Environment News – Roadkill for Dinner? Should You Use Olive Oil for Everything? Lobster Was Different Then!
Some bite-sized pieces of news from the environment this week.
21 August, 2019
News snippets
Olive oil is great. It’s said to be heart healthy so we often use it for cooking as well as dressing salads. However, don’t forget that it has a low smoke point (when it starts to break down and goes bitter). If you’re frying or sauteing food, can you control the temperature in your pan? Probably not, so it might be better to keep olive oil for salads, and cook with grapeseed oil instead, which has a higher smoke point. Canola oil also has a higher smoke point – if you like the flavour of olive oil, try a blend of 90% canola and 10% olive oil.
Other alternatives – you could fry in butter and add canola oil (which is a neutral oil) to raise the smoke point, while still giving you the flavor of the butter. Or ifry with canola oil and add a little olive oil for flavour. If you’re sauteing vegetables, you could blanch them in boiling water first before putting them in the pan to finish them off with olive oil and a little of the blanching water. Because the oil is mixed with water, the smoke point isn’t a problem.
more below……
more snippets
Would you eat roadkill? I can’t say the thought fills me with joy. But in Alaska, 600 – 800 moose are killed by cars, leaving up to 250,000 lb of organic, free-range meat on the road. State troopers keep a list of charities and families who have agreed to drive to the scene of an accident at any time, in any weather, to haul away and butcher the body. It would seem hugely wasteful and not at all eco-friendly to just leave it to rot, I agree.
If you’re still not convinced, consider lobster. In the 1800s, lobsters were seen as a low-class food in the United States. Then, the railroad and the rise of iceboxes let seafood dealers bring lobsters to inlanders, who were unfamiliar with its reputation. By the late 1880s, lobsters had morphed into a gourmet choice. It’s all about perception, isn’t it?
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Warm regards,
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