What's a good molasses-based glaze for pork tenderloin?

Question

My wife and I cooked a pork tenderloin with a molasses-based glaze/sauce this evening. However, we didn't care for it, not because of the molasses but because the recipe called for ground cumin—turns out, we don't care for cumin.

How could I make something similar without cumin. The original ingredients were:

• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 lb pork tenderloin

Answer

To expand upon baka's comment: this would taste good without the cumin too; it'd just be a simpler flavor. You can then replace it with any other spice that appeals to you, since pork's flavor isn't going to strongly clash with many spices. ElendilTheTall's answer suggests one option; I'm sure you can come up with others. This gives you a chance to make your pork fit well with whatever other dishes are in your meal.

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Is my blue glazed crock safe to make wine vinegar in?

Question

I have an urge to purchase a "vinegar mother" and make homemade vinegar with leftover red wine. According to what I have read, it is not a difficult process, and I have had great success with making kombucha, which is a similar technique, only uses tea and sugar rather than wine. I have a lovely dark blue glazed crock with a spigot at the bottom that would work charmingly, if I could verify that it would be safe to use. Is there any risk of the acid of the vinegar reacting with the glaze? Is there any way to test whether it would or not? Thanks, and any advise on vinegar making is appreciated, as well as good sources for buying a mother.

Answer

It probably won't hurt you, but I wouldn't risk it, just in case. Glazes for food containers are unlikely to contain lead, but may have other metals that are harmful in sufficient quantities. These include cadmium, barium, cobalt, strontium, chromium, and in the case of some older orange ceramic, URANIUM.

Blue glaze is probably copper or cobalt based. I found a reference on ScienceDirect about high blood cobalt levels in association with lead poisoning from glazed Greek earthenware. This indicates that cobalt can indeed be leached out of the glaze and absorbed into the body. Cobalt is eliminated rapidly, but is moderately posionous, and copper is problematic in large quantities. Which brings this back to where I started: it won't kill you, and probably won't make you sick, but it's not really worth the risk.

File it in the same category as eating egg salad left out in the heat a few hours?

One other caution: prolonged contact with acid may damage and discolor your formerly handsome crock, in addition to leaching out these metals. To check for this, you can leave white vinegar in the container for a week or so, checking for change in color of the vinegar and the container every day.

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