Sending out a big jeer to Bryer's



In article <BfSRb.45014$U%5.238350@attbi_s03>,
Julia Altshuler <[email protected]> wrote:

> Captain Infinity wrote:
>
> (It's MUCH cheaper to get saffron at an
> >>Asian market - $30/ounce rather than the $400+/ounce you pay at a supermarket.)
>
>
> Is the saffron really the same thing? I've heard (rumor, don't know for sure) that the expensive
> saffron is from the stamen of the flower and that the inexpensive saffron is the whole flower
> which doesn't have the same flavor at all.
>
>
> --Lia
>

Just look at the product... There is a BIG difference in appearance between the thready stamens and
an entire dried crocus!

The less expensive saffron I get at the asian market appears to be the good stuff.

K.

--
Sprout the Mung Bean to reply...

>,,<Cat's Haven Hobby Farm>,,<[email protected]>,,<
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&include=0&userid=katra
 
[email protected] (DJS0302) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> >And it drives me crazy when I come up with and old recipe which calls for a "box" or "can" of
> >something. I keep wondering how much I really should be using.
> >
>
> I have an old cake recipe from the early 60's that calls for several 5¢ Hershey bars. I've never
> made it because I have no idea what size candy bars they're talking about.

About an ounce. Go here for the Hershey Bar timeline: http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/foodfaq5.html

I've seen this as a graph before, but I couldn't easily find it just now.

-bwg
 
at Mon, 26 Jan 2004 17:42:44 GMT in <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Default User) wrote :

>Breyer's ice cream was on sale last week, so I went to get some. As I pulled one out of the freezer
>bin, I thunked to myself, "hey, the carton seems different, did they change the package?" Well,
>they changed it all right. They have emulated the evil one (Edy's) and down-sized the half-gallon
>package to 1.75 quarts.
>
>That pisses me off.

Everybody seems to be upset with this. But there is a simple, non-dishonest explanation: inflation.
Prices of goods and services tend to rise in the long term, and this includes the costs the
manufacturers have to pay. Not only do their raw materials costs go up, so do labour, equipment
costs, rent, maintenance, etc. A company can't stay in business if it doesn't pass these costs on to
the consumer some way. (If they didn't, eventually, the profit margin would go negative, the company
is losing money, and goes under).

Meanwhile, consumer spending is astonishingly sensitive to small changes in price: increase the
price of a good even a small amount, and many people will buy much less. It would seem most
consumers expect prices to stay static in the face of increasing costs. So if they see the price of
an item go up, they stop buying it.

Faced with this reality, the companies' only alternative is to reduce package size, so you spend the
same amount for less product. They could keep package size the same, but then they'd have to raise
the price, and the amount consumers would buy would drop far more that what happens when they shrink
the amount per package.

Abuses do happen - no doubt many companies have tried to increase their profit margin by shrinking
package size, but it's not the usual case, because businesses such as retail grocery are incredibly
competitive and work on razor-thin margins. Consumers really will go out of their way to get a lower
price, so if a company tried to increase gross margin per product, they'd end up being outcompeted
by another company who sold for less. Usually package reductions are driven by the hard necessity of
staying alive (i.e., profitable *at all*), not by trying to gouge the consumers.

In a sense, then, we have only ourselves to blame. If we were willing to accept openly and with no
qualms an increase in the price of a product, package size could remain consistent. If not, we're
stuck with the package- size cycle - as costs go up, package sizes go down, until the point where
they're impractically small, at which point the company introduces the "super size", or "king size",
or whatever - usually the size the product came in at the start of the cycle.

--
Alex Rast [email protected] (remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
 
""Brian Macke" <[email protected]>" draws inspiration from a reality
most only suspect:
>On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:06:15 -0500, Blarg wrote:
>
>> Have you ever had saffron ice cream? If you like saffron, you'll LOVE the flavor. Something to
>> try: Melt some (about a pint) good pistachio ice cream so it's soft but not runny. [ ... ] Add
>> the saffron/water to the pistachio ice cream, mixing thoroughly. Put the ice cream back into the
>> freezer or use a home ice cream making machine to refreeze it. Wonderful.
>
>Call me a prude here, but you're bringing a milk product to room temperature. That's a risk in of
>itself. Re-freezing the product is a disaster waiting to happen. Milk is an ideal growth medium for
>pathogens and freezing the ice cream won't kill them.

penicillin? Hypocondria is what you were looking for, or maybe a milder overly health-conscious.

>If you're going to go to that much work, just make some Pistachio Saffron Ice Cream. What you're
>advocating here is dangerous.
 
>Everybody seems to be upset with this. But there is a simple, non-dishonest explanation: inflation.
>Prices of goods and services tend to rise in the long term, and this includes the costs the
>manufacturers have to pay. Not only do their raw materials costs go up, so do labour, equipment
>costs, rent, maintenance, etc. A company can't stay in business if it doesn't pass these costs on
>to the consumer some way. (If they didn't, eventually, the profit margin would go negative, the
>company is losing money, and goes under).

SNIP

>In a sense, then, we have only ourselves to blame. If we were willing to accept openly and with no
>qualms an increase in the price of a product, package size could remain consistent. If not, we're
>stuck with the package- size cycle - as costs go up, package sizes go down, until the point where
>they're impractically small, at which point the company introduces the "super size", or "king
>size", or whatever - usually the size the product came in at the start of the cycle.
>
>--
>Alex Rast

Actually I blame the greedy top executives who run these companies. They're making six and seven
figure salaries with bonuses equal to that amount while the workers in the factories who are
actually making the products are making less than 20 dollars an hour. Why don't these top executives
take a cut in their pay and pass the savings on to the consumer? Not even the President of the
United States makes as much as some these executives do.
 
On 29 Jan 2004 06:15:48 GMT, [email protected] (DJS0302) wrote:

>Actually I blame the greedy top executives who run these companies. They're making six and seven
>figure salaries with bonuses equal to that amount while the workers in the factories who are
>actually making the products are making less than 20 dollars an hour. Why don't these top
>executives take a cut in their pay and pass the savings on to the consumer? Not even the President
>of the United States makes as much as some these executives do.

yeah, but the president has a really nice health plan.

your pal, laura
 
Alex Rast wrote:

> Everybody seems to be upset with this. But there is a simple, non-dishonest explanation:
> inflation.

What inflation? It's been at 1-2% for years. Breyers has had the half-gallon carton for 25 years at
least, back into the days of real (10%+) inflation.

Brian Rodenborn
 
Brian Macke wrote:

> Overflow is defined as the volume of air over volume of product. By law you cannot call it "ice
> cream" if it's more air than product by volume. Most premium ice cream has less than 10% overflow.
> Cheap stuff is much higher with store brands getting near that 100% overflow limit.

The analyses I've seen normally have overrun at around 20% for the premiums. That means the product
is 10% air. Naturally, there's the butterfat content to consider as well.

Brian Rodenborn
 
On 29 Jan 2004 06:15:48 GMT, [email protected] (DJS0302) arranged
random neurons, so they looked like this:

>Actually I blame the greedy top executives who run these companies. They're making six and seven
>figure salaries with bonuses equal to that amount while the workers in the factories who are
>actually making the products are making less than 20 dollars an hour.

<snip>

This was really brought home to me the other day in an article in the LA Times. We've had a grocery
strike out here for like 3 1/2 months - Vons (Kroger) and Albertsons. The grocers are wanting to
scale back their benefits, particularly health insurance, b/c Wal-Mart is bringing in their grocery
line, purportedly, and they can't compete with Wal-Mart's margins. Yet, Kroger has just handed out a
few million in bonuses and stock options to their top executives.

See: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-safeway26jan26,1,6408745.story

(you have to register to see it)

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd AAC(F)BV66.0748.CA

"Never argue with an idiot.....they bring you down to their level and then beat you with
experience."

To reply, replace "shcox" with "cox"
 
On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:08:19 -0600, "Brian Macke" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:06:15 -0500, Blarg wrote:
>
>> Have you ever had saffron ice cream? If you like saffron, you'll LOVE the flavor. Something to
>> try: Melt some (about a pint) good pistachio ice cream so it's soft but not runny. [ ... ] Add
>> the saffron/water to the pistachio ice cream, mixing thoroughly. Put the ice cream back into the
>> freezer or use a home ice cream making machine to refreeze it. Wonderful.
>
>Call me a prude here, but you're bringing a milk product to room temperature. That's a risk in of
>itself. Re-freezing the product is a disaster waiting to happen. Milk is an ideal growth medium for
>pathogens and freezing the ice cream won't kill them.
>
>If you're going to go to that much work, just make some Pistachio Saffron Ice Cream. What you're
>advocating here is dangerous.

Walking is dangerous. Sometimes one has to live on the edge.

How do you think ice cream is made? I don't think they pasteurize a cow.

I bet you'd get all blorgenschade if you had to brew beer or wine.

Love,

Blarg

"Insecure?!? I'm security personified! Everywhere I go, people
point and shout, 'Security!' They just KNOW!" -- Mike Jittlov
 
Once Upon A Summertime, Just A Dream From Yesterday
Blarg wrote:

>I don't think they pasteurize a cow.

I see pasteurized cows all the time. Every time I take a drive in the country, there they are,
standing in the pasteur. I like to yell "MOO!" at them. The expressions on their faces when they
look up to see who's talking to them are priceless.

Those wacky cows. They're fun. AND TASTY!

** Captain Infinity ...it's 10:00 ...do you know where your pants are?
 
Captain Infinity wrote:
>
> Once Upon A Summertime, Just A Dream From Yesterday Blarg wrote:
>
> >I don't think they pasteurize a cow.
>
> I see pasteurized cows all the time. Every time I take a drive in the country, there they are,
> standing in the pasteur. I like to yell "MOO!" at them. The expressions on their faces when they
> look up to see who's talking to them are priceless.

Remember that Far Side, one box with people driving by going MOO! and another one of people driving
by and the cows going BLAH BLAH BLAH!

nancy
 
On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 13:05:14 GMT, Julia Altshuler
<[email protected]> wrote:

>
>>>Breyer's ice cream was on sale last week, so I went to get some. As I pulled one out of the
>>>freezer bin, I thunked to myself, "hey, the carton seems different, did they change the package?"
>>>Well, they changed it all right. They have emulated the evil one (Edy's) and down-sized the half-
>>>gallon package to 1.75 quarts.
>>>
>>>That pisses me off.
>
>
>In principle I have to agree with you that putting less in the package is a sneaky way to raise the
>price. But in practical use for me, this won't make any difference and might even make me buy their
>product more.
>
>Haagen Dasz, Ben & Jerry's and Breyer's are the only ice creams around here that I can buy in the
>supermarket that don't have additives. HD and B&J's are expensive and come in 1 pint containers
>that we always finish before they go bad. Breyer's costs less, but we end up wasting more than
>half. There's only 2 of us, and we eat tiny portions of ice cream. I always feel bad wasting food
>even if it is more cost efficient to do so. (By that I mean that we might throw away half but pay
>less per consumed portion than with the expensive brands.)
>
>Look at the hullaballoo about supersized portions in fast food places. Ice cream is a high fat
>luxury food. Maybe this is a good trend for the national obesity problem.
>
>I realize ours is an unusual case, but I'll take another look at Breyer's now.
>
>--Lia

I only buy Haagen Dasz just because it comes in small sizes, and it's GOOD!

Tried a half-gallon of something (Kemps) and it was so hard I couldn't eat any of it! Didn't taste
bad, but not as good as H-D, and I still have most of the big package of Kemps in the freezer,
taking up space!
 
On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:08:19 -0600, "Brian Macke"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:06:15 -0500, Blarg wrote:
>
>> Have you ever had saffron ice cream? If you like saffron, you'll LOVE the flavor. Something to
>> try: Melt some (about a pint) good pistachio ice cream so it's soft but not runny. [ ... ] Add
>> the saffron/water to the pistachio ice cream, mixing thoroughly. Put the ice cream back into the
>> freezer or use a home ice cream making machine to refreeze it. Wonderful.
>
>Call me a prude here, but you're bringing a milk product to room temperature. That's a risk in of
>itself. Re-freezing the product is a disaster waiting to happen. Milk is an ideal growth medium for
>pathogens and freezing the ice cream won't kill them.
>
>If you're going to go to that much work, just make some Pistachio Saffron Ice Cream. What you're
>advocating here is dangerous.
>
>> Blarg

You sound like one of those people in the souther USA who complained about the schools posting name
of kids who made the Honor Roll -- some of the other kids (who didn't make the HR) "felt bad" about
all that!!!

Sheesh!

Warming up the ice cream to a thick, not melted state, mixing something into it and putting it back
in the freezer is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to allow any Bad Things to grow in the mixture -- at least so's
your body would notice when you finally ate it!

Technically possible, I guess, but you're a lot safer than when you drive your car to the grocery
store to buy more. . . . ..... ice cream.
 
In article <[email protected]>, Brian Macke <[email protected]> wrote:

> > Warming up the ice cream to a thick, not melted state, mixing something into it and putting it
> > back in the freezer is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to allow any Bad Things to grow in the mixture -- at
> > least so's your body would notice when you finally ate it!
>
> How very scientific of you. Milk is an ideal growth medium for bacteria. Any time that it's near
> blood temperature, bacteria will bloom. I've eaten batches of ice cream that have gone bad and I
> _swear_ that they weren't at blood temp for more than a few minutes. The resulting infection is
> usually a sore throat that persists for a few days. Very annoying.

It's a good thing I've never died making yoghurt at home, given that my kitchen is no more sanitary
than the standard home's.

Anyway, you appear to be addressing a straw man. The poster you originally commented on was only
talking about softening, specifically NOT melting. That implies a temp around 32 F instead of 100
F, doesn't it? While I imagine that refreezing would give you nasty ice crystals, if you exercised
some caution
(e.g., softened in the refrigerator) I don't see any health concern.

Regards,

Mike Beede
 
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 17:28:31 -0600, "Brian Macke" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>> Warming up the ice cream to a thick, not melted state, mixing something into it and putting it
>> back in the freezer is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to allow any Bad Things to grow in the mixture -- at least
>> so's your body would notice when you finally ate it!

Exactly, Alan!

>How very scientific of you. Milk is an ideal growth medium for bacteria. Any time that it's near
>blood temperature, bacteria will bloom. I've eaten batches of ice cream that have gone bad and I
>_swear_ that they weren't at blood temp for more than a few minutes. The resulting infection is
>usually a sore throat that persists for a few days. Very annoying.

Wow, talk about assumptions, Brian. The last time I remember softening ice cream it was nowhere
close to being 'blood temperature' - it was barely above freezing.

Unless you're making a comparison of the ice cream's temperature to the deep, dark, frigid blood
flowing through your gutless body!

>> Technically possible, I guess, but you're a lot safer than when you drive your car to the grocery
>> store to buy more. . . . ..... ice cream.

I saw an elderly man run into a woman carting a shopping cart. I bet that lady had ice cream in
her carriage.

>And I guess I could live with that if I infected myself. I'd _never_ live it down if I infected
>someone because of something I made. That's a chance I'm not willing to take and I take every
>reasonable precaution to prevent it from happening.

Don't you ever come close to me. I don't want you coughing your dirty, filthy, frigid germs all over
me. You'll never live it down.

Blarg!

"Insecure?!? I'm security personified! Everywhere I go, people
point and shout, 'Security!' They just KNOW!" -- Mike Jittlov
 
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 22:47:41 -0600, Mike Beede <[email protected]> wrote:

>In article <[email protected]>, Brian Macke
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> > Warming up the ice cream to a thick, not melted state, mixing something into it and putting it
>> > back in the freezer is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to allow any Bad Things to grow in the mixture -- at
>> > least so's your body would notice when you finally ate it!
>>
>> How very scientific of you. Milk is an ideal growth medium for bacteria. Any time that it's near
>> blood temperature, bacteria will bloom. I've eaten batches of ice cream that have gone bad and I
>> _swear_ that they weren't at blood temp for more than a few minutes. The resulting infection is
>> usually a sore throat that persists for a few days. Very annoying.
>
>It's a good thing I've never died making yoghurt at home, given that my kitchen is no more sanitary
>than the standard home's.
>
>Anyway, you appear to be addressing a straw man. The poster you originally commented on was only
>talking about softening, specifically NOT melting. That implies a temp around 32 F instead of 100
>F, doesn't it? While I imagine that refreezing would give you nasty ice crystals, if you exercised
>some caution
>(e.g., softened in the refrigerator) I don't see any health concern.
>
>Regards,
>
> Mike Beede

You said it better, and more politely than I did. Thanks!

BTW, when I was a kid we usually made our own ice cream. I know about that. . . .
 
On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 12:20:28 -0600, Alan [email protected] arranged
random neurons, so they looked like this:

>
>BTW, when I was a kid we usually made our own ice cream. I know about that. . . .
>
>
When I was a kid visiting my grandmother in the summer, my sibs and cousins would take turns
spending what (in retrospect) felt like *hours* handcranking ice cream on the back porch. I
particularly remember peach ice cream (this was northern Alabama and my grandmother was mad for
peaches) and wonder to this day if it was as sensational as I recall or, after having cranked
forEVER, it just *seemed* that way.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd AAC(F)BV66.0748.CA

"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as old as the bird, and if the
bird's breasts had been as full as the waitress', it would have been a very good dinner." Anonymous.

To reply, remove replace "shcox" with "cox"
 
In article <zChRb.159945$na.268634@attbi_s04>,
"Rick & Cyndi" <[email protected]> wrote:

<snip>
>
> Chocolate is a necessity of life - and should remain affordable! Down with price increases!
> Boycott!!!

I know it's an old post but...

How do you boycott a "necessity of life"?

Charleson Mambo

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To confuse, inveigle, and obfuscate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<spam> www.accanthology.com Buy "The Alt.Cyberpunk.Chatsubo Anthology" </spam>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Charleson Mambo <[email protected]> wrote in news:mambospam1-
[email protected]:

> "Rick & Cyndi" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> <snip>
>>
>> Chocolate is a necessity of life - and should remain affordable! Down with price increases!
>> Boycott!!!
>
>
> I know it's an old post but...
>
> How do you boycott a "necessity of life"?
>
You must be prepared to die for your convictions.

--
Dan Goodman Journal http://dsgood.blogspot.com or http://www.livejournal.com/users/dsgood/ Whatever
you wish for me, may you have twice as much.
 
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