About 150 years ago, cooks and commercial food processors relied salting and smoking and brining to prevent various foods like meats, fish, and vegetables from spoiling. Today, brined meat dishes such as chicken and pork are appearing in upscale restaurant menus around the country. Brining is also a simple way of improving texture, tenderness and flavor. Since brining causes meat to absorb liquid, a good brining solution makes meat juicier and tastier than it would be normally. A good example would be lean pork and even for turkey. Another asset is that it draws some of the blood and bacteria out off the meat. American pigs are 50 to 70 percent leaner than they were 20 years ago, however, fat does contribute moisture and flavor to the meat. And, since the worm that causes Trichinosis is no longer present in American pork, it is now safe enough that it doesn't have to be cooked well done. My Mother would overcook pork so much that you could have used it for heels on your shoes. However, By brining the pork chops for 24 hours it draws out some of the blood and bacteria and you can cook it to 140 degrees without having any problems. Today, some people are still convinced that If they see pink in a pork chop, they think they're going to get sick. ??? Experiment with seasonings: Because there's more salt and seasoning in the brine than in the meat, the meat muscle absorbs the seasonings throughout instead on the surface only, as in most grilling methods. Kosher Salt is essential; 1 cup per gallon of water. Everything else is optional: E.G. fresh thyme and rosemary or any other herbs, garlic, ginger, fresh juniper berries, clove, cinnamon stick, vanilla bean, mustard seed, coriander seed, star anise, hot pepper flakes or Sichuan peppercorns; for sweetness use sugar, honey or maple syrup which will also enhance browning. Two things to remember; Don't reuse the brine and don't salt brined meat before cooking

Perfectly baked ham - sweet and deeply browned on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside - speaks eloquently of Sunday dinner. Few meats are easier and less worrisome to prepare. Serve this with a selection of the specialty mustards, hot, sweet and tart. There will be ample leftovers, which are great for sandwiches and salads.

yum yum yuuuum...

America is the king of King Size, the cream of the crops, the place where portions are out of all proportion. When it comes to food, the United States is one of the most influential countries in the world. But what will happen if the rest of the world adopts American food habits? In short: it can’t. Here are nine incredible facts about the incredibly unsustainable diet we call the Standard American Diet.

Meat production is environmentally problematic. The emissions are worse than your car. The ethical issues are worse than those in any Ed Norton film.
Oh, the resources. Meat is so packed with protein and fats that a stomachful is much more than you need. And there’s the fact that making meat requires vast amounts of food and cleared land. Problems abound – but so does the demand for meat, despite it being patently clear that we need to eat less of it.
According to the New York Times, the world’s total meat supply in 2007 was 284 million tons. Since Americans eat an average of 8 ounces of meat every day – or over 180 pounds a year – this means that if the entire population of the world switched to American meat-eating habits, it would require around 550 million tons a year. Put another way – we’d need two planet Earths to produce enough meat to feed everyone.

Asking the calorie needs of the average human being is a little like asking how long a piece of string is – but as a broad, shot-in-the-dark figure that neglects to account for fitness, exercise, metabolism and a host of other factors, the average human male needs around 2,500 calories and the average woman about 2,000. That’s what we need to function. Any extra gets stored away by our bodies for a rainy day.
Americans are not efficient eaters. The calories consumed per day by the average American in 2008 was 3,750 (in a population of 303 million), according to the World Resources Institute. Compare this with the 2,500-calorie average in India (population – 1,147 million). Put thus, the food consumed by Americans could feed 39% of India’s population – even though America contains a quarter of the people.
Right now, world hunger is a pressing issue. Some people aren’t even getting the minimum they need to survive. So the question of what would happen if everyone ate the same calories as Americans…is meaningless.

Ah, sodium chloride, how we love you. We equate you with wisdom and experience (”seasoned”) and honesty (”salt of the earth”), and we sprinkle you over every meal. Yet you’re one of our unhealthiest obsessions.
While the likes of the American Heart Association recommend a daily intake of no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium (or around a teaspoonful), the average American consumes double that amount (maybe even higher). For many the result is high blood pressure or hypertension – and sufferers of this life-threatening condition need to cut back further to around 1,500mg. Yet salt continues to sneak past, thanks to its widespread use in processed foods (our bodies need salt and we’re hardwired to enjoy the taste of it – a fact outrageously exploited by snack-food manufacturers).
In 2006, world salt production was an estimated 240 million tons. Of this, around 17% goes towards making edible salt. If the entire world switched to eating 12g of salt a day, that would be around 30 million tons of salt, or just 12.5% of total world production levels. There’s the worry – it could happen. (The reason is that world salt production is higher than ever – in fact it appears to have tripled since 1960’s estimated 85 million tonnes).
The long term health consequences of 12g a day for everyone would be catastrophic. Imagine a world population that routinely suffered from asthma, blood pressure at a stroke-inducing level, ulcers, dehydration, renal failure and an elevated risk of obesity…and those are just the effects medical science feels unanimously confident about.

Macau Cafe: Portunese Food!

One of the things I like best about trying a variety of restaurants is learning about the culinary history of different countries. The cuisine of any country is made up of local foodstuffs mixed with the imported tastes of settlers. That's how we ended up with things like deep-dish pizza and chop suey as distinctly American foods. And the Central Valley is one of the most culturally diverse areas of the U.S. (see my article from Edible Sacramento magazine two years ago). So Sacramento is a great place to learn about other cultures through their food.
Someone at the Portuguese Historical Society had told me awhile ago about Macau Cafe in South Land Park as an example of Portuguese food. (I was hoping for baked goods, but I'll take what I can get.) Macau is a peninsula just off mainland China that was settled by Portuguese traders in the 16th century and just received semi-autonomy in 1999. So it was one of the longest held colonies in the extensive Portuguese empire. Other Portuguese colonies like Brazil and Sao Tome have similarly interesting culinary and cultural mash-ups.
Anyway, I finally made it to Macau Cafe recently and am now kicking myself for not going sooner. Part of the restaurant group Culinary Wonderland, Inc., that also runs New Canton and New Lai Wah here, Macau Cafe is in the same semi-dumpy shopping center as Prime Supermarket. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Luckily, though, it was better than I had hoped.
We went on a Tuesday night and the place was packed the whole time we ate, with our table being the only Caucasian people there. I may be wrong about this, and I don't want to make assumptions, but I always think it bodes well when there are lots of people present of the same ethnicity as the restaurant. Makes you think it might be authentic, or at least pretty decent. The booklike menus have over 230 dishes you can order and the walls were plastered with photos of additional dishes, with titles in English and Chinese. Some were only in Chinese, which made me even more curious about what they were. So we could only taste a fraction of the offerings, but decided to try a combination of Chinese and Portuguese dishes.
We started with an avocado milkshake and a banana milkshake--one because we'd never had it before and the other because we had and wanted to see how good this version was. I'm not sure I'm sold on avocado in a milkshake, but it wasn't too sweet, which was nice. The banana version rocked.
To eat, we ordered Macau Country Stir-Fry ($8.95), Chinese Sausage and Frog Rice Casserole ($6.95), Stir-Fried Pea Shoots with Garlic ($9.95), Cashew Chicken ($7.95), and some dumplings from one of the wall photos. The stir-fry (pictured at top) came with slices of lotus, chunks of pork, shrimp, big slices of crunchy celery, and a flavorful sauce that didn't have any gumminess sometimes found in Chinese food. It was listed under "Macau Specials," which also included Supreme Broth with Bitter Melon and Clams and Portuguese Stir-Fried Beef Spare Ribs. The casserole (second photo) came in an individual pot. The frog was prepared classically, which is to say that it had bones and all. The sausage was the dried spicy Chinese variety. The flavor of the casserole was meaty and complex, but the many small bones of the frog were not much fun to eat around. The bok choy on top was perfectly crisp-tender.
Similarly, the stir-fried pea shoots were fantastic, with slivers of garlic tossed throughout. I was expecting the least from the cashew chicken, but it was an excellent version of this standard Chinese restaurant dish. Juicy chunks of chicken, perfectly cooked asparagus, and toasted cashews all came together with no cornstarch-thickened sauce. None of the dishes suffered from the excess saltiness you often find in American Chinese food. The dumplings were the least interesting--tender but nondescript, although the bright red sauce that came with them added an odd sweetness to the mix.
The menu is so vast that I can't imagine tasting everything, ranging as it does from Swiss Steak to BBQ Eel, Clam Congee to Fried Eggs with Pork Chop, and Russian Borsch to a seasonal Sampan Crab with Garlic and Chili Pepper Salt. One guy came in and ordered a steak with a side of spaghetti. All the while, "Dancing with the Stars" played on the three flat screen TVs in the small space. TVs in restaurants always bug me, but at least the sound was muted.
Macau Cafe is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., so you can go for any meal. They also serve family specials for 3 to 8 people, which include eight or nine different dishes for the table. I also just discovered that you can look up the county food inspection results for any place in Sacramento and was relieved to find minor infractions for Macau that had been quickly fixed. Next time I go (which will be soon, I'm sure), I want to try one of the Portuguese-style curries and a clay pot dish like diced chicken, eggplant, and tofu. It's all so interesting, it makes me feel like I traveled without having to get on a plane.
Macau Cafe4412 Del Rio Road (just south of Sutterville)916-457-8818M-Su, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.