Mike and Eric talk about Jamie Oliver's reality show about how he tries to change the eating habits of one of the heaviest towns in America, this year's Maple Syrup season, Farmers Market shopping theories, salt pork and how to find recipes based on what you have in your fridge and of course, Viewer Mail!
Julie K
Great and sensible conversation about Jamie Oliver and what he's trying to do. I guess the end point is that folk just don't like change - same over here too . And it applies to food, diet or eco living..
Great episode! Thanks Eric
Julie
x
Monica
I spoke with the sausage guy at the Chicago French Market and he tried to make pancette from salt pork. Basically, he soaked the salt pork to get some of the salt out and then rubbed it with seasonings, and let it dry out. Could be a fun project.
Tim
Wow Monica! You spoke with Abe Froman - The Sausage King of Chicago?!?! 😀
Stacy
Thanks for the recipes websites! Being a newlywed I prefer the 'no cooking technique', but it can get expensive and not always healthy. So I will start using these websites to 'create something that consists in my frig. technique'. Thanks again and keep on washing those hands, Eric! 🙂
David
@Julie K: I will grant you that some people don't like change (like the elderly), but I think it is more that people don't like being told what to do. Americans have historically always been a free-spirited people and when you try to tell them what to do, they usually will resist (ie tea/stamp/excise taxes). What Jamie Oliver is doing in Marshall is what is called "Behavior Control-ism". He sees a behavior he doesn't like and tries to make (force) people to eat HIS way. First, he tries to reason with them, and when that inevitably fails, he tries to scare them (ie showing that fat family how dangerous their lifestyle was by taking them all to see the doctor). This style of behavior control-ism is quite common in America (ie cigarettes, seat belts, and recycling), but people here seem to put up with it. People should be able to make their own decisions in life and live with the consequences. There are some people that believe its their duty/calling in life to change (force) people's behavior to match their own. I believe that is not right.
Anyways, I thought it was a good episode today, thanks Eric. In the future, if you could just do an episode just on food/cooking, it would be the tops!
Mike
On salt Pork: What I did with mine was this. I used 3 pieces and chopped them up. I then put them in my cast iron pan to render down, and then I added shredded potatoes.
The potatoes fried nicely in the rendered fat and I like my hash browns on the salty side, so this all worked out OK. I topped it with a couple of eggs, over easy, and had a nice breakfast.
I'm not sure I would recommend this. It's one of those things where I had an ingredient I wasn't going to throw away so I figured out a use for it.
My wife makes potato soup regularly and I think we'll toss a strip in there as well.
Tim
After watching the first episode I don't think he was being pushy, he was just trying to get people to see what they were doing to themselves. I think that is the cause of their resistance - not that they were being shown another way to cook but that they were being made to face the reality that they were killing themselves with very poor dietary habits. They didn't want to have to own up to that.
Rob
It's a sad reality that sometimes people need whacking over the head to take in good advice, years of the nanny state suggesting what is wrong has had no effect on these people.
Jamie talks a lot of sense and the healthier school dinners introduced in the UK by him have not only significantly improved pupils' test results, but also cut the number of days they were off sick.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that a better quality food intake, will result in a better and healthier life.