"Functional" cooking?

[WLBLD]

Smiter said:

RetCurious said:

WLBLD said:

sheilarae74 said:

lastresort said:

sheilarae74 said:

Back when I was on keto, I did this frequently. It costs a lot, but it pays off, since you're able to create dishes that taste every bit as good as the high carb ones.

I remember the early days of keto becoming a thing in diet culture. People were attempting bread with every imaginable substitute...coconut flour, psyllium husk, soy fiber, flax seed, and so on. None of them worked for me. It genuinely frustrates me that keto bread brands are still putting out such terrible-tasting products.

After a lot of trial and error, I've landed on 4 ingredients that each bring different fiber profiles plus added glutens, and together they give me the best appearance and taste.

Keto bread options have improved a lot compared to earlier days. Once I began reta, I quit all of that and switched to Ezekiel 4:9 items. Even now, I occasionally enjoy making carnivore flatbread and microwave muffin cups. After all, I still need to put all my cooking equipment to use, lol.

The wraps available these days are excellent and pack a ton of fiber!!

On top of that, I bake sourdough completely from scratch multiple times every week.

If that entered my kitchen, I'd be done for — proper sourdough is the one thing I can't resist.

/What San Francisco is actually famous for.

Interesting... sourdough is something I've never actually tasted. What makes it stand out?

WLBLD said:

We make

Smiter said:

WLBLD said:

lastresort said:

WLBLD said:

For cream- or mayo-style sauces and dressings, Greek yogurt works really well as a base.

I used to bake sweet potato brownies that turned out great. It's been ages since I last made them.

For chicken salad, I've discovered that replacing 50% of the mayo with sour cream works just as well. The mild tang actually lightens things up by balancing out the heaviness of the mayo.

Smiter said:

lastresort said:

WLBLD said:

For cream- or mayo-style sauces and dressings, Greek yogurt works really well as a base.

I used to bake sweet potato brownies that turned out great. It's been ages since I last made them.

For chicken salad, I've discovered that replacing 50% of the mayo with sour cream works just as well. The mild tang actually lightens things up by balancing out the heaviness of the mayo.

green cardamom, zaatar, sumac, hungarian sweet paprika, spring onion oil, curry leaf...you can thank me later

Greek yogurt works as a replacement for the sour cream as well. Cabot is the one I like best (it has a milder flavor and a very thick texture).

Yum! Scallions, garlic & cilantro are great additions too!!

Fellow connoisseur, our paths cross once more!!!!

Here we prepare a wide variety of dishes from different cultures. If it doesn't taste good, I won't bother eating it, ha ha. Chinese, Jamaican, Indian, Italian, Korean, and so on. Flavor is a must—no bland meals in this house!! ha ha

Alright alright, so you can read minds as well, and my thoughts are an open book to you. lol

By the way, have Sumac, Zataar, star anise, bay leaf, rose water, white poppy seeds, mace, and similar things ever been on your list to try?

The sour flavor is distinct. Using a starter for a long fermentation instead of yeast introduces specific bacteria that support digestion and gut flora

Ha ha. Yea, Ive given plenty of those spices a go. There are so many varieties available here as well. Hummus I make from scratch, star anise & bay leaf go into my Chinese chili oil, bay leaves appear in Cuban style black beans or Ropa vieja, Rice & peas + many others, Rose water shows up in Jamaican Christmas cake or bun etc, Mustard oil, Kasuri meethii etc for Butter Chicken etc, Kefir Lime leaves for Thai dishes, etc. Authentic ingredients & recipes are what I prefer

 

[Smiter]

WLBLD said:

Smiter said:

RetCurious said:

WLBLD said:

sheilarae74 said:

lastresort said:

sheilarae74 said:

Back when I was on keto, I did this frequently. It costs a lot, but it pays off, since you're able to create dishes that taste every bit as good as the high carb ones.

I remember the early days of keto becoming a thing in diet culture. People were attempting bread with every imaginable substitute...coconut flour, psyllium husk, soy fiber, flax seed, and so on. None of them worked for me. It genuinely frustrates me that keto bread brands are still putting out such terrible-tasting products.

After a lot of trial and error, I've landed on 4 ingredients that each bring different fiber profiles plus added glutens, and together they give me the best appearance and taste.

Keto bread options have improved a lot compared to earlier days. Once I began reta, I quit all of that and switched to Ezekiel 4:9 items. Even now, I occasionally enjoy making carnivore flatbread and microwave muffin cups. After all, I still need to put all my cooking equipment to use, lol.

The wraps available these days are excellent and pack a ton of fiber!!

On top of that, I bake sourdough completely from scratch multiple times every week.

If that entered my kitchen, I'd be done for — proper sourdough is the one thing I can't resist.

/What San Francisco is actually famous for.

Interesting... sourdough is something I've never actually tasted. What makes it stand out?

WLBLD said:

We make

Smiter said:

WLBLD said:

lastresort said:

WLBLD said:

For cream- or mayo-style sauces and dressings, Greek yogurt works really well as a base.

I used to bake sweet potato brownies that turned out great. It's been ages since I last made them.

For chicken salad, I've discovered that replacing 50% of the mayo with sour cream works just as well. The mild tang actually lightens things up by balancing out the heaviness of the mayo.

Smiter said:

lastresort said:

WLBLD said:

For cream- or mayo-style sauces and dressings, Greek yogurt works really well as a base.

I used to bake sweet potato brownies that turned out great. It's been ages since I last made them.

For chicken salad, I've discovered that replacing 50% of the mayo with sour cream works just as well. The mild tang actually lightens things up by balancing out the heaviness of the mayo.

green cardamom, zaatar, sumac, hungarian sweet paprika, spring onion oil, curry leaf...you can thank me later

Greek yogurt works as a replacement for the sour cream as well. Cabot is the one I like best (it has a milder flavor and a very thick texture).

Yum! Scallions, garlic & cilantro are great additions too!!

Fellow connoisseur, our paths cross once more!!!!

Here we prepare a wide variety of dishes from different cultures. If it doesn't taste good, I won't bother eating it, ha ha. Chinese, Jamaican, Indian, Italian, Korean, and so on. Flavor is a must—no bland meals in this house!! ha ha

Alright alright, so you can read minds as well, and my thoughts are an open book to you. lol

By the way, have Sumac, Zataar, star anise, bay leaf, rose water, white poppy seeds, mace, and similar things ever been on your list to try?

The sour flavor is distinct. Using a starter for a long fermentation instead of yeast introduces specific bacteria that support digestion and gut flora

Ha ha. Yea, Ive given plenty of those spices a go. There are so many varieties available here as well. Hummus I make from scratch, star anise & bay leaf go into my Chinese chili oil, bay leaves appear in Cuban style black beans or Ropa vieja, Rice & peas + many others, Rose water shows up in Jamaican Christmas cake or bun etc, Mustard oil, Kasuri meethii etc for Butter Chicken etc, Kefir Lime leaves for Thai dishes, etc. Authentic ingredients & recipes are what I prefer

Are you, like, the female version of me?????

 

[tubby]

To me, plenty of these creations end up looking like the vegan versions of meat, and that concept never made much sense to me. Suppose someone's ideology puts them firmly against Hitler—then it would be bizarre to deliberately trim your mustache to match his and spend weekends in his style of outfit as a way of expressing that stance. In the same way, when a person's ideology rejects meat, hunting for items engineered to mimic meat physically, and fixating on which ones come nearest to the real thing in looks and flavor, strikes me as strange behavior. I realize vegans explain this by saying they still want meat, just without the cruelty, and some land on it as the least bad option, so nobody needs to walk me through that reasoning. I'm only pointing out how absurd it can appear to somebody who isn't vegan.

On top of that, these "fake" items will typically be worse nutritionally than the genuine article, since they require a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to nail the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Those components usually aren't chosen for nutritional value—they're picked for those specific qualities—and from a nutrition optimization standpoint, a person may or may not actually want them in their body.

So when it comes to functional cooking, I catch myself asking what I'm truly trying to achieve by doing it, apart from maybe getting a kick out of the creative side. Yes, I could turn out cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but aren't I simply feeding an addictive pattern that has me chasing cupcakes which are less bad (on glycemic index, say) yet probably carry other highly processed and nutritionally murky ingredients (versus eating whole foods)? And honestly, if I'm on a GLP I could likely get away with the odd real cupcake alongside a diet built more around whole foods, instead of all this rigamarole?

Let me be clear: I'm not judging anyone else who treats functional cooking as a hobby, nor am I claiming others ought to see it my way. I'm only laying out the mental path I followed when I asked myself why I was doing things this way and where that question took me.

 

[lastresort]

tubby said:

To me, plenty of these creations end up looking like the vegan versions of meat, and that concept never made much sense to me. Suppose someone's ideology puts them firmly against Hitler—then it would be bizarre to deliberately trim your mustache to match his and spend weekends in his style of outfit as a way of expressing that stance. In the same way, when a person's ideology rejects meat, hunting for items engineered to mimic meat physically, and fixating on which ones come nearest to the real thing in looks and flavor, strikes me as strange behavior. I realize vegans explain this by saying they still want meat, just without the cruelty, and some land on it as the least bad option, so nobody needs to walk me through that reasoning. I'm only pointing out how absurd it can appear to somebody who isn't vegan.

On top of that, these "fake" items will typically be worse nutritionally than the genuine article, since they require a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to nail the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Those components usually aren't chosen for nutritional value—they're picked for those specific qualities—and from a nutrition optimization standpoint, a person may or may not actually want them in their body.

So when it comes to functional cooking, I catch myself asking what I'm truly trying to achieve by doing it, apart from maybe getting a kick out of the creative side. Yes, I could turn out cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but aren't I simply feeding an addictive pattern that has me chasing cupcakes which are less bad (on glycemic index, say) yet probably carry other highly processed and nutritionally murky ingredients (versus eating whole foods)? And honestly, if I'm on a GLP I could likely get away with the odd real cupcake alongside a diet built more around whole foods, instead of all this rigamarole?

Let me be clear: I'm not judging anyone else who treats functional cooking as a hobby, nor am I claiming others ought to see it my way. I'm only laying out the mental path I followed when I asked myself why I was doing things this way and where that question took me.

For me, there's a perpetual back-and-forth: the limits of what science can achieve against what actually works in practice.

At the start, my focus was alternative protein—mushrooms in particular, since fungal proteins meet nutritional requirements and deliver a robust umami taste that aids in replicating meat flavor. I moved into fiber because of employment demands and the alternative protein sector gradually running out of momentum following years of stalled R&D and shrinking seed funding.

 

[tubby]

lastresort said:

tubby said:

To me, plenty of these creations end up looking like the vegan versions of meat, and that concept never made much sense to me. Suppose someone's ideology puts them firmly against Hitler—then it would be bizarre to deliberately trim your mustache to match his and spend weekends in his style of outfit as a way of expressing that stance. In the same way, when a person's ideology rejects meat, hunting for items engineered to mimic meat physically, and fixating on which ones come nearest to the real thing in looks and flavor, strikes me as strange behavior. I realize vegans explain this by saying they still want meat, just without the cruelty, and some land on it as the least bad option, so nobody needs to walk me through that reasoning. I'm only pointing out how absurd it can appear to somebody who isn't vegan.

On top of that, these "fake" items will typically be worse nutritionally than the genuine article, since they require a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to nail the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Those components usually aren't chosen for nutritional value—they're picked for those specific qualities—and from a nutrition optimization standpoint, a person may or may not actually want them in their body.

So when it comes to functional cooking, I catch myself asking what I'm truly trying to achieve by doing it, apart from maybe getting a kick out of the creative side. Yes, I could turn out cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but aren't I simply feeding an addictive pattern that has me chasing cupcakes which are less bad (on glycemic index, say) yet probably carry other highly processed and nutritionally murky ingredients (versus eating whole foods)? And honestly, if I'm on a GLP I could likely get away with the odd real cupcake alongside a diet built more around whole foods, instead of all this rigamarole?

Let me be clear: I'm not judging anyone else who treats functional cooking as a hobby, nor am I claiming others ought to see it my way. I'm only laying out the mental path I followed when I asked myself why I was doing things this way and where that question took me.

For me, there's a perpetual back-and-forth: the limits of what science can achieve against what actually works in practice.

At the start, my focus was alternative protein—mushrooms in particular, since fungal proteins meet nutritional requirements and deliver a robust umami taste that aids in replicating meat flavor. I moved into fiber because of employment demands and the alternative protein sector gradually running out of momentum following years of stalled R&D and shrinking seed funding.

Yeah, and the line isn't always obvious. Take artificial colors — those seem like a clear case of "purely cosmetic, no reason to ever put them in food." But plenty of other ingredients, the kind you're talking about, do have real nutritional value. Even if they aren't historic or traditional foods with a long history of safe human consumption, a lot of them are likely fine.

 

[lastresort]

tubby said:

lastresort said:

tubby said:

To me, plenty of these creations end up looking like the vegan versions of meat, and that concept never made much sense to me. Suppose someone's ideology puts them firmly against Hitler—then it would be bizarre to deliberately trim your mustache to match his and spend weekends in his style of outfit as a way of expressing that stance. In the same way, when a person's ideology rejects meat, hunting for items engineered to mimic meat physically, and fixating on which ones come nearest to the real thing in looks and flavor, strikes me as strange behavior. I realize vegans explain this by saying they still want meat, just without the cruelty, and some land on it as the least bad option, so nobody needs to walk me through that reasoning. I'm only pointing out how absurd it can appear to somebody who isn't vegan.

On top of that, these "fake" items will typically be worse nutritionally than the genuine article, since they require a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to nail the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Those components usually aren't chosen for nutritional value—they're picked for those specific qualities—and from a nutrition optimization standpoint, a person may or may not actually want them in their body.

So when it comes to functional cooking, I catch myself asking what I'm truly trying to achieve by doing it, apart from maybe getting a kick out of the creative side. Yes, I could turn out cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but aren't I simply feeding an addictive pattern that has me chasing cupcakes which are less bad (on glycemic index, say) yet probably carry other highly processed and nutritionally murky ingredients (versus eating whole foods)? And honestly, if I'm on a GLP I could likely get away with the odd real cupcake alongside a diet built more around whole foods, instead of all this rigamarole?

Let me be clear: I'm not judging anyone else who treats functional cooking as a hobby, nor am I claiming others ought to see it my way. I'm only laying out the mental path I followed when I asked myself why I was doing things this way and where that question took me.

For me, there's a perpetual back-and-forth: the limits of what science can achieve against what actually works in practice.

At the start, my focus was alternative protein—mushrooms in particular, since fungal proteins meet nutritional requirements and deliver a robust umami taste that aids in replicating meat flavor. I moved into fiber because of employment demands and the alternative protein sector gradually running out of momentum following years of stalled R&D and shrinking seed funding.

Yeah, and the line isn't always obvious. Take artificial colors — those seem like a clear case of "purely cosmetic, no reason to ever put them in food." But plenty of other ingredients, the kind you're talking about, do have real nutritional value. Even if they aren't historic or traditional foods with a long history of safe human consumption, a lot of them are likely fine.

A great many ingredients that are required for sensory acceptability are, to put it another way, "cosmetic."

Time for me to play the role of someone defending big corporations. The United States is ENORMOUS, and farming tends to cluster in particular states—sweet potatoes from North Carolina (yum), avocados out of California—and we rarely stop to think about it.

Plus, farmers markets aren't always within reach, and some rural places simply have no food options at all. That makes the food distribution system more complicated and sets up a tug-of-war between quality and stability/safety. During transport, food quality almost inevitably drops, both in terms of sensory qualities and microbiology, which pushes the industry to put safety/stability ahead of quality. That's precisely why additives and artificial ingredients are used.

 

[WLBLD]

Smiter said:

WLBLD said:

Smiter said:

RetCurious said:

WLBLD said:

sheilarae74 said:

lastresort said:

sheilarae74 said:

Back when I was on keto, I did this frequently. It costs a lot, but it pays off, since you're able to create dishes that taste every bit as good as the high carb ones.

I remember the early days of keto becoming a thing in diet culture. People were attempting bread with every imaginable substitute...coconut flour, psyllium husk, soy fiber, flax seed, and so on. None of them worked for me. It genuinely frustrates me that keto bread brands are still putting out such terrible-tasting products.

After a lot of trial and error, I've landed on 4 ingredients that each bring different fiber profiles plus added glutens, and together they give me the best appearance and taste.

Keto bread options have improved a lot compared to earlier days. Once I began reta, I quit all of that and switched to Ezekiel 4:9 items. Even now, I occasionally enjoy making carnivore flatbread and microwave muffin cups. After all, I still need to put all my cooking equipment to use, lol.

The wraps available these days are excellent and pack a ton of fiber!!

On top of that, I bake sourdough completely from scratch multiple times every week.

If that entered my kitchen, I'd be done for — proper sourdough is the one thing I can't resist.

/What San Francisco is actually famous for.

Interesting... sourdough is something I've never actually tasted. What makes it stand out?

WLBLD said:

We make

Smiter said:

WLBLD said:

lastresort said:

WLBLD said:

For cream- or mayo-style sauces and dressings, Greek yogurt works really well as a base.

I used to bake sweet potato brownies that turned out great. It's been ages since I last made them.

For chicken salad, I've discovered that replacing 50% of the mayo with sour cream works just as well. The mild tang actually lightens things up by balancing out the heaviness of the mayo.

Smiter said:

lastresort said:

WLBLD said:

For cream- or mayo-style sauces and dressings, Greek yogurt works really well as a base.

I used to bake sweet potato brownies that turned out great. It's been ages since I last made them.

For chicken salad, I've discovered that replacing 50% of the mayo with sour cream works just as well. The mild tang actually lightens things up by balancing out the heaviness of the mayo.

green cardamom, zaatar, sumac, hungarian sweet paprika, spring onion oil, curry leaf...you can thank me later

Greek yogurt works as a replacement for the sour cream as well. Cabot is the one I like best (it has a milder flavor and a very thick texture).

Yum! Scallions, garlic & cilantro are great additions too!!

Fellow connoisseur, our paths cross once more!!!!

Here we prepare a wide variety of dishes from different cultures. If it doesn't taste good, I won't bother eating it, ha ha. Chinese, Jamaican, Indian, Italian, Korean, and so on. Flavor is a must—no bland meals in this house!! ha ha

Alright alright, so you can read minds as well, and my thoughts are an open book to you. lol

By the way, have Sumac, Zataar, star anise, bay leaf, rose water, white poppy seeds, mace, and similar things ever been on your list to try?

The sour flavor is distinct. Using a starter for a long fermentation instead of yeast introduces specific bacteria that support digestion and gut flora

Ha ha. Yea, Ive given plenty of those spices a go. There are so many varieties available here as well. Hummus I make from scratch, star anise & bay leaf go into my Chinese chili oil, bay leaves appear in Cuban style black beans or Ropa vieja, Rice & peas + many others, Rose water shows up in Jamaican Christmas cake or bun etc, Mustard oil, Kasuri meethii etc for Butter Chicken etc, Kefir Lime leaves for Thai dishes, etc. Authentic ingredients & recipes are what I prefer

Are you, like, the female version of me?????

That's very likely