Food

Pink Slime Is Back

Remember the great “pink slime” panic of 2012? Well, it’s back—both pink slime and the ridiculous panic surrounding it. Finely textured beef (or “pink slime”) is essentially just beef that’s been processed from the cuts of meat that Americans find less desirable, and then treated to kill any possible bacteria present. The technology for making…

This Weird-Ass Animated Documentary Is Like Creature Comforts For Food

In the stop-motion animated documentary Food, people don’t just talk about the foods they like to eat. They’re also animated to look like talking cheeseburgers, pretzels, and strawberries. CalArts student Siqi Song takes a page from Nick Park’s short film Creature Comforts, pairing real interviews with stop-motion animation. The results are delightfully odd, especially with…

Your Yelp Complaints Are Being Used to Track Food Poisoning in NYC

You wake up and there is definitely something wrong with your stomach. Could it be the tacos last night? Oh man, it was definitely the tacos at that dirty joint. So what do you do? You whine about your diarrhea on Yelp as a warning to would-be taco eaters. And now, the health department might…

What Science Reveals About The Craft Beer Revolution

Between 2011 and 2013 the number of U.S. craft breweries jumped from 1,970 to 2,483. And the trend shows no sign of slowing down, with at least 413 new breweries opening in the past few months. Why is everyone so hopped up about craft beer? (See what I did there?) As usual, science has the…

The Truth About Saccharin and Your Health

Saccharin is noted as being the first artificial sweetener, outside of the toxic Lead(II) acetate, and the first product to offer a cheap alternative to cane sugar. Interestingly enough, like the Chocolate Chip Cookie, it was also discovered entirely by accident. The chemical was discovered in 1878/9 in a small lab at Johns Hopkins University.…

Grilled ramen cheese sandwich: Like eating mac-n-cheese with your hands

I’m not a fan of the ramen burger because the flavors don’t combine as well as you imagine and it’s way too dry. But this grilled ramen grilled cheese sandwich… this one has potential, my friends. It’s like eating mac-n-cheese with your hands. The crusty golden skin should combine perfectly with the gooey interior. Gimme.…

Watching food talking about food is hilarious

This short animated documentary shows different types of food talking about the food they love. Cheeseburger loves meat, mini-pretzels became vegetarian, a chicken is in love with eggplants, and so on. The voices are taken from interviews with real people and the stop motion animation is made to synchronize with them. This reminds me of…

What 10,000 Calories Look Like

If you struggle to visualize what hundreds or thousands of calories looks like in the cold, hard light of day, then that firstly explains why your pants no longer fit, but also means you’ve missed one of the many explainers that have drifted across the internet in the past. So here’s another! https://gizmodo.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like-560954147 Above is…

Medieval Kitchens Used a Specially Bred Dog to Turn Roasting Spits

Before the era of “set it and forget it” countertop rotisserie ovens, kitchen gadgets required a lot more manpower—and if not manpower, then dogpower. The turnspit, a breed of dog dating for medieval Britain, would run around and around on a wheel like a hamster in a cage, ensuring evenly roasted meat for hungry noblemen.…

Coolest Dad Ever Cooks Pancakes That Look Like Cephalopods

It’s seafood for breakfast in the home of Nathan Shields. Octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and even a few extinct critters have found their way onto his kids’ breakfast plates. It’s an adventure in taxonomy and cookery, all at once! Shields isn’t the only creator of scientific deliciousness. There are some space pancakes, too. The only question…

Being gluten free is dumb—and gluten intolerance may not even exist

If you have Celiac, this obviously doesn’t apply to you. Don’t eat gluten. But if you don’t have Celiac—and that’s 99% of the human population, mind you—there’s no reason to be gluten free. You’re wasting your time. Even the scientist who started this gluten free craze thinks it’s useless to be gluten free. Seriously. People,…

Chipotle’s Putting Essays On Its Cups So You Can Brain Up At Lunch

Sitting at a fast food joint eating by yourself is, at best, kind of boring—what are you gonna watch/read/stare at? Chipotle’s new cups and bags, printed with original essays from writers including Malcom Gladwell and Toni Morrison, give you some reading material with your eating material that’s maybe more interesting than a nutritional chart. Maybe.…

You Can Crush Nuts and Rebellions With a Tie Fighter Nutcracker

It’s far from being the first Star Wars-branded nutcracker to come from Lucasfilm and Disney’s marketing machine. But there’s a good chance that even casual Star Wars fans won’t mind having this screw-type nut destroyer sitting somewhere in this kitchen. Supposedly made from Quadanium steel—which is a fictitious alloy that only exists in the Star…

How to make a truly grilled grilled cheese sandwich

Grilled cheese sandwiches are usually a simple slapping combination of bread and cheese but the result is never as delicious as you imagine. Alton Brown has another way to make a grilled cheese sandwich that is truly grilled and looks absolutely fantastic. Watch him walk you through the process. He’s pretty much reinventing the wheel…

Corn Grown in Space Caves Could Be the Future of Farming

Anew discovery could take corn farming to perhaps the last place you’d expect to see it: in underground mines and caves. Perhaps, eventually, even to other planets. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real, and it could drastically change the future of food production as we know it. It all started when researchers at…

Everyone’s the Grillmaster At this BBQ Picnic Table

There’s a certain pride that comes with donning the apron and tongs to handle grilling duties at a barbecue. Making sure everyone’s steak is cooked exactly how they like is a lot of responsibility, though, which is why the JAG Grill table—that lets every dinner guest grill their own meat—is such a wonderful idea. Located…

How ‘Hyperpalatable’ Foods Could Turn You Into A Food Addict

Over a third of the global population is now overweight, and the percentages are increasing. Some neuroscientists have suggested that the rise of so-called “hyperpalatable foods” may partially explain the unprecedented rates of obesity. Above: The Taco Bell Taco Waffle. Credit: Taco Bell. Our food environment has changed dramatically over the years, most notably through…

You Can Control Anova’s New Precision Sous-Vide Cooker With Your Phone

Causal sous-vide cooking has been on the rise over the last couple of years, and Anova’s water circulating tools are often cited as the best. Today, the company announced an overhauled, iPhone-controlled cooker that looks very promising. For those of you who don’t know, sous-vide (“under vacuum”) cooking is a method by which you prepare…

This Restaurant in Japan Gives Solo Diners Stuffed Animals for Company

Eating alone in restaurants is awkward. Sure, you can take a book and pretend like the solitude is emboldening. But be honest with yourself—sitting across from an empty chair is sometimes sad and lonely. This whimsical restaurant in Japan has a solution: stuffed animals. The Moomin Cafe in Tokyo is themed around the eponymous series…

British astronaut Tim Peake, along with the UK Space Agency, has launched a competition for schoolchildren. Their mission: create a tasty meal to eat on the International Space Station — where, Peake says, the food is not as “nice as it could be.” Winning entries must be flavorful, nutritious and have a “British twist.”