Wonders of the microbial world of cooking

In the last section, of Cooked, Pollan goes into great depths explaining the wonders that the microbiological world has to offer. He explains several great processes that many people forget are entirely driven by microbial life and their unique fermentation abilities.

In the first two sections, Pollan discusses fermentation of food. He goes through the process of making sour kraut in extreme detail. I enjoyed reading some of the scientific aspects of it, which I understood quite well knowing what I do about microbiology and biochemistry. I definitely appreciated the section, although it was quite long.

The last section was devoted to alcohol, a very unique process entirely dependent on microbes. I enjoyed the historical discussion on alcohol, talking about what it means for us in different aspects of life such as religion and social relationships. Pollan gave a nice context on what alcohol means for us historically, as well as some animals. We all use it similarly. This section was once again a nice scientific discussion that I enjoyed.

One of the main themes of this section was the emphasis on probiotics. Pollan presents us with our history of wanting to be sterile, completely free of bacteria and other flora that populate our bodies. In the first chapter of this section, he mentions a fermentation festival he went to where many people strongly advocated the idea of nourishing the natural microbial flora. Pollan argues for the health aspect of using probiotics, and that our modern diets and the western diseases could be alleviated by being more careful and conscientious about caring for our microbial companions. Pollan also makes a very interesting point that humans evolved as super-beings, that we are an incredibly complex network of various organisms working together.

It's no doubt we need to respect the world we can't see, and not by just focusing on pathogens but realising that there is a lot more to microbial life than the germs that make us sick. Microbiology is a relatively recent and emerging field, and it will be a long time until we understand how it works.

Cooked Part 3 - post discussion

After discussing the reading last night, it's interesting to see the different viewpoints that stood out to other people. First, the more intimate nature that Pollan relates when he was working with the dough is a strange topic that I first overlooked. This relationship of baking bread was explored in very different terms than I would have thought. Nevertheless, a very unique viewpoint was presented. As a whole, our class is about reconnecting with food, and the way Pollan described was a very interesting way to describe that.

Secondly, the discussion of the importance of bread in Christianity was an interesting aspect as well. I didn't take this part to heart as much when I read it, but as we discussed in class the implications of communion combined with Dr. Hartman's personal background and what communion meant in Russian Orthodox, the role of bread in Christianity is quite unique. Once again this speaks to the relationship aspect of reconnecting with food, as a clear example of food proliferating religion is given. Many other religions have ceremonial foods as well. I thought this was a great point for our overall goal of reconnecting with food, particularly in this relationship aspect.

Cooked part III - Air

In the third portion of Cooked, Michael Pollan goes into great detail of the arduous process of baking bread. He spends a large portion of the time detailing the exact processes, then his adventures of investigating how a master baker produces the perfect sourdough bread. This section of the book was very similar to the first part of Cooked, fire, in which the art of barbecue was explored.

Something I really liked about this section was the discussion of the microcultures of bacteria and yeast that were required to make the bread rise. Pollan goes into great detail to contrast his procedure of letting the dough sit outside for a little while as compared to the industrial process where specific yeast are used. Pollan describes that the diversity of the microcultures is what makes home made bread so much better (in addition to the added freshness and better nutrient value). I enjoyed how he did take the time to get acquainted with the organisms growing in his bread, to the point of learning the history of the microbiology behind it and the exact biochemical processes.

Combined with the experience from Great Harvest last weekend, I definitely appreciate bread a lot more. And after eating the freshly made bread from Great Harvest, it's really hard to go back to anything bought from Ingles.

Ultimately, I really appreciate the scientific approach that both sources took to explain this seemingly simple process. Some day, I do want to try baking bread myself and see if I can get these finicky microbes to grow and produce great bread myself.

The Grass is Always Greener....

After the second part of Omnivore's Dilemma, which focused mainly on grass, we discussed a weird contrast between corn and grass. Although both from the same plant family, Pollan clearly prefers grass (the kind you would find in pastures) over corn, leading into the discussion of organic (grass) versus industrial (corn). The comparison between the two methods of producing food are what fueled this part of the book and our discussions last night.

One of the topics we discussed last night was the romanticism of marketing and the idea of red barns and rolling green pastures. Pollan also discusses this in the book, when comparing organic to non-organic. But what we come to see is that even if something is labelled organic, it's ultimately a marketing ploy; we will pay extra for a good story, which further disconnects us from where our food is really from and what really goes into providing the steak or vegetable that we buy in the grocery store.

Another theme we discussed in class that wasn't as much in the book was the fact that to sustain the 7+ billion people living on the earth the idea of "industrial" farming becomes a necessity. By farming the way people did 50 years ago, we could not support the growing population we do now, which becomes a much more complicated ethical issue. We discussed that while true organic farming may be better in some ways, it couldn't support all the people alive now , and the question of who should get food becomes relevant, presenting a very difficult ethical question. Contrast this with the ethical questions of "industrial" farming, and you're left with an extremely intricate mess of ethical issues.

So with the discussion of organic and non-organic, which is more ethical and realistic? The answer isn't nearly as simple as it might seem at first.