Food Studies

Why taste tests conducted in controlled environments don’t tell the whole story.

Meet the people behind the plastic trays.

Canning is hip again, a century after it first caught on — but for very different reasons.

Mangalica pigs in Hungary. Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. Over the past few months I’ve visited food producers, large and small, all over Europe. I’ve been behind the scenes on a rice plantation, a coffee roastery, an apple farm, an artisan dairy, a buffalo butcher, and at least a dozen wineries. I’ve tasted some delicious food, but what makes these visits so special is getting to hear how and why the operation exists. In other …

Photo: Krystian OlszanskiFood Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. I’m in a food systems class this semester that is focused on the complex way that food moves from farm to plate (which in reality looks something more like from patented seed, to dirt treated with patented fertilizer, to harvesting by undocumented laborers, to processor, to manufacturer, to wholesaler, to a grocery store shelf with a paid stocking fee, to consumer, to plate). So far, our focus has …

Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. Who wouldn’t be turned off by forcemeat? The name alone sounds pretty gross. When it was time to focus on these cold, repurposed meat preparations in my garde manger class, I just couldn’t understand why people in ancient history would have tortured themselves with pâtes, mousses, galantines, and headcheese. (“Garde mange” covers most of the cold foods made in today’s restaurant kitchens — from charcuterie, to hors d’oeuvre, salads, cold …

Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. Photo: Anna ZeideIf you’ve ever visited the University of Wisconsin, you’ve probably eaten some Babcock ice cream, perhaps while enjoying a sunset on the Terrace. It’s just one of those things that people do. But last week, some of the students in the food ethics class I student-teach began to ask questions about how Babcock ice cream is produced — whether it’s organic, how many processed ingredients it includes, if …

Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. A sign at the Edible Schoolyard“This is some slavery shit.” It was a sunny August morning, and we were hoeing, loosening up the dirt in an empty bed so that we could plant lettuce seedlings. I was volunteering in a summer school garden class at a high school in St. Paul, and we were nearing the end of the session. I was helping one student wrestle with some weeds, when …

Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. Gluten is what makes bread dought elastic enough to risePhoto: Three Points KitchenIt’s clear that Americans have an obsession with gluten. Just begin typing the word into a search engine and “gluten-free” pops up immediately, followed by “gluten-free diet.” The next most popular term is “gluten-free beer.” So it seems the obsession with gluten is really about removing it from our diets.  Make no mistake, celiac disease and gluten intolerance …

A cheese cave at Murray’s CheesePhoto: VIPNYCAging cheese is tricky business. Trust me, I saw some pretty gory casualties while working at Murray’s Cheese in New York City this summer. When cheese goes wrong, it’s subject to cracking, peeling, excessive amounts of mite-dust, saggy skin, hosts of unintended molds. The list goes on. Which is why I was surprised to read about people who think of affinage, the process of carefully aging cheese, as a joke, or worse, a scam. The New York Times published a great article recently called “Cheese: A Coming-of-Age Story.” It featured many big names in …

Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. In A still from The Miracle of the Can.The Miracle of the Can, a 1956 promotional video for the American Can Company, a husky-voiced narrator observes, “The time for reaping is so very short. That perhaps is why man has always made so much of harvest, made it a time of festival or prayer, for he knows his life depends on swiftly gathering in the bounty nature gives him.” In …

Le Biancane geothermal park.Photo: Yvone De Zeeuw Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. Pipelines carry steam directly to consumers from the power plant.Vapor escapes through mountains of white rocks. Steam billows out of a huge cauldron in the distance. The smell of sulfur stings my nose, and the ground i s hot to the touch. It’s easy to imagine I’m on another planet, or in some science fiction novel. But where I am is Tuscany, the …

A scene from Rock Center with Brian Williams.Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. A couple pulls into a grocery store parking lot at exactly midnight on the first of the month. They are well-dressed and middle-class looking, but their faces are tense. The woman takes out her cell phone and dials a hotline that will report, in an automated voice, the total in their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) account. When they hear the voice say, “Your …

Anna Zeide is embarking on a project to record the daily interactions of everyday people with the food they consume.

Food Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here. Imagine a taste test that is based on genetics — on a person’s genotype — and how the results of that test could confirm or explain one’s taste perception, food choices, dietary behavior, or body weight. Well, little circles of filter paper embedded with 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) can actually do just that.  PROP is a compound that for people with the TAS2R38 genotype tastes extremely bitter whereas for people who have …