Food

Consumer Reports tip of the day: How to choose knives
[Dec. 7, 2007] If the carving job you did on your Thanksgiving turkey resulted in a botched bird, perhaps you need some new kitchen knives to help you get better results. Use Consumer Reports buying advice to sharpen your knowledge of knives and then refer to our recently updated Ratings to find the best models for your budget.

Consumer Reports rates top hot chocolates
[Nov. 28, 2007] With the holiday season and colder weather rapidly approaching, Consumer Reports tested 10 popular hot chocolates. Topping the list and rated Excellent were Ghirardelli Double Chocolate and Cacao Reserve Mayan Blend by Hershey’s, prepared with water at 53 cents per serving and 140 calories.

Brined and roasted chicken with lemon
[Nov. 2, 2007] This month's featured chicken recipe is for Brined and Roasted Chicken with Lemon

Consumer Reports tests 13 lower-calorie and no-calorie sweeteners in lemonade, cookies and cake
[Sep. 24, 2007] Consumer Reports tested 13 sugar substitutes to see if these calorie savers measured up. Most of the sweeteners tasted fine in lemonade, but of those used for baking, results were mixed. CR notes that by far the best taste bud “fooler” in all categories is Estee Fructose, which is the type of sugar found in fruit and honey.

ShopSmart unveils summer guide to safe food handling, slashing food bills, and buying the best groceries
[Jul. 25, 2007] When the weather gets hot, it’s time to fire up the barbecue for family and friends. But recent outbreaks of E.coli and salmonella may make shoppers a little queasy about digging in. To ease minds, the August/September issue of ShopSmart reports on safe food handling, how to slash grocery bills, and how to buy the best groceries. The August/September issue of ShopSmart also offers a how-to guide on expiration dates and advice on how long is too long to keep foods.

Consumer Reports rates store bought cookie doughs
[Jul. 24, 2007] Love the smell of fresh cookies baking in the oven? Consumers with a sweet tooth and a busy schedule can avoid the hassle of mixing ingredients by using store bought dough. Consumer Reports tested seven preformed cookie doughs — frozen or refrigerated — and found that the best of the bunch, all from frozen doughs, rated "Very Good" by CR and produced a cookie that tasted close to the baked-from-scratch variety.

Consumer Reports rates hot dogs and light beer
[Jun. 19, 2007] Just in time for summer, the July issue of Consumer Reports rated the quality of hot dogs and beer for consumers watching their calories. Savvy consumers in search of a lower fat frank can fill their buns with a relatively flavorful dog, though the pickings are slim. Of the seven hot dogs that received the “Very Good” Rating by Consumer Reports for flavor and texture, two were of the lower fat variety: Hebrew National Kosher Reduced Fat Beef Franks (120 calories/10 grams fat) and Boar’s Head Lite Skinless Beef Franks (90 calories/6 grams fat).

Summer grilling success with pure honey
[May 22, 2007] Kick off this grilling season with the ultimate barbeque by adding pure honey to your grill glazes. Beyond adding flavor, pure honey has many beneficial characteristics that improve the look and taste of grilled food. Honey is hygroscopic, so a rich honey glaze helps lock in moisture during grilling, resulting in sweet moist foods.

December 2006 Chatham County restaurant health ratings
[Jan. 22, 2007] The Chatham County Health Department inspected the following restaurant in December 2006.

Chicken soup for the cold
[Dec. 26, 2006] Medicine isn’t the only remedy that can provide relief for a cold this season. Research has found that chicken soup seems to reduce congestion, so Consumer Reports screened 26 varieties to determine which were the better brands to test. The Original SoupMan’s refrigerated chicken vegetable soup was the only variety to garner an excellent rating.

8 out of 10 chickens tested by Consumer Reports harbor dangerous bacteria
[Dec. 21, 2006] Consumer Reports recently tested fresh, whole broilers bought nationwide and found that they are dirtier than ever. Consumer Reports tested 525 chickens from leading brands, as well as organic and other brands raised without antibiotics, for two of the leading bacterial causes of food-borne disease-campylobacter and salmonella.

November 2006 Chatham restaurant health inspections
[Dec. 10, 2006] Here are the restaurant health ratings for eating establishments that were inspected during the month of November.

Spicing up Thanksgiving
[Nov. 17, 2006] As far as food goes, Thanksgiving is the most traditional of holidays.The Christmas season offers weeks of opportunities to try new dishes and explore international food traditions at parties and family dinners. Hanukkah covers eight days. But the Thanksgiving table must bear the weight of family custom all in a single day. Riots can ensue if a Thanksgiving meal at home doesn’t include Aunt Hattie’s sweet potato casserole or Mom’s oyster dressing. By Sylvia Pfeffenberger

Water facts of life
[Oct. 10, 2006] There is the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed. The water from your faucet could contain molecules that dinosaurs drank.