Glory of noodle soups

(Thanks for the compliment, I wrote a lot more like it in the 1980s and early 1990s. Many of which, though preserved, are not in public archives, like most of that rich period on the nontechnical newsgroups, reflecting partly the constraints on H. Spencer's nonetheless heroic archiving initiative then, described for example on Google Groups currently:

Anyway I understand that people have long seen that animals used for food always taste best when they themselves eat well, and live well. In one of Rex Stout's "Nero Wolfe" detective novels (Stout is one of those mystery writers also cited for food interest; Simenon is another) the usually mbuttive detective is living in hiding, thinner, austerely, evading a gangster boss in New York. His thoughts turn constantly to food. When he suggests to a helper that maybe Farmer So-and-So could start some chickens on blueberries for a few weeks, anticipating Wolfe's return from underground, the helper vetoes it, because the gangster boss may have people watching Farmer So-and-So for such a cue.

Spent or "used" grape must seems to be a useful by-product. I've asked a couple of California wineries about it. Some of it is used as fertilizer, allegedly very rich (for instance Jordan, if I remember, operates a small produce farm using it). As in France, there are also specialty firms that buy up the fruit debris and process it for food-grade alcohol. I understand that its uses include cleaning or fuel, but I don't know much about it. Also, one time I was looking around Roederer Estate, the historically important California sparkling-wine business owned by Champagne Louis Roederer in France, and I smelled alcohol-oxidation products (aldehydes and ketones) from the concrete and wood surfaces at the plant. I asked Michel Salgues about this (he had been talking of Elegance, Balance, and Finesse) and he remarked that spilled wine absorbs into porous surfaces and slowly oxidizes there, making the distinctive aromas.

FWIW -- Max