“Territorial” is a term of art for traditional regional British cheeses. As a definition it’s a bit loosey goosey. It can mean an area as big as a county where a cheese was made, like when it’s used for Lancashire or Cheshire. Or it can be as specific as the town where the cheese was […]
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Good winemakers often make wine from the grapes grown in their own vineyards. Excellent olive oils are most often pressed from the olives of a single estate’s groves. Farmstead cheeses, made only with the milk of the cheesemaker’s own herd, are revered at most good cheese counters. Being involved in every step of the process […]
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Some foods are so much a part of a place that you never think of one without the other. Belgium’s got their waffles. Champagne has their bubbly. Buffalo has its chicken wings; Nashville has its hot fried chicken. In the Spanish village of Almoharín, they’re all about their figs.
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I used to joke that The Netherlands only had one cheese: Gouda. Gouda in endless varieties, gouda with endless wardrobe changes. Gouda aged one year. Two years. Four years. Gouda with red wax. Gouda with black wax. To me, Dutch gouda was an enjoyable cheese, but monotonous, dull. It never got me excited. It never […]
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Cory Carman grew up in the Wallowa valley in eastern Oregon, the fourth generation on her family’s cattle ranch. On the wall in her office, she has a map of the surrounding land. She can point out which plots were purchased by her great-grandfather a century ago, and chart how the land was later split […]
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On the surface, making caramel is simple enough: take sugar, heat it to boiling, add cream, let cool until creamy or chewy. But it’s tricky to make really well, which is why it’s hard to find great versions of the darkly sweet treat in stores. It comes in a variety of consistencies and flavors and […]
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Twenty-five years ago, you might have heard me patiently explain to a customer what a chipotle was: a smoky, slightly sweet dried pepper with a hint of heat. Nowadays there are more than 2300 “fast fresh” restaurants across the country with the same name. I remember snaking through unorganized aisles at Asian food stores looking […]
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Black Mitcham peppermint was first cultivated around 1750 in the county of Surrey’s Mitcham district, just southwest of London. The “black” part of the name comes from the dark color of the plants. Under grey English skies, the deep purple undersides of the leaves can appear black in some crops. For 200 years, Black Mitcham […]
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Forget the pineapple. These hams start with heritage Duroc pork raised outdoors on pasture on a single farm in northern Indiana. They’re cured and smoked by the meat mavens at Smoking Goose. The result? They’re showstoppers without the extra garnishes.
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Allan Benton’s bacon is powerful. Salty, smoky stuff, it’s by far the most intense bacon we sell. After tasting it for the first time, I imagined Allan Benton to be a big, burly guy, with thick, tattooed forearms and a bushy beard. But as the old adage goes, never judge a smoker by his bacon. […]
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