Episode 17

full
Published on:

1st Jan 2024

WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: Let's talk about 2024 food trends!

Welcome! We're Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, veteran cookbook authors with three dozen cookbooks to our names (plus two knitting books for Bruce and a memoir from Mark). If you'd like to check out our latest, THE LOOK & COOK AIR FRYER BIBLE, click this link right here.

We're talking about food trends for 2024, gleaned from reading Whole Foods' predictions from its "trends council," plus many thoughts of our own about what's coming up this year.

We've also got a one-minute cooking tip about visual cues in cooking. And we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week: tinned fish and Jewish deli new year!

[01:11] Our one-minute cooking tip: Visual cues are more important any stated timing in a recipe.

[05:08] Let's talk about 2024's predicted food trends.

[17:36] What’s making us happy in food this week: tinned fish and our Jewish deli new year!

Transcript
Bruce:

Hey, I'm Bruce Weinstein, and this is the podcast Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

Mark:

And I'm Mark Skarbra, and together with Bruce, we have written three dozen and more cookbooks, including a cookbook you need for all of your New Year's resolutions, which, if you listen to this podcast, you know we don't believe in.

Mark:

The Look and Cook Air Fryer Bible, an unbelievably gorgeous guide, if I do say so myself, to all things air fryer.

Mark:

Every step of every recipe is photographed, 700 photographs, an unbelievable effort.

Mark:

We worked with professional food photographer Eric Medsker, as we always do.

Mark:

He made beautiful shots in our kitchen.

Mark:

They're very homey.

Mark:

They seem like they're in a kitchen, which is what we wanted.

Mark:

And indeed, they in fact are in our kitchen with Bruce's hands, making every step of every recipe.

Mark:

So check out that book.

Mark:

But in the meantime, here's what's up for this episode of the podcast.

Mark:

We've got a one minute cooking tip about recipes.

Mark:

We're gonna talk about it.

Mark:

2024's food trends, at least as seen by some people, and we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week.

Bruce:

Today's one minute cooking tip.

Bruce:

Pay attention to visual and physical cues in the recipes and use your timings.

Bruce:

Only as a guide.

Bruce:

Oh,

Mark:

yes.

Mark:

Um, I wish that, in fact, we could write recipes without timings.

Mark:

Oh, me too.

Mark:

Or with just really general timings like less than an hour or less than 30 minutes.

Mark:

But we can't because of Fannie Farmer.

Mark:

That's a whole historical discussion we could have.

Mark:

But because of Fannie Farmer and her standardization of North American recipes we can't, which drives me crazy, but still nonetheless Uh, really?

Mark:

Honestly, the visual and physical cues are the most important.

Mark:

And what do we mean by that?

Bruce:

Think about baking a cake when we say it's puffed.

Bruce:

The top is set means you can lightly touch it with your fingers or clean toothpick, right?

Bruce:

You want to put the toothpick in and it comes out clean.

Bruce:

My oven is different than your oven, and that might happen at 18 minutes versus 22 minutes, 17 minutes versus 23.

Bruce:

So if the recipe says bake 18 minutes.

Bruce:

A toothpick should come out clean.

Bruce:

Well, what if your oven was so hot it was done at 16?

Bruce:

Now you're finished.

Bruce:

So you need to be checking the visual and physical cues.

Bruce:

First, use the timing as a guide of when to look for those cues.

Mark:

And just in case you don't know, ovens go out of whack, particularly older ovens.

Mark:

Now, really, really old digital computerized ovens tend to stay exact for much longer.

Mark:

But if you have an oven over 10 years old, it's probably already out of whack and they go out of whack pretty quickly and the temperatures drop or they fluctuate.

Mark:

And the other thing that happens and you may not realize this is that over time your oven is not level anymore.

Mark:

In fact, if you put a level on your oven, you might discover that it's leaning, I don't know, back into the left.

Mark:

And if that's the case, then Also, its cooking will be affected by its lack of level.

Mark:

So just remember that the visual and physical cues are the most important.

Mark:

I know, for example, in our oven, and we have a fancy new oven, and yet I know for a fact, because I've watched it happen when I bake, that the left side as I face the oven is hotter than the right side.

Mark:

I know it because I see the way things get done on the left side.

Bruce:

Ovens are rarely even.

Bruce:

So that's why you should use convection, but it's even goes beyond.

Bruce:

This is going longer than a minute, but that's okay.

Bruce:

This goes beyond ovens when a recipe says, you know, to boil a sauce till it's reduced by half, right?

Bruce:

That may take me on my stove with the flame I have going 10 minutes.

Bruce:

It might take you 12.

Bruce:

It might take you 8.

Bruce:

So if you paid attention only to the times of recipes that boil for 8 minutes until reduced by half, that 8 minutes may or may not work.

Mark:

Can I push this even further?

Mark:

Sure.

Mark:

Okay, so it's going to go on way beyond your minute.

Mark:

My least favorite thing is boil for 1 minute or boil for 4 minutes because I don't know whether that means keep, you know, count as a minute.

Mark:

the time when it comes to a boil or start counting when it's at a boil.

Mark:

So when we write recipes as a writer, I can say, I always write bring to a boil, boil for one minute, because otherwise I don't know if the minute is including the bringing up time or not.

Mark:

And it makes me crazy inside.

Mark:

So, uh, I just want to say that in our recipes, it's always going to say, bring to a boil and then boil for one minute, but still in the list, follow the visual and physical.

Mark:

Okay, before we get to the second segment of our podcast, let me say it would be great if you could rate this podcast, give it, dare I say, a five star rating that would be terrific on whatever platform and in whatever country you're listening to this podcast.

Mark:

Any kind of rating is great.

Mark:

And if you would take the time to write a review, even great banter or a nice podcast that does fabulous things for the analytics and we very much appreciate it.

Mark:

We are unsupported.

Mark:

We choose to be unsupported.

Mark:

This is the way that you can help keep us.

Mark:

unsupported by supporting us in some way.

Mark:

All right.

Mark:

Our second segment of the podcast.

Mark:

2024 food trends.

Bruce:

These are food trends according to whole foods.

Mark:

Okay.

Mark:

And let me just say before we get here that saying 2024 just about made me freak out.

Mark:

So

Bruce:

That was science fiction when we were younger.

Bruce:

That was science fiction when I met you in

Mark:

2024.

Mark:

I've probably said this on this podcast before, but when I was a little kid, I thought there were three great markers in a, well, four.

Mark:

Four great markers in a life.

Mark:

Sixteen, eighteen, twenty one, and death.

Mark:

So, sixteen is when you get to drive, eighteen is when you went to college, twenty one is when you were, an adult, at least in my head to drink.

Mark:

And then, well, well, it was actually young.

Mark:

It was 19 when I was a kid in Texas.

Mark:

21 was when you were an adult.

Mark:

And then I don't know, there was a vast, undifferentiated middle.

Mark:

And then you died.

Mark:

So 2024 is that vast, undifferentiated middle.

Mark:

And it's just insane to me.

Mark:

I can't believe it.

Mark:

Okay, anyway, go back to whole food.

Mark:

So

Bruce:

the whole foods trends council is who puts out this list and it is made up of 50 Whole Foods team members, which include buyers and culinary experts, and they are responsible every year for compiling the trend predictions.

Bruce:

Okay, I,

Mark:

I, I'm sorry it's a podcast and you can't see me rolling my eyes, but the Whole Foods Trends Council, my eyes literally, I saw my brain.

Mark:

But everybody follows this.

Bruce:

This is picked up in every news media, including us.

Bruce:

It's done by everybody.

Bruce:

So the top food trend, according to them, is going to be the putting of the plant Back in plant based.

Mark:

Well, now, okay, this is interesting because you may know this from listening to this podcast, but I have been getting increasingly vegan ish in my life.

Mark:

And I just saw a series of recipes on, back on TikTok again, I saw a series of recipes in which this guy was like, I hate vegan cheese because it's fake, because it's plastic, because it never tastes like real cheese.

Mark:

And this guy is not a vegan, but he has a whole series of recipes on TikTok creating a feeling.

Mark:

of a cheesy, like, let's say, carbonara without ever resorting to vegan cheese because he doesn't think that vegan foods should try to somehow, what, be fake versions of other foods.

Bruce:

I so agree with that.

Bruce:

So here, what's happening is plant based food manufacturers are backing away from the guise of mock meats, like Beyond and Impossible.

Mark:

I know, those are really falling like crazy.

Bruce:

And they're returning to traditional veggie burgers and dishes with.

Bruce:

Actual veggies, pulses, nuts, seeds, and we're not trying to pretend it's meat anymore.

Bruce:

And part of that is they're coming up with shorter ingredient lists and ingredient labels.

Mark:

I've probably told you this, but when the Impossible Burger first came out, it was just rolled out in a few restaurants.

Mark:

And this is, well, maybe up to a decade ago.

Mark:

It was rolled out in a few restaurants in San Francisco.

Mark:

And they were trying it out, and we went to one of these restaurants.

Mark:

for lunch, and it was a really beautiful lunch, but we wanted to try an Impossible Burger because we were all curious about what this was, we were Bruce's sister and brother in law and our niece, and we wanted to see this thing, so we ordered it just for the table, and it came out, and honestly, I don't know what the Impossible Burger was because there was so much cheese and sauce and gruyere sauce and condiments and all this dripping all over this burger that I don't know what the Impossible Burger part of it even tasted like.

Mark:

I couldn't have known.

Mark:

And at the time when that happened, I thought, what in the world?

Mark:

Why are you disguising this thing?

Mark:

Now, listen, I don't think that Impossible Burgers taste bad.

Mark:

I've had lots of good Impossible Burgers in my life, but still nonetheless, I think that veggie burgers are actually a real trend back.

Bruce:

But what kills me is that the Whole Foods Trend Council.

Bruce:

Contradicts themself with the very next trend, despite the fact that, you know, we're not going to be faking out meat anymore.

Bruce:

They are saying we're going to have plant based fish.

Bruce:

I know

Mark:

it's a huge thing.

Mark:

It's coming on so fast, it's hard to even catch it.

Bruce:

Yep.

Bruce:

There's going to be instead of lox, you're the cured salmon.

Bruce:

It's going to be made with carrots and trumpet.

Bruce:

Mushrooms are being used to make scallops and root vegetable.

Bruce:

Cognac, you know, that Cognac jelly, Cognac.

Bruce:

Ooh, it's getting its moment and sushi rolls and pokey bowls.

Mark:

I know it's tuna plant based fish is coming on really fast.

Mark:

And there's probably a market to it.

Mark:

I wonder if that market isn't like the market for the fake meat substitutes, but no, I don't know.

Mark:

You know, a million years ago, sorry, I'm banging on about this, but a million years ago, Bruce and I did a lot of work for a protein isolate company.

Mark:

Do you remember this?

Mark:

Soleil.

Mark:

Soleil.

Mark:

And we did a lot of recipe development.

Mark:

We created recipes every month for them.

Mark:

And this is long before Impossible Burgers and Beyond Meat.

Mark:

And they were a, they were textured soy protein, right?

Mark:

And we use those soy crumbles a lot in things because, A, I actually liked them.

Mark:

I like the taste of them.

Mark:

And B, because we were working for this company so late.

Mark:

So this stuff's been around for a long time, but the fish stuff is relatively new, and we'll see where it sticks or not.

Bruce:

What's the next on the list?

Mark:

Watch out for whole cacao products.

Mark:

Now, this is a big deal.

Mark:

There is so much discarded in the making of chocolate.

Mark:

The discarded cacao.

Mark:

pulp.

Mark:

There's just so much waste in making chocolate.

Mark:

And so producers are starting to figure out that a lot of what happens in the cacao bean is actually usable.

Bruce:

Yeah, they're taking that pulp that's around the seed that turns into chocolate.

Bruce:

They're taking the pulp, turning it into jellies and jams and also Cacao fruit powders being used as a new sugar alternative that doesn't compromise on natural tasting sweetness.

Mark:

Yeah, I mean, we actually know a guy, and this is not about cacao, but it's about coffee.

Mark:

We know a guy who's making and distilling vodka from the, what, the remainders, the trash.

Mark:

of coffee bean production.

Bruce:

When coffee beans are picked, they're a, basically they're a fruit, they're, they call them cherries.

Bruce:

And it's the seed inside that's our coffee bean, but that fruit on the outside, that pulpy fruit is sweet, and it's discarded, and tons of it are allowed to rot in the jungles.

Bruce:

So he and his company are getting that from all the coffee farmers and distilling that into vodka, which has a coffee essence.

Bruce:

Really fascinating.

Mark:

The fourth trend for the new year may be a weird and old school trend and it's buckwheat.

Mark:

And we were just.

Mark:

in the nation's largest buckwheat growing region, I believe, which is the Finger Lakes region of New York.

Bruce:

Well, there are a number of buckwheat mills up there.

Bruce:

In fact, we brought home some buckwheat pancake mix and I can't wait to make those.

Bruce:

And buckwheat

Mark:

is very old.

Mark:

I mean, my grandmother made Buckwheat pancakes.

Bruce:

Oh my goodness.

Bruce:

In Japan, they've been using buckwheat to make soba noodles for centuries.

Mark:

In fact, we used to go, when I was a little kid, this tells you how old I am, we would go to road trips and every fall, oh, don't judge me, we went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas to see the colors change.

Mark:

Hey, it was a big trip for us.

Mark:

And there was this little diner we would stop at, it's somewhere in rural Oklahoma, and they had Buckwheat pancakes and we, we look forward to it every year.

Mark:

Like, Oh my gosh, we get to have buckwheat pancakes for breakfast.

Bruce:

I love buckwheat honey, which we also bought in the Finger Lakes when we were there recently.

Bruce:

It's very, very dark.

Bruce:

In fact, Mark and I were once in upstate New York and we were buying honey at a little farm stand and she had two kinds.

Bruce:

She had her light.

Bruce:

Wildflower honey and her dark buckwheat honey, and I picked that up and she looked at me and she said many of our Jewish customers like that kind of honey.

Bruce:

Yeah.

Bruce:

So I don't know what it is about my people.

Mark:

I really don't expect anti semitism with my honey, but, uh, there it was.

Mark:

There it was.

Mark:

In, in full form.

Mark:

Buckwheat is an interesting grain.

Mark:

Let me just say, if you're interested in cooking more buckwheat, we do have a book called Grain Mains, buckwheat features.

Mark:

It's a book of main courses made with whole grains as the main ingredient in them.

Mark:

But let me also say that buckwheat goes rancid really quickly.

Mark:

So if you buy some buckwheat to hook into this trend, store it in your freezer.

Mark:

Excellent idea.

Mark:

Okay, so the

Bruce:

Oh, I love this, but it's so self serving to Whole Foods, little luxuries.

Mark:

Okay, this does seem like it came right out of their marketing team.

Bruce:

Things that are small but worth its splurges for 10 or less.

Bruce:

What's

Mark:

less than 10?

Mark:

A bottle of water is not less than 10 at Whole Foods.

Mark:

Well, they're

Bruce:

suggesting that making a daily ritual of having a milk tea on your home commute, so leave your office.

Bruce:

Stop at Whole Foods, get, you know, a 10 cup of tea, and have that every day.

Bruce:

Or, when you're shopping, add a bath bomb to your grocery cart, or a 10 tin of sardines.

Bruce:

But, the thing is, all of these things are sold at Whole Foods.

Mark:

Well, yes, I know.

Mark:

But maybe we should broaden this out to, say, little luxuries.

Mark:

I think in a time of, uh, maybe we've passed away from a time of inflation, but in the residue of inflation, and when the dollar goes less of a distance than it used to.

Mark:

I think that little luxuries are a big deal.

Mark:

And I think there are ways that you can indeed treat yourself.

Mark:

And I think that it probably might be a little trend as we come out of that high inflation period.

Mark:

And yet prices are still high.

Mark:

It's a good way to make yourself feel better.

Mark:

I remember it is truly all about self care.

Mark:

Okay, so we've talked a lot.

Mark:

Let's go with one more.

Mark:

What's the last one?

Mark:

One that

Bruce:

I'm not sure I understand.

Bruce:

Clean caffeine.

Bruce:

What

Mark:

is clean caffeine?

Mark:

Because it's coming up everywhere

Bruce:

recently.

Bruce:

Well, it's things like coffee infused with mushrooms and prebiotic spiked green tea.

Bruce:

And well, but here's the thing.

Bruce:

I did a little research on it and I found a restaurant technology company called Aplova.

Bruce:

And they also say, that drinks are going to be a trend in a slightly different way, which kind of skews with this.

Bruce:

They say 2024 is going to be all about beverages that serve a purpose, not just a quench thirst.

Bruce:

So they're suggesting like turmeric lattes for anti inflammation or kombucha for gut health, or, you know, adaptogen infused drinks to manage stress.

Bruce:

Oh, I see.

Bruce:

All right.

Bruce:

So beverages that don't just quench thirst, but they promote overall well being.

Bruce:

I would

Mark:

say that this Aplova place is actually articulating I mean, I think that this is a thing, that beverages that serve a purpose are a thing.

Mark:

And I think people now see a lot of beverages, whether it be a cocktail or just a cup of tea, as not serving a purpose.

Mark:

And in fact, if they want a cup of tea, they then serve a purpose.

Mark:

Give it a service orientation.

Mark:

They say, oh, tea, it's good for antioxidants or it's green tea and it calms my gut down, which may or may not be the case.

Mark:

And I don't want to debate those health claims.

Mark:

But I do think that people are using a service issue more and more as an explanation for what they're drinking.

Mark:

Okay, not bourbon and not gin.

Bruce:

That also calms you down.

Mark:

I guess my grandparents saw an, uh, use for bourbon and gin, but okay, not.

Mark:

Generally, those things, but other things.

Mark:

I guess

Bruce:

that I think they're perfect.

Bruce:

They don't quench your thirst and they calm you down.

Bruce:

I

Mark:

suppose so.

Mark:

Although some of us, they rev up, but that's a whole different podcast and a whole different explanation of biochemistry.

Mark:

So before we get to the last segment of our podcast, what's making us happy in food this week.

Mark:

Let me say that we do have a newsletter.

Mark:

It comes out, I don't know, once or twice a month.

Mark:

It is disconnected from this podcast.

Mark:

Mostly it includes additional recipes.

Mark:

It includes information about the books on this podcast.

Mark:

Sometimes it is indeed connected in some way to this podcast.

Mark:

But not always.

Mark:

Mostly it's about our lives or New England or what's going on around us or recipes we found interesting.

Mark:

You can sign up for it on our website, bruceandmark.

Mark:

com.

Mark:

There is a way to sign up there in which I do not capture your email and do not allow the email provider MailChimp to capture it either.

Mark:

You can subscribe anytime you like and you can unsubscribe.

Mark:

Anytime you like.

Mark:

All right.

Mark:

Our last segment, as is traditional, what's making us happy in food this week.

Bruce:

For me, it is one of those little luxuries for under 10.

Bruce:

And it's even one of the ones that Whole Foods was promoting the little tins of Fish wife, tinned fish, and they have sardines, they have anchovies, they have, you know, smoked salmon with chili crisp, and I've bought some of those and I love them, and so that for me is making me

Mark:

happy.

Mark:

Yeah, we, Bruce and I, are heavy into tinned fish.

Mark:

If you ever make your way to Boston, you must go to Haley.

Mark:

Henry.

Mark:

That dot is a period, not the word dot.

Mark:

You have to go there.

Mark:

It is a tinned fish restaurant and spectacular Spanish and Portuguese wine bar.

Mark:

Fabulous.

Mark:

If you get to meet the owner, she is a real pip, as they say in the UK, she's unbelievably funny.

Mark:

We went with a couple of friends a couple of years ago and ended up.

Mark:

trying to find an Uber while falling down on the sidewalk.

Mark:

So perhaps our drinks there didn't serve much of a purpose, but nonetheless,

Bruce:

They didn't quench your thirst.

Bruce:

Uh,

Mark:

no, but there were sure a lot of them.

Mark:

So there you go.

Mark:

Um, what's making me happy in this, uh, this week for the podcast is that we just had Jewish New Year.

Mark:

Um, we just had a New Year's Eve celebration in which Bruce made entirely Jewish food.

Mark:

And I don't mean Rosh Hashanah.

Mark:

We did this for New Year's Eve, December.

Bruce:

Yeah, so I had a brisket from our local farm from Howling Flats, thank you Kelly Babin who owns that farm and raises the meat and I brined it myself and then I smoked it and made pastrami and I made chopped liver.

Bruce:

I made kreplach, I made knishes,

Mark:

it was really delicious.

Mark:

I know, it was really crazy.

Mark:

We talked about what we should do for New Year's and we came up with this idea of just doing the old Jewish delicatessen thing for New Year's and it's totally untraditional.

Mark:

I mean, who actually does this?

Mark:

Pickles for New Year's Eve.

Mark:

It was absolutely fantastic and we gorged ourselves on deli food.

Mark:

That's the podcast for this week.

Mark:

Thanks for joining us.

Mark:

Thanks for being part of our journey.

Mark:

We certainly appreciate it.

Mark:

I appreciate it that you take your time to listen to this podcast and be part of our growing and lovely audience together.

Mark:

We want to be your audience too.

Mark:

Go to our Facebook group Cooking with Bruce and Mark and we can become your audience there.

Bruce:

While you're there, share with us what's making you happy in food this week.

Bruce:

And if there's some really good ones, we'll share them here on Cooking with Bruce and Mark.

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About the Podcast

Cooking with Bruce and Mark
Fantastic recipes, culinary science, a little judgment, hysterical banter, love and laughs--you know, life.
Join us, Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, for weekly episodes all about food, cooking, recipes, and maybe a little marital strife on air. After writing thirty-six cookbooks, we've got countless opinions and ideas on ingredients, recipes, the nature of the cookbook-writing business, and much more. If you've got a passion for food, we also hope to up your game once and a while and to make you laugh most of the time. Come along for the ride! There's plenty of room!

About your host

Profile picture for Mark Scarbrough

Mark Scarbrough

Former lit professor, current cookbook writer, creator of two podcasts, writer of thirty-five (and counting) cookbooks, author of one memoir (coming soon!), married to a chef (my cookbook co-writer, Bruce Weinstein), and with him, the owner of two collies, all in a very rural spot in New England. My life's full and I'm up for more challenges!