Food

It took over four years, but the FDA has finalized sets of rules for both human and animal foods, requiring manufacturers to have plans in place to prevent contamination before it happens, rather than dealing with it after the fact. The two rules are just the first of an anticipated seven.

What can the ancestor of the world’s staple crop tell us? Plenty—if we can find it. This intriguing account of a hunt in the Australian outback for rice’s ancient ancestors in California Sunday is part treasure hunt, part travelogue, and part research paper. Top image: AP Photo/Biswaranjan Rout

Watching baking bread rise is almost pornographic

The smell of baking bread is like the universal language for neck-breaking, nose-enlightening deliciousness. It’s impossible not to smile to yourself at the idea of fresh bread. It’s everything good in the world, it’s possibility, and it’s just damn good to eat. And watching bread bake in a timelapse? Who knew that your eyes could…

Every Fast Food Restaurant in America, Mapped

Just how far out would you have to go to really escape the sight of Golden Arches? This per capita distribution map of fast food restaurants across the country comes from the USDA’s newly-updated Food Environment Atlas. In some ways, this map is a reflection of population—it’s not particularly surprising that Alaska’s Yukon trail is…

McDonald’s Bought Over 4 Percent of the Eggs in the US Last Year

When McDonald’s decides to make a change in its suppliers, it moves markets. The American fast food giant just announced that it would shift to cage-free eggs. That’s a big deal since McDonald’s purchases accounted for “more than 4 percent of the 43.56 billion eggs produced in the United States last year.” That figure comes…

The Automat Revival is Cool But Where’s the Robot Who Takes Off My Top Hat?

Automats are all the rage again. And it’s not hard to see why. Interacting with humans in any capacity that doesn’t involve a high-tech screen is a hellish experience. But at new places like Eatsa in San Francisco, you’ll never again have to talk with a living, breathing human being to get your bowl of…

Fine Dining May Solve Puerto Rico’s Invasive Iguana Problem

Puerto Rico is overrun with green iguanas, and they’re wreaking havoc on the island’s ecosystem and its economy. Green iguanas are native to Central and South America, but on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, they’re an invasive species. With no natural predators on the island, their numbers have skyrocketed in recent years, which presents…

Video: A portrait of a chef opening a restaurant

Life and Thyme continues its excellent video series about food and chefs by taking a look at Chef Timothy Hollingsworth and his upcoming Otium restaurant. In this chapter, we see Hollingsworth take a visit to the fish market and cook a splendid looking dish while talking about what food and more importantly, passion means to…

Kylo Ren Lightsaber Chopsticks Look Impossibly Uncomfortable To Hold

It might look cool in all the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teasers and trailers, but the tri-blade design of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber just doesn’t work elsewhere. Take these novelty chopsticks, for example, that look like the most uncomfortable thing you could ever try to hold in your hand. They probably work just fine for…

This is the only mushroom in the world that tastes sweet like honey

In Hungary there is a sweet Hungarian truffle that supposedly tastes like honey. I can’t even begin to imagine how fantastic that is because truffles are already “the diamonds of the kitchen” and honey very well might be nature’s greatest creation, so combining both in one is practically unfair. The truffle is used in dessert…

I Wish These Frozen Han Solo Pop-Tarts Were Actually Edible

They look good enough to eat, but this Pop-Art figure that looks exactly like what would have happened if Darth Vader had frozen Han Solo in a toaster pastry, instead of carbonite, is actually made of resin and hand-painted to only appear delicious. You can’t eat it. Just 15 of the figures were made by…

McDonald’s Will Serve Breakfast All Day, Thanks to Kitchen Upgrades

It’s been just over two years since Gizmodo wondered publicly why McDonald’s didn’t serve breakfast all day. And that was already years after hungry citizens everywhere wondered why they could eat Egg McMuffins for dinner. Now, McDonald’s has heard our call: All day breakfast will be available across America on October 6. So why didn’t…

Girl Scouts Cookie Oven Review: Get Your Thin Mints Fix Anytime, Anywhere

For years the only way to get your hands on authentic Girl Scouts Cookies was to find a troop perched outside a mall, or hope they came knocking at your door. But that’s all about to change now that the Scouts have licensed their brand, and addictive cookies, to a tiny oven that lets you…

Making bubble tea is totally therapeutic

Bubble tea or boba or pearl milk tea or tapioca milk tea or whatever the hell you call the milky tea deliciousness with those chewy balls and that giant straw is deliciousness in a plastic cup. It’s also really relaxing and therapeutic to make at home. Or at least, it’s really relaxing and therapeutic to…

Study Finds 20 Percent of Ground Meat Isn’t What It Says On the Label

Once it’s been processed and pulped, most red meat looks more or less the same. This seems to be helping unscrupulous meat suppliers: according to a new survey, 20% of ground meat contains more than what’s just on the label. Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly said that ground beef was one of…

This Robot Reads WikiHow Guides to Learn How to Make Breakfast

As robots become more common in offices and homes, more humans will need to communicate with them. Sadly, bots still can’t converse or read or write well—yet. A European research project is looking to fix this limitation with a WikiHow-skimming kitchen robot that uses text and voice commands to throw together grub. The European research…

What is mayonnaise? One way to answer that question is “pretty gross,” but the answer is also, at least according to the FDA, something with “egg yolk-containing ingredients” and it’s that second definition that’s causing a legal and culinary battle for what is and isn’t really mayo, both historically and in the future.

Use This Jello Mold to Make a Completely Ineffective Captain America Shield

If you don’t have access to a decent supply of vibranium adamantium alloy, here’s another way to make yourself a 10-inch replica of Captain America’s iconic shield. Just don’t expect it to be able to deflect bullets, stop the Hulk, or even survive being attacked with a plastic disposable spoon. But what do you expect…

How to make fizzy fruit that bubbles like soda inside the fruit

Here’s something every one of us should do before summer is over and the weather kills off all the fruits and the cold sadness diminishes our souls into nothingness: carbonate fruit with dry ice. ChefSteps shows just how easy it is to do: stick a bunch of fruit with dry ice inside a cooler, wrap…

How To Roast A Whole Pig Over An Open Fire

This weekend, we roasted an entire pig at my house for a BBQ. Not only was it fun and visually-impressive to cook, but it was darn tasty too. You should try it! This is our method. Step One: Acquire Pig You can’t buy a whole pig at the grocery store, so you’ll need to go…