Eat This Podcast

Old Modern Olive Oil in Provence

In the previous episode, Carl Ipsen explained how the EU regulations for extra-virgin olive oil include tasting notes, and that if an oil has any of the forbidden flavours, it cannot be classified as extra virgin. So I was very surprised to read (in an issue of Edward Behr’s Art of Eating newsletter) about oils being produced in Provence that go out of their way to develop some — but not all — of the EU’s “defects”. Just as with modern extra virgin, these old-fashioned oils rely on up-to-date equipment and the skill of the miller. In this episode, the paradox of old-fashioned modern oil. Notes Old-Fashioned Olive Oil from Provence is the piece that prompted this episode. A few months back, Ed Behr had written about modern olive oil. Both contain fascinating tasting notes and more besides. Here is the transcript. I lifted some images from the Moulin Cornille website.    Huffduff it

The unstoppable rise of extra virgin olive oil

Carl IpsenExtra virgin olive oil, as a formal classification, owes its existence to the disastrous state of Italian olive oil in the 1950s. At that time, esterification, a chemical process designed to extract the last drop of oil from the crushed olives, was permitted. It could also be used to extract oils from all manner of unlikely sources, and those too found their way into “olive” oil. When extra-virgin was first codified, only around 20% of oil qualified. Today, you would be hard pressed to find any oil on sale that does not claim to be extra virgin. Is that any guarantee of quality? Not really, says Professor Carl Ipsen, author of a forthcoming new book tentatively entitled A True History of Olive Oil. In it, he traces the evolution of olive oil from its early role as a lubricant of industrial development, when less than 1% was considered edible, to today, when it is almost exclusively used for food. Notes Carl Ipsen’s website contains links to some of his publications, including From Cloth Oil to Extra Virgin: Italian Olive Oil Before the Invention of the Mediterranean Diet, the essay that won the Sophie Coe Prize in 2021. Here is a transcript. Thank supporters of the podcast.    Huffduff it

The Food System Is Not Broken

Jan Dutkiewicz (left) and Gabriel Rosenberg A lot of people who care about these things will tell you that the food system is broken. Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel Rosenberg insist that it is not. Bits of it may not work as well as we might like, but overall it delivers greater abundance, diversity, and nutrition at a lower cost than at any time in history. They argue the point at length in their new book Feed the People! Why industrial food is good and how to make it even better. Dutkiewicz and Rosenberg write engagingly and the book is a good read. And for those bits of the food system that are not working so well, they offer plenty of evidence-based recommendations that could help fix them. Notes Feed the People! is published by Basic Books. How the New Food Pyramid Fits Into the Broader Conservative Project is their nuanced look at the vexed topic of food guidelines in the United States. Gabriel Rosenberg has a newsletter, The Strong Paw of Reason, and there’s more of Jan Dutkiewicz’s work at The New Republic. Here is the transcript. Banner photos of the authors by Tim Atakora and Harris Solomon.    Huffduff it

Food Notes from an American Prison

Bird’s Eye View of United States Penitentiary Lewisburg, PA One of the things I found most interesting about the previous episode, Cooking in Maximum Security was that prisoners in Italy not only cooked pretty elaborate meals, but that it was their right to do so. The ability to make at least some food for themselves seems to be taken for granted among prisoners in Italy. Not so in the United States, where Hollywood has made us all aware both that food is often the spark that ignites a riot and that some prisoners can get away with cooking much more elaborate meals. It surprised Edward Hasbrouck too, who shared memories of his brief time in a federal prison with a friend we have in common. He agreed to talk to me about his experiences of food in prisons gained at Lewisburg Federal Prison in the early 1980s, long before ramen became the bedrock of prison food systems. Notes Edward Hasbrouck’s main website contains loads of information about travel and more besides. The non-profit he mentioned is Papers, Please! – The Identity Project. I’m grateful to Peter Rukavina, who shared a link to Matteo Guidi’s episode, which is how Edward Hasbrouck found it and where he commented. Here is the transcript. Banner photo from an old postcard of Lewisburg Penitentiary.    Huffduff it

Cooking in Maximum Security

Matteo GuidiAn extremely unlikely source (see note 3) tipped me off to the existence of Cooking in Maximum Security. In some respects, it is completely ordinary; a book of recipes — Starters, First Courses et cetera — along with handy tips for making the dishes. In others, it is eye-opening, because all the recipes, and the inventions necessary to make them, were contributed by prisoners in Italian maximum security prisons. Not only that, but cooking is an essential and integral part of the prisoners’ everyday lives. Matteo Guidi, an anthropologist and artist who teaches in Italy and Spain, guided the process of compiling the book. Notes Matteo Guidi has built a website for Cooking in Maximum Security that gives a lot more information. Matteo’s site has purchase details, but you might do better going directly to Half Letter Press. It was Cory Doctorow’s fabulous Pluralistic that sent me in search of Matteo Guidi. Banner and cover images by Mario Trudu, taken from the book. Here is the transcipt.    Huffduff it