I buy Generic Mainstream Brand Organic Consistency sometimes.
Cold medicines, ibuprofen, etc -- I always buy the Wal-etapp or Wal-cedrin or Wal-adryl, etc.
Way too fussy about cereal to buy generic.
I don't eat cereal, but the kids do, and I tend to buy non-generic because I remember thinking generic cereal sucked when I was a kid. Always tasted vaguely stale and off. Eggs and milk we buy organic, meat we don't because we have an unhealthily enmeshed relationship with our butcher, Bobby, and he doesn't sell organic. (And when I buy supermarket meat, the fact that most of our meat comes from Bobby makes looking for organic seem pointless.) Come to think, Bobby's chicken is free-range, but nothing else.
Any kind of drugstore product -- OTC medicine, lotion, whatever, I buy storebrand.
Veggies, we do a CSA and go to the farmer's market, but if I'm in a supermarket and we need something, I don't buy organic.
There's a list of fruits and vegetables that my wife tries to buy only organic becase of pesticides. And we usually get organic dairy.
But, I wouldn't get generic cereal either. It tastes like end of the month grocery shopping when I was in grad school.
Milk must be organic. As a little kid, Rory refused to drink anything other than Horizon.
White sugar and white flour I typically buy generic from Aldi. But I try not to use white sugar or white flour much. I'm with HBGB on generic cereals -- and, in fact, the ones at Aldi are name brand in a generic box, so.
For virtually everything else, I will prefer the organic if it's equally convenient and in the same price range. But I won't go all the way to Whole Foods for the privilege of paying $4.99 for a tomato.
Not bothered about organic, although if somebody offered me inorganic vegetables I'd buy them in a heartbeat. But I try to buy free range meat and eggs, if I can find any indication. Local veg if possible in season, but I'm about using local shops as much as local growers.
Fair trade tea, coffee, chocolate (it's usually easy to find).
Mainly store brand cheapo for store cupboard stuff, but I do like properly soft toilet paper. I buy undyed if possible, or white otherwise, because a relative of Mrs y used to work for a firm that made the stuff and told her stories about the coloured dyes that would make your hair stand on end (shorter version: basically they don't break down in any reasonable timescale.)
6.3: If you get colored TP, your ass crack stays dyed for life?
You know, I don't think I see dyed TP ever anymore. When I was a kid there were pastels available and various prints, but now I only see white (or environmentally sound variations on white).
We buy pretty much generic everything (I do all the grocery shopping), except for a very few items. Hot dogs top the list because duh, but Roberta also insists on Duke's mayonnaise and Mt. Olive pickles.
Getting the super-duper generic cereal (the one that came in a bag instead of a box and was on the very bottom shelf) was a rare treat as a kid. I'm guessing what was really going on is that my mom was reluctant to buy it, since it was shitty, but it was basically forbidden—and thus highly sought after by me and my brother.
But most of our meat comes from the farmer's market, along with nearly all of our vegetables and fruits during the warm season.
I don't even own a television eat food.
We do always get the organic, uncured, super plus extra hot dogs.
8. Pastel TP is still available over here. I know people - mainly pretty old - who still like to buy it to match the paint in their bathroom. These are the attitudes which led to les evènements in 1968.
I vacillate between organic eggs and chicken-torture eggs, depending on how cheap I am feeling. Sometimes I go with cage-free, non-organic, which is something of a middle ground.
I used to buy organic milk, but we go through a lot of milk, and that habit went out with the recession.
Organic milk and eggs. Veggies from the farmers market when open, no particular emphasis on organic otherwise. We're nearing the tail end of a failed experiment in store brand plastic wrap. Bison when we can get it -- this has been a bigger problem this year than any of the last five. Culture here is very local-centric, to the point where if you're bringing beer to someone's house, the most highly rated choice is a growler from a local brewery, then a local six. Non-local micro is a distant third, and bringing a national brand is like peeing in their bushes. They probably don't even have generic beer anymore, do they?
I bought a supercheap, very small (3.5 cu ft) chest freezer so that I could buy organic meat, which basically is not sold in small portions except at exorbitant prices. Buying the freezer was worth it.
Store brands are not particularly cheap any longer at the chain groceries we frequent. Basically, price is determined by which store I choose-- dollar stores, Costco, and ethnic grocers are cheapest, with frequent brand-dependent quality problems. Any kind of processed food with liquid (ice cream, cha sui bai, cheese) can be ruined by cutting corners, so no generic. Except plain yogurt. Dry stuff is usually OK.
One by one, organic dairy products are ruining me for the regular stuff. I can't go back to Dannon "yogurt".
I also buy "cage-free" eggs, even though I don't believe it means anything.
I'm pretty picky about getting not just organic milk, but this one particular brand of organic milk. (The Organic Cow, used to be Organic Cow of Vermont.) The difference in taste is quite noticeable to me, even in coffee (where I drink most of my milk).
Back when I used to make yogurt regularly, it was far and away the easiest and fastest brand of organic milk in which to get a culture to grow. I tried making yogurt from non-organic milk once, and nothing happened. It was still milk after something like 10 hours. Gross.
Food Lion- and Kroger-brand frozen cheese pizzas kick Tombstone's ass and are reliably cheaper. (But if Freschetta or Home Run Inn pizzas are on sale, I'll go for 'em.)
Generic everything except Special K and Cheerios (the store brand versions just don't compare), eggs, meat, and milk. My organic v. conventional produce decisions tend to be pretty erratic, depending on what looks good at the store, what's on sale, and what I feel like eating.
I'm basically the same as chris in 6. I try to buy free-frange meat, I always buy free range eggs.
Everything else, I'm much less doctrinaire. If the organic stuff looks nice, and isn't excessively expensive, I buy that; ditto the inorganic stuff. I'm buying mostly on what looks freshest, and best quality. I use a mixture of local shops, markets and big supermarkets. I prefer to shop local for food if I can -- and am lucky enough to have decent shops available both in Oxford and near home in London -- but again, I still buy a lot of non-fresh food and non-food products from whatever supermarket or shop is most convenient at the time. I buy a mixture of generic and branded, but it depends very much on the product and I'm not particularly systematic either way.
Even where I do have specific preferences they aren't always for the 'brand' version. So I prefer a cheap brand of tinned pulses [chickpeas, kidney beans etc] that you mostly find in Indian grocers, but I always buy Heinz if I'm buying baked beans.
Home cultured yogurt is easy and great. IME the greatest source of variability is starter culture, not milk. Recently dated plain yogurts work for me, there are a couple of brands that are reliably bad, and a couple that are variable, I suspect variation between packaging/culturing locations but haven't decoded the lot numbers.
I hate variable pH in canned tomatoes. It would be so easy to have a website that could be queried with a lot number.
I used to buy quite a lot of game, too, which is [obviously] organic and free-range. I've not bought so much recently because I haven't been passing the usual butcher where I get it, rather than because of any conscious choice not to buy it.
I vacillate between organic eggs and chicken-torture eggs, depending on how cheap I am feeling.
I want organic eggs from tortured chickens, but the guy a Whole Foods says that market niche isn't being served at the moment.
You could set up a coop in your backyard, and artisanally hand-torture your chickens.
I'm just a bit shy of the square footage needed to raise chickens in the city.
Organic? Bah. I try to eat only silicon-based life.
I don't care about whether or not something is organic or not as such. Neither health nor animal welfare play any role in my purchasing decisions. I do find that free range chickens and eggs are better, so I try to get them, though halal chicken is pretty good too and considerably cheaper. I prefer grain fed beef to grass fed, so that sort of does it for the organic stuff. Other meats, it varies - if I'm buying at local stores decent quality equals organic, if I go to my favorite butcher shop in Manhattan, not necessarily. With milk, good organic milk is clearly better, but, pace commenter children, Horizon doesn't qualify. Nor does the ultrapasteurized crap which is worse than the worst generic supermarket milk. The organic stuff is also often obscenely expensive. I buy veggies at the greenmarkets, plus a good part of my (modest) fish intake. I always buy brand name plastic and foil, generic sugar, premium brand name flour (but not organic), random dried beans, and generic cereal.
Are the Sam Adams people stupid, inarticulate, or both? Or is the whole thing phony?
27. Given the square footage usually used in the country, you could probably raise chickens in your closet with a grow-light (next to your weed).
30: How about a nice coupe? Chickens like cars, and you could probably find a decent '89 Civic and throw it up on cinder blocks in the yard.
I want organic eggs from tortured chickens,
Trader Joe's organic eggs from from chickens that have been de-beaked. So you know that not only have they been tortured by having their beaks cut off, but they are also kept in conditions crowded enough to require this measure.
24 Genuine game is almost completely unavailable in NYC, and in all other places I've lived in the US. You can get farm raised 'game' at higher end stores, and you can special order imported hunted stuff; a quick check shows me that one big producer/importer is currently offering Scottish hares at $60 each.
We buy exclusively recycled tissues and TP, and we suffer for it. A few weeks ago I bought "75% tree free" tissues (sugar cane fiber, I think) and... my God, so horrible.
I get antsy if I have to buy non-grass-fed milk at the deli, but I'm being completely ridiculous.
Organic hot dogs and bacon are so totally worth it, just because the quality is much higher.
re: 35
Yeah, very different here. I can go to the butchers in town and get more or less anything. Couple of types of venison, rabbit, hare, pigeon, grouse, woodcock, pheasant, guinea fowl, duck, etc. A lot of that will be wild, but some might be organically farmed stuff. I like rabbit, duck and pheasant, so buy those fairly regularly [when I remember], venison I like but tend to just buy that in the supermarket.
32: I'm more worried about the neighbors calling the cops on my coop than I am about the chickens.
34: Thanks for the tip.
I haven't eaten a hot dog for 40 years and if somebody made me do it I wouldn't know whether it was organic or not (they're made of recycled salted condoms, no?). The problem with bacon in Britain is that it's much harder these days to get streaky (American), which I prefer, than back (Canadian), because the latter was high status a generation ago. You can find it easily enough in a supermarket, but you don't know where it's been.
I've been going to the big discount supermarket (where they have the divided check out lanes that none of you have ever seen) more often recently, as it is now on my way to work. It's interesting to see how badly people in poor neighborhoods still get ripped off by convenience store pricing (and quality). Things get awfully cheap at the big store.
Anyhow, to the OP, I buy store-brand TP and paper towels, occasionally generic pop, conventional, non-local produce, mostly store-brand or generic staples (pasta, popcorn, etc.). Usually if the price difference between cheap name brand and store-brand or generic is less than 10%, I'll just go with the name brand. You know, a dime savings on a $1.99 container of oatmeal or whatever is not enough for me to get excited about.
On the meat side of things, I'm totally getting a Meat Share at this amusingly hipsterish (no, really. You have to watch the video.) kickstarter-funded local butcher shop, should it ever actually open.
Organic eggs are pretty good, but we get eggs of uncertain but likely extremely local provenance from a local poultry shop with a thriving killing floor in the back room, and they are the greatest damn eggs in the world.
40: Hey, followup question -- what products do you comparison shop for price on while you're in the supermarket? I am shamefully careless about food prices, I sort of buy whatever seems reasonable without looking at price tags. But for some reason I watch the price of butter -- there seems to be as much as a dollar a pound difference between different brands of butter, and which one is cheap is completely random. And we go through a lot of butter.
the big discount supermarket (where they have the divided check out lanes that none of you have ever seen)
I'm not sure what this means, but I wish to endorse the system I encountered at a Trader Joe's in Brooklyn. Single queue. Next available customer to the next available cashier. So sane compared to the normal rat race.
what products do you comparison shop for price on
Everything. Except hot dogs, mayonnaise, and pickles.
Market Basket brand cookies happen to be bomb, but this datum is of limited utility.
On the subject of food, I made a creamy pumpkin coconut soup this weekend that I really like. But Rory finds pumpkin too sweet and won't eat it. Substitution suggestions? (Think garlic, onion, ginger, lemongrass and chilis with coconut mile and something that will blend into a smooth, slightly thick texture like pumpkin but isn't sweet.)
42. Yes on butter. We've recently given up Lurpak because the price has gone up 50% in six months. Now we tend to buy generic or what's on offer.
Food Lion- and Kroger-brand frozen cheese pizzas kick Tombstone's ass and are reliably cheaper.
This is so true, except substitute HEB brand. I love their jalapeno and pepperoni pizza. In fact, generic frozen pizza beats pretty much every other pizza I've ever had, delivery or in a restaurant. The bread is never quite as deliciously fresh elsewhere.
(Except when my mommy makes pizza from scratch. Hers is the very best.)
42: Well, butter is the one thing we tend to splurge on at my house. Someone else buys only EarthBalance Buttery Spread, and I go with Hope Creamery (a local product) when it is available, as it is pretty much the best butter I have ever tasted. I was at perfidious Whole Foods recently, and stocked up on some of their organic stuff, as it seemed cheap (i.e. cheaper than what the corner store charges for Land 'O' Lakes).
As far as comparison shopping, I do some, but I'm mostly attracted to deep discounts. So if there are 4 frozen pizzas for $10, I'm gettin' 'em. There's another big supermarket near work, but after a dismal exercise in trying to find nice crackers there for a party, I am trying not to patronize them. Prices are higher, selection is worse.
I do go to the Aldi nearby occasionally, but the long lines and iffy quality of some of the stuff make that pretty rare.
43: Does anyone want to find the previous thread for me? Basically what happens is that the clerk checks your items through the scanner, and then there are two belts side-by-side, so that once one person is checked out, they can bag their groceries at their leisure, without holding the next person in line up. It's pretty common around here, but everyone else claimed they had never seen it before.
46. Butternut squash is the standard substitute. Is that too sweet/
It really is a pity that pizza from scratch is so much work. I was excited to find my grocery stores stocking frozen half-baked Chicago style pizza.
I suppose there should be some commas somewhere in 52.
Butternut squash is the standard substitute.
Yep. Also, sweet potato.
35: or you could just go out with a gun and shoot your own like a real American, you effete urban elitist.
It really is a pity that pizza from scratch is so much work.
Huh? Homemade pizza is super easy! Spread some sauce on a crust, toss on cheese and whatever other toppings you like, and pop it in the oven for 7 or 8 minutes.
I think you skipped a few steps there, Di.
50, 53: The original version of the soup was sweet potato. Too sweet. I'll have to try the butternut squash and see if she'll go for that.
Also, what kind of a freakish child are you raising, Di, who objects that food is too sweet? Does she try to chase the other kids off your lawn?
56: Okay, so, make sauce and dough. Still.
Crank up oven to 550F, While that's pre-heating, dissolve some yeast in a couple cups of warm water. Peel an onion. Dump a bunch of flour into the yeast and water, along with some salt and maybe some olive oil, attach dough hook and turn on your stand mixer. While that kneads, chop up your onion and throw it into a pot with oil and salt. Mince some garlic. Throw that in with the onions. Open a can of crushed tomatoes or two and toss that in the pot with some basil, black pepper, oregano. Simmer. Turn off the mixer and leave the dough somewhere warmish to rise. Grate your cheese. The dough should have relaxed enough by then to toss into a crust. Do so, set on a pizza paddle that's been dusted with cornmeal or masa to prevent sticking. Top your dough and slide it onto the hot pizza stone. Set a timer for 7 minutes. Take pizza out when the cheese is the way you like it.
The pizza practically makes itself.
Seriously, I make pizza like once a week! Not more than 30 minutes, start to finish!
When you make a pizza, you can use parmesan cheese to write hidden messages. It won't be very visible on top of the mozzarella until it browns at bit.
61: And then another thirty minutes to clean the sauce pan, mixer, etc.
the clerk checks your items through the scanner, and then there are two belts side-by-side, so that once one person is checked out, they can bag their groceries at their leisure, without holding the next person in line up. It's pretty common around here, but everyone else claimed they had never seen it before.
Oh. Not sure about the previous thread, but I've seen that specifically at a Cub Foods in Suburban Chicagoland. It's nice.
63: Or, you know, sometimes a couple of days...
Homemade pizza gets really easy if you have premade dough in the fridge all the time (which I do since I've been doing that Artisan Bread in 5 min a day thing -- big batch of dough once a week, bake a loaf whenever I run out). If you cheat on the sauce and use jarred/canned, it's ten minutes from the thought of pizza to looking at a finished pizza that's too hot to eat.
(I can't remember where I saw this, but it was some blog recently, and it works great. If you get a cast iron pan hot on the stovetop, dough on the pan, fillings on the dough, and then under the broiler for five minutes, it's the closest I've ever managed to professional pizza. None of the vaguely damp crust that's always a risk with home pizza.)
62 prepwnd. And not all of us have standmixers, nor would we have space to put them if we did. On the other hand Sifu and others here assure us that regularly making pizza dough from scratch keeps depression at bay.
If you push the right buttons on your computer, Domino's will bring you a pizza. Fact.
66 is genius. I fully intend to try that out this week!
Further to 69, you can push buttons on your phone to the same effect, but why bring talking to people into this mealtime decision. You know?
66: One could also make a large batch of sauce ahead of time.
Long ago, I was a doughmaker for Domino's. We used a very good recipe, and people who ordered pizzas on the right days* got wonderfully fresh crust.
* I also drove a truck, delivering to stores in Billings and Missoula twice a week each. I delivered on the same day I made it, and it would be best the next day, after rising some (but not too much).
Sifu and others here assure us that regularly making pizza dough from scratch keeps depression at bay
I do? Given that I've never made pizza dough, and haven't baked anything in probably close to 20 years, I wouldn't trust me on that score.
If you had made that type of dough more recently, you'd realize that you have been saying just that.
I still maintain that making pizza requires an effort similar to two or three more commonly prepared meals, the efficiency of particular chefs and mass-production notwithstanding.
76: Perhaps I'm just no good at other meals. (I do make a nice steak, which is definitely less labor intensive.)
These are the attitudes which led to les evènements in 1968.
Finally, the truth can be told.
OT And away we go:
Remember Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the guy who at the height of the spill apologized to BP on behalf of America for the "tragedy" of the $20 billion clean up fund putt together by the White House? Meet your next chairman of the Energy Committee.
77: If you can make a pizza in less time than the Dominos guy takes to get to Stanley's house, I think you're probably pretty good at other meals (or could be so with little practice). Although I hear bad things about your pumpkin soup.
On the pumpkin soup, I think butternut squash is next thing to indistinguishable from pumpkin when cooked. I wonder if halving the pumpkin (or sweet potato, whichever) and throwing in some rice for non-sweet something to give the puree body would work. If it weren't Asian flavors, I'd say half sweet and half white potato, but I can't see white potato with coconut milk and lemongrass.
But I shouldn't be giving pumpkin soup advice -- my last attempt was fetid and horrible.
79: And Ron Paul might chair the banking committee. At last an end to the curse of fiat currency!
Don't consume meat or fish or eggs, though the boy buys eggs every now and then and buys some local cage free brand. I always buy Strauss organic milk, a) the glass bottle tastes better b) from my research & correspondence with them I'm reasonably confident they treat their cows well and when they do 'retire' them they give them to more humane butchers c) I think their methane recovery electricity projects are great. Tend to buy either Strauss yogurt, for the same reasons, or Brown Cow, which also seems to treat their cows very well. I will settle for Clover in a pinch, and when I do get generic cheese, it's usually Clover. I miss having friends who kept cows they were storing up retirement money for--really fresh milk, much less Hindu guilt.
Habits I've picked up from my parents who've been buying organic vegetables since they were available: always buy potatoes, berries, apples organic. The boy likes to stick to organic peppers too.
I get my rice and spices at an Indian grocery store, which is increasingly stocking organic spices, which is rather reassuring. If I was left to my own devices I would always buy white basmati rice, Tilda brand, but the boy won't eat that much white rice, so I buy CA organic brown rice in bulk.
Besides dairy, very little brand loyalty, beyond Amy's frozen food as an occasional treat, Blanxart chocolate when I can find it, Annie's cheddar bunnies, and these organic coconut juice cans that I'm totally addicted to. I really like Kashi's heart to heart O's, but we switched Joe's Ohs from Trader Joes in a bid to reduce sugar. We also get their frozen gyoza and their nuts a lot. Go super generic/costco (usually get in on parent's costco run) for things like batteries and tissues.
My habits are strongly formed by the fact that not going to Berkeley Bowl can be incredibly inconvenient. I'm sure I'd have different habits if Lucky or Safeway were closer.
Oh wait, darn, he's only running the subcommittee that handles domestic monetary policy.
I prefer grain fed beef to grass fed, so that sort of does it for the organic stuff.
So, so wrong, for both health and taste reasons, unless you're talking about ultra-high end stuff from a butcher.
I don't put much emotional or moral stock in the organic label, but it turns out that most of what I eat is organic -- I do a biweekly meat shopping trip to Whole Foods to stock up on bacon and bison, and I tend to buy eggs and vegetables at the very convenient, open on weekends local farmer's market. (Confidential to CCarp: You can't get bison because it's all going in mass quantities to California).
Right now, I don't eat much else, so I don't buy too many other things. For the pasta and yogurt and such I get for my kid I tend to comparison shop a bit but rarely get the generic brand.
c) I think their methane recovery electricity projects are great.
"Master Blaster runs Bartertown!"
If it weren't Asian flavors, I'd say half sweet and half white potato, but I can't see white potato with coconut milk and lemongrass
No, but now you mention it you could probably cut the pumpkin/sweet potato with a bit of turnip, which is slightly bitter and should reduce the sweetness. Never used it with lemongrass and coconut, but I don't see why not.
So, so wrong, for both health and taste reasons, unless you're talking about ultra-high end stuff from a butcher.
My meat consumption is mostly a mix of stew meat (organic, grass fed when possible/affordable), high fat content ground beef (any decent quality stuff that isn't from a supermarket and thus loaded with water), and the rare several times a year aged steak from Ottomanellis. I've had foreign grass fed steaks that can compare, but the domestic ones manage the neat trick of being even more expensive than the dry aged prime grain fed ones while being basically crap. Again, neither health nor animal welfare play a role in my food buying decisions. It's all about balancing taste and cost.
88: Oooh! I like turnip! Worth giving a shot, at least.
And this would be a place for a pet peeve about the bacon craze - it's driven the cost of decent bacon through the roof. A half dozen years ago Schaller & Webers ran for about $3-4/lb now it's about $10. They literally doubled the price overnight at one point. Fucking foodies, ruining it all for the rest of us. (C.f. oxtail, hanger steak, and increasingly calf's liver as well)
I got confused about dry aging beef very dry aging game birds. Hanging a cow by its neck is hard work.
Do Americans eat a lot of bison these days, and if so is it farmed, wild or betwixt and between? Mrs y says that she never heard of it being generally available when she were a lass.
91: I think your division into "us" and "foodies" may fall apart under scrutiny.
I always buy Strauss organic milk
Wow is that stuff delicious. Occasionally I snag a bottle if I happen to be at the store on the sell-buy date, because then it's half-price (and expensive even at that, but worth it once in a while).
We buy mostly organic produce and meat, and free-range chicken and eggs. I've always been pretty good about comparison shopping, but I tend to focus on saving in the kitchen (through efficient meal planning) rather than scrimping at the store. Things may have to change a bit now that our health insurance costs just rose 25 percent.
For anybody who for whatever reason is in the French Alps, make a point of buying the local unpasteurized milk. So amazingly good. Just make sure you drink it fast, it really doesn't have much of a shelf life.
93 -- Not a lot of bison consumption in the aggregate at all, but it's a bit of a mini-trend, and for me personally bison is a staple and probably my most regular dinner. (That's unusual). It wasn't widely available for daily consumption (at least outside of Montana and Wyoming?) until roughly 10 years ago.
It's mostly ranched, not farmed, and definitely not wild.
I can't imagine any milk tasting as good as not having diphtheria feels.
I made a giant vat of tomato sauce yesterday. But I kept it rather chunky - or chunkier than I'd like on pizza, at any rate - so that I could use it in a variety of ways.
I don't buy many generics. Invariably, every time I do I'm disappointed by them (Target's Up and Up, I'm looking at you). But I also don't buy a lot of things that come in generics. Very few cereals, etc. I do buy a lot in bulk - dried legumes, grains, etc - from the co-op, which is sort of generic and sort of not?
I buy organic milk and I try to get other dairy products organic but that's certainly not always possible. (I like cheese way too much to limit myself to what's on offer organic.) As for meat, I'd love to buy more of it free-range or organic than I do, but I can't quite afford it. I wish I had a separate freezer, as that does make it cheaper. Eggs, always organic/free-range, or, failing the organic mark, pastured, and usually local. (I try to buy most of my stuff local. It's not hard where I live.)
Vegetables and fruit, I try for organic but it doesn't always happen. I do tend to privilege local over organic on occasion. I used to have a CSA, but now I attempt to just get to the farmers market. There's one every day of the week, practically, where I live.
97. makes sense. What would you compare it to? beef or venison?
Hanging a cow by its neck is hard work.
No harder than making pizza from scratch.
Given how close the bison came to extinction, I'm not sure how you can say any bison are "wild" as opposed to feral.
101 -- Much, much closer to beef than to venison. Whole Foods sells a bison ribeye that, when broiled, tastes like an excellent steak with a slightly heartier flavor. For ground beef hamburgers, it can be a bit dry (I think because it's not quite as fatty) but it's really incredibly good in stews and chili.
Oh. I should also admit that an absurd amount of my food budget goes to Diet Coke. I should learn to like the generic versions, but I just don't. (Well, really, I should cut it out of my diet, but, um, yeah.)
re: 101
GBK, the 'posh' UK burger chain, does buffalo burgers. But I can't tell whether those are American bison or some other breed.
I suspect it's water buffalo.
You can learn more about the incredible awesomeness of bison here.
what products do you comparison shop for price on while you're in the supermarket?
I don't comparison shop at all; I'm tremendously spoiled by having an independent gourmet grocery store right across the street from my apartment and the convenience completely overwhelms my urge to save money. Every so often I go to a much larger independent grocery and am amazed at how much cheaper it is... but then my laziness kicks back in and I default back to the place across the street.
Bison is awesome. As Halford says, it's like heartier, very lean beef; if I were using it for hamburgers I'd mix it with some fatty cut of beef, maybe some oxtail. That would be a fantastic burger.
98 As a kid, the milk in rural Poland came in big metal containers straight from one of the local peasant farms. Milked by unwashed hands in filthy conditions. Traditional organic farming, so good for your health. To be fair, keeping a basic cow stall clean when you don't even necessarily have running water is simply not possible.
79, 83, 85: John Kline is probably taking over the Labor & Ed Committee from George Miller, who's a fucking hero. Kline wants to outlaw card check, project labor agreements, and prevailing wage laws. American voters sent a clear message on November 2nd: Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act!
(Don't worry, apo, it's not your kind of bacon. IYKWIM.)
You can learn more about the incredible awesomeness of water buffalo here.
Do Americans eat a lot of bison these days, and if so is it farmed, wild or betwixt and between? Mrs y says that she never heard of it being generally available when she were a lass.
A few years back I went with a few friends to visit Long Island wineries, and we took a slight detour in order to gaze at someone's herd of bison. I guess I could post a picture to the flickr pool, but they're rather far away and behind a fence; it wouldn't be very informative about bison-rearing practices. These two links, however, may satisfy your curiosity! Also: I recall hearing that Ted Turner is largely responsible for popularizing bison meat, and owns a fuck-ton of them; Wikipedia agrees.
Given how close the bison came to extinction, I'm not sure how you can say any bison are "wild" as opposed to feral.
In the case of the European bison (or "zimbru", as I like to call it) I think we can credit the love of Eastern Bloc elites for animal-hunting refuges.
Surprisingly extensive Wikipedia entry that may be basically a rephrased magazine article
GBK, the 'posh' UK burger chain, does buffalo burgers. But I can't tell whether those are American bison or some other breed.
The difference between buffalo and bison is that you can't wash your hands in a buffalo.
I have really never heard of any Americans at all eating wild meat that hadn't basically been shot by themselves or their acquaintances. My perception is there is maybe one place in NYC and one place somewhere else in the country where you can buy such things.
Exception: duck, goose, fish
animal-hunting refuges
Fox's new reality show: Animals hunting refugees.
106: Everybody's got a water buffalo.
I've eaten a ton of game in Poland, but never bison. That in spite of the fact that throughout the eighties and early nineties our game mostly came courtesy of mom's step brother's father in law, a game keeper in northeastern Poland, home of the Mighty Żubr and their tasty favorite grass.
116: I've never seen anybody shoot a fish, except with an arrow.
One sees bison ranches around here, but I don't know how big the industry is.
That's awesome. I didn't know people ate water buffalo meat (as opposed to buffalo mozzarella). I think I've found my new small business/solved the what to do with my backyard problem.
On bison: I had some bison stroganoff earlier this year at an activist* benefit dinner, and it was probably the best meal I've had in the past 3 years.
I remember seeing bison burgers advertised around here at restaurants as long as 15 years ago. I think it's relatively easy to come by, as there are a significant number of farmers who've either switched from cattle, or incorporated bison into their herds around here. A former colleague's in-laws sell it at local farmer's markets, and I know I've seen it at butcher shops. Not sure about the supermarket. Probably the fanciest ones have it.
*Pro-indigenous group, so it had no pretensions to veganness.
116: I've always wondered where the butchers around here get their venison. Or whether it's even venison at all.
123: A giant lake. The bow had a reel and fishing line was attached to the arrow.
125: Even Santa has had to set up a side business to make ends meet in these tough times.
from the wiki article on the European bison:
Herds consisting solely of bulls are smaller than mixed ones, containing two individuals on average
Math people help me out here. Presumably the minimum size for a 'herd' is two.
125. A question which wouldn't arise in Britain, where the answer is, where's the nearest stately home? The venison ttaM gets in Oxford is largely culled from Magdalen College Park and the grounds of Blenheim Palace, courtesy of the Duke of Marlborough. Round here it tends to come from Chatsworth, a nice little side business for the Duke of Devonshire.
Anything like that in your neck of the woods?
I think most deer culled around here have tire marks.
130: It doesn't work that way here, usually. I'm sure there are big estates that are posted, so only the grandees can hunt there, but big, big chunks of this and surrounding states are either public lands on which it is legal to hunt with a license, or private lands, which may be hunted on by licensed hunters for a fee, or smaller private acreages (and regular old farms) where the owners and their friends hunt. There are also game farms and game ranches, so that's more the cause of my confusion -- do butchers here in the city get much meat from private hunters, or is it all deer that have been culled from more-or-less tame herds that live in fenced-in feedlots? I suppose I should just go ask my friends who are into that kind of thing.
You can get farmed venison around here (that is, you can find it here, but the last I had came from Texas). My understanding is that the health certification process keeps wild venison out of the market, which is a bit of a shame seeing as how it's so plentiful (and delicious). If I lived in my mom's neck of the woods, I'd probably take up hunting.
In NYC all the venison is farmed. That is they're raised the way other free-range farm animals are.
I've seen unusually many dead deer on the highway in the last few weeks.
Most of my rural relatives come from the class where it is an autumn ritual to inquire of your male acquaintances "So, didjya getchyer deer yet?" Mostly the meat from those deer is shared out amongst friends and family, and occasionally charities set up for the purpose of distributing venison to the elderly and less fortunate.
I've seen unusually many dead deer on the highway in the last few weeks.
The cheaper kind of free range and organic meat.
133: That was what I was wondering, if there's a way that wild-shot venison can be sanitized or what.
I've seen unusually many dead deer on the highway in the last few weeks.
Well, of course you have.
An former cow-orker posted on Facebook this morning that she *swears* there was a dead cheetah on the side of the (central NC) highway this morning. I feel certain she saw a dead bobcat because, man, how lost would a cheetah have to be to end up in NC? But I guess it's possible that a kept exotic animal got loose or something.
49: I think I have seen these double-sided checkout lanes while on vacation in the Outer Banks, NC and Virginia Beach, VA areas. They don't have them here in NJ.
I always buy organic milk and eggs. We're vegetarians, so don't buy any meat. For a while I was buying almost all organic produce and grocery items, but have cut back on that after I bought a house and became poor (relatively speaking). Some name brands/organic stuff I refuse to cut out are King Arthur flour, Muir Glen canned tomatoes, aluminum-free baking powder, and real maple syrup.
There are a ton of deer hiding out in my neighborhood, waiting 3 weeks for the end of hunting season.
Here people ask if someone has their elk yet: a number of my son's 11th grade classmates were out this last weekend, but I haven't heard yet how they did. The wife and a friend of hers have announced an elk dinner for Thanksgiving, but not only have they not gotten one, no one they thought might give them some has come through yet.
The wolves are said to have eaten a bunch of elk: expect federal bills to repeal that Endangered Species Act including, and this is the great bonus of Republican legislative control, a bill here declaring that the ESA is a Tenth Amendment infringement, and not an appropriate exercise of the Commerce Clause. (Last session, our lege did the same thing with federal gun control. Lost in district court, they expect to lose again in the Ninth Circuit, and then get the SC to take it and overturn 200 years of Commerce Clause jurisprudence. Morons.)
There's a nice bison ranch in Baltimore County, MD; and they ship. I had a couple of bison burgers last night: if you don't overcook them, and use a nice cheese, it's a pretty good way to go. Not as good as the steaks I had last week, but they're pretty hard to find. I think I should buy a half or quarter -- and really ought to stop dicking around on the internet and get that done.
People hunt wild bison that cross the line out of Yellowstone. Season opens Nov. 15.
140: But, a bobcat would probably be less confused because it is local. A cheetah would be really out of place and likely to wander into traffic.
I should pick up some bison steaks. There's a place near my office that sells them along with gator, yak, python, iguana, bear, and various other meats.
The bobcats are so embarrassed by the cheetahs. Can't they get their act together?
I buy non generic spices, beer, soya sauce, yoghurt. I prefer industrial meat since I care more about climate than cruel. I don't easy it often tho.
Rah does the regular grocery shopping and comparison shops on basically all prepared foods - jarred salsa, chips, blocks of bulk cheese, cereal, etc. - and we're both 100% satisfied with the store brand in the vast majority of cases, but there are a few things we always are particular about regardless of who is shopping:
The Duke's and the Mt. Olive requirements are pretty universal throughout this part of the South, IME.
It's worth noting that we're down the street from three different Indian groceries and a very good Korean & Japanese grocer, so there are a handful of things we only get there but mostly because they're the only place we can find those things. It's so nice living in a place where those goods are available, but if HP Curry sauce or good udon noodles started showing up at the "normal" grocery store I would probably stop going to those places because they're not in the normal errand pattern.
Duke's mayo, on the very rare occasion that we buy any
You would not believe how quickly Roberta can go through an industrial-sized jar of Duke's.
Well sure, but can she go through one of the smaller ones?
Genuine game is almost completely unavailable in NYC, and in all other places I've lived in the US. You can get farm raised 'game' at higher end stores, and you can special order imported hunted stuff; a quick check shows me that one big producer/importer is currently offering Scottish hares at $60 each.
This is, I believe, because it is illegal in the US to sell wild hunted game.
Experts have documented the fascinating interaction between certain game animals and the upstate New York water table. In fact, Buffalo buffalo water Buffalo water buffalo.
the poultry industry is grosser than the vast majority of the rest of already-gross industrial agriculture
For a delightful bouquet of aromas, I suggest US Interstate 81 around the vicinity of Harrisonburg. Chicken farms in every direction.
she *swears* there was a dead cheetah on the side of the (central NC) highway this morning
Was it a cartoon, and were there bits of orange cheese-flavored powder everywhere? Because then it would make sense. Oh, and if so, someone should notify Chester's next of kin.
The bobcats are so embarrassed by the cheetahs. Can't they get their act together?
Well the cheetahs were quitters, what with being extinct and all. Maybe they even left the country (presumably because the pumas were all turning Republican), but you can't blame the bobcats for being unimpressed.
||NMM to this guy's employment with the Michigan AG.|>
Well sure, but can she go through one of the smaller ones?
In middle school my class went on a field trip to the ranch of some retired magnate of a fast-food chain which was breeding a cross of bison, longhorn, and Brahma cow, IIRC. I can't find anything about it online.
I'm amused that Duke's is such a hot commodity. We ended up with a jar of it after a backyard barbecue cookout. No one in the house would tuch the stuff, it being an unknown brand, and it sat in the fridge until well after the expiration date, before eventually making it into the trash. And now I come to find out we were sitting on Southern gold!
I haven't eaten a hot dog for 40 years and if somebody made me do it I wouldn't know whether it was organic or not
I think it was this that made me get two w/mustard and 'kraut today. A few times a year a nice crisp pair of hot dogs are just what I need. I got them over at one of the places where the economy always sucks.
King Arthur flour, every fucking time, because I love to bake and it is hands-down the very best
I've heard this from several reliable sources, but I'm still a bit sceptical. How does one judge the quality of a flour?
I feel a bit guilty about insisting on name-brand cereals rather than generic. But I swear I can taste the difference.
Generic plastic and foil wraps are generally not as good, imo.
163(a): I get a higher rise with it and things just taste more... bread-like. I suspect part of it is that it's unbleached and part of it is that they stick to a particular kind of wheat from specific suppliers for their flour, as I understand it. Mainly I was attracted to it originally by it being unbleached and by the company's narrative of being employee-owned but now I'm just hooked on the quality.
Opinions differ, of course. I think my mother would stab someone to death for the last bag of White Lily.
My mother would also give Roberta a run for her money on how fast she can go through an industrial-sized jar of Duke's. I think my mother's ultimate mayo dream would be to have a Duke's truck back up to the house and fill a tank once or twice a week. She'd put a spigot in every room.
No offense to your mother, but the idea of mayonnaise spigots in every room is right out of David Cronenberg's The Sandwich.
ultimate mayo dream would be to have a Duke's truck back up to the house and fill a tank once or twice a week. She'd put a spigot in every room.
This sounds vaguely obscene.
163 Generic wraps and foils are flimsy pathetic crap that you end up ripping to shreds in frustration. Green toilet paper and paper towel are special madeleines for remembering that long ago trip you took behind the Berlin Wall. The only difference being that you can find them on the shelves.
Speaking of groceries, I just picked up some of these chips which are made with hummus, and I'm dipping them in hummus. The universe! It might collapse!
Robust, I think I'd like your mother.
Or, well, at the very least...we do have a shared deep appreciation of the fineness that is Duke's Mayonnaise.
what products do you comparison shop for price on
Everything. Except hot dogs, mayonnaise, and pickles.
This is embarrassingly spot-on for me.
Oh, and: in general I buy whatever in the vegetable department if I'm at the grocery store (I usually try to go to the farmer's market) and for frozen veggies. But seriously, don't ever buy generic when it comes to frozen corn. The difference between generic and brand is huge. Frozen corn is cheap. Buy the good shit. The generic stuff tastes like cardboard.
I've mentioned this in a previous discussion of store brands, but during college I became briefly obsessed with the competing store-brand versions of Triscuits, because they all have way better names than "Triscuit." From memory Harris Teeter has Weav-its ("once you pick up the box, you just can't weave it alone!" was my standard joke), Kroger has Weavers, Wal-Mart or Kmart has Double Cross, and there are others I'm forgetting.
Generic wraps and foils are flimsy pathetic crap that you end up ripping to shreds in frustration.
Another reason to buy the good stuff: Reynolds Wrap is union made! (Also, Oral B toothbrushes.)
Is it too late to admit that I've just read this thread?
On the mayonnaise: yikes, 100 calories per tablespoon (per 157). But I'm not surprised, and I tend to avoid mayo. On the other hand, I'm in utter denial over the fact that peanut butter is the same. A nice little internal monologue goes on now when I have peanut butter: yep, that's a hundred calories right there, uh-huh, and okay, and well, let's see [as I continue to spread the peanut butter], I suppose I'll have some kale tonight, s'pose I should try to keep this to a single tablespoon; wonder if the freshly-ground peanut butter from the health food store is also 100 calories per tablespoon. Who knows!?
66: I've been doing that Artisan Bread in 5 min a day thing
I should look into this, but don't recall where it comes from.
177: Ah, thanks. I know I should have googled, but it's a tired sort of evening.
Much appreciated.
I can't be bothered to read the whole thread, so I'll ask your apologies if this has already been posted, but, in case not, here's a link to Environmental Working Group's list of "dirty" and "clean" conventional fruits and vegetables, in terms of pesticide residues. We tend mostly to buy organic versions of the things from the dirty list. (Although, we don't carry the list around and consult it at the store, which the perforated "cut-out" lines around it at the link above would suggest is the intended use. That would be preposterous.)