I hope Alice doesn’t mind. I am posting an e-mail I wrote to her because it is very representative of where my brain is today: 1) an issue that potentially has a global impact 2) something completely unrelated that is a question of crafting and personal technique
I don’t know how these things fit together– maybe it is just that they are both things that I would discuss with Alice.
So this was the e-mail:
There was a program on NPR about soybean rust yesterday. Apparently it is a huge problem in South America and this year they found cases of it in the U.S. (mostly in the South, but they are expecting it to spread to other parts of the country next year). It is devastating enough to be listed as one of the diseases on the bioterrorism watch list, but investigators determined that Hurricane Ivan was responsible for its spread to the U.S.
Concerns me for several reasons:
1) They are using a couple of experimental fungicides to treat it, which means more chemicals in soyfoods– and who can begin to predict the biological impact at this point?
2) No one has yet engineered a variety of soybean resistant to the disease (despite the fact that, as I understand it, soy is one of the most heavily genetically-modified foods being produced in the U.S. now– right up there with corn and tomatoes)
3) My uncle grows a lot of soybeans
4) I expect that soyfoods will become even more expensive in the next few years.
Oh, more about fudge. I am guessing that the exact way you heat the sugar, even in the shorthand (marshmallows and chocolate chip) version of fudge, is really important in determining the overall texture. When the recipe says: bring sugar, butter, salt, and milk to a rolling boil over medium for 4-5 minutes, it probably precisely means do NOT bring it to a boil on high and then turn it back down to medium while it continues to boil. It is OK to do it this way, and you still get fudge in the end, but it probably affects the sugar melting process and the texture in subtle ways that add up. I have made perfect fudge (in my estimation) a few times and when I did, I think I probably followed the instructions perfectly.
