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Corn or maize is native to America but is now grown throughout the world. In grain form it is the staple diet for American Indians in Mexico, Peru and Southern North America.



The Maori were given maize by American sailors which they grew and ate both fresh and fermented. The fermented corn was known as kaanga. Its strong smell didn't appeal to Pakeha who ate corn mainly as a grain. Eventually a sweet form was developed, and hence the name sweetcorn, it wasn't until the 1960's that sweetcorn became a really popular fresh vegetable. Several varieties are available including some with white kernels and others with a mix of yellow and white kernels. Varieties differ in sweetness. Recently the supersweet varieties have become popular, with Honey 'n' Pearl being the most widely grown.



Sweetcorn is a very good source of fiber, protein and starch. corn is a great source of vitamin A, fiber, and other nutrients.

A thick, jellylike substance obtained from SEAWEED. Alginic acid is used as a stabilizer and thickener in a wide variety of commercially processed foods such as ice creams, puddings, flavored milk drinks, pie fillings, soups and syrups.

alginic acid or one of its esters or salts, esp. the gelatinous solution obtained as a by-product in the extraction of iodine from seaweed, used in mucilages and for thickening jellies.





source: allrecipes.com

A viscous oil obtained from the seed of the cotton plant. Most of the cottonseed oil produced is used in combination with other oils to create vegetable oil products. It's used in some margarines and salad dressings, and for many commercially fried products.

A thick, jellylike substance obtained from SEAWEED. Alginic acid is used as a stabilizer and thickener in a wide variety of commercially processed foods such as ice creams, puddings, flavored milk drinks, pie fillings, soups and syrups.

alginic acid or one of its esters or salts, esp. the gelatinous solution obtained as a by-product in the extraction of iodine from seaweed, used in mucilages and for thickening jellies.





source: allrecipes.com

Natural sunflower oil is produced from oil type sunflower seeds. Sunflower oil is light in taste and appearance and supplies more Vitamin E than any other vegetable oil. It is a combination of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats with low saturated fat levels.



The versatility of this healthy oil is recognized by cooks internationally. Sunflower oil is valued for its light taste, frying performance and health benefits.



If an Organic Merchant has an oil which has been extracted by hydraulic press but has been heated prior to pressing, he will refer to it as "pressed", not "cold pressed".



The second method is by expeller, described in "The Low down on Edible Oils" as follows: "This uses a screw or continuous press with a constantly rotating worm shaft. Cooked material goes into one end and is put under continuous pressure until discharged at the other end with oil squeezed out." Temperatures between 200 and 250 degrees are normal. Obviously, this type of extraction does not qualify as "cold pressed" either. Organic Merchants will refer to it as "expeller pressed."



Now with a hydraulicly pressed oil labeled "cold pressed" or "pressed", you can assume you have a crude or unrefined of. But this is not true of "expeller pressed" oil because the common fate of expeller pressed oil is to be refined after extraction. So you need additional information with the words "expeller pressed". Organic Merchants will use either the word "crude" or "unrefined" to identify this additional classification of acceptable oils. So Organic Merchants draws the line of acceptability at this point and, to review, you may expect us to carry only four classifications of oil: (1) virgin (2) cold pressed (3) pressed (4) expeller pressed-crude. And this paper is your tool to remind yourself of what we mean by those words.



The last method is solvent extraction, described in "The Lowdown on Edible Oils" as "definitely dangerous to health." "Oil bearing materials are ground, steam cooked, then mixed with the solvent (of a petroleum base) which dissolves out of the oils, leaving a dry residue. The solvent is separated from the oils. This method is universally used by the big commercial oil processors because it gets more oils out quicker and cheaper. About 98% of the soy oil in the U.S. is solvent extracted.



Source:http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1971_November_December/Oil_Story

A type of salt extracted from seawater through the use of a vacuum evaporation process. Sea salt has small amounts of various minerals contained within the salt that are naturally in the waters from which the salt was derived. Thus, the taste of the sea salt will vary depending on the area water producing the salt. As an example, minerals such as red clay provide a pink tint to sea salts from Hawaii.

Sea salts are available as a fine-grained crystal, as a larger, coarse crystal, or as a flakes of salt. The size and thickness of the crystal will affect how quickly it dissolves when added to foods, with the sea salt flakes dissolving very quickly and the larger coarse crystals requiring a longer amount of time. Typically, sea salts are used to enhance the flavors of foods after they have been cooked or prepared.

(Reprint:

http://www.hormel.com/kitchen/glossary.asp?id=34338&catitemid=)

This small, lemon-shaped citrus fruit has a thin green skin and a juicy, pale green pulp. Limes grow in tropical and subtropical climes such as Mexico, California, Florida and the Caribbean. Because they're an excellent source of vitamin C, limes were fed to British sailors as a scurvy preventative (the fact that was the springboard for the pejorative nickname "limey"). The two main varieties are the Persian lime (the most widely available in the United States) and the Key lime from Florida.