Veganism, Vegeterianism, Omnivorism

[santaman2000]

.....You might have heard about the fight Donald Trump want to have about US and Canadian dairy products. He calls it monopoly, he calls it protectionist and he's possibly correct. But a lot of it is also to do with differing accepted standards and practices in the two countries. My point is that making blanket statements about the standards in milk production globally can kind of fog the issue. You don't see much US cheese in the UK for instance, but you do see Canadian cheddar, because of the alignment of European and Canadian standards. Candian cheese is of higher quality produced to higher health standards and therefore more expensive (though doesn't taste of much). One popular feeling is that US cheese, being cheaper and made under less stringent regulation will wipe out the 'better' Canadian product....

Actually the opposite. All US commercial milk must be pasteurized and all dairy products must come from said pasteurized milk. That's the general health standard. rather it's the taste of US cheeses compared to European ones that suffer badly. Generally that's blamed on said requirements.

 

[santaman2000]

You can get all sorts of information on the internet, but we tend to follow the recomendations we get from the medical specialists.

 

[santaman2000]

Veggies can be prepared so even normal prople think they taste OK.

Do my version of the Onion soup.

I am a glutton, I even like most veg. Except Broccoli, that I do not touch.
Fish.
You can do nice stuff with Turkey meat.

yes but truly good tasting vegetables aren't suitable for vegetarians. Liberal seasoning with bacon grease and/or butter is the norm.

 

[Robson Valley]

But I don't need to sacrifice the cow for the butter! (That went with the salt on the corn.)
Did several chopped onions in a little(?) bacon grease the last few suppers.
The opening act was to fry some bacon. That little piggy went to market, one last time.

 

[Janne]

yes but truly good tasting vegetables aren't suitable for vegetarians. Liberal seasoning with bacon grease and/or butter is the norm.

Try a nice olive oil and a bit MSG.
Works or me.

(MSG is a hugely undervalued additive)

 

[Robson Valley]

Cook your food for more Maillard reactions for better taste.
Extra glutamate neurotransmitter, I don't really need.

Name an olive oil which is 100% olive oil. You probably can't and neither can I.
Most are now adulterated with Canola because that's so much cheaper for better profit.
The Greek are a little less than others. Just enough Kalamata for the taste in some.

Hundreds of organic chemistry graduate students all over the Americas did a sneaky little analysis project, a few years back.
Thank internet communication for that one. Apparently, the kids across South American Universities caught on to this.

If you really want clean olive oil, the real thing, find olive oil produced in either Chile or Australia.
Their inspection services are second to none.

 

[Janne]

I buy Waitrose Organic, Spanish, or Greek olive oil here. If out of stock, Gaia Organic.
Foodstuffs are continuously tested in Europe for content. If not up to scratch, heavily, heavily fined or a prison sentence.
Waitrose does own testing too. Does not want to lose the name.

We have had a couple of 'adulteration' scandals in Europe and since then the controls are very rigorous.

Cheap olive oil in Spain that was no olive oil.. Glycol to sweeten wine in Austria. The latest one was undeclared Horse meat in meat foods.
No toxins or chemicals in the horse meat was detected, so perfectly safe to eat, but the labeling said Beef. It was Beef Plus.
Findus, a Swedish company did that one. Excellent Meatballs.
Horse is cheaper they say. But I always paid much more for Horse Steak than for Beef when we shopped in France.

Remember Clockwork Orange?
Moloko Plus. Bring it on!

USA has a problem with European cheese because the milk is unpasteurized?
BS. The vast majority of European milk or milk products are made using pasteurized milk.
(Remember, we invented pasteurization.)
But to be fair to the French ( they like cheese made from unpasteurized milk) the cheese process eliminates most of the harmful bacteria if done properly. It has to be a very filthy cheesery to make Listeria infected cheese!

They do not want the population to know how cheese made the proper way, and aged the proper length of time, tastes like.
Government protecting Big Food.
Me, I do not allow unpasteurized milk or cheese in my home. My body does not get immunized for TB, despite several tries and many tests.

 

[Robson Valley]

What gets used for internal EU testing isn't what hits the export market.
Faking body fluid samples has become quite the event, yes? It's only food. The bribes can't be too big.
Never assume that what we can buy is anything like what gets sold within the EU. Parmalat included.
Sports get sold under the table.

All kinds of cheeses from Quebec are good matches for most anything from off shore,
except a full wheel of Parmesiano and (get this) British cheddar which is as good as it ever gets.
I've made and waxed cheese in rounds to be aged. I have a bit of an idea what goes into the process.
Canadian brands to look for are Oka and Emma.

Will vegans eat cheese? They seem quite willing to harvest plant parts and even kill off whole fields of plants.

 

[Billy-o]

Ooooh, I don't know about that, B. Some Quebec cheese that I've had is better than the volume-produced cheeeese one gets in Canada. But, comparing it even to the European stuff that's imported is a bit of an act of charitable goodwill. And it is nothing even vaguely as good as the things you'll find if you go to France, Italy .. well, any European country, in fact. Funny, never thought I'd become a cheese-ist.

 

[Janne]

Quebec = Canada?

I go to Montreal once a year or so. Interesting place. Like rural France in Steroids mixed with an Imperial Russian Shtetl.

 

[Billy-o]

No, Quebec not equal Canada

Bunch of totally different, frequently warring country-ettes, federated. You should hear some of the choice and charming things folk from Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto say about each other, and that everyone says about Halifax. (And that doesn't even touch on what country folk can find themselves saying about big city types .. not that any of the cities are actually big in any recognisable way)

 

[Janne]

Vegans eat Vegan Cheese. Yes it is allowed to be called that in North America.
Not in Europe though. Cheese = milk based. Not sure about UK.

I hope they look on the ingredient list on those products. I did and put it back on the shelf.

Vegetable oils mixed with exotic chemicals plus the odd flavouring.

Check out Chicken flavoured Quorn next time you get to the supermarket.

I like the Quorn flavoured Quorn. But Quorn is expensive.

 

[Billy-o]

Quorn is good ... I cook it in chicken stock

 

[Janne]

My staff are all from Anglo Canada. My business partner from Frenchie Canada. Quebec.

She was not happy when I told her the Montreal Smoked meat ( awesome food!) originated in a Bielorussian shtetl.

A lot of N. American favourite foods are from there. Tasty!

 

[Robson Valley]

The wine soaked aged Canadian cheddar cheese produced by the Dairy Science Department of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, SK is better than anything else.
In praise of omnivory. No grape vines were killed in the making of that cheese.

Quebec is a province, not "Upper Canada" any more.

I'd be very happy to sit down every night with 2 or 3 British cheeses to try.
The imports seem few and far between or else shoppers buy them out very quickly.
I confess I do that when there's little to pick from.

 

[santaman2000]

.....USA has a problem with European cheese because the milk is unpasteurized?
BS. The vast majority of European milk or milk products are made using pasteurized milk.
(Remember, we invented pasteurization.)....

The point s some European cheeses are still allowed to be made from unpasteurized milk. Normally those are the high quality ones in regards to taste (pasteurization has a bad effect on taste)

 

[santaman2000]

.....
I do not allow unpasteurized milk or cheese in my home. My body does not get immunized for TB, despite several tries and many tests.

I grew up drinking raw milk on my grandmother's farm. Now i pay premium prices to get it directly from the farmer (the only legal source for raw milk here is such a direct sale) He also has heavy cream and home made yogurt occasionally) I'll risk it along with raw oysters.

 

[santaman2000]

But I don't need to sacrifice the cow for the butter! ....

Actually you do. Before you can get cream to make butter the dairy cow has to give birth to a calf that's then usually killed or raised a short time for veal.

 

[santaman2000]

Try a nice olive oil and a bit MSG.
Works or me.

(MSG is a hugely undervalued additive)

Both are good, but not a substitute for proper bacon grease.

 

[Janne]

Yes for sure, but in that case the US state can easily stop importation of unpasteurized milk cheeses and only allow the pasteurized milk ones.
Sweden did that ( together with many European countries) up until France could prove the risk was minimal with them.

Protection of the US cheese industry.
All countries want to protect what they have.
Better taste? I personally do not mind, as I prefer not to risk Listeria or other nice infections.

I buy US made Brie and Camembert style cheeses. I let them mature in 57 F and they taste fine. Not 100%, but for half the cost, so well worth it.