In French there’s a saying: “se croire le premier moutardier du pape.” Roughly translated, it means, “he thinks he’s the pope’s mustard maker.” It describes someone who’s perhaps a bit too proud of himself. The story goes that Pope John XXII got a hankering for the unique purple mustard of his hometown in southwestern France, […]
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If you’re like ninety percent of Americans, you have mustard in your kitchen. Not so a hundred years ago. Back then, most mustard in the US was sold as a powder to be “constituted” at home—and it was really hot. In the 1880s, Robert French, he of the most common mustard brand in the states, […]
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The recipe for Cream-Nut peanut butter from Koeze (rhymes with Susie) in Grand Rapids, Michigan hasn’t changed since Albertus Koeze started making it in 1925. The equipment is old, too, from the middle of the last century. Even a lot of the staff have been there for decades. As Martin Andree, vice-president of Koeze puts […]
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July 9, 1995—19 years ago yesterday—is the “birthday” of Zingerman’s Mail Order. Sort of. Actually we kind of made it up. Our anniversary isn’t as clear-cut as at some other businesses. We didn’t have a first day that we opened our doors the way Zingerman’s Delicatessen did on March 15, 1982. We don’t have a […]
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In the tinned fish world at Zingerman’s, Ortiz tuna is the belle of the ball. Each year we sell a boatload of it. Last year we sold more than 30,000 tins. It’s delicious, and it certainly merits all the attention it gets, but it’s not the only tinned fish in town. Portuguese sardines are equally […]
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A friend and I went to the grocery one evening in search of ice cream and hot fudge. The ice cream part was easy; we picked a good one right away. The chocolate sauce was another story. We spent a lot of time reading all of the ingredient lists looking for the one with the […]
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Look at any decent wine list in a restaurant or the display of bottles in a shop, and you’ll see the wines arranged by country (or region) of origin, and then by the kind of grape. Then take a look at the selection of coffees available at a specialty coffee shop. For years we’ve been […]
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I’ve never been to Tunisia, but I bet you don’t find too many hot dog carts on the streets. If you did though, on the condiment rack, instead of our ubiquitous squeeze bottles of ketchup you’d find jars of harissa. Harissa is a spread made of dried peppers crushed with tomato, garlic, olive oil, caraway […]
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It is illegal to cut down an olive tree in Tuscany without a permit. That’s not to say that there are thousands of Giovanni Appleseeds in jail in Florence. If you do cut down an olive tree, you have to plant another one to replace it. The law is a product of the last century, […]
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The secret ingredient for our bread is time. Letting bread dough ferment for longer before we bake it allows it to develop much deeper flavors. Our cinnamon raisin bread takes about fifteen hours to produce. French Mountain Bread takes a whopping eighteen hours. But when you take ingredients into consideration, our Parmesan Pepper Bread takes […]
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