Wednesday, February 26, 2014

CORE COMPETENCE:  So maybe this is less-than-healthy foods week on the blog, because Ben and Jerry's is unveiling a new ice cream process where they'll put two ice cream flavors on each side of the pint and a "core" of caramel, Nutella-ish stuff or other flavors in the middle, yielding four new flavors; and McDonald's is finally going to figure out how to serve breakfast later in the day.

Also: a history of the chocolate chip cookie:
Unlike the anonymous inventors of such American staples as the hot dog, the grilled-cheese sandwich, and the milkshake, the creator of the chocolate-chip cookie has always been known to us. Ruth Wakefield, who ran the popular Toll House restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts, with her husband, Kenneth, from 1930 to 1967, brought the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie into being in the late nineteen-thirties. The recipe, which has been tweaked over the ensuing decades, made its first appearance in print in the 1938 edition of Wakefield’s “Tried and True” cookbook. Created as an accompaniment to ice cream, the chocolate-chip cookie quickly became so celebrated that Marjorie Husted (a.k.a. Betty Crocker) featured it on her radio program. On March 20, 1939, Wakefield gave Nestlé the right to use her cookie recipe and the Toll House name. In a bargain that rivals Peter Minuit’s purchase of Manhattan, the price was a dollar—a dollar that Wakefield later said she never received (though she was reportedly given free chocolate for life and was also paid by Nestlé for work as a consultant).

12 comments:

  1. Joseph Finn11:59 AM

    Nutella and Vegemite, the scourges of taste buds everywhere.

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  2. You're 50% right. Nutella is of the gods.

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  3. Joe, in your honor, I'm going to try Nutella as a spread on biscuits, the next time I make them.

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  4. Joseph Finn12:58 PM

    Which ones? Nyarlathotep? Azathoth? Yog Sothoth?

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  5. Watts1:05 PM

    The good ones. The ones that bring joy.

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  6. Joseph Finn1:10 PM

    Apparently, "joy" also means "black death in your mouth."

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  7. The Pathetic Earthling1:41 PM

    Please do not invoke the Yog Sothoth so casually.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCZCxeZKgh8

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  8. victoria3:49 PM

    I do have to say that I'm a little confused how the Ben & Jerry's thing is so "OMG REVOLUTIONARY!" in all the articles about it given that Karamel Sutra has been around for awhile now. (Not that I'm complaining, because Karamel Sutra is fabulous.)

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  9. You are correct. My opinions concerning Nutella are those of Jay and Silent Bob concerning Morris Day and the Time.

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  10. Jenn.6:13 PM

    I had the same thought! (Not the first time that I've agreed with my sister.) That said, Ben & Jerry's + hazelnuts = a combo that I can definitely support.

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  11. Jim Bell2:47 PM

    What? Is everyone embarrassed to say that McDonald's serving breakfast all day would be better than the moon landing! Sausage Egg and Cheese Muffin!!!!! Yayyyy! Hash Browns, Yayy! I love Ronald. I love Grimace. I don't go there just to meet gay male hookers. I'm actually there to eat fries and double quarter pounders and big macs. Miss me when I'm gone!

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  12. Jim Bell2:48 PM

    LIke that comedian says, "Did your mom ever make anything as delicious as a McDonald's french fry?"

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