Dunkin’ Donuts Isn’t Kidding

As you know I’ve been following the travails of the nation’s number one fried pastry chain, Dunkin’ Donuts, with some interest lately. They’ve trained their sights on Starbucks (who have been flagging in the customer loyalty polls the past year), with the clear intention of flaming their collective rear. Late last week they made great […]

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What Do Basil Plants Think About?

I’m just going to get even nerdier on the subject of essential oils and flavor this week, so those of you who’d rather I did something else — like actually make some lemon curd or something — better bug out now. Writing about plant toxins yesterday got me thinking, notably about alkaloids (the bitter compounds […]

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Nature’s DEET

It would be delightful to think that essential oils are simply gifts from nature to humankind. Sensuous, stimulating compounds concocted by Mother Gaia solely for our enjoyment. Indeed when you think about where essential oils are most commonly employed (in cuisine, in aromatherapy and massage) it certainly may seem so. Yet if the natural sciences […]

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How do Essential Oils Differ from Extracts?

A good question. Extracts contain essential oils, though not in pure form. Just how diluted an extract is varies from essence to essence, though almost all extracts consist of an essential oil dissolved in alcohol. Why alcohol? Because as the old adage goes: oil and water don’t mix. Essential oils are, well, oils (sort of, […]

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What is an Essential Oil?

I started talking a bit about essential oils last week, but got so distracted blathering on about trans fats that I never really discussed them. But then there’s no time like the present is there? Essential oils are, as the name implies, liquids that constitute the essence of a plant or fruit’s flavor. They’re not […]

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Cancer-Fighting Oreos

If you were reading Joe Pastry a few weeks ago you may remember a short post on the subject of so-called “nutraceuticals”, or commercially prepared foods with pseudo-medicinal benefits. My joke at the time was of course the cookie that cures cancer, yet a front page article in the New York Times yesterday made that […]

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Whence the Lemon?

Botanists have a very tough time plotting the evolution of citrus fruits. They’ve been fiddled with by humans so much the past few millennia it’s impossible to figure out which are the “original” fruit and which are the “cultivated” varieties. The trouble is citrus of one type is so easily grafted onto another. You can […]

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