In the Know with Culture Cheese Magazine

Scanning the magazine shelves at your local bookstore, you’ve probably marveled at the recent explosion of culinary magazines.  It seems there’s a magazine for every need and ingredient. 

In one way this sudden availability of something on everything is an asset to the creative cook. In another way it can all be overwhelming – which magazine, out of so many, is worth buying?

Given the average price of $6.95 each, four or five of these publications in your shopping cart can quickly equal the cost of a nice bottle of wine.  So which one is the right one?

If you are a cheese lover (and who isn’t), consider taking home a copy of Culture Cheese Magazine. Published quarterly, it offers outstanding articles on the many topics surrounding cheese – cuisine, production, history, sources, wine and beer matches and thoughtful interviews with the leading individuals in the world of cheese.

The just-released winter issue detailed everything from how Henry Ford used cheese at his hosted roadside picnics to help sell his Model-T cars to an in-depth analysis of Australia’s amazing but often overlooked cheeses. Every page is filled with information that helps the reader become a true connoisseur of all things fromage.

Each copy of Culture is a feast for both the mind and the eye with insightful stories and stunningly beautiful full color photographs. With Christmas coming, it makes a great holiday gift - one to be enjoyed (and treasured) all year long...just like fine cheese!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010

Celebrate the Nutcracker Ballet with Chocolate Mice and Dancing Dolls

No ballet celebrates the delights of Christmas sweets like the Nutcracker Ballet. Taffy, bonbons and sugarplums all dance across the stage in a seemingly endless swirl of color and Christmas joy.  

For many families it simply couldn’t be Christmas without the beauty of the Nutcracker. Yet surprisingly when the ballet first premiered in Russia in mid-December 1892, it was not a success.  Many of the adult parts were then danced by the young students from the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg.

The members of the czarist court that were attending that first performance were not impressed with the young dancers’ ability.  They were used to seeing the best, not talented beginners.

The ballet then fell into disuse.  The first non-Russian performance occurred in 1927 in Budapest, followed by the first English production in 1934.  These performances were considered a success because many of the former child roles were transferred to adult dancers. Tchaikovsky’s charming music, of course, remained to the delight of both the dancers and audience.

When war erupted in Europe, the Ballet Russe de Mont Carlo sought refuge in America and staged the first stateside production of the Nutcracker in New York City.  After the Second World War ended, the first totally American performance was given by the San Francisco Ballet Company in 1944 on Christmas Eve.

The rest, as they say, is history.  Today attending a performance of the Nutcracker Ballet with a child is an American Christmas tradition.  Almost all major city dance companies stage the ballet throughout the month of December.

Some of the most beautiful performances this years can be seen at the Pacific Northwest Ballet (Seattle), the San Francisco Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre (New York City) and, of course, the New York City Ballet.  

To honor this great ballet there are two very special gifts available this season for those who appreciate dance and cuisine.  The legendary doll designer Robert Toner has created a series of breath-taking beautiful dolls that echo the haunting linear line of George Balanchine’s original New York City Ballet production.

For those too old for dolls (unless you’re a collector), L.A. Burdick in Walpole, New Hampshire have created a series of chocolate Christmas mice that would delight even a Russian czarina!  Available via post through the Internet, they arrive in a charming wooden box, ready to enjoy on the way home from the ballet!

Either gift will help you (or a lucky child) dance your way through the holiday all to the memorable music of leaping candies and whirling chocolates.

What more can one say - Hurray for Nutcracker!  It’s Christmas! 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010

Wine Lovers Toast Les Gouttes de Dieu, the Japanese Wine Comic

“Once upon a time there was an amazingly talented brother-sister artistic team who lived and worked in Tokyo.  And though they created under the pseudonym of Shu Okimoto, their real names were Shin and Yuko Kibayashi. Together their work would affect the fortunes of winemakers around the world…”

If this sounds like a fairytale, it could almost be one, but with a modern twist.

It all began in 2004 when the Weekly Morning Magazine started publishing Les Gouttes de Dieu or Kami no Shizuku. (For those of us not fortunate enough to speak French or Japanese, the title of this remarkable manga translates as “The Drops of God”).

If you are asking at this point “What is a manga?” that’s perfectly alright as there’s always more to learn in life.  Mangas are a uniquely Japanese art form that developed in the late 19^th century and first grew to great popularity in 1950’s.  Drawn most often in black-and-white comic book style, mangas cover a wide range of subjects from comedy to commerce.  

Yes, comic books and millions of people read them and not just in Japan. Canada and the U.S. purchased $175 million dollars worth just in 2008 alone!

Well back in Tokyo, Shin and Yuko were busy creating a unique storyline for their very original manga, one that would affect the marketing of wine around the world.

In beautiful line drawings they introduced Kanzaki Shizuki, the estranged son of the world famous but recently deceased wine critic Kanzaki Yutaka.  In order to claim his inheritance, Shizuki, who never learned anything about wine, must discover the identity of 12 unknown wines, known as the “Apostles”. In addition, there is a final great 13^th wine that he must find, called Les Gouttes de Dieu.  

To make matters worse, he is competing against Toomine Issei, an up and coming wine critic, who is also the adopted son of his father.  Ouch, that’s got to hurt!  But Shizuki is not alone.  He has the help of friends and the sommelier trainee Shinohara Miyabi. 

In order to win Shizuku and Issei most find the exact match for the 13 unnamed wines that Yutaka only describes in his will.  So far in the series, seven “apostle” wines have been identified, each representing the character of one of Jesus’ faithful followers.

The resulting wine wins have caused wine sales to surge not only in Japan, but also across all of Asia. The French wine houses, lucky enough to be named as the producers of one of the winning mystery wines, have seen their sales increase up to 70%! Fantastic! 

Creativity, you see, is important, not just in the making of wine, but also in its marketing. What good is the greatest wine in the world if no one enjoys it or worse it is enjoyed only an elite special few? No, wine, good wine is meant for us all.

Shin and Yuko in Japan have opened the cellar doors and uncorked, not just any wines, but some of the world’s best (and often overlooked) wines for hundreds of thousands of readers. Well done!

But then wine has always been a mystery waiting to be discovered AND enjoyed!  Just be sure to share!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010

All About Kentucky Bourbon Balls, the Forbidden Christmas Cookie

Because we enjoy a wealth of Christmas traditions today, it’s easy to assume that the Holidays have always been filled with fun and food.  But actually history tells another story.

In the late 1890’s American society was split between those choosing to enjoy a lot of the best and those individuals who were becoming concerned about the nation’s expanding waistline (sound famailiar?).  

Enter Sylvester Graham and John Harvey Kellogg, America’s first health food advocates. 

If their names ring a bell, yes, you're right.  These were the men who, in the name of improved health and prolonged life, invented graham crackers and corn flakes.

But they went further then merely introducing s’more crackers and dry breakfast foods.  They advocated an entire ‘healthy’ diet that contained no meat, no chicken, no turkey, no fish, no spices, no coffee, no tea, no chocolate, no sugar, no wine or spirits.  Kellogg even founded a health center called the Battle Creek Sanitarium or ‘the San” for short. As you might imagine, such restrictions at the San made Christmas a little Spartan, to say the least.  No wine, no spices? Mon dieu! 

There is even a film, “The Road to Wellville”, that gently pokes fun at the waistlines and the extremes that the conservative Victorians were willing to embrace to “live the right life.”

Well, while all this was happening in the Midwest, holiday entertaining was regaining its footing in the South. The bleakness of the Civil War was fading from southern tables and no one there was willing to give up fun and food just to be thin.  (Enough thinness had been imposed by the Civil War to last Southerns for quite some time, thank you please).   

All this is not to say that Southern hostesses weren't aware of national culinary trends.  The health flour developed by Sylvester Graham was by then being sold in cracker form as a “good-for-you” snack. 

Well, thought the southern ladies, it might be good for you, but it doesn’t beat a fine shot of bourbon over the Holidays.... so one can just forget about all those rather boring northern crackers.

And the South did until in 1919 two substitute teachers, Ruth Hanly Booe and Rebecca Gooch, decided their candy making skills were much better than their teaching skills.  

Working in the empty ballroom of a local hotel, they created the first and original Kentucky Bourbon Ball by combining plain ol’ graham cracker crumbs with immortal Kentucky bourbon.  May their fame live forever. 

And though Rebecca later sold her shares to Ruth, the company they founded has continued to this day, the Rebecca Ruth Candy Company, still owned by Ruth’s descents and still making Kentucky Bourbon Balls.

But if you’d prefer to make rather than purchase this holiday season, the University of Kentucky Press has just released a marvelous new book, The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook by Chef Albert W.A. Schmid. 

On page 34 you’ll find an authentic (and oh so good) recipe for these forbidden cookies that Graham and Kellogg would never have allowed their poor deprived clients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium to enjoy – sweet, rich, just-perfect-for-Christmas Kentucky Bourbon Balls.

Now you don’t worry about the calories - none of us will live forever and the Holidays come but once a year.  So go ahead and enjoy some: Santa would approve - So would Miss Ruth!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010

How to Score Big at Your Next Tailgating Party with the Big Green Egg

It’s autumn in the U.S. and that means American football is front and center as the most watched sport of the season!  Whether you are rooting for your college favorite or for that big pro team that hopes to make the Super Bowl, it’s all a thrill from the first cheers to the final touchdown.

But why limit a good thing to just the roar inside the stadium?  Those in the know extend the fun by starting their pre-game celebrations at tailgating parties. Once simple affairs based on just having food available, today’s tailgating parties involve tents, tradition and terrific food.

But let’s start at the beginning.  First off, despite what some Internet sites list as ‘history’, tailgating did NOT start at the First Battle of Bull Run (or the First Battle of Manassa to use the southern name for the Civil War’s first major battle).

Tailgating is about the game of football, not armies, guns and death.  Indeed, the first intercollegiate football game (Rutgers vrs Princeton) wasn’t even played until 1869 – four years after the Civil War ended.

And then due to the lingering feelings of loss and rage, the northern and southern universities delayed playing football against each other another decade.

So, NO, tailgating did not start on the battlefields of the American Civil Wars.  Rather it started instead at a Yale football game in 1904 according to research done by Peter Chakerian.  

Due to the distance of the playing field from the University, fans knew they would arrive at the field tired and hungry.  Thinking ahead, they brought food and drink and, as a result, a new culinary tradition was born.    

The actual term “tailgating” is credited by historians to the innovative fans of the Green Bay Packers.  Back in 1919 when the team first took the field, there was no stadium and no seating for the fans.  But what fan wants to stand for a whole game - Ouch!!!

The fans resolved the problem by simply backing up their pickup trucks and dropping the tailgates down.  And in an instant, a new American word was created: tailgating.  

Today tailgating parties are an American sports tradition on campuses and at pro stadiums around the country.  Some parties are rustic with spicy chili and grilled cheeseburgers.  Others are quite elegant with signature cocktails and miniature quiches.  But all feature great food, often cooked on the legendary Big Green Egg.

First seen in Japan by U.S. servicemen after World War II, this grill was unique and very different from the more traditional metal “cut barrel” barbecues used back home.  And so were the cooking results: simply amazing flavors.

Oval in shape and containing a unique ceramic interior, it produces gourmet cuisine that easily surpasses the standard overcooked and often dried out backyard fare often served stateside.

By 1974 an preceptive business man, Ed Fisher, rediscovered the Big Green Egg.  He knew a winner when he saw it.  The result was the creation of a family owned company that would change tailgating (and outdoor cooking in America) forever: The Big Green Egg Company!

Word quickly began to spread about Fisher’s remarkable green grill, that was also a smoker and an oven as well as a traditional barbecue!  The meats (and pies and vegetables and game and pizza and more) that were coming off the Big Green Egg were attracting attention at tailgating party after tailgate party across the country.  Soon everybody wanted an Green Egg.  They even coined a word for it: “Egg-citing!”

But Fisher didn’t stop there.  He has constantly worked to improve the design and tailor the Green Egg to modern needs.  Today the exterior (still green, of course) is glazed with the same tile finish that is used on the Challenger's heat controlling external space tiles.  

Now there is an outstanding cookbook also available called, of course, The Big Green Egg Cookbook, that lists one remarkable recipe after another for such treats as Eggplant Fries, Jalapeno Ham Steaks, Glazed Lobster Salad, Creamed Corn and French Toast with Pears and Cherries as well as Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie and Kahlua Coffee Brownies!  Not your usual barbecue grill fare.  But oh so good!

But what's best of all is that, though tailgating has moved from vintage wicker baskets and aging farm trucks to space age grills that encompass designs from half a world away, what's most important has always remained the same. 

It doesn’t really matter where we live or what team we cheer for.  What’s most important to remember is that it’s fellowship that matters, not the numbers on the board.  What's how we can really score every time!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2010