Eat This Newsletter 122: a series of smooth segues
Hello
It is all but impossible to avoid Covid stories about food, or anything else. I’ve tried, honest.
Other diseases are still around
Not to make light of the current pandemic, but other diseases also spread, devastate people and industries and could cost a packet. I’m thinking specifically about Xylella fastidiosa, the pathogen that causes Olive Quick Decline Syndrome and many other diseases besides. It has laid waste to large areas of Puglia and now that it is fully established in Italy could easily spread. A new research paper looks at the potential impact across Europe. From the abstract:
Even under slow disease spread and the ability to replant with resistant cultivars, projections of future economic impact in affected countries run in the billions of Euros. Our findings highlight the importance of minimizing disease spread and implementing adaptation measures in affected areas.
The meat of the paper is tough going, although if I were an olive grower in Greece or Spain I’d be very, very worried. The Guardian’s article is easier to read, though I’m blowed if I can understand why they continue to call it olive leprosy. I thought that was something different, and in any case, leprosy isn’t all that scary these days. The Spanish have been calling it olive ebola, according to Newsweek. Is that scary enough, these days? Or should we just rewrite everything and worry about olive covid? That does have a certain ring about it.
Smooth segue to #quarantinebaking
Shelves (in some countries) empty of flour and yeast, while social media sites are heaving with examples of #quarantinebaking. The Counter dug deep to uncover the mysterious truth: the vast majority of flour and yeast never went to supermarkets in the first place. It went to commercial bakeries and restaurants.
Just four percent of annual U.S. flour production is sold to home bakers, versus 96 percent to commercial customers, according to data from the North American Millers Association.
According to one person The Counter spoke to, they can get 50-pound bags, because restaurants currently don’t want them, but they don’t have the labour to repackage into smaller amounts that customers could fit in their trolleys alongside the 96-roll toilet paper packs.
The more interesting story, to me, is what’s happening to the smaller farmers and millers who over the past few years have built up the regional trade in specialty wheats. The pandemic is obviously both a crisis and an opportunity for them, and The Counter covers both sides in its story. One thing I found surprising was that some “farm-identified flours” are milled by the very biggest of big millers. It must depend on more than simple faith to know that the flour you get back comes from the wheat you sent in.
Smooth segue to questions of faith
Chickens and hares are not native to the British Isles, but seem to have got there before the Romans. Why? Research reported by The Guardian, although without citing the actual research, says that the animals were revered as gods. The evidence is that, before the Romans arrived, “the animals were buried with care and intact”. Julius Caesar said as much in his account of the Gallic Wars. Only much later, as numbers increased, were hares and chickens raised to be eaten, and their remains disposed of as food waste.
There are no direct links between pre-Roman chickens and hares (not bunnies!) to Easter, but hey, it was Easter, so.
Smooth segue to a different faith
Passover has, er, passed over, and with it a remarkable story of direct marketing, at least in America.
The Haggadah is the book that tells the story of the Exodus, linking the story to its commemoration at every stage of the ritual Passover seder. And for Americans, apparently, the brand indelibly associated with the Haggadah is Maxwell House Coffee. Eater tells the story, which started, in 1923, with a campaign to reassure observant Jews that coffee beans were not really beans, and were thus kosher for use during Passover.
The campaign was successful, and resulted in the Haggadah, free when you bought Maxwell House coffee. I had no idea. But a fair few friends said, yes, of course, that was the one.
Smooth segue back to Easter
Through the decades, the host for my websites and the software I use to display them have changed, with the result that things inevitably got left behind. I still have them, but they’re not publically available, and when I have the time and motivation, I bring them in, slowly and by hand. So it was I made a remarkable discovery.
In August 2006, I wrote about the accidental revelation, by a large internet company, of what its members had been searching for. A lot of it was deeply embarrassing, I’m sure. But some of it was just weird. Like the person who searched for, and I kid you not, “easter cookie recipe for jesus’ suffering”.
I’m kinda proud to say that even back then, I was intrigued enough to perform the search myself, and found the recipe. It still makes me cringe.
What I didn’t know then was that a completely different, and as far as I can tell, much earlier, empty tomb sweet treat would later be part of last year’s Passover/Easter podcast episode. Two utterly different empty tomb recipes? It beggars belief.
An aside: One reason bringing the old posts back in takes so long is that I check every link. I found that one in the marvellous, wonderful Internet Archive, but you will have to scroll down a teeny bit to see it in all its glory. But while you can find a million online versions of Easter Story Cookies, there’s no hint of how long they’ve been around, who first made them, who (if anyone) repurposed them for Easter. Do you have any clues? Let me know. I have almost a year to do something about it.
And that’s it for another edition. Spread the word and stay safe.
All the best
Jeremy