Barbecue Digest: The secret history of BBQ sauce

Monday, July 9, 2012
Barbecue Digest: The secret history of BBQ sauce
If there's one issue that divides barbecue fans more deeply than any other, it's the kind of sauce that should be served on the meat - if, indeed, a sauce is to be served on it at all. Though it inspires passionate argument, the colorful variety of regional sauces - peppery vinegar-based in eastern North Carolina, orange tomato-based in Kansas City, yellow mustard in South Carolina - is actually a rather recent phenomenon.

Regional sauce variations originated in the early 20th century with the rise of barbecue restaurants. Before then, barbecue sauce was pretty much the same from state to state. It was generally not a condiment applied at the table, but rather used to baste the meat just before it was served.
From Virginia to Texas, 19th century accounts of barbecues are remarkably similar in their descriptions of the sauce. In 1882, a reporter from the Baltimore Sun visited a Virginia barbecue and noted male cooks mopping the meat with "a gravy of butter, salt, vinegar, and black pepper." A guest at a San Antonio barbecue in 1883 recorded the sauce as, "Butter, with a mixture of pepper, salt, and vinegar." In 1884, the Telegraph and Messenger of Macon, Georgia, described the sauce of noted barbecue cook Berry Eubanks of Columbus as, "made of homemade butter, seasoned with red pepper from the garden and apple vinegar."
Similar descriptions can be found of sauces in Kentucky and the Carolinas, too. Sweeteners - be they brown sugar, molasses, or honey - were notably absent from any 19th-century formulas.
Based on these descriptions, could one conclude that the eastern North Carolina–style sauce - which consists of vinegar, salt, black and red peppers, and not a trace of sugar - is the closest to the original? I'll let readers decide for themselves; that's not an argument I want to get in the middle of.

Microsoft secures 'Xbox 8' name

Microsoft has trademarked the name

Wait -- we weren't done pondering the Xbox 720. So what, if anything, is "Xbox 8"?
The real, no-fun, answer is "maybe nothing." But it's been enough to kick up a round of speculation among tech and gaming enthusiasts after Microsoft fought, and won, against a cybersquatter who had grabbed the Web address for that name.
The National Arbitration Forum, which handles international business disputes, ruled in Microsoft's favor in a complaint against a Chinese national who had filed for a whole host of addresses representing both current and imagined products.
They included XboxPhone.com, XboxTablet.com, XboxLiveTV.com, XboxCompanion.com, Xbox8.us and Xbox8.org.
Microsoft filed the complaints in May. Tech site Fusible reports that the domains listed in the disputes were ordered transferred to Microsoft in late June after two separate panels found the man who filed for them had no rights to the domains and that they were being used "in bad faith."
The inclusion of "Xbox 8" may have just been a matter of Microsoft gaining control over anything that looks as if it should be theirs. But its inclusion alongside other names that are easier to explain sparked speculation online Tuesday about what the name might mean.
Many observers immediately wondered whether it might be the name of the next Xbox gaming and entertainment console.
Microsoft is widely expected to roll out a new version of its popular Xbox 360 console within the next year. The name most people expect? Xbox 720.
Last month, a 56-page document from Microsoft was leaked. Dating back to mid-2010, the document contained plans for an "Xbox 720" that utilizes the new Xbox SmartGlass system and new hardware for its Kinect motion-recognition system.
Perhaps a better guess is that "Xbox 8" could be software. Windows 8 promises to be a massive overhaul of the operating system that will marry PCs with tablets and smartphones. It stands to reason that the Xbox will be included and "Xbox 8" would make sense in this regard.
Of course, imagining a new console is more exciting.
"XBox 8? Didn't know the XBox 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 came out," one Twitter user wrote.
Alas, says gaming site Joystiq:
"It's tempting to suspect Microsoft is eyeing 'Xbox 8' as the next console name due to the two domains that reference it; however, Microsoft already began integrating Xbox Live, and the 'Xbox' name, into all its consumer products, including Windows 8. Also, it would be really weird if a domain squatter guessed the name."

Sharp unveils 'world's biggest' LED TV

Standing 4 feet high and 6 feet, 8 inches across, the new Sharp Aquos LED TV is called the biggest of its kind.
How's this for a superlative? The biggest TV in the world.
It may not be that simple. We know of at least a couple of plasma screens that are larger.
But with a 90-inch screen, Sharp may have just rolled out the biggest LED high-def television on the market.
The new Aquos LED TV, unveiled Tuesday, stands 4 feet tall and is 6 feet, 8 inches across. (As Consumer Reports notes, that means your television screen would be as wide as an average NBA forward is tall).
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Despite all that, Sharp brags, the set is less than 5 inches thick and weighs 141 pounds (considerably less than an NBA forward).
It could be yours for $10,999.99.
Seriously. They tacked on the extra 99 cents.
Consumer Reports obviously didn't render a verdict after just a quick look, but noted that Sharp "has definitely taken the lead in larger TV screen sizes." It cited the 60-, 70- and 80-inch sets from the past, saying they had typically done well in TV ratings, although some of the monster screens had relatively narrow viewing angles.
"Of course," Consumer Reports added, "not everyone has the room -- or room in the budget -- for a 90-inch set."
So, when rolling out the world's biggest TV (in its class, anyway), why bother with subtlety and understatement, right?
Sharp Electronics of America President John Herrington said it "offers size, picture quality and smart functionality unlike anything consumers have experienced." But that was barely a warm-up for the news release accompanying the announcement.
"Imagine yourself standing at the precipice of the Grand Canyon," it reads. "It's 3,000 feet straight down. The wind howls in your ears. Your heart races as you leap forward and plummet toward the bottom. Just before you plunge into the river below ... you spill the popcorn all over the living room couch.
"That's the experience you'll get when watching the breathtaking 90-inch (diagonal) AQUOS LED TV (model LC-90LE745U), introduced today by Sharp."
What do you think? Would you ever consider such a massive TV? Or would you just save the $11,000 for an actual trip to the Grand Canyon?

Police embracing tech that predicts crimes

New technology allows police to predict crime before it happens, but some agencies can't afford the software.
For something that predicts the future, the software is deceptively simple looking.
A map of a city is marked up with small red squares, each indicating a 500-by-500-foot zone where crimes are likely to take place next. A heat-map mode shows even more precisely where cars may be stolen, houses robbed, people mugged.
The program is called PredPol, and it calculates its forecasts based on times and locations of previous crimes, combined with sociological information about criminal behavior and patterns. The technology has been beta tested in the Santa Cruz, California police department for the past year, and in an L.A. police precinct for the past six months, with promising results.
Predictive-analytics software is the latest piece of policing technology working its way into law-enforcement stations around the country, although it's going up against tight budgets, bureaucracy and a culture still clinging to its analog ways.
PredPol\'s system features a map of a city marked with red squares to show zones where crimes are likely to occur.
PredPol's system features a map of a city marked with red squares to show zones where crimes are likely to occur.
"We had to try something because we were not being offered more cops," said Zach Friend, a crime analyst with the Santa Cruz Police Department. Last year, Friend contacted researchers working on the algorithm -- originally used for predicting earthquake aftershocks -- after reading an article in the LA Times.
At the time, his city had experienced a 30% increase in crime and a 20% decrease in police staff. He knew they had to try something.
At first the Santa Cruz police department used the software to estimate where home, car and vehicle burglaries might take place, handing printouts of the maps to officers at the start of their shifts. Later it expanded it to bike thefts, battery, assault and prowling. The city has seen a 19% reduction in burglaries over the past year.
While these kinds of experiments are promising, most police stations are still a far cry from the futuristic headquarters we see on TV shows like CSI. Real police departments lag behind your typical American teenager when it comes to technology -- some police cars still record video on VHS tapes, and it's not uncommon to fill out a police report on carbon paper.
Last month, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced plans to develop a smartphone app that would allow officers to file police reports from the field. But SFPD chief information officer, Susan Giffin, told the Bay Citizen the department doesn't have the budget to buy smartphones on which to run the app. (San Francisco police officers only got e-mail addresses for the first time last year.)
Thankfully for crime fighters, it's not all landlines, beepers and fax machines. Cool new crime-fighting technology is still being developed and tested by agencies around the country. There are gadgets such as Taser's small wearable cameras for police and other security professionals. The units can mount on a pair of Oakley sunglasses or a shirt collar, and they have accompanying Android and iOS apps.
In Southern Florida, many police departments are using portable fingerprint scanners to ID suspects and bring up any outstanding warrants on the spot. The smartphone-sized devices cost $2,500 apiece.
A ShotSpotter system uses microphones positioned around a city to detect gunshots and triangulate their location within 40 to 50 feet. A human at ShotSpotter's headquarters confirms if it's a gunshot and alerts the police. The system starts at $40,000 for every square mile of coverage.
Some of the more widely adopted tech is decidedly low-budget. Police can Google suspects and check their Facebook profiles to gather information. Friend says the Santa Cruz department has had more luck posting photos of wanted suspects to the official department Facebook page than through traditional police channels. (The unusually tech-savvy department also has a Twitter account, blog, and YouTube channel.)
Now predictive policing software is picking up steam, thanks to a few well-publicized test cases, low overhead and impressive drops in crime rates that, while they can't be directly tied to any one initiative, bode well for the maps.
PredPol is new to the field, but IBM has been testing predictive policing software since 2010, using databases of past crimes and information like timing and weather to identify trends and map out predictions. The company has worked with police departments in Memphis, New York City, and most recently Charleston, South Carolina.
A final hurdle for all types of new technology is getting the officers themselves to adopt and use it.
"Law enforcement agencies historically are conservative in their approach to change. That includes to adopting all kinds of technology, from computers in the cars to even radios," said Friend. A new generation of police who have grown up immersed in technology will likely help ease the transition by communicating to older officers that the new tools only enhance what they already know.
Seasoned patrol cops rely on their instincts, developed over years of experience walking the same streets and patrolling familiar neighborhoods. Experts say this new technology can cut down on paperwork and make policing more efficient so the police can focus on what they do best.
"It doesn't replace what they do," said Friend of PredPol. "When they get into those locations, they still need to be good cops."
 

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