Jurassic Quarts

A little late in the summer film season (but not really all that late in geological terms), Dreyer’s and Edy’s Grand Ice Cream introduce a dinosaur-themed ice cream, Chipasaurus Rex, consisting of chocolate velociraptors, apatosauri, triceratopsians and tyrannosaurs roaming a river of fudge surrounded by vanilla ice cream. By the half gallon at supermarkets and convenience stores.

The New Bread Winners

Bread-making machines, which do everything from the kneading to the baking, have fallen in price from $400 to $200 over the past two years, sparking a 96% jump in bread flour sales. Surveys show almost half the machines are used by men, possibly because they transpose baking from the kitchen to the more comprehensible world of gadgetry. Another reason, theorizes Cal Walters, a marketing executive with Gold Medal Flour, is that the machines are nearly foolproof and even the tinkering-est man can’t screw up.

Instant Age

Fresh beef injected with calcium chloride will become as tender in one day as beef aged in the cooler for one to two weeks, report federal agricultural researchers in Clay Center, Neb.

Cultures in Confusion

Tofutti Brands’ new product Better Than Yogurt is a non-dairy frozen yogurt with no butterfat or lactose--but active yogurt cultures. Sounds good (100 calories a serving, only 2% fat, six flavors from peach-mango to chocolate fudge), but how do those yogurt cultures feel about the switcheroo that’s been played on them?

Another French Paradox

Why do Pernod, ouzo, anisette and similar liqueurs turn milky-white when you add water? It’s their anise flavoring, which is more soluble in alcohol than in water. When you dilute the alcohol, it can’t hold the anise oils any longer and they form microscopic droplets that reflect light.

Catch the New Wafer

Cialde are crisp, delicate Italian wafers six inches in diameter and about as thick as a quarter, stamped with a coin-like pattern and filled with ground almonds. They’re just the thing with ice cream or espresso, and now they’re available fresh, made in Half Moon Bay, Calif., by a Tuscan whose family makes them back in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany. Available in Southern California at Bristol Farms and Nordstrom.

Happy Birthday, Where Are Our Presents?

One hundred candles for Cracker Jack, introduced at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. The peanut and popcorn confection is celebrating with 8-ounce commemorative canisters featuring the best toy prizes of the last 100 years, including replicas of baseball cards from 1915.