Rachel Laudan

The question, posed by Ken Albala.  Why doesn’t the “West” grind wet?  That is why didn’t they soak or boil grains before they ground them? As a preliminary I would say that they would certainly have tried it.  If you look back at the past, everything that could be done to grains was: toasting, sprouting, [...]

Grinding boiled wheat. Here are a couple of questions from my food historian companion-in-arms, Ken Albala. So why do people say you need wheat to make bread? This is about 80 percent barley, and the rest sourdough wheat starter. Rose nicely, though dense, and quite pungently sour. But this is SUCH luscious bread. Exactly what [...]

Nice, very nice actually, to be idea of the day in the New York Times blog.  The idea, in a nutshell, is that modern food is great, a huge improvement on the last 10,000 years.  Not perfect.  But reason to go forward, not wallow in nostalgia. Not exactly revolutionary you might think.  Well lots do.  [...]