Blog Photographs. Hyper-palatable Food. Lamb Shanks, Wine, Beans.

Blog Post & Recipe: Lamb Shanks in White Wine and White Beans

I found some lamb shanks in the freezer and was thinking it wasn’t a season for casserole, but I found a few recipes where they could be cooked in white wine. This long slow cook resulted in melt in the mouth meat and beans dissolving ...

Blog Post: What Goes Up, Must Come Down

One of the many things that boggles my mind is that as food bloggers become more proficient in their cooking skills–and technology get better, faster, and easier–the images of their dishes become shockingly good. I mean, perversely good.

Article: How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains

Another article about the man who wrote a book on the subject of "hyper-palatable food."

Dr. Kessler isn’t convinced that food makers fully understand the neuroscience of the forces they have unleashed, but food companies certainly understand human behavior, taste preferences and desire. In fact, he offers descriptions of how restaurants and food makers manipulate ingredients to reach the aptly named “bliss point.” [...] Food companies “design food for irresistibility,” Dr. Kessler noted. “It’s been part of their business plans.”

The Science and Psychology Behind Overeating

Article: The Science and Psychology Behind Overeating

An interview with "Former FDA commissioner David Kessler [who] examines the causes of excessive eating in his new book, "The End of Overeating""

WSJ: What about restaurant eating?

Dr. Kessler: Much of what we eat in restaurants is fat on fat on sugar on fat with salt. Pick any dish in any mid-American restaurant. What is spinach dip? Fat on salt with green stuff. Look at the average salad we're eating. If you look at the bacon, the croutons, the cheese…it's fats, salts and a little lettuce ...

WSJ: At times I couldn't decide whether you felt that the overweight were victims or undisciplined. Which is it?

Dr. Kessler: The answer is probably neither. Nobody has explained to people what is going on with them, or given them the tools to cool stimuli. Yes, you are bombarded throughout the day. You respond. And that creates torment for people ...

WSJ: What are the most important signs that people can recognize before they eat something they actually may not want?

Dr. Kessler: The fundamental question, when you look at food, is this: Is it real food, or is it food that is layered and loaded?

Basic kitchen know-how. Cookbook calories.

Article: Chefs advise on kitchen basics

The meat you're sauteeing for tonight's tagine won't brown – what's the problem?

A white sauce you're whipping up for a lasagne is lump-free but tastes floury – how do you avoid this happening next time?

This kind of basic kitchen know-how used to be passed on from mother to daughter, because most families cooked and ate at home. But since the advent of ready meals and a dip in numbers taking home economics or food tech at school, many people have lost touch with what used to be second nature.

Article: Recipes add to calorie blow-out, says study

Note: this is an American study, and may have been conducted using only US cookbooks.

So-called portion distortion, the trend of eating larger and larger servings, is as much a problem with recipes as it is restaurants, and has been going on even longer, a study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.

The study, which looked at how classic recipes have changed during the past 70 years, found a nearly 40 per cent increase in calories per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed, about an extra 77 calories.

The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating

Blog Post: The 11 Best Foods You Aren't eating.

... according to some guy at the New York Times.