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Vanilla I: Botany and Bad Behaviour
Humans have an almost unlimited capacity to endure other people’s suffering when there are large sums of money to be made. For proof of this we need look no further than our history books. History is littered with examples of humans behaving appallingly to their fellow human while in pursuit of a quick buck. Notable Continue reading
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The Brassica: Cabbage, Broccoli and Other Childhood Nemeses
There is probably no more feared food group than the plants that come from the Brassicaceae family. Also known as the cruciferous vegetables, this family, surely a practical joke played by God on children, includes the plants that bring us cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, mustard greens, arugula, turnips, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower and many other childhood Continue reading
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Why is Kobe Beef So Good?
I’ve been to a lot of places and I’ve eaten a lot of things. I thought that there was nothing left that could give me a culinary jolt. I was wrong. I’m in Osaka, Japan. I’m travelling in a small group made up of my family and another from Brisbane. We had landed at Narita Continue reading
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Are Michelin Stars All in Our Mind?
I’ve been watching ‘Knife Edge’ on Apple TV, a documentary that follows the trials and tribulations of Michelin star hopefuls. It is a guilty pleasure; reality TV with some Michelin star gloss, but you do get to see the incredible effort that is required for a restaurant to get a Michelin star, let alone two Continue reading
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Custard: Where Eggs and Dairy Meet to Make Your Favourite Dessert
The world of sauces can be pretty intimidating. The French, in particular, have elevated sauce making to such an extraordinary extent that the whole idea of making a sauce can seem overwhelming. They have their mother sauces, their daughter sauces and a whole culinary tradition based specifically around sauces. To the French a good sauce Continue reading
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The Microbiome II: Every Microbiome Is Happy in Its Own Way
In the first post of this microbiome series I covered the beginnings of microbiology. The realisation that we were surrounded by microorganisms, the development of germ theory and the first stirrings of the idea that microbes, apart from destroying our health, could also be contributing to our well-being. We left the story in the early Continue reading
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The Microbiome I: A New World is Discovered
For anyone with an even cursory interest in health and nutrition it has become very hard to avoid the gut microbiota. The collection of bacteria, and other microbes, that we all carry around in our gastrointestinal tract is proving to have an influence on our health and well-being unimaginable even twenty short years ago. Our Continue reading
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Acids, Cooking and Inconvenient Corpses.
I’ve written more than a few posts on food science now and it is something of a scandal how I haven’t yet talked about acids in cooking. Acid ranks right up there with salt when it comes to seasoning our food and yet I’ve skirted the issue, mentioned it here and there, but haven’t really Continue reading
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The Cautionary Tale of Trofim Lysenko
One day, years ago, when I was a cocksure university undergraduate, I was chatting to some Jehovah’s Witnesses who had come to the door of the share house I lived in. I’d ditched lectures for the day so, as a man of leisure, I had some time to discuss philosophical issues with these poor people Continue reading
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Genes, Gluttony and Gout
As a young man, and even into his forties, Henry VIII was a charismatic, athletic and highly attractive individual. He stood, for his times, a towering six feet two inches and he was renown for his prowess on the jousting field and for excelling at hunting, wrestling, tennis, and archery. But, by the time he Continue reading
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Food Science Book
It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I have an excuse. I’ve been working on a book which is now available on Amazon. The book is basically a selection of my blog posts with a lot more proof reading and a lot of edits to smooth out the rough edges that you might find Continue reading
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Egg whites: The art and science of edible foams
When considering the great florescence of thought and ideas that was the Enlightenment we tend to focus on the big ideas, the big innovations and the big thinkers like Voltaire, Locke and Adam Smith. But, as in any other time of great intellectual or technological change, there are other, smaller, ideas that fly under the Continue reading
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Quick Bite: New research lets us know who to thank for our chocolate
It is a truism in science that the more you learn about something the more you know you don’t know. This can make talking to a scientist frustrating. A scientist will rarely tell you something without immediately telling you why it is probably wrong and that more work is needed. A good example of this Continue reading
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Mad honey or how the Poison King and some bees outwitted the Romans
Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, was one of the young Roman empire’s most feared and formidable enemies in the eastern Mediterranean. Respected by the Romans as a strong, intelligent and, most of all, cunning ruler, he also possessed a ruthlessness and a cruelty so well developed that, at various times during his reign, he put Continue reading
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Quick Bite: Can an asthma drug really protect people from food allergies?
Scientific discovery is very much a story of anomalies. An observation that just doesn’t fit the theory or some small detail that needs an explanation the resolution of which unravels into a scientific discovery. A good scientist values anomalies, they are a sign that there is an opportunity, a guide to something just sitting there Continue reading
The Science of Food 