Wild Yeast

I will never forget baking bread with my friend Betsy for the first time. In the first crucial step of the bread recipe, we added a packet of yeast to a bowl of warm water. When the yeast began to bubble, she shrieked, "That is so cool!"

Even cooking enthusiasts view the bread making process as arduous and obtuse. However, leavened bread (that is, bread that rises) follows a simple template. The primary ingredient is yeast. Yeast is an everyday term for several common strains of unicellular fungi that feed on carbohydrates, creating the gaseous byproduct that causes bread to rise.

Active Dry Yeast is commercially produced en masse; it comes in packets and jars. I used this magic ingredient for several years in bread recipes until a recent radio program, The Splendid Table, introduced a question that should have been obvious to me. Before yeast packets, how did bakers make bread rise?

Ken Albala, a guest on The Splendid Table and author of The Lost Art of Real Cooking, explains that yeast occurs naturally in the environment. "This is the simplest thing to do," he says. "Put out some food, and the babies find it. They like to eat flour. Simple as that." Albala boasts that using wild yeast to make bread results in a better texture and flavor. Just as the flavor of cheese is distinct based on the region in which the cheese is produced, the type of yeasty fungi varies based on location. This isn't harmful; rather, it is essential to the bread making process.

This week, I tried Albala's method. I obtained a large glass bowl and made a "sludge" of about 1c. Organic Rye Flour and 1c. Water. I left this mixture on the counter, uncovered, for 24 hours. Then, I added more Rye flour and water, mixing these ingredients so the sludge maintained its consistency. I covered the bowl loosely with a towel. I repeated this step once a day for three days. Every few days I would transfer the mixture to a clean bowl, in order to avoid mold growth. Day by day, I noticed an increasing amount of bubbles appearing in the flour and water mixture.

Yesterday evening, I added more flour and water. This morning, I noticed the bowl of yeast had doubled in size! Albala's advice worked. I trapped fungi from the environment and created a natural yeast. Though this yeast works more slowly than yeast from packets, it promises to produce unique and especially flavorful bread.

I'm making bread this weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out.

A New Cookbook

Very excited about this purchase from half.com. In addition to a myriad of interesting all-natural recipes, this book contains helpful charts that give the low-down on the storage and usage of fruits, vegetables, meats, legumes and cheeses.

New Veggies

This fall I've added some adventure to my regular culinary lineup by trying some new vegetables.

Eggplant looks like a creature that would bound happily behind the Hamburglar in a McDonald's commercial. I harbor bad memories of choking down large slices of eggplant parmesan, hockey pucks with a cheesy toupee.

I avoided my eggplant, all alone in the second vegetable drawer, for about a week. Finally, I chopped it into french fry sized pieces and sauteed the eggplant with onions, green peppers, carrots and mushrooms. Then, I added red pasta sauce and cooked sausage.

The eggplant absorbed the flavors in the sauce and and was a nice filler (30 kcal = 1 cup) in a pasta meal that otherwise might be high calorie.

The only problem with eggplant, besides the fact that it looks like a jelly bean of renown? A little eggplant goes a long way, and I was racing to eat it all before it went bad. When you buy an eggplant, find a friend to share it with.

Brussels Sprouts are a family favorite--to joke about. The first time Dad ate dinner with Mom's family, my mom's father, a ruddy and boisterous German, kept piling these green golf balls on my dad's plate. Bewildered, Dad kept eating them, which only increased the supply. "He was kicking me under the table the whole time," laughs Mom, recounting the tale.

Most of my family wrinkle their nose at Brussels Sprouts, but I find them tasty and a vehicle for a nice olive oil. Cut six or seven brussel sprouts in half. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 350 degrees until soft. Add salt and pepper, and a little more olive oil. Eat without utensils (while watching Alfred Hitchcock's The Lodger).

Toxic America

See CNN.com's special page on toxins present in American lifestyles: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/toxic.america/?hpt=C1

So, I haven't been doing a good job.

I noticed my last post was on March 31. And now, reader, you know why. I have been cheating! Yes, I have been eating foods with artificial ingredients. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, sometimes on accident, sometimes on purpose.

Rather than wave the white napkin and call this project a failure, I'd like to assess the damage and rise above the current predicament.

In the 6 months since I began this commitment, I've made many changes for the better.

Change for the Better #1: I have said au revoir to aspartame and its minions. From sophomore year of undergrad until last year, I consumed anywhere from 20 to 120 oz of Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper each day. Now I drink a nice cup of black coffee in the morning and water after that. I don't miss diet soda. Sometimes I drink carbonated water because I like the gentle texture of the carbonation.

Change for the Better #2: Less 'fake food' enters my home. I no longer buy some products I used to consider healthy, such as fat-free foods, sugar-free foods or TV dinners. Now I habitually read the ingredients list before the nutrition facts. I've also found I can typically pass over all the middle aisles in a grocery store and 'shop around the perimter' in the produce, meat, dairy, and frozen foods section.

Change for the Better #3: I have winnowed my understanding of a healthy animal product. A healthy meat or dairy product contains no artificial preservatives and ideally comes from an animal that has been raised in natural conditions. For example, I'd prefer eggs from a free-roaming chicken rather than one living cooped up, or beef and milk from a cow that eats grass outdoors rather than one eating grain and waste in a stall.

Not only are there health benefits to choosing these types of animal products, I've also found them more satisfying. I used to blow through a pint of sugar-free, fat-free yogurt and still feel hungry. Now I'm pleasantly satisfied with a spoonful of strawberry jelly stirred into a cup of Greek yogurt.

Change for the Better #4: I eat a healthier ratio of carbohydrates to fruits & vegetables. The principal reason for this shift is that many carbohydrates (crackers, chips, breads) contain artificial ingredients. To satisfy that desire for a crunch I'll snack on carrots or apple chips. If I'm craving something sweet I'll eat dried fruit or satisfy my sweet tooth with a sweet potato. Since I usually crave something sweet after dinner, I've followed the Victorian tradition of eating an orange for dessert.

Unfortunately I still crave sugar in large quantities and this has been the most difficult side effect of removing staple sweets from my diet, which leads me to believe I was probably on track for developing adult onset diabetes in a few decades. These cravings were getting better until I started cheating.

Change for the Better #5: I've developed a greater appreciation for cooking from scratch. The ding and whir of a microwave as it cooks a frozen burrito doesn't compare to the crack and sizzle of an egg in a pan, or the rising scent of onion from a chopping board. My five senses and I enjoy picking out a fresh tomato. As I sift and slice and sautee I feel I'm something of a primordial artist.

Hm...perhaps I should change the title of this blog entry. I have been doing a good job. But there have been some pitfalls as well.

Pitfall #1: Almost everything in American grocery stores that isn't straight from the earth contains artificial ingredients. Between a disorganized FDA and the avaricious advertising industry, there's no one to speak for the dignity of a food product. Labels are misleading. Food products may be marketed as natural or healthy and aren't. And woefully, many tasty indulgences are truly as good for the body as gnawing on a rubber tire. Even the fresh sushi at Kroger contains aspartame! And forget restaurants. Something tells me that people who market meals on an industrial scale aren't concerned with the quality of invisible ingredients. Unfortunately, on days when I'm tired

Pitfall #2: Foods containing artificial ingredients are at my fingertips all the time, and for free. Breakfast muffins in the teacher's lounge. Basalmic vinegar containing caramel-coloring at the salad bar. Thursday Chik-fil-A biscuits, which students and teachers alike sometimes purchase for me. Tiny toothpicked samples at Costco.

Pitfall #3: Artificially-flavored foods taste good. One of the stipulations of this project has always been that my all-natural preferences aren't burdensome when I'm eating dinner with others. I never want to resemble the holier-than-thou vegan that loudly discerns her food preferences and refuses the generosity of others like a martyr to her cause. No. But often times good people who don't abide by the natural food standard, and for understandable reasons (See Pitfall #1), offer me delicious food that I, well could politely refuse. Would I like some chocolate cake? Yes, yes I would. I'll worry about the vanillin in it later. I can't see that right now. I am beckoned by the delicious, chocolatey...

Pitfall #4: It's possible to eat an all-natural diet and still have terrible eating habits. Did you know there's a whole line of fantastic all-natural potato chips with many flavorings? Did you know Whole Foods devotes half an aisle to all-natural chocolate products? Do you know the ice cream companies have industriously produced all natural lines of ice cream, such as the Five brand? I did. A lot.

The fruits of this project thus far outweigh the pitfalls. In their own way, the pitfalls are also helpful realizations. However, the reality is that I've been unable to sustain all-natural eating habits. One question remains. Do I continue with this project? I'd like to. I'm fueled by the memory of the intense energy, focus, and relaxation I felt at the beginning of this project.

So if you, reader, will forgive me, I'll forgive myself and begin again this May 20.

Calcium Chloride

One of my favorite pasta dishes is Penne alla vodka, but I don't keep vodka around the house long enough to cook with it. Ha! Just kidding. I don't keep vodka at all.

I usually buy the canned version of vodka sauce. I finally examined the label of one I bought recently. (On a side note, I now find myself automatically looking to the ingredient labels, not the nutritional data, which I think is a good adjustment. A product can have fantastic nutritional data and be full of artificial chemicals.)

Most of the ingredients on the sauce label were natural, if not a little processed--things like tomato paste, garlic powder, etc. I wondered of Calcium chloride also fit the bill.

It does. Calcium chloride (CaCl2) is a salt much like Sodium chloride. It's added to foods as a "firming agent (1)." The FDA bestowed GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) status on Calcium chloride, so it can be found in many foods such as cheeses, tofu, or sauces. It is also used in de-icing agents and wastewater treatments (1).

In highly concentrated doses, Calcium chloride can cause skin irritation. In the human body, CaCl2 dissolves in water. It is absorbed in the intestines and the rest is passed through urine. (1)

Safe and natural it is, but is it necessary in foods? Once again, I find that if I made my sauce from scratch I would not be adding Calcium chloride as an ingredient. This salt aids in preservation of texture; it is a staple of the processed food industry.

Calcium chloride. Safe? Da. Necessary? Nyet.

1) http://www.ehow.com/about_5336190_calcium-chloride-healthy-foods.html

EDTA

Tuna salad. A Friday Lenten food I've been eating all my life. There are three main ingredients--a can of tuna, pickle relish, and mayonnaise.

But how does it fare when given a natural spin? It took some time to find all-natural pickle relish. I finally did, in Whole Foods. Mayonnaise I have not found yet. Thinking that mayo itself is a set of simple ingredients whisked together (oil, egg yolks, lemon juice, vinegar), an all-natural version shouldn't be difficult to find. However, all the brands of real mayonnaise at the store contained EDTA.

No, not the Educational Theatre Association or the Electric Drive Transportation Association, as Google would have it.

Here, EDTA refers to ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. The FDA has approved its usage in salad dressings, sauces, mayonnaise(s)? and varieties of canned beans, even in substances that contain dried bananas. (3)

Like disodium phosphate, EDTA is a sequestrant. EDTA binds to metallic ions such as copper and nickel, lead and mercury. Normally, the presence of these metallic ions in a fatty food like mayo would catalyze (or speed up) the breakdown of fats, and the mayo would go rancid faster. EDTA binds to these ions, rendering them unable to affect the breakdown rate of fat. (1)

EDTA is also used to treat heavy metal poisoning. While powerless against the musical stylings of Kiss, Disodium EDTA introduced into the body binds with the lead and mercury ions before they can be absorbed into sensitive tissues (2).

So EDTA is helpful in the medical world, but the question remains: should we be eating it? The European Amino-Carboxylates Producers Committee states, "There is at the present time no indication of harmful effects of EDTA due to long-term exposure to low concentrations" (5).

Three thoughts follow, which have not been tested or researched to my knowledge.

1)EDTA may prove beneficial when mayonnaise is incorporated into a tuna salad, because the sequestering properties of EDTA may bind to the mercury in the tuna, saving the body from absorbing harmful mercury.

2) EDTA may sequester beneficial metallic ions such as magnesium, calcium and iron, minerals the body needs. EDTA could keep a can of black beans fresher, longer. But how much of the iron cannot be absorbed by the body because EDTA inhibits absorption? Is the nutritional information on the can accurate?

3) Why not just buy black beans in a bag? Why not just make your own mayo?

EDTA UPDATE (03.31.2010)

After skimming the Whole Foods list of unacceptable ingredients, I noticed Calcium disodium EDTA and general EDTA are listed as "unacceptable." After a little more research it seems that all-natural foodies claim EDTA is toxic to a notable degree, especially when baking soda and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) are other ingredients in the food, such as in soda (6). Perhaps the main reason Whole Foods bans this ingredient is because EDTA, also used in industrial products and cleaners, is a major polluter(6).

1. http://www.3dchem.com/molecules.asp?ID=89
2. http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/chelation.html
3. http://www.oralchelation.com/LifeGlowBasic/technical/110.htm
4. http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/ethylenediaminetetraacetic-acid-000302.htm
5. http://www.cefic.be/files/Publications/EAC_broch_EDTA_03.pdf
6. http://www.ehow.com/facts_5007420_what-edta-used.html