tradition

Cooking for an entire family on Christmas Eve is a dying tradition. And the explanation is in Mercadona

by

The usual thing at this time of year is that most family gatherings become a single topic: What to have for dinner on Christmas Eve? And on New Year’s Eve? Is the menu repeated from other years? Is the entire purchase completed or are there still issues pending? That was the usual. At least until, in one country at a time less fond to cook and more to the already prepared foodanother question began to form: Why spend hours in the kitchen on the afternoons of December 24 (and 31) if we can order dinner to a restaurant, catering or the super trustworthy? It may seem like a simple anecdote, but it says a lot not only about Christmas but about how homes and our consumer habits are changing. An afternoon locked in the stove? That Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are special events, no one doubts it. Neither do they both basically revolve around the table. However, that is one thing and quite another that we are willing to spend hours locked in the kitchen to prepare appetizing dinners for a regiment of relatives, something not so strange just a few decades ago. In 2019 the German supermarket chain Aldi made a poll in which he asked the Spaniards the same thing: how much time we spend preparing Christmas lunches and dinners. Their conclusion was curious: although on average we dedicate 137 minutes to them, the vast majority of those interviewed (62%) aspire to cut that time between stoves, leaving it at 112 minutes at most. Who cooks then? Others. It’s that simple. It is not easy to measure the trend, but a Google search is enough to find articles from regional newspapers that talk about how more and more families order the main Christmas meals and dinners from restaurants, hotels or catering companies. It occurs in the Community of Madrid, Galicia, Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and León either Estremadurato cite a handful of examples of a trend that actually transcends communities. Not only that. In addition to families willing to pay to get rid of the burden of preparing dinners for 10, 12, 14… diners, we find companies willing to cover that growing market niche, some as relevant as Mercadona, the supermarket chain with higher quota of the country. Christmas Eve ‘made in Mercadona’? That’s how it is. Since the end of November, Juan Roig’s company has announced its ‘Ready to Eat’ oriented towards parties, a section that allows you to order canapés, stuffed chicken, suckling pig, lamb… in advance to be served during the nights of December 24 and 31. “Just heat and serve,” Mercadona boastswhich highlights how the service allows families to save time “without having to worry about the kitchen.” It makes complete sense if you take into account that the Valencian company has been betting for years precisely because of that line of business and Roig himself has publicly acknowledged who is convinced that in the middle of this century kitchens will disappear from Spanish homes. His prediction points in a clear direction: supermarkets will no longer be just the places where we shop, they will be the food references where we will buy dishes and even where we will consume them. Don’t we cook anymore? Not quite. We continue cooking, although it is true that we do it differently and less and less. He gave us a clue recently a study published in TIJGFS which leaves out a revealing piece of information: 59.1% of Spaniards We still cook practically every day, which means that most of us still use our ovens and vitro. The other side of that figure is that there is 40.9% who never cook or do it very rarely and that percentage has been growing in recent decades. The CIS has also confirmed that the majority of their respondents (46.5%) believe that home cooking is losing ground to fast food. If that were not interesting in itself, there are other indicators (from the food industry) that suggest changes in consumption: for example, we increasingly demand less fresh bread and fisha latter product that begins to associate to leisure outside the home. And what happens at Christmas? Beyond our general eating habits, Christmas has its own peculiarities. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve dinners are not ‘normal’ dinners. Firstly, because a higher degree of elaboration than normal is expected of them. Second, because it involves cooking for many more people than those who are part of the usual family nucleus: on December 24 and 31, cousins, in-laws, brothers-in-law, nephews sit at the table… Which ends up easily translating into groups of more than ten diners. Is that important? Yes, if we take into account that we increasingly live in smaller apartments and families are smallerwhich translates into a series of practical complications: How to cook for 12 people in a tiny kitchen with a two-burner vitro? Where to store so much food? Where the hell can you seat 12 or 14 people in a room where there is furniture for one couple, who is the one who really eats in that house the rest of the year? It was done until now, right? Yes. But times change. And that is something that is easily observed when going out into the street. looking at statistics. The fact that there are more and more single-person households or households made up of two people and fewer than three, four or more members means that there are fewer people accustomed to cooking for groups. We are also less willing to spend hours in the kitchen, as stated in 2019 Aldi and confirm the boom of ‘Tardebuena’ and ‘Tardevieja’. We enjoy the afternoon more the 24th and 31st because we spend less time between pots. There is another factor and it is economic. In restaurants and catering establishments there are different rates, but they usually guarantee two things: fixed prices and menus and guaranteed product. Nothing about being surprised that the kilo of lamb has … Read more

The fault is of tradition and acrylamides

by

If we turn around the hallway breakfast Of any supermarket, we see multitude of coffee varieties. It is the second most consumed drink in the world and many do for health reasonsbut sUS properties vary depending on whether we drink natural coffee or the enemy of lovers of the Specialty coffee: he Torrefacto. It is the typical coffee of the Spanish bar, but curiously in Europe is vetoed by its low quality, the null historical roots and the most serious: health motifs. It is not Spanish thing. Although this is the “Spanish coffee”, really the first record of something similar to torrefact comes from Cuba. The miners roasted coffee with sugar to extend its conservation during the long periods of underground work. The current torrefact we owe it to an Extremadura named José Gómez Tejedor, founder of The star cafes that, on a trip at the end of the 19th century through the Caribbean, He learned technique and patented In 1901. Until 1921, only coffees the star could exploit the technique of the roasting. And it is a process that consists of toasting coffee and, during the process, add sucrose or glucose syrup –Sugar, ultimately– With a proportion of up to 15 kg of sugar per 100 of coffee. It is a barbarity (and being so bitter, you have to add more sugar to take it, curiously). But very Spanish. This method was consolidated in Spain thanks to the fact that coffee was maintained in better conditions for a longer time. Consumption at the beginning of the 20th century would not be as massive as it is today and the sugar film allowed longer conservation. In Portugal it also gained popularity, but the explosion, and that consideration of the roasting as “Spanish coffee” occurred in the Civil war. During and after the conflict, due to the shortage of coffee, the need to keep it and maintain its economic performance, that toasted with sugar became The default form of toasting coffee in the Iberian Peninsula. That is, due to precariousness, the torrefact was consolidated, but when things could change due to better economic conditions and more efficient conservation methods, it was so rooted in the market that remained. Acrylamide. The problem is no longer so much taste (which, he hears, for tastes, colors), but the consequences of doing so. In the title process, it is generated A chemical compound called acrylamide Due to Maillard’s reaction between sugars and amino acids when they undergo high temperatures. Torrefacto, due to that greater amount of sugar, can contain more acrylamide, surpassing the Natural chopped coffees. Agencies such as IARC or EFSA have cataloged the compound as “probable human carcinogen” and a European reference limit at acrylamide levels of about 400 μg/kg for roasted coffee and 850 μg/kg for snapshot. The problem is that it is estimated that, while the Natural Tugue Café has about 180 μg/kg, the torrefact goes to 800 μg/kg. European counterpart. There are no solid epidemiological studies that demonstrate an oncological risk in humans due to coffee consumption with high doses of acrylamide, but yes There is evidence In animal experiments. The European Regulation EU 2017/2158 It forces producers to minimize acrylamide by controlling the gut parameters, but really that in Europe it is not consummated by torrefact is not because it is prohibited or because it is toxic, but because it is not a coffee that has any roots in countries outside Portugal or Spain. Torrefacto is seen as something of lower quality, has been marginalized by industry and, although there are Exceptions As a type of Belgian coffee to which 3% of sugar is added, it is still an amount lower than that of the Spanish royal. And beyond acrylamide, the real problem of torrefact for someone who consumes a lot of coffee is the amount of sugar. Green grains up to the left and different degrees of turse And in Italy? If you have ever traveled to Italy or if you have bought Italian coffee in grain and you have appreciated that Its color is so dark Like the one we can find in the torrefacto cafes or mixture of Spain, it does not mean that they also consume Torrefacto. In the labeling you read something like ‘Torrefazione’, but it would be a false friend, since it is a word that simply means “tums.” Sugar is not used in its title process, but a natural tabs are performed. And that dark color is due to the fact that, traditionally, the Italian tums is very intense, so the grains are darker than those we find in other European countries, but the sugar we find in those grains is naturally present in Café itself. Mix Blend. And how do I see this in the super? Easily, most supermarket coffee and large surfaces (in addition to what they serve in bars and restaurants, is roosted. When we are going to buy it, we can see terms such as 100% Arabica (which marks only the Variety of coffee), but be royal. Also the term mixing, which is basically a mixture between natural giant and torrefact coffee in usual percentages 50/50, 70/30 or 80/20. Mix, in Spain, is a mixture of both. Then we have the term ‘mixture’ applied in a specialty coffee context, where ‘blend’ is also used. The big difference is that in these ‘blend’, the mixture is made between coffees of different origins, but all of natural gut. Drink what you like. I have not bought torrefact coffee years, but it is something that usually consumes in some cafes and restaurants because they continue to put. And, although I notice it very much (I can not drink a torrefact alone, unlike a natural coffee, for example), the conclusion of all this is that, as long as they do not expressly prohibit it, it will remain something important in the Spanish tradition, despite the boom of specialty coffee shops. The real taste of coffee is being masked and it is … Read more

The new Ibai football team already has a name and where to play. What he does not have is tradition, and that in football is a problem

by

Ibai Llanos has not left time to settle The dust generated by the last eveningand is already giving new headlines. The football team that has created from zero To see how far it has it has a name, Ronin FC, but its growth strategy enters into contradiction with what for many fans is football right now. A calculation failure that can cost the image of your club. I want a football team. Shortly before summer, Ibai advertisement From your Tiktok account that he was going to finance a football team that would start in the most modest categories with the intention of being promoted year by year, specifically in the fourth Catalan division. He said the streamer “we are going to start in the lowest category in Spain and we will try to ascend over the years.” The team will be called Ronin FC, a name out of the Samuraisless nickname Only on Instagram In less than 24 hours, and they also have a field to play, located in Rubínear where the streamer. To the counter. However, this Ibai attitude goes against what we see in world football: while sport is globalized and financed as never before, a powerful current of resistance emerges simultaneously that claims authenticity, local, genuine. Rayo Vallecano fans joining so that Your team does not lose your essential localthe Oviedo’s promotion celebrations And raise this year, the Retro t -shirt feverMalaga fans receiving their team After the promotion to 2nd At the airport, the Momentazo Melendi In the Playoff of Ascent, the Previous of the First Party of Valencia After the Dana … It is a Nostalgia for “real” footballcontrary to what the English have baptized as “Plastic Football“, And that concerns, among other things, great clubs such as PSG, City or Chelsea, although with nuances: the City, for example, has a strong local thrust too. The current football Zeitgeist privileges the narrative of the territorial roots and that the teams represent more than a business project. Causing. In this context, Ronin FC emerges, and its only existence seems an act of involuntary provocation. A newly created club that bears the name of the warriors without a master of feudal Japan, something impossible to generate identification from the same shield or without references to the city where it is located. Is owned by Ibai Llanos (which is not any streamer: For a few days, The most often of Twitchsurpassing superstars as Ninja), and with a budget ten times higher than their category rivals. It is like a team created artificially to play FIFA. Ibai plays with fire. Ibai wants to succeed with a team that does not seek the tradition and folklore of the game to legitimize, but to do it with a talonario, however modest its initial intentions. Had to realize when he said for the first time His plans to buy Real Murcia And he found the exception of fans who did not know if a streamer Millionaire of thirty years was the best choice to direct a centenary club. The result has been the expected: Ibai has started from scratch, with a Frankenstein football. How it is usually done. The usual practices when an inverter acquires a club are of two types: or a club with history is bought and that tradition is respected (such as when Abramovich bought Chelsea or sheikhs did it with Manchester City), and has a clear objective: take advantage of a brand and generate an economic return. The other option is to buy a small team and not touch it too much to keep its essence. In the style of What Ryan Reynolds did with Wrexham de Walesthat acquired it in 2020 more to refloat something that already existed that with the intention of renewing it completely. It is not a decision born from nothing: it is the third oldest professional club in the world, it has 159 years of history and 65,000 people of Wales are their fans. It is the antithesis of the Ibai movement. Ronin on the screen. Ibai’s attitude, therefore, even well -intentioned, clashes with that “respectful” arrival to the football of other investors. The fans who can attract this team are fans of the streamer Because there has been no time To germinate a club culture that, sometimes, It has generations to get. According to his own statements, Ibai caresses the idea of broadcasting the parties through streamingwhat can give attention never seen on a category as secondary as the one that is going to play the Ronin FC. The question is not whether your team can withstand that media attention, but if you will not end up playing against your club’s own image. In Xataka | Ibai only had a milestone for unlocking on Twitch. And he just got it thanks to evening 5

What are constellations and why scientists are still taking advantage of this millenary tradition

by

The human being has from prehistory looking at the night sky to guide himself, either looking for the north to establish our course, or in order to know what is the ideal time for the planting of a crop. We have also often sought in the stars the esoteric and the divine. The stars have helped us to locate in space and time. And to guide ourselves in the tangle of bright dots that populate the night sky we have often resorted to an old “trick”: the constellations. What is a constellation The constellations are Star groups that are close to each other in the celestial vault. Not so in the universe, the stars that share a constellation Thousands of light years can be located on each other, it is only their position related to the field of vision that we have on earth. The constellations were created when our ancestors assigned a form to these groups: whether the shape of a person or deity (as in the constellations of Andromeda, Orion or Virgo), an animal (the major and minor bears, or the constellations of Aries and of Taurus), an object (such as Erídano, the oven or the clock) or other mythological being (such as the hydra or draco). The constellations change depending on the time of the year and the region in which we place ourselves: there are constellations that are only visible in winter, others in summer; Some can only be seen from the southern hemisphere and others from the north. All this due to the relative position of the earth regarding the “backdrop” of the universe and the sun, which blinds our vision of the stars during the day. The constellations are therefore groups of stars in our sky and the way in which their position is distributed. Groups that were probably used Since ancient time as a mnemonic trick to distinguish stars and, with them, identify times of the year or to use as a compass with which to guide us. How many constellations are there? To use constellations as a systematic tool, scientists have developed an “official” constellation list. Thanks to this we can list a specific amount of constellations. How many? 88 in total. And who says it? The institution in charge of designating constellations is the International Astronomical Union (UAI), responsible for the nomenclature of many other elements in space and in the celestial vault. The delimitation of the celestial borders depending on the constellations as we know it today was approved by the UAI almost a century ago, in 1930. It was then that the proposal of the Belgian astronomer was published Eugène Joseph Delporteapproved two years before by the General Assembly of the agency. What is the origin of the constellations These constellations came to us through ancient Greece, but we know that they did not originate there but had a even older originperhaps in the Babylonians or in other civilizations of the surroundings of the “fertile growing”. We also know that this type of cartographies arose In various civilizations Far from each other, from South America to China. These constellations came to us through ancient Greece, but we know that they did not originate there but that they had an even older origin, perhaps in the Babylonians or in other civilizations of the surroundings of the “growing fertile” lifting. We also know that this type of cartographies arose in various civilizations distant from each other, From South America to China. The origin of the “modern constellations” is in two points. The first, the fact that the era of exploration led Europeans to have to orient themselves in the southern hemisphere, where some of the constellations are not visible, but where the reference of these can also be useful. How science uses constellations Although constellations are based on tradition and not on the use of the scientific method to order the stars, science makes use of them in certain contexts. Precisely this need to “cover holes” It is due to the use made by constellations today and is to serve as a reference for the Observation of objects and phenomena astronomical. The celestial vault can be divided into latitudes and lengths, with its degrees, minutes and seconds, in the same way we do with the surface of the globe. This way of dividing the sky can be useful, but it is also not very intuitive if we do not have other references. On Earth we have cities, countries and continents; In the sky, constellations can help us intuitively locate a specific point in the vastness of the night sky. Difference between constellations and galaxies Are not the galaxies of stars also? The constellations resemble galaxies in the fact that both terms refer to groups of stars, but beyond this fact, the differences are non -existent. While constellations represent groups of stars that are in proximity from our perspective, galaxies are formed by groups of stars that are found gravitationally anchored each other. Galaxies are also composed of many other elements linked in the same way, from dust and gas clouds even black holesthrough planets and asteroids. The terminolgia can be confusing by the way we have to name some and other elements. For example, if we talk about Andromeda we can be referring to both a constellation and The homonymous galaxy. This coincidence is precisely because the galaxy was baptized with the name of the celestial region where you have to look to find it: the Andromeda constellation. In Xataka | Star rains, planetary alignments and lunar phases: all the astronomical events that we have in sight Image | Stellarium Web / NASA

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.