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Informational Blog

Facts and figures, do’s and don’t on a range of health and food related topics

More on Drinking Water

by jughandle March 19, 2020

written by jughandle

Are you like millions of people and have just realized that you need to drink more water? Are you one of those walking around with a bottle of water to keep hydrated? Sorry to inform you, but you are behind the times, and are now part of the problem and not the solution you may have believed.

Our Body

I posted the first version of this article 7 years ago. It seems that nothing has changed.

Our bodies are 2/3 water. Drinking water is critical to the function of all our organs, yet we don’t seem to care where our water comes from. The Natural Resources Defense Council tested 1000 bottles of water. Surprise, they discovered that 1/5 or around 22% of the brands tested contained contaminates above the legal, state of California, and public health levels. Arsenic was in all of them.

Plastic that most bottled water is stored in can break down under temperatures as low as those found in the storage warehouses. Even your own garage can be too hot to store plastic. When water bottle plastic reaches 158 deg F, it will leach chemicals into your water. You don’t warm your food in the microwave in plastic or plastic wrap any more, right? So why drink from the plastic stuff? It has the same result. Picture chemicals dripping into your food and water.

Both, Dasani, bottled by Coke and Pepsi’s Aquafina are just filtered municipal tap water with added minerals for flavor. Considering that tap water is then subsequently bottled in plastic, you’d be much better off drinking straight tap water, and much, much better off drinking filtered tap water.

Plastic Bottles

The plastic our water bottles are made from is called polyethylene terephthalate or PET for short. First of all, PET is produced from crude oil, and it takes a bunch of oil to make it. Roughly 17 million barrels to produce just water bottles, last year alone. Now you now why water is more expensive than gasoline. Secondly, over 90 percent of those 30 Billion water bottles end up in the land fill. YES, ninety percent!

This next statement isn’t radical, or even liberal, tree hugging maybe a little, but certainly logical.

STOP USING AND BUYING PLASTIC – NOW!!! IF YOU CAN’T FIND AN ALTERNATIVE AT LEAST RECYCLE – PLEASE -jughandle

March 19, 2020 0 comment

All About American Food Fast Food Informational Blog Jerry Wooden

Impossible Whopper Comparison

by jughandle September 14, 2019

written by jughandle

Impossible Whopper comparison, side by side with the Classic Whopper

Burger King recently released, nationally, what they call the “Impossible Whopper” sandwich. In a nutshell, it is a Whopper sandwich with a vegetable based patty that replaces the char broiled beef patty on a classic Whopper.

I decided to do an Impossible Whopper Comparison, side by side with the Classic Whopper. A difficult task, but someone needed to do it.

Burger King describes the IW as follows:

Our Impossible™ WHOPPER® Sandwich features a savory flame-grilled patty made from plants topped with juicy tomatoes, fresh lettuce, creamy mayonnaise, ketchup, crunchy pickles, and sliced white onions on a soft sesame seed bun. 100% WHOPPER®, 0% Beef.

My Back Story

I was on the track team at Auburn University in the early ’70s. I trained 8 to 10 hours a day either running or lifting weights, burning 8-10,000 calories a day. I lived at the athletic dorm and ate my meals at the dinning table. With the exception of steaks, we could eat as much as we could as long as it was in less than 15 mins.

The food was good but 2 hours after eating I was hungry again. A few of us would inevitably mosey on over to the local Burger King around 8 or 9 pm. My standard order would be 5 whoppers, 2 orders of large fries and a large orange. Yep, that would be at least 5,000 calories.

My point is that I am a Whopper expert and have eaten hundreds, if not thousands in my life time.

The Buns are the same

As advertised, and no surprise, the buns are identical. As far as that goes, the sandwiches are both Whoppers with the exception of the patty.

Let’s get down to the meat of the matter

The Meat Patty is

charbroiled and tends to be slightly undercooked. Fortunately for me, that is the way I like it. There is a firm texture to the patty, consistent with beef. The noticeable feature of the Burger King Beef Patty is the charbroiled flavor. You know that flavor and can associate the flavor with the smell of flame broiled beef.

The Plant Patty is

underwhelming. Yes, as much as I wanted this thing to taste exactly like a Whopper, it was without surprise, that it did not.

Why Not?

For several reasons:

The texture was mushy and if picked up without the bun for support, it would fall apart.
The taste just wasn’t there. I’m assuming the veggie patty was flame roasted too, but I’m only guessing because there was no charbroiled flavor. This point alone was the deal breaker for me.
The combined flavor was bland. With the meat patty the flavors combine to be better than the parts. The meat enhances the flavors of the mayo, tomato, lettuce, onion and pickle. Those flavors work together to create a truly good sandwich.
The Plant Based Patty, not so much. All the individual flavors are still there, but it does nothing to enhance the the end combo. I think it is the acid in the beef that makes the difference. Maybe a little lemon juice, or vinegar would brighten the flavors. But as it stands, the Impossible Whopper, is aptly named and compares to eating a whopper after removing the beef patty.

September 14, 2019 0 comment

https://tastemakerconference.com/starting-food-blog-like-pro/

All About Blog Topics Informational Blog Useful Links

My Favorite Food Blogs

by jughandle August 10, 2019

written by jughandle

Of the thousands of food blogs written, these are a dozen of the 50 or so I follow on a daily or weekly basis. In no particular order of importance to me, My Favorite Food Blogs:

1. The Homesick Texan http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/ – Great recipes, well written stories, with good pictures. Not all healthy food, but more like what we all want.

2. The Stonesoup – delicious, healthy meals in minutes – http://thestonesoup.com/blog/ Very nice design. Easy to navigate. Great recipes with fantastic pictures.

3. Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook – Finding the forgotten feast – http://honest-food.net/ – Nicely designed, different point of view. Great wild game recipes. Even vegetarian recipes.

4. [No Recipes] – make good dishes better – http://norecipes.com/ – Beautiful, large, close-up pictures. Yes, they have recipes, great ones that are easy to find and categorized by type of cuisine.

5. david lebovitz – living the sweet life in Paris – http://www.davidlebovitz.com/ – My current favorite design layout for a food blog. Great pictures with nice, if not always complete, recipes and amazing photographs of David’s life in Paris and his travels.

6. Deliciously Organic – Simple Dishes, Vibrant Flavors Everyone Will Love –http://deliciouslyorganic.net/ – Great design, pictures and of course, organic recipes.

7. Cooking For Engineers – Have an analytical mind? Like to cook? This is the site to read! – http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ – The design is what you’d expect from an engineer, but the recipes are very well explained with good pictures and great descriptions. Good stories and explanations of techniques like sous vide and equipment.

8. The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Plowing through life in the country….one calf nut at a time. – http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ – The pioneer woman not only cooks, she confesses, photographs, gardens, homeschools and entertains. She freak’n does everything – I hate her. Actually I’m jealous of her. I don’t read everything she writes, God only knows how she has the time to do everything, then write about it. Her pictures are the best. She has great stories with very complete recipes and interesting topics. I don’t want to look at her picture. I’m happy with the image I have of her in my head. A blue suit and red cape with a yellow/red S on the chest.

9. foodgawker – http://foodgawker.com/ – Not so much a blog as a photo gallery of great recipe pictures and links to their site on the web. Great place to just Gawk or browse food beautiful food.

10. Smitten Kitchen – Fearless cooking from a tiny kitchen in New York City. – http://smittenkitchen.com/ – Nicely designed with great pictures of health innovative food. Think food outside the box.

11. Zoe Bakes – eat dessert first – http://zoebakes.com/ – Nothing but baking recipes. Great recipes with lots and lots of great pictures on how to do it. Nice blog.

12. Big Red Kitchen – a regular gathering of distinguished guests – http://www.bigredkitchen.com/ – Simple, to the point, great recipes with beautiful food pictures that will make your mouth water. Unusual, across the board, recipe ideas to liven up your menu.

There are many, many more great food blogs out there. If you find one you like please let me know – jughandle

Recipes You Might Enjoy

August 10, 2019 1 comment

All About Citrus Informational Blog Limes

Limes – Why are there no seeds?

by jughandle July 20, 2019

written by jughandle

I have wondered for years why lemons have seeds and limes don’t. No one could really give me a good answer until now.

LA times article

by David Karp

Why don’t limes have seeds

If you’d like to read the whole article, just click on the link above. I’m going to paraphrase a bit of it here.

Mr. Karp states that in the last 10 years or so there has been a boom in the quantity and variety of limes and their brethren here in the United States. California, of course is a major producer.

Most of us think of a lime as the big green thing that looks like and is about the same size of a lemon. Those are Persian limes or Tahitian or Bearss varieties and aren’t considered “true” limes. True limes are native to India or Asia and are known in the US as Mexican, Key or West Indian limes. They are distinctive because they are small, round, very acidic with seeds and tend to be more sour than the Persian limes. True limes also will yellow as they ripen in our cool winter climate.

The reason there are no seeds

And now for the reason there are no seeds in our most common, Persian limes. Originally, botanists gave the larger limes like the Persians their own “species” name, C. latifolia. But now, scientists understand that they are a natural hybrid of the true lime. You see, most citrus have two sets of chromosomes, but the large fruited limes have three. The three sets of chromosomes makes them sterile and therefore seedless. Mystery solved.

Options

I for one am very intrigued with the options available to us now. I love lemons and limes. They add just the perfect acid and flavor to drinks and dishes. If you haven’t tried a Meyer Lemon, you are in for a treat. Meyers look like a lemon but taste like a combination of lemon and orange. I grow Meyer Lemons and Persian limes at home in pots and if I can do it anyone can do it. They produce 8 to 15 fruits on each of my 5 plants each year and the blooms smell amazing.

What to look for

Sweet Lime – these are a hybrid of citron and either sweet or sour orange. They are small, round with a prominent nipple. The are yellow when rip and have a pale yellow pulp. They are very low in acid and their flavor is appreciated most by Latin American and Middle Eastern cultures

Kaffir Lime – these limes are related to “true” limes and are best known for the use of their leaves in Thai cooking. The fruit is round with a nob on the top and a bumpy rind. They are bitter and seedy. If harvested at all, the fruit is used in hair wash and insect repellent.

Finger Lime – these bad boys are long and skinny like a finger and grow up to 3 inches long. The skin is thin and the fruit has firm juice vesicles that pop on the tongue like caviar. The flavor is a combination of lime and lemon with herbaceous notes.

Rangpur Lime – these look like a mandarin orange which are medium sized and flattish with seeds. They are orange and are referred to as Mandarin Limes. They are native to India and is actually a hybrid of citron and mandarin. The rind and juice have a clean spicy flavor with is great in cocktails and marmalade.

Conclusions

I’m looking forward to trying some of the different varieties as they become available. If you are a plant enthusiast you should try growing your own limes and lemons. Don’t let them dry out and feed them often and you’ll have fruit the year round. Even though the plant blooms in cooler weather, the fruit will develop slowly and remain on the tree until you are ready for them. Once you have cut into a lime or lemon that you just picked from your own tree and have it be so juicy it squirts you in the eye, you will never go back. – jughandle

July 20, 2019 0 comment

Food Safety Informational Blog News & Opinion

Antibiotic Resistant Staph Infection Found in Grocery Stores

by jughandle May 2, 2019

written by jughandle

This is not another push for you to buy meats organically grown, or is it? You be the judge.

Ranchers inject chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys and other food source animals on a regular basis. The injections of antibiotics and other drugs to make them healthy should make you join the parade.

BECAUSE:

Those are the same antibiotics our doctors give us to fight infections. When we eat them in our food, we introduce unprescribed antibiotics to our system. We develop a tolerance to them and the antibiotics become useless to us over time. Read on – jughandle

Bacteria-Infused Meat Found in Grocery Stores

I’m sorry for this image, but I need to get your attention

antibiotic resistant staph infection

BY LEAH ZERBE

Antibiotic Resistant Staph Infection Found in Grocery Stores

Handle with care: A study found that supermarket meat can house bacteria that could infect your skin.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Previous studies detected nasty, food-poisoning bacteria in supermarket meat. A study published Friday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases sends the queasiness factor to a whole new level: Half of the U.S. supermarket meat sampled contained staph infection bacteria, including the hard-to-kill and potentially lethal MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) infection.

The researchers ID the overuse of antibiotics in industrial agriculture as a factor in the rise of superbugs in our grocery store food.

THE DETAILS:

Researchers tested 136 total samples. 80 different brands. Included in the tests was ground beef, also, Chicken breasts and thighs, as well as, ground Pork and chops, along with ground turkey and turkey cutlets.

These test samples were purchased from 26 retail grocery stores in five U.S. cities: Chicago; Washington, DC; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Los Angeles; and Flagstaff, Arizona.

Previous studies have found a strong link between antibiotic-resistant germs and factory farms. This study traces the dangerous bacteria into the food chain.

Results

Close to 80 percent of the turkey products sampled contained staph bacteria. 42 percent of the pork harbored staph bacteria. 41 percent of the chicken and 37 percent of the beef also contained staph contamination.

Nearly all of the contaminated meat harbored staph bacteria RESISTANT to at least one human antibiotic.

WHAT IT MEANS:

At the end of 2010, the Food and Drug Administration released a first-of-its-kind agency report, finding that factory farms use an unbelievable 30 million pounds of antibiotics each year.

Even before the release of that report, scientists and doctors had been waving red flags.

The overuse of antibiotics in farming is threatening human health.

In 2009, Prevention magazine published a special report, “The Superbug in Your Supermarket,” which found similar problems with your standard supermarket-bought meat.

While MRSA was previously linked to hospital-acquired infections, a new source emerged in 2008, linking back to huge hog farms.

The good news is that cooking meat kills MRSA,(methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.)

The bad news is just handling the raw meat can give you a serious skin infection, particularly if you have a cut on your hand. And nose pickers, take heed. Wash your hands well after handling meat because MRSA loves to hang in your nasal passages.

What Can I Do Jug?

Find out more about how to protect yourself from superbugs in food.

• Steer clear of CAFO meats. CAFO stands for concentrated animal-feeding operation, a nicer word for factory farm.

These industrial facilities often use antibiotics to speed growth and prevent disease in their crammed conditions. Scientists say overcrowding accelerates the rise of superbugs.

The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that industrial farms account for 70 percent of the antibiotics used in this country. That heavy use is making vitally important antibiotics work less well on humans.

To find safer forms of meat, check out:

Organic meat is more expensive, but it is also more nutritious. If you are strapped for cash, pastured eggs from hens that ate organic feed is a great option to get started

Practice nontoxic, commonsense food safety

No matter where your food comes from, it’s always in your family’s best interest to practice good food-safety advice.

However, do not turn to toxic antibacterial soaps and sprays to disinfect.

They are also linked to the rise in superbugs.

These stories contain safer alternatives:

via staph in meat | Bacteria-Infused Meat Found in Grocery Stores | Rodale News.

May 2, 2019 0 comment

All About Blog Topics Informational Blog meal plans Nutrition Organic

Meals To Your Door

by jughandle April 17, 2019

written by jughandle

How Do Meal Plans Work?

Get meals direct to your door. Everyone loves delicious, healthy home-cooked meals. Usually, most of us don’t enjoy the hassle of grocery shopping, planning unique meals then following complicated recipes. If you have other important things to deal with in you life, you may yearn for an easier way. Time, or lack thereof, can leave you no other choice than to head for your local drive-thru for another fast food dinner. Lately there is another choice.

Meal Plans

One choice is to sign up with a meal sit. Find one that has an app that will save you the hassle and time of planning the meals and creating a shopping list.

For a fee, they will provide you with an app that lets you input a few of the parameters that you need in your meal(s). A team of dietitians will then devise a meal plan for a week, complete with a shopping list. You can use the list to shop yourself or you can skip the grocery store. Send your shopping list directly to Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, Instacart, Shipt and others to have your items collected for you.

Once you get the ingredients you follow a simple recipe to complete your meal.

Pickup And Delivery

Pickup orders for Kroger® Pickup or Walmart Grocery. You order through the app or online and pick up at the store.

Alternatively you can have your food delivered to your door with Kroger’s Instacart, Amazon Prime Now or Aldi’s Instacart. These pickup and delivery services are in selected areas. Click on their links, input your zip code or address, to see if it’s available to you.

There are many other ways to get your groceries if you don’t want to shop yourself.

Meal Kits

Meal kit delivery services send pre-packaged meals that include all of the major individual ingredients and come with easy to follow recipes.

Do hate to cook? Are you a complete novice? You can cook great meals that will have you forgetting about the stack of take-out menus in your junk drawer.

What Types of Meal Plan Services Are There To Get Meals Direct To Your Door?

It’s hard to imagine that you have needs that can’t be met by one of these services.

Vegetarian?-

Sure, not a problem. Meal kits combine fresh, organic, and even locally-sourced produce sent directly to your door. Saving you the trouble of trying to find a store with the premium produce you need.

Most meal kit delivery companies offer extensive vegetarian meal options. The cost is usually the same or less than the meat meal plans. The added advantage is you will be provided with new and interesting ways to make good, health vegetarian meals.

Some companies have more extensive options than others, for example, HelloFresh has a veggie plan as one of their 3 meal plans offered.

Vegan?-

When ordering from a meal kit company, check if it specifically has vegan meal plans. If not, read the fine print and see if you can get what you need from the vegetarian options.

Vegans can have an exceptionally hard time finding new recipes to stretch their animal-free diet. The right meal kits can help.

Gluten-free?-

Gluten-free menu options are very important to many people today and these companies know it. Most meal kit companies know there are many customers that have special needs, including those with celiac disease or sensitivity to gluten. A number of companies also specially-wrap their products in order to prevent gluten cross-contamination.

Again, kit companies are a great way to find new recipe ideas that can keep meals interesting.

Organic?-

The meal kit delivery industry was established in part to provide quality, question-free ingredients especially when it comes to organic food. Most companies highlight their investment in time and money, finding sustainable, organic food. This has become a major selling point for these companies.

Sun Basket, is a USDA-certified organic handler with over 99% organic produce. They deliver meal kits to you ready to cook and assemble in under 30 minutes.

Blue Apron- “Following our step-by-step instructions you’ll experience the magic of cooking recipes that our chefs create with your family’s tastes in mind.” Just one of a number of companies that have partnered with Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch to make sure their seafood offerings are sustainable.

Reheat And Eat?-

You can also find companies that cook your meal for you. All you do is heat it and eat it. Freshly is one of those.

Freshly – Chef-Cooked, “Healthy Meals Delivered To You“, has a list of 85 banned ingredients (like corn syrup and preservatives).

Weight loss?-

To lose weight you need healthy high quality food that gives you the nutrition you need without the calories.

Meal kits help you plan out meals ahead of time with interesting, healthy ingredients.

One of the great benefits of using a pre-designed meal plan is that you will learn new recipes and cooking techniques that you can then integrate into your daily life.

This can help you eat healthy at home more often, which can be a great way to lose weight, even without a rigid diet.

Stricker?-

If you’re looking for a strict diet meal plan, companies like NutriSystem or BistroMD can provide you with dietitian planned meals sent to your door which are designed specifically to help you eat healthier and lose weight.

Paleo?-

Generally, the paleo diet focuses on meat, fruits and vegetables, cutting out breads, dairy and sugars.

A number of meal delivery companies offer menu items which are suited to the paleo diet.

SunBasket takes it further, offering more than 120 Paleo meals that feature high-quality lean meats.

Even if a recipe doesn’t specifically say it’s paleo, all you have to do is look at the ingredients. Judge for yourself, to see how it matches up to your requirements.

Youngsters In The Family?

With Martha & Marley Spoon,(yes, that is Martha Stewart) you can order 2-person or 4-person “family boxes.” Just filter the menu options specifically for ones that are “kid-friendly.”

SunBasket says “Our Family Menu makes things simple. Choose from 6 delicious kid-friendly recipes each week with Chef’s Choice and Vegetarian Meal Plan options. All recipes are portioned for 4 adults with leftovers for families with younger children.”

April 17, 2019 0 comment

All About Blog Topics Informational Blog Peppers Vegan Vegetables Vegetarian

Chiles, Fresh & Dried

by jughandle April 6, 2019

written by jughandle

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Fresh and dried chiles are a staple of most cuisines. Chile, with an “e”, is the fruit of a plant.

With an “i”, Chili is the dish made famous in Texas, with or without beans.

This post will address what you need to know about Chile with an “e”, and touch on the “i”.

The image above shows some of the most common fresh peppers with their dried names to the right.

Fresh Chile Peppers

There are thousands of different peppers in the world. Every country and cuisine have peppers indigenous to their region that have been used as ingredients in their dishes for hundreds of years.

What To Look For

Use your eyes and nose to make your selection. Try not to touch the chiles with your bare hands. Many chiles have oil on them that can be very uncomfortable if transferred to sensitive areas of your body.

A good rule of thumb, but not written in stone, it that the smaller the chile, the hotter the chile. Bell Peppers and Banana Peppers are very mild, where
Habanero Peppers and Bird Peppers are small and very HOT.

Fresh chiles are peppers that are “fresh” from the garden, or recently harvested. “Fresh” means plump, juicy, and clean.

When choosing peppers at your market, look for fruit that does not have mold on the stem and the flesh is tight and firm with no wrinkles, bruises or rot. The scent should be fruity and fresh with no moldy or off notes.

Heat

The Heat or spiciness of a chile is relative to each person’s own taste. The chile industry has developed a scale to give an indication of a chile’s heat without having to taste it.

Note that heat depends greatly on how and where the chile has been grown. When it was harvested in its growth cycle also plays a large role. If the chile is picked before it has vine ripened it will not reach its full heat potential. That is why some peppers in your grocery store are not as hot as home grown peppers of the same variety.

Scoville Scale

The Scoville scale is a rating of the spiciness or “heat” of chili peppers and other spicy foods, and is rated in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The scale is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids.

The scale is named after, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, the creator of the method. Originally developed in 1912 it was known as the Scoville organoleptic test. Now days, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is used to determine the capsaicinoid content as an indicator of spiciness. HPLC is more scientific than the Scoville scale which relies on the skill and pallet of trained experts to detect heat.

For more detail on the Scoville scale and HPLC follow their links to Wikipedia.

Examples From The Scoville Scale – Wikipedia

Scoville heat units	Example peppers
800,000 to 3,200,000	Pepper X, Carolina Reaper, Dragon’s Breath
350,000 to 800,000	Red Savina pepper, Chocolate habanero
100,000 to 350,000	Habanero, Scotch Bonnet
10,000 to 100,000	Malagueta pepper, Cayenne pepper, Siling labuyo
1,000 to 10,000	Guajillo pepper, Jalapeño
100 to 1,000	Banana pepper, Cubanelle
0 to 100	Bell pepper, Pimento

Chile Powder

Chile powder, which can be spelled, chili powder, chilli powder, or powdered chili, is the dried, ground fruit of one or more varieties of chile peppers, When it is blended by the addition of other spices it is usually known as chili powder blend or chili seasoning mix. It is used as a spice to add flavor or heat to dishes.

When chile powder is made from a specific type of chile pepper used, it should be spelled with an “e” but it is not always.

Varieties of chili peppers used to make chili powder include Aleppo, ancho, cayenne, chipotle, chile de árbol, jalapeño, New Mexico, pasilla, and piri piri chili peppers. Gochugaru is a variety used in Korean cuisine traditionally made from sun-dried Korean red chili peppers known as taeyang-cho, with spicier varieties using Cheongyang peppers. – Wikipedia

Blends

Chili powder blends are made mostly of chili peppers then blended with other spices such as, cumin, onion, garlic powder, and sometimes salt. Check the label. The chiles are most commonly red chile peppers of the species Capsicum annuum. The spiciness of any given chili powder varies depending on which chiles are used and what percentage of the other spices are used.

How To Minimize The Heat or Remove it All Together

Peppers are amazing to cook with. The fruity aroma and flavor can really enhance a dish. The problem is that sometimes a very hot pepper’s heat can get in the way of enjoying the flavor.

I have a way to reduce the heat in any pepper.

Remember that the spiciness of a pepper comes from the capsicum oil in the fruit. Most of that oil is contained to the seed pod and the seeds inside the fruit.

First Step

The first thing you do is put your gloves on. The oil is very hard to remove from your skin. Now cut the stem off and slice the fruit open to reveal the seed pod and seeds.

**The Seeds And White Membrane are Hot**

Remove The Seeds And Membrane

With a spoon or dull knife, scrape off the seeds and all of the white membrane from the inside of the pod. Then scrape the back of the flesh again to pop the clear blisters.

Oil The Inside Of The Fruit Pod

Use Olive oil or any mild vegetable oil to rub the fruit. Rub it in with your gloved fingers.

Even though most of the capsicum is found in the seeds and membrane there is still oil found in the clear blisters on the inside of the fruit. The trick is to remove the capsicum to the point that you can enjoy your meal.

Rinse And Repeat

Now pick a consumable alcohol (I use Vodka) and pour a small amount on your oil rubbed fruit. Rub the fruit again then rinse with more Vodka.

At this point your peppers are ready to use or eat raw, but they will still have some heat depending on how hot they were to begin with.

To Finish The Job

To remove most or all of the remaining heat do the following:

Place the peppers in a canning jar and cover with more Vodka. Shake the jar for 30 seconds or so.

Add a little more Vodka, put the lid on and let the jar sit for 1 to 3 hours.

At the end of 1 hour about a 1/3 of the heat will be transferred from the fruit to the liquid.

After 2 hours around 2/3 of the heat will be gone from the fruit.

3 hours is all the time you need. Most if not all of the capsicum will be removed from the fruit and dissolved in the Vodka.

Do not go more than 3 hours or the peppers will have no flavor but the Vodka with taste great.

Storage

You now have mild flavorful peppers and hot Vodka.

Put the peppers in another canning jar and cover with Olive or vegetable oil. Place in the refrig or use the pepper right away. They should keep for weeks.

The Vodka is another story. It will not require refrigeration and can be used as a cocktail mix for as long as you still have some.

Sources And Recommendations

Websites I Purchase Herbs, Spices And Peppers From:

Bulk Apothecary

Herbco

Mountain Rose Herbs

San Francisco Herb Company

Bulk Herb Store

Spice Jungle

Atlantic Spice Company

Frontier Co-op

Dried Peppers And Powders

Spices Inc.

A Guide To Types of Mexican Peppers

The Spice House

North Bay Trading Company

Mexgrocer.com

The Chile Guy

Products Available At Amazon That I Recommend:

April 6, 2019 0 comment

All About Blog Topics Informational Blog Olive Oil

Olives Don’t Grow On The Tree With A Pimento

by jughandle April 2, 2019

written by jughandle

Contrary To Opinion

Olives do not grow on the tree with the pimento already in them. In fact, most fresh olives tend to be bitter to the point of being unpleasant. After processing by either curing in lye or brining, olives only then have the flavor we are familiar with.

Green olives need to ferment before their brine soak. Black olives do not, giving them a milder flavor than the green ones.

Phenolic compounds in the raw fruit are what makes olives bitter. Fermentation and brining remove those compounds.

Olives As A Whole Food

One would think that olive oil gets more attention than the whole olive fruits. In reality, whole olives are among the most enjoyed foods in the world.

Classified as fruits of the Olea europea tree, olives are not vegetables as many would think. The Olea Europaea is a hardy tree that can live for hundreds of years.

Harvested in September, olives are available year round to make an nice addition to salads, meat and poultry dishes and, of course pizza.

Georgia Olives

The US produces less than 1/10 of 1 percent of the olive oil in the world.

Georgia was once a big producer of olives in the 1600’s. Spanish settlers planted trees at missions in southeast Georgia in the 1590’s.

Olives were grown in Georgia well into the 1800’s until the Civil War and other problems eliminated the crop.

Georgia observed a resurgence of olive crops in that same area recently.

Nutritional value

1 once or about 8 olives contain:

41 calories

4 g total fat

1 g saturated fat

3.7 g monounsaturated fat

.4 g polyunsaturated fat

436 mg of sodium

1 g carbohydrates

1 g dietary fiber

26.3 mg total Omega-3 fatty acids

340 mg total Omega-6 fatty acids

2% vitamin A

1% calcium

1% iron

Rates 0 on the glycemic load index

Rates a 24 and are mildly anti-inflammatory

Conclusions

Olives and their oil are an excellent source of (good) fat making it an intelligent substitute for animal fat which has cholesterol in it. I love everything about olives and recommend them completely. – jughandle

Sources

Great prices on bulk olives on Amazon

Georgia Olive Oil on line

or Nuts.com for Olives click here

April 2, 2019 0 comment

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