If you’ve ever been served a piece of fish that tasted like an ashtray with a side of battery acid, you’ve been a victim of the great “Blackening” misconception. Most people believe blackening is an ancient Acadian tradition, but it is actually a specific 1980s invention, popularized by a celebrity chef, that has been hijacked … Read more
Cajun cooking has become perhaps overly identified with New Orleans, causing many to think that Cajun food is food that originates there. Cajun country is, on the other hand, the countryside, and is also called Acadiana. The true cooking of New Orleans is more than boiled crawfish and gumbo. It is also more than Cajun. New … Read more
The Savior and the Shadow: Why the Olive Oil Mafia Story Sticks If you spend any time in the culinary corners of YouTube or TikTok, you’ve likely encountered the “Savior.” They appear on your screen with a grave expression, pointing to a bottle of extra virgin olive oil and delivering a cinematic warning: Your oil … Read more
Did people in the Middle Ages really eat moldy bread? It’s a common belief that our ancestors had iron stomachs capable of handling food that would send a modern person straight to the ER. While it is true that medieval Europeans frequently consumed stale, hard bread that was beginning to turn, the reality of their … Read more
If you look at a modern head of cabbage, you are seeing the result of centuries of selective breeding. Our modern cabbage and the plants we derived from it bear little resemblance to their loose-leaved ancestors. And, our common name for this ubiquitous source of plant foods could have been very different! Just as cabbage … Read more
While we use the phrase today to describe a low-priority task, the idiom’s origins are rooted in the literal design of early 20th-century stoves and the critical need for heat management in a busy kitchen. The False Etymology of Heat Zones on Wood-Burning Stoves Before the advent of modern gas and electric ranges with precise … Read more