The craft of enamel has been around as a decorative and functional technique for centuries. Vitreous enamel is akin to ceramic glaze – it is most commonly the result of fusing powdered glass (or less often a glass paste or spray) to a metal or ceramic substrat. Enamel is bonded to metal in kilns at a high tempurature, from 1400 to 1640 °F.
Enamelware Cup, Circa 1920s
In the days before ripe Chilean tomatoes in the snowiest of winters, year-round beets, and the never-ending zucchini season, if you had a hankering for a summer vegetable in the middle of January, you had to wait six months. That is until 1810, when canning was invented and along with it, the possibility of anticipating your winter desires two seasons ahead.
Image by Nina Lee, 1952, Courtesy of LIFE Magazine
Like any good American kid, I grew up eating floppy baloney on white bread. And like any uninspired Manhattan office worker, I ambled down to the nearest deli and got slices of salami — hot pink and encased in branded, shrink-wrap plastic that the sandwich guy would peel back to measure out my portion. It was salty and tasted fine between sliced bread with a handful of shredded iceberg lettuce, or at least it seemed that way from inside my cubicle. Then I moved to Europe.
Charcuterie in Les Halles, Paris, 1962, Image by Tom Palumbo (Click on Image to Enlarge)
From the smoldering smell of a freshly extinguished match whisking you back to the hushed awe when gathered round a pungent crackling campfire, to the sweet and spiced dance of a Snickerdoodle on your tongue, taking you back to your first batch of homemade cookies emerging soft and warm from the oven – the corollary between memory and our powerfully nuanced senses of taste and smell is unique.
Smoking & Barbecuing Fish Filets, 1893, Courtesy of Shorpy (Click on Image for Details)
Olive oil has long been considered one of the greatest natural assets of the ancient world (and sometimes worth its weight in gold). It has consistently offered humanity the gifts of health and wealth, and is as complex and delicious as wine. Since antiquity, olive branches have been a symbol of peace – perhaps because olive trees were an agricultural offering bestowed to the colonies after they were subjugated in battle. Wherever disseminated, olive trees were lauded for their myriad everyday uses, from the culinary to the corporal.
Fratelli Carli, Italian Olive Oil
It goes without saying, but before rampant industrialization and commercialization of food, there was only the people and their land, with the former scouring the latter in search of sustained sustenance and equanimus equilibrium. At the same time that technology is shrinking the world, cultural nostalgia and fetishization of the past imbues new interest in foods of yore, more and lesser-known items appear on the shelves of stores with increasing frequency.
Yacón Chip
First there was wine, beloved by the ancients. Then there was wine gone bad – a mishap of leaky casks or stashes gone past their prime that mutated into one of the most versatile products in the world. “Vin aigre” (which roughly translates to “sour wine”) is a combination of acetic acid (aka ethanoic acid) – an organic compound which is the result of the miracle of fermentation – chemical reactions activated by the slow decay of everything from grapes to beets, malts to grains.
Chemical Formula of Oxidative Fermentation: Making Acetic Acid
Since I am still in search of a good butcher in LA (alas, none to be found!) – I am finding myself delving further into the dissection of strange and exotic cuts of meat – at home. A recent purchase of a meat grinder (more on that soon!) has lead to a whole lot of chopping and cutting, slicing and dicing and a new search – for a superior place on which to cut.
American Meat Institute Advertising 1940s
Meyer Lemon Marmalade Recipe
In 1908, Frank Nicholas Meyer, a professional food explorer, brought a decorative Chinese hybrid of mandarin and lemon to the U.S. For the next seven decades, Meyer lemon trees continued to be thought of as mostly ornamental plants. Productive trees grew almost exclusively within California, and it wasn’t until Alice Waters started using them did Meyer lemons begin its slow, but steady courtship with the broader culinary world.
Meyer lemons are less acidic than the standard lemon, and have bright, thin skins with an aromatic, almost herbal scent. The description hardly does it justice. Meyer lemons are delightful. As their season wanes, save a dozen or two to preserve.
Fragrance of the Lemon Peel by Ilya Zomba, Oil on Canvas, 1997, Courtesy of Zombart
READ MORE…