American Culinary Dominance

As the resident food snob here at The Platz it is noteworthy that the price of Rao's pizza and pasta sauces have near doubled in the last year.  How do I know this?  I am the chief grocery shopper and resident Pantry Warrior in our household.  I am also a fan of imported Italian bottled sauces as a consequence of their quality ingredients (San Marzano tomatoes) and unlike American manufacturers their scorning of sugar and preservatives in their recipes.  

Some of the cost increase is a consequence of Donald Trump's taxes on imported goods and the rest is a consequence of inflationary pressure on raw materials, packaging, logistics and labor.  Some of it is what I attribute to the 'Snobbery Premium' or the cost of high demand for a quality reputation and the balance to the $2.7 billion acquisition of Sovos Brands by Campbell's.    

Which leads to this walk down memory lane.   

This image is a print advertisement from 1964-1965 for Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Spaghetti Sauces that were part of a mid-century marketing campaign that ran during the 1950s and 1960s.

Not surprising is the emphasis placed-upon the slow-simmered, hand-stirred, 'Old Italian Way' of authentic Italian sauces directly from Nonna's kitchen stove in Naples to your own kitchen from an American tin can.  Mind you, the theme is that this is a recurring 'secret' as no self-respecting American housewife would dare reveal the ease of which such gourmet results could be obtained simply by opening a can and rewarming the contents on a stove top and pouring it over boiled noodles.  Microwave technology improved-upon the concept by the 1980s.

Chef Boy-Ar-Dee was a real person - his name phonetically spelled so salesmen could pronounce it correctly - Ettore 'Hector' Boiardi (1897-1985) was a honest-to-goodness world-renowned chef. Born in Piacenza, Italy, he immigrated to the states at age 16 and was employed at the prestigious Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Striking out on his own he opened his own restaurant in Cleveland in 1924 - Il Giardino d'Italia.  His sauce was such a customer favorite that he bottled it in repurposed milk bottles for customers to take home. Due to high demand he and brothers Paul and Mario opened a small canning operation in 1928 producing a Ready-To-Heat Spaghetti Kit.  Included was a small can of grated Parmesan cheese making Boiardi the largest American importer of the product at the time.  By 1938 operations had outgrown the Cleveland facility and moved to Milton, Pennsylvania where it could grow its own tomatoes and mushrooms to keep up with national demand.   

In 1942 Chef Boiardi transformed his highly successful commercial pasta business located in Milton into a massive 24/7 operation supporting the war effort producing beef ravioli and other canned pastas for C rations.  At its peak the operation employed 5,000 workers producing roughly 250,000 cans of food per day.  This immigrant chef encouraged his employee with the patriotic slogan: Keep 'em flying! Keep 'em rolling! Keep 'em well-fed!  In 1946 the War Department awarded Hector Boiardi with the Gold Star Order of Excellence - one of the highest honors a civilian can receive from the military. 

Post-war Boiardi faced a dilemma: his factory was too large for civilian demand and he did not wish to lay-off the thousands he hired for the war effort.  He sold the company to American Home Brands in 1946 and remained the public face of his brand until his passing in 1985.  

Immigrant child laborer, chef, entrepreneur, patriot and promoter of affordable canned pasta and sauce.  This is the stuff that made America great!

Trail Camera Update

A funny thing happened to the trail camera supply chain this winter.  There wasn't a Moultrie trail camera to be had.  Nothing in stock locally.  Nothing on Amazon Prime.  Nada.  Was it a chip shortage?  A consequence of tariffs?  A shipping container that fell from a ship and is bobbing-around somewhere between China and a California port?  I have no clue.  What I know for sure is I've been wanting to acquire two more cams and I'm not used to being denied for 3 months.

Since they don't need to be cellular-equipped I know I should be able to snag them for under a $100 apiece; only they've been unavailable.  Other brands and models, yes.  Moultrie. no.  Pardon me for brand loyalty but it is what it is.  It's a boomer thing.

Anyway, after waiting for months, the Missus announced they were back on Amazon and that I should check-out the selection so she could include them on our order.  In short order they arrived - a couple of A-900 bundles including SD card and batteries - free shipping too. Set me back about $90 a camera.

I deployed the first, replacing the last of two A-25i models deployed April 24, 2020.  Its twin succumbed in 2025 and after five years of continuous use this cam was nearing the end of its useful life and will be held in reserve or maybe finish its tour of duty as the 2026 Oriole Cam this year.  We'll see.  Bottom line is I have one new camera still in the box and one old cam in reserve for the present.

Here are the last two pics from the old trail camera... 

Prepping and deploying the new camera...

Stay-tuned for some new photos before too long....

Winner, Winner...

...Salmon Dinner!

Cold weather and the over abundance of noise that passes for news nowadays has lately opened my world to a welcome retreat to the kitchen.

After group and the running of Friday errands I fed my sourdough starter children and made a third batch for a possible experimental bake over the weekend.

There was a dozen of my signature blueberry muffins to bake followed by our weekly imported salmon; pan-seared with rice pilaf and sautéed spinach.  Remind me to extol sometime about the virtues of browned butter sauté. 

A word about the muffins.

Growing-up, blueberries were a rare seasonal item and rarer still in our household. Likely a consequence of scarcity-induced pricing. 

In case you missed it, blueberries nowadays are available year-round as a result of advances in Peruvian agriculture. And these blueberries grown at altitude in the Andes are mutant things of fruity deliciousness..

Anyway, raising a toast to global supply chains and 2-3 extra minutes of daylight delivered with every sunrise. 

 

Gentlemen - Start Your Ovens

Good Monday morning friends. 

My Friday ritual is to feed my sourdough starters.

With freezing temperatures across the land it is opportunities like this that call for baking. You know, if you can’t stand the cold; stay in the kitchen. 

 
At Friday bedtime I set this handmade dough ball of future sourdough breadness on the counter (covered) to proof overnight.  Arising on Saturday....

At the time of another pipe freezing sunrise there was this. 

This recipe is from a sourdough baking class and is a reasonably fool-proof bake. Step-by-step illustrated instructions as follows:

Sourdough Bread

Making Pat’s Sourdough Bread at Home: 

Pat is from the neighboring town of Algoma. The starter I received as a gift to the class participants can be traced over the years through Pat’s sister in Michigan, to her daughter in NYC, to her friend Laurent Gras*, a Michelin starred chef from France. I received a gift of a 40-year-old starter that began its life in France.  Here’s how to keep it going.

Feeding the starter:

120g water

100g old starter

100g flour (10g rye flour and 90g high protein bread flour)

 

(Any discarded starter is used for baking) 

 

double in volume

Whisk the water and starter to make a slurry. Add flour and whisk until lumps have dissolved. Pour into a quart mason jar and set on the counter at room temperature. The starter should double in volume. Then settle down to its original level. After 24 hours, refrigerate.  I use a Mason “Pickle Pipe” (fermentation airlock) to seal my jars. 

Starter can live in the fridge for approximately 7 days. Feed once a week. For more sour flavor use starter that has been refrigerated 4-6 days.  If you keep your starter in the garage beer fridge like I do I’ve learned it will keep for up to three weeks without feeding while we’re away traveling.   Lastly, I keep frozen batches of both my starters in a basement chest freezer as a backup against loss.  

Starting the bread:

Start to finish about 12-16 hours - mostly overnight.  Hands-on time is less than 1 hour.

385g water

90g starter

520g flour (100g whole wheat and 420g high protein bread flour)

12g table salt (to be added later)

Mix water with starter to make a slurry.  Whisk the two flours together and add to the slurry.  Mix everything by hand or a plastic bowl scraper.  Cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Stretching the bread:

Stretch and fold eight times. Rest another 15 minutes. Sprinkle half the salt on the dough then stretch and fold 8 times. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the dough with the remaining salt and stretch and fold 8 times. Cover the dough and let it rest overnight (8-10 hours) at room temperature (68-70 F) until doubled in size. If it is warmer this may take 6-8 hours. Wet hands are non-stick.  

 

Note:  The stretch, fold and rest process is three times.  Resist any impulse to fold and knead on the countertop. I like to finish this step before bedtime. (top photo)

Forming the loaf:

First thing in the morning after the dough and I have risen is this step.  Start the coffee and dump the dough out onto a floured counter. Cover with a bowl and let it rest ½ hour. With wet hands stretch and fold the dough forming a round loaf. Place on a floured towel and place in a bowl seam side up. Cover and allow to rest in the fridge for 1-4 hours. (It is cold enough this time of year to leave it on the kitchen countertop)

 

Drink coffee 

Baking the loaf:

45 minutes before baking allow the cast iron pot and lid to preheat in a 450 oven. Tip the towel-lined loaf from the bowl into parchment paper-lined cast iron. Slash and bake covered for 40 minutes at a reduced 425.  At the 40 minute interval remove the lid and bake for an additional 20 minutes at 375 (uncovered).  Total bake time is 60 minutes.  Remove loaf to a wire rack and allow to rest at room temperature.

  

slash

cover

40 minutes at 425F covered - uncover and 20 additional minutes at 375F

cool on wire rack

DO NOT give in to any urge to cut the loaf before it has cooled!  After it has cooled you can place the loaf cut side down on a cutting board for up to a day before bagging in plastic.  Sourdough bread is naturally resistant to turning stale; if it lasts that long anyway.

Pro Tip: This sourdough bread is a very forgiving bake; don’t feel like you’re a slave to pinpoint timing.  Nevertheless, weights and measures must be precise.  Pull and fold your dough like taffy.  Do not knead it on a countertop.

Once upon a time my whole wheat flour had turned so I tossed it out.  Substituting 100g of all-purpose flour resulted in a fine result.

If you care to introduce all the salt to the dry flours before mixing I could not detect any detrimental effect to the loaf.  This saves a step in the stretching and folding process.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_Gras_(chef).  As of 01.24.26 the starter is now 44 years of age.

Gentlemen - Start Your Ovens

When the going gets tough;

The tough bake stuff.

During the recent cold snap we had the wood stove operating most of the day every day.  It actually does a reasonably good job of heating the west half of the house and sending heat up the stairwell to take the chill out of the second floor.  Nevertheless, as a consequence of thermostat placement the east side of the house (laundry, powder room and kitchen) remains moderately cooler.

When that happens more often than not we wear fleece and ignore it.  Otherwise, a partial solution is either to do laundry on that day and/or come-up with an excuse to use the kitchen gas range as the operation of the appliances serve to impart some additional heat to the space they occupy.

It's not a huge deal and even though in its 22nd year the house is becoming slightly more "leaky" in keeping the cold out and the heat in; the natural passive solar advantages of old-school farmhouse architecture including lots of tall windows to capture sunny winter daylight when Old Sol is low on the horizon really does work.  Don't let anybody tell you that settlers hundreds of years ago were witless about maximizing solar power in the winter and shade in the summer.  But I digress.

About the baking, I located the last of the Irish soda bread mix (imported from the land of my forebears) in the pantry and decided to bake a loaf.  Mainly for breakfast with a steaming cuppa joe on a cold winter morning.  I amped-it-up with some added cane sugar and a double fistful of dried cranberries (reconstituted).  This was the last of the Irish bread mixes and the last of the cranberries from the pantry imparting a satisfying feeling of inventory turnover.

Anyway,  a good use of a cold and sunny winter day.  And the results were pretty tasty.

Didn't last to the end of the week....