McDonald's as humanitarian?

Here's an unconventional perspective on the humble McDonald's cheeseburger. 

"It has been my gut-level (sorry, pun) feeling for a while now that the McDonald’s McDouble, at 390 Calories, 23g (half a daily serving) of protein, 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and iron, etc., is the cheapest, most nutritious, and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history."

 Freakonomics

Sugar is bad

"The harmful effects of sugar go way beyond empty calories.
Added sugar is so unhealthy that it is probably the single worst ingredient in the modern diet.
Here are the top 9 reasons to avoid sugar as if your life depended on it (it does)..."

PopSci

Coffee brewing guide

"The question is, what type of coffee rig is right for you? We’ve compiled the facts, the pros, and the cons here so you can get in the home brew game or upgrade your existing tools. The hardest part might be narrowing it down to just one final choice. That one’s on you, brew master."

Epic Chef

Epic Meal Time

No Reservations

MJ: A drunken afternoon with Anthony Bourdain

PopSci: Love Of Spicy Food...

...Is Built Into Your Personality:

Chili Peppers via Flickr

Love of spicy food isn't just desensitization, or cultural upbringing--it also has ties to who you are.
When I was a kid, I'd watch in awe as my dad ate dinner. It wasn't just the heaps of food piled on his plate that impressed me. (The words "portion control" had yet to enter the public lexicon.) What always made me shake my head in disbelief was his curious habit of alternating bites of his meal with bites off a jalapeno pepper. To save time, he'd simply hold the pepper in one hand and his utensil in the other. I should also mention that my heritage is Indian, and that my mom served up traditional spicy dishes on a nightly basis. But it was never spicy enough for Dad.

5 Moments in Sauce History that changed the way we eat

Of course its on the list

TAOM: How to Make the Best Beef Jerky in the World

Beef Jerky:

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from Tim Ferriss‘ new book, The Four Hour Chef. 

An Introduction to Dehydrating Food

Dehydration is all about removing water from food. Doing this helps to preserve the food (bacteria need water) and concentrate flavor. It’s a common misconception that you need heat to dehydrate food. But low humidity, not heat, is the driving force behind dehydration. Warming the air surrounding the food helps keep it dry, but if the air doesn’t move, the food will stay wet. So when dehydrating food in the kitchen, make certain that air can freely circulate around it.
Sidenote: You can achieve the same preservation of dehydration by leaving the water in food but making it unavailable to bacteria. Just add substances like sugar and salt, which bind to water molecules and lock them away. Lox (salt-cured salmon) and salted butter are safe to keep at room temperature for this reason—but unsalted butter is not!

The Best Jerky in the World

The Science of Good Cooking

Your Scrambled Eggs Are Wrong, And Other Cooking Science Lessons From America's Test Kitchen:

Eggs 101 Cook's Illustrated

The food experimenters who publish Cook's Illustrated have put together a cookbook featuring 50 kitchen science lessons every home cook should know. We put some to the test.

Dumplings Are a Good Thing in a Small Package

Dumplings Are a Good Thing in a Small Package: New York has been a dumpling town for a long time, but lately the two-bite delights are being executed with meticulous care — and stuffed, pinched and twisted into fresh manifestations.

Oil Guide

Oils for Cooking and Drizzling (NY Times Well blog)

This week, Martha Rose Shulman explains all in a primer on the various oils that can be used in cooked dishes and baked goods and drizzled on salads, fish and vegetables. 

The Fifth Taste

Red Boat Fish Sauce. I once saw a grainy old public TV documentary about the strict process Vietnamese craftsmen went through to make great fish sauce.
It wasn't very appetizing but I know from the Food channel that it can really make a difference when cooking.

Guide to Beef

An Interactive Visual Guide to the Common Cuts of Beef

New Hot Sauce

Gindo’s Spice of Life

Best of both worlds: Maple Syrup Whiskey

Cabin Fever Maple Whiskey

How to: tomato sauce

I already advertised the No Reservations Techniques Special, but I thought a post dedicated specifically to sauce was in order. So here is the master class.

Conventional Wisdom: Skipping meals

There is a story in the first Freakonomics book about Psychologist, Seth Roberts, who experimented on himself and developed the "Shangri-La Diet". He found that by eating a spoonful of sugar at intervals throughout the day he could "fool" his body into believing it had enough calories.

It seems like this article about the potential benefits of Intermittent Fasting (IF) may touch on some of the same physiological responses that Robert's observed. I'll be watching to see how Dr Berardi's findings are received by the fitness community. Here's a taste:

For a very specific demographic – people with fitness and exercise experience who also consider breakfast 15 minutes they’ll never get back – IF could be a very effective approach. Maybe even the best approach.

Top Shelf South Carolina Whiskey?

South Carolina inventor ages liquor overnight

Alcoholic icecream

Could this be the fabled perpetual motion of recipes!

10 Things Steakhouses won't tell you

a list from Smartmoney.com