"Carey Sublette" wrote:

You haven't actually tried the "high-end supermarket" shopping bit have you?

Yes, I have. And you'll find the frozen 'gourmet' foods in them are
largely targeted at a slightly different audience than the fresh
products in the same store. You see the same differentiation even at
a low- or mid- end supermarket.

(Just two weeks ago I was in a high end grocery/restaurant supply
store. Their frozen section was barely as big as that at my local
7-11, and was mostly devoted to ice cream and frozen yogurt. A
telling point.)

The point is modern freezing technology works very well. The fact that it
can be stored badly, and defrosted using poor techniques says nothing at
all.

Ah. The operation was a success, but the patient died.

The point is, modern freezing technology isn't magical. There are
severe compromises in texture and quality. (Especially in mass
production.)

Frozen foods are often better in nutrition and not infrequently
in esthetic qualities compared to "real world" fresh, because shipping,
handling, and storage allow for more deterioration for the "fresh".

If it's deteriorated, it's not fresh Carey.

Derek, this is very amusing.

You believe food does not begin deteriorating from the moment it is
harvested (picked/slaughtered) or prepared?

Did I say that? No.

But the normal degradation of product in shipping and handling isn't
considered 'deterioration'. Deterioration means damage or
putrefecation to the cook.

Refrigeration (and other storage techniques, like CO2 atmospheres) retards
deterioration, keeping it to acceptable levels for reasonable periods of
time. Every bit of "fresh" food you buy has deteriorated in measurable ways
from its point of origin. Even if food science isn't your bag (and I'd say,
it isn't), basic biology and chemistry should clue you in on this.

I do know food science. But I don't confuse food scientists with
cooks. Food science is to cooking like a pulp mill is to fine
woodowrking.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL