In this Kitchen Library (Reader), articles on gendering food, fear of “fatty foods,” History of the Food World Part 1, and a cake rant. By the way, some of these have shown up on my Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr pages–follow me there for your daily dose of fandom sweets, craft beer news, and gender rants.

Health & Safety

Alexandra Jacobs. “Bandages Not Included.” The New York Times. 15 January 2013.

[TW: blood, injuries] Gross first image aside (seriously, it squicked me out), some important things to know about immersion blenders so you don’t injure yourself: they should be used for liquids only and kept FAR, FAR away from hands and children. (Who does butter with an immersion blender? Is that a thing now?)

Dietary

Ron Rosenbaum. “Let Them Eat Fat.” The Wall Street Journal. 15 Mar. 2013.

Low-fat suffers the same issues as low-carb: an apple is good and cake is not so good, but Atkins forbade both. Meanwhile, avocados are mana from heaven and Big Macs are not, so don’t lump them in together, thanks.

But there’s another world of fatty foods, a world beyond bacon and barbecue—not the froufrou fatty foods of foodies either, but basic, earthy, luxuriant fatty foods like roast goose, split-shank beef marrow and clotted cream. In the escalating culture war over fat, which has clothed itself in sanctity as an obesity-prevention crusade, most of these foods have somehow been left out. This makes it too easy to conflate eating fatty food with eating industrial, oil-fried junk food….

The Food Timeline

Ever wonder when and where human started incorporating mushrooms or grains into their diets? Olive oil: 3000 BCE; tempura in Japan: 16th c.; Gummi Bears: 1922.

Luke Runyon. “Why You’ll Be Paying More for Beef All This Year.” Morning Edition (via The Salt.) 12 June 2013.

Multi-year droughts a driving up beef prices in the US.

So why are prices going up? Simply put, there just isn’t enough feed. Because of the drought that has been battering much of Midwest cattle country for more than a year, there’s a smaller supply of hay and dense grasses. Ranchers are having a tough time finding feed, and when they do, it’s more expensive.

Stop Gendering Food!

“Manly Man Cakes.” Cake Wrecks. 15 May 2013.

So the cake decorators messed up the requests for “manly” cakes. You know what? The customers deserved it. What kind of request is “make it manly”? It’s a cake.

“When you order a cake.” Baking the Stress Out (tumblr). 27 April 2013.

Speaking of which:

AND I ASK YOU HOW YOU’D LIKE IT DECORATED

AND YOU TELL ME “HE’S A BOY/SHE’S A GIRL”

THE QUESTION HAS NOT BEEN ANSWERED.

IT IS NOT AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION.

THAT ANSWER IS NOT SUFFICIENT.

“Monterey Jack, Meet Monterey Jill.” Sociological Images. 13 May 2013.

Dear Lucerne: fire whomever requested this concept.

So now we’ve gendered cheese and managed to affirm both the gender binary  (heavy vs. light), heterocentrism (Jack’s companion Jill), and the diet imperative for women.  And it’s just cheese people!  Cheese!

Nat Guest. “Gendered Marketing Really Gets on My Tits.” Unfortunatalie. 22 April 2013.

Guest’s hilarious response to gendered marketing of food:

But sometimes I think advertising marketed at men is even more patronising than advertising marketed at women.  Every single product consumed has to somehow be a tiresome test of your masculinity. CAN YOU EAT THIS THING EVEN THOUGH IT’S FUCKING MASSIVE?? CAN YOU LIFT THIS THING EVEN THOUGH IT’S IRRITATINGLY CUMBERSOME?? HOW MANY BLADES DOES YOUR RAZOR HAVE??? ONLY FOUR?! WHAT A WUSS, MINE HAS SEVENTEEN.

What are you reading this week?