The Food Almanac: July 7, 2011
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the online newsletter, The New Orleans Menu notes food facts and saying.
Food Calendar
This is National Crabmeat Louie Day. It's an excellent cold lump crabmeat appetizer, the sauce made from mayonnaise, chili sauce, and a little mustard. It is not known who Louie (or Louis, as it's sometimes spelled on menus) was. But we do know that the dish is about a century old and first appeared in San Francisco. Sometimes crab Louie is made into a salad, with the saucy crabmeat served in the pit of half an avocado on a bed of greens and tomatoes. A deviled egg is usually in there somewhere, too.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Crab Lake and Crab Bayou are wetlands that empty into Matagordas Bay, about 20 miles from Palacios, Texas. All of that is on the Texas Gulf Coast, about halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi. This is precisely the kind of environment where rich crabbing will be found. Oysters, shrimp, and other seafood, too. If you fail to score any of that, run your boat on the bayou to the Intracoastal Waterway, then northeast five miles to Matagorda, where Spoonbills Restaurant will be ready to serve you.
Edible Dictionary
crab finger, n. — Unlike other foods with the word "finger" in its name, crab fingers are close to being exactly what they claim they are. The working part of the claw could be said to have a finger and a thumb. The thumb is pulled out after the "hand" (if you will) is broken. That leaves the fibrous but very tender, somewhat dark meat exposed. It's held in place by a thin, translucent interior bit of shell. You clench your front teeth around this meat and pull gently. Before it got that point, however, the crab fingers have either been cooked with a warm sauce, or tossed with something like a vinaigrette and serves cold. They make for good party food because they don't need any kind of utensil. You grab the shell end of the finger and go.
Deft Dining Rule #749
For a reality check, ask the waiter who offers to top a dish with crabmeat how much extra that will be. You will learn why this offer is so often made.
Food Inventions
Joseph-Marie Jacquard did not have beef in mind when, in 1805, he devised a system of programming weaving needles with punch cards. (That idea later found its way into early computers.) But his name has been applied to a method of tenderizing meats with arrays of flat, narrow pins. When shoved into a tough piece of meat, they break connective tissues. A very advanced version of this injects fat into the meat, imitating the natural fat found in the likes of prime beef. Jacquarded beef has a bad reputation among connoisseurs, but I've heard worse ideas.
Annals of Bread
A more important culinary invention was rolled out today in 1928. The first loaf of pre-sliced bread was sold, the product of a machine invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. The place was Chillicothe, MO. It wasn't long before pre-sliced bread loaves transformed the marketing of bread across America. Of course, this brings up a question: what was the best idea before sliced bread?
Food in World Politics
Today in 1976, President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty hosted a state dinner in Washington, D.C., in honor of England's Queen Elizabeth. It was the first time such a dinner was televised. The Queen and Prince Philip were here to participate in the Bicentennial celebration.
Annals of Food Writing
Simone "Simca" Beck was born today in Normandy in 1904. A cooking school instructor and cookbook author in France, she became famous as one of Julia Child's collaborators on her landmark cookbook, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking.
Food Namesakes
Organist and composer Robert Stevens Baker popped out of the oven today in 1916. . . Big-league shortstop Chuck Knoblauch emerged into the Big Infield today in 1968. He has an extremely rare bilingual double food name. His first name is the English word for a beef shoulder roast, and his last name is the German word for garlic. . . U.S. Air Force General Earle "Pat" Partridge flew into the world today in 1900.
Words to Eat By
"Good cooking is when things taste of what they are." — Curnonsky, the "Prince of Gastronomy."
Words to Drink By
"A prohibitionist is the sort of man one wouldn't care to drink with — even if he drank." — H.L. Mencken.