Recipes, Listings and Audio | The Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper

July 18, 2009

We're talking to food activist Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food about the intersection between sustainable foods, and our real life pocketbooks. Jane and Michael Stern have been researching the green chile cheeseburger in New Mexico and we look at the origins of the American potato chip with Dirk Burhans author of Crunch, A History of the Great American Potato Chip.

Episode Rundown

Listen to the whole show | Download MP3

00:00 – 01:05 Intro

01:05 – 07:01 The Sterns

07:35 – 13:15 Fallen Fruit

David Burns talks with Lynne about mapping public fruit trees in Los Angeles.

Web site: www.fallenfruit.org
Recipe: Summer Fruit Pizza with Rosemary & Basil

13:30 – 21:14 Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan joins Lynne to talk about the cost of food, and what can be done to lower the costs of healthier foods.

Book: In Defense of Food

21:14 – 27:05 Potato Chips

Dirk Burhans talks about the origins of the potato chip, and local, independent chip makers.

Book: Crunch! A History of the Great American Potato Chip
Web sites: (See at right)

27:05 - 32:54 Calls, Part 1

Lynne fields a call about making your own pastrami.

Book: Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman

32:22 - 34:43 Trivia Question

34:43 - 44:49 Calls, Part 2

Lynne fields calls about flavor combinations for homemade jam, making paneer cheese

Web site: The New England Cheesmaking Supply Company

44:49 – 50:36 Food Truck Nation

Katy McLaughlin talks with Lynne about high-end chefs taking to cooking in food trucks.

Article: Food Truck Nation from the The Wall Street Journal

This Week's Recipes

Summer Fruit Pizza with Rosemary & Basil

Images from This Episode

Dirk's Chip Picks

Dirk Burhans, author of Crunch! shares his favorite types of chip, as well as some of the best manufacturers out there.

Hydrogenated soybean oil chips, found mostly in Ohio: The best are light and white as a cumulus cloud, almost melting in one's mouth, and very potatoey. Trans-fat oils (everything in moderation!) and multiple rinses with water are key here.

Best: Conn's, Ballreich

Lard chips, Lancaster County, PA: You haven't had a potato chip until you've had one cooked in lard. Now merged into one company, until recently, Original Good's (kettle chip) was the oldest chip in the U.S., dating to 1886; "Homestyle" Good's is one of only two continuously-cooked (thin) lard chips in the the U.S.�

Picnic-style (thin, continuously cooked) vegetable oil chip, York County, PA: On a given day, many companies make good picnic style chips, but no one better or more consistently than Utz. The buttery taste of cottonseed oil is the trick here (several other companies use cottonseed too, but for some reason Utz does a better job).

Kettle chips, various:
Sterzing's, Iowa: makes a kettle version of the soybean oil chips above; an acquired taste but unique

Gold n' Krisp, Ohio: a very small company that makes kettle chips using a lard-vegetable oil blend;

Zapp's, Louisiana: very hard kettle chips with great flavor profiles; their "VooDoo Gumbo" flavor is especially good;

Route 11, Virginia: excellent quality and flavor selection of gourmet kettle chips; makes a special "Yukon Gold" brand once a year from organic chipping potatoes;

Kettle Brand, Oregon: found in natural food aisles throughout the country, Kettle Brand does a great job with Russet potatoes, a sugary potato that is very hard to work with.

Many of these chips are also available at www.anchorsfoodfinds.com.