Back in October of last year we posted on the demise of Gourmet Magazine. Well, it’s back. Sort of.
Is this the first sign that the iPad may live up to the promise of revitalizing the magazine industry?
Malt,
hops, yeast
and water:
Reinheitsgebot!
This is the old way to make a good beer.
Take
a great
Recipe
And make it sing.
This is the new way to make good beer.
I’m a home brewer and beer lover. Today I’d like to list some specific issues that seem to come up frequently in conversation among those who are similarly inclined.
1. Are we beer snobs, afficianados, connoisseurs, lovers, advocates or geeks? I have seen each of these terms and more used with derision and affection. The bottom line on this one is easy – call yourself what you will, and develop your situational awareness. In the press, beer geeks are lovable and interesting. In conversation, calling yourself a beer advocate gives you an air of authority. A beer lover can be a Coors-shotgunning frat boy or a wine eschewer, depending on the context. Choose carefully.
2. What is the difference between a porter and a stout? This debate has probably gone on as long as these beer styles have existed. There are a few conventional answers. (a) Stouts are made with roasted grains, and porters are not. (b) Stouts are darker than porters. (c) Stouts are from Ireland, porters from England. Here’s the real answer – it is whatever the brewer decides to call it. Seriously. There is so much overlap in the style that beer judges would find it impossible to differentiate the styles.
3. What makes a beer a double IPA, and what should I call the style? Again, very subjective, but here’s the general guidelines. A beer that approaches or exceeds 8% (the traditional starting point for “strong ales”), is dry (i.e. not sweet, with no lingering malty flavor after you swallow), and has “hop forward” character (meaning you can smell copious amounts of grass, grapefruit, and other fresh scents before you take your first sip) is a double IPA. There are better names for the style, in order of my preference: West Coast IPA, San Diego Pale Ale, Imperial IPA, Double IPA.
4. Why are IPAs so popular among beer geeks? Same reason bourbon-barrel-aged beers are popular, sour beers are popular, and Russian imperial stouts are popular. They have FLAVOR. Never forget that beer has the potential, the capacity and the birthright to be an exceedingly flavorful creation. Celebrate and revel in those flavors – all of them. Beer advocates like to say that beer and cheese go so much better together than wine and cheese, the more popular pairing, since the flavor and variety of ingredients in beer can match and stand up to even the strongest cheeses.
5. When I go to a beer bar, what should I look for? Three things: Selection, draft quality and information about the beer. The selection doesn’t have to be huge, but variety (a mix a different styles, including light pale ales, IPAs, a stout or a porter, Belgian style brews and a mix of rare or specialty offerings like casks, barrel-aged or sours) and a good theme or focus across all the handles are always appreciated. Tap handles that highlight local brewers are a plus. Draft quality is usually apparent over time; is the flavor and temperature of a particular beer consistent? Are the tap handles cleaned regularly? Do some handles sit empty (or worse, unsold) for days on end? And as for information, a large format board listing the beer selection is always appreciated, and the more information on the board (style, brewer, alcohol percentage, IBUs) the better chance I have of making a decision that I’ll be happy with. Whether or not there is a board, the servers should all be well versed in the tap selections and be prepared to make a recommendation after a short conversation with a patron.
There are more topics to cover than this, but a friend convinced me to let this draft fly without picking at it for too long. Filling in the gaps is what the comments section (below) is for.
In the spirit of the trendy idea of knowing where your food comes from, and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, the farm-to-table restaurant The Linkery in San Diego has a blog post that shows (in a s slightly graphic way, since that’s the way life is) some of the staff catching, killing and packing pasture-raised turkeys.
We have a lot to be thankful for in the United States, but odds are that, at least in the last 50 years, giving a shout-out to the people who raise our food has never been a popular pre-meal prayer at the holiday table. And obviously I’m not talking about the corporate suits at Butterball and Stouffer’s.
I’m not sure that the rule-of-threes applies to the death of a magazine. But it deserves an obituary.
I’ll start by saying I’m not much of a food magazine guy. I love to cook, but only because I love to eat. I like photos of food, and appreciate “food porn” as much as the next person, but every photo I have taken of something in my kitchen ends up looking like pancakes. I get Cooks Illustrated, but that’s more like an instruction manual for cooking engineers as opposed to a celebration of the artistic aspects of cooking.
I love to read about food. I came of age in my love for food writing with Bourdain’s seminal “Kitchen Confidential,” but quickly discovered more true artistry in Ruth Reichl and Molly O’Neill. I read MFK Fisher’s translation of Brillat-Savarin and then listened closely when she taught me how to cook a wolf. Lately I have been enthralled by Rochelle Bilow and this weekend I plowed through the Julie/Julia book by Julie Powell (can’t imagine the movie is as satisfying).
And today, maybe not so much tomorrow, but today… I am forced to confront a death of something important that I knew, but not well. Like losing a famous aunt whose home you have never visited. A magazine, silly enough, that I have bought maybe once or twice at the news stand, and ignored every ad in it. A periodical I cherished in absentia because of the name on the masthead. I’m not idealistic enough to feel any guilt about helping cause the downfall of Gourmet, but I am enough of a history buff to recognize the need to celebrate its 70 years of history, the comfort it provided in spite of its commercial nature, and the headlines that its death will garner in contrast to its lack of widespread notoriety in life.
Ruth Reichl, the erstwhile editor of Gourmet and the protagonist of several incredible (meaning hard to believe but nevertheless true), poignant books centered around food, may retire in comfort tomorrow. One can only hope that the passion she exudes in her autobiographies is real enough to keep her written word in constant circulation in a post-Gourmet world. With the charity of history her epitaph will not read “the last editor of Gourmet magazine.” It will read “an artist whose palette was taste and whose media was the written word.”
Rest in peace, Gourmet magazine.
I really seem to be moving away from beer these days, and towards liquor and wine. Perhaps it’s the opportunity to start again from the bottom, I’ve always been addicted to the beginnings of a learning curve and God knows I’m a terrible beer snob.
At any rate the new results are in from the World Spirits Competition, so it’s time to try some new flavors. I had no idea Rogue was making liquor these days. Time for another trip to the liquor store.
I was directed to an Ethicurean article about the milk crisis by Jay’s blog at The Linkery in San Diego. It is a quick and very informative read – go ahead, I’ll wait.
Image from scapbookershaven.com
OK, you’re back? Great. Did you even know we have a milk crisis? Probably not, unless it is your business to know that sort of thing. We take for granted the availability of dairy on our store shelves at reasonable prices. We also take for granted the FDA’s role in regulating food safety. The Ethicurean points out some holes in our faith.
The article skims over the issue of milk prices, mentioning the technical detail involved and providing some links. To me the details are fascinating. For about 70 years, one factor in the price of milk was the distance of the producing cow from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. No joke. The bottom line is that in a nation that celebrates the free market economy, milk is traded in one of the most manipulated markets on earth. Thus this staple of western civilizaion is sold for half of what it takes to produce it. And that, my friends, is not sustainable.
There is more hard irony action, decrepit calumny and perverted mastication in this episode than anything I have ever seen on TV.
First of all, I have to say that a lightbulb makes a great cake. Just don’t get your fingers caught in the oven.
My daughter's Easy-Bake oven cakes
Yesterday there was an article on the NPR show Day to Day about a woman who has just published a 99¢-store cookbook. She buys ingredients at the discount store, mostly canned vegetables and packaged foods like Pillsbury buscuits, and turns out delectable dishes. She imagines that in this down economy there is a real market for a book that teaches people how to cook economically, and she is probably right. But while the reporter was charitably impressed by the woman and her food, I spent the entire article thinking how sad it must be to have to rely on a discount chain store with its dented cans rolling around under stuttering fluorescent bulbs for the components of your daily meal.
If you don’t troll around food blogging sites like I do, where these concepts are preached to the choir on a regular basis, tape these simple rules to your hemp-sack shopping bags:
There you go. Four simple discount chain store avoidance strategies for a down economy.
Honestly I was going to include the “shop the perimeter” rule but Dina here makes a good point. You can’t usually get rice, flour, beans, nuts and other staples on the outer edge of your grocery store. But while you might hit up the baking aisle on a regular basis, allocating most of your shopping time to the produce section is a good habit to develop.
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition is now taking entrants for the 2009 event. It’s worth taking a look at some of the winners of last year’s competition. I bought a bottle of Clément Rhum from Martinique (a gold medal winner from last year) over the holidays and it’s already gone. Some double golds you’ve known for awhile (Beefeater Gin), other’s you’ve probably never heard of (Rain Organic Vodka from Kentucky). Print a list and have fun at the liquor store!
