Really!!!!

And leftovers! Can be saved! And eaten later! Even frozen!

On Oprah, a stay-at-home mom had to be told that using paper plates for her kids was not economically wise.

I am from the Tribe of We Who Do Not Waste, so none of this is news to me. But it makes me sad that it is to some people.

Haute Cuisine did originate as the food of the middle class and the Paris bistros made really really good, but food and the concepts we hold about food change. Haute Cuisine quickly became the food of the upper class when it became the food in the grand hotels of France. Here there was still frugality, as the chefs who made haute cuisine would not waste food because it was a waste of money.

I think it became “wasteful” when Haute Cuisine reached the US. Americans tend to focus on more elaborate preparations using the “best” ingredients, rather than the forms of haute cuisine that developed to use waste/trimmings, ect.

Furthermore, as a culture we tend to throw things away rather than reuse them.

I should like a discussion of Haute Cuisine as the food of the poor made excellent as opposed to quite (or even over the top) wasteful. I’m not seeing that; let’s discuss.

HC is one of the many things that the rich elite use to distinguish themselves from the hoi polloi. Think fish forks, coffee spoon vs ice cream spoon vs teaspoon, and fancy spices. The common person could not afford these and many a aspiring merchant went broke trying to.

Many foods involve the use of lots of time or experience to make “right” – the aforementioned turned potatoes for example. If the goal was potatoes that cook evenly, there are more efficient ways to trim them. Well washed carrots are just as tasty as peeled ones. Anything with beaten egg whites. Elaborately carved garnishes.

Other foods are wasteful, such as the architectural confections that were served in the Middle Ages between food courses. Ditto for “four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie/when the pie was opened the birds began to sing”: a total waste, from a food point of view, of flour, fuel and time. Molecular gastronomy, Michele Rocard’s food puns[1]

Still more food is rare, imported or forced out of season. Truffles. Chocolate.[2] Raspberries in December from Chile. At one point, chicken in November and beef in March, ice cream and icing.

At one time in history, in the Russian Orthodox Church had so many fast and meatless days they composed about 1/4 of the total days of the year. An elaborate cuisine resulted, based on pickled fish, sour cream and especially mushrooms. Fast day food became so fancy and elaborate that there’s a saying that one is too poor to afford to eat meatless.

[1] Owner-chef of Citronelle in Washington DC, famous for tromp d’oeil with food, such as “pepperoni” made of sweet dessert ingredients or “apple pie” made of sweetbreads.

[2] Mmmm, chocolate.

I find that when I’m making soup, I actually prefer slightly old vegetables and slightly “lesser” cuts of meat simply because they taste better. And that makes sense to my little science mind. Soups need flavor more than anything else, and in the process of “just starting to go bad,” vegetables lose water, concentrating their flavor, and some of their components start to break down, creating a wider diversity of possible flavor molecules (to a point, of course). And lesser cuts of meat are deemed such for texture, not flavor, and often contain more flavorful bits. So, naturally, any soup you make with them will taste that much richer……. Since there’s only two of us and we don’t generate much kitchen waste (and can’t make soup that often), we keep a few large bags in the freezer and into those go all the bones, remains of veggies, etc, that we think would be good for stock. When there’s enough, stock gets made and subsequently frozen. Seems to work very well. (But then, I suppose that could start a whole conversation on the “passe-ness” of using things form the freezer ).