Rachel Laudan

In Memoriam Ammini Ramachandran

By Rachel Laudan August 21, 2024 Adventures, Mainly Culinary, Food History, Food Processing, Cooking and Kitchens, Globalization Then and Now, Taste 5 Comments

Ammini Ramachandran passed away peacefully and surrounded by her family on Friday 16th August. She was 81. Her evocative, yet meticulous accounts of the vegetarian cuisine of her native Kerala,…

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How to Understand Flavor and Smell

By Rachel Laudan May 26, 2024 Adventures, Mainly Culinary, Food Processing, Cooking and Kitchens, Modern Food, Taste 7 Comments

Last week 18th May 2024, I was lucky enough to attend a meeting of the International Society of Neurogastronomy at the University of Kentucky, here in Lexington. It sounds very…

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Why Didn’t the Spanish Dry-Cure Ham in Mexico?

By Rachel Laudan March 7, 2023 Food History, Food Processing, Cooking and Kitchens, Globalization Then and Now, Mexican Food, Oddities and Things that Don't Fit 24 Comments

It was not for want of trying, I’m pretty sure. Instead it was for want of a suitable climate. Dry curing ham requires humid winters with temperatures that hover above…

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