Mooncakes have been causing trouble in China for a while now. Once treasured as luxuries, in the late 20th century they evolved into somewhat common, perfunctory gifts (remember the comparison to fruitcakes). Still the real troubles have only come lately as mooncakes have become vehicles for government corruption. Gourmet versions have become increasingly outlandish and expensive, and enterprising bureaucrats have used them to curry favors from certain high-placed persons. The most enterprising have dispensed with the edible cakes altogether in favor of facsimiles made of solid gold. Oops, how did those get in the box?

Most have to do with crusts. In fact I took this project on after a pair of readers told me they were having problems with the outer skins. Mooncakes have decorative patterns pressed into their tops, which is the primary purpose of the molds, to impress a design on the skin and give the outside edges their classic fluted appearance.

They’re Chinese pastries traditionally given as gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is coming up. This year it starts on the 19th of September. Mooncakes are roughly analogous to Christmas fruitcakes in the West inasmuch as they’re loved by many, detested by others, but are inarguably the signature sweetmeat of the season.

The Mid-Autmn Festival is one of the four big festivals of the Chinese year and is what one might call a “moveable feast” in that the dates changes from year to year according to a.) the Chinese lunar calendar and b.) which weekend is closest to the actual date of the autumn full moon. It’s sort of like our Thanksgiving but with a little astronomy thrown in. Like Thanksgiving, it’s the party that follows the harvest.

That’s what reader Joy wants to know this morning. Joy, I’m still into a lot of that acoustic music I wrote about last week, but since the weekend I’ve been on a Badfinger kick. Don’t ask me why, this stuff just happens.

As several readers have reminded me, ergot has caused plenty of trouble right here in the good ol’ US of A. European immigrants never traveled anywhere without the comforts of home, and rye was one of them. American colonists were fortunate that for whatever reason ergotism didn’t wipe people out on the scale it did in the Old Country. Perhaps the climate didn’t favor ergot quite so much, who knows? Still, a theory has been advanced that ergotism was responsible for the famous witch trials in Salem, Massachusettes in 1692.

Reader Alison asks if there’s much risk from ergot-infected rye today. The answer is not really. Though no ergot-resistant strain of rye has ever been developed, a variety of measures are taken these days to minimize the risk of ergot infection. Rye seeds are carefully screened for evidence of ergot, rye fields are plowed extra deep to keep ergot from germinating after harvest, and different crops are rotated in and out on alternating years. All combined, these various strategies do an excellent job of keeping ergot, and by extension the risk of ergotism, down.

…is what gangrenous ergotism was called when it first appeared in Europe in the ninth century. “Fire” of course because of the burning sensation the disease caused and “holy” because it came to seen as a divine punishment. Yet within two hundred years or so the named changed. By about 1050 an order of monks became known for treating the disease, the Order of St. Anthony. The brothers were highly skilled at formulating and applying plant balms that healed wounds and relaxed blood vessels

Reader Choi asks:

Joe, I understand that the browning of pumpernickel in the oven is caused by the Maillard reaction. It is my understanding that Maillard reactions only happen over 300 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re baking pumpernickel at 225, how is Maillard browning possible?

That’s a puzzler isn’t it, Choi? Maillard reactions are so little understood. What is known is that they can happen at surprisingly low temperatures. They happen fastest over 300 degrees, there’s no question about that, but they can happen at far lower