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The foods we eat can go a long way in boosting our moods. Here are our favorite snacks for happiness, according to science. Achieving happiness is top of mind for many people, and we'll try just about anything to get it. Whether it's therapy, exercise or meditation, we all want to bring more peace and joy into our lives. When we think about what makes us happy, our diet isn't usually at the top of the list (unless your favorite fast-food joint brings joy to mind). The foods we eat actually play a major role in how we feel. Studies...

In this article, I’m going to debunk two myths. The first myth regards the need to cook pork until it’s well done to avoid trichinosis (trichonelosis). The second myth is a myth within the myth, regarding the degree of cooking needed to render pork generally safe to eat. The questions are: Do we still need to worry about trichinosis in pork? And, if so, how much do we need to cook pork to kill this dangerous parasite?

Born in Germany, brought to America with the German immigrants, the bratwurst is more than just a sausage. In Wisconsin, they are never actually called bratwurst, although they certainly understand you if you call them that. In Wisconsin, they are just “brats” and they are everywhere in the badger state

It’s no coincidence that pork chops and sauerkraut are traditional holiday dishes, especially on New Year’s Day. This meal symbolizes wealth and prosperity for the coming year in German-American culture

If you’ve ever put away a serving of house-fermented vegetables at a fancy restaurant or had a roommate taking up your counter space with a crock of slowly bubbling sauerkraut, it’s likely you have Sandor Katz to thank. The self-styled “fermentation revivalist” has become a globe-trotting mascot for the power of bacteria and yeast to create delicious food, a kind of modern-day Johnny Appleseed of tangy, savory flavors. Katz discovered fermented foods in the early 1990s when, after receiving an H.I.V. diagnosis, he moved from his hometown of New York City to a queer community in rural Tennessee, where preserving...

For older generations it may conjure ghastly memories of cold school dinners, but thanks to the "clean eating" craze sweeping the UK, cabbage has become cool. In a sign that fermented cabbage has achieved food craze status, Britain's restaurant chains are starting include pickled cabbage dishes like German sauerkraut and Korean kimchi on their menus in a bid to be trendy. The Slug and Lettuce, Byron and Greene King pubs have cottoned onto the trend and are selling burgers which feature kimchi, while Loch Fyne is offering a Confit Duck Leg with kimchi cabbage on the side. Supermarkets are also...

While we're taught that food that smells rotten should be thrown away, there are actually many foods that you eat whenever they've just started rotting. Of course, it's not pleasant to call these foods rotten, so we refer to them in different ways instead. Cheese Making cheese comes down to your ability to control rot. This is because milk is treated with bacteria and enzymes causing it to curdle. The curdles are then cut, formed and ripened into cheese. Stinkheads Another native Alaskan delicacy is what's known as stinkheads. These are King Salmon heads that have either been buried in...

Looks like there's a new sourpuss in town. Meet Sauerkraut. The 2-year-old kitty with the permanent look of disdain lives in Oklahoma after being adopted from an animal shelter by Amy and Patrick Bender. Her disapproving look is caused by a neurological disorder called Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome and has to wear clothes to stop her from injuring herself. But don't mistake her look for her personality: Sauerkraut's owner's say she's one happy cat.

"Mommy, what's that???" For anyone reading this, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Dutch food has yet to sweep the globe. Although pockets of the Dutch can be found scattering the world, delectable Dutch cuisine never seemed to have caught on. “Fancy I pick up some Dutch food on the way home from work?” or “Wow, you have got to try this new Dutch restaurant in SoHo!” are phrases you will never hear uttered. Isn’t it odd that a nation of traveling, colonizing, patriotic, emigrating folk never managed to sow their own culinary seeds? C’mon, who are we...

Dallas Flynn shimmies up a chair to the 30-gallon Red Wing crock, lays what looks like the world's first mandoline cutter across the top and begins sawing a half head of cabbage back and forth across the blades. "If you have a big belly, it helps to keep it in place," he explains, showing how he uses his impressive girth to steady the vegetable cutter. All hail the King of Kraut. Flynn is a retired business owner and renaissance man whose sauerkraut has sweetened the pantries of many Frazee-area homes. The secret to his success: a recipe from his Bohemian...

A little more than three weeks ago I chopped a pile of garden cabbages and embarked upon another potentially dangerous kitchen experiment. I was determined to make sauerkraut. The recipe called for a pail (or crock), shredded cabbage and Kosher salt. It's easy. Simply layer the cabbage in the pail, sprinkle with salt and repeat. And allow the thoroughly natural process of decomposition to commence. As an aside - I would remind my 46 readers that you can do this yourself at home with little risk of injury. Other than chopping with a big, sharp chef's knife you will run...

Talk to local gardeners, and they’re going to talk about the late spring and the unusually cool summer growing season. In that monologue, you’re going to hear about the so-so onions and slow tomatoes, but also about the stupendous production of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower. Charles Szakacs reaped the benefits of a cool growing season when his Copenhagen cabbages more than doubled their weight and size. These select giant cabbages weighed around 19 pounds, but more came in at 15 and 16 pounds a head. “I picked one batch of 14 cabbages that weighed 183 pounds,” he said. On the...

Philip Sweet crossed over to the other side while volunteering at the Pickle Pavilion at last year's Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. He became fascinated with fermentation and the variety of ways people pickle around the globe. "People are pickling everything," he says. "It opened up a whole new world to me." As Sweet's work as an event planner slowed in recent months, he and a friend created Urban Peasant SF, an organization devoted to traditional food-preservation methods. Last month, they organized a class on fermented beverages; during the same period, Bay Area aficionados flocked to an all-day fermentation...

There has been a lot of talk in recent health news on the power of fermented foods. Items like sauerkraut, miso, tempeh, kefir and kimchee receive nutritional gold stars for their ability to boost the healthy flora in our digestive tract and in our immune system. While all fermented foods contain health benefits, sauerkraut stands out as the grandfather of them all. This fermented cabbage dish dates back to the first century A.D. and its roster of health attributes makes it nothing less than a fermented powerhouse. Sauerkraut contains an abundance of lactobacilli, a kind of healthy probiotic, in addition...

The city of Philadelphia is moving to close down a newsstand near the Liberty Bell whose owner allegedly insists on selling pornography. He also posted a sign threatening to rape anyone who objects. City officials say Mouhammed Shaukat was warned to stop displaying pornography at his stand at Sixth and Chestnut streets because of the hundreds of tourists who pass by. Officials say Shaukat refused and then posted a sign using the f-word and threatening to rape those who complained. Shaukat showed up at a City Council committee Wednesday and was grilled by lawmakers Frank DiCicco and Frank Rizzo Junior....

Sauerkraut, the dish adored in Germany but much maligned in Britain, could prove to be a secret weapon against the threat of bird flu, experts revealed yesterday. Scientists believe that the traditional recipe, which is made from chopped cabbage that is fermented for at least a month, contains a bacteria that may combat the potentially fatal disease. Their findings follow a study in which kimchi - a spicy cabbage dish popular in South Korea and similar to sauerkraut - was fed to 13 chickens infected with bird flu. Just one week later, 11 of the birds showed signs of recovery...

Global warming is caused primarily by humans and "nearly all climate scientists today" agree with that viewpoint, the new head of the National Academy of Sciences -- a climate scientist himself -- said Wednesday. Ralph Cicerone's views contrasted with Bush administration officials' emphasis on uncertainty about how much carbon dioxide and other industrial gases warm the atmosphere like a greenhouse. "Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now at its highest level in 400,000 years and it continues to rise," said Cicerone, an atmospheric scientist who left as chancellor of University of California-Irvine to become academy president this month. "Nearly all...

'Suspicious package' delays grand opening of new mail facility --- OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A parcel of sauerkraut passing through chemical-sensitive mail-scanning equipment in the new base post office here Friday triggered a “suspicious package” alert, forcing officials to call off the post office’s grand opening ceremony. They also evacuated the Osan Shopping Mall, which adjoins the post office. The incident occurred at 11:25 a.m., five minutes before the ceremony, at which 51st Fighter Wing commander Brig. Gen. Maury Forsyth was to make remarks. Officials did not immediately determine whether it was the sauerkraut or something in its...

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A parcel of sauerkraut passing through chemical-sensitive mail-scanning equipment in the new base post office here Friday triggered a “suspicious package” alert, forcing officials to call off the post office’s grand opening ceremony. They also evacuated the Osan Shopping Mall, which adjoins the post office. The incident occurred at 11:25 a.m., five minutes before the ceremony, at which 51st Fighter Wing commander Brig. Gen. Maury Forsyth was to make remarks. Officials did not immediately determine whether it was the sauerkraut or something in its packaging that affected the ion-scan equipment, used to screen out...