What you’ve heard it true. Walk into almost any grocery store in France, Germany, or the United Kingdom, and you’ll find cartons of eggs stacked regular room-temperature shelves shelves next to the baking flour and dry pasta. In the United States, that same display would be a gross health code violation and quite shocking. This … Read more
The public is divided on the subject of American cheese. You either have nostalgic affection for a childhood grilled cheese, or intense disgust toward what you believe is “fake, plastic food.” Food purists dismiss it as an industrial chemical creation and many insist that it isn’t real cheese at all. American cheese, however, isn’t a … Read more
When you decide to finally splurge on a $9 “premium” jar of pasta sauce because the internet swore it was a life-changing culinary experience, only to get it home and realize it tastes almost identical to a cheap bargain brand of sauce, you are not alone. In fact, you’ve likely experienced a very specific kind … Read more
It’s the weirdest thing. The canned vegetable section of any major grocery store is a veritable who’s who of vegetables. The shelves are stacked high with green beans, sweet peas, sliced carrots, corn, and even asparagus. But if you look closely at that wall of preserved produce, you’ll notice a glaring omission. One of the … Read more
Walk down the produce aisle of almost any modern grocery store, and you will find plump, ubiquitous blackberries year-round. They grow wild in millions of American backyards and are a staple of summer baking. Yet, if you walk over to the beverage aisle looking for a simple bottle of blackberry juice, you’ll find it is … Read more
Stop in the barbecue and sauces section of any American grocery store, and you’ll find small dark bottle of “liquid smoke.” For decades, a persistent debate has surrounded this highly potent flavoring: Is it a genuine culinary ingredient, or is it a vial of artificial, synthetic lab chemicals engineered to mimic the taste of a … Read more