Real vs. Imitation

Readers - a brief comparative example.

REAL Blueberry

IMITATION Blueberry

I'm starting to get my appetite back; that means I'm on the mend which is a positive. So, for tonight, a food post. I really like some of the Jiffy brand products. The Jiffy brand general baking mix and their pancake/waffle mixes are really good. It's as good or better than Bisquick and usually half the price. It also will store for quite a while packaged properly. Their corn muffin mix is one of the best inexpensive mixes out there, especially if you mix two boxes and bake it in a cast iron skillet. Still I prefer to make my own cornbread as I do most bread products.

Face it, I like bread products. That's why I never did well on the Atkins diet. After a week of that I was so weak and shaky that I would have handed over my purse to a mugger armed only with a maple roll. But I'd rather do without than eat something called "wonder" bread, or most pre-made food and I'm not a fan of prepackaged dry sweet rolls which are more dwarfin assault scones than a breakfast roll. Yet, I was thinking that there are times some dry food mixes might come in handy, for camping or such things and I am always one to try different products.

So it was that I bought a box of Jiffy blueberry muffin mix with these enticing words on the label:

"Artificially flavored with imitation blueberries".

Just how to you artificially flavor something that is already imitation? And just what are "imitation blueberries"? Are they grown in a secret lab?

From the size and shape they appeared to be tiny, dry ball bearings painted navy blue. They were small and tasteless but they made up for it by their being few in number. When baked, the result looked like this. I'm sure there's some little imitation blueberries in there somewhere.

Compared to my regular blueberry muffins they tasted like a Styrofoam coffee cup. An artificially flavored Styrofoam coffee cup, but I'm spoiled in the baking department. But I don't waste food so I'll freeze them. They might come in handy next time I wish to lob some skeet.

Back to the drawing board. I always freeze and can lots of berries in the summer. So let's start over. Blueberry Muffins. I posted the recipe a year or so ago, and which were tested in the field by BK and a couple other readers.

Sometimes you want the real thing, not some puny blue Yankee imitation.