The Extravagant Gourmets

[Warpy]

Why the food press rarely talks about dollars and cents.
By Sara Dickerman

Sky-high gas prices partnered with record-setting corn and wheat prices have led to what the AP calls "the worst case of food inflation in nearly 20 years." In combination with a looming recession and the deflation of the real-estate market, these high prices mean that the everyday grocery bill is overwhelming Americans. And yet a happy hedonism still dominates the food media; turn to the food section of your city paper and you'll learn where to spend $120 a pound on jamón ibérico or where to taste a flight of pricy olive oils. When such outlets deign to consider cost, they tend to produce "frugality stunts": Think of the recent New York Times articles on cooking with 99-cent ingredients or the countless Top Chef challenges in which contestants turn out high-end fare from tin cans and vending machines. Even a "cheap eats" restaurant review, when defined at "less than $25 a head," exceeds the national daily average spent on food by about $18.50 (PDF).

As an industry, we rhapsodize about la cucina povera—that is, "poor food" like polenta, beans, and braise-worthy cuts of meat like short-ribs and pigs trotters—but we rarely talk about cooking in terms of dollars and cents. When food writers and producers advocate economy, they're usually talking about time—churning out recipes for fast, easy, everyday weeknight meals that can be prepared in minutes. The dollar-savvy recipe is far less common. Why, even as the economic news turns grim, is it so unusual for the food media to take cost into account?

http://www.slate.com/id/2189234/?GT1=38001

Nice article and overdue. I've recently gotten rid of most of my "jaded palate" cookbooks that called for exotic and expensive ingredients. As I grow older, my tastes have become much plainer and I no longer want to recreate gourmet fare. I just want something nutritious and tasty on the table, thanks, and I don't want to spend my whole day cooking it and cleaning up after it's done. I've pared down the Chinese ingredients to the few I use often and limited my vinegars to cider, white wine, balsamic and the cheap white stuff I use in the laundry.

In other words, I've been there and done that and I'm sure my "jaded palate" collection will find new homes at the next library book sale.

[NMDemDist2]

1. good article

and I'm glad I learned to cook and eat cheap, and the W&W Mr. K certainly doesn't have an extravagant palate at all

:rofl:

[NashVegas]

2. Hasn't the Gourmetest of the Gourmet Pretty Much Always Been Based on a Hunter / Gatherer Diet?

Theoretically it's the least costly, financially - so long as you go forage it yourself - but most in time. You pay for the labor. This high-end eater has been the magazine target demo ever since Condé Nast got huge.

Fashion magazines like Vogue exist to show you what's at Bloomies. Glamour can tell you what's at the Limited. No one's putting out a glossy to get you into Wal-Mart's.

[Warpy]

3. Original haute cuisine was loosely based on poor folks' food

but with the addition of rare ingredients from foreign lands and foods out of season. Goose liver, something that was generally offal and fed to the servants, became foie gras when the geese were overfed (probably an an attempt to fatten the whole bird up) and turned into a delicacy. The same goes for sweetbreads, tripe, and other bits and pieces royalty sneered at. They were eventually jazzed up by nervous cooks and fed to royalty with jaded palates--relabeled, of course.

As for any connection between present chichi cookery and the hunter/gatherer diet, it's only coincidental since it relies so heavily on using things that arise geographically separated from each other or separated by season.

I've long been amused by the florid descriptions this poor folks' food gussied up and served to millionaires while we peasants end up dining on the muscle meats and tender veggies once served only to royalty.

[supernova]

4. Polenta vs Grits

I'm often amused at snobs who just have to point up their "elevated" tastes.

Why do people rhapsodize about polenta as a high-end food when southerners have been living off its cousin, grits, for a couple of centuries just fine, thank you very much.

Why does one country's country cookin' become classy and your own backyard foodstuffs declasse?

:wtf: Sometimes this world just confuses me.

[Phentex]

8. Not only that...

I don't understand the sheer hatred of a food they've never had! People will say they despise grits even if they've never actually eaten them.

[flamin lib]

5. Okay, I admit it. I hoard food. When something goes on sale for a

good price I buy it in quantity and freeze it, particularly meat. I've noticed the increasing prices over the last few years, particularly in chicken. I could once buy leg quarters for .19/pound in pre-packaged ten pound bags. Now .49 is the best deal in town.

When my daughter first moved out I started a cookbook project designed around her. Menus were designed around timing, not ingredients. Each had a shopping list and then prep times for the whole meal, i.e. if dinner is served at 8:00 begin the main course at 6:00 and half an hour later start the sides. Never finished it because she wound up working two jobs and only had time for fast food anyway. Another factor was the lack of user appeal. I had four menus and when I asked for beta testing the cook NEVER followed the recipe/time-line. Even at that the results were above average.

My current project, if I ever finish it, is along the lines of the article in the OP. Using simple, readily available food to make elegant meals with a minimum of effort.

[NJCher]

6. what a sweet mom you are

And that is way too bad about the fast food she turned to.

Here's a tip for getting the most meals out of a chicken or a roast or whatever. Simple Life magazine carries a week's worth of recipes and all the cook has to do is start the week off with a few items. The magazine's recipes show how to make different dishes from it throughout the week. I recently came into a big supply of these magazine and find this particular feature to be especially helpful. Well, I would if I cooked. As it is, my spouse does all that but if I did cook it would be a great feature.



Cher

[flamin lib]

9. Well, actually I'm the Dad.

I can get more from a chicken than anyone I know. Buy the whole bird and break it down. Two drumsticks, two thighs, two breasts, four wingetts and the rest makes two quarts of stock. Pick all the meat off the carcass and mix in some ham and spices for pate (makes for great sandwiches). Once I get a nice collection of wings we do the tailgate thing in front of the TV. A 59c/pound chicken costs about $2.50 and will net 3-4 meals plus the stock and pate. I never cook with water anymore!

I can de-bone a chicken completely in about 10 minutes. Make a spicy bread stuffing and stitch the bird back up around it. It slices like a whole chicken sausage with white and dark meat. Some kinda' good!

Turkeys go on the smoker after I break them down and make stock from the carcass. Like ham, the definition of eternity is two people and a whole smoked turkey, so I freeze the smoked breast meat.

[Kali]

7. or if you do find a series of articles on eating cheap

"feed a family of 4 on $5/week" types and you actually read the recipes, they must be for feeding birds, because the amounts of food wouldn't sate one of my teenagers for 10 minutes. (to be fair I haven't actually quantified that amount myself yet)

[eleny]

10. That makes so much sense

A story to illustrate your point:

One Saturday, years ago, I met a nice lady in front of our local Associated grocery. The grocer brought in a guy with a giant smoker/bbq setup for the day. The woman said she was so busy that she was getting the bbq dinner for the family and needed a lot. She said that she had 4 teenage boys at home and those days what she saw of them was usually their butts sticking out her fridge.

My hubby is one of three boys and talked about how his folks always had lots of food on hand when he and his brothers got older. They were as hungry as they were always on the go running around working or playing sports.