Image credit: htomren (Flickr)
Every once in awhile, a trend or theme emerges from the fire-hose-blast of links, info, and ideas that stream through our Twitter and Facebook feeds each day.
Today that theme is appreciation for the microbes responsible for creating and flavoring some of our most favorite, tangy, pungent, rich, and all-around delicious food and beverages (Cheese! Pickles! Yogurt! Sauerkraut! Salame! Beer!).
Check-out these note-worthy items that grabbed our attention today:
- Hard to Stomach (Distillations, a podcast from the Chemical Heritage Foundation) According to biologist Christina Agapakis, “Cheese and armpits are very similar chemically and biologically in a lot of interesting ways.” So why not try to make cheese from armpit bacteria?! Lindsay Patterson visits South by South Swab and gets the scoop on Christina’s quest to make body cheese. (You may recall Christina from a Q & A we did with her awhile back.)
- Beard Beer Thanks to a comment from one of our Facebook fans, we learned about Rogue Ales’ latest microbiology project – brewing beer from a new strain of yeast – isolated from brewmaster John Maier’s BEARD.
- For Gastronomists, a Go-To Microbiologist Peter Andrey Smith profiles Harvard microbiologist Rachel Dutton in the NY Times Dining & Wine Section. Dr. Dutton has by-far one of the coolest microbiology research programs we’ve ever heard about: she and her team study the microbial communities that live ON CHEESE.
- Better Eating, Thanks to Bacteria The NY Times is ON IT this week when it comes to food microbes. Meet fermentation guru Sandor Katz and follow him on a tasting tour to some of NYC’s finest dining establishments in quest of new flavors, courtesy of microbes.
- India to adopt a microbe as a national symbol HT to Courtney Humphries for alerting us to India’s bold bid to adopt a national microbe. Lactobacillus – who we can thank for so many fermented foods – appears to be edging out other microbes in online voting.
- Festa di Salumi Behold the beauty of the molds colonizing Italian cured meats! In celebration of a new book by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Pulcyn, Punk Domestics launched Festa di Salumi, a three-month challenge to readers to try your hand at making Italian-style salumi at home. Participants will be guest blogging and posting pics through December.
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