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Italian law says cheese making here must commence within two hours of milking.
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huge wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Under newer EU regulations and Italian laws dating back centuries, Parmigiano-Reggiano can
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This one small city, off the radar for most tourists, is home to the world’s largest pasta maker, Barilla, which also runs a major culinary academy here. And Parma claims Italy’s largest food producer of any type, agri-giant Parmalat, named for its hometown. The city produces two of the world’s most recognizable and coveted foodstuffs, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma, Italy’s beloved cured ham.
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Another best-in-class food product is made just down the road in the neighboring town of Modena, equally famous for its exotic cars, as headquarters of both Ferrari and Lamborghini, and its exalted aged vinegar, Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena. This thick, powerful, complex vinegar is precious and far apart in flavor from the sad, thin, generic, and often heavily processed commodity item simply called balsamic vinegar in much of the world.
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Like today’s popular expression “sense of place,” terroir is the sum of all things that give individuality to a particular region’s agriculture. These can include the chemical composition of the soil, the flora, what kinds of animals, insects, and even microbes are found there, as well as weather and seasonal changes. Proximity to the sea is a classic ingredient of a particular terroir, especially evident in briny, peaty, single-malt Scotch whiskies.
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law, these pastures cannot be chemically fertilized or planted with new types of crops, thus ensuring the purity and consistency of the milk supply, and legally the cattle of Parma—some four thousand head strong and every single one numbered, monitored, and accounted for—can eat only this natural growth from spring to fall. In
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Silage, a wet feed made by the fermentation of various grasses, grains, cereals, or corns, widely used in the American cattle industry to foster fast, cheap growth, is expressly forbidden. So are all supplements, antibiotics, and bovine growth hormones—along with all hormones of any kind. If a cow becomes sick to the point where it is medically necessary for a veterinarian to administer antibiotics, it is taken out of milk production until such a time as the treatment has ended and the cow’s system is clear of the drugs. This all makes the milk today largely unchanged since Benedictine monks here first invented Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
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milk. Its consumption has been linked to improved bone density, and it is believed to be responsible for many other health benefits. After lengthy and sophisticated laboratory testing and analysis, it remains the only cheese approved for consumption by astronauts, chosen separately by both NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency. It was literally the first cheese in space. Like the grass, insects, and cows, the residents of Parma have a symbiotic relationship that keeps the circle of life very much alive. The popular business management terms vertical integration and horizontal integration are nonexistent here. Cheese
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Consorzio Parmigiano-Reggiano, which plays a role not dissimilar to the offices of Major League Baseball or the National Football League. On one hand, the Consorzio exists to promote
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The Consorzio’s logo is a not-subtle crown inscribed with the word Parma. In America, the word prosciutto typically refers to a particular Italian-inspired style of cured but uncooked ham, very thinly sliced. But in Italian, it simply means ham, including many types of prosciutto cotto (cooked) and crudo (raw), of which Italy’s finest is Prosciutto di Parma, or Ham of Parma. It cannot legally be manufactured anywhere else in Europe.
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have four ingredients: pork, salt, air, and time. Prosciutto di Parma is always totally pure and free of preservatives. Even completely natural ingredients common in ham making elsewhere—water, sugar, smoke, and spices—are banned.
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Tests by Bloomberg showed that Kraft Parmesan contained almost 4 percent cellulose, a plant-derived polymer mainly used to make paper and paperboard. Other brands had cellulose content as high as 7.8 percent.
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Kraft was forced by courts to stop selling this product as Parmesan cheese in Europe and renamed it Pamasello, but sells it here as “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese.” My guess is that the “100%” refers to the grating, not the cheese, and in fact it is completely grated.
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Kraft’s includes milk of unknown origin and purity, cellulose powder, potassium sorbate, and cheese cultures.
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Every time I’ve visited Parma, I’ve eaten my final meal of the trip at La Greppia, a classic mom-and-pop restaurant in the heart of the city, where the husband is the maître d’ and his wife, a true nonna, or Italian grandmother, heads up an all-female kitchen (the couple just, finally, retired). La Greppia’s specialty is classic local dishes, and it is wise to begin with their signature appetizer, poached pears with a thick mousse made from Parmigiano-Reggiano, milk, and cream.
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Most of the fakery surrounding the King of Cheese has to do with the misleading use of “Parmesan,” not Parmigiano-Reggiano, so when you see the full Italian name and it says “Made in Italy” and has the PDO seal, it is usually the real deal. The same is true of Prosciutto di Parma. However,
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If you go mail order/online, you cannot beat Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which buys whole wheels directly from dairies in Parma and handles them very well. This is the choice of the Consorzio itself when it needs to ship the cheese within the United States for events. For high-quality balsamic, look for the full name Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena or Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Reggio Emilia.
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Again, Zingerman’s is an excellent resource for authentic standout balsamic vinegars. *“Paolo Rainieri” is an amalgam of Parma cheese makers I met, almost all male and almost all second, third, or fifth generation in their jobs. One had worked every day, save his two-day honeymoon, for thirty-five years.
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Rosa di Parma, the Rose of Parma, is reserved for special occasions like Christmas or important guests, but it is so easy that you might make it more often. Mama Rosa’s version serves 8 to 10. 2 garlic cloves, finely minced ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 beef tenderloin (3 to 4 pounds), well trimmed 1 pound Prosciutto di Parma, thinly sliced 8 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved into thin slices with a vegetable peeler 2 tablespoons butter, preferably from Parma 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary 6 sprigs fresh rosemary ½ cup brandy ¼ to ½ cup beef broth Directions – In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic and oil. – With a sharp knife, butterfly the tenderloin by cutting lengthwise almost all the way through, leaving just ¼ to ½ inch of meat before unfolding like a book. Cover with parchment paper and pound with a heavy frying pan until the beef is about ½ inch thick. Brush the beef with the garlic oil. – Cover entire surface of the beef with half the prosciutto, slightly overlapping the slices. Top the prosciutto with the shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano. Top with the remaining prosciutto, again overlapping slices slightly. – Starting at one edge, carefully roll the meat up into a log shape. Mama Rosa sews the edge of the seam closed with a needle and sewing thread. Alternatively, you can tie the roll at close intervals with kitchen twine, but you will not get as good a seal. – Place 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large saucepan over high heat. In a small bowl, mix the salt and chopped rosemary, then rub the herbed salt over the meat log. Add the beef to the pan and sauté, turning occasionally, until all sides are browned, about 10 minutes. – Dot the meat log with the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and scatter the rosemary sprigs in the pan. Pour the brandy over the top. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 30 minutes, adding broth as needed to keep the pan from drying out, until the beef is medium rare and reaches an internal temperature between 130°F and 135°F. – Remove the beef to a cutting board and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Slice into spirals and serve. Mangia!
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Bluntly, the seafood industry is rife with fraud, substitution, and adulteration.
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Species substitution and species adulteration are terms for a common scam in which a much less expensive—and sometimes dangerous—fish is sold as a premium species to which it is often completely unrelated.
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the single most common substitute for the tuna is escolar, one of most dangerous seafood products you can buy. In the seafood industry, escolar is nicknamed “Ex-Lax fish,” because it contains a natural wax ester that can give people digestive distress and diarrhea for days. It was responsible for a wave of six hundred illnesses in Hong Kong and has been banned completely in food-safety-obsessed Japan for nearly forty years. It was effectively banned here too by an “import bulletin” issued by the FDA in the early 1990s but then unbanned in 1998 when the bulletin was canceled. When people get sick after eating sushi or sashimi, they often blame the rawness for their stomach distress, saying something like, “I must have had bad tuna.”
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Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill,
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But if there is a poster child for fake fish, it’s red snapper, a premium choice that is both rare and exceedingly popular at better restaurants, an apparent contradiction.
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summary released with the report noted that “Oceana found seafood fraud everywhere it tested, including mislabeling rates of 52 percent in Southern California, 49 percent in Austin and Houston, 48 percent in Boston, 39 percent in New York City, 38 percent in Northern California and South Florida, 32 percent in Chicago, 26 percent in Washington, DC, and 18 percent in Seattle.” Perhaps because of its famed Pike Place Market, teeming with gorgeous regional seafood like Alaskan salmon and fresh Dungeness crab, Seattle residents can be proud to know they did so well, with “only” one fish in five being fake.
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Ninety-one percent of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported, and about half of this is farmed. Yet only one-thousandth of 1 percent of imports are inspected for seafood fraud. In addition, about a third of the imported seafood is poached or caught illegally, which further obfuscates any clue about its actual origins.
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“The problem is when you have carnivores like salmon. Then you are extracting wild fish from the ocean to feed to farmed fish, so you are still taking a lot of fish out of the ocean. The conversion rates are poor: it might take 10 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce one pound of farmed salmon [three to five pounds of wild-caught feed is more typical]. It’s a feedlot just like cattle and they use antibiotics. Salmon and shrimp farming are by far the worst.” A 2004 study of hundreds of farmed salmon samples from five leading countries found most so polluted with dioxins and PCBs that the author suggested people not eat it more than once a month. Unlike problematic shrimp and catfish from developing nations, some of the worst salmon performers were developed countries like Scotland and Norway.
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but few as absolute as with farmed shrimp.
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prices.” But while these healthy crustaceans are exported, the vast majority of the shrimp consumed in America is farmed—often under extremely dubious conditions—imported, and routinely mislabeled. In 2007, the FDA banned the import of five Chinese farmed seafood products, including shrimp, after testing revealed unapproved drugs in the shrimp, just the kind of health concerns Kronenberg and Stoeckle worry about.
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FDA is responsible for ensuring that foods are safe, wholesome, sanitary, and properly labeled . . . FDA considers detecting violations like these a low priority and devotes minimal resources to such work, according to published program guidance and senior FDA officials . . . no resources have been allocated for seafood fraud-related work” (emphasis mine). As in none, zero, zilch, nada.
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You see me complainin’ about the ‘loobster’?” Life often imitates art, and in 2005 the FDA approved the commercial use of the name “langostino lobster,” at the request of Rubio’s Restaurants, Inc.
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Inside Edition tried all sorts of lobster dishes at twenty-eight restaurants across the country, from independent eateries to the biggest chains. More than a third of the dishes did not contain lobster and usually had cheaper seafood substitutes, especially whiting.
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Timmerman reports that 90 percent of Nicaragua’s substantial lobster production comes to the United States, the two biggest buyers being Red Lobster’s parent company and giant wholesale food distributor Sysco. You can buy these shell-on, uncooked tails (these lobsters have no claws) frozen in the supermarket.
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Langostino is not lobster, nor should it be marketed as such. The FDA will be remiss in its duties if it allows restaurants or other entities to perpetuate this hoax at the expense of Maine’s lobstermen and America’s seafood consumers.” That’s
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Because freshwater crawfish from China are overabundant and subject to an antidumping duty of 223 percent, it greatly behooves Chinese exporters to transship and relabel these crustaceans as langostino.
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Further embellishing, because Maine is famous for its scallops, many advertise them as “fresh Maine diver scallops” or simply “fresh Maine scallops” at all times of the year but especially during summer, seafood’s high season. But scalloping runs from just December through March—there is no such thing as fresh Maine scallops most of the year.
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This is done by adding water and phosphates, inorganic chemicals, to boost their weight, since seafood is typically sold by the pound. In addition to charging consumers fifteen or eighteen bucks a pound for water, this also lowers the quality of the scallops. The phosphates help them absorb more water than they could naturally, and as much as 25 percent of the total weight—a quarter of what you are paying for—becomes water.
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According to GRMI, dry scallops, sold for higher prices, can still be phosphate-soaked wet scallops. As long as they remain under 82 percent total moisture, they may legally be labeled “dry.” A spokesperson for GRMI told me that some suppliers intentionally add water until they get as close as possible to the legal limit while still selling dry scallops that are nearly one-fifth water at a premium price. By choice, I
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You actually see this whitish liquid, like skim milk, pool in the pan, and the scallops are uniformly white throughout.
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Chinese, adulterated by mixing high-quality beluga with less valuable fish roe.
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Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources launched the True Blue program in 2012 to certify restaurants serving the real thing. To receive certification, these restaurants agree to let the state audit their crab invoices. One participating restaurant owner described customers to the Annapolis’s Capital Gazette this way: “They’re amazed that here we are in Maryland and most places they’d go and eat don’t serve Maryland crab . . . People should know what it is they’re eating.”
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Of the thousand-plus names, there are only eight that have specific protections from misrepresentation, three of which are canned products.
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In practice, according to the GAO report, the FDA added some four hundred fish names, some real and some made up by marketers, usually at the request of the industry, over a period of sixteen years, without ever once updating the public list. While much of the seafood business
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USDA that is responsible for setting national “organic” standards in meats and produce. As we will see when it comes to pork, beef, and chicken, the newest USDA organic certifications actually provide some long-needed confidence for consumers. But not with fish: while seafood in both stores and restaurants is routinely labeled organic, it falls under the same Wild West regulations that existed in meat before the USDA created national rules. To put it simply, there are no legal organic rules for seafood at all but also no rules against using the term. Some companies claim to follow third-party “organic” standards; some, European standards. But it doesn’t really matter because they don’t have to follow any standards and can slap an “organic” label on any seafood, even drug-addled Thai-farmed shrimp.
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to sum up the results for me in two sentences: “All studies that have investigated seafood fraud have found it. The take-home message is that anytime someone looks for mislabeling and species substitution in the marketplace, anywhere, they find it.”
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The convoluted nature of the seafood industry—where the average imported fish travels 5,475 miles before reaching a diner—makes substitution easy and pointing the finger hard. But the evidence indicates that this is never actually a mistake: in every study and case I found, and there are plenty, it was a cheaper fish substituted for a more expensive one and never, as an “accident”
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two most respected broad certifications are those from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC; the logo is a blue fish in the shape of a checkmark) for wild-caught fish, and Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) for farmed fish. The Monterey Bay Aquarium uses both in making its Seafood Watch decisions, along with another fish farming certification, from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. A less common good one is the Blue Ocean Institute ratings by the Safina Center at Stony Brook. The Gulf Wild seal assures the authenticity of wild-caught seafood from the Gulf of Mexico and is best for shrimp. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested certification is excellent: not only do all products with this logo have third-party chain of custody verification that they came from the Gulf of Maine, processing must occur within the state. Most U.S. seafood is processed overseas, then reimported.
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“Alaska Seafood: Wild, Natural, Sustainable.” Required sustainability, including its vast riches of seafood, was written into Alaska’s state constitution in 1959, making it unique in the United States. The state also completely outlaws fish farming—there is no such thing as farmed Alaskan seafood.
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see what you are eating. * RED FLAGS Be wary of the labels “fresh,” “natural” or “organic,” which have no legal meaning.
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While it is easy to make fun of retailers like Walmart, Costco, and BJ’s, these quantity-focused companies have enormous leverage over producers and suppliers, whom they often force to adhere to higher standards.
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T. J. Robinson, aka the “Olive Oil Hunter,” is one of the world’s greatest oil cheerleaders, a globally acclaimed expert taster and judge who runs the mail-order Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club.
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olive oil was the single most commonly referenced adulterated food of any type in scholarly articles from 1980 to 2010.
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Australia has become one of the most consistent producers of high-quality oil because many of their farms are designed specifically for speedy pressing (plus, Australia has the world’s strictest laws governing olive oil quality).
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Veronica Foods, one of the largest importers of exceptional real extra-virgin olive oils in
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Because the USDA standard is voluntary, that doesn’t count, and the FDA has repeatedly refused formal requests to define olive oil, which would in turn let officials do something about it.
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now get most of my oil from T. J. Robinson’s Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club,
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Almost no truffle oil is real.
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A quick online shopping trip finds gourmet store Williams-Sonoma hawking an Italianate “100% organic white truffle extra virgin olive oil” called Tartufi di Fassia. What the 100%, which by definition means all, refers to is anyone’s guess, and despite its name the ingredient list has no white truffles, organic or otherwise. It does have truffle flavoring, but “flavoring” is to FDA label regulations what “New York – style” is to pizza, code for something other than the actual thing. One of the most widely available brands, Roland, contains “white truffle aroma,” another labeling loophole that allows for a variety of natural or synthetic definitions.
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California’s McEvoy Ranch makes high-quality real extra-virgin olive oil, available by mail order and at gourmet stores. McEvoy’s acclaimed oil maker, Deborah Rodgers, also recommends Australia’s Boulder Bend, sold under its Cobram Estate label in the United States. Cobram is Australia’s most-awarded olive oil, winning more than 150 medals in competitions. Their top-shelf ultrapremium collection is guaranteed milled within four hours of harvest and is sold online, as is Spain’s vaunted Oro Bailen.
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http://www.extravirginity.com, has a frequently updated list of his recommended olive oil buying resources.
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“Mediterranean blend,” or simply “olive oil.” Very few labels include chemical composition, but if they do, Michael Bradley recommends looking for FFA of 0.3 percent or less and PV of 8 or less. European oils, especially from Italy, may also have DOP, DOC, or similar geographic indications (GIs).
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seal of certification from the new California Olive Oil Council. It should also say ‘certified extra virgin,’ which means [under California law] it has been laboratory tested and sensory tested.” The actual label she describes reads “COOC Certified Extra Virgin.” There’s also EVA, the Extra Virgin Alliance, an excellent global organization and label. UNAPROL, the association of actual Italian olive growers, has its 100% Qualita Italiana. Any of these are excellent signs. On the other hand, every expert I spoke to put little stock in the USDA’s organic certification for olive oil, from here or abroad.
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There are good and bad producers everywhere, and country of origin is no guarantee of quality. But if you have to purchase blindly with no other clue besides where it was made, choose Chile or Australia.
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Buy European oils in the spring and summer; Chilean, Australian, and South African oils, in the fall and winter. Newer is always better.
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“The notion that it is a perishable commodity needs to be better understood by both consumers and retailers,”
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While France and Italy still also use their overlapping AOC and DOCG schemes, today the PDO designation is by far the widest-reaching and most important mark of Real Foods that are real based on where and how they are made. In this confusing world of food acronyms, it is the one most worth remembering.
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Fortunately, if you try hard enough, you can also buy real PDO San Marzano tomatoes here.
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The online DOOR (Database of Origin and Registration) is a compilation of more than fourteen hundred products currently awarded or under review for PDO, PGI, and TGI status.
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While not foolproof, it is much harder to go wrong when buying anything bearing one of these three logos:
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Unlike most beef, the fats in true wagyu have a liquefying point well below 98.6 degrees, and thus all those tiny shotgun pellets of fat melted in my mouth.
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Kobe is the sixth-largest city in Japan, located in the Hyogo Prefecture, where by law all Kobe beef originates. The rules are very strict, as they are for Parmigiano-Reggiano and other geographically indicated products: Kobe beef can only come from Tajima cattle and only from those born, raised, and slaughtered in the prefecture. Their feed is free from the growth hormones, animal by-products, steroids, and most of the antibiotics widely used to produce beef in the States, but while ideal for promoting marbling, it has some downsides. Kobe cattle consume far more grain than grass, a naturally unbalanced diet, and much of it dried, but it all must be grown in the prefecture. Every step of the process is closely regulated, from their age to the very high standards for grading, far above the benchmarks for our highest grade, USDA Prime.
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in the entire prefecture there are only sixty-nine hundred head of Tajima cattle and only twelve bulls.
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Real Kobe beef is never frozen; never on the bone; never sold at retail; and never, ever cheap. Steak on the bone here is a telltale sign of fraud—any Kobe porterhouse is a fake Kobe porterhouse.
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million bucks an acre, it is not the cost that prohibits more growing—after all, grapes sell for a lot more than potatoes. Rather, it’s the regulations that dictate in painstaking detail exactly where grapes deemed worthy for Champagne production can be grown.
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Champagne, the regulations are just a starting point. Many producers age well beyond the minimums.”
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• After blending, the wines are put into bottles with yeast and sugar, then placed in caves or cellars to age. As the yeast eats sugar, it converts it to carbon dioxide, which is where the bubbles come from. Smaller, finer bubbles are a sign of higher quality. For the last six to seven weeks of aging, the bottles are “riddled,” a process by which the bottles must be regularly rotated one quarter turn at a time while lying on their sides during secondary fermentation so the solid sediment from the spent yeast (lees) collects in the neck of the bottle. • After aging, the necks of the bottles are flash frozen, which turns the sediment into a solid icy plug. The bottles are then opened and pressure ejects the solid plug, leaving only wine behind. The bottles are then recorked and ready for sale. This process is called disgorgement.
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As a rule, the best domestic sparkling wines producers don’t use the word Champagne, and I’m very happy to drink one of these bottles from Gruet, Domaine Chandon, and others. This makes the shopping much easier than for other Real Foods. All real Champagne is labeled “Product of France,” without exception. Or as longtime New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov succinctly put it, “I’m always happy with a bottle of Schramsberg, Iron Horse or Roederer Estate from California . . . But when talking about sparkling wine, let’s be honest: There is Champagne and there is everything else. The others are good, but they’re not Champagne.”
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“Consumers and Governments around the world can be entirely confident that, when they buy Scotch Whisky, they are getting an unadulterated product,” wrote lawyers for the Scotch Whisky Association, before stressing an important truth about Real Foods: “It is always important to remember that reputations can take years to build, but that they can be destroyed in a day.”
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entirely from one year of production. One interesting fact about Scotch whiskies lost on many consumers is that “age statements” are required to be based on the youngest whisky used, not an average, as is the case in some other wines and spirits. This is true whether it is a blend or single malt. When you buy a twelve-year-old Scotch, it is entirely composed of whisky at least twelve years old but often contains older spirits as well, one reason why it enjoys such consistently high quality.
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CONSUMER GUIDE TO CHAMPAGNE AND SCOTCH AND TERMS Champagne Nonvintage (or NV or simply without a year on label): Most nonvintage champagnes are blends of wines from different years and must be aged at least fifteen months. About 95 percent of all Champagnes fall under this category. Vintage (with a year): Champagne makers will declare exceptional harvests “vintage” years, something that is up to each producer and typically happens once every two or three seasons. By law, vintage Champagnes can only be made from the wines of that one exceptional year and must age at least three years. They are more expensive than NV. Prestige Cuvées: Not a legal term, this refers to extra-high-quality flagship products of different producers, for example, Cristal from Louis Roederer, Sir Winston Churchill from Pol Roger, and Dom Perignon from Moët & Chandon. Krug makes nothing else. Most are vintage, older, and more expensive than other vintage Champagnes. Rosé: These are Champagnes made by allowing contact of wine with skins of black grapes or adding red wine. Many producers make a rosé version of all their Champagnes, and rosés are considered premium, with higher prices. Blanc de blanc and blanc de noir: These Champagnes are made with only white or only black grapes, respectively, and are fairly rare. Dryness/Sweetness: There are six levels of sugar content, always indicated on the label. From driest to sweetest they are extra brut, brut, extra dry, sec, demi-sec, and doux, but most are obscure specialties and the vast majority of Champagne is brut.
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Scotch Whisky Single Malt: This Scotch can only contain malted barley and water, must be the product of one distillery and aged in wood for at least three years. However, single malts can contain a mix of different distillations, casks, and years. This allows brands like a twelve-year-old Glenlivet to maintain consistency and always taste the same, no matter when it’s bottled. Single Grain: Like single malt, this Scotch is a product of one distillery but can be made from other grains and/or unmalted barley. It is used mainly for blending and rarely sold on its own, though it is becoming more popular as whisky connoisseurship increases. Blended Malt: This style, consisting of a mix of single malts from different distilleries, is not common. Blended Grain: This style uses a mix of single grains from different distilleries and is also not common. Blended Scotch: The most popular style in the world, including nondistillery names such as Johnnie Walker (red, black, and blue), Chivas Regal, Dewar’s, Ballantine’s, Cutty Sark, and so on. These are blends of single malts and grain whiskies from different distilleries, sometimes dozens. Vintage Year: While…
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hitch—there is no such thing as grand cru Gruyère. Real Gruyère comes in just three styles, mild (regular) at five months, reserve at ten months, and premier cru. Amazon’s “grand cru” is “Produced in America with Pride” and “captures the distinct southern Wisconsin terroir.” In the case of Gruyère, consumer confusion is even more pronounced than with the Parmigiano-Reggiano/Parmesan dichotomy because exactly the same Swiss name is used, rather than the translation, less is known about the cheese in general, and many of the knockoffs are not obvious low-end powdered imitations in cardboard tubes. The Wisconsin grand cru “Gruyère” sells for far more than lobster and most domestic “Gruyères” are pricy.
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The entire category of “Swiss” cheeses, including the ubiquitous hole-ridden “Swiss” itself, accounts for less than 3 percent of domestic cheese production, of which faux Gruyère is only a slice.
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personally buy more cheese from Vermont than from all of Europe combined, and I buy a lot of cheese.
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Cypress Grove, the craft cheese maker behind Humboldt Fog, also makes the exquisite Midnight Moon, PsycheDillic, Sgt. Pepper, Bermuda Triangle, and Purple Haze, all whimsical names—and all individually trademarked. Vermont’s Jasper Hill Cellars is one of the most acclaimed and awarded U.S. cheese makers, and it has a dozen different unbelievably good cheeses, none of which is called Parmesan or Gruyère or feta. Instead it has gone with choices like Constant Bliss, Moses Sleeper, and Bayley Hazen Blue. Constant Bliss is one of my all-time favorite cheeses, and if you try it for the first time and like it, the name is far easier to remember than if you happen to try hobelkäse. The same is true for Midnight Moon or Bermuda Triangle. These dairies, and many others like them, have been very successful; their products are carried in cheese shops across the country, and they often sell so well they can be hard to keep in stock. Dairies like these prove that you can still do what
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“You cannot beat a true Spanish manchego if that’s the style you want; there’s nothing else like it,” says cheese expert Laura Werlin, whom I first met at a cheese seminar she was conducting as part of the Cochon festival in Memphis, a celebration of all things swine. “The First Lady of Cheese,” Werlin is a frequent presenter at top food festivals like Cochon, Pebble Beach, and Aspen’s Food & Wine Classic. She knows a lot about all cheeses but is a big fan of and cheerleader for American cheese makers in particular. Two of her books, The All American Cheese and Wine Book and New American Cheeses deal exclusively with these and profile many of the country’s best up-and-coming cheese makers. It’s fair to say Werlin loves American cheeses, so when she objects to the copies made here, well, it just doesn’t get any more credible than that.
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Fortunately cheese is one of the easier foods to shop for as long as you know what to look for. * FEW INGREDIENTS By law, all cheeses sold in this country have to list their ingredients, and real cheeses tend to be made with just a very limited list, like milk, salt, and rennet, with the occasional additions of enzymes or spices like pepper. If there is a much longer list or laboratory-sounding names you are unfamiliar with, that’s a sign it is an imitation. * GEOGRAPHICALLY INDICATED CHEESES There are more than 150 cheeses protected with GIs in the European, but the highest profile ones are Asiago, fontina, Gorgonzola, Grana Padano, Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano (all from Italy); Comté, Roquefort, Munster, and Reblochon (France); feta (Greece); Gruyère (Switzerland); Stilton (United Kingdom); and manchego (Spain). Try to remember this short list and if you are buying any one of these cheeses, the real thing will only come from the respective nation. Feta, Muenster, and Gruyère are especially frequently copied elsewhere. * DOMESTIC CRAFT CHEESES Because of the substitution of cow’s milk for more expensive claimed sheep’s, goat’s, or water buffalo’s milk, I am wary of buying any unbranded cheeses, like those precut, wrapped, and tagged that read something basic like “Domestic Sheep’s Milk Cheese.” I’ll only buy from actual manufacturers, and the best sell their cheeses already wrapped in proprietary labels—when you buy cheese from dairies like California’s Cypress Grove, New York’s Old Chatham Sheepherding or Vermont’s Jasper Hill Cellars, they have their own distinctive packaging.
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1973, U.S. law raised the varietal minimum to 75 percent, where it remains today. Wines made from 100 percent of the varietal displayed on their label are still the exception in this country, and very few zinfandels are made of just zinfandel. So if you buy real Chablis (only from France), you get 100 percent chardonnay, always. If you buy chardonnay in the States (regardless where it is made) you get three-quarters chardonnay, one-quarter mystery. But if you buy fake domestic “Chablis,” you might get some chardonnay—or none. It might not even be white. Go figure.
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* MERITAGE Owned and controlled by the Meritage Alliance, this term can only be used on blended wines made in the traditional Bordeaux-style. All meritage, red or white, must use only the designated Bordeaux grape varietals, and contain two or more, with no grape comprising more than 90 percent. Meritage wines are produced around the world, and the word is a good indicator of the grapes used and the style.
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