Rachel Laudan

The irrepressible Steve Sando (Rancho Gordo) sent me this link to a thread on the Mouthfuls forum detailing his search for a small appliance that would wet grind nixtamalized maize into masa for Mexican tortillas. The bottom line. Indian wet grinders don’t work for this. The Mexican Nixtamatic does, at a price.

Follow the link to his name, and you’ll find a You Tube link showing the machine grinding away. On the left, you’ll find all the information about his book Heirloom Beans which is hitting the shelves right now. Steve’s analysis: Gone with the Wind for food. Don’t miss it.

If you speak Spanish and if you are in Mexico City in the next couple of weeks, here’s what looks like a great intensive course on globalization and food security in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean with historical, agricultural, and economic information and field trips.

Alex just posted this link to a terrific video of Oaxaca cheese being made in (I assume) the food science lab at Chapingo.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQo-gyzRNo0

Even if you don’t understand Spanish you can see the essential step: hot water being poured over the curd so as to produce the long strings.  And you’ll links to lots of other Mexican cheese-making techniques. Great stuff.  Thanks for finding it Alex.

The main narrator, Abraham Villegas, also mentions that many artificial cheeses are also being made.  Mexico, like many parts of the world, has a milk shortage.  That makes cheese expensive for a lot of people.  Yesterday when I was in Mega, I counted and I reckon that more than half the cheese there was non-milk cheese, artificial cheese.  Here’s an example.

And here’s the list of ingredients: water, vegetable fat, milk protein, etc.  (Stupidly I threw away the grocery receipt so I don’t have relative prices. But I’ll check next time I go).

And I have to admit that the taste difference between this and an all milk cheese from the always-reliable firm Aguascalientes was less than I expected.

So next time you have a queso fundido (melted cheese) that seems incredibly reasonable in price, it may well be artificial cheese.

Meanwhile, those who want a wet, fresh, Italian-style mozzarella can pick up this.  From Wisconsin, need I say? About $4.00 for about half a pound).