As you see, it's eggs. With Disney characters stamped on the shells. Possibly selling at a markup. Is this some kind of tie-in to a movie, or further proof of the evils of agribusiness and the coming apocalypse? And while marketers obviously want to trick kids into believing that the plain old eggs are going to come out magically Mickey-shaped, we want to know: 1. Do the eggs come with the mold? 2. How much does said mold cost? 3. Does egg actually seep out from under edges of said mold, rendering shape unrecognizable, as has been the case in all our experiments with whimsical egg-shapery? The only way I can see this strangely low-fi "new product" swaying any egg-hater is if you give them something shell-on, ie hard-boiled or soft-cooked. Even then, any kid is quickly going to get wise to the fact that it's just a plain old egg, but a prancing Donald Duck might buy you a reluctant bite or two.

The long and varied history of breastfeeding — perhaps one of the most natural and organic of processes — is, writer Jill Lepore argues, inextricably linked to social change and economic issues. Long seen as a mark of social humility, breastfeeding was, amongst the upper-classes of prior centuries, generally farmed out to a paid wet nurse. But in the 18th Century, Rousseau (himself apparently a crap father) encouraged a romanticized view of back-to-nature mothering, one backed up by Linnaueus' studies of mammalian nature. An alleged "milk shortage" in 19th Century America started a fad of feeding babies cow's milk — often with fatal consequences — and started a decline in breastfeeding. Modern science — and the new practice of giving birth in hospitals - then ushered in an era of sterility. And, as Lepore points out, "perversely, Freud’s insistence that infants experience suckling as sexual pleasure proved a boon to stork-style repression, too: mothers, eager to keep infantile incestuous desire at arm’s length, propped their babies up in high chairs and handed them bottles."

Milk-banks and early wet-nurse directories gave birth to a new formula industry. "Once milk banks replaced wet nurses, human milk came to be treated, more and more, as a medicine, something to be prescribed and researched, tested and measured in flasks and beakers." Breast-feeding was regarded as old-fashioned and unsanitary...a trend that La Leche League intended to curb when they established in 1956. Read their pamphlet: "With his small head pillowed against your breast and your milk warming his insides, your baby knows a special closeness to you, he is gaining a firm foundation in an important area of life—he is learning about love.” And, unsurprisingly, this ethic appealed to many upper-class women of the 1960s.

In more recent years, breast milk's superiority has been touted by medical professionals as a deterrant to various health and immune problems. However, American breast-feeding is at a low, something hospitals and government have been at pains to address. Measures have ranged from workplace breast-pumping stations, tax exemptions, and amendment of indecency legislation that gets in the way of public breastfeeding. (The fact that a woman was just arrested in a Connecticut bar for drinking while nursing shows there's still some issues to figure out.) A 2007 case against an airline that confiscated breast milk led to its reclassification as “liquid medication" — significant in more ways than one. This, Lepore concludes, is the age of the breast pump. And that's not a great thing.

Non-bathroom lactation rooms are such a paltry substitute for maternity leave, you might think that the craze for pumps—especially pressing them on poor women while giving tax breaks to big businesses—would be met with skepticism in some quarters. Not so. The National Organization for Women wants more pumps at work: NOW’s president, Kim Gandy, complains that “only one-third of mega-corporations provide a safe and private location for women to pump breast milk for their babies.” (When did “women’s rights” turn into “the right to work”?) The stark difference between employer-sponsored lactation programs and flesh-and-blood family life is difficult to overstate. Pumps put milk into bottles, even though many of breast-feeding’s benefits to the baby, and all of its social and emotional benefits, come not from the liquid itself but from the smiling and cuddling (stuff that people who aren’t breast-feeding can give babies, too). Breast-feeding involves cradling your baby; pumping involves cupping plastic shields on your breasts and watching your nipples squirt milk down a tube. But this truth isn’t just rarely overstated; it’s rarely stated at all...No one seems especially worried about women whose risk assessment looks like this: “Should I take three twenty-minute pumping ‘breaks’ during my workday, or use formula and get home to my baby an hour earlier?”

In Lepore's view, the current mentality is essentially another round in the breast milk carousel: the only difference is, this one's a convenient synthesis of a few views: the same sterile packaging as 1950s "science," with the benefits of alternative research — minus, of course, the romanticism. Meanwhile, the issue is as starkly class-based as ever: any "good," progressive mother knows breast milk's benefits — but breast pumps and the accompanying paraphernalia of conscientious working motherhood are shockingly expensive. Another failure of "having it all" - or progress, of a sort?

Baby Food [New Yorker]

Related: Woman Arrested For Breast Feeding At A Bar [Babble]

Remember those old ads where a woman tastes a cookie and then says, "Were these made with real butter?" And, when the baker shame-facedly hangs her head, suggests, "Let's start again." I was reminded of this by a quote from the Times piece by one home baker: “I can tell a margarine cookie as soon as I bite into it...And then I put it right down.”

The butter/margarine divide has a long history in Missouri, where, since 1895, yellow margarine has been illegal. (The legislation was likely put in place to protect the state's dairy industry) A state legislator wants to overturn the archaic law, which still exacts a hefty penalty from those who disobey it. However, if the Times is to be believed, this is not an option any serious baker would ever entertain - no matter what commercially-minded professionals might do.

Truth to tell, their butter breakdown is super-helpful, even to the casual baker. As we all know, sometimes baked stuff just doesn't turn out. According to this piece, the culprit is probably the delicious butter, which is very likely at the wrong temperature. These were the facts we found most pertinent and revelatory:

• "For mixing and creaming, butter should be about 65 degrees: cold to the touch but warm enough to spread. Just three degrees warmer, at 68 degrees, it begins to melt."
• "Warm butter can be rechilled and refrozen, but once the butterfat gets warm, the emulsion breaks, never to return."
• "For clean edges on cookies and for even baking, doughs and batters should stay cold — place them in the freezer when the mixing bowl seems to be warming up. And just before baking, cookies should be very well chilled, or even frozen hard."
• "Butter should be creamed — beaten to soften it and to incorporate air — for at least three minutes."
• "The best way to get frozen or refrigerated butter ready for creaming is to cut it into chunks. (Never use a microwave: it will melt it, even though it will look solid.) When the butter is still cold, but takes the imprint of a finger when gently pressed, it is ready to be creamed."
• "When using a stand mixer, attach the paddle blade, and never go above medium speed, or the butter will heat up."
• The best butters are "salted Kerrygold from Ireland, unsalted Kate’s Homemade Butter from Old Orchard Beach, Me., and a 'limited edition' cultured butter from Organic Valley, made from May to September, when cows are outside at least part of the time, eating grass rather than feed. Butter from grass-fed cows, rich in beta carotene, is more yellow (not higher in butterfat, as many believe)."
• "Most important is that butter be well preserved. Mr. Bradley recommends wrapping butter that’s not going to be used immediately in foil, then sealing the edges with tape. Or using it quickly."

Butter Holds the Secret to Cookies That Sing [NY Times]
Yellow Margarine: I Can't Believe It's Not Legal! [USA Today]