DailyDirt: Creating Superfoods For Fun Profit

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Feeding billions of people isn't an easy task. Farming isn't actually the hardest part. Food distribution and food waste are much more challenging than simply growing more food for people. It's good that we have multiple biotech solutions for making plants and animals that are easier to raise and grow, but some of the concerns about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) aren't totally unfounded. Turning back the clock on genetic research isn't going to happen, but we should also keep an eye on what's going on.

• Dupont and Caribou Biosciences are working on CRISPR technology to modify the genes of food crops, predicting that CRIPSR GMO foods will be on dinner plates by 2020. Genetically modified corn and wheat plants are already being grown in greenhouses, and many other plants are being tested, too: soybeans, rice, tomatoes, potatoes -- even allergy-free peanuts. The resulting plants have no genes from other species, so it may be much easier to avoid GMO regulations with these kind of gene-edited crops. [url]
• Yum yum. A succulent red marine algae called dulse looks like translucent red lettuce, is high in protein, and tastes like bacon when cooked. This strain of dulse is patented, but the claims don't mention its bacon-y goodness. So get back in the lab and start creating more bacon-flavored species, already! [url]
• Many scientists are hard pressed to find the harm in creating genetically modified organisms -- because genes are genes. However, there are still concerns with monoculture crops and creating a food supply chain that is dominated by a handful of companies. [url]

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Filed Under: algae, bacon, biotech, crispr, dulse, farming, food, food supply chain, genes, genetics, gmo, plants
Companies: caribou biosciences, dupont

DailyDirt: How To Cook Simple Stuff...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

There are all kinds of cooking shows and recipe books, providing a vast and endless library of ways to make any meal you can think of. With this flood of information, the simplest meals can seem daunting because there are so many different recipes and instructions. There really is no single correct way to do anything, but some instructions are easier to remember than others. Here are just a few examples.

• Watch this video on how to cook bacon without creating a charred mess. Cooking bacon in a pan of water doesn't seem like a common method, but this seems like a easy enough trick to try. Plus, you get bacon in the end. [url]
• Martha Stewart claims to have a foolproof way to cook hard-boiled eggs. Except the key tip omitted is that older eggs are easier to peel than fresh eggs. [url]
• If you make pasta a lot, try this method of boiling dry pasta in a frying pan with a lot less water than usual recipes use. Or you could just continue to stick a foam cup filled with water and curly noodles in a microwave.... [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: bacon, cooking, eggs, food, how-to, pasta, recipes

DailyDirt: Food Plus...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The world is full of restaurants and chefs striving to make a mark with a new culinary concoction, but centuries of everyone on the planet eating every day has largely covered all the bases. The easiest way to come up with something new is to take something popular and add something unexpected to it, like so:

• An Iowa distillery is raising whiskey-infused pigs by feeding them spent-grain mash. The goal? Whiskey bacon, of course. [url]
• A British ice cream maker has combined Champagne and Viagra to create his new flavor, "The Arousal". Yes, it's real Viagra, so no, it's not generally available — it was a custom creation for a celebrity client. [url]
• There's barely anything that someone hasn't tried adding to pizza, though there are many who debate the need for these wild experiments. Whatever your tastes, this list of 50 pizzas — one from each state — should give you plenty of options. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: bacon, food, ice cream, pizza, viagra, whiskey

DailyDirt: The American Bacon Obsession

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Americans reportedly eat, on average, more than 18 pounds of bacon each year. This unhealthy obsession with bacon apparently began in the 1990s when the high-protein, high-fat, low-carb Atkins Diet started gaining popularity. Now there are tons of bacon-inspired products available to the bacon lover, such as bacon ice cream, chocolate-dipped bacon, bacon doughnuts, bacon candy, bacon soap, bacon toothpaste, and bacon air freshener. Here are a few more examples.

• Next time you make yourself a drink, why not make a "Bacon Sour"? All you need is St-Germain Liqueur infused with applewood smoked bacon, Basil Hayden's Bourbon, lemon juice, maple syrup, Peychaud's Bitters, and some egg white. [url]
• You can be a real bacon lover with J&D's Baconlube, a bacon-flavored personal lubricant and massage oil. Apparently, Baconlube began as an elaborate April Fool's joke, but when J&D's revealed that it was never intended to be a real product, bacon lovers everywhere protested. So now, for a limited time, you can buy an actual bottle of Baconlube. [url]
• On April 1st (wink), Scope announced that it was introducing an entirely vegetarian (i.e. "synthetic") bacon-flavored mouthwash. Too bad it's not real because this idea has potential. Imagine, usually nasty-tasting mouthwash now tastes like bacon, and vegetarians could get a 30-second bacon fix without actually having to eat a pig. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: alcohol, bacon, bacon sour, flavoring, food, gag gifts, jokes, mouthwash, novelty
Companies: scope

DailyDirt: Hamburgers Gone Wild

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The Library of Congress names Louis' Lunch sandwich shop as the inventor of the hamburger, but there are various disputes over who exactly cooked the first hamburger (and named it after people from Germany). In any case, the hamburger has undergone quite a few changes since the early 1900s. Here are a couple unhealthy examples of extreme burgers, and a reminder that being overweight doesn't necessarily kill you (but it's not considered healthy).

• The 'Merica burger is made of ground bacon topped with more bacon and bacon cheddar cheese, along with a fried egg and bacon island dressing. Thankfully, this burger creation was available for only a limited time. [url]
• If customers were allowed to create their own burger combinations, would people really choose to put a greasy cheeseburger between two glazed donuts? The answer is apparently, yes, and they'd add bacon as well. [url]
• What are the ramifications of being overweight? According to a meta-study of 97 prior studies that categorized 2.9 million people by a Body Mass Index, people classified as overweight (BMI >30) had a 6% lower chance of dying than people of average BMI. The conclusion should be that BMI is not a perfect metric for health, but the alternative metrics may have a hard time becoming as widely adopted. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: bacon, body mass index, food, hamburgers, unhealthy

DailyDirt: Everyone Loves Bacon

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Bacon is one of the most universally enjoyed foods... it's been called the "gateway meat" for vegetarians (and it's created quite a few ex-vegetarians). If you can't resist bacon, then you'll probably enjoy these links, too.

• Smucker's has a Maple Bacon-flavored syrup to make breakfast even more bacon-y. It contains neither bacon nor maple syrup. Discuss. [url]
• Can bacon help you during the zombie apocalypse? Maybe not, but it's still delicious. [url]
• Need another excuse to love bacon? As a bacon sandwich, it's a hangover cure. Who funds this kind of research... the alcohol industry or the pork lobby? [url]
• If you want to prepare for the worldwide shortages of bacon next year, start slowly weaning yourself off the crispy-fatty goodness now. Just focus on bacon's association with increased risk of heart disease and cancer while you experiment with Tempeh or Seitan recipes. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: bacon, food, hangover cure, shortage
Companies: smuckers

DailyDirt: Burger Innovations From Around The World

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The USA has no monopoly on hamburger innovations. Sure, Americans probably eat more burgers than any other country, and we came up with the drive-thru and drive-in processes for burger orders. But the possibilities for burgers have no limits, and here are just a few global developments in the world of burger technology.

• In Germany, McDonald's crowdsourced a few new menu suggestions which were released as actual products for sale over the month of May. The "Pretzelnator" was the first item -- offering folks a ham & cheese sandwich on a pretzel-like bun. [url]
• In Japan, the phrase "have it your way" translates to "put as much bacon as humanly possible on my Whopper, please." Japanese Burger Kings will put 15 slices of bacon on your burger for about 100 yen, and for about 7,000 yen, that's 1,050 slices of bacon on your order. [url]
• Pizza Hut in Dubai has added cute little cheeseburgers to pizza crust. They've also added mini chicken fillets on pizza crusts and cream cheese, too. [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: bacon, burgers, food, pizza, pretzelnator, whopper
Companies: burger king, mcdonalds, pizza hut

DailyDirt: Bacon A La Mode

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Bacon is an almost universally-loved food item -- it's salty and fatty and meaty all at the same time. So it's not too surprising that people will try to add bacon to almost any dish. Everything is better with bacon... and here are some examples that test that assertion.

• The makers of Baconnaise and Bacon Baby Formula have created a bacon-themed coffin for sale. For about $3,000 plus shipping, you too, could be preserved in a casket that looks like bacon. [url]
• Bacon-scented hand sanitizer is a great way to pickup stray dogs. Or to get your hand bitten... [url]
• Burger King has introduced a bacon sundae to its menu. It's not available at every location yet -- only a few hip places around Nashville, Tennessee. [url]
• Jack in the Box has a bacon milkshake that packs 773 calories into 16 ounces of bacon-flavored refreshment. No actual bacon was harmed to create this milkshake, just bacon-flavored syrup. [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: bacon, baconnaise, coffin, food, hand sanitizer, nashville, sundae
Companies: burger king

DailyDirt: Bacon Tastes Good. Pork Chops Taste Goood.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Pork is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide. Interestingly, even though it was marketed as the "other white meat" (that slogan was retired in 2011), the USDA always referred to pork as a "red meat" on its website. Here are just a few more fascinating tidbits on pig products.

• A severe nosebleed (caused by a rare blood disorder that prevents normal blood clotting) can be stopped with a rolled up piece of salt cured pork. This salt pork remedy has actually been around for several decades -- but it doesn't work with bacon, so don't grab just any slice of deli meat. [url]
• Bacon-flavored toothpaste is available for folks who like to brush their teeth as an appetizer for breakfast. Don't swallow this stuff or use as a condiment. [url]
• The use of lard isn't too common in cooking anymore -- but who's to blame for that? Pig fat just doesn't sound as appetizing as hydrogenated vegetable oils... does it? hmm. [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: bacon, food, lard, nosebleed, pork, toothpaste
Companies: usda

DailyDirt: Foods For Thought

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The popularity of food stories has moved well beyond just the occasional cooking show. There are all sorts of competitive cooking shows, restaurant reality shows, and attempts to create new food revolutions via TV shows and documentaries. Since everyone seems to like to learn about what they're eating, here are a few more interesting food articles to chew on.

• Tilapia is apparently the perfect factory fish -- but its story got bumped off the front page of the NYT due to a little bit of Osama bin Laden news. So on an otherwise slow news day, we would have learned that tilapia may not be as healthy for people as other fish and it's considered an invasive species due to its ability to outgrow other fish populations. [url]
• Baby carrots are going to be the next junk food -- if you believe the marketing hype. Celery sticks don't stand a chance against these little orange guys... [url]
• Everyone loves bacon -- even vegetarians. It's fried, salty and has plenty of fat, so what's not to like? [url]
• To discover more food-related links, check out what's cooking in the StumbleUpon kitchen. [url]  

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

Filed Under: bacon, carrots, tilapia