#mustard

[parsstuff]

“Digital photography is science, film photography is a chemical miracle”-Steven Spielberg (2017)

The gelatin in film stock was made from the hide, bones, cartilage, ligaments, and connective tissue of calves (considered the very best), sheep (less desirable), and other animals who passed through the slaughterhouse. Six kilograms of bone went into a single kilogram of gelatin. Eventually, the demands of photographic industries generated so much need for animal byproducts that slaughterhouses became integrated into the photographic production chain. Controlling the supply chain became key to Kodak's success. In 1882, as Kodak began to grow as a company, widespread complaints of fogged and darkened plates stopped production. The crisis almost ruined Kodak financially and resulted in the company tightly monitoring the animal by-products used in gelatin. Decades later, a Kodak emulsion scientist discovered that cattle who consumed mustard seed metabolized a sulfuric substance, enhancing the light sensitivity of silver halides and enabling better film speeds. The poor-quality gelatin in 1882 was due to the lack of mustard seeds in the cows' diet. The head of research at Kodak, Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees, concluded, "If cows didn't like mustard there wouldn't be any movies at all." By controlling the diet of cows who were used to make gelatin, Kodak ensured the quality of its film stock. As literary scholar Nicole Shukin reflects, there is a "transfer of life from animal body to technological media." The image comes alive through animal death, carried along by the work of ranchers, meatpackers, and Kodak production workers.

—Siobhan Angus, Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography

[fattributes]

Dry Rub Chicken Wings

[daily-deliciousness]

Baked crunchy maple dijon chicken

[oxfords---notbrogues]

Kendrick Lamar

[oddarette]

Mustardo Lava lampo

[littlewebtreasures]

Cartoony Ants Carrying Fast Food by Media Graphics

[mote-of-ash]

therapy sludge

[alexanderwales]

It might not surprise you to know that I've made mustard before. It's one of the easiest things to make, because it's just crushed up mustard seeds and some kind of liquid, then salt and vinegar for taste and preservation. This is difficult to get right though, for reasons of chemistry.

Like a lot of delicious things, what gives the mustard its pungency is a defense mechanism. The chemical is allyl isothiocyanate, but this is harmful to the plant, so it's stored in the precursor allyl glucosinolate and activated by the enzyme myrosinase. So the theory goes that an herbivore comes along, starts munching, releases the harmless glucosinolate and the enzyme, and together they make an explosion of searing pain to the sinuses.

So if you're making mustard at home, you're controlling this reaction. You grind up the mustard seeds, then add in some kind of liquid, and the nature of the liquid you add is going to determine how much of the glucosinolate gets converted to isothiocyanate. In other words, add cold water for spicy mustard, add hot water for mild mustard.

This is some alchemy shit right here. Mustard is one of the oldest condiments, and I have to imagine some mustard-maker explaining to her apprentice "alright, cold water for spicy, hot water for mild, you would think that it depends on the mustard crop and not the temperature of the water, and you would think hot for spicy and cold for mild, but nope, that's just how it is".

And then there's more alchemy, because the mustard compounds you get are volatile and fade away, except you can add in vinegar to keep it strong, but if you add the vinegar right away, shortly after crushing, it'll slow the reaction, making it less spicy.

So our hypothetical mustard-maker has to explain "vinegar makes it not spicy, but also keeps it spicy, so for the spiciest mustard you need to use the cold water, then wait for it to get spicy, then add in the vinegar only when it's as spicy as you want it to be, after which it'll stay that spicy".

I'm not sure how much evidence there is for them actually knowing all this, but I have to imagine that even thousands of years before the scientific method they would realize that the results were sometimes different, especially if an apprentice wasn't told a step that turned out to be crucial.

Anyway, this is all a long way of saying that my favorite mustard tastes different now, and I'm upset about it, so might have to go back to the incredibly varied world of home mustard making.

[sleepyghostmp3]

MUSTARDDDDDDD

Free wallpaper at my KoFi page:

https://ko-fi.com/s/a3dda56345

[deadthehype]

Artwork by Lil Ye

[r1verst1x]

Finn has no sauce

[cmmnny]

[fattributes]

Baked Ham and Cheese Croissant Sandwiches

[daily-deliciousness]

Cajun shrimp deviled eggs

[lustingfood]

Baked Honey Mustard Salmon (x)