Eat This Newsletter 183: Authentically awful
Hello
I had a very enjoyable time during the Oxford Food Symposium’s Kitchen Table talk on how can we find reliable sources of information about food. I’d send you to a recording if there were one, but one reason we all found it enjoyable is that it was not recorded, so we were free to speak our minds.
I don’t think I am revealing any state secrets when I say that there was a lot of discussion about authenticity, especially about recipes. If you’re not interested in the first printed version, how do you know what is authentic? There were some interesting suggestions, but I had a different question. Why do some people care so much about authenticity? I still don’t know. Is that because I’ve never had my culture or cuisine or recipes appropriated? I’ve listened to diatribes about the awfulness of British food. Does that mean only awful British food is authentic? Of course not.
So, why do some people care so much about authenticity?
Fill up on cheap pasta is very bad advice for the poor
I mean, it is very bad advice — and stupid to boot — at any time, but in light of a recent report from the UK’s Office of National Statistics is is particularly bad now. The cost of the cheapest supermarket pasta went up by 50% from April 2021 to April 2022.
The report represents the first fruits of the ONS’ decision to respond to food campaigner Jack Monroe’s point that the nominal rate of inflation, based on a single basket of goods for everyone, does not accurately reflect the experience of poor people who spend more of their income on food and who depend on the cheapest offerings. So the ONS is looking at the cheapest supermarket versions of 30 different items. At first glance, the report seems to invalidate Monroe’s point;
“the lowest-priced items have increased in cost by around as much as average food and non-alcoholic drinks prices (with both rising around 6% to 7% over the 12 months to April 2022).”
Look deeper, though, and the picture is bleak: the price of six items (of the 30 in the basket) rose by more than 15% over the year, while for more than 20 of the 30 items the next cheapest version is at least 20% more expensive. And, as The Guardian pointed out:
“the average lowest price of 13 out of 30 groceries, compiled from internet prices at seven retailers, rose at a faster rate than the official inflation measure for food and non-alcoholic drink.”
One question: The price of potatoes went down by 12%. Potatoes can be as easy to cook as pasta, and you can enjoy them with many of the same sauces. So, did anyone substitute potatoes for pasta?
The Art of Citrus
JSTOR Daily has a fun article on orange crate art, displaying some choice images from the open-access collection at Azusa Pacific University. The labels offered rapid additional information about what was, at the time, an almost identical product, all the navel orange trees at the time being clones of a single Brazilian parent. Labels helped growers to distinguish their oranges from other growers’ and to indicate the quality grade of the fruit, and they used whatever artistic devices they could to set themselves apart. There were, however, other factors at work.
[B]ecause some of the stiffest competition in the citrus market came not from Californians at all, but from still strong Spanish and Italian imports, labels also quickly became part of an “Americanization campaign” simultaneously selling patriotism and the romance of the American West.
Spain and Italy can be said to have kicked off commercial citrus, although perhaps not citrus art. The JSTOR article reminded me of a wonderful talk by David Karp at the 1998 Oxford Food Symposium, entitled simply Orange Wrappers. Italians and Spaniards were first to wrap their fruit, but initially in plain coloured tissue paper. Intended to prevent the spread of mould, delay ripening and, of course, appeal to shoppers, “orange wrappers epitomize throwaway art”. Karp says the pictorial American orange wrappers predate Italian ones, because only fruit jobbers saw the crate labels, so growers had to appeal to consumers with the fruit itself. His article is well worth reading, if only for his delight at being allowed to plunder the fruits of a wrapper printing house.
Karp’s article is, alas, not illustrated, although his talk certainly was. There are, however, plenty of illustrations in a more recent article by Lisa Schultz in The New Gastronome.
Fruit stickers stick around
Not nearly as attractive as citrus wrappers, those ghastly little stickers you find on every piece of fruit — at least at a supermarket — are there to tell the cashier whether that’s a banana or an apple you’re buying. They carry the PLU, or product look up, a number that identifies the fruit or vegetable and in many cases the particular variety, especially if it carries a price premium. That’s fine for the cashier. The downside comes from the fact that most stickers are resolutely non-biodegradable. In some cases, they can result in entire loads of waste food going into landfill rather than compost. Ideally, you should remove them and put them in the plastic recycling bin, but very few people bother.
May contain Salmonella
There has been another huge case of Salmonella-contaminated peanut butter. (The previous outbreak, in 2009, killed at least 9 people, sickened 700 or more, and resulted in jail time for the CEO and the demise of the company.) It is far too early to have any inkling of how this case will play out, and I am very greatful to Marion Nestle for accumulating a bunch of links on the Jif peanut butter recall and its ramifications.
Take care
Jeremy