The Tyranny of Five Ingredients

Week 2  . . . and a half.

How's the deindustrialization of our kitchen going? Slowly. We're in transition. Along with grocery shopping according to the five-ingredient rule (see Michael Pollan's Food Rules--more than five ingredients serving as a proxy for heavy processing), I've been trying to use up all the manufactured food in our cupboards, such as the case of ramen noodles that I couldn't help buying last month. A whole 2-4 of salt, fat and heat, on sale for $4.25--how could I pass that up? Yes, it's probably an "edible foodlike substance", in Pollan parlance, but guaranteed to be eaten by the most discriminating child in the family, the one I try to feed constantly. She'll eat ramen noodles anywhere, anytime, will even snack on them dry out of the cellophane. Number of ingredients: 17.

A shift to the real stuff is definitely happening, but I don't want to waste what we already have. According to a new report publicized last week in the Guardian, between 30-50% of the food produced worldwide is trashed. The reasons and proposed solutions vary by country, but there's no doubt that throwing food away is shameful when so many are hungry.

Getting back to the micro-level of my household: I went shopping with the intention of sticking to the perimeter aisles, where the mostly-natural food resides. I successfully dodged the specials: half-price ersatz cheese slices and 2/$1 canned soup. Far too many ingredients in both, and really, how hard is it to make soup? But even being virtuous was cause for guilt, because my children love these particular items. Although I have their best (health) interests at heart, they wouldn't thank me if they knew what I didn't buy. And as always, it bothers me that the cheapest food, that which is most accessible to people living on a low income, is nutritionally vacant.

My shopping trips (plural because I live at that damned store) were filled with label-reading indecision, so the hunting/gathering took longer than usual. Part of the cost of this project must be measured in time--the hours spent buying, cooking, cleaning up. I've baked a lot. No cookies, granola bars or muffins have been purchased since the Project began. (Luckily, my kids like to bake, so there will soon be a shared production schedule posted. Right now, however, it seems the populace is overtaxed with end-of-term schoolwork. Exhausted, in general, by the demands of life. De-toxing their diet should help raise the energy level around here--I'm hoping.)

The one supermarket product to defeat me? Mayonnaise, believe it or not. A condiment, certainly not a necessity of life, but a staple in the sandwiches my husband packs for lunch every day. Every. Day. Since spousal buy-in for the Unprocessed Project is tenuous at best--full of goodwill, but perhaps not ready to face bread smeared with newfangled mayo-alternatives like hummous or, God forbid, anything containing eggplant or artichokes--flexibility won the day. I briefly contemplated whipping up a batch of fresh mayonnaise, but then I remembered that my husband's childhood gross-out food was his mother's vinegary home-brewed mayo. I rather like it, but then, we're different. 

So what's in the jar of Compliments Real Mayonnaise ("Made with Whole Eggs")? Twelve ingredients: soybean oil, water, liquid whole egg, liquid egg yolk, vinegar, salt, sugar, spice extracts, concentrated lemon juice, calcium disodium EDTA, citric acid (and may contain mustard). Not the worst junk in the world, but not the best, either. I think I can do better. Anyone have a good recipe for mayonnaise?