I suppose the term "riced" would be a better description, altho' I'm not sure that's what they are doing either.... looks more like a super fine "chop". I personally don't like it when things are labeled what they are not.

typical lawmakers ... currying favor to lobbyists rather than working on real issues ... probably just biding their time until they can work on appropriations bills ...

This is both disturbing and excellent. It's foolish, but there really are people who are confused. There's precedent. The word "creme" is used for all kinds of non-dairy items, like hair conditioner, so people won't think there's cream in it. There's a law or something.

The fact is, we use a ricer to make strings of potatoes or cauliflower, and the resulting food is called riced potato or riced cauliflower. Presumably because they resemble rice. Similarly, when we reduce a product to a viscous liquid, especially when we extract solids to do so, we call it milk. Because it's milky. We cream our butter and sugar to start baking, but I think that's probably in the sense of beating rather than the fat at the top of the milk (I don't have a subscription to OED and I don't want to dig out my compact one).

OTOH, we know English and we know how to cook, and most of us have decades of this behind us, and we think it's normal.

The uneducated, non-cooking, youthful and foreign born could really be confused. Especially when purveyors of things like soy milk and nut milk purposely mislead the public to think that their products are equivalent. Ignoring the questions surrounding industrial processes used to make these things and how they may compromise the products, the fact is that bean juice or nut juice is nutritionally different from milk. If it says "milk" a lot of people who aren't well educated about foods are misled into thinking it's the same or similar. There's nothing wrong with almond milk, but it's just not mammal milk. It's not.

We manage to distinguish between cow's milk and goat's or sheep's so it shouldn't be too hard to make the step to almond.....but people love to find reason to complain.

I'd rather call it riced cauliflower than cauliflower rice (and I have some in my fridge as I type, purchased as riced cauliflower from the place I bought it. But I've bought some labelled as cauliflower rice, no confusion, in the past). No, it's not strictly speaking, "rice".

But to make some stupid laws over the issue... get those legislators working on some issues of true importance, not that sort of thing. Same with rice milk and all. I can read labels, and they say RICE or ALMOND or COCONUT or SOY milk clearly and boldly. Technically, not milk, but ready substitutes some people want or need. I personally know not to buy them (except the coconut milk, for Thai cooking and for one lactose-intolerant friend). Those legislators have too much time on their hands. Find something important to legislate over.

PS: Herbal teas are really tisanes (they don't come from the tea plant). I mean if we really want to continue this sort of legislation onwards... (Oh, I almost forgot: Compost tea... not something to be sipping on...) [Yes, some sarcasm aka j/k here...]

Don't call them Rocky Mountain oysters.

dcarch

I’d call it riced cauliflower, but either way, I wouldn’t expect anything to be rice when it’s in the frozen vegetable case with a vegetable in its name.

For me it makes more sense to restrict naming when it’s intentionally deceptive. Like defining what can be called cheese.

I know it's rather obtuse, but for some reason, I'm one of those people who is really into word issues and wordplay. So this has been a fun thread for me. I had forgotten about the word tisane, but it's sounds so fun, I look forward to using it!

lpink, I'm one of "those" people. Cauliflower is not rice, zoodles are not noodles, soy what-ever-that-actually-is is not milk and spaghetti squash is most definitely not spaghetti, nor is a veggie burger actually a burger. Do I think we need a law? Um....no, we don't, because we just can't be that easily fooled. Or can we?

Soy milk is vile, so no problems with me being misled by that, and although I like zucchini I really don't see any difference between cutting my zucchini into planks or julienne and running the zucchini through that "spiralizer", other than it's a lot easier to clean the knife. I'm not a fan of cauliflower anyway, so there's that. I tend to eat foods for what they are and not expect them to take the place of something else, so that I'm not horribly disappointed. I like spaghetti squash but most certainly do not want red sauce ladled over it, and I like veggie burgers but do not expect them to taste like beef. Although I don't think spaghetti squash "goes" with red sauce, I do mix zucchini and tomatoes, so "zoodles" with sauce isn't horribly off-putting. I still don't see the difference between zoodles and sticks, though.

However, when someone says they put their sesame chicken over cauliflower rice and "can't even tell the difference", I think they must have dead taste buds. Mashed cauliflower in place of mashed potatoes is the worst offender, they aren't even similar to potatoes in any manner except color.

I guess I'm not bothered by what they are called, I'm more bothered by those who try to feed them to me claiming that I'll never know the difference. Just tell me it's zucchini and I won't have my mouth all set for lasagna!

Annie

I only get annoyed at stuff like vegan "butter". Or vegan "cheese." That's not butter and it's not cheese. You're vegan. You dont eat butter. You dont eat cheese. That crap you say is vegan cheese is vile. You dont want to consume animal products at all? Fine, I am happy for you. To each their own. But to even pretend that stuff is even on the same planet as the real thing as far as flavor and texture is....well its obscene. They should call vegan butter...I dont know...vegan cooking glop or something. Not butter.

I agree that you can most certainly tell the difference between cauliflower and the stuff they try to substitute with it. The taste and texture are nothing like rice or potatoes and you can definitely detect it in those pizza crusts. And I like cauliflower.

But a law? Really? Shouldn't people just read the labels of a new product they are buying before purchasing it? Is that really to much to ask of consumers????

LOL! Annie, as far as that's concerned, zucchini planks in a lasagna style strata are pretty good, whereas zoodles with spaghetti sauce are better than spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce, but not much. OTOH, the difference between zoodles and sticks is the long wiggly worms. Dressed with lemon juice and poppy seeds, and left to set for a couple of hours, served cold or room temp. Delicious. The round texture is part of that. Mouth feel and to a certain extent how it absorbs the lemon juice. But not worth using the spiralizer if you dislike it. (I kind of adore mine, which is the GWCF recommended one.)

Before you all get too worked up about the "time wasting" for the legislatures, it really is the lobbyists. It's the rice organization, milk board, and cream lobby that push them to legislate that rice has to be rice, milk has to be milk, etc. Similar groups push legislators to make laws that say that only members of certain professional organizations can use the standard names for their jobs.

Yes, Plllog, I know it's the milk producers that don't want that nut what-ever slurry labelled as milk, because it's not milk and the rice producers don't want cauliflower pieces to be called "rice" because it's not rice. I just don't think consumers are that easily fooled,b ut maybe they are. And yet "they" won't label GMOs in an easily identifiable manner, go figure. And that's why we need to get the money out of politics, to avoid such foolishness. Of course, that would also mean that big oil, big Pharma and various other "bigs" would also have to stop giving politicians millions of dollars to pass laws that are only good for them and not so much for us. But that's a whole 'nother conversation, and we both know it's never going to happen.

Annie

Well, as a reporter who covered the legislature for a number of years, they do tend to mark time debating ... sometimes fluff, or whatever they think they can waste time creating a worthless public discussion ... until the money bills are ready, towards the end of the session. We got a new state 'something' a few years ago (it was really goofy), and then it was creating a morning dove season, and they have debated but not done anything about the traffic cams which are such 'money makers' for cities ... but the cam providers charge a stiff bounty ... and the cites pull in less than half. And then we have cost overruns building something for the state, and the state won't go after them because the contractors declared bankruptcy. And they refuse to try to recognize the medicinal benefits of puff the magic dragon for a few... but I digress. ^_^

You're right Annie, but where I live there's not so high a level of English literacy--though I daresay if they dislike the nut milk they'll remember not to get that package again. But they don't know how to read the nutrition information, and they aren't necessarily clear on what milk is and where it comes from. Amazing but true. I was at a dinner party and heard an educated woman, a mother, say she wanted to get a goat, milk it for awhile (as in years) and then maybe get her bred and have a couple of kids. In that order. I know you can buy a goat in milk, but they only produce for about 10 months total, so it's a really short while, not years. I've only spent a couple of weeks in close proximity to a milch goat but I know which comes first, the kid or the milk. :) Many many many people are completely clueless. A lot of city kids think milk you drink comes from a factory like Coke, even if they can define "mammal".

Hmm, this makes me want to try riced cauliflower. I assume it is the product of raw cauliflower and a food processor?

I love mashed cauliflower. Of course my version is about 1/4 butter, cream and cheese by weight. But then again so is my mashed potato.

Oh, on the topic - on the one hand, these bills are mostly about protecting certain food producers from competition. They might have the incidental effect of protecting consumers from confusing naming, but that's not why they are being proposed and passed. They don't have anything to do with protecting consumers from contaminated or unhealthy food or water, which is what I wish those lawmakers would spend their time on.

I agree, some people don't get the difference between, say, nut "milk" and cow's milk. As long as the mistake doesn't hurt them much - financially, nutritionally, allergenically (new word, everyone!) - I would say sure, do a little to help avoid the confusion, but I don't think it's worth doing a lot.

Will they also ban, for instance, "sweetmeat", or the use of "meat" to signify the edible part of fruit - this is a dictionary definition.

The beauty of language is its versatility and use of association. That's how language works, and I don't think any ban is going to change that. Surely most people can rise to the intellectual challenge of grasping the meaning of "almond milk"?

wintercat_gw - yes, and sweatbreads… I love sweetbreads. And they are neither sweet nor bread. But the two words together give me the intelligence to note that this is a mammalian glad (thymus or pancreas) and to order/buy accordingly.

I actually do have a problem with one oft-mislabeled food, but that is because the label gives NO IDEA to the peruser how it is actually made. (Mind you I don't want the long arm of Legislation involved here, either...)

Shepherd's Pie.

I totally accept something designated "vegetarian shepherd's pie". I know they found some sort of meat substitute and I may or may not like the recipe rendition. It is like Coconut Milk, I know that isn't going to be dairy milk or have a truly similar profile.

BUT. Ground lamb tastes a LOT different (and better) in shepherd's pie than ground beef tastes in what is now established as cottage pie. (Maybe we can consider... Cowpoke Pie????)

I draw my line in concrete here. Especially at a restaurant.

At least go to the level that coconut milk people do, and say something like "beef shepherd's pie". The vegetarians did it, with "vegetarian shepherd's pie"...

John Liu: Hmm, this makes me want to try riced cauliflower. I assume it is the product of raw cauliflower and a food processor?

Yes. Although for single servings at home I just get out a good knife without having to clean out the processor. Some supermarkets will sell it pre-chopped, which costs more but you don't have to pick up bits and pieces that may fly everywhere in the kitchen.

Nope, no one (I know of) confuses it for real RICE.

I love the new word John!

Are all of you too young to remember the bru-ha-ha over margarine and the dairy farmers and the legislation making it illegal to sell "colored" oleo-margarine? That was repealed state by state sometime in the 50's....with I think wisconsin being the last.
Now they market a product called "I can't believe it's Not Butter"...
If you are too dumb to read the label...you deserve what you get.

Along these lines, I can't stand when something says it's all natural and it'll have stevia in it. I don't find it any more "natural" than sugar. Why one is wrong, and one is right I don't get. Sugar comes from cane. Beet juice comes from cane. And it's all processed somehow. Labeling foods is a very tricky thing.

I thought the point of stevia was the zero calories. It's a leaf, a plant, not a root. Like using salt-free spice blends for flavor. I suppose stevia is in low calorie things with a bunch of other processed chemicals but I know not much about it.

Milk, rice, butter, water. Plant based milks have been around for eons. Some cultures have been 'milking' what they have in abundance. Plants, nuts, etc. Who first gave it the name 'milk'? It isn't a trademark for just dairy. Rice is the seed from swamp grass. Thousands of varieties. For trade commerce it was given a name. Everyone knows what rice is. So culinary riced is anything similar. Creamed corn, peanut 'butter'. Maple water, maple 'creme'. Coconut water. Cashew creme. Apple 'butter'.

I do get the initial point maybe calling it riced cauliflower. I just doubt the use of 'rice' is that confusing. I just don't have a problem with it. If i want something riced or creamed or milked it is more about communication.

Language usage is not that complicated. So there, ...their, they're, (I before e except after c)....

Yes, most of these things are pretty obvious to educated people. The industries pushing these designations surely aren't doing so for the likes of people like us. We post online with complete sentences and punctuation, for heaven's sake! We read nutrition labels and do the math! We're not the ones who are misled or confused.

Even among literate, able, intelligent and moderately well informed people, I can't tell you how many I've encountered who think quinoa is a cereal, orzo is rice, and couscous is a grain like millet. (Quinoa is a seed, orzo and couscous are pastas.) It doesn't matter, until one gets into a discussion about orzo salad and why other kinds of "rice" won't have the same texture, or the, "Oh, I can't eat pasta; I stick to rice; my favorite is orzo". And, of course, the quest for a bag of GF quinoa. I've made couscous from scratch (i.e., flour), and it's a thankless task, but believe me, it's just as much a pasta as macaroni, or orzo. It just doesn't come from a pasta press. You rub it between the heels of your hands. It's exhausting. I'm not sure how the machine made is done, but I'm a big fan. Couscous does not grow on stalks!

The one way cauliflower or broccoli rice is like rice is that you can put a bed of it on a plate, put your meat or other main food object on top, and the "rice" will catch the sauce. This is useful if you are avoiding grain. I don't like it because the flavors rarely go well with the sauces, but if you make the dish keeping in mind that the sauce has to go with cauliflower, it works.

What you describe as home made couscous, I call "Rubbins".....an old timey thing to put in soups or to cook in broth.....made over the simmering pot.
I thought couscous involved a colander and sifting ??

RICE: Raw Ingenious Cauliflower Extrusion

There are probably a bunch of different ways of making couscous. I think my friend's sister-in-law who instructed us was from Morocco. In general, couscous is rolled by hand, either the way we did by rubbing it between the hands, or rubbing with the whole hand in a bowl or on the bench (likely on a cloth or baking board). Then it is usually sieved to make sure the little lumps are separate, and not clumped up. Then steamed and dried. Or just dried. Or used right away.

It sounds like rubbins are more or less the same thing but right into the pot.

They probably use different flour. Couscous are yellow durum usually. But that's more a matter of circumstance. You use what you have. :)

I think people know what coconut milk is (which is different from coconut water, which is very popular now), but I think the dairy industry has a point when it comes to rice, almond, and soy milk. I think they are now labeled "melk" here, which I think is more appropriate, but then I do not drink cow's milk either. Younger people are definitely more likely to be confused by different types of milk.

Sheep's milk and goat's milk is available here (but I don't use those either), but I would use buffalo milk if it were available. A lot of buffalo mozzarella is made in California, and that seems to use up all of the buffalo milk produced here.

I'm okay with the law because it will help rein in the ways companies deliberately try to mislead consumers. We are all cooks here who know ingredients inside out. But not everyone has this knowledge and what is common sense to us, may be misleading to others.

First, my apologies to everyone in both Alabama and Arkansas, I had a senior moment. It is ARKANSAS that is the big rice-producing state!

Second, the labeling doesn't make that much difference to me one way or the other, I am an inveterate label-reader, ingredient scrutinizer, etc. so this doesn't really affect me, BUT my shock was over how "competitive" and hip cauliflower has become! It's never been a particular favorite of mine because frozen or steamed cauliflower I just don't care for taste or texture. But later on in life having been introduced to it raw, stir-fried and also roasted, I learned to like it. I haven't had it "riced" yet and not sure if I ever will take the time to do that. Hubs isn't much of a cauliflower fan either. But I did just get a notice from my NYT recipe e-mail subscription for a roasted cauliflower bruschetta type topping that I might try. Cauliflower is showing up everywhere now. My big issue with it in the past was it was relatively expensive and the big heads tended to go bad on me before I would use them up. I don't buy pre-prepared vegetables, too wasteful and unnecessary expense.

Pink, I'm trying, rather unsuccessfully, to understand the cauliflower craze as well. Like you, I just don't like it very much and there are so many other veggies which I do love.

I get that it is white and low carb, so more power to the cauliflower! I just don't see it giving rice a serious run for it's money, but then again I don't eat or like plain white rice, only brown, black, red or jasmine. I might do white for soup or rice pudding, or on occasion, arborio. Maybe I am overly partial so that's why I'm skeptical, rice is one of my favorite foods.

so they have rice flour ... do they have cauliflower flour?

Notice how that just rolls off the tongue ...

Actually, they DO have cauliflower flour. I bought some when my stepdaughter came to visit, she was on some type of weird diet (which changes regularly), and I bought it to make "bread" sticks. They were abysmal, but she ate them and said that they were "better than nothing", a glowing recommendation, LOL.

I still have the bag in the pantry and yes, it tastes just like cauliflower, which I'm not overly fond of anyway. I tried to send the remainder of the bag home with her, but she "forgot" to take it. Just wait until she comes back, I swear she's getting pancakes made with the stuff!

Annie

glowing ... ha!

it does remind me of the yummy mashed potato cakes we used to make ... and they were great... with a little riced cauliflower, it might be good ... of course we defeat the purpose and dip them in egg and crackers and fry crispy in butter ...