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THE FOOD REFERENCE NEWSLETTER
January 2, 2003 Vol 4 #1 ISSN 1535-5659
IN THIS ISSUE
=> Annual Report & Message to Members and Subscribers
=> Quotes and Trivia
=> Unusual Menus
=> Food Trivia Quiz
=> Readers questions
=> Ancient & Classic Recipes
=> Did you know?
=> Who's Who in the Culinary Arts
=> Requested Recipes
=> Culinary Calendar - selected events
=> Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
=> General information and Copyright
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WEBSITE NEWS http://www.foodreference.com
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ANNUAL REPORT TO ALL MEMBERS AND SUBSCRIBERS
Well it's hard to believe, but this is the beginning of the 4TH YEAR FOR THE NEWSLETTER AND THE 3RD FOR THE WEBSITE! I started the newsletter when I was working at Blue Heaven Restaurant in January of 2000, and expanded it when I started my own website, FoodReference.com in January of 2001. The newsletter now has 6,000 subscribers, and the website (with over 4,300 pages) receives almost 1/4 MILLION visitors every month!!! I can still remember the first month I received 10,000 visitors and I thought that was a lot!
I just recently upgraded to a larger server with my webhost, but am again using more than my allocated bandwidth (amount of traffic allowed) and will have upgrade again in a month or so due to the number of visitors!!
Your use of the links on the website to purchase your books, food art, heirloom beans and gourmet meats has been great, and enables me to keep upgrading the website.
USA Today, the NY Times, BBC, FOODTV, CNN and countless other daily, weekly and monthly publications and websites have all mentioned and recommended FoodReference.com. In the latter part of 2003 I will be working in partnership with the CDC promoting their '5 a Day' Fruits and Vegetables program, and they will be using material from FoodReference.com on their website.
A score of authors and several major publishers now send books to be reviewed on the website (enabling me to give a FREE COOKBOOK away every 2 weeks to Website Members).
Over the next few months you will see all of the various areas on the website expand considerably, and some new features will be added.
The newest CD, SEAFOOD AND CARIBBEAN RECIPES will be released before January 15, 2003, and several others will follow in February and March.
THANK YOU TO ALL MEMBERS, SUBSCRIBERS AND WEBSITE VISITORS FOR MAKING the FOODREFERENCE WEBSITE SO SUCCESSFUL, your support and encouragement has been wonderful. (And I hope more subscribers consider upgrading to website membership!)
Thank You and Best Wishes for the New Year, Chef James.
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QUOTE
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"Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the winter and cools you in the summer? Yet who also is capable of doing honor to your richest table and impressing your most demanding guests? Soup does its loyal best, no matter what undignified conditions are imposed upon it. You don't catch steak hanging around when you're poor and sick, do you?"
Judith Martin (Miss Manners)
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SPONSOR
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The best place to buy FOOD POSTERS AND FOOD ART
http://www.foodreference.com/html/culinary_art___food_posters.html
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TRIVIA
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Stone crabs (Menippe mercenaria) are found along the Atlantic coast of the southern U.S. mainly around the Gulf Coast of Florida and the Florida Keys. They cannot swim, and live mostly on shallow flats in high salinity areas near oyster reefs. Even though they possess great strength and can crack the shell of a large oyster, they have a mild disposition and can be taken by hand. Only the claw meat is eaten, and only one claw is removed from the crab. They are then put back into the sea so the claw can regrow. The shell of the claw is 'stone hard' and must be cracked with a hammer. Stone crabmeat is firm in texture and has a sweet succulent flavor, similar to lobster.
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RECOMMENDED FOOD SOURCE
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FARM MARKETS.COM
Enjoy the best possible premium natural meats, only available through FarmMarkets. Premium American lamb; dry-aged natural beef; natural pork; all are pasture raised in Ohio and Northern Appalachia by selected family farms. No antibiotics, no hormones! Also, organic cheeses, Amish jams, and other select gourmet products.
http://store.farmmarkets.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=T&Affiliate=foodref
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UNUSUAL MENUS
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UNUSUAL MENUS
Worms, beetles, and bugs are not as American as Mom's apple pie, and very probably never will be. But there was an occasion in 1992, at the Explorers Club in New York City, when the New York Entomological Society celebrated its 100th anniversary with a banquet that began with snacks of roasted crickets and larvae and went on through mealworm ghanouj, waxworm fritters with plum sauce, cricket and vegetable tempura, and roasted Australian kurrajong grubs to roast beef and gravy. The dessert was chocolate cricket torte, the centerpieces on the tables were live tarantulas (for decor, not for eating).
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FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ
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The Food Trivia Quizzes are now moved to their own separate section after the newsletter is e-mailed. Check the Navigation Bar at the top of the page.
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FOOD REFERENCE WEBSITE RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS
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FOOD ART AND POSTERS
Food Identification Posters and Fine Art Food Posters
Thousands of quality posters at great prices
http://www.foodreference.com/html/culinary_art___food_posters.html
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READERS QUESTIONS
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QUESTION: I need a recipe for a great mint Julep real quick. Steve
ANSWER: Mint Julep Recipe, Pearl Street House, Louisville, mid 19th century.
Take a large and deep cut glass tumbler, fill it with sufficient sugar and ice to the brim -- half of the ice shaved into snow and the rest in lumps of moderate size. Lay on the top of it three fresh leaves of mint without any part of the stem attached. Pour on just half a glass of fine, unimpeachable cognac brandy, than just half a glass of fine old Jamaican rum; then add half a glass of old ripe port wine. Then pour the mass rapidly for some time, back and forth into tumblers; the longer this action continues the better. Then plant a small bunch of mint on one side of the tumbler by putting the stems down into the ice, and having the leaves up about as high as the nose of the drinker should come.
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TRIVIA
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In the 16th century, the Turks were hooked on coffee. Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family's pot filled with coffee.
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ANCIENT & CLASSIC RECIPES
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Daniel Webster's Chowder Recipe, From 'The Cook' (1885)
Four tablespoonfuls of onions, fried with pork.
One quart of boiled potatoes, well mashed.
One and a half pounds sea-biscuit, broken.
One teaspoonful of thyme, mixed with one of summer savory.
Half-bottle of mushroom catsup.
One bottle of port or claret.
Half of a nutmeg, grated.
A few cloves, mace, and allspice.
Six pounds of fish, sea-bass or cod, cut in slices.
Twenty five oysters, a little black pepper, and a few slices of lemon.
The whole put in a pot, covered with an inch of water, boiled for an hour, and gently stirred.
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QUOTE
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"Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks."
Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living, 1937
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TRIVIA
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Early French immigrants to Canada made a hearty soup called chaudree from salt pork and fish. (Chaudree derives from the Latin calderia 'caldron'.) When Breton inspired chaudree crossed the Canadian border and moved down the eastern seaboard of the United States "chowder" American style came into being. Maine, ever practical and plain, fostered a simple chowder using pure water, clams, salt pork, and of course, potatoes. The dairy-rich state of Massachusetts chose to make its brand of chowder with milk, while Manhattan and Connecticut versions added tomatoes.Thus started the famous food controversy, still-if ever to be settled, as to whether chowder should be made with tomatoes.
Perhaps one of the most famous gastronomic controversies in American history arose when Assemblyman Seeder introduced into the Maine Legislature in February 1939, a bill to make the entrance of a tomato into clam chowder illegal!
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SOFTWARE FROM THE FOOD REFERENCE WEBSITE
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CHECK OUT THE CULINARY EVENTS CD AND RECIPE CDs
http://www.foodreference.com/html/cdfoodrcalendar.html
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DID YOU KNOW?
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King Edward I of England in 1274 ordered his sheriffs to provide 278 bacon hogs, 450 porkers, 440 fat oxen, 430 sheep, and 22,600 hens and capons for his coronation feast.
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WHO'S WHO IN THE CULINARY ARTS
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Heliogabalus (2nd century BC)
Heliogabalus was a Roman emperor (204-222 AD) who was known for his culinary excesses. For one banquet he had 600 ostrich brains prepared.
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RECIPE REQUESTS FROM READERS
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BANANA HEAVEN from BLUE HEAVEN RESTAURANT IN KEY WEST
Place 1 TB butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 2 pinches cinnamon in a sauté pan and heat on high - when butter is partially melted add 1 whole banana - split lengthwise then cross wise (4 pieces) and 1 1/2 TB orange juice - heat until butter and sugar are melted and sauce is bubbling - CAREFULLY add 1/2 to 3/4 ounce of Capt. Morgan's Spiced Rum - carefully tilt pan so rum ignites - Pour over a slice of banana bread and top with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy!
Email your recipe requests, food info or history
questions to me at james@foodreference.com
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TRIVIA
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A Frenchman, Count Odette Phillipe, planted the first grapefruit trees in Florida around Tampa Bay in 1823. Today, Florida produces more grapefruit than the rest of the world combined.
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QUOTE
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"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate..."
Katharine Hepburn
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CULINARY CALENDAR - Selected Events
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JAN 3
1871 Oleomargarine was patented by Henry Bradley of Binghamton, New York. Hippolyte Mege-Mouries developed margarine in France in 1869, and received a U.S. patent in 1873 for margarine. There were many patents granted for various formulas and manufacturing techniques for margarine in the U.S. beginning in 1871. I can remember, as a kid, kneading a plastic pouch of margarine, with a red dot of food coloring, to distribute the color throughout the margarine. The dairy industry was able to have laws passed that prevented manufacturers from coloring the margarine. (The natural color of margarine is white).
JAN 4
2002 An Italian shepherd, the world's oldest man died at the age of 112. Quote: "....love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day."
JAN 5
* National Whipped Cream Day
1889 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'hamburger' first appeared in print on this day in a Walla Walla, Washington newspaper.
JAN 6
1929 Sheffeld Farms of New York began using wax paper cartons instead of glass bottles for milk delivery.
JAN 7
1958 Ant Farms go on sale. Milton Levine had the idea at a July 4th family picnic. I wonder if he had dreams of fencing them in so they wouldn't bother him at picnics?
JAN 8
2002 Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, died.
JAN 9
* National Apricot Day
1858 Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton was born. An American botanist, her efforts were a major factor in the establishment of the New York Botanical Gardens.
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TRIVIA
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Fanny Farmer had to pay the printing costs of her cookbook, The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, because Little, Brown and Company were not very enthusiastic about publishing another cookbook. By 1977, over 4 million copies had been sold, outselling any other book ever published by Little, Brown and Company.
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QUOTE
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"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
Benjamin Franklin, (1706-1790)
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LIST MAINTENANCE
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Food Reference Newsletter ISSN 1535-5659
James T. Ehler (Publisher & Editor)
3920 S. Roosevelt Blvd
Suite 209 South
Key West, Florida 33040
E-mail: james@foodreference.com Phone: (305) 296-2614
Food Reference WebSite: http://www.foodreference.com
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© Copyright 1995-2003 James T. Ehler. All rights reserved. You may copy and use portions of this newsletter for noncommercial, personal use only. you may forward a copy to someone else as long as the Copyright notice is included. Any other use of the materials in this newsletter without prior written permission is prohibited.
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