* Originally in: Fidonet - Home Cooking
Did Cooking Really Give Us The F-Word?
(Food For Thought - Dan Charles)
Processed foods get blamed for a lot of things. But this week, a group
of linguists took it to a whole new level.
To put it crudely, they argue that the invention of processed foods like
yogurt and gruel thousands of years ago gave us the F-word. Lots of
F-words. To be more precise, the researchers think that softer foods led
to more frequent use of the sounds "f" and "v" in human languages.
(Other experts on language are skeptical; more about that later.)
According to the new theory, food influenced language through a complex
chain of events.
First came agriculture and early forms of food processing like
fermentation, which delivered meals that were easier to chew. No longer
were humans relying so heavily on tough meats, roots and berries. And as
a result, newly pampered humans ended up with a different kind of bite.
Their teeth were no longer worn down so much, and they maintained more
of the natural overbite that they were born with, with teeth of the top
jaw overlapping the bottom teeth.
This physical arrangement of teeth, in turn, made it easier for people
to make "labiodental fricative" sounds like "f" and "v," which require
the top teeth to press against the bottom lip.
"This change in bite paved the way for labiodentals in the spoken
languages," says Damián Blasi, a linguist at the University of Zurich.
He spoke during a teleconference with reporters organized by the journal Science, which published the new research.
According to Blasi, humans with an overbite were more likely, purely by accident, to make "f" and "v" sounds. Then the normal processes of
language evolution took over. These slips of the tongue sometimes caught
on and became a standard part of human languages. "That doesn't mean
that labiodentals will emerge within all languages," says Steven Moran,
another linguist at the University of Zurich involved in the research.
"It does mean that the probability of producing labiodentals increases
slightly over time."
The scientists have been assembling evidence for their theory over the
past five years. It wasn't easy. "The biggest obstacle was, simply put,
that linguistic behavior does not fossilize," Blasi says. There are no
audio recordings of conversations in the kitchens of ancient
Mesopotamia.
Read the rest @
https://tinyurl.com/EFF-BOMBERS
Speaking of processed foods ...............
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06
Title: Irish Comfort Classics Shepherd's Pie
Categories: Beef, Potatoes, Dairy, Vegetables, Mushrooms
Yield: 5 servings
1 1/2 lb 93% lean ground beef (ground
- round) *
2 tb + 2 ts water
Salt & pepper
1/2 ts Baking soda
2 1/2 lb Russet potatoes; peeled,
- in 1" chunks
4 tb Unsalted butter; melted
1/2 c Whole milk
1 lg Egg yolk
8 Scallions; green only, thin
- sliced
2 ts Oil
1 lg Onion; peeled, chopped
4 oz White mushrooms; trimmed,
- chopped
1 tb Tomato paste
2 cl Garlic; minced
2 tb Madeira or ruby port
2 tb All-purpose flour
1 1/4 c Beef broth
2 ts Worcestershire sauce
2 Sprigs fresh thyme
1 Bay leaf
2 Carrots; peeled, chopped
2 ts Cornstarch
* Don’t use ground beef that’s fattier than 93% or the
dish will be greasy.
Toss beef with 2 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon salt,
1/4 teaspoon pepper, and baking soda in bowl until
thoroughly combined. Set aside for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, place potatoes in medium saucepan; add water
to just cover and 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to boil over
high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until
potatoes are soft and tip of paring knife inserted into
potato meets no resistance, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain
potatoes and return to saucepan. Return saucepan to low
heat and cook, shaking pot occasionally, until any
surface moisture on potatoes has evaporated, about 1
minute. Remove pan from heat and mash potatoes well.
Stir in melted butter. Whisk together milk and egg yolk
in small bowl, then stir into potatoes. Stir in scallion
greens and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover
and set aside.
Heat oil in broiler-safe 10-inch skillet over medium
heat until shimmering. Add onion, mushrooms, 1/2
teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring
occasionally, until vegetables are just starting to
soften and dark bits form on bottom of skillet, 4 to 6
minutes. Stir in tomato paste and garlic; cook until
bottom of skillet is dark brown, about 2 minutes. Add
Madeira and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until
evaporated, about 1 minute. Stir in flour and cook for 1
minute. Add broth, Worcestershire, thyme, bay leaf, and
carrots; bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits.
Reduce heat to medium-low, add beef in 2-inch chunks to
broth, and bring to gentle simmer. Cover and cook until
beef is cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes, stirring and
breaking up meat chunks with 2 forks halfway through.
Stir cornstarch and remaining 2 teaspoons water together
in bowl. Stir cornstarch mixture into filling and
continue to simmer for 30 seconds. Remove thyme and bay
leaf. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Adjust oven rack 5" from broiler element and heat
broiler. Place mashed potatoes in large zipper-lock bag
and snip off 1 corner to create 1-inch opening. Pipe
potatoes in even layer over filling, making sure to
cover entire surface. Smooth potatoes with back of
spoon, then use tines of fork to make ridges over
surface. Place skillet on rimmed baking sheet and broil
until potatoes are golden brown and crusty and filling
is bubbly, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes
before serving.
SHEPHERD'S PIE MAKEOVER: Between trimming, searing, and
braising chunks of stew meat and then mashing and piping
the potato topping, traditional shepherd’s pie is an
all-afternoon project. Plus, it’s hefty fare. Here’s how
we freshened up the concept and got dinner on the table
in about an hour.
SWAP GROUND BEEF FOR STEW MEAT: Ground meat cooks in
less than half the time required by bigger chunks and
needs no butchering.
SERVES 4 TO 6
RECIPE FROM:
https://www.americastestkitchen.com
Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives
MMMMM
... Another day of wine and roses - or in your case, beer and pizza.
--- EzyBlueWave V3.00 01FB001F
* Origin: Tiny's BBS - Oshawa, ON, CA -
http://tinysbbs.com (1:229/452)