Hi everyone, and welcome to the very first Pandemic Kitchen weekly digest. This is a newsletter format I’m trying out where I’ll be sharing links to articles I’ve read, stories I’ve had published, products and deals I think are worth buying, and my own meal plans and original photography. In short, it’s a bit of a grab bag of things that I find interesting, and which I hope will appeal to you as well.
Why I’ve started asking for tips
This year has seen me doing a rather astronomical amount of work for The Takeout, a publication under the G/O Media umbrella, and it’s also been a year of expanding bylines. I’ve written for Wine Enthusiast and VinePair, had more work appear in Fodor’s Travel, and have generally tried to be more widely spread as a writer.
Of course, things didn’t exactly work out as I wanted. I’ve had zero luck finding a full time staff writing job, and freelancing full time is an impossible career if you want to pay down debt, buy a home, have children, or save for retirement. Most writers have other, far more lucrative side gigs: corporate writing and recipe development, influencing, copy editing, or even restaurant or retail jobs. I went the opposite route, and left a psychology career to be a writer. Oops!
This newsletter offers a potential path to at least a little bit of income independent from the whims of what is basically the journalism equivalent of working in the coal industry. I’m planning introduce a paid subscription option to this newsletter, where I’ll offer something to all of you that I think will entice you to pay me on the regular, but in the mean time I’m simply saying that if you enjoy my work, please consider supporting those efforts financially. Having money come in for the newsletter means I can afford to put stories here that I’d typically try to sell elsewhere, and that I can devote more time to making the newsletter an actual part of my job, and not just an extra thing I do because I love food, and all of you dear people who take the time to read my thoughts.
If you’d like to support me via PayPal the correct email address is jacobdeanwrites@gmail.com
If you’d like to support me via Venmo the account name is @ThePandemicKitchen. You can find it using this link.
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For those that have already been so generous: thank you. It’s incredibly gratifying and deeply appreciated.
Here’s some of my recent work
As I mentioned I’ve done a lot of work for The Takeout, and here are some of my recent stories:
Burning Questions: How can I tell if my spices are fresh? - Big thanks to Ethan Frisch of the spice company Burlap & Barrel, both for answering my questions and for selling the very best spices I’ve ever cooked with.
Burning Questions: Is copper cookware better? - Thanks also to Mac Kohler of Brooklyn Copper Cookware for providing some technical information about copper cookware. I interviewed Mac in the past for a story for the Michelin Guide about roasting pans and he was kind enough to respond to a follow up interview request.
Tips and tricks for a less anxious turkey experience - For this story I spoke with J. Fox, who along with his husband Kevin Haverty owns the NYC butcher shops Hudson & Charles. J. took the time to share some of his expert tips for turkey selection and I’m extremely grateful to have been able to talk to him during what is his most busy time of the year. If you live in NYC, buy their meat!
Burning Questions: What is terroir? - This story was based on written research and not on interviews, so I don’t have anyone in particular to thank.
Food stories I’ve been reading
Nike and Coca-Cola Lobby Against Xinjiang Forced Labor Bill (NY Times) - Coca-Cola, amongst other companies, has been lobbying to weaken a bill which would “prohibit broad categories of certain goods made by persecuted Muslim minorities in an effort to crack down on human rights abuses…” Per the Times, “Human rights groups and news reports have linked many multinational companies to suppliers there, including tying Coca-Cola to sugar sourced from Xinjiang…” And in case this isn’t clear from the Times’ reporting: “forced labor” = slavery.
Once the Disease of Gluttonous Aristocrats, Gout Is Now Tormenting the Masses (NY Times Style Magazine) - I can’t exactly recommend Ligaya Mishan’s story about gout, but it is sort of an interesting read if you can get past the incredibly pretentious style, the obscure and unnecessary George Will-esque historical quotes and references, and the piece’s general longwindedness. But buried in an article begging for an editor are some interesting nuggets about how gout—the disease of kings—is once again on the rise.
This Twitter thread about shattering Pyrex - Pyrex, which is made from soda lime silicate glass (as opposed to the far more resilient borosilicate glass) is prone to “thermal shock” fractures, which is when an object shatters in response to going from one temperature extreme to another. Pyrex markets itself as being basically shatterproof. So, when the American Ceramic Society (ACS) published an article its the September 2012 issue which stated that thermal shock can occur in soda lime silicate glass (like Pyrex products) at just 99 degrees Fahrenheit, Pyrex sued the writers of the article. This thread gets into how temperature-related Pyrex explosions are seemingly becoming more common, and touches on how the Pyrex products being made today seem less durable than the ones made in previous decades.
Why Everyone’s Suddenly Hoarding Mason Jars (Marker, on Medium) - Having a hard time finding mason jars? Try being a business that makes jam and needs 30 thousand of them.
Chinatown, Resilient and Proud (NY Times) - This photo/narrative package from Michael Kimmelman (writer) and Alex Lau (photographer) is tremendous, and long enough that I actually haven’t finished reading it yet. The gist is that it tracks Chinatown’s physical and cultural development through the use of then/now photos, and includes a virtual tour of Doyers Street. Honestly, I wish they’d picked another street (why does Mott Street never get any love?), but I get why they picked Doyers; it was one of the first streets where Chinatown was born, and its peculiar winding design has resulted in it being thoroughly photographed. It’s also a favorite spot for filming tv and movies. If you’ve seen something on a tv show set in Manhattan’s Chinatown (that was actually filmed in Manhattan) there’s a solid chance it was shot on Doyers.
Stuff I’m into right now
A friend’s dad went on a boutique hunting trip in the American Southwest recently and bagged an elk so large it looks like a forest deity from Princess Mononoke. There’s a small chance my friend will be able to ship us some elk meat and I’m excited to be able to cook with a meat I’ve only ever eaten in restaurants.
Against all odds I was able to get into the Rancho Gordo Bean Club, which was recently made even more famous thanks to owner Steve Sando appearing on CBS. According to Steve the waitlist for the Bean Club jumped from 11 thousand people to 20 thousand effectively overnight, which tells you something about the degree to which people are cooking with (and enjoying) dried beans. If you’ve ever wondered why people are spending $7 a pound on dry beans, order yourself a few bags: you’ll be blown away.
I also joined Burlap & Barrel’s quarterly spice club and am so, so glad I did. The first shipment included (amongst other things) powdered bay leaf and powdered sun dried tomato, which are two spices not available on their marketplace. The spices are wonderful and if you find that the club again has some openings, you should really consider signing up.
Burlap & Barrel is also selling a set of three masalas created by famed Indian chef Floyd Cardoz, who sadly died of covid earlier this year. I wrote a story about these spices for The Takeout.
We have filled our freezer with products from Wulf’s Fish, which offers a welcome break from our meat-heavy diet (which is something I’m trying to change). If you pay attention you’ll find that Wulf’s has sales of between 10-20% off somewhat regularly. We’ve loved everything we’ve gotten from them and they occasionally have unusual seasonal products such as blowfish tails, which come from a north Atlantic fish also known as a “sugar toad.”
Unrelated to food, we’ve been in the market for a new couch for well over a year and finally decided to make the purchase. It turns out, though, that buying a couch is absolutely as difficult and convoluted as buying a car, and I spent dozens of hours researching different brands, comparing fabrics, and learning about kiln-dried hardwood, sinuous springs, and combination foam-feather cushion fills. After much debate we settled on the “Gaby” couch from Interior Define, which will arrive in roughly 14-16 weeks.
What I’ve been cooking lately
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