Channeling Julia

Many of us here in San Francisco are used to seeing diced scallions floating in soups of Asian origin.

In the American heartland they are often used in salads and as garnishes.

These scallions have been grilled.

Scallions are also known as 'green onions" in North America, where the words "spring onion" and "shallot" are considered to refer to other species of onion. These words are ambiguous and most likely refer to the "Welsh Onion" - which actually came from Eastern Asia. "Welsh" has no relationship to Wales and is a corruption of an Old English Germanic word that means "foreign".

Since these names tend to be misleading, what we're talking about today has mature stalks between 1/4" and 1/2" in diameter that are white and solid at ground level but become hollow and green higher up - as opposed to immature bulb onions or leeks. The flavor is milder than that of bulb onions.

There are many varieties of onions - differing in color, size, taste, sugar content, pungency and emitted gases. It's mind boggling that so many different varieties are so closely related.

These are pearl onions cooked with green peas and prosciutto. Pearl onions are a "tree onion", which means that bulblets (instead of flowers) are grown in the flower head instead of ground level as with the bulb onions.

It can take about 2 years for the bulblets to sweeten. Pearl onions are sorted by size - onions of approximately 5/8" are often pickled in brine and used as cocktail onions. A pearl onion is the signature of the Gibson Martini.

Small pearl onions are considered more desirable by some and are most readily available in the frozen foods aisle of your supermarket. The largest pearl onions are sold in the fresh vegetable section of the market alongside shallots and garlic.

It's difficult to pin down an origin of this basic recipe - it seems to be very common in Mediterranean cooking. Both peas and onions have a very long history centering in the Middle East.

Onions are one of the oldest vegetables in cultivation, yet onion rings are less than a century old.

Our onions are dipped in Tempura batter, then pan fried in canola oil. The earliest known recipe for onion rings was published in 1933, where the onions were dipped in milk, dredged in flour and deep fried in Crisco. Recipe

This places onion rings at the heart of the Fast Food movement, which was first recognized in the 1951 edition of a Merriam-Webster dictionary. Everything in post WWII was devoted to convenience (and look what the results are today). I recall that my father was sent a monthly copy of "Fast Food" magazine in the 1960's because he had a fountain in the drug store. Articles featured fast food chains like MacDonalds and Burger King - both of which serve onion rings to this day.

Though we prepared our onion rings from scratch, almost all onion rings sold by fast food establishments are prepared in factories, frozen and shipped to the point of service (POS) before frying. Some vendors attempt to make their products a uniform shape and size, so they chop up the onions into a paste and create a frozen round shape which is then coated with batter and precooked before freezing for shipment. (this is quite a novel process covered in a patent filed in 1992 and assigned to the Clorox Company, with prior mentions going back to 1972 - USPTO 5,181,456)

What discussion of coffee roasting would be complete without a chance to sample the coffee?

Let's head a few doors down the street to the Simple Pleasures Cafe!

The best way to begin is to quote from their website: "The cafe is one of the oldest Bohemian Coffee Houses by the beach in San Francisco. Our customers come from all over the world to enjoy our exclusive coffees and unmatched atmosphere." Website

Well, that's just a teaser - they have live jazz almost every night, excellent coffees freshly roasted down the block and many kinds of teas. Also beer & wine. They serve lots of bagels and sandwiches, pastries and more. Board games and books on the shelf help pass the time for many of the regulars. The realities of a neighborhood institution - people who grew up in the neighborhood before moving across the country drop in to see old friends, grown up kids back from college say hi, people stop at the door to savor the smells of roasting coffee.

A quick look at their reviews on Yelp reveals a cross section of the neighborhood. People grow to love the place. The casual visitor more accustomed to the Starbucks pack'em all in atmosphere may feel a bit out of place in a cafe where people actually know each other, but those who stay long enough find it a home away from home.

Before we go, I can't resist a final comment about the coffee business:

About arabica and robusta beans: Arabicas contain less caffeine and are fairly fragile - growers in all countries must deal with infestations of "rust" (less caffeine means fewer defenses against invasive organisms) - so prices are higher because of the higher spoilage rate and special care required. Robustas originate in Central Africa and are immune to rust - thus less expensive to grow. As we can see from the roasting information, each has its place, so one is not "better" than the other. Blenders choose from the characteristics of each bag they receive and mix to create a consistent taste.

Special thanks to Ahmed Riad and Simple Pleasures Coffee Roasting Co.

If oil is the most widely known "black gold", the caffeine industry runs a close second. Transportation runs on oil, people run on caffeine!

Our exploration of coffee continues with a look at the drug that made coffee so popular. Caffeine is a psychoactive stimulant drug that has several primary effects - it can restore alertness/ cognition, elevate one's mood and reduce drowsiness.

As with many other drugs, those who consume more caffeine develop a tolerance over time. Consumption of about 8 cups of coffee a day over a week generally is enough to habituate the user so sleep disturbance no longer occurs. However, long term consumption at higher levels can create many unpleasant side effects such as irritability, muscle twitching, insomnia, headaches, heart irregularities and anxiety. Perceptually, a cup of coffee (dose of caffeine) lasts 3 to 4 hours. In reality, the blood level of caffeine is reduced 50% in a little less than 5 hours in most of the population, but it may be metabolized more slowly for people who have higher sensitivity to the effects of caffeine - certain genetic groups, infants and those with high estrogen levels. These groups may take anywhere from 5 to 30 hours to reduce their blood level by 50%.

Background

Caffeine is most often extracted from the cherries of the coffee plant (the seeds are coffee beans), though it is present in other plants and can be produced synthetically. These plants use caffeine as a pesticide and as a competitive advantage to inhibit germination of competing seeds.

The industrial uses of caffeine consume the majority of the coffee crop. Caffeine recovered from the decaffeination process is used as an insecticide, made into caffeine tablets, used to boost the caffeine levels of soft drinks and to create "energy drinks".

Due to consumer health concerns, most decaffeination uses water as a solvent (the Swiss water process). The beans are soaked in water. The water is then pumped through a filter of activated charcoal (which removes the caffeine) and returned to the beans. The process may be repeated several times before the water is finally left with the beans and evaporated as the beans dry. The activated charcoal is further processed to concentrate and extract chemically pure caffeine.

The economics of caffeine

Only about 2% of the coffee beans harvested annually make their way into specialty coffees. Almost all coffee purchased in this category is "Fair Trade Certified" - meaning that the growers and harvesters are paid a fair wage, the product is produced on a sustainable level and the product promotes economic self-sufficiency. While this may create a price floor well above the average market price for coffee beans, it can be argued that the quality of beans in this category is well above the average bean. (you get what you pay for).

It takes 3 to 4 years for a coffee plant to be able to produce a significant harvest - 7 years before peak productivity. Global fluctuations in supply & demand result in periodic shortages and overstock. This results in a market price that is often detrimental to the farmer, as it is impossible to grow "just in time" beans. Some years the warehouses are overflowing - the farmer makes little or nothing and decides to grow something else. Other years the warehouses are empty and farmers make lots of money - motivating other farmers to plant coffee. A few years later that extra crop production starts filling the warehouses again and the cycle continues.

Most of the coffee beans produced globally are sold at market price, so growers are not particularly interested in the welfare of the workers. The higher quality beans make their way into the mass market blends - where price is the only real consumer concern. The remaining beans are grown just for their caffeine content. Major soft drink manufacturers own huge plantations in developing nations for the sole purpose of extracting enough caffeine to supply the global demand for colas and energy drinks.

Don't forget: Tea is also part of the caffeine industry, but we'll be looking at tea another week.

Special thanks to Ahmed Riad and Simple Pleasures Coffee Roasting Co.