Gastronomy 101

I'm always fascinated with food culture and history. It's a type of history you don't often get to study and oftentimes just have to happen upon it. I was originally going to make this post about how to fry chicken, but when I was paging through one of my cookbooks looking up what it said about chicken, I got distracted by a page that explained how to prepare reindeer. Wait ... what? Reindeer? This is a cookbook from the 1940s, I might add, so I am often finding interesting surprises in here when I go to look something up. Once I'd seen reindeer, I was compelled to stop and read about it. The first sentence was really interesting: "Government breeding of reindeer has brought the meat back on the market in modern form." Again .. wait ... what? Government breeding ... of reindeer? I've never heard of this, and I immediately envisioned a secret government Santa project or some such, but I also had to go digging to figure this out. As it turns out, it was a so...

History: Peaches are native to China, and came to Europe via Persia around 300 BCE. For this reason, peaches were once called Persian apples. The Ancient Romans ate peaches, mostly as a dessert. Apicius contained a recipe for pickled peaches: To Keep Hard-skinned Peaches Duracina persica ut diu durent Select the best and put them in brine. The next day remove them and rinsing them carefully set them in place in a vessel, sprinkle with salt and satury and immerse in vinegar. Varieties: Peaches have hundreds of varieties, varying in color (white with a pink blush to yellow with a red blush) and flavor. In general, a peach will either be freestone (pit frees easily from the flesh), or clingstone (pit clings to the flesh and is hard to remove). Freestones are generally found in markets, while clingstones are more often used commercially. Season: Peaches are available from May to October in most regions. May through August is peak season in California. Choosing: Look for a fragrant...