The Joys and Horrors of Cooking

My husband and I were having dinner with our friends Bart and Bonnie recently, when we started talking about some of the crazy recipes published in old copies of The Joy of Cooking. And wouldn't you know it? Bonnie had a vintage copy on hand.

Bonnie is the co-founder of the awesome ethical food blog, Ethicurean, and has recounted what followed in a post:

Alan went straight for the opossum recipe. If possible, the home chef is to trap this nocturnal animal and feed it on milk and cereal for 10 days before attempting to parboil, roast, and eat it, perhaps with some turnip greens. Okaaaaaay!

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Bonnie also has also written a terrific investigative article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about how industrial meat farms are trying to pass off their products as sustainable. She writes:

My husband ordered the pork chop, which was moist and bursting with meaty flavor. Unfamiliar with White Marble Farms, I had the house-made spaghetti -- and took home a menu to research the company.

What I discovered surprised me. White Marble Farms is a brand of Sysco, North America's largest food services distributor. The pork comes from Cargill Meat Solutions, America's second-largest meat processor.

It is bred to ensure tender meat marbled with just enough flavor-boosting fat. But these pigs never see a pasture. They're raised indoors in confinement barns, just the way most commercial pork is produced, except in smaller numbers. Aside from genetics, they're conventional pigs wearing a lip gloss of sustainability.

This, at a restaurant that prides itself in selling sustainable meat. It's an astonishing piece.
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