Share interesting if not necessarily useful facts here.92 responses total.
Jim was reading a Dannon yogurt container that someone must have given us. Light N' Fit. Same taste, new name. Less calories than regular low-fat yogurt. Apparently regular has 190 calories per serving, and Light has 120. Non-fat yogurt is made from non-fat milk, corn thickener, and sweetener. Non-fat milk is 80 calories per serving (1 cup). So this low-calorie yogurt has added 50% more calories in the form of corn thickener and fructose (and aspartame) and is bragging about being low-calorie. I had no idea 'regular' yogurt contained 110 calories of sugar. The other interesting ingredient was 'kosher gelatin'. People who eat kosher do not normally mix parts of dead animals with milk, operating on the law 'thou shalt not cook a calf in its mother's milk'. This law has been extended to eating chickens within six hours of eating cheese (fishes apparently don't have mother's milk, chickens do). So we assumed kosher gelatin was from plant sources. The web tells us that it is from the skins of cows that were killed in a kosher manner (list their throat and bless them) and that had all the muscle scraped off. According to a lot of Hebrew words, this makes them non-food and therefore they can be mixed with milk. So a calf consists of its muscles but not its skin. And chickens are calves but fish are not. The skin is decomposed chemically and passes out of the food category and then back into it somehow. Jim thought only Catholics were this crazy.
No, only racist, intolerant, anti-religious bigots are crazy enough to post such as #1.
Heh. Between the co$t, hassle, and complexity, my impression is that most Jews don't even try to follow all of the dietary rules. Not that other groups of humans have any better a record on following religious rules, Robert's Rules, generally accepted accounting practices, etc.
What was so intolerant about grumbling about yogurt and silly dietary laws?
Nothing. It's just early, and beady hasn't had his meds yet.
Eric beat me to the explanation. CURSES!
Lol! Though those rules are pretty funny.
If you have any kind of a rule or distinction, you have to interpret it in ambiguous real-life situations. Reasonable people who accept the original rule can and do differ on the specific application; situations not imagined by the makers of the original rule have to be incorporated somehow, even if it looks a bit odd. In this case, the original rule cannot be amended, only reinterpreted. The rabbis who wrote those rules were doing the best they could.
Once again Ms. keesan proves to us that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. "IS YOUR "KOSHER" YOGURT KOSHER?, by Arlene Mathes-Scharf - Editor Kashrut.com, Copyright Scharf Associates, 1999 "Yogurt is a highly nutritious food that is tasty, easy to obtain and transport. However, this cup of yogurt is not a simple product. Manufacturers adjust the ingredients to make a creamy product and to control the calorie content. "There has been a recent alert on Kashrut.com regarding the withdrawal of certification by the OU on some yogurt products because of the reformulation of the products to include gelatin. Gelatin serves a number of useful functions in a yogurt product. It forms a creamier product and keeps the fruit suspended in the yogurt. It also serves as a bulking agent, reducing the calorie content, by replacing the yogurt with water. Non-fat yogurt has 130 calories per 8 oz. without any sweeteners. To get 100-calorie yogurt, less yogurt is used. "Unfortunately there are a number of kashrus issues in the use of gelatin. Gelatin, is by definition an animal product. The gelatin used in current yogurt products is produced from pork or non-kosher slaughtered beef. Since there are rabbis who give kosher certification to these gelatins and the products produced from them, manufacturers call this gelatin "kosher" gelatin and put a "K" on the products. The major certifying agencies do not consider this gelatin to be kosher. A detailed summary can be found on the Star-K."
brown cow yogurt: kosher. and yummy.
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Re #2, I was raised Jewish. At one point my mother decided to stop using separate dishes for meat and milk, because there was some rule that said you could make things okay with a hot metal rod and we had moved to a house with a dishwasher. I don't think she actually used the drying cycle. The Catholics, back when they followed the no meat during Lent rule, would eat anything that swam, including fetal rabbits and dolphins, which were by definition fishes.
HEY! I had a conversation this last week with a jewish Rabbi who had just come back from Canada to bless some animals for slaughter. Turns out he wrote the book on Kosher Gelatin. (Or at least he says he did.) he said that the bones of animals, both beef, and pork, could be used to make kosher gelatin since the bone was not considered to be living. I didn't have time to get into it deeper with him, and sent him on his way. But I did think it rather weird.
This item reeks of anti-Semitism. Don't even try to hide your hatred of Israel.
Is Kosher meat slaughtered differently from other meat, same animal? What makes a chicken "Kosher"?
Mumbo jumbo....
Racists.
Kosher meat is slaughered differently, yes. I knew the details once, but I don't remember them very well.
According to conversation I've seen go by in the mail, something becomes "not food" by Jewish law if a dog won't eat it. If a dog isn't interested in calf skin, it's not food by the rule and neither milk nor meat (even if it is made edible later). Reconciliation of this with dogs' propensity for rawhide chews is a question I leave for people who actually care.
They sell pig ears to feed to dogs. My aunts used to buy live chickens and watch them be slaughtered in a kosher manner. This required slitting their throats, waiting for them to bleed to death, soaking up the blood with salt, and reciting a blessing. Blood is not kosher for some reason. Why is the skin of a dead animal any less alive than its muscles?
What we're really talking about is ancient social conventions about
what's safe to eat and what's not, long before any understanding of disease,
that have become ossified in the rock of a religious text. Some rules are
bound to be outright superstition, others rules of thumb ("RULE OF THUMB?
Do you know what the rule of thumb was?!?" - madwymmin) about what's safe to
eat which aren't completely inclusive but are easy to remember, and still
others social conventions that mark the difference between "them" and "us"
in a culture.
None of it's anywhere near as silly as something like the Adkins diet,
though, so I'm not sure I should regard such rules as archaic.
Here's a useless fact: The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln, but Abraham Lincoln wasn't born in Nebraska!
resp:20 Blood is not kosher because if I remember right, it is written that the blood contains the life.
Re 22. People tend to assume that Lincoln County, Maine, was named for Abraham Lincoln. However, the county was given that name before Abraham Lincoln was born.
Re.13 "I had a conversation this last week with a jewish Rabbi who had just come back from Canada to bless some animals for slaughter." Heh, whats to bless there? The being is going to die. A blessing is supposed to be for your good. Or do they bless that the dead animal's soul will go to heaven. If you have to kill something just kill it. Eeeeooowww!! Why do you have to slit its throat and watch it die????? Some ancient enemity between humans and chicken?
Sadistic pleasure.
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Re #25: Revenge for breeding new influenza viruses.
Blessing animals (or thanking them) before eating them is a pretty
common ritual in a number of religions, usually to prevent the spirits of the
animals from seeking vengeance. That might've been where it came from.
Blessing prepared food is pretty common, too.
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Uh, the story I heard was that every meal, especially meals of meat, was shared with Divinity.
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Is Divine dead? I did not know that. . . .
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Affirmative.
"Dork" is NOT the proper term for the penis of a whale, unless it has somehow not made it into any of the reliable dictionaries on the web.
The question often comes up about turning on or off lights during shabbat. Here's what you do. First of all, you use mercury bulb switches from a goy vendor and installed by a goy non-union electrician. Then you have the switch turned on or off by a trained monkey, but here's the key. It has to be a borrowed trained monkey - you can't be the actual owner of the monkey. There is some discussion of using motion detecting digital circuits to replace the monkey and the goy mercury switch as it is cheaper in the long run (gotta feed the monkeys) but this remains an open discussion issue and will probably be settled in the next century or so. To be safe, go for the monkey.
I thought it was just that you had to have your Christian neighbor come in and turn on the stove on Saturdays. Never heard about lights. My fanatic upstairs neighbor while growing up (who wore sneakers on Yom Kippur rather than leather which might be edible) thought it was okay to walk to shul but not to drive. Maybe something related to making the horses work harder? This all turns into something like fraternity rules - everyone does the same silly things and belongs to the same group. My mother dropped the no milk and meat at a meal rule after I came back from summer camp several pounds lighter, at age 12. The Christians would eat pork for supper and the rest of us got peanut butter sandwiches on wonder bread. Ugh. (Sort of like the computer recycling conference where they provided lunch - 1" of dead turkey for the carnivores, two slices of cucumber for the rest of us in a sandwich with a bit of tomato as well). Are there non-Halal Muslims (or people who were at least brought up Muslim?).
We would caution anybody against believing anything in this item relating to ritual Jewish slaughter. That being said, we would venture a guess that the shochet (ritual slaughterer) would say a blessing to thank G-d for providing the animals as food for man, rather than "blessing" the animals, per se.
Do you somehow have unique qualifications in ritual Jewish slaughter? Why the fuck should we believe you over some of the others in this item whom I know to be Jewish?
I've always been puzzled about people that tie their behavior to presciptions that don't appear to have a basis in some practical purpose. I've been trying to think if I follow any such rule system on anything, but I can't think of any examples. I also don't recall ever having done so in the past at any age. I have my likes and dislikes, and perhaps some food fads (like generally cooking pork, but eating beef pretty raw, which I think is tied to the once possibility of trichanosis), but as far as I can recall I follow absolutely zero food, clothing, or behavioral practices not founded in secular law, practicality, generally followed social customs, or just preference. It does seem strange that this could be the case, given the prevalence of such practices, but it seems perfectly natural to me. Have I overlooked something? I do lay the table with the fork, knife and spoon in the conventional locations, and do many other things like that, but don't think that these are things that must be done "or else" - they just make life a little easier by not having to reinvent everything as one lives, and if I moved to a country that did it differently, I would probably eventually adopt the local custom, it not mattering to me one way or another (except I don't think I could eat my peas off the back of the fork).
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In a modern version of the story, he would then be promptly sued for copyright infringement. ;)
Mr. goose, We find your reponse, to say the least, foolish and boorish. You may ignore us if you wish, but there is no need for such distasteful language! Regards, klg
Foolish, hardly. Boorish, I'll accept that. However a question remains: In what way are you uniquely qualified in topics of ritual slaughter? To be honest though, I don't really care. I should ignore you, you annoy me. If the reverse is true, so be it.
Yay! Flame war!!
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Now, having had the opportunity to consult our home library, we find that: "the shochet recites the blessing 'who has hallowed us by thy commandments and commanded us regarding ritual slaughter.'" A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice, Rabbi Isaac Klein, JTSA, NY 1979.
Uh, I wanna get me some ribs and BBQ them. I don't give a hoot or hollar if some rabbit got paid to say a few words one way or another. I'm going to "Moo and Oink" where you can get a whole pail of fresh chitlins for real cheap. (frie them suckers in sesame oil for snack)
antisemite! ;)
*shrug* me likes pork. I'd have a hard time keeping kosher law because well, although I could maybe give up pork, man, I could never give up shellfish. Shrimp? Scallop? Crab? Lobster? *sigh* No way!
rats live on no evil star
A man, a plan, a canal. Panama!
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Rob ran, nasal lad, Dallas - Ann Arbor.
Most processed foods are equipped with "supplements". These beautiful food additives were created to appeal to our taste for something sweet and exciting!! Real foods have become unappealing to most folks these days. Many additives were designed with the failing farmer in mind. Corn syrup is a good example. Vitamins are "byproducts" sometimes harvested from processing raw foods. Vitamins are additives too! What will we be eating in ten years? "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal" Eric Schlosser....Good reading before any meal...I think Grex is great food.
Tulsa night life? Filth, gin, a slut!
If you haven't checked your Dannon products lately, the company lowered the calories/container by shrinking the size from 8 oz. to 6 oz. net weight. The gelatin was an ingredient in the Blended and Fit 'n' Creamy lines already. Dannon still makes two lines that contain no gelatine.
There is a dairy in Dearborn that makes yogurt from milk and bacterial cultures and no pectin or cornstarch or gelatin. It dissolves in soup much better without these pudding-additives. Also tastes much better than the supermarket brands. We got some from Alladin's Market on Packard.
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Yogurt has live bacteria and less fat and is non-refined.
Have you never made yoghurt at home? It's fairly simple if you have about a spoonful of yoghurt to start with. We do it all the time in India
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Yogurt is easier to make in warm weather. Otherwise you need to rig up some sort of heater.
I've heard that if you have a gas oven, you can leave yoghurt in it to keep it warm. Apparently, the head of the pilot light is enough to bring the temperature up into the 80s where the bacteria like it.
Do gas ovens still have pilot lights? I assumed they'd all have electronic ignition by now. A single low-wattage light bulb inside some kind of box ought to bring the temperature up to 80. A breadbox would work well, if anyone still has breadboxes.
The gas stove in my apartment in Pittsburgh had pilot lights under all the burners; I assume it had one for the oven too. Of course, that wasn't so much a recent model.
my bf is from pittsburgh.
Styrofoam cooler would hold in more heat in cold weather.
Yeah...I was thinking breadbox because it's metal and wouldn't present a fire hazard.
In a metal tin on top of the water heater, maybe?
I haven't seen them here, but in India we get these insulated casserole dishes. Usually used to store chappattis, because they stayed fresher, but excellent for making yoghurt
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Get some of those microwavable heat packs, a cooler, a digital thermometer with a probe... heat up the packs, put in cooler, warm up inside, check thermometer for designed temp.., adjust heat pack warm up time to what you desire... cont.
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The top of your (CRT) monitor, with perhaps a box over it, should make a good warmer. I made a themostatted spce warmer with a (second-hand) aquarium thermostat and a (second-hand) warming plate.
I don't leave my monitor on overnight. The water heater is insulated. Jim puts things on top of his refrigerator to keep them warm, near the back.
Resp 74> I said "store" chapattis, not "make" chapattis. We usually roll them out and make them on a round iron skillet.
Not all gas ovens have pilot lights. Some use piezoelectric igniters.
ABC Warehouse still had two models with pilot lights. I was as surprised as others. Regarding yogurt, I incubate mine in a water bath warmed by an Westbend electric Dutch oven. I've marked the dial on the control, so I don't remember the incubation temperature. Sucessive batches tend to get more powerfully sour. Anybody else notice this? I might make five batches and then buy a new starter.
Maybe you are getting some wild microorganisms dropping in? Do you cover the yogurt? We have been given an electric deep fryer - it might go cool enough.
There might actually be some kind of bacteria inhibiter in the original yogurt which gets progressively diluted through several batches. That might be keeping the nasty stuff at bay, or perhaps keeping the actual culture from eating too much of the sugar.
It could also be that the population of bacteria in the same physical quantity of starter you use is increasing each time, so the total duration of the process results in far greater numbers with far greater effect. Try either reducing the processing time or the amount of starter or both on subsequent efforts.
(Or the temperature...)
I like the idea of reducing the processing time. My temperture was orginally set with the aid of my darkroom thermometer. If the information I had at the time was accurate, it was the ideal temperature for growing lactobacillus bulgaricus alone. Departures from the ideal temperature favored the culture of other un-yogurt-like bacteria. Yes, I did cover my containers and the milk was scalded and cooled before innoculation.
There are two cultures in the yogurt I bought, the other being acidophilus.
Re #84: Or the culture is not a single strain but a community, and the relative populations shift away from the best-taste ratio over time. Changing the conditions of fermentation might make a difference there.
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>#88: Very likely that is the case, since I'm using an active culture commercial yogurt as a starter each time.
I was suprised to read that Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the Rhodes Scholarship played a big part in setting the foundation for South Africas' apartheid. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/02/10/wfound10.xm l
Surprising, iSN"T IT?
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