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Quote from: RJBowman on May 02, 2024, 06:13:51 PMQuote from: J. Wilhelm on April 30, 2024, 11:36:00 PM...it's not clear if anyone at all still holds the patent for it, or if it's name "Saccharine" is itself a registered active trademark.
The name doesn't seem to be trademarked, but saccharin does have an official web site:
https://saccharin.org/
It appears to belong to an industry group.
Quote from: von Corax on May 02, 2024, 08:09:01 PMAs far as I can tell from TSOATAK, the term "saccharin" by itself has never been trademarked.
Quote from: J. Wilhelm on April 30, 2024, 11:36:00 PM...it's not clear if anyone at all still holds the patent for it, or if it's name "Saccharine" is itself a registered active trademark.
Quote from: Cheshire Cat on April 27, 2024, 01:43:13 PM<personally-identifying information deleted at OP's request>
From an Oldie Newbie, I'd just like to say hello to all from the past future
Looks like I'm the only one on this forum even though Cottonopolis is a mere 2 leagues north
Quote from: Sir Henry on April 30, 2024, 09:46:01 AMQuote from: J. Wilhelm on April 29, 2024, 02:08:25 PMIt was the milk chocolate (particularly Hershey's) that I was thinking of. Spoiling the milk before making chocolate with it makes it keep for much longer. Hershey's won't admit that they do it, but most people can taste the butylic acid that this creates: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hersheys-chocolate-tastes-like-vomit_l_60479e5fc5b6af8f98bec0cdQuote from: Sir Henry on April 29, 2024, 07:53:28 AMNext in the series of Lovekraftian culinary delights: American Chocolate
I hadn't thought of processed cheese being Steampunk (to be honest I hadn't thought of processed cheese at all in a few decades) but it does seem to have just the right mixture of horror, history, absurdity and whimsy. And horror, stomach-churning horror.1
It is easy to assume that adulterating foods to hold more water (or air) so they are cheaper to produce was a 20th century development, but as with so many things, it turns out to just be 'improvements' on Victorian ethiclessness. Ho hum.
1 The first time I saw the cover of Jean-Paul Sartre's 'Nausea' I assumed that it was a Dutch/German edition of a book about the North Sea.
Well, it's not all bad, to be perfectly honest. I think milk chocolate turned out well (clearly a Victorian and European invention), as well as condensed and evaporated milk.
Have you ever tried to make hot chocolate with coarse ground, unmilled unfiltered and unemulsified cacao nibs? It's an awful lot of work for just a cup of hot chocolate. Even the traditional Mexican/Spanish chocolate, the first hot chocolate that ever was, is emulsified nowadays, though they still leave the cocoa and cinnamon fibers in it for authenticity (you find a little grit to chew at the end of your cup).
As for making cocoa with nibs, surprisingly I have. My son is a bit of a 'foodie' and bought some cocoa nibs for a recipe. The simplest recipe I could find to use some of the leftover nibs was cocoa. It's an interesting, earthy flavour and while I could see why they stuck with it and developed it, it tasted a bit watery and one-note to me. As you say, the emulsification makes a bit difference sensually and the addition of vanilla and bucketfuls of sugar over the centuries has definitely made it more palatable to modern tastes.