The Surprise Ingredient for a Better Burger

By Tara Bench, KSL.com Contributor   –   KSL.com

SALT LAKE CITY — When it comes to your signature, juicy burgers, you may not think there is ‘shroom for improvement. You’ll want to think again.

Let’s talk mushrooms. Blended with your meat, they are more delicious, nutritious and sustainable.

If you think about it, mushrooms are a perfect addition to homemade burgers. They have a meaty texture, add moisture and earthy flavor. Cooked mushrooms also have an umami quality — that fifth basic taste chefs often talk about described as a pleasant savory taste.

The addition of vegetables to ground beef is not new. Meatloaf is often loaded with savory blends of onions, celery and carrots. They add loads of flavor, moisture and great texture that you’re familiar with in meatloaf. Many smart moms have used this trick to sneak veggies onto their kids’ plates, hiding everything from zucchini to spinach in ground meat.

Mixing meat with vegetables is a great way to stretch your grocery dollar since veggies are cheaper than quality meat. Mushrooms also add vitamin D to your diet and help boost your immune functions. Try a variety of mushrooms in your burgers, from meaty portobellos to shiitake and button.

This week, at the second annual kickoff for the James Beard Foundation’s Blended Burger Project, a partnership with the Mushroom Council, chefs from around the country participate in creating the most amazing blended burgers. The project is open to all chefs. Last year, nearly 250 restaurants joined in creating takes on this culinary concept.

The competition opened this week at the James Beard Foundation in New York City. I was happy to be able to attend and taste chef Hugh Acheson’s take on a mushroom-blended burger. He mixed cremini mushrooms with ground lamb and topped it with Boursin cheese to make the most delicious meal.

Acheson is an award-winning chef, author and top chef judge. He said he was thrilled to be a part of the Blended Burger Project and noted, “The meaty, umami qualities of mushrooms make them the perfect ingredient to boost a burger’s flavor — and their nutritional and environmental qualities make a great burger even better.”

Below you’ll find the recipe for the basic blended burger. A simple mixture of sautéed mushrooms and ground beef that will truly impress.

Visit TaraTeaspoon.com for Acheson’s Cremini-Lamb Burger with charred scallions, Boursin, pickles and tomato recipe so you can recreate his masterpiece at home. Be inspired to experiment with your blended burgers.

Chefs can participate in the formal competition by signing up at jamesbeard.org/blendedburgerproject and serving their unique blended burger at their restaurants from Memorial Day through July 31.

You can be involved by helping your favorite chef win an opportunity to cook their blended burger and the historic James Beard House. Just go here to cast your vote.

Classic Blended Burger

Serves 4

½ pound cremini or white button mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 pound ground beef
½ tsp salt
4 hamburger buns

1. Finely dice mushrooms or gently pulse in a food processor.

2. In a skillet, warm 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium-high heat and add mushrooms, sautéing 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from heat and cool for five minutes.

3. Transfer cooled mushrooms to a medium bowl. Add ground beef and salt, mixing until combined. Make four patties. Add remaining olive oil to pan and cook burger patties on medium-high heat until desired doneness. Plate and add desired toppings to buns.

4. Recommended toppings: Add fresh tomato, red onion, butter lettuce, cheddar cheese and your favorite spreads.

Recipe and photos courtesy of The Blended Burger Project.

Jalapenos hot commodity in new Burger King sandwich

By Doug Carder   –   The Packer

Jalapenos play a pivotal role in Burger King’s new Angry Whopper.
The Angry Whopper sandwich — which features produce ingredients iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, onion petals and jalapenos — will be available while supplies last, the fast food giant said in a March 30 news release.
The flame-grilled beef sandwiches are being served on a “fiery red bun that has hot sauce baked in,” according to the release.
A Burger King spokesperson, in a March 30 e-mail, declined to reveal the company’s fresh produce suppliers.
The sandwich’s other ingredients include American cheese, bacon, mayonnaise and “spicy angry sauce,” according to the release.
The sandwich is a meal in itself at 830 calories and 51 grams of fat, according to product information on Burger King’s website.
This is not the first time Burger King has featured a sandwich in a colored bun. The restaurant chain in fall 2015 introduced a Halloween Whopper sandwich with Kraft’s A1 sauce baked into a “pitch-black bun,” according to the release.

Cowboy Burger with Grilled Pickles & Crispy Onion Straws

McCormick.com

Directions
20 mins Prep time 20 mins Cook time

Meat rub goes rogue with this amped up burger, rubbed with a savory blend of Smoky Montreal Steak Seasoning, chili powder and brown sugar. Up the flavor factor further with creative burger toppings: melty cheddar, BBQ mayo, grilled pickle slices and crispy onion straws. This burger really is as bold and fun as it looks!

Ingredients
Serves: 4

 

  • For the BBQ Mayonnaise, mix mayonnaise and Bar-B-Q Sauce in small bowl until well blended. Cover. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
  • For the Onions, mix flour, salt and pepper in large resealable plastic bag. Add onion; toss to coat well. Pour oil into deep fryer, large heavy skillet or saucepan, filling no more than 1/3 full. Heat oil on medium-high heat. Carefully add onion rings to hot oil. Fry 4 to 5 minutes, turning once to brown evenly, until onions rings are golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.
  • For the Burgers, mix Seasoning, chili powder and brown sugar in small bowl. Shape ground beef into 4 patties. Coat surface of each patty evenly with the rub mixture. Grill over medium heat 4 to 6 minutes per side or until burgers are cooked through (internal temperature of 160ºF). Add cheese slices to burgers 1 minute before cooking is completed. Grill pickle slices 2 to 3 minutes per side or until grill marks appear. Toast rolls on the grill, open-side down, about 30 seconds, if desired.
  • Serve burgers on rolls topped with grilled pickles, Crispy Onion Straws and lettuce. Serve with BBQ Mayonnaise.

Nutrition information

(Amount per serving)

  • Calories: 698Cholesterol: 51mg
  • Sodium: 1788mgProtein: 38g
  • Total Fat: 38gSaturated Fat: 12g
  • Fiber: 3gCarbohydrate: 51g

Beyond Yogurt: Six Healthy Foods Loaded With Probiotics Read more: 6 Healthy Foods Loaded With Probiotics Other Than Yogurt

By Lynn Allison  –  Newsmax

We tend to think that the freshest foods are best. But now research has found that some of the most beneficial foods aren’t farm-to-table items but are actually fermented products loaded with probiotics.

Yogurt may be the best known of such foods, but many others — including pickles, miso, and sauerkraut — also provide living cultures that keep our digestive systems healthy and our immune systems strong.

Since the gut is the largest part of our immune system, it pays to eat healing foods and shun sugars and refined carbohydrates that cause damage.

“Scientists have found that trillions of microbacterial cells live in our intestinal flora,” Jeff Cox, author of “The Essential Book of Fermentation” tells Newsmax Health.

“They aren’t just passive hitchhikers who’ve found a warm place to live. They are intimately connected to our immune system. They are connected to our brain and guide our moods. They take an active part in digesting our food, reducing it to nutrients that can be absorbed through the intestinal walls.”

Cox explains that maintaining a healthy gut is necessary for life, much as microbes are necessary for soil to become a living organism that feeds the plants that grow in it.

“What makes a healthy intestinal flora or soil microbial community? The answer is actively decaying organic matter, the food we eat and the compost we put in the soil,” he says. “Fermented foods with active cultures of bacteria and yeast seed our gut with the very microbes we need for our intestinal flora to be functionally optimal.”

Dr. Ellen Kamhi, PhD., author of “The Natural Medicine Chest” explains that such foods are not some new health fad but have actually been around for centuries.

“Fermented foods have long been a mainstay of human food sources all around the world since ancient times,” she tells Newsmax Health. “Fermentation may have been used initially as a means of food preservation, since once fermented it lasts longer. But now it turns out that in addition to preservation, fermented foods are a panacea for healthy digestion due to the abundance of positive gut healthy probiotics and microbes.”

Scientific research has proven that fermented foods support health and longevity. A recent study in the journal Critical Reviews in Science and Nutrition concluded: “Fermented foods include the prevention of gastrointestinal infections, reduction of serum cholesterol levels and antimutagenic activity.”

Kamhi advises adding small amounts of these foods to your daily diet until your digestive system becomes accustomed to the fermentation.

Here are six of their favorite fermented food stars.

Kefir. This is one of Cox’s favorites. “I pour myself a glass every morning. It’s an incredibly powerful probiotic,” he says. Kefir is fermented milk and comes in a variety of flavors making it easy to drink. It’s more beneficial than yogurt because it contains health-giving yeast as well as probiotics.

Kombucha. This fizzy, fermented black tea has become the staple of many health conscious folks. It is chock full of a variety of microorganisms to help build a strong gut.

Sauerkraut. This one of Kamhi’s favorite fermented foods because her mother and grandmother used to ferment cabbage regularly in their homes. It has a powerful impact on brain health, according to experts, reducing depression and anxiety. You can buy sauerkraut at the grocery store but make sure it contains no added sugar. You are most likely to find the beneficial kind in the refrigerated section of your deli counter.

Pickles. Pickles are probably the fermented food most people know and buy. They provide a healthy dose of probiotics and taste great.

Miso. Cox loves miso for its nutritional profile. The paste made from fermented soybeans and grains is full of essential minerals, like potassium and has millions of microorganisms that give is strength and stamina, he says. To make an easy miso soup, add a tablespoon to a cup of boiling water along with your favorite vegetables like mushrooms, onion and bok choy.

Tempeh. This tasty produce made from fermented soybeans is a complete protein with all the amino acids, says Cox. He suggested using it as a substitute for bacon in BLT’s. Try flavoring organic tempeh with tamari sauce which is also fermented than add it to a sandwich or eat it in a bowl of steamed vegetables.

The Pickles – goofy name, great band.

DANIELLE DAVIES, AT THE SHORE

With a name like The Pickles, you’re sure to be remembered. That’s the mindset of Charlie “Chuck B.” Berezansky, Todd “Turtle” Raup and Boose Rutledge, the trio who make up the popular cover band The Pickles.

It’s a name you’ll hear a lot. This weekend alone they are playing at Margaritaville in Atlantic City and the Lighthouse Tavern in Waretown.

“For the most part, it’s just silly,” Raup explains of their name. “It’s fun. It’s memorable. We take our music seriously but don’t take ourselves too seriously. And fun is the name of the game. At every show that we play, we have fun and want to make the audience have fun.”

Don’t get the wrong impression. While the guys of The Pickles are happy to have a good time with their crowd-pleasing repertoire of songs, they are, first and foremost, professional musicians. Each band member has a long musical history, and for at least one of them, part of that history includes being a Pickles fan.

Raup has been with The Pickles for the past nine years, but prior to that, in 2004, he was on the other side of the stage at one of their shows.

“I watched them at the Lighthouse,” Raup says. “And they were so good.”

That earlier lineup of The Pickles included Boose as well as the original singer and band manager Brian Bozarth, who died unexpectedly five years ago.

“We rebuilt from ground zero,” Raup says of the post-Bozarth band. “In many ways, part of the reason we continued on is because of Brian.”

Each musician had to add to his original skill set. For Boose, that meant stepping into the role as frontman. For Raup, it meant building on his vocals and taking on a booking role. And for Berezansky, who came into the band just after Bozarth’s death, it meant coming into a band that was, in many ways, starting from scratch.

The past five years have seen tremendous growth for The Pickles, who are gearing up for their busiest summer yet.

“Audiences can expect to have a good time,” Raup says. “If you like music, you can hear it played well. The sound we produce as a three-piece band is a very full sound. I don’t know how it happens but we have a full sound and three vocals — you don’t see that a whole lot.”

A diverse setlist rounds out the band’s appeal. While they consider themselves a rock band, they play in a variety of genres. Songs range from “You Wreck Me” by Tom Petty and “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley to “Santeria” by Sublime and “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra.

“You have to stay versatile,” Raup says.

While they are adept at playing covers, The Pickles plan to produce a sampling of their original music as well. Fans can look for that this fall.

THE PICKLES

Who they are: Charlie “Chuck B.” Berezansky: drums and vocals; Todd “Turtle” Raup: bass and vocals; Boose Rutledge: guitar & lead vocals.

Coming up: 7 p.m. Friday, March 25, Margaritaville, 1133 Boardwalk, Atlantic City.  7 p.m. Saturday, March 26, Lighthouse Tavern, 397 Route 9, Waretown. 7 p.m. Mondays, Old Causeway, 1201 E. Bay Ave., Manahawkin.

Walker Stadium gets ready for Pickles

Written by Portland Tribune

The players and coaching staff are in place for the first season of Portland Pickles baseball. The major work now being done is to the home ballpark, Walker Stadium, in Lents Park.

Crews have completed extensive excavation work, demolished the condemned grandstand and press box and taken down the chain-link backstop.

A new backstop is under construction, and a new scoreboard and chair seats with backs are due to arrive soon.

The Pickles are one of six teams in the new Great West League, a summer college wood-bat league set to launch June 3.

Portland’s first home game will be on Friday, June 10. The Pickles will play 30 regular-season home games, all at night.

Other teams in the league are the Medford Rogues, Sacramento Stealth, Chico Heat, Lodi Crushers and Marysville Gold Sox.

Portland will open with three games at Medford and three at Chicago before its home-opening three-game series against Marysville.

The Dog Who Saved the World Cup

By Christopher Klein   –   HISTORY

Four months before England won the World Cup in 1966, it actually lost it when a London thief swiped the solid gold trophy awarded to the tournament champions. While Scotland Yard came up empty in its search for soccer’s ultimate prize, it took a pooch named “Pickles” to get his country out of a pickle and crack the case.

On March 20, 1966, a daring thief in London fulfilled the dreams of soccer players around the globe by putting his hands on the Jules Rimet Trophy. Four months before England was set to host the World Cup for the first time, panic and embarrassment swept the country when it was discovered that soccer’s greatest prize had gone missing.

Sport’s most coveted trophy had gone on display only 24 hours earlier when the National Stamp Exhibition opened in Westminster Central Hall, just a few hundred yards from Scotland Yard headquarters. The Stanley Gibbons stamp company had received permission from FIFA, soccer’s governing body, to display the hardware as part of its “Sports with Stamps” exhibit under the condition that it be guarded around the clock. The defense, however, proved porous as the burglar apparently struck on a Sunday morning while the exhibition was closed and a Methodist service was taking place on the hall’s ground floor. Money was apparently no object as the thief who pried open the back of the glass case swiped the small, solid gold trophy valued at $8,400, leaving untouched stamps worth $8.4 million.

Days later, English Football Association chairman Joe Mears received a package containing a piece of the trophy—which depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory—along with a ransom note demanding $42,000. In spite of the blackmailer’s threat to melt the trophy if the police were contacted, Mears alerted the authorities. The extortionist, who identified himself as “Jackson,” agreed to meet the soccer official at Battersea Park to arrange an exchange. When Jackson noticed the lurking police, however, he attempted an escape to no avail. The arrested man—47-year-old dockworker and petty thief Edward Betchley—claimed to be only a middleman and did not divulge the location of the stolen cup.

As Scotland Yard continued its furious search a week after the trophy’s disappearance, 26-year-old David Corbett stepped out of his house in a South London suburb to take a Sunday evening stroll with his black-and-white collie, Pickles. Eager to reach a nearby telephone booth to call his brother who was expecting a new baby, Corbett reached down to put a leash on the canine as he sniffed around a strange package located near the front tire of a neighbor’s car. Corbett picked up the small, but surprisingly heavy, parcel wrapped in tattered newspapers and bound tightly in string.

“At the time the IRA were active, and it was so tightly wrapped in newspaper I thought it might be a bomb,” Corbett recalled to the Manchester Evening News earlier this week. “So I put it down and then picked it up again a few times. Then I worked up the courage to pull away some of the paper and saw these discs saying ‘Uruguay winners’ and ‘Brazil.’” That’s when the soccer fan realized that Pickles had discovered the missing World Cup trophy.

Although his wife, who did not share his passion for soccer, wasn’t overly impressed with the find, Corbett dashed off to the police station so quickly that he forgot he was still wearing his slippers. He burst through the station doors and declared, “I think I’ve found the World Cup!” The gruff sergeant working at the front desk looked at the diminutive trophy and replied, “It doesn’t look very World Cup-py to me, Sonny.”

A detective called in to examine the find determined it was indeed the missing prize, and after some pointed questions, Corbett soon realized he was the prime suspect. After being interrogated into the early hours of the morning, Corbett was finally cleared of any connection to the theft.

Overnight, Pickles became a national hero for helping England avoid an international embarrassment. “This has saved our honor in the eyes of the world,” Mears told the press. While Corbett received more than $16,000 in reward money, Pickles secured the services of an agent, made numerous television appearances and inked a contract to appear in a feature film, “The Spy With the Cold Nose.”

Betchley, meanwhile, was found guilty for his role in the robbery. Whether he was indeed a middleman or acting alone has never been determined. Before being locked up for two years, he declared to the court, “Whatever my sentence is, I hope that England wins the World Cup.”

On July 30, 1966, Betchley’s hopes—as well as all of England’s—came true following his country’s dramatic 4-2 extra-time victory over West Germany in the World Cup final. Wearing a pair of long white gloves, Queen Elizabeth II handed over the very trophy rescued by Pickles to Bobby Moore, captain of England’s victorious squad.

Although Pickles had been relegated to watching the match from the comfort of home on his owner’s lap, the canine hero and his master were guests of honor at the team’s celebration dinner at a London hotel. To the cheers of thousands of delirious fans, Moore appeared on a hotel balcony and held the cup aloft—followed by Pickles. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson gave the dog a friendly pat on the head, and no one even minded when Pickles lifted his hind leg and heeded nature’s call near an elevator in the posh hotel.

Four years later, Brazil was awarded the Jules Rimet Trophy in perpetuity after winning its third World Cup, and FIFA began design of a new award that is now handed out to the tournament’s victors. It turned out that history repeated itself in 1983 when the Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen once again. No dog came to the rescue for a second time, however. The trophy has never been found and was likely melted down for its gold.

PNC Park is selling a hot dog this year that has caramel sauce, Cracker Jack, jalapeños and macaroni and cheese on it.

By Alicia Jessop   –   FTW!

We are human beings, people. We are organic creatures. We live and one day we will die. Our time on this earth is short, and while I can appreciate a treat, this is disrespectful to our bodies. This is hubris. This is us laughing at the heavens, chortling at the bodies we have been blessed with and doing our best to destroy them.

Caramel sauce does not need to be on a hot dog. We are creating monstrosities. This the work of a modern day Dr. Frankenstein. This is unnatural. This isn’t right. We must stop ourselves. We are killing ourselves … and for what?

Our ancestors lived on meat and grain and vegetables alone. We have come so far, and our health has improved so much. Technology is racing forward at rates we’ve never before seen. And what do we do with it? We create a nightmare like this?! Yes, we made a hot dog with jalapeños and macaroni and caramel and popcorn, but did anyone stop to ask: Why?

We have to treat ourselves better. And I mean freaking CARAMEL SAUCE? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? 

We deserve whatever becomes of us.

New menu items at Coors Field

Claire Sisun, KUSA

DENVER – New menu items are coming to Coors Field for the 2016 season, according to Aramark.

Aramark announced an expanded partnership with Andrew Zimmern, a three-time James Beard Award winning chef, to bring more menu options to baseball fans on Thursday.

Coors Field and other baseball stadiums serviced by Aramark will get updated menu items.

New food options at Coors Field include:

  • AZ’s Canteen Dog- A hot dog with roasted vegetable mayo, mustard, cabbage slaw, pickled jalapenos on a toasted bun.
  • AZ’s Canteen Sausage- Cheddar sausage with roasted vegetable mayo, mustard, cabbage slaw, pickled jalapenos on a toasted bun.
  • Lamb Koefte Burrito- Lamb koefte and fried eggplant with tomato cucumber salad, hot sauce and tahini in a tortilla.
  • Korean Fried Pork Belly Sandwich- Fried pork belly with grilled pineapple and chili lime salt on a toasted bun.
  • Beach Comber- Hot dog with pineapple, BBQ sauce and jalapenos.
  • Rockies Corned Beef Sandwich- Corned beef with onions, dijon slaw, Swiss cheese on a soft roll.

The Colorado Rockies home opener is on April 8.

The Best Way to Sample Fresh Maple Syrup Involves Pickles

BY

CASEY ELSASS   –   Munchies

It was a sunny afternoon in early March and the kitchen of Broad Brook Grange in Guilford, Vermont was kinetic. Carole Mills, the secretary of the Grange, had been there since 9 AM with Don McLean and Marli Rabinowitz prepping the food and space for the evening’s festivities. Bowls of potato salad and coleslaw were set aside, platters of ham were waiting to be arranged, and Don’s maple-soaked baked beans had been simmering away for hours. At 3 PM, Elly Majonen burst through the doors carrying tray upon tray of freshly baked dinner rolls. Using a Pillsbury recipe from 1946—complete with her grandmother’s notes tucked neatly in the margins—Elly had spent the past few hours in a nearby church kitchen churning out 800 rolls (plus a tray of warm, yeasty cinnamon buns—a special treat for volunteers).

Everything was running smoothly, except for one glaring problem: the view outside was a dry, brown landscape that hadn’t seen precipitation—much less snow—in weeks. With just hours to go before the annual Sugar on Snow Supper, one of the star players was MIA.

At the peak of sugaring season (a quick few weeks in March, sometimes late February, rarely April) in small towns throughout New England, the community gathers in firehouses, church basements, and old meeting halls for a magical event called the Sugar on Snow Supper. After getting into a traditional New England buffet, it’s time for the main event: a plate of snow, a plain doughnut, a bowl of dill pickles, and a cup of steaming hot maple syrup. A pour of syrup over cold snow creates wonderfully sticky instant-taffy that can be rolled around a fork and eaten. And then, when your teeth are stuck together and your tongue is coated in sugar, a good bite on a pickle clears everything right up and you’re ready for round two.

It was the end of a disorienting winter, with more tropical weather than snow flurries, and the weather had been tough on maple syrup producers everywhere. Maple trees begin storing starch in their roots with the first freeze of autumn and it’s that starch, mixed with ground water from melting snow, that produces sweet maple sap in the spring. It takes an astonishing 40 gallons of sap boiled down to create just one gallon of maple syrup, so without the natural progression from bitter winter to the first hints of spring, the taps had been flowing inconsistently and Guilford was missing, as Marli Rabinowitz called it, “natural, organic snow, complete with pine needles!”

But if maple syrup is the blood of New England, then the Sugar on Snow Supper is its beating heart. And nothing—rain or shine or lack of snow—could stop the community from enjoying a centuries-old tradition because Guilford resident Richard Austin had been storing a pile of snow under a tarp in his backyard. After a large snowfall in January, he had scooped off the top layer and started building a four by eight-foot mound. Then, out of sheer willpower and a lot of luck, he kept the snow insulated under a tarp for six weeks, occasionally adding to it when a fresh layer fell. When Austin pulled up to the Grange in his truck and unloaded 13 garbage bags of beautiful white stuff, I felt like I was witnessing a tiny miracle.

The Guilford Sugar on Snow has three seatings—a tight turnover of 5 PM, 6 PM, and 7 PM—that each accommodate 85 diners. When I returned just before the final seating, the Grange was bathed in a warm glow and the old glass windows were spilling orbs of light and peels of laughter into the yard. Inside, I met Sylvia Morse, who has been attending Guilford’s Sugar on Snow for 85 years. Like a true Vermont woman, she goes to as many as three other Sugar on Snows around the state each year and even holds her own at home. Dick Clark has attended for all of his 74 years, except for a brief period when he was serving in Vietnam. For New Englanders, this is a true celebration of their favorite crop.

We settled into our seats at a long table as platter after platter of food quickly appeared: baskets of Elly’s dinner rolls, bowls of Don’s sweet and savory baked beans, packed plates of deviled eggs, piles of coleslaw and potato salad, a platter of sliced ham, and hot coffee. Our waitress, Mary, would periodically stop by to drop off more eggs, rolls, and coleslaw. She had run a tight doughnut-making operation on the Friday night before the supper—a seven-person assembly line, two pots of oil frying away, and 40 dozen doughnuts from scratch in two hours using an old recipe that’s been passed through the Grange for decades.

Then, as if on cue, a stream of volunteers marched out with packed bowls of cold snow and ceramic pitchers of steaming maple syrup. Mountains of Mary’s doughnuts and plates of pickle spears were right behind them. Sitting at that table and slowly tilting the pitcher over the snow took me back to another lifetime: visits to Parker’s Maple Barn in New Hampshire, streams of syrup and sleepy pancake breakfasts, making maple candy in the freshly fallen snow at recess, and attending events just like this one. Sugar on Snow is a moment to pause life and play with your food, to get your fingers stuck together and leave the maple drips in your beard, to laugh at old men greedily drowning their snow in syrup and women daintily rolling sticky ribbons of maple around their forks, to snack on a pickle when you feel like your teeth are going to fall out from the sweet and coyly say you couldn’t eat one more bite before reaching for the pitcher and another doughnut.

There’s one thing you have to understand about Sugar on Snow: no one knows how it began. There are folktales of an early New England settler accidentally spilling a drizzle of maple syrup from a boiling pot onto freshly fallen snow, which seems as close to the truth as anything. And it’s an easy line of reasoning to figure that smoked hams, sacks of potatoes, and fresh eggs were the winter sustenance of our ancestors. Doughnuts were probably a rare treat, fried in precious fat for special occasions like a celebration supper at the end of sugaring season. But how did a pickle get involved? Clark guessed that it was an attempt to fill out the table with one more thing from the cellar, a happy accident that worked. “It’s like a ritual,” Marli told me later. “New people come in and follow the set traditions. It’s what our grandparents had and it stretches back.” Just like all peculiar traditions, it goes so far into the past that it’s always been there.

Casey Elsass is the author of the newly released cookbook, Maple Syrup, published by Short Stack Editions. He is also the founder of Bushwick Kitchen, makers of Bees Knees Spicy Honey, Trees Knees Spicy Maple, and Weak Knees Gochujang Sriracha.