DailyDirt: Cooking Up Some Mystery Meat

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Protein is protein to some folks. But not all protein comes from happy soybeans or chicken eggs. Domesticated animals are pretty tasty sources of meat, but the treatment of farmed vertebrates is distasteful to some people. Here are just a few interesting links on cooking meaty meals.

• Squirrel stew is a dish cooked up by an adventurous meat eater and hunter with some gourmet culinary training. Tasty free range squirrels are available everywhere, too. [url]
• Sous-vide cooking sounds like a fancy version of a product developed by Ron Popeil. Cooking meat for long periods of time at relatively low temperatures is a pretty simple recipe if you have the right equipment. [url]
• A self-cloning lizard species was discovered last year -- on the menu in a restaurant in Vietnam. Natural and organic cloned meat sounds much better than the GMO kind, doesn't it? [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: cooking, food, gmo, gourmet, lizard, meat

DailyDirt: Ancient Food

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Most folks probably have a few food artifacts that are pretty old in the back of their refrigerators, but some scientists are looking for slightly older specimens that weren't artificially cooled. Here are some interesting pre-historical morsels to chew on.

• It looks like homo erectus might have known how to cook. And they might have even saved money on car insurance, too.... [url]
• Thousands of years ago, Romans probably shipped live fish around in boats -- since they didn't have refrigeration. But maybe not, someone will have to build a replica of a floating Roman aquarium to see if the hypothesis holds water. [url]
• A 5,000 year old iceman has been found with stomach full of deer meat and cereal. This guy also apparently suffered some blunt force trauma to the mouth, but the CSI team suspects his killer is long dead. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: cooking, food, homo erectus, iceman

DailyDirt: Making Food, Not FUD

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There's no shortage of cooking shows to watch -- with chefs yelling at each other on commercial TV or the more amiable chefs on public channels. Food seems to be an endlessly fascinating topic, so here are a few quick links on creative food preparation.

• Make your own frozen dinners: 46 meals for under $100. Remember to label everything really well -- because you're probably not going to know what you're eating a couple weeks into your stockpile. [url]
• The Momofuku Culinary Lab is apparently a secret place that tries to do a lot of food science. Yummy, yummy food science. [url]
• This project needs a bit more science, but if it achieves its goal of creating ice cream clouds and snowfall, Willy Wonka would be proud. It might be more practical to try a sorbet experiment... [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: cooking, food science, frozen dinners, momofuku

DailyDirt: Better Food Through Science

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The art and science of cooking has a bright future, especially given all the different cooking shows and TV networks dedicated to food. As more and more people discover and learn about the science behind cooking, it stands to reason that there will be a growing number of interesting ways to cook. Maybe cooking is the key to teaching the scientific method to kids...?

• The all-American hamburger might be improved upon if the meat was quickly dipped in liquid nitrogen before being deep fried. Perhaps a dry ice slurry would be more practical, though. [url]
• The USDA has revised its recommended cooking temperatures for various meats. But only the chefs at America's Test Kitchen actually measure their cooked meats at home... [url]
• Using a solar-powered pizza box oven to cook food sounds pretty impractical. A solar-powered microwave oven sounds like a better idea. [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: cooking, hamburgers, meat, usda

Kraft Threatens Cooking Teacher With Trademark Claim For Teaching Students To Cook Beyond Kraft Mac & Cheese

from the morons-in-a-hurry dept

I haven't had Kraft Mac & Cheese since I was a kid, and had no idea it went under different names in different countries. Apparently, up in Canada, it's called the Kraft Dinner or KD for short, where it's apparently even more iconic than in the US (where it's still pretty iconic). Either way, Kraft is upset. That's because a cooking instructor in Calgary, who had set up a free cooking class for students called "Kick the KD," is apparently violating its trademarks (via Rob Hyndman) -- and, yes, the company trademarked "KD." I don't know how different trademark law in Canada is compared to the US, but this seems like a pretty specious claim. First of all, there's no use in commerce. It's a free cooking-class put on by a non-profit. Second, there's no likelihood of confusion going on here, because it's not like anyone hearing about the Kick the KD is going to think it's associated with or sponsored by Kraft when the whole point is to get people to think about actually cooking their meals, rather than just breaking out a box of "KD" (I'm picking up the lingo). Now, of course, you can understand why it might upset Kraft that there's a class being taught to students about how to cook beyond the near instant simplicity of its Mac & Cheese, but that doesn't make it a trademark violation. Still, the class's instructor doesn't want to fight Kraft, so he's changing the name. Trademark bullies chalk up another win.

Filed Under: canada, cooking, kd, mac & cheese, trademark
Companies: kraft

Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Over Turkey Cooking Instructions

from the eat-up dept

Thanksgiving may be over, but right before the holiday, Greenberg Smoked Turkeys (which, as you might guess, sells turkeys) sued competitor Goode-Cook for copyright infringement, claiming that the following bit of turkey care instructions violated its copyright:

Our turkeys arrive at your door ready to eat. Refrigerate immediately. The turkey will keep in the refrigerator for 6-8 days. If you do not plan to use it in that length of time, it should be frozen.

We recommend that our turkeys are eaten chilled or at room temperature -- just slice and enjoy!

If heating is required, follow these instructions: place turkey in a Reynolds® Oven Bag, which can be bought at your local grocer. Do not add flour to the bag. Cut 6 to 7 small slits in the top of the bag. Heat at 300 degrees for 6 minutes per pound.

What's unclear from the complaint (which we've included after the jump) is whether or not Greenberg actually registered the copyright on this. If it did not, it would greatly limit the likelihood of this lawsuit getting anywhere. It's also not clear if Goode-Cook copied the whole thing or part of it, as the "exhibit" is not included. It actually took a bit of searching, but I think I found the actual website for Goode, and I don't see those instruction anywhere (in fact, there's an entirely different set of instructions), but it's possible that the originals were taken down following the lawsuit.

Of course, the bigger question is whether or not the text above is actually copyrightable. As has been discussed numerous times, you can't copyright a recipe, but might be able to protect "substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions." The question is whether the statements above qualify as "substantial literary expression," beyond just the basic factual description. There might be a few parts where it strays into such territory, but it seems like a very thin amount of copyright coverage there. Furthermore, is there really any argument that the use of this text in any way harms Greenberg? That seems like an even bigger stretch. This seems like a lawsuit based on anger rather than a legitimate copyright claim.

Filed Under: cooking, copyright, turkey

Home Cooking Is Killing The Restaurant Industry!

from the something-must-be-done dept

For many years, whenever people insisted that the ability to download movies would kill the movie business -- including the box office revenues -- we've made the analogy that just because people can prepare food at home (for much lower cost!) it hasn't changed the fact that sometimes people still go out to dinner. It's an apt analogy. People go out to dinner for a variety of reasons, despite cheaper (and potentially healthier) fare at home. Basically the overall experience makes it worthwhile as a social experience. That applies equally to movies and eating out. I was reminded of this recently. A whole bunch of you sent over Gizmodo's post about the old Dead Kennedys cassette tape mocking "Home Taping is Killing Music" by leaving the second side blank so "you can help": This image (or a similar one) shows up every couple of years and makes the blog rounds. So, at first I wasn't going to bother posting it, but then the Freakbits guys pointed me to various "offshoot" slogans and images, including the following one that's so good it needs to be shared widely: Yes, folks, home cooking is killing the restaurant industry. Why won't Congress and the USTR deal with this pernicious problem?

Filed Under: analogies, cooking, home taping, moral panics