This week on America’s Test Kitchen Radio, we investigate biodynamics, an agricultural method that began in Austria in the 1920s and might replace organics as the best way to grow food. Boston Globe wine columnist Stephen Meuse challenges host Christopher Kimball to a blind wine tasting, and test cook Dan Souza shows us how to make perfect chewy brownies. And of course we’ll be taking your calls to answer all of your cooking questions.
Listen to Episode 8: The Mystery of Biodynamics (Air date: 2/25/12)
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From this Episode:
Chewy Brownies
Ever since box-mix brownies appeared on the scene, these industrially engineered treats have held the key to chewy texture. It was high time to break the monopoly.
Sous Vide Machine
If you have some extra money to spend, the ultimate slow cooker might be worth its high price tag.
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I am a huge fan of ATK. But the report on biodynamics was one of the very worst pieces of reporting I have ever heard.
Chris tossed the interviewed proponents of biodynamics a steady stream of “soft ball” questions and never pressed them to define precisely what this practice is and the steps involved.
He included no interviews with those critical of biodynamics. He didn’t even do any blind taste tests, a technique that ATK is very good at.
Had he dug just a bit deeper he would have seen that the tenets and practice of biodynamics are consistently pseudoscience, much of which actually violates the known laws of physics.
Sure, many among us want to explore alternatives to industrialized agriculture. But by allowing biodynamics escape the type of critical inquiry that is appropriate for its wild, unsubstantiated claims it distract us all from reputable work on agriculture and ultimately works against the cause.
ATK we expect better from you.