Curio Cabinet / Daily Curio

Fire up the grill, backyard barbeque season is nearly upon us! In many places in the U.S., no outdoor get-together is complete without a scoop of Boston baked beans. This famous side’s sweet flavor sets itself apart from other baked beans. Its origins, though, are anything but sweet.
 
Like other kinds of baked beans, Boston baked beans are made by boiling beans (usually white common beans or navy beans) and then baking them in sauce. The sauce for Boston baked beans is sweetened with molasses and brown sugar, but also has a savory edge since bacon or salt pork is often added.
 
Boston baked beans are responsible for giving their titular city the nickname “Beantown.” In the years leading up to and directly following the Revolutionary War, Boston boasted more molasses than any other American city, but Bostonians didn’t produce it themselves. The city’s coastal position made it a major hub of the Triangle Trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa. In this brutal trade, Europe shipped goods to Africa, which were traded for enslaved people, who were shipped to the Americas to farm and produce goods like cotton and rum, which were then shipped to Europe. Boston’s molasses was produced by enslaved people on sugar plantations in the Caribbean, then used in Boston to produce rum as part of the Triangle Trade. Leftover molasses became a common household item in Boston, and was used to create many New England foods that are still famous today, from molasses cookies to Boston baked beans.
 
In the late 19th century, large food companies began using new, industrial technology to mass produce and can goods. This included foods that were only famous in specific regions, like Boston baked beans. Once they were shipped across the country, Boston baked beans became instantly popular outside of New England. Today, most baked beans on grocery shelves are sweet and syrupy, even if they don’t call themselves Boston baked beans. If you get popular enough, your name sometimes dissolves into the sauce of the general culture.

 
[Image description: A white bowl filled with baked beans and sliced hot dogs.] Credit & copyright: Thomson200, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

It’s flavorful, traditional…and controversial. Foie gras is a quintessentially French food that’s been beloved for centuries, but it’s come under fire in recent years due to animal rights concerns. Foie gras is made from fatty duck or goose liver (its name literally translates to “fatty liver”) and making it involves force-feeding ducks or geese in order to plump them up—a stressful process that can result in injuries. The birds are also confined to keep them from exercising. Foie gras has become so controversial that some cities and even entire countries, like Switzerland, have banned the dish. Now, though, there may be a way to have happier birds and eat foie gras too. A team of researchers in Germany recently found that adding lipases, naturally occurring, fat-digesting enzymes, to normal duck liver after butchering caused the liver’s fat to form large, irregular clumps, just as fat in natural foie gras does. This leads to foie gras that is creamy and fatty, even without force-feeding. The study's results were published in the journal Physics of Fluids and seem to suggest that cruelty-free foie gras is possible.
 
Regardless of how it's made, all foie gras has a sought-after, buttery flavor and creamy consistency that sets it apart from normal duck or goose liver. It can be served in slices or as a pâté, to be spread on crackers or bread. The dish’s history goes back a long way. The practice of force-feeding birds to fatten them up dates back to ancient Egypt, where various artworks depict workers forcing food into birds’ mouths. Ancient Romans specifically ate the livers of geese fattened with figs. By the 1500s, fattened goose liver was a delicacy in many European Jewish communities. Since fat from pigs and from certain parts of cows weren’t considered kosher in these communities, they used fat from overfed geese in their cooking, and a version of foie gras was created as a byproduct.
 
For at least a century, foie gras was inexpensive, as it was considered a peasant dish throughout most of Europe. Then, in 1779, French chef Jean-Joseph Clause created a pâté, or paste, from foie gras, allowing it to be easily spread over bread and other foods. Clause created an entire business supplying his foie gras to French royalty and aristocracy, ensuring that it became a food associated with luxury. It’s a reputation that endures to this day, despite the controversy currently surrounding foie gras. Would you eat fatty duck liver in the City of Light?

 
[Image description: Two slices of foie gras on a white plate with salad and bread.] Credit & copyright: Benoît Prieur (1975–), Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

They say that the best way to keep your mind sharp is to keep your body healthy. That previously referred to diet and exercise, but it turns out that vaccines can be good for the mind too. A recently published study in Nature by researchers from Stanford University shows that the shingles vaccine might be the most effective dementia prevention tool ever developed. The link between the shingles vaccine and dementia has actually been explored before, but the correlation between vaccination rates and the likelihood of developing dementia was never firmly established. That’s because people who voluntarily receive the vaccine are more likely to be more health conscious. Since it’s already well established that a healthier lifestyle with better diet and exercise reduces the risk of dementia, researchers had no way to confirm that the vaccine was responsible for lowering the risk as well.
 
In 2013, a public health policy in Wales allowed those who were 79 on September 1 of that year to receive the shingles vaccine, while those who were 80 wouldn’t be eligible to get it at all. The policy was put in place due to limited vaccine supply, but it had the unintended consequence of creating a nearly perfect, randomized, controlled trial for the effectiveness of the vaccine against dementia. Those involved in the “study” were nearly the same in age, and there were plenty of people who didn’t receive the vaccine because they couldn’t, not because they didn’t want to. When researchers combed over the data, they found that those who received the vaccine were 20 percent less likely to develop dementia compared to those who didn’t, and they drew the same conclusions from countries like Australia and Canada where the shingles vaccine was distributed in a similar fashion. 20 percent might not seem like much, but it’s a huge difference when it comes to keeping a sound mind!

 
[Image description: Medical needles against a pink background.] Credit & copyright: Tara Winstead, Pexels

It’s spring, which means it’s time to rise, shine, and risi e bisi! This scrumptious starter is a traditional springtime food in Venice. Translating to “rice and peas”, risi e bisi’s cheery green color perfectly reflects the hue of the season. For a dish made with such humble ingredients, this rice dish has a surprisingly posh past.
 
Risi e bisi is made with young peas, medium-grain rice, butter, and broth. While chicken broth is often used in modern risi e bisi because of its wide availability, traditionally the dish was made with pea shell broth, made from pea shells and other veggies, like carrots and onions. Though it’s similar to risotto, another Italian rice dish that employs broth, risi e bisi isn’t stirred constantly the way risotto is. The peas in risi e bisi remain firm since they’re added toward the end of the cooking process, while veggies in risotto are added early so that they can soften. Risotto’s texture requires that it be eaten with a spoon, while risi e bisi is solid enough to be eaten with a fork.
 
Risi e bisi has always been associated with spring, since peas reach peak ripeness early in the season. Venice came to love peas in the 15th century, after conquering several other Italian city-states, including the northeastern city of Vicenza, where conditions were perfect for pea farming. The dish soon became a springtime staple in Venice, but was largely seen as a peasant dish until some time around the 16th century. That’s when the leader of the Venetian Republic, known as the Doge of Venice, was served risi e bisi during the April 25th Feast of Saint Mark, which celebrates the city’s patron saint, Mark the Evangelist.
 
Popular as it remains, though, risi e bisi is still difficult to find as a tourist traveling to Italy. That’s because it’s still a mostly homemade dish, considered too simple to serve in restaurants. Luckily, it's pretty easy to make, doesn't require expensive ingredients, and takes less than an hour to prepare. You can’t be too busy for risi e bisi.

 
[Image description: Rice with peas on a gray plate. There are two lemons to the right.] Credit & copyright: Alesia Kozik, Pexels

Here’s a citrus to celebrate. Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that eating citrus might be an effective way to lower the risk of developing depression. Depression is an extremely common condition, yet it can be extremely difficult to treat. Around 290 million people worldwide are thought to suffer from the disorder, and for many of them, treatments aren’t effective. In fact, around 70 percent of those with depression don’t find antidepressants to be effective. However, in recent years, researchers have found a strong link between an individual's gut microbiome and their mental health, and the Mediterranean diet has been found to reduce the risk of depression by almost 35 percent. Now, similar effects have been found in patients who eat at least one orange every day.
 
Harvard researchers’ recently examined a study known as the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS2), which began in 1989 and involved detailed interviews with 100,000 regarding their diets and lifestyles. Those who ate a lot of citrus tended to have significantly lower rates of depression compared to those who didn't. Based on the data, just one medium orange every day might lower the risk of depression by up to 20 percent. But it's not the orange that's helping directly. Rather, citrus consumption promotes the growth of F. Prausnitzii, a beneficial bacterium found in the gut. Researchers believe that F. Prausnitzii affects the production of serotonin and dopamine in the intestines, which can make their way to the brain. Serotonin and dopamine are the hormones that are often lacking in people with depression. Apples might keep the doctor away, but it seems that oranges really keep the blues at bay.

 
[Image description: Rows of cut oranges.] Credit & copyright: Engin Akyurt, Pexels

You can’t help but catch a whiff as you chow down with this dish. Referring to a food as “stinky” might seem rude, but it’s actually a point of pride for makers of stinky tofu. This Chinese dish’s actual name, chòu dòufu, literally translates to “smelly tofu”, and is lovingly referred to as stinky tofu in English. The dish has gone viral in recent years as influencers descend on Asian food markets to try unusual dishes on camera, but stinky tofu’s history predates the internet by quite a few years. In fact, it’s ancient.
 
Stinky tofu is, of course, a kind of tofu, which is a gelatinous food made from soybean paste. The paste is mixed with soy milk, then an acidic coagulant is added, causing the milk to curdle, thus producing solid pieces of tofu. Normal tofu has a very mild smell, though it’s great at soaking up the smells and flavors of dishes that it’s added to. Unlike regular tofu, stinky tofu is fermented, and its pungent aroma, which is sometimes compared to that of rotting vegetables, comes from the brine it’s made in. Fermentation is the same process that turns cucumbers into pickles; it involves submerging food into a brine and keeping it in a sealed container until yeast and bacteria create chemical changes that make it taste (and smell) different. Stinky tofu is usually fermented in a brine of veggies like bamboo shoots and greens, meat products like dried shrimp, fermented milk, and spices. While stinky tofu’s flavor is stronger than that of normal tofu, it’s not nearly as overpowering as its smell. The dish is creamy and rich, with a sour, somewhat salty flavor. It can be eaten in many different ways: cold, steamed, or fried. It’s usually served with spicy sauce for dipping.
 
Stinky tofu dates all the way back to China’s Qing Dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1912. Unlike many ancient foods, we actually know who invented stinky tofu: a scholar-turned-tofu-merchant named Wang Zhihe. In 1669, he journeyed to Beijing from his home in Anhui province to try his hand at becoming part of China’s state bureaucracy. However, he failed the official examination for the job, and found himself low on funds after his journey. To keep afloat, Zhihe set up a tofu stand in the city. His bad luck continued, though, and he ended up with a lot of unsold tofu. Rather than let it go to waste, Zhihe fermented the tofu in jars. This new, stinky tofu was a hit, as it stood out from Beijing’s other street food offerings. To this day, stinky tofu is mainly sold as a street food, both at permanent food stalls and at pop up events, like festivals and night markets. It’s especially popular in Taiwan, and is considered by many to be Taiwan’s unofficial “national snack food.” Sometimes, pungency is perfection.

 
[Image description: A plate of five thick tofu squares with shredded vegetables in the center.] Credit & copyright: Pilzland, Wikimedia Commons. The copyright holder of this work has made it available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.