What’s the Most Popular Jelly Bean Flavor in Your State?

It’s that time of the year again. As the Easter season is upon us, folks all over the United States are getting ready to fill their baskets with some of the sugariest candy around. Jelly beans might be a spring staple, but Americans have some very divided opinions over which flavors reign supreme. According to sales data from the past ten years, as well as polls taken by over 12,000 Survey Monkey and Facebook users, CandyStore.com has compiled a list of the most popular jelly been flavors in every state.

The top results might surprise you. Buttered popcorn was tops in ten states, making the extremely polarizing flavor made the most popular nationwide. The savory candy may have a strange taste, but hey, at least its not a pickle slushie! Black licorice (another gross flavor if you ask us) came in second place, as it takes the top spot in eight states. And cinnamon comes in third.

It’s pretty fascinating that none of the top three flavors are particularly sweet. You can check out the entire list below and see how your taste stacks up with the rest of the country:

Alabama – Watermelon
Alaska – Black Licorice
Arizona – Buttered Popcorn
Arkansas – Buttered Popcorn
California – Buttered Popcorn
Colorado – Black Licorice
Connecticut – Buttered Popcorn
Delaware – Cinnamon
Florida – Watermelon
Georgia – Buttered Popcorn
Hawaii – Watermelon
Idaho – Orange
Illinois – Chocolate
Indiana  Blueberry
Iowa – Cherry
Kansas – Cinnamon
Kentucky – Black Licorice
Louisiana – Pink Strawberry
Maine – Green Apple
Maryland – Orange
Massachusetts – Coconut
Michigan – Buttered Popcorn
Minnesota – Black Licorice
Mississippi – Green Apple
Missouri – Buttered Popcorn
Montana – Cotton Candy
Nebraska – Cherry
Nevada – Cinnamon
New Hampshire – Juicy Pear
New Jersey – Black Licorice
New Mexico – Cherry
New York – Buttered Popcorn
North Carolina – Black Licorice
North Dakota – Black Licorice
Ohio – Buttered Popcorn
Oklahoma – Green Apple
Oregon – Watermelon
Pennsylvania – Blueberry
Rhode Island – Blueberry
South Carolina – Cherry
South Dakota – Pink Strawberry
Tennessee – Black Licorice
Texas – Buttered Popcorn
Utah – Cherry
Vermont – Juicy Pear
Virginia – Cinnamon
Washington – Juicy Pear
West Virginia – Blueberry
Wisconsin – Watermelon
Wyoming – Cinnamon

from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2IFGLYc
via IFTTT

What Is the Difference Between Horseradish and Wasabi?

Both pungent, sinus-searing members of the Brassicaceae family, horseradish and wasabi have a lot in common—enough that many sushi places pass off tinted horseradish as wasabi—but they are distinctly different ingredients.

Horseradish, perennial partner to roast beef and bracing booster of Bloody Marys, is a white-fleshed, brown-skinned root vegetable that grows in Europe, Asia, and North America, with Illinois growing the most horseradish in the United States. Its curious name may come from the German word for the plant, meerrettich, which means “sea radish” (since horseradish often grows wild near the coast) and is pronounced something like “mare-retisch”—so English speakers may have heard “mare” and believed it referred to the animal. Other sources say the “horse” part of the name denotes the strong, rough character of the plant, while the “radish” half is self-evident (and indeed, radishes are also from the Brassicaceae family, along with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and mustard).

Shutterstock

The aggressively spicy taste is actually the plant’s way of defending itself, though of course it has the opposite effect when it comes to humans—and in addition to being tasty, is medicinally useful in small doses as an antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and brute-force congestion cure. You could come to harm from eating too much horseradish, especially if you have ulcers or are pregnant, but it would probably have to be quite a lot for it affect you. If you process a ton of it at once, though, you might want to wear a gas mask if you’ve got one, since the fumes can be highly irritating. If you can’t find fresh, raw horseradish root to grate yourself, you can buy jars or bottles of prepared horseradish, which is just the ground root mixed with vinegar to stabilize the heat level (though sometimes salt and other additives are present, so check your ingredients list).

Wasabi, on the other hand, is much more elusive. It’s a rhizome (or long underground stem that sends out shoots) native to Japan, and has grown wild there near mountain streams since at least the 10th century, and been purposely cultivated since the 16th century. The hardy green subterranean stem of the plant is grated for consumption much like horseradish, but the leaves are also edible. It is spicy, though said to be slightly less harsh than horseradish, with a smoother, more complex and herbal character as well. These days, it’s farmed on a relatively small scale in China, Australia, New Zealand, and some parts of North America—Oregon was the first place it was grown in the US—but since it doesn’t grow as quickly (it can take up to 3 years to reach full maturity), or generally get as large as horseradish, it’s still a more expensive product, and harder to come by. There’s an oft-repeated anecdote that Greek mythology had the Oracle of Delphi telling Apollo horseradish was worth its weight in gold, but wasabi is even more valuable. It has the same health benefits as horseradish, too.

Shutterstock

Since true wasabi is so rare and expensive, that’s why you’re often getting a mixture of horseradish, mustard, and green dye instead of the real thing alongside your sushi and coating your crunchy peas. Same thing with most prepared wasabi in a tube; even if it just says “Wasabi” in big, bold letters on the package, look at the ingredients—if wasabi is actually one of them, it’s likely joined by lots of other things. If you can get the real thing in rhizome form, try preparing it on a traditional shark skin grater, but work fast, because it loses its clear, spicy, green taste after only about 15 minutes.

Probably best to stick to the adulterated stuff we’re all used to eating by now. And here are some ways to use both spicy substances in the kitchen:

Beet Horseradish

Chowhound

Plain grated horseradish is often used as the bitter component of a Passover seder plate, but adding grated beets imbues a beautiful ruby color and a little earthy sweetness to tone it down. Get our Beet Horseradish recipe.

Asparagus Frittata with Horseradish Sour Cream

Chowhound

A lovely spring dish showcasing eggs and asparagus, this balances between delicate and robust without becoming overpowering. There’s horseradish in the sour cream sauce (thinned with milk), and in the frittata filling, along with sharp white cheddar. Get our Asparagus Frittata with Horseradish Sour Cream recipe.

Horseradish-Cream Sauce for Roast Beef

Chowhound

This sauce is based on equal parts crème fraîche and heavy cream, with a full 2/3 cup of horseradish, making a perfectly pungent but luscious counterpart to any kind of beef or steak, from prime rib to roast beef sandwiches. Get our Horseradish-Cream Sauce recipe.

Extra-Spicy Bloody Maria

Chowhound

Bloody Marys tend to get most of the brunch love, but a Bloody Maria swaps in tequila for the usual vodka, and this version also adds pickled jalapeños and Cholula hot sauce to the requisite horseradish for a really eye-opening kick. Get our Extra-Spicy Bloody Maria recipe.

Creamy Horseradish Potato Salad

Healthy Seasonal Recipes

A creamy, pleasantly spicy potato salad that cuts the mayo with Greek yogurt for extra tang (and also happens to be healthier), this is ready to take its place at all your cookouts and picnics this spring and summer. Get the recipe.

Honey Wasabi Salmon Skewers

We Heart Living

Dead simple but deeply delicious, these skewers of meaty salmon and scallions are brushed with a tingly, sweet, and salty mix of wasabi, honey, and soy. Make them on a grill pan, outdoor grill, or under the broiler depending on what’s most convenient. Get the recipe.

Wasabi Sesame Cucumber Salad

She Wears Many Hats

This light, refreshing salad is crunchy, nutty (thanks to the toasted sesame seeds), and simultaneously warm and cooling. It’s also super easy to put together, and the kind of thing you find yourself making multiple times a week in warm weather. Try it with tofu stir fries, grilled or roasted fish, or practically any Asian-spiced meat dish. Get the recipe.

Wasabi Soy Chex Mix

Builicious

Packaged wasabi peas mingle with Chex cereal, pretzels, rice crackers, and cashews in this addictive snack, with a bit of powdered wasabi in the seasoning mix (which also includes garlic, ginger, brown sugar, and soy sauce) for an extra jolt of spicy heat. Get the recipe.

Wasabi-Avocado Egg Salad

1 Big Bite

If you’re not a fan of mayo, try this egg salad with mashed avocado providing the creaminess, and wasabi for zip. Chopped green apple may sound like an odd addition, but it brings a sweet-tart crunch that works well. Get the recipe.

Tuna Tartare with Avocado and Crispy Shallots

Chowhound

If you can’t be bothered to roll your own sushi, try this easy tuna tartare instead, tossed with wasabi powder, mirin, soy sauce, mustard powder, vinegar, and honey, with crispy fried shallots and creamy cubes of avocado to finish the dish. Get our Tuna Tartare with Avocado and Crispy Shallots recipe.

from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2G0DRvi
via IFTTT

Weight Gain Can Weaken Taste Buds, According to New Study

Here’s one of the weirder side effects of gaining weight: Your sense of taste becomes less strong. Scientists have long wondered about this phenomena and recently turned to lab mice to investigate how and why this happens.

Cornell University researchers fed mice a high-fat diet, which led to rapid weight gain. They then examined their tongues. When compared to a control group which was fed a normal diet, the obese mice had 25 percent less taste buds (you know, those clusters of cells that allow us to detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami flavors). Scientists have theorized that inflammation caused by obesity can interrupt the regeneration of taste buds, accounting for the overall lower amount. These findings were published in the journal PLOS Biology.

So what does this mean for humans? Obviously, taste preferences play a huge part in what we choose to eat. If you’re detecting less flavor, you may try to compensate for weakened taste by eating larger portions or fattier foods. While this theory has yet to be proven, this latest study does shed some insight into how weight gain can alter our sense of taste, and could play a pivotal role in the fight against obesity. At the very least, it certainly explains why we’re going for that second slice of pie.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Cornell University food scientist Robin Dando, whose lab led the research said, “This could be a whole new kind of target in treating obesity. People don’t really look at the taste bud, but it’s so fundamental.”

These findings could also have brought greater attention to mindful eating habits. Experts suggest slowing down, taking in the smell of food, and chewing at least 30 times per bite to have a more satisfying meal experience. Now that’s something to chew on.

from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2GQ6MUd
via IFTTT

Slow Cooker Poached Salmon

Your slow cooker is a versatile thing. So versatile, in fact, that you can even use it for poaching salmon.

It may seem odd to use a slow cooker (something usually used to cook food for hours at a time) for salmon (something that cooks very quickly). But here, we’re using the slow cooker less for its “slow cooking” function and more for its ability to provide steady, even heat—which is the perfect medium for cooking delicate fish like salmon.

Continue reading "Slow Cooker Poached Salmon" »

from Simply Recipes http://ift.tt/2FR1335
via IFTTT

You Could Be Eating Insects at IKEA Someday

For some, the idea of eating insects is revolting, while others already enjoy bugs and worms as delicacies. Still others are on the fence—not a bad place to be, since the future is likely full of cricket flour and other insect protein.

IKEA’s test kitchen first tinkered with the concept of mealworm meatballs (pictured above) three years ago, so maybe they won’t actually make it onto the menu alongside their standard Swedish meatballs for a relatively long while, but they’re back in the news thanks to even more recent innovations like a beet and beetle larvae burger, a spirulina hot dog bun, and herby—insect-free—ice cream. These are test creations too, but the idea behind them all is that healthy, sustainable food must also be delicious, because “To change people’s minds about food, to inspire them to try new ingredients, we can’t just appeal to the intellect—we have to titillate their taste buds.”

If you want to titillate (or test) your own, there are plenty of places where you can eat insects today, including Don Bugito in San Francisco and Mi Tocaya Antojería in Chicago. And of course, you can buy them online to enjoy in the comfort of your own home, from bags of assorted bugs (sort of like an insect party mix!) and Chirps cricket chips to coconut toffee brittle mealworms, just to name a few intriguing options.

The Bug Burger (with beets and beetle larvae), via Space10

While these are still novelties to most of the Western world, insects have long been consumed by many other cultures, and not just in times of duress, but because they’re considered delicious. Traditionally harvested in the wild, farming bugs for food has great future potential, since it’s not only economical (they convert feed incredibly efficiently) but ecologically friendly too, in that they require far less water, energy, and land use to raise, and don’t produce anywhere near the greenhouse gas or ammonia emissions of livestock. Insects are, by and large, whole foods, with no part of them going to waste, and they’re healthy too, high in protein and various minerals (depending on the specific type of bug, of course), but low in fat. They’re also not inherently dirty—with the possible exception of roaches and flies—and while some raw bugs could host nematodes that might infect humans, on the whole they’re much safer than meat, or even fruit and vegetables farmed on an industrial scale. Should factory farming of insects become the norm some day, then concerns would mount; pathogens could become introduced via mishandling, and feeding bugs agricultural compost could be dicey if said compost was contaminated. But for now, the greatest threat to their viability as a Western food source is ingrained prejudice and squeamishness.

Of course, we’re all consuming bugs already in some form, whether we want to think about it or not. There’s cochineal red dye in lots of products, and an acceptable level of insect matter allowed in all manufactured food (see this FDA guide for exact numbers permitted in everything from apple butter to wheat flour—or maybe don’t). Anyone who’s ever had to overcome some measure of discomfort staring down a table full of boiled crabs, shrimp, crawfish (not called mudbugs for nothing), and even lobsters, knows that looks can be overcome—but those with allergies to sea-based arthropods may also be affected by eating spiders, a great excuse to have on hand just in case you ever need it.

People from places that don’t traditionally eat bugs (on purpose anyway) have advocated for adopting entomophagy since at least 1885, when English entomologist Vincent M. Holt published a pamphlet entitled, simply, “Why Not Eat Insects?” As usual, the answer was probably on the order of “Because they’re gross,” so the idea never really took off. Neither did it gain much traction in 1976, when Entertaining With Insects, or: The Original Guide to Insect Cookery was published, nor were many swayed by The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook (originally published in 1988 and revised in 2013). Still, proponents of the practice persist, so we have Eat Grub: The Ultimate Insect Cookbook from 2016, and Insects: An Edible Field Guide from just this year. It’s safe to say, the idea will only continue to rise in popularity—and may one day be a necessity.

Insects: An Edible Field Guide, via Cate in the Kitchen

Luckily, there is a pretty big gulf between mealworm meatballs and roasted tarantulas; you may never be able to stomach the latter, but the former is a fairly friendly way to ease yourself in. Then you can graduate to chapulines tacos and all the rest. Apparently, Nicole Kidman is a fan of eating bugs, if that helps pique your interest.

Vegans get an obvious pass, as do those who adhere to religious restrictions prohibiting certain types of animals, but for the rest of us, there are lots of good reasons to at least try getting comfortable with the idea of eating insects, well before they do turn up on IKEA’s cafeteria trays. And who knows? What gives you the creepy crawlies now may one day make your stomach rumble.

from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2DI1dUC
via IFTTT

How to Dye Easter Eggs Naturally

Hard-boiled eggs aren’t just one of the most nutritious foods around, but they also have the potential to be some of the most gorgeous. With a multitude of dyes, stickers, and patterns on the market, their decorative potential is endless. However, if you’ve outgrown those basic PAAS kits and are craving something a little more sophisticated this Easter season, why not try a more natural approach?

It turns out your can color your eggs using food-based ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. As a sustainable, creative way to make use of leftovers, it’s hard to say no. After all, what else are you going to do with those old onions or that last sip of grape juice in the bottle?  Below are six of the best ways to wet your toes, err, we mean eggs, in the natural dye arena.

Grape Juice 

Earth to Eats

By mixing one cup of grape juice with one tablespoon of white vinegar, you can turn your eggs a lovely shade of lavender. Let them soak for at least 15-20 minutes to let the color really sink in. Get the dye recipe.

Red Wine

Everyday Talks

If a darker purple is what you’re after, you’ll have to go for something a little harder. Red wine is sure to do the trick. Plus, you can pour yourself a drink while coloring your eggs. That’s always a bonus! Get the dye recipe.

Turmeric

Mommypotamus

Turns out the trendiest spice of the year is also super useful in the egg dyeing department. If you’ve ever wanted a golden egg, here’s how to get it. Just add one tablespoon of turmeric per two tablespoons of vinegar to achieve this vibrant yellow color. Get the dye recipe.

Beets

Design Mom

Finally, a good use for beets! Just kidding, we love the earthy vegetable, but only in small doses. While this dye takes a little longer to prepare (the beets require advanced boiling), it’s totally worth it to get the array of pink and red shades it provides. Get the dye recipe.

Red Cabbage

Collecting Tokens

This might seem counterintuitive, but get this—red cabbage turns eggs blue! Depending on how long you let the eggs soak, you can even get a vibrant turquoise color out of it. Who would have figured?! Get the dye recipe.

Onion Skins

Ciao Florentina

Next time you peel onions, don’t throw out the skins! When soaked overnight, they can work as a natural dye to provide a rich orange color to your Easter eggs.  Get the dye recipe.

from Food News – Chowhound http://ift.tt/2FXfE9j
via IFTTT

The Crystal Ball Frappuccino Is Starbucks’ Next Instagram Hit