-It was a pretty nice day until just a few hours ago, when it started raining. Unfortunately, it seems that the forecast is suggesting that this is the type of weather that we will be getting tomorrow.
-For dinner tonight I prepared a pork roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, and beans and corn. I also quickly made a raspberry pie for desert. For those of you who are curious, the lard-based crust was light and flaky.
-The pork roast was part of a relatively large piece of pork loin that I purchased a few days ago. I turned the portion of meat not included in the roast into pork chops. I was quite surprised to see that I ended up with 12, I really would have expected about 7 had I been asked to guess in advance (but fortunately I wasn't asked to make such a guess).
-I have started testing out the free samples of male-targeted toiletries I received a few days ago. As expected, I have noticed that I have that traditional from-a-bottle/stereotypical man smell. As nice is give myself the pretense of being particularly manly, I am not sure that I will be able to deal with these scented products for much longer.
-My big news from school is that yesterday a fellow Ph.D. student and I rearranged the Ph.D. office so that all six desks are accessible. Prior to our changes only three of the six desks were accessible. Hopefully the other students who use the room, who weren't directly consulted, will find the changes as positive as I do.
-Oh man, I have so much work that I have been avoiding today. I guess I should try to get a little done before I turn in.
-I guess since I mentioned that I was watching the World Series yesterday I might as well mention that the Yankees were victorious. Unfortunately, the portion of the game that I watched wasn't particularly exciting (though once I started watching I couldn't stop until it was over).
Showing posts with label Lard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lard. Show all posts
Friday, November 06, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Big news
For a while I have been thinking about my baking ingredient consumption patterns and noticed that I have been going through a fair bit of butter, certainly much more than Neil and Rebecca would have used before I arrived. The problem with this habit is that it is somewhat costly considering that butter typically goes for about $4.29 a pound.
While in the local grocery store a few days ago I ended up in the lard/shortening section and decided to check out some these products for both price and trans fats. Not surprisingly, the price was much lower, typically by about about $2 a pound, which is a pretty wide margin on a $4 product. The only thing that scared me was the trans fat content, which went as low as .1 g per serving.
Moments ago I Neil and I were talking about such matters and I decided to check the butter trans fat levels and learned that it is .2 g per serving (though there could be differences in serving size between butter, lard, and shortening (I will have to look into this). Anyway, as it seems that lard and shortening are not only cheaper, but also less trans fatty I have decided to make the switch to these products, and away from butter. The additional side benefit is that neither of these products require refrigeration.
Of course the irony of the timing of this decision is that butter was on sale last week at one grocery store, and will be on sale at another store as of Saturday. Anyway, even the sale prices don't bring butter down to the price of the two alternative options.
The other funny part of the decision is that as butter was on sale last week I have a bit of a stockpile to get through before my new decision will actually come into effect, which I hope I haven't forgotten by then.
The other thing that should be interesting is what impact this switch will have on the baked goods. As I haven't don't much baking with either shortening or lard (though I did use lard in my tortillas a few days ago) I don't know what impact it might have on my baked goods, I don't imagine it should be anything too scary, but there will likely be some flavour differences.
Should be fun. I will be sure to let you know how the transition goes.
While in the local grocery store a few days ago I ended up in the lard/shortening section and decided to check out some these products for both price and trans fats. Not surprisingly, the price was much lower, typically by about about $2 a pound, which is a pretty wide margin on a $4 product. The only thing that scared me was the trans fat content, which went as low as .1 g per serving.
Moments ago I Neil and I were talking about such matters and I decided to check the butter trans fat levels and learned that it is .2 g per serving (though there could be differences in serving size between butter, lard, and shortening (I will have to look into this). Anyway, as it seems that lard and shortening are not only cheaper, but also less trans fatty I have decided to make the switch to these products, and away from butter. The additional side benefit is that neither of these products require refrigeration.
Of course the irony of the timing of this decision is that butter was on sale last week at one grocery store, and will be on sale at another store as of Saturday. Anyway, even the sale prices don't bring butter down to the price of the two alternative options.
The other funny part of the decision is that as butter was on sale last week I have a bit of a stockpile to get through before my new decision will actually come into effect, which I hope I haven't forgotten by then.
The other thing that should be interesting is what impact this switch will have on the baked goods. As I haven't don't much baking with either shortening or lard (though I did use lard in my tortillas a few days ago) I don't know what impact it might have on my baked goods, I don't imagine it should be anything too scary, but there will likely be some flavour differences.
Should be fun. I will be sure to let you know how the transition goes.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
First lard, now lemon juice
In late 2004, while I was living in England, I came across a few stories about a lard shortage in Western Europe. Apparently the impending expansion of the EU lead to all kinds of cheap pork going to the new countries instead of towards lard production. The result was that all kinds of British grocery stores were out of lard in the weeks leading up to Christmas. The newspapers managed to get interviews with people worried that this shortage would wreck their Christmas baking.
Soon after I started reading about the Europe-wide lard shortage I started going to grocery stores to see if this shortage was as drastic as reported. It turned out that most stores were actually out of lard. To be sure I would ask store employees, many of whom were quite shocked when they couldn't find the lard (clearly they hadn't been following the lard shortage news as closely as I).
I was reminded of this product shortage a few days ago when Neil told me about the world-wide lemon juice shortage. Apparently, some kind of weather condition wiped out a big portion the lemon crop, thus reducing the number of lemons available for juicing.
The parallels are striking, a standard, but little used, product that you expect grocery stores to have and would be at somewhat of a loss if they didn't have what you were looking for. Hopefully not to many people have been put out by this shortage (or the lard shortage of 04/05).
Soon after I started reading about the Europe-wide lard shortage I started going to grocery stores to see if this shortage was as drastic as reported. It turned out that most stores were actually out of lard. To be sure I would ask store employees, many of whom were quite shocked when they couldn't find the lard (clearly they hadn't been following the lard shortage news as closely as I).
I was reminded of this product shortage a few days ago when Neil told me about the world-wide lemon juice shortage. Apparently, some kind of weather condition wiped out a big portion the lemon crop, thus reducing the number of lemons available for juicing.
The parallels are striking, a standard, but little used, product that you expect grocery stores to have and would be at somewhat of a loss if they didn't have what you were looking for. Hopefully not to many people have been put out by this shortage (or the lard shortage of 04/05).
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