fried Archives - usatoday24

After the fried potato or “moon tread” nougat, comes the only possible conclusion of the industry: nougat for dogs

November 29, 2025 by usatoday24

There was a time when if you went to the supermarket to buy nougat you could choose between soft and hard, chocolate, toasted yolk, almonds or maybe (if you were lucky) caramel. The offer was more or less limited, as was the ability of the nougat makers to surprise us. Not today. In recent years the sector has launched experiment with flavors as unexpected as ham, potatoes, wine or mojito, between a long (lengthy) etc. of flavors and textures. Now that spiral of experimentation has led one of the best-known companies in Spain to go one step further and sell nougat for pets. Nougat for dogs? Nougats for dogs. That is the bet that just launched Confectionary Holdingthe company behind such well-known Christmas dessert brands as 1880, Doña Jimena or El Lobo. In the midst of fever nougat experimentation (a phenomenon that dates back several years) the firm has decided to go one step further and take risks in a different way. Their bet is not only looking for new flavors or textures, but also for a different audience than usual: pets. Hence, its catalog has just expanded with a line of Polvorones and Nougats made specifically for dogs. The sweets can be consulted now at the web from El Lobo, where 85 gram nougat tablets are sold for 4.99 euros, the same price as the 120 g box of Polvorones. And what are they like? The company has launched three products. Two varieties of nougat crunchymade with coconut or carrot, and some arrozrones based on rice. In all three cases, the company insists that the snacks are cooked with natural ingredients, do not include added sugars and (in the case of nougat) are designed with a crunchy texture designed precisely for dogs. Efe precise that they only include a small amount of honey and that the packages specify the amount that each dog can ingest, depending on its size. But… Why? Because, says Rubén LópezCEO of Confectionary Holding, during Christmas “we get together with friends and relatives and the pets are part of the family.” The idea is simple: transfer the experience of parties and Christmas sweets to the pet market, a niche that other companies in the sector have been exploring for some time. The Wolf may have just tried his luck now (marketing started in October), but there are specialized companies that already sell panettones for dogs, wet food cans for cats decorated with Christmas designs or special nougats for pets. The striking thing is that one of the most popular traditional nougat manufacturers in Spain is now exploring this line of business. How have you done it? The idea, López emphasizes, is that the consumption experience is “as humane as possible”. For this purpose, the company has resorted to a very recognizable format: 80 g tablets, pre-cut and which can be purchased both in pet stores and in supermarkets. Previously, the company had to spend two years developing the product, between studies and formulations, together with veterinarians. He has also had to do pedagogy in the sector. Recently José Manuel Sirvent, president of the Confectionary Holding group, recognized that the throwing of the nougat pet friendly It has been one of the most complicated decisions he has made throughout his career. The other was to dedicate itself to the manufacture of private labels. “It’s not very orthodox,” admits the manager about the new pet treat. So unconventional is it, in fact, that Sirvent confesses that the decision has not been liked by part of the traditional sector of Jijona. Does it make sense? S. There are two ways to look at El Lobo’s bet. One is the innovation that the nougat sector is experiencing, which has led manufacturers to explore new flavors and ways to expand their market with an eye on a more select clientele. In recent years this has led him to sell nougats that incorporate such curious ingredients as black beer, plankton, fried potatoes, ham, pine, popcorn or strawberries with gin. The bet doesn’t seem to have gone wrong. With the rising prices of cocoa and eggs as a backdrop, in recent months manufacturers have shared data that suggests an increase in turnover, in line with the rest of the sector. What data? In July the Spanish Sweets Association (Produlce) published a report which reveals that in 2024 all categories of the sector experienced growth in terms of consumption. In its balance sheet, chocolate and cocoa lead the segments (2,106 million euros), followed by cookies (1,428 million), pastries and pastries (€1,310M), baking (€954M), candies and chewing gum (€809M) and nougat and marzipan (€290M). At the beginning of the year, the nougat sector with designation of origin (DO) in Spain, Jijona and Agramunt, also revealed that its sales volume had increased 12% in 2023led by Sanchis Mira and Torrons Vicens. And beyond the nougat sector? That is the other big key. Spain is increasingly a country of pets (even more than babies) and that places the pet food and care sector in a privileged position. Both in our country and in others. According to the Grand View Horizon platform, the global pet care market will exceed the 236.1 billion of dollars thanks to a compound annual growth rate of 5.1%. There are those who believe that the sum will be elderly thanks to the trend of “humanizing” pets. In Spain, the industry dedicated to feeding pets had a turnover of something in 2024 more than 2 billion of euros, 5% more than in 2023. The largest volume of business (around 790 million euros) was generated by sales focused on dogs, which is precisely the niche on which El Lobo has now focused to sell its nougat for pets. Images | Baptist Standaert (Unsplash), DAP, Anfaac and The Wolf In Xataka | We knew that Suchard nougat had become more expensive since 2020, but we did not suspect how much. The reason: redflation

Our grandparents even poured vinegar on lentils and fried eggs. Science is now legitimizing them

October 17, 2025 by usatoday24

I don’t know if it’s out of habit or memory, but I’m also one of those people who puts vinegar on lentils. It is an automatic gesture, inherited from my grandmother, who said that “they rested better this way.” For years I thought it was just another hobby from another era, one of those routines that survived more out of nostalgia than science. But it turns out no: vinegar is back, and not just in salads. Networks recover tradition. In both viral videos and cooking shows, vinegar has gone from being a forgotten ingredient to becoming a protagonist. In tiktok either YouTube There are plenty of clips in which users teach the “drip trick” on fried eggs or lentils. Some well-known chefs they have turned it to become fashionable for its ability to balance flavors, just as our grandparents did: to “kill the flavor” of what they didn’t like and enhance what they did. In French cuisine there is a classic dish, oeufs à l’assassin, in which cooks add a splash of vinegar when frying the eggs to intensify the flavor and give creaminess to the yolk. And if we look towards home, in Castilla it was common to add vinegar to both the lentils and the fried egg, a custom that, according to researchers from the Río Hortega Hospital in Valladolidcan even reduce the allergic response to these foods. Acetic acid modifies gastric pH, improves digestion and transforms the allergenicity of certain compounds. So were our grandparents right? What was previously done by intuition — to “kill the flavor” or “settle the stomach” — today has a scientific explanation. Nutritionist Luis Zamora has explained “A splash of vinegar on lentils or having an orange for dessert helps absorb vegetable iron.” The reason is in vitamin C and acidity: both protect non-heme iron—that of plant origin—and facilitate its assimilation. Along the same lines, dietitian Diego Ojeda has assured: “Your grandmother was absolutely right: to help the body understand vegetable iron, you must add vitamin C, like that provided by vinegar or lemon.” In addition, this acidity helps break down antinutrients such as phytic acid, present in legumes and responsible for some of the iron being lost during cooking. In fact, scientific publications match: adding a source of acidity to a meal rich in legumes can multiply up to three the amount of iron absorbed. In studies carried out with cellular and animal modelsvinegar or lemon juice showed similar effects when added to dishes rich in vegetable iron. But nowadays it has become abused. From a minimal splash to a shot. On social networks, thousands of people began to drink “shots of apple cider vinegar” on an empty stomach with the promise of losing weight or “detoxifying” the body. However, the study that popularized that practice It was retracted due to statistical errors, and science has found no solid evidence that vinegar causes weight loss. Experts also warn that excessive consumption of vinegar on an empty stomach can irritate the stomach, damage tooth enamel and cause digestive discomfort. It is not, therefore, about drinking it as if it were a miraculous elixir, but about using it with common sense, as grandparents did: a few drops to enhance flavors, balance dishes and help digestion. The gesture that never left. Perhaps our elders did not talk about antinutrients or bioavailability, but they sensed the essential thing: that vinegar, in addition to giving flavor, helped the body feel better. Today science confirm They weren’t so wrong. That acidic touch that gave character to the lentils or softness to the fried egg has a chemical explanation, a nutritional basis and, above all, an enormous cultural load. Because in the end, between the laboratory and the kitchen, there is the same principle: good traditions do not go out of style, they just needed a good explanation. And every time the vinegar sparkles in the pan or perfumes a stew, we are not only cooking: we are also honoring a way of understanding food, time, and memory. Image | FreePik and FreePik Xataka | Thousands of people have been drinking apple cider vinegar before eating to lose weight for years. An erroneous study is to blame

fried eggs with blue yolks

August 28, 2025 by usatoday24

It all started, as things always begin on the Internet, with a user on social networks flying an unasquible flag for the rest, an unattainable top: an AI does something better and faster than the rest. Only this time bone touched: the hordes of Speedrunners of Photoshop They were willing to claim human talent, even if it were something as apparently useless as the yolk of an egg. Blue eggs: Origins. The phenomenon began on August 11, 2025, when the X @Multimodalart user promoted the image generator by Alibaba Qwen-image Highlighting that very few models could, for example, create a fried egg with blue yolk. The reason: the models of AI learn patterns of real images (that is, eggs with always yellow or orange yolk), which presents difficulties for this type of generators by not starting from a real model. First answerwhich summarizes the future of events and that we save translate: “You can do in photoshop you retard”. World records begin. The first viral response response came quickly: user @isthisa3dmodel tweeted that That could be done in Photoshop in 30 seconds. And then the demonstrations began to arrive: @c_over_d_eq_pi He did it in just five seconds and he continued to purify the technique until he reached some fulminants 0.12 seconds of time. But the competition had only begun, and like every good meme of “Doom in places“The tests in tools much simpler than Photosop began arriving. Egg avalanche. When the X user @ceee asked for participation in the challenge of users who did not strengthen experts, began to arrive Speedrunners that used much more elementary and accessible tools than Photoshop. For example, @Pantoya It achieved very competent results with an image editing tool on the mobile. AND @v2tism He did it with Clip Studio Paint, revealing the secret: it can literally be done with any tool that allows layer edition. What’s behind. The challenge of the yellow yolk is more than a kind tangan (the blood did not reach the river at any time): it is the perfect thermometer of the current vision we have on the Internet of the amazing advances of the image editing tools with AI. The clash raised, thanks to the ironic and carefree tone of the responses, that perhaps the artificial intelligences enthusiasts were overvaluing the abilities of AI: as one of the contestants said, perhaps the interesting thing is not that they can now paint a yolk in blue, but until now they could not and sold us as the panacea. What gives us lessons about their abilities of the present. A debate from the past. The absolutely spectacular capabilities of new tools, Like Google Banana Nanocapable of making very advanced editions from Prompts Very simple (and yes, we have tried it: simply with “paint the yolk of this egg” blue ” The result is impeccable) They keep the background of the debate. It is no longer about whether the AI understands the blue yolk or not: it is about whether it is necessary that we replace all manual, artisanal and traditional works with automatic equivalents. It is a debate that is far from finishing. Image | Know Your Meme In Xataka | 14 tools to create free images

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