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Yet another foodscare :-(

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Petronius » Tue Jun 27, 2017 10:10 am

Badger's Mate wrote:However, that doesn't make a story. I used to believe this sort of stuff until I had to start dealing with EU-derived regulations at work. I saw so many lies told about them, so much propaganda, that I am deeply sceptical of any of the straight banana business.


Well said Badger's Mate. I too got fed up so downloaded the banana EU regulation; it was intended for growers and was asked for by the industry to ensure different growers in different parts of the world had guidelines. My memory is that it wasn't intended for retailers.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Uschi » Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:53 am

There was a regulation (or was it a recommendation) about cucumbers that was similar and had Germany in an uproar.
What no one told the enraged public, was that this was down to a German initiative. :roll: :lol:

As for Tonka beans, you can get them here. Germans love anything coumarin-flavoured, but Tonka is new. Our love of coumarin is based on sweet woodruff. If you get anything green in Germany such as a green drink, green fizzy powder, green jelly or Gummibears it is most likely to be sweet woodruff flavoured.
But since an artificial flavour is used these days they are harmless.
Our love of "Maibowle" (Bowle = a cold wine punch) is a different ballgame. In April or May you can buy bunches of sweet woodruff or you collect it in the garden or in the woods. The bunches are then left to wilt for a few hours and then steeped in wine with a few lemon zests. Later, a little vanilla sugar is added and the whole thing is decanted into a large glass bowl and topped up with either bubbly or fizzy water.
The received wisdom is to allow the herb to steep for no longer than half an hour and not to allow the broken ends of the stalk to touch the wine (the bunch is hung in there head first).
Under these conditions you will get a nicely flavoured and refreshing drink. If it's left in there longer, the herb will give you a headache.

As for cinnamon: what gets my goat is that it doesn't say on the packet wether it is real cinnamon (or Ceylon cinnamon) or cassia. In that case we could all avoid the latter.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:10 pm

Agree Badger's Mate, being over familiar with a section of EU regulations on the development and licensing of drugs, I take any amateur (including most journalists) shouting about EU restrictions with a pinch of salt

Uschi wrote:As for cinnamon: what gets my goat is that it doesn't say on the packet wether it is real cinnamon (or Ceylon cinnamon) or cassia. In that case we could all avoid the latter.


I find that odd :?

Nothing to do with EU regulations at all, but in the UK under our national Sale of Goods and Trade Descriptions rules, it has to be labelled accurately, though I suspect that some of what is sold is ambivalent.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Badger's Mate » Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:22 pm

Apologies for earlier use of the four-letter W word...

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Uschi » Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:26 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:Agree Badger's Mate, being over familiar with a section of EU regulations on the development and licensing of drugs, I take any amateur (including most journalists) shouting about EU restrictions with a pinch of salt

Uschi wrote:As for cinnamon: what gets my goat is that it doesn't say on the packet wether it is real cinnamon (or Ceylon cinnamon) or cassia. In that case we could all avoid the latter.


I find that odd :?

Nothing to do with EU regulations at all, but in the UK under our national Sale of Goods and Trade Descriptions rules, it has to be labelled accurately, though I suspect that some of what is sold is ambivalent.


I find that odd, too, but not all "Zimt" is actual Zimt.
Who knows what is behind that ...

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Renée » Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:06 pm

Thank you for the interesting information, Uschi. I once made a delicious chicken dish using Tonka bean. I'll see if I can buy a woodruff plant next year. I wouldn't recognise it if it was growing wild.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Uschi » Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:20 pm

It is fairly distinctive, Renée.

Image

It does not smell immediately like ramsons, but if you allow a stalk to wilt it will smell beautifully of fresh hay and vanilla.
It can be found under hedges and in light beech woods. It won't be around much longer now, because very often it dies back in summer only to emerge in spring.

If you can source some, make sure you harvest it before it flowers, because there will be less coumarine in it.
You can freeze it for later. :wino

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Jun 28, 2017 3:09 am

If I remember rightly, of the four varieties of cinnamon, the Sri Lankan is most prized, especially in Europe. It has brittle bark and is more subtle (and more complex) in flavour. The hard cinnamon ( Indonesia, Viet-Nam, China) is more astringent

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Renée » Wed Jun 28, 2017 5:14 pm

Thanks, Uschi. I can't remember seeing any of it around this area.. I will look online.

Clive, that's very useful information. Thanks.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Renée » Wed Jun 28, 2017 5:19 pm

Of course, it's wild garlic, Uschi and I did once buy three plants, but then discovered that it's not a good idea to grow them in the home garden, so I put them in the compost bin. The leaves here look different to the ones on your picture.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=384

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Pampy » Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:31 pm

Renée wrote:Of course, it's wild garlic, Uschi and I did once buy three plants, but then discovered that it's not a good idea to grow them in the home garden, so I put them in the compost bin. The leaves here look different to the ones on your picture.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=384

Did you find out why it's not a good idea to grow in a home garden? I grow it without any problems.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:53 pm

I think wild garlic is just considered too invasive for the average garden, it can take over

Wood ruff is different, and probably the bigger problem would be finding a location it likes

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Uschi » Wed Jun 28, 2017 9:46 pm

Not too dry and not in full sun (sun is OK in spring, though). It dies back down later in summer and comes back in spring. So, even if it spreads, it's not that bad.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Renée » Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:43 pm

I can't remember, Pampy, but I don't think that it was because it was invasive.

Woodruff was the one that I was going to look for.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Jul 01, 2017 11:32 am

Watching Great British Menu it occurs to me that although we don't really use woodruff in the UK we do use meadow sweet traditionally in somewhat similar ways
Meadow sweet is also a source of salicylic acid, the precursor of aspirin

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipendula_ulmaria

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Jul 01, 2017 12:08 pm

I watched a fair few of the second half of the series, but I'm afraid both those ingredients flew straight over my head :-(

What amazes me is that the presentation paraphernalia seems to be 100% custom made for them, and is often more complex than the cookery itself. I'd be intrigued to see how they get all that done.

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Jul 01, 2017 1:01 pm

Yes, the modelling is amazing, my guess is they are made by the people who make props for stage and film, I knew someone who did that as a cottage industry, her bread and butter was things for ads (usually bigger or smaller than the usual item) but I suspect CGI will have changed that

Interestingly, Selin's champion pud used the least props, and was the one I most wanted to eat :D

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Joanbunting » Sat Jul 01, 2017 2:12 pm

The props were the thing that annoyed me most.

I watched last night and I had to have a giggle that the most enthusiastically received thing was Selinesalcoholic peach drink - can'r remeber if it was gin or vodka but everyone was a lot more jolly after it :lol:

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Jul 01, 2017 2:16 pm

I thought it was Bellini with a dash of rose?

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Re: Yet another foodscare :-(

Postby Sakkarin » Tue Jul 11, 2017 9:15 am

Ha! The list grows! It's a goodie this time, COFFEE.

And I've been cutting myself down to just 2 cups a day because I thought too much caffeine was bad for you...

https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... y-suggests

I'm just waiting for the 5 cups of coffee, 4 pints of beer, a packet of digestives, six bags of crisps and a tub of ice cream diet to be approved.

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