What is and What Should Never Be - III

And the conclusion to our “What Is and What Should Never Be” series, are the items that most definitely should be, at any and all costs. These are your splurge items… spend the money, go high-end, these items, like that inexplicably perfect date, can not be duplicated.

Kitchen Aid Mixer (5 qt) – There is absolutely no substitute for the Kitchen Aid mixer… actually, there is, and I tried to use it for many years. My ersatz mixer would cough and wheeze through the wimpiest butter and sugar creamings, and become all but paralyzed at the mere mention of dough. It eventually died, its pathetic engine smoking, when I decided to break down and get the Artisan. You don’t even need to open the box to know that you’re dealing with a serious piece of machinery; it weighs more than an 8-year-old, and as soon as you plunk it down on your counter, the deafening thud tells you that your mixer will outlast you, and probably most of your great-grandchildren. I haven’t yet tested anything more challenging than pizza dough, but it whips through its tasks with serious and powerful efficiency, and, like that perfect date, is prepared to handle any request that comes its way.

8” Chef’s Knife – I’ll never forget the episode of “The Restaurant” with Rocco DiSpirito in which, after some overly-dramatic gaffes, Rocco, the Hero, returns to the kitchen, determined to save his restaurant and demonstrates his skills by double chopping a mound of parsley like a martial arts expert. I desperately want to learn how to do that, but am deathly afraid of slitting my wrist in the process, because I have large, sharp chef’s knives. The kind that could mince parsley (or my flesh) with the slightest graze, make child’s play of disjointing a chicken, and effortlessly break up my decadent hunks of Callebaut chocolate. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. The fact is, not only are my tasks made lighter, but I’m actually less likely to hurt myself with the best and sharpest knives for a couple of reasons:

1) They are superiorly constructed, from the handle to the tip. Look at your chef’s knife, or whatever you use as a substitute. The metal of the blade should extend all the way through the handle, to give you the most control and sturdiness.
2) When a knife is adequately sharp, it requires less pressure from the user. Less pressure means less likelihood that the knife go awry, slip, and slice that delicate wrist-skin; also, less pressure means less hand and wrist strain, if you’re a frequent cook and chopping pounds of vegetables is a daily task.

The best knives are arguably Wusthof and Henckels; I have both and love them dearly. They are handily the most frequently used items in my kitchen, have performed consistently for over 5 years, and I intend to bequeath them to my grandchildren. I have never found a need to splurge for an entire set of knives; three 8” chef’s knives, a Wusthof paring knife, and a Henckel’s 6” knife have felt more than adequate (though anyone that roasts frequently would probably need a special set). I promise that you won’t be disappointed with this one-time, minor splurge, and your wrists, hands, and intact-skin will thank you.

The Food – Against the back drop of the most recent tomato recall and salmonella concerns, not to mention Obama’s call to South Korea to import more US beef, which they rightfully reject since the beef they import from Australia meets much higher health inspection standards, it is imperative to discuss the food that our designer cookware will be preparing.

When you hold a conventionally grown tomato up next to an organic, locally grown tomato, they may not look remarkably different. I would bet, however, that they smell different, and I know that they are nutritionally distinct. Have you ever cut into a red-ripe tomato or strawberry, only to find that the inside is white. It’s not mother nature, it’s a reddening agent that has allowed that grower to pick an under-ripe fruit, redden it (though the agent does not affect the maturation process), and ensure that the fruit arrive unspoiled to your plate. It hasn’t had time to mature, extract the same amount of nutrients from the soil that a fruit left to mature would, and, speaking of that soil, much like mama to baby, any pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers that it absorbs, the fruit absorbs, and, then you absorb. That organic, locally-grown tomato, on the other hand, has traveled less distance, thereby consuming fewer fossil fuels, the soil that it’s been gestating in and ingesting is chemical-free (and more sustainable than treated soil), and, the best part, it smells and tastes like a tomato. A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to smell a tomato, and it should be pungent, at about six inches from your face.

But produce isn’t the only department in which to splurge. Meat and dairy are, in my opinion, the most important. Even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about treating animals humanely, you should have some care about what they’re fed, how healthy they were when they were slaughtered, and the likelihood that something other than the expected boneless, skinless chicken breast end up in your casserole tonight. For those of you who haven’t read either Omnivore’s Dilemma or Fast Food Nation, I’ll sum it up for you very quickly… You need to be more conscientious of what you eat. Mainstream meat and dairy producers are less concerned with providing the public with consistently safe and healthful products than they are with profit. What’s perplexing is that these companies are tremendously profitable, but the increase in their products' shelf price hasn’t kept pace with other consumer goods. The average price of a pound of bacon has only increased 195% since 1978; a dozen eggs have only increased 229% in the same time period, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up approximately 11371%, home prices are up 402% and gas is up 516%. Logic follows that if the meat and dairy producers are effectively charging less than they once were and still maintaining profitability, the profits must be squeezed from lower operating costs, which is fine, as long as health and safety of workers and consumers aren’t compromised, but they have been and continue to be. When you get a great deal on meat, poultry, or dairy, think about the value chain associated with getting that product to you. Take the price that you’ve paid and divvy it up among the retailer, distributor, processor, the fuel costs, labor costs, costs of land ownership, equipment etc. add in a little profit for each part of the value chain. Now what’s left over went into actually producing the food that you are about to consume; if it seems dangerously, worryingly small, and you’re about to convince yourself that volume must account for the low cost, you’re wrong. Shoddy and neglectful practices account for the low-cost, which translates into a low quality product, one that may make you sick in the short and long-run.

It may be a tough pill to swallow, to pay what seem to be exorbitantly high prices for what appears to be essentially the same product, but the products aren’t the same. A healthfully raised and slaughtered animal produces a far superior product than one that has been mistreated, under-nourished, loaded with antibiotics and hormones, and brutalized.