f13.net

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_bi_ge/us_corn_syrup_image (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_bi_ge/us_corn_syrup_image)


 :angryfist: :argh:

I fucking hate these people.  

Eating HFCS is fine.  Eating it in the quantities that Americans consume it, isn't. 

Moderation people. 

Still, you gotta love it.  Re-branding.  It's not an escalation, it's a surge.  It's not a bailout it's an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  People don't like high fructose corn syrup?  No problemo.  It's now called corn sugar.  Problem solved.  And for the most part, it is.  For them.

While there are those that dispute this (and really, I'd still prefer the natural alternatives), I'd tend to take your word for it.  

What really bothers me is the metric fuckton of the stuff they put into everything.  Go to the supermarket and look at non-soda beverages (vitamin drinks or whatever you like) that are sweetened with HFCS and those sweetened with cane sugar.  Seems to take FAR less cane sugar to make something taste good.

HFCS is in nearly everything, so it's not entirely stupid Americans faults'.  I didn't realize how much it infiltrated our average diet until I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes early this year and had to start watching every single thing I put in my system.  Granted, I could have been doing a lot more to help myself prior to being diagnosed, such as being more active and working in a place that doesn't have me sitting all day long.  But food manufacturers don't help matters.  

Once I started looking at nutritional readouts and ingredients, I started to get things under control.  Right now I'm only two points above my AC1 goal to be 'free' of diabetes and I should hit that next month.  

Eh, so yeah.  HFCS is fine - as with everything, moderation is key.  

Forget sodas, just go to the bread isle of any big chain supermarket. 90% of the bread there is made with HFC.

Even most of the low calorie, 'diet' breads are made with it. 

I've gotten fairly militant about not buying shit with HFCS in it, and it's amazing once you start reading labels how many packaged foods that stance disqualifies.

It's fructose.  Sucrose (sugar from cane and beets) is a disaccharide of glucose + fructose.  Fructose is the half that gives sucrose its sweetness.  To demonstrate the utility, fructose-6-phosphate and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate are intermediates in glycolysis.  Fructose is a kinase away from being utilized.  

The danger with HFCS is that people like it.  They consume a lot more of it than they would get from natural sources.  I think of it like cooking already fatty foods in oil.  It's just excess when compared to a natural food source.


Edit: I don't mean to come off as an ass.  Please don't mistake my enthusiasm for teaching this stuff for my being a "know-it-all"

If you start looking for HFCS and/or stuff with insane amounts of sodium, it pretty much narrows down your shopping list to just about nothing.  We're (much) healthier for it, but it makes shopping pretty frustrating.

How the fuck can they rename it Corn Sugar?  We already have Corn Sugar!  You can go buy bags of it in stores!  They are two distinct things!

It's got what plants crave.  :why_so_serious:

You know, you could save time by putting these (unnecessary IMO) disclaimers in your sig.   :why_so_serious:

You can't moderate it, that's the problem. It's fine in small doses, but EVERYTHING uses it these days. You have to do some serious searching to find a product that doesn't use it as a sweetener, and you generally have to pay more for the privilege. Lower-income households, where the obesity, diabetes and other health issues really come into play, don't have the option to not eat HCFS.

Sure you can.  Don't buy processed food.  You can eat pretty damn cheap and healthy by just eating whole foods.  People choose not to.  Cooking is teh hard.

Chicken, eggs, beans, and rice are cheap as dirt.  So are field greens.  You can go to a farmer's market and eat like a king for pennies.

Americans don't cook. Especially those low income, have to take 2 jobs to make ends meet or both parents have to work and can only afford the time for processed foods or fast food) people. You know, the ones who can't afford health insurance so have to clog up our ER's with emergency conditions they can't pay to treat?

IT'S THE CIRCLE OF LIFE!

Also, that lovely American tradition of willful ignorance.  :awesome_for_real:

Where are you at? lol. They charge extra for that shit here.

Where do you live?  Alaska?  Hawaii?

Farmer's markets are generally more expensive than a grocery store in my experience.  However, I will say that the overall point is patently and obviously true.  If I was a poor parent, instead of sending my kid to school to eat shitty pizza and hamburgers, I'd buy a 55 gallon drum of rice and beans for seven dollars and thirty-two cents from Costco.

I'll say it anyway... show-off. Though its good to know someone putting that education to use in contexts other than work.

And who cooks in oil? Fuck that, butter, lard, or fat back or nothing at all... what? you wanna live forever?  :why_so_serious:

Which goes along nicely with 'it's everyone else's fault but mine and I expect someone else to do everything for me'.

I started doing this about a year ago and dropped 40lbs, 102 (264 to 162) points on my cholesterol and 151 (200 to 49) points of triglycerides. Along with my good cholesterol being in the 90's. It hasn't been difficult at all. My wife enjoys cooking, which helps, but I cook breakfast and prep the meals when I get home while she's still at work. We also walk whenever we get a chance.

There are several assumptions here.  First and foremost that the time spent acquiring and preparing these foods is free.  Lets take the example of the man I see on very sad occasions twice a day.  First working the grill at the Hardee's when I stop in for a completely inappropriate breakfast.  Then, I can see him again if I want working behind the counter at the Boston Market if I decide that making my own meatloaf is not worth the time.  Where's that guy going to find the time to find a farmer's market and then cook the food?  Remember that farmer's market is generally only open in the afternoons when he's at one of his jobs.

In this guy's case, he's an immigrant so he might know what to do with that fresh food.  In the case of my cousin, an electrician, he has no clue what to do with that stuff.  The "institutional" knowledge is gone for him and a lot of people.  Granted, it's not that hard to pickup, but it does take time and effort.  Additionally, the most common source of information, the television offers little in the way of simple cooking information, things to do with "chicken, eggs, beans, and rice".

If you want to know why a tomato from a farmer's market is more expensive than one from a grocery store, try growing some yourself.  Grow enough to fill up a folding table and then ask yourself how much you'd charge a health nut for a pound of them.

I'd especially challenge you to do this without use of pesticide/fungicide.

I may have mistaken it for being "awesome".

I cook fresh food and it takes me about as long as most things except maybe some really quick microwave foods. We eat a lean protein (chicken/turkey/fish), a veg (mixed/corn/peas/green beans/broccoli) and rice (whole grain and wild) every night. I change up the herbs and spices, maybe a quick vinaigrette or marinade. Usually takes fifteen minutes to make dinner, with only ten of that being cooking time.

We ate very well when we were poor. As mentioned, rice and beans are wicked cheap. Learn to cook inexpensive cuts of meat properly, even the shittiest cut of meat had been tamed thousands of years ago. Every region of the world has some great peasant food, no matter where you are you can eat cheaply and well.

I also buy my meats fresh every day from the butcher, it's another fifteen minutes added to my commute home, but I find it's well worth it to get great cuts of meat cut to order and on sale every day. There's also the personal interaction with the people processing the meats. I'm additionally spoiled by living a half mile from a farm that has a great produce stand, and we just got in a couple pecks of freshly-picked honeycrisps. Quality of life, it's an amazing thing that's so easy to integrate, just change a few habits and the time invested is negligible.

Another thing is diligence in reading and understanding food labels. An indispensable skill for everyone, imo. When you start to learn to eat properly, you can eat more volume of a variety of food types and flavors, be healthier and stay trim. To bring it back to the topic, HFCS isn't evil, but it is a good indicator of low-quality food production.

SF has a bunch of farmers' markets and I've been to most of them; they are not all created equal.  The ones in poorer neighborhoods where a quarter of the signs are in Chinese or Spanish are where you go to get fresh (if unwashed and of varying quality) produce for way cheaper than at the supermarket.  Wealthier farmer markets (which cater to health nut yuppies rather than working immigrant families) have good stuff and nice selections but you pay out the ass for it.

Is this a troll?  

1) You don't have to go to a Farmer's market to get rice, beans, chicken, and eggs.

2) It takes zero skill to boil water & chop vegetables.

3) Your health determines your time and the quality of that time to a significant degree. Taking care of your health is a minor investment in a country where being sick will bankrupt you.    

Seriously, what is your point?  Eating processed food is always a bad idea.  You do it as part of a cost-benefit analysis.



I love the "more food" part.  It's amazing how much more food you can eat when it isn't laced with fat and HFCS for the same caloric value.  Your colon also thanks you.  Colon cancer rates are skyrocketing in the US due to low fiber consumption. 

I was already on the look out for HFCS and we're lucky we live in a place with so many farmers' markets and boutique butchers.  We can pick and choose.

What gets me about the US is why they still allow BPA (Bisphenol-A (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A)) in everything, like the lining of cans.  So you can have a can of apple sauce with HFCS + artificial estrogen.  Great for kids and newborns!

FDA update on BPA (http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm197739.htm)


EDIT: also processed foods -- which I guess is everything pre-made and pre-mixed -- usually has tons of sodium.

That's my problem. Neither my wife or I are "cooks". By any stretch of the imagination. I hesitate to admit this but my household firealarm went off when I tried to fry bacon. (Complete with the fire department showing up.)

Buy a good rice cooker and a steamer.  They will change the way you eat with almost zero effort.

Take a class, they are actually a lot of fun. Grilling is a good class to take - you can do almost all your summer cooking outside.

We have a crock-pot, a wok, one of those counter grills and a George Foreman grill. I'd love to learn how to at least make stew or something in the crock pot. I'll look into that rice steamer. I love, love rice. Of course I drown it in soy sauce and kill the health benefits!

We've had this argument before in a thread I can't find at the moment but essentially healthier food costs more on a per calorie basis than processed foods (or really food "products").

http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/4/900

I mean, when people say that they "aren't cooks." I don't know what that means.  I'm "not a cook" in that I've never had any training whatsoever, but it's just a life skill, like tying your shoelaces, that you tend to pickup.  Especially with the internet now, I don't see what the big deal is.  Simple cooking isn't an art or a science.  Everything doesn't have to be Alton Fucking Brown.  If you can read, and you aren't a completely incompetent fuck, you can cook.

Virginia.


Yep I got it.


That's what I deal with. Yuppie gougers.

Very good advice.



I doubt many of the regulars here think you come off as an ass, and if they do, they can suck it.  I appreciate most of your advice, except as pertaining to Minnesota Tight Ends.

I've said it before here and I'll say it again.  You want to eat healthy and start preparing your own food more?  Get a fucking gas grill.  It's quick, it's retard-proof, and there's little to no clean-up.  Less dishes.  Tastes better. You can grill pretty much anything.  Stock up on aluminum foil.  And coarse salt/pepper.

Second story apartment :(

If I could wing it, as part of a "take a year off to be a better person" that I am entertaining, spending some time creating an environment conducive to cooking my own food with confidence would be one of the activities I'd do.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350318456326&rvr_id=140125543948&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=%3F*F%3F&GUID=c138beff1250a026539276f2fe1cbe1d&itemid=350318456326&ff4=263602_263622 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350318456326&rvr_id=140125543948&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=%3F*F%3F&GUID=c138beff1250a026539276f2fe1cbe1d&itemid=350318456326&ff4=263602_263622)

Both on my short list of things to buy when I find some money and stop making impulse purchases like Civ 5 and my cheapo classical guitar.

On the grill thing - it's one of the top reasons I so desperately wanted my own house. First thing I bought was a nice grill. I think I've cooked maybe five times inside since April. If you get a big enough grill, you can set up heat zones and cook almost any style on the grill. I wouldn't exactly call it retard-proof, I've seen enough poor grill cooks churning out blackened husks of raw meat.

Zero effort? There is no cooking implement in the world that sucks to clean more than a rice cooker.

One of those old-timey crank handle meat grinders.   :oh_i_see:

I searched long and wide for a rice cooker with a stainless steel insert so I can put it in the dishwasher.  I finally found one, but man, they are scarce:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I5UEQM/

Used it about five times so far, works fine, though it does tend to splatter.  Kitchen towel draped on top solved that.  And I'm willing to put up with a lot for something that can go in the dishwasher.

I'm loath to say this, but in this one particular thread, dusematic is pretty much right.

Also, you don't have to be all one with nature yuppy to get healthy vegetables. Frozen veggies work too.

As for cooking, if you have a stove, you can set yourself up for the week with a good chuck roast or a pork shoulder. Cook it on a Saturday or Sunday if you're pressed for time, then use Tupperware. Slow roasting these meats isn't that hard. I have managed to do it, and with no training or prior experience. It just takes some time and a bit of intuition.

Then when you get home on a weeknight, you microwave an Idaho spud for 4 minutes, nuke some frozen veggies and you can have pot roast with baked potato and greens every day of the week.

Trader Joe's was a lifesaver when I decided I had to start eating small healthy dinners.  Bag of frozen veggies, bag of frozen cooked chicken breast.  Put some of each in a bowl, season, microwave for three minutes.  Healthy dinner!  And cheap as fuck because a $5 bag of veggies goes a pretty long way.

I must confess that in one area, I have become a super snob, and that's in meat selection. I really only get snotty yuppy meat now, from a local butcher that only gets local beef/pork. Needless to say, organic, hormone and antibiotic free, wrapped in snuggies and cooed to for a month before pneumatic hammer time.

Its more expensive. Instead of $4 a pound for chuck its $7. So a 2 lb roast costs me 14 bucks. But that roast lasts me for 4 days, so its around 3 bucks for the meat in the meal. Damned delicious meat, I might add.

Rice Cooker/Steamer combo - it doesn't get better than this unless you're spending $200.  I've got one, I use it all the time.  It's so much better than the $20 jobbies at Target.  Leave a little water out of the pot for rice, but let it sit for an hour before eating it and it's restaurant quality.

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-ECJ-N55W-Electric-Porridge-Steamer/dp/B000FEH1Q2/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1284498539&sr=1-1

More along the lines of, Americans are fucking ignorant and won't change, allowing money-grubbing agri-corporations and the corn lobby to fuck them into an early grave for profit.

Listen to Duse.

Also gotta give a +1 to recommending frozen mixed veggies (those steam fresh packages are legit). The thing people refuse to understand in threads like this is that there is a large chunk of the population that just does not enjoy making something like a salad. The act of buying a variety of ingredients, that all have limited shelf life, that require a skill to pick out, that then need to be cleaned, that you then somehow dry off (I still get this part wrong), then chopped correctly, then put together, then you finally get to fucking eat it and...

its a fucking salad. Joy.

There are people who like cutting up and eating things that are plants and there are people that do not.

For the people that do not, who are the only people that should need help avoiding shit like "corn sugar" seriously listen to Duse. You can either go the grill route, the slow cooker route, the frozen healthy things route, the rice cooker route or a combination of what works for you but telling non vegetable people they should shop at a fucking farmer's market every week is worthless advice.

Sadly you can't have gas grills on apartment patios in California anymore, I had to get rid of my propane tank a couple years ago. Thanks for ruining it for everyone, people who burned down their apartment buildings!

This.

Since I joined a food-buying co-op and am buying meat en carcasse (and organic fruit and veg by the flat), I and my family are much healthier. I freeze and can everything that we don't eat fresh. I try to bake something sweet every week to satisfy my cravings (breastfeeding burns 500-600 cals/day), but when I do get store-bought goodies I spring for the nice stuff.

For anyone who wants to try using a crock-pot more often (I should use mine more than I do), there is a LJ community just for slow-cooker recipes and I've found some pretty good ones in there.  It's called What_a_Crock (http://community.livejournal.com/what_a_crock/) and besides recipes, they have some good discussions about cooking prep and other related questions.  I've found it pretty informative and I don't particularly like cooking.

Oh, I was just gonna recommend the pressure cooker that I love and use religiously (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MPA044?tag=gilthevooli03-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000MPA044&adid=0NAM09YY890MT5P1BB5P). It cooks dry beans, unsoaked! in only 35 minutes. It cooks tough brown rice in 15 minutes. It can turn a pork shoulder into perfect pulled pork in an hour. And it cooks carrots and sweet potatoes soft enough to feed to a baby in THREE MINUTES. And since it's an electric countertop model, it doesn't hafta freak anyone out with its hissing and spitting and asploding.

I recently bought a cheap breadmaker so I can control what goes into the bread I eat. 2 table spoons of sugar, that's eaten up by the yeast, for every loaf. Not very labour intensive either. Dump in the ingredients, push the button and 3 hours later you have bread.

Also I got a slow cooker (Americans call it a crock pot) a few weeks ago. Boil up some stew or something else, put it into containers and freeze it. End of midweek "don't have time to cook" crises. Plenty of recipes online too. Plenty of healthy eating possibilities.

If you don't have time to cook, why use a slow cooker? You could use a fast cooker. I never understood why people would rather leave an appliance on all day when they could run a different one for 20 minutes.

Wait, what?  This is illegal?  I've got one on my patio, and this is the first I've heard of it.

edit:  holy crap, did some digging and it apparently is, wtf
edit again:  did some more digging, I think I'm in the clear:
"It’s not as if all barbecuing is off-limits. Grilling with charcoal and natural gas are still OK on apartment decks with automatic sprinklers. Grilling with propane is OK if tanks are tiny, fit for camping. All grilling is OK if apartment balconies are made of non-combustible materials such as stucco, concrete or brick. And the new rules don’t affect single-family homes and duplexes."

And apparently found the same link you did.

Because you can fill it up in the morning when you're not hungry, and then when you are hungry later you can just eat without having to wait 20 minutes! Also there's a side benefit of requiring no attention during the cooking process at all.

I wouldn't use it for everything obviously, but it is nice for stews and soups and such.

A lot of this discussion is fine for us mostly reasonably-well-employed-not-working-multiple-jobs people, but I think as usual we're underestimating the 'fuck I am working 3 jobs I am just going to get McDonald's because it is cheap AND I don't have to do EVEN MORE WORK' factor as far as the less fortunate go. I'm still waiting for someone to jump into that market with food that won't kill you, I feel like there's a really big business opportunity there somewhere.


You may or may not be covered by the law:

From http://www.residentialfiresprinklers.com/blog/california-renters-have-beef-with-fire-safety-bbq-ban/ the first result I found on a search:


My patio has a wooden deck above it so I'm out of luck, you may be different, or your landlord may be less diligent about enforcing the law. My propane tank was too big, it was a normal gas grill size and not a camp stove one.

  :Love_Letters: I'm all over that thing as soon as I get a couple extra bucks.

noted  :awesome_for_real:

The $200 fuzzy logic rice cookers are amazing, but any good one should be simple to clean. The one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16896112071&cm_re=rice_cooker-_-96-112-071-_-Product) I'm using currently is stainless steel and easy to clean. I have a separate zorijushi steamer, but usually just toss the veggies into a steamer insert on that for the last few minutes of steaming. The dedicated steamer is nice when I'm cooking for a group, 4 levels of goodness.

This is stupid people. Do not buy anything that a farmer would not recognise. period do not buy perpar id foods. period.

There is a deep message here, I know.  I just need to unravel it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051702053.html

Yup, my diet has pretty much been for the last few weeks; oatmeal + turkish coffee with a table spoon of sugar (my real only indulgence), rice with some kind of garnishment (I have nice jar of pickled garlic + spices), and cabbage with chicken.  After three weeks of that and basic exercises + walking more (I always walked alot), I've pretty much droped all the weight I've picked up in the last 5 years (that nice $1300 cashmere coat from Neimans fits confortably again yay! and the taliored suit isn't tight yay!) Now I just need to drop the rest of the weight (another 5+ years worth) and I should be back to being MMK like I was in college.

Only downside is after a couple weeks of that I developed some degree of lactose intolerance, no more quesadillas =(.

I only wish I had listened to Yang when I had her on my lap and she poked me in the gut saying I had gotten soft and resarted all my exercises then, it's so hard to get back to that level.  I should be happy I only put on about 50 pounds in all those years

Terry Pratchett expressed this in one of his Discworld novels as the "Economy of good boots."  A good pair of boots (in the real world) costs $150-200.  If cared for and worn regularly, they can last 10 years or more.  A cheap pair of boots costs $50 and will last a year (while not being nearly as comfortable or effective).  A wealthy person buys the expensive boots, maybe gets them resoled a couple of times at $25-40, and has good, comfortable, good looking boots for a decade at a cost of $250 or less.  A poor person can't come up with that much money, buys the cheap boots, replaces them every year, spending $500 over the same decade for sore, wet feet in crappy boots.  I have *just* such a pair of boots I wore through most of my 20's, and they're still in good shape (had them resoled right before I got into game development and cargo short + sandals qualified as "business casual").

I can save more money on a grocery trip to Sam's than a poor person can afford to pay in one shot, even if they had the large vehicle to transport the results, and the extra large freezer and shelves in a garage to store a month's worth of basic provisions.  I can buy better food, more of it, and never have to even *consider* going hungry, while actually spending less.  The difference between me and most of those suburban Sam's Club shoppers is that I spent the 70's as a child of a single mother who was trying to reboot her career, and know what it's like to be on the bad side of that expense curve.  I don't think I'm morally superior because I escaped it, I know how hard it was and how much my mother gave up to make it happen, and how *lucky* we were that it worked.  A bad break here or there, and we wouldn't have.

A poor person can't afford a new, fuel-efficient car, that it is new enough to not need much maintenance.  Or to live so far from work every driver needs their own car, but their kids go to good schools.  Poor people often don't lack ambition, or willingness to put in the effort, what they lack is the capital to invest to make their lives better.  "Welfare Queens" and "Horatio Alger" are both *fiction*.

--Dave

They sell acidophiles pills.  I thought they quit working for me then discovered I was also having issues with Gluten. It's been incredibly hard for me making the adjustment, but, it's a lot nicer than having stomach cramps and running to the bathroom after most meals.

I've been eating like a Thai / Mexican lately.

Why spend 200 dollars on a rice cooker when all you need is water and a pot? It's seriously the easiest thing to cook.

Rinse 2 cups rice 3 times, add to 3 cups water and a bit of salt, heat till boiling, cover, turn heat to low for 20 minutes.

Because a rice cooker, even one that costs 20 bucks or less, makes it taste loads better.  Huge bonus if it can also steam vegetables.

You are out of your godamn mind.

Rice cookers are teh awesome, bought a new little one, love it a lot more than the big one I have (which the coating on the bowl peeled off). Also living alone I'm never buying one of those 20lb bags of rice again, I can never eat that much rice and I don't care if it only costs 13$.

ooooh, that's right I need to buy new shoes today

I actually think my rice made in a regular pot is better than made in my rice cooker. Though mine is a 10 year old $20 target special. But I can't just toss it in a pan and walk away, get caught up in something in a game and lose an extra hour, and come back to nearly perfect rice. I can do that with a rice cooker. We are interested in replacing it with a fuzzy logic model if people have recommendations. (Edit: I checked Cooks Illustrated and for non-fuzzy they recommend the same Sanyo ECJ-N55W one referenced above.)

And fuck farmer's markets. Sorry, but we're having our second year with a rotten CSA that leaves me wishing their vegetables were as fresh as the ones at Stop and Shop. Slimy greens; corn that's sat so long the husks are harvest brown, the kernels sunken, and there's no flavor left; squishy rotten potatos--half of our CSA goes directly into the bin. And all the farmers markets but one are during the work week because everyone here is retired. (I suspect our CSA is whatever they can't sell at the farmer's market and is about to or has already gone bad.)

You can get plenty of real food right at the supermarket. Frozen veg preparation amounts to put in water, bring to a boil, drain and server and for frozen veg, one advantage is that usually the "generic store brand" are the ones that don't have added sauce, butter, and all that crap and end up cheaper. Trader Joe's frozen green beans and petite peas are out of this world wonderful.

Anyway, the discussion about eating healthier is great and all and we should try.

However I think the main point of this thread, and the OP is, they will stop at nothing until HFCS is in everything you buy, this name change moves that forward. I still find it highly amusing that the only reason HFCS is even used is because of the subsidies making it cheaper to produce (even if its really really not).

Talk about fucked from start to finish. Now its "Corn Sugar"  :uhrr: The FDC has it under the "Generally recognized as safe" category. That instills confidence.

Ok, this I don't get. I have a $25 rice cooker from WalMart. You put in 1.5 cups rice and 1.5 cups water. Plug it in, hit the button. It turns itself off 15 minutes later.

Now I honestly don't know what the inside of those huge $200 rice machines is made of, but the little aluminum pot in my cheapo is a breeze to clean.
When you are done, scoop most of the rice out and leave the lid off. Next morning, the rice has dried up and comes out in one big hardened chunk. Usually just leaves a little bit stuck on the bottom. I put it in the sink, fill it with hot water and a splash of soap. Five minutes later it takes three seconds to clean with a scrubbing pad. If I'm really lazy, I throw the pot in the dishwasher.

I'm gonna get a bit long winded hear, as this is a topic that bugs me. It took me till my mid thirties to finally convince myself to start learning to cook properly, and I've never looked back. I still cheat from time to time, and usually have a few "instant" meals around for really lazy nights, but I make a serious point of cooking at least three or four times a week, and treating myself to takeout sushi at least once. If I am going to go lazy, one of my staples is a pack of Mister Noodles with a cup of frozen peas (or brocolli if I have it), using a little no msg chicken stock and a dose of curry powder. Five minute meal, that isn't that bad for you, and costs under $1.

The first thing I had to learn was that its ok not to have four different foods on the plate for dinner like mom always made. Especially if you are cooking for yourself. Then learn what is and isn't affordable. Cooking for yourself is not cheap if you try buying steak every night. Some samples of things I get at my local Price Mart:

Staples - I buy this stuff when I need it
- biggest f'ing bag of Jasmine Rice you can carry - cheap, works as filler to almost any meal
- dried pasta - whatever kind you want, cheap as hell, keeps forever, works as filler
- big bottle of no-name olive oil - not cheap, but can be used sparingly
- bulk spices, because most of us don't have the patience for an herb garden - invest in your spices once, then just replace the ones you use regularly
- box of Panko breadcrumbs - yes, there may be some shit added to them , but they work so well with different meats
- canned tuna or salmon, when on sale - even the good pacific sockeye is only $2 per can
- couple onions and cloves of garlic
- small chunk of Parmesan - expensive, but lasts forever - only grate what you need
- beans of some sort - kidney, chickpeas, whatever you like. Works as a meat sub in most meals
- carton of eggs
- block of no-name cheddar - it's only expensive if you snack on the stuff. Force yourself to leave it for cooking.
- chicken stock

Meat - some I buy bulk and freeze the extras, some I buy on the way home based on what I feel like that night
- pack of two pork roasts, about $9 - enough meat for at least four meals, second one goes in the freezer
- bulk pack of pork chops, even cheaper than chicken, waaay cheaper than beef
- bulk pack of 12 bone-in skinless chicken thighs, under $8 - was shocked to discover that chicken is half the price with the bone in. Takes less than 30 seconds to remove the bone with a decent knife
- Italian sausage - four links for about three bucks. Two links squeezed out are enough meat for me to make dinner and lunch the next day with pasta
- decent sized snapper fillet - about $3

Add in the occasional fresh veggies - usually bell peppers to accent something, mushrooms, a head of broccoli when I'm in the mood. Yes, I shood eat more veggies - I drink low-sodium, high fibre V8 every morning to get my fix.

That list there covers pretty much everything I need to make more than a dozen different meals, most of which take less than 30 minutes to prepare, start to finish. Items I make myself on a regular basis include:

Breaded pork schnitzel, breaded snapper, salmon cakes, Italian sausage/chicken and linguine, pulled pork, chicken vindaloo, an everything omlette, chickpea curry, pasta salad, etc. I learned to make all of those by looking up recipes online, watching Iron Chef, or just plain experimenting. I can make every one of them with under twenty minutes prep time (some of them have to simmer). Half of them use under $5 worth of ingredients and there's often enough to take leftovers for lunch to work the next day.

As winter comes, things will shift - I'll start buying potatoes, yams, occasional squash, stewing beef, that sort of thing, and progress to heartier meals like stews and chili.

I am by no means an expert cook. I know many of you here could cook circles around me, but I am able to make decent tasting meals that I enjoy. The whole secret was just learning the basics - browning meat, simmering onions and garlic, running a rice cooker, how to thicken a sauce. Then it was just a matter of being willing to experiment (and being willing to eat what I made when the experiments failed).

At my grocery store they regularly have boneless chicken breast on sale for $1.99 lb.  I've seen chicken thighs on sale (rarely) for as cheap as $.99 lb. but usually for $1.49 lb.  However, you've got to realize the bones aren't weightless.  Not to mention the ease and efficiency of dealing with boneless breasts versus little bone-in thighs.  Food for thought.

You need a different CSA.

There have been so many times I wish we kept a record of the actually useful life threads somewhere so I could refer back with ease. This thread, the shaving thread, the poker thread, the beer thread etc.

Food shouldn't be that cheap! Not unless it was produced in the cheapest possible way. THAT'S food for thought.

Well, I suppose if there is one benefit of CAFO's it's the price.

I'm going to start investigating/hoarding dried goods.  It's apparent that having containers of dried beans, rice, pasta, oats, flour, spices is the way to go.  Having to soak some bean soup mix overnight in order to have a multiple meals is a good cost.

Getting a CSA box is not the same as going to a farmers' market where you can see what you're buying (and buy what you want without having it bundled with a dozen cantaloupes).  CSA boxes are just a way for farms to get rid of vegetables that they wouldn't be able to sell any other way.   :awesome_for_real:

Yeah, I know. This is actually the second one and is definitely better than last years which we dubbed The Soviet CSA. It was almost nothing but endless bitter bitter (I think it was dandelion) mixed salad greens. Like two or three gallons a week. At least with this years, there's a regular supply of zucchini--last year's couldn't even manage that. I think these are the only two available on Cape.

Anyway part vent and part sometimes the earthy crunchy food stuff isn't all that and you don't need to do it in order to get real food.

This was also my experience while I was getting a CSA box.  That and the endless supply of melons, which I hate.  And sometimes vegetables that I did like, but couldn't use up thirty pounds of each week (leeks).  The box SOUNDS like a good deal until you end up pitching two thirds of it as compost.

Mine has been pitching me 5lbs of carrots and 2 bunches of some type of crucifer every week. It's summer, people! But they're not stingy with avocados, so that's a plus.

Rename to cooking thread.

There's already a cooking thread. (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=3887.0)

Yeah, but that chick doesn't post here any more  :why_so_serious:

I think I got harried out of that thread for being a dick anyway.  I'll be making grilled pork loin marinaded in a mojo criollo and wrapped in spinach tonight.  Side vegetable TBD.

I have no idea wtf to make for dinner tonight. I've spent all afternoon making and canning (seedless!) blackberry-elderflower jam and Moroccan eggplant jam.

You know what's better than a cooking thread? A cooking class thread. Someone experienced puts out a recipe, maybe something for the weekend, instructions, and we all talk about it, repeat. I mean, that's how adults learn shit nowadays don't they?

Kind of like one of those gaming threads on Something Awful, but for food?  Brilliant.

This is basically true.  I just started cooking a lot in college and never looked back.  My roommate and I started just trying to make something different every sunday?  Did we have a cookbook, no!  did we fail sometimes and make crap, yes!   In the end though, you just ....cook...  I consider myself pretty decent at it now, but its not like I have a single second of formal training, just...cook stuff.

Oh also re: bread, I suggest making your own, you can do it for very cheap and don't need anything special with certain recipes.  I make my own bagels weekly and my own loafs of bread when I'm in the mood for it. 

Let's Cook. I like it.

I just ordered some heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo so I can try this soup recipe that calls for yellow-eyed beans. I'm lucky because my wife still works at Whole Foods and we get a 27% discount. (At WFM, not Rancho Gordo.)

I generally cook from fresh ingredients every night. I buy the meat-based proteins I need the day I need 'em, and because I know the guys at the meat and seafood counters, I generally get a better deal than your average asshole. I was trying a salmon recipe the other day that required butterflying the fish. This is in addition to de-boning and removing the skin. My friend did that for me while I grabbed some turnips and wine. I got out the door for under 30 bucks, with enough food to provide killer leftovers for several days of work lunches.

My grandfather taught me how to cook when I was very small. He cooked by taste and feel, not by measuring. The only exception was, obviously, baked goods and pastries and whatnot. Given my wife's job, I can buy my milk, meat, fish, and eggs at WFM for less than the cost of a normal supermarket. I don't have to worry about hormone or antibiotic treated foods.

We use lots of rice and beans in our cooking, as well as fresh greens and whatnot. My mom lets me plant some stuff in her garden every year (our northern exposure won't let me container garden), and I reap the benefits in the late summer and fall. My next mission is growing grains and hops in her yard next year. I brew my own beer, and I'd like my own hop and grain supply once in a while.

Cooking ain't hard. Everyone makes it seem like a big chore. I find sharpening knives on steel, chopping stuff, and making a tasty damn meal that I can also eat as lunch for a few days to be soothing, awesome, and largely kickass. My co-workers have been lobbying for a stove in our new office space (our office lost its roof to a tornado in June), simply because I've agreed to cook our Friday meeting lunch each week.

Even without my line on cheap yuppie food, I can convert this to "buy the basic shit at Aldi and buy the good meat at WFM" and probably spend less money than I do now.

Cooking on the cheap is all about tasting as you go and knowing how to not murder shitty cuts of meat. The rest is wankery and plating.

I filleted my first trout last night. Been wanting to get back into fishing. Kid who sang in my band was basically a caveman, the most amazing hunter I've ever met (and I've known a lot). So I spent a lot of time in the woods with him, but he always did the processing.

I made a bit of a mess of it, but got all but three rib bones out, didn't pierce the skin and the fillets were completely intact. Pan fried in butter with s&p and a twist of lime. Awesome.

Slack, you hone on steel, sharpen on stone :P Also, skin has flavor and fat (omega 3s in there?), I leave it on. Some like to eat it, some don't. I find it has a lot of flavor. I'd love to get some hops growing, this region was a major supplier of hops in the past (madison county, anyway, same climate/conditions), so they'll do well here. Now I just need to finally get my homebrew kit started, I've been dropping hints that it would make a great xmas gift...

You played in a band with Nugent?   :why_so_serious:

You can learn a LOT about food, cooking, and eating by doing a little survival training.  I'm a very picky eater by nature but will quickly change my song when I'm forced to live off of the land.  After three or four days without food, you become a lot less picky.  I recommend the experience to anyone.

Exac.  Taking discrete and disparate ingredients and integrating them into one cohesive meal is, in a word, satisfying.

Plus you find that blue cheese actually does go with everything.

Panfried trout (with the skin) is just amazing. I've never had the nerve to try filleting one, so I just fry it whole. Lite dusting of flour, a little seasoned salt, fried in butter.

Especially grits.

I just got in on a cheese CSA this month. Got a 1 lb wedge of Parm Redge (the real stuff!) for only $10, plus a nice hunk of Rogue Creamery cave-aged blue. This shit is amazing.

You guys are broken.  Given a choice between eating crickets and blue cheese, crickets wins in a landslide.  Blue cheese and Feta are just too powerful of a flavor.  They overwhelm my palate with the tiniest amounts. 

If you add them to a starchy food like mashed potatoes (or grits!), this isn't as much an issue - starch molecules are huge and clog up the olfactory receptors fairly quickly, and you'll only taste the other thing for the first few bites. That's why starches tend to take so much fat and salt to be good.

She says to the biochemist.   :grin:

It is good info though. 

Have you ever tried blue cheese on top of your crickets?  Fucking yum!

This thread is supposed to be about HFCS Corn Sugar, I just remembered.

I gave up a bit ago :)

I generally leave the skin on fish. I have this one recipe I want to try that says to remove it. I figure I'll defer to the dudes at the fish counter.

It was really easy, but I have a wicked sharp fillet knife. One upward and one downward cut on each side of the ribs, then remove the cartlidgey bits around the fins.

Sadly things are getting busy for me so I ordered Nutrisystem again since my diet was starting to get out of control. But I'm still down to cook things from time to time.

Not everyone is into bland foods guy.  But I hope you enjoy your noodles with butter sauce next time you dine out!  :why_so_serious:

Hey man, whatever fucking works for you, y'know?  The important thing is that you're being responsible.

What?   :uhrr:

There's a difference between flavorful and pungent.  There's also a huge difference in taste profiles between people.  Hell, you may be so taste blind that you need strong flavors so that you can at least taste something... I have no idea, I don't know you.  At all.

Most adults I know are into cheese.  Especially over bugs.  Don't act like you're so fucking normal with your "I prefer the taste of cricket to that of feta" routine.  You're in a weird little botched minority there.


edit: besides, I was kidding around, no one really gives a fuck what your flavor profile is, as long as they don't have to choose a restaurant with you.

I've also noticed that American cuisine often tends to use fats to flavor food, whereas Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine seems to rely more upon herbs and spices for flavoring.  A Pakistani friend of mine referred me to Desi Cookbook (http://www.desicookbook.com/) for fairly authentic Pakistani recipes.  I haven't had occasion to try these recipes yet (though I'm hoping to knock one out this weekend), but figured that it might be of interest to some of the folks here.  Not that all of these recipes are ultra healthy, but I suspect that these are generally more healthy than what you are likely to find in the Betty Crocker cookbook.

The big drawback here might be availability of ingredients.  There are some ingredients in these recipes that you aren't likely to find in your local US supermarket.  But, I'm sure you could get any of this on the internets and if you live in a large metropolitan area you are likely to find specialty Indian/Pakistani shops that would carry these items.

 :eat:

True story: I got a cricket in my food once at a chinese place in San Fran.  I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be there or not.  It did get me a free meal though!

Don't you think that blue cheese and (to a lesser degree) feta are on the stronger tasting end of the cheeses?  Perhaps it's a more aromatic than taste thing with me to be fair.  Brevibacterium linens has a way of turning me off to blue cheeses.  Taste does rely heavily on olfaction. 

I could eat tomatoes and blue cheese all day. And I suppose I do like my food bold.

Yes, thats why I love them though, a good stinky cheese.

Well sure they are (on the stronger side).  It's probably why I like them.  Then again, I also like mild cheeses.  Are you generally a picky eater or is it just a few weird things?  Once I dated a girl who would only order chicken fingers or noodles with melted butter.  It didn't last long.  

It still is, only now it's turned into a smarter thread about how easy it is to avoid Corn sugar.

As for blue cheese: yes please. It's tough to find good blue cheese imo, but when you do it is worth it. Otherwise, I'm all about the asiago. Asiago on some grilled chicken with tomato/green pepper with a side of rice is one of my favorite things to make that is incredibly fast and simple. When I find some really good blue cheese again, I'll try that instead but I doubt I'll go with a permanent switch to it.

Not picky.  Love ethnic.  I just have a hard time with intense flavors.  For example I can only eat small pieces of really sharp, aged cheese or my mouth gets overwhelmed.  It's the intensity coupled to the long duration (due to fat) that does me in.  

Being a vegetarian also limits my options, but you'd be amazed how flavorful you can make food without meat (see Ethiopian, Thai, and Indian).

I'm curious, do you also avoid spicy food as well and lean towards enjoying more bland food? I saw/read somewhere about people with tastebud counts that are really high don't like bold, spicy, or non-bland foods as the flavor is much more enhanced. As a result, they tend to not eat anything spicy or bold and stick to very basic but usually healthy meals.

DUDE.  Once I was in Alabama and I stopped at some homestyle dive joint, and they had homemade bleu cheese.  I jizzed all over the place.  Best ever.

I'm speechless with jealousy at this time. :awesome_for_real:

Supertasters. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster)

Some people are just sensitive to strong flavors. Sauced likes spicy food and blue cheese just fine, but he can't eat raw onions, hot mustard, wasabi, horseradish, etc. or he can't taste anything else in the food. It just burns out his palate.

I just want to chip in here and agree with Nebu that stinky cheese is yucky.  I'm not in general a picky eater, having been raised with an ethic of eating whatever's on my plate, but blue cheese in particular is so pungent that if I eat a sizable chunk of it, my tastebuds register it as a poisonous chemical or something rather than food.  In diluted form (like in dressing) it's okay and I can see the appeal, but I tend to avoid it altogether just because it's so noxious in high doses.

That "supertaster" article is interesting.  Olives, capsaicin, and whatever it is that makes fish taste fishy (trimethylamine?) are all flavors that I seem to be more sensitive to than most folks.  But I love raw onions, raw garlic, hot mustard, wasabi, and horseradish.

I'd have every mammal in the area dead.  Screw crickets and grubs. ;D

Well said. :heart:

Thanks, that was what I was thinking of.

This thread inspired me to try and make my own version of red beans and rice. It was a decent first effort, but I still have issues making rice without a rice cooker. I don't make it enough to justify the purchase.

You might find that making the purchase will change that. It's just so easy to toss stuff in and forget about them. That Sanyo above is only $47.

I'm never happy with my red beans and rice. I can do black beans like crazy, but the red just never come together. It's like I'm missing one ingredient that's costing me some subtle bit of flavor.

Probably the right kind of sausage.  Andouille (from Louisiana) or Conecuh (from here in Alabama) make THE best sausage for red beans and rice.  Failing that, get some Zatarains seasoning.

I can do perfect rice without a cooker, but it's a pain to clean the pot and you have to watch it pretty closely.  Getting a cooker is worth it.

Try chorizo.

I've been making home-made sushi lately.  We have a good fresh fish market, so I went to an oriental store and bought a huge bag of sushi rice, seaweed, and the bamboo mats.  It's actually extremely simple to make, and while you may not have as much of a variety of sushi as you would going out it's actually extremely cheap, filling, and delicious.  And it's fun to experiment with your own variations of sushi types.

Beat me to it. Chorizo, beans and rice is amazing and can go with so much. I've been on a big 'learn to cook with beans' kick lately.

I'm telling you, that pressure cooker is the joint.

Yes, perhaps the pressure cooker is the answer for it's utility. The beans turned out awesome. I used a smoked sausage with the trinity and beans, then added homemade chicken stock and reduced it without a cover for 2 hours. When most of the liquid was close to gone, I smashed 1/3 of the beans up against the side of the pot, making it creamier, and added the rest of the seasonings for a final 20m of cooking.

Good stuff.

Hope you're all pleased with yourselves.  I made a salad for lunch today instead of giving into the craving for Dr Pepper and fast food.  One chopped up heart of romaine, a few fresh mushrooms, 2 slices chopped up ham (lunchmeat), and just a bit of lite ranch dressing.  That's it.  And I'm drinking water.  I'm pretty sure the lunchmeat and dressing weren't the best choices, but they are what we have in the house.  I probably could have gone with the chickpeas instead, but I forgot I had them.

Question though - since we're talking about rice here, how long does it last if you keep it in the fridge?  I have a container of mixed wild/brown rice I bought from Costco ummpity months ago and I've kept it in the fridge the whole time.  I honestly don't remember how long it's been in there, so I'm not sure if rice keeps well in situations like that or what.  Or how long you can keep it once it's been cooked. I'd made up a big batch of rice when I first bought this and split it into plastic containers to keep in the fridge, taking out half to add to stir-fry veggies for meals, but I was never sure how long it would last once you cooked it.

I know the husband and I need to eat better, especially at home, but honestly cooking is just not something that interests me.  He does more cooking than I do.  If I'm in a mood, I'll cook for us, but so much of what I make consists of "let's see what we get when I add this to the mix" versus actual recipes.

That IS cooking!   :grin:

Ham's fine in moderation. I eat a couple ham sandwiches a week - ham off-the-bone and swiss on pumpernickel with my current mustard of choice - sweet chipotle, some hippy organic stuff that's wicked. You can also use tricks to reduce the impact of the dressing, we like it on the side and dip forks so the tines have dressing on them. You can also put a small amount in the bottom of a bowl and toss the greens in it, you'll get a bit of coating throughout without drowning the greens as if you'd poured over the top.

I only use rice second day after cooking, as well. And that very rarely, it usually gets eaten as leftovers the next day or tossed. Ironically, my mother gets care packages from me, I give her the previous evening's leftovers for lunch the next day to keep her away from mcdonalds.

For the time-constrained or uninterested cook, you can get steam-in-the-bag frozen veggies that can be cooked in 5-7 minutes. There's also microwave rice, but once you've had good rice...that's why I'm looking for a rice cooker (pressure cooker!), I got spoiled eating at a thai place in LA.

Uncooked rice doesn't need to be stored in the refrigerator.  It lasts a long time on it's own, although I can't give you exacts, google probably can.  Our usual route is to buy a 20lb bag of it, portion it up into freezer sized ziploc bags, and store it in a sealed bucket until we need another bag of it, but we eat a lot of rice.   People more serious than I vacuum seal the bags.  White rice can go 6 months or so without, and years with, from what little I remember.  Brown rice not nearly as long.

Nothing wrong with ham, although lunchmeats are bad for you and loaded with bullshit.  If you can get real ham you're better off.  The key with salads is dressing.  You gotta find something tasty yet low in calories, and then (this is key) toss the salad.  That's important to thinly but evenly coat the salad to get the most mileage out of it, so you don't end up using more than necessary.  If you use too much dressing you may as well just eat fast food.

Cooked rice is only good for about 4 or 5 days in the fridge, I think. It gets nasty pretty quickly after that. I cook large batches of brown rice (since it takes forever) and freeze it in portions for quick use later.

About how long can rice be kept frozen though?  Thinking about it, maybe if we start cooking more I won't have to worry about how long the rice will last in the fridge.

As for the dressing - I only put a thin stream of it over the top and then tossed everything together so it would be spread out over the romaine.  I cannot stand salads drenched in dressing or sandwiches with too much of a condiment on it.  I'm not eating the food to taste the condiment or the dressing.

Salads are all about the dressing for me, but then I always craft my own by drizzling the ingredients over the salad and tossing it all together.  I suspect this ends up being healthier (most prepared dressings seem to overdo it on the oil for some reason), and it definitely tastes better.

You should only keep cooked rice in the fridge/freezer for a day or two and only if you plan on eating it the next day or making fried rice with it.  It's not as if it really takes that long to make rice, and with a rice cooker you can just set the thing while you take a shower or something.

I am very disappointed today. I ordered some yellow eyed beans from Rancho Gordo on Monday. They won't arrive till Tuesday. I was hoping to make a soup/stew this weekend involving yellow eyed beans.

Good thing I'm working from home half of this week.

So, I've never had issues making rice on the stove. How does a rice cooker really do it better? Is this one of those, "try it and see" things or are most people shite at making rice?

You get the convenience of adding rice and water then walking away, a "keep warm" function, and perfect rice every time. It's worth it.

Once you have some practice cooking rice on the stove, it is pretty much just a matter of adding rice and water and walking away and getting perfect rice every time.  The catch is that for perfectly repeatable results you need to measure the rice and water and set a timer (so when you walk away, make sure you're still in earshot).  The plus side is that you don't end up with yet another gadget cluttering your counter that's dedicated to cooking only one thing.

Samwise is Alton Brown!!!!

More like Julianna Mauriello. ;D

Not true! Rice can be frozen for several months (I'd call it at like 3 or 4, though 6 is fine). Also, brown rice takes 45 minutes to an hour to cook.  That's long enough to me to warrant batch-cooking.

Defeating unitaskerianism is why VL's pressure cooker idea is so awesome.

I'm not a big green salad eater, but I do like making pasta based salads. My dressing for those is usually a "lets see what's in the fridge" adventure. Typically some mix of:

Olive Oil
Balsalmic
Soya Sauce
Mustard of some sort
Sriracha (sp?) sauce
Worschtershire maybe?
whatver random herbs I have

Salad Dressings are fun.

We should probably move this back into the VL Snackgasm thread :P

I really have to take up fishing again, had steelhead trout fillets last night. Pan fried in butter with garlic butter ladled over, s&p, finished with lemon juice. Just such an amazing flavor. Green beans and brown & wild rice.

Getting the lemon squeezinator and garlic press was a great day in my kitchen.

 :drill:

My standard dressing these days (for green or bean salad) is:

Olive oil
Red wine vinegar (lots)
Dijon mustard
Garlic salt
Lemon pepper

With avocado oil sometimes swapped in for olive oil, and balsamic sometimes swapped in for red wine vinegar.  For pasta salads it's similar except I always use balsamic for those.

ANYWAY...

If HFCS' ostensibly the same as regular sugar, why does US Coke taste like shit? I didn't believe it until a friend brought some over from vacation over there.

I don't think it ostensibly tastes exactly the same? 

I think its similar in calories, and I think its similar in that it sweetens things.  Frankly, I stopped drinking soda all together before ever having soda with real sugar so I can't compare them even from memory, but my guess would be they are just plain different tasting things, especially when you are used to having one or the other extremely regularly.

Everything I drink now is sweetened with aspartame anyway.

They taste a lot different to me, and HFCS soda doesn't quench my thirst/cravings anywhere near as much as one with cane sugar.

They taste plenty different no matter the science. I see more and more stores in Cali stocking Cocca-Cola in glass bottles with real sugar; made in Mexico.

It sells enough to warrant it.

Pepsi Throwback is using the old real sugar recipe but I didn't try it, I didn't like Pepsi back in the day so there is no motive for me now.

There was a Mountain Dew Throwback as well. We only had it in plastic around here, tho. In glass, it would have been doubleplus good.

The Pepsi was good, for Pepsi, but I was never able to finish a can.  Which is a good thing.

HFCS is chemically different from cane sugar, right? I was under the impression -- I mgiht be mistaken, though -- that HCFS is not only not 'as sweet' as cane sugar, but that it also doesn't trigger identical body reactions.

I think the total result of that is you need greater quantities of HFCS than cane sugar for a given result (whether taste or physical response to sugar). Since your body does, however, process it just as efficiently as cane sugar, you end up adding a lot of 'extra' calories by using HFCS over sugar.

But it keeps the American corn lobby happy.

From what Nebu posted earlier, I got the impression that HFCS is actually sweeter than normal sugar.  I also remember something from some previous thread on the subject about it doing funny things to your blood sugar when compared to similar amounts of regular sugar, but I don't remember if that was posted by someone who knew what they were talking about or not.

Yeah, the people who can't tell the difference between USA Corn Coke and Mexican Sugar Coke have horrible senses of taste.  And/or are paid off by the corn lobby.  I wouldn't say one is sweeter than the other though, it's just... different.

I don't actually know if it's really the corn syrup vs. cane or the bottle vs. can or the different water sources or who knows what but they taste waaaaaay different to me.  I would say I generally prefer the sugar but every once in a while I could use a changeup.  Being 3x the cost kinda sucks, too.

I can taste the difference between the two, but I've finally come to the conclusion I actually prefer the taste of the HFCS versions to the real sugar versions.  Not that I drink much soda anymore (though I use to drink a ton),

Compared to sugar-sweetened soda, HFCS soda makes my teeth feel sticky, and the flavor has a sort of unpleasant sharpness to it.

We use a Foodsaver  (http://www.foodsaver.com/Index.aspx)for this.  It works great.  That way we make rice about once every 2 weeks or so.  


As for the HFCS thing-  I think there has been some decent evidence out there that it causes more obesity in rats than traditional sugars.  And this isn't an indicator for cause and effect, but there has been a rise in obesity in the USA that directly follows the rise in use of HFCS. Is it because we are eating more "processed foods"?  Maybe, but most processed foods have HFCS in them.  The rat study that I saw makes me very suspicious.  As for my personal experience, I can barely drink half a bottle of coke that has cane sugar in it, but can easily put away one or two HCFS Cokes.  I avoid HCFS as much as I can and would recommend to others to do the same.

Actually, you managed to help pin it down for me.  I really like the sharpness of flavor is has (also, I just like sweater things).  The sugar stuff has a more level, dull taste.

Reads to me like nobody likes HFCS? Why is it still bought, shouldn't the free market take care of it and Cane Sugar products flood the market?

Artifical sweeteners over here taste like shit as well, but I'm starting to enjoy the taste of Stevia.

Why do you hate the honest hardworking American corn farmer and his billion-dollar lobbying arm?

The corn farmer lobby can only make HFCS subsidized and therefore cheaper. It can't force the consumers to buy HFCS products or soda manufacturers to make them. There obviously exists a Cane Sugar Coke. What hinders the Coca Cola company to sell those bottles in the US?

From wikipedia:


The root cause of the use of HFCS all over the place is simple agricultural protectionism (in the form of cane sugar tariffs).

Ah, thanks for explaining. That is really retarded, though. US sugar market price was up to 7 times from everywhere else? WTF?

Sugar Beets are primarily exported from the Ukraine and France according to Wiki.  I'd guess it was some sort of anti-soviet tariff.

I just saw my first Corn Sugar ad last night. I don't see many commercials (yay DVR), so they may have been running for a while. By the time I see something, it's usually pervasive. Anyway, I was thinking at the time that there has also been a pretty drastic rise in diabetes, too.
Free market, amirite?

Actually, I think the point is that "people" generally do prefer HCFS, meaning (in my opinion) that it is borderline addictive.  These large food companies do research as to what is preferable to the tastes of humans similar to what the tobacco companies were doing in the mid-late 1900s.  I would like to see a large class action lawsuit that looks at those research practices.  It would be very nice to see exactly what that research has added to their corporate decisions.  Likely it is as evil as the cigarette companies, even down to the focus on teenagers/kids. 

Fructose versus Sucrose, which is a complex of Fructose and Glucose.  So it has a different taste since they are quite literally different compounds, even if they break down into the same things after a few simple reactions.

I think people like being able to buy foods cheaply since there is more land mass for growing corn than sugar (though both are just giant grasses). Funny thing is, corn is mostly grown by white people, whereas sugar is grown by brown people. You'd think the way every other market in the world works that there'd be the opposite disparity in cost of product.

Is anything really "grown" by white people anymore?   :why_so_serious:

(http://www.cannabis-pics.com/marijuana-leaves.jpg)

It might be the sausage, but no chorizo up here. I assume you mean South/Central American chorizo. We get the most amazing Portuguese chourico (pronounced sher-eese) from a little market in Fall River where it's made in the back, but that's completely different. I've used a few brands of andouille, but still just not quite there.

My understanding on HFCS is that while it is sweet, it doesn't connect with some system in the body that achieves satisfaction through sweetness. So you just keep eating and eating or drinking and drinking.

The other thing is that it's in everything. It's not so much the HFCS in soda as much as prepared foods. Salad dresssing, bread, packaged rice mixes, etc etc. Also, most of the cane sugar sodas I've seen have been gourmet soda, about the only ones I've actually enjoyed were root beers and I've never seen a good solid cola.

As much as possible, I stick to Jones soda when I can. Better flavors and they use cane sugar. I absolutely love their Orange Cream Soda. I had thought it was a Canadian company, but apparently they are based out of Seattle.

Prices aren't too bad. Usually can get it around $1.30 per bottle. Less in bulk.

The Goose Island sodas (http://www.gooseisland.com/pages/sodas/5.php) are pretty darn good as well, IMO.  I'd only really had the root beer until recently when someone brought some spicy ginger and vanilla cream to a gathering.  I :heart: that spicy ginger so much, but I was still content just having one bottle of each to try them out.

It's karmic retribution against New Englanders for creating Moxie.

(http://samablog.robsama.com/images/moxie.gif)

Right - my basic understanding of the theory is that fructose, unlike sucrose, does not stimulate the production of insulin, and thus leptin, which promotes the feeling of 'fullness'. People are therefore more likely to overeat.

A recent study on short term effects of HFCS on metabolism (sponsored by Pepsico, heh) doesn't necessarily bear that out however.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/87/5/1194

I've been eating red beans and rice for dinner for 6 days now, and I still like it. Yum.

http://www.louisianafishfry.com/reviews.php?action=submit&id=18 (http://www.louisianafishfry.com/reviews.php?action=submit&id=18) I could live on this stuff...

I'd think eating the same thing over and over again would get boring after a while.  Do you at least dress it up some with additions, or is it just plain red beans and rice?

I've decided that it's physically impossible to eat a salad fast, which probably helps contribute to the healthy part of eating them.  And one typical sized heart of romaine is perfect for a personal salad size.

I do red beans and rice as a side, mostly with chicken and a veggie of some sort. Although I have tried fish.

Andouille Sausage and maybe some ham, have to be careful as it starts getting too salty when you mix them.

Used to be Canadian, they moved south a while ago.