On 9/28/07, Udhay Shankar N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Compare the advent of digital recording to an event in the history of > food or agriculture. > Mayonnaise is as it is now known a bastardization of the Sauce > Mayonnaise every saucier learns to make his first season as an > apprentice. Pre-packaged mayonnaise sold in jars is almost nothing > but tasteless vegetable oil and water, emulsified by gum and gelatin. I take his meaning, but he's wrong in fact (at least in the US.) Prepackaged mayonnaise is required to be emulsified by eggs, and I don't believe gums or gelatine is allowed. The standard for mayonnaise is actually pretty strict. It basically has to be vegetable oil, eggs, and either vinegar, lemon juice or lime juice. There are optional ingredients but those are the main ones. Relevant USDA and FDA standards: http://www.ams.usda.gov/fqa/aa20140c.htm http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/FCF169.html > I think this product is analogous in many ways to the CD, and it's > introduction has degraded the standard of eating in much the same way > digital recording has degraded the standard of music. Here I think he's completely out to lunch. CDs don't (IMO) affect the quality of music in the same way that prepackaged mayonnaise is a pale shadow of hand made mayonnaise - unless his contention is that everyone should listen only to "handmade" (aka live) music. An admirable if quixotic goal, if so. -- Charles (who makes his own mayonnaise, but not his own music.)
