most familiar variety, a creamy spread made with sugar, eggs and butter (in the richer recipes), flavored with lemon juice and often the zest (Curdelicious uses the oil from the peel fruit instead of the zest). Then, there are siblings lime curd and orange curd. Apart from the citrus family, you can find raspberry curd, strawberry curd, cranberry curd and others. We expect to stumble upon pomegranate curd any day now.

Fruit curd is refreshingly tart, as opposed to more sugary jams and preserves. The butter creates a smoother and creamier texture than jam. But if you only use fruit curd as an alternative to jam on toast, scones and croissants, you’re missing out.

Curd can be used to fill tart shells and meringues for easy, elegant desserts; and as a garnish for other desserts (pound cake, for example). You can make parfaits with curd, fill crêpes, top pancakes and waffles, make cookie sandwiches and substitute for custard. (Unlike lemon custard, for example, lemon curd contains more lemon juice and zest, which gives it a more piquant flavor as a cake filling.) There are many more uses, which we’ll explore in the full review.

Curdelicious makes everything more delicious, with fruit curds in lemon, orange, lime and raspberry. Read the full review below, and share your favorite fruit curd recipes with us. We may add them to this article!

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