voluntaryXchange

Crazy Good Quarantined Thread

A Reddit thread from mthmchris, who is in quarantine in Shunde, about how they cook … and shop … and live … and a ton of other more philosophical stuff about why we live the way we do when we’re not quarantined. Great comments too.

… For the past two weeks or so, the city we live has more or less… shut down. People don’t go outside unless they have to – we take our dog for walks up on the roof of our apartment complex, make quick runs to 7/11 for supplies every two days or so (because I mean… alcohol is pretty much mandatory in a time like this), and… that’s pretty much it. Restaurants are for the most part all closed down. The city is essentially on the economic equivalent of life support – the only things that’re open are convenience stores, grocery stores, and pharmacies. There’s checkpoints and roadblocks entering and leaving the city. Hell, every time we leave or enter our apartment complex we’re checked for symptoms by the doorman. The only people that dare to go outside without a medical mask are those unlucky sods that didn’t get the chance to buy any before supplies ran out.

Now I don’t mean to paint too apocalyptic of a picture here. We live in Shunde, not Wuhan (which’s tragically borne the brunt of all this). A lot of these measures are precautionary, and… you sort of get used to it all. It sucks, no doubt. But it says a lot about human psychology just how quickly a new normal can become… normal.

Feeding yourself is an interesting challenge, however. Completely by happy accident, out of any of our friends or family we’re probably the most prepared for this kind of situation.

Via Marginal Revolution.

Gluten

Just wonderin’ … has anyone else noticed that while everyone is complaining about gluten in their food, the craft beer industry keeps producing more and more beer based on wheat?

N.B. While gluten is a serious problem for a small fraction of the population, this observation makes it seem that a lot of people are exploiting it just to get attention.

Technorati Tags: beer,wheat,gluten

Expiration Dates (Uniform Ones!)

Finally. Finally. They are coming out with expiration dates for food that actually mean what people think they do.

Currently, most of the dates on food are there for the shelvers, so they know which stuff to rotate up front.

Yet people interpret these as throw away dates at home.

For example, I saw a relative (KB) once throw out yogurt because it was getting merely close to the date printed on the container. Of course, yogurt is kinda’ sorta’ spoiled already, so this was not very bright.*

It’s been estimated that 1/3 of the food thrown out by Americans has not yet started to spoil to any significant extent (yes, of course, just about everything starts spoiling as soon as it’s no longer alive).

So, the new guidelines are voluntary. But there will only be two:

• Best if used by
• Use by

Those are pretty clear. Thow away if you pass the second date. Do the smell test if you’ve passed the first date.

Estimates are that these new dates will reduce food refuse by a tad under 20%.

ALthough, I suppose that food will get eaten and create a different sort of refuse. But, do note, that there’s a fallacy of composition in asserting that this sort of waste will go up.

The goal is for widespread adoption within 18 months.

* For my part, it drives me absolutely crazy that consumers demand stuff like “fresh” beer, while homebrewers know that fresh beer is lousy and that it needs to age.

Technorati Tags: grocery,dates,use,by,best

Best Use of Lego Bricks Ever?

What can I use to make risers to allow airflow around wings as they dry marinate? Pedastals made out of Lego bricks:

 

The phrase “a million household uses” comes to mind.

I was using the baked wing recipe developed by The Food Lab back in 2010. We’re originally from Buffalo, and they are almost as good as typical deep fried wings, and good enough to dispense with the hastle and odor of deep frying.

But, we have a new-ish fridge, and we were doubling the batch size, so figuring out a way to stack the wing trays was essential. Enter the huge volume of now rarely-used Lego pieces in our home.

Technorati Tags: lego,chicken,wing,super,bowl,baked,baking,powder

Innumeracy and Those Sugar-Free Gummy Bears

The vXwife brought them to my attention last night. It’s a big enough deal to make it into The Atlantic. Apparently they … hmmm … give some people lower intestinal disstress (read the comments on Amazon).

I don’t suffer from this sort of problem, but I have good friends that do, so I’m sympathetic.

But, after a bit of reading it struck me that innumeracy is part of the problem. Yes, there are many people that eat a small number of these gummie bears and have problems. But many of those commenters appear to be eating rather large quantities. How large?

• A five pound bag is big enough to be economically priced, but not so large that one person wouldn’t buy it for themselves. That’s about 2,250 grams.
• If you’ve ever cooked with sugar, to get something to the gummi consistency, it has to be almost pure sugar. The squishiness is from a fairly small amount of retained water.
• By the way, it’s technically true that they’re sugar free. But this is because they’re made with Lycasin, which is mostly sugar-alcohols (not sugars, but still carbohydrates). Those are what are hard for some to digest. It’s not as calorie dense as sugar, or as sweet, but if you make a candy out of Lycasin, it’s technically sugar free.
• There’s clinical evidence that Lycasin is problematic: “Consumption of 40 g lycasin HBC or isomalt by adults significantly increased the mean frequency of bowel movements and the number of subjects passing watery faeces.”
• There’s a threshold effect too: “In adults, 40 g isomalt and lycasin HBC provoked significantly more gastrointestinal responses compared to 25 g of either product.”
• Haribo is pretty clear about the serving size:

Note the serving size: 39g, most of which is carbohydrates, but which will clearly come under the 40 g threshold.

This is where the innumeracy comes in. I really am sympathetic to those suffering, but these bags have around 60 servings in them. And a lot of those commenters assert that they ate a substantial part of the bag. I think a lot of people would have some intestinal distress if they ate ten servings of anything.

P.S. I am reminded of the time the vXboy ate the entire package of dried apricots in one sittting. I was sympathetic then too, but clearly he had met the enemy and it was himself.

Technorati Tags: haribo,sugar,free,gummy,gummi,bear,lycasin,malitol

OMFG, I Love This: A Gluten Free (Art) Museum!

In our family, where we cultivate healthy skepticism and basic science, one of our favorite movie scenes is from This Is the End where Seth Rogen tried to explain “whenever you feel shitty, that’s because of gluten.†

Now there’s a Gluten Free Museum on Tumblr!

I love still lifes, and here’s one by Cezanne that most people have seen before:

Note how the offending gluten is deleted. The possibilities are endless.

And while there’s a clear preference, it’s not just post-impressionists or even paintings:

And there’s a Lichtenstein:

And even this huge yet subtle modification of the Arcimbaldo (made famous again in The Tale of Desperaux):

Via Marginal Revolution via boredpanda.

† In no way am I trying to minimize dietary conditions; I myself was hit hard by a sudden onset of lactose intolerance at age 49. I know I drive everyone else crazy this. voluntaryxchange, voluntary, exchange, economics, finance, suu, sob, southern, utah, university, sob, school, business, urban, consulting

For Your Next Party ...

3-D printing has come to sugar cubes:

Remember the heady days of the oughties … when a chocolate fountain was a big deal?

Technorati Tags: 3-d,printing,sugar,cubes

Why Is Cheese Orange-ish?

I have actually wondered about this, and Cold Spring Shops has the long answer.

The skinny is: 1) cheese-making releases the color of beta carotene that was always in the milk from pasture-fed cows, and 2) since most cows aren’t pasture-fed these days, and people like their cheese orange, dyes are added.

Technorati Tags: why,cheese,orange