Sausage in lard
- Thread starter rik_uk3
- Start date
Whatever. Don't concern yourself too much about the cut of meat that went into a sausage, only whether the animal was healthy and whether the meat was otherwise doctored.
Ahhhhhhhhh memories... They don't stock Cheese Possessed as well do they?
mmmmmmm now all i need is an old packet bisket browns and i'm away
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
This may not be a popular view, but I'll buy two chickens for a fiver and not loose a minutes sleep over it, same with pork, lamb any meat for that matter and truth be known so do so most members here (they may feel guilty when eating it but will still buy it and not openly admit it) and I won't indulge in the luxury of organic brainwashing (I do like well hung beef and will pay whatever is costs for a prime Chine joint or Ox tails).
I also buy budget chicken, and turkey legs. My 9 years old cat has kidney disease, and eats raw meat, it is the only affordable way of feeding him. But considering what is put in tinned cat food at least I know what he is eating. I make a point of not wasting any of it, I make stock out of the bones, and tendons. Turkey bone is a perfect shape to make nalbinding needles. Good stock is made with simerlar stuff that goes into MRM, but since the cat has been on the raw food diet, and we have been eating stock based soup at least once week my osteoarthritis has improved measurable. I don't think eating MRM meals would do the same. I am great believer in proper food, and it doesn't have to cost. but I find supermarkets rarely do offal cuts. It is like the country is losing the abilty to cook proper nutrious food on a budget, and poverty means eating MRM and frozen chips.
We still have some good butchers down here and local people like things like heart. Stuffed Lamb or Ox heart is sold ready to cook and its good food as is belly draft of Pork and Lambs breasts (plain of stuffed). I get my Ox tails off the one chap which makes wonderfull stew and IMHO the best beef gravy going and he is the only place near me where I can get fresh pigs trotters. I agree with you about people loosing the ability to cook on a budget often ignoring cheaper cuts of meat.
My main objection to 2fur chickens are they are mostly water and always tasteless. I’ve cooked two birds side by side, one a organic free range locally grown chicken which cost £4.70p (2.1kg) and a Tesco best barn raised chicken 2.14kg which cost £4.99 (this was before HFW war on chicken programmes and before Tesco raised (doubled) its prices to put people off from buying their organic chicken) the local grown chicken when cooked gave me 1.6kg of meat and two fluid ounces of liquor (mostly fat) the Tesco bird gave me 1.4kg of meat and fluid six ounces (mostly water)
The other part is subjective but the meat was much better tasting, stronger and with more ‘chicken’ taste. Overall, I’d rather pay to get more meat, then pay to get more water. (Chicken processors are allowed to inject up to 20% (by weight) of water into their birds)
Were I starving I’ve eat whatever, but given a choice, the real value is in the taste and the amount of usable meat, and locally produced organically raised meat wins hands down.
The other part is subjective but the meat was much better tasting, stronger and with more ‘chicken’ taste. Overall, I’d rather pay to get more meat, then pay to get more water. (Chicken processors are allowed to inject up to 20% (by weight) of water into their birds)
Were I starving I’ve eat whatever, but given a choice, the real value is in the taste and the amount of usable meat, and locally produced organically raised meat wins hands down.
Rik Stein did a turkey test cheap V organic. The cheap turkey won hands down I don't buy cheap frozen chicken because of the high water content, but the fresh seem fine to be honest, especialy the ones from Iceland stores.
I don't buy cheap frozen chicken because of the high water content, but the fresh seem fine to be honest, especialy the ones from Iceland stores.
I didn't know either but managed to find a list of stores. Nothing close enough to me to make it worthwhile.
I must have watched a different programme to you, because in the free range turkey one verse the best of barn raised turkeys challenge , the free range one won, but Rick preferred the taste of the intensively farmed one, he said after the programme that he was glad that the members of the public could tell the difference as he had stuffed it up.Rik Stein did a turkey test cheap V organic. The cheap turkey won hands down
Oh and I wasn't talking about Frozen chicken with added water, I was talking raw "fresh" chicken.
Rik Stein did a turkey test cheap V organic. The cheap turkey won hands down
..er..
no it didn't
I remember that episode very well because I thought it was incredible and very honest of him to have broadcast it.
In the blind tasting everyone to a man and woman voted for the organic as the best. Rick was the lone sole vote for the battery farmed bird.
He justified the confusion because he thought that an outdoor reared bird would be bigger from all the running around.
He obviously knows his fish, but not so much his poultry
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I found the good butcher in the area tucked away on a back street 2 months ago. Lamb shanks, ox-tail hearts ect. The turkey legs the cat eats he sells really cheap, as he produces dressed crown for the catering industry and so they are sort of waste. they are twice the size of the same cut from tescos. It is skills like using a cut greasy cut like breast of lamb to make stew. Cube the joint and slow cook gently the night before, leave it to cool. The next day lift off the fat off the top, and half an hour later you have low fat stew that feels like it has being cooking all day. Tastes lovely but knowledge like seems to be dying out. It's alright having jamie oliver trying to get a council estate in rotherham to cook their own food, but he is one of the worst for showing extravagant poncy food. Which just perpetuates the myth you have to live off 39p sausages in lard if you have low income.
I find the cheapest chicken a bit greasy for my tastes, but I will eat it on occasion.
I can hardly be accused of being a bleeding heart liberal - happy to kill, skin, gut and cook most things with fur, feather or scales.
But, having been a country dweler all my life, the cruelty of industrialised farming turns my stomach. Its un-neccesary and all about lining the pockets of the greedy and lazy.
In addition I don't want my food pumped full of growth hormones, antibiotics, colouring and God alone knows what else....and that before its dead!
If I had to eat that rubbish I'd go vegetarian
Red
I was brought up eating a little but proper meat - parents families used to keep pigs & chickens etc so I'll second that except - I might be classed a a liberal by many
and I was was veggie for 10 years mid 80's - mid 90's when I could not afford/ get hold of decent meat. Changed when I rented a cottage on a farm when I got presented with rabbits, pheasant, venison - all wild and home killed beef.Still very picky about any meat we buy. Generally organic but defo free range. When eating out I go veggie unless I know about the meat ie local lamb etc.
I stand corrected, but he was honest about it
I'm cooking Chicken curry tonight, fresh Chicken is on offer at Iceland just now, good stuff it is too
Breast of lamb makes fantastic stew, but I also like breast cut in strips and fast/hot cooked in the oven until crisp with a dipping sauce. Have you made Ox tail stew? Simply stunning food. Chicken thighs make a good stew but you need to let it cool and lift off the excess fat as with your lamb dish.
PS the sausages are now only 29p and I don't live off them, strictly camping/prep cupboard rations but have their place in the scheme of things surely?
I wouldnt go any where near MRM products, there really is NO need for them, i was a chef for 10 years and worked in mostly posh hotels/ restaurants, you dont have to spend a fortune on meat, some of the cheapest cuts are the best. I try to avoid anything un natural in foods, not strictly organic but free from hormones etc, why are there so many illnesses, cancer, defects, obesity, its sick, it should all be banned, intensive farming etc too, go back to wholesome local products, oh but the government wouldnt like that. sorry, rant over
I wouldnt go any where near MRM products, there really is NO need for them, i was a chef for 10 years and worked in mostly posh hotels/ restaurants, you dont have to spend a fortune on meat, some of the cheapest cuts are the best. I try to avoid anything un natural in foods, not strictly organic but free from hormones etc, why are there so many illnesses, cancer, defects, obesity, its sick, it should all be banned, intensive farming etc too, go back to wholesome local products, oh but the government wouldnt like that. sorry, rant over
Ban intensive farming in the UK? and how would we feed ourselves then? Can't do it now with intensive farming
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Even I have my standards
. Who needs sauages with Hel knows what in them when you can order lamb fries from your butcher, and yes I have eaten them for breakfast (with salt and pepper on them).Has anyone seen the Victorian Farm where Ruth Goodman was making Brawn, I though she wasted the boiled brains, they were much fought over when I was a child, as a supper dish on toast (with lots of black pepper and salt) and although I still love farmhouse brawn, I like mine without the eyes.
My dad used to make wonderful pig brawn and also pressed chicken. I've not made brawn for years although I did make pressed chicken last summer.
There is a wonderful recipe in larousse gastronomique for a daube of beef cooked with pigs feet, this casserole is wonderful as is, but when allowed to cool the gelatin in the pigs feet sets the daube and its served cold and sliced with a salad the next day
with the 29p sausages in lard - you could use the sausages to bait a big fish when out at sea and use the lard to grease yourself up against the cold in case you fall in. its got to be better than eating them.
The brawn on Victorian farm reminded me of the 'potted heid' that i was force fed as a kid. it was truly foul stuff no matter how much ketchup you put on it.
and in case anybody is interested, I have a bag of about 20 lamb hearts in the freezer. if anyone knows of a recipe for stuffing them, I could take them to the next scottish meet up...
EDIT: for those who like their posh offal, the hearts are from organically mollycoddled Shetland lambs.
The brawn on Victorian farm reminded me of the 'potted heid' that i was force fed as a kid. it was truly foul stuff no matter how much ketchup you put on it.
and in case anybody is interested, I have a bag of about 20 lamb hearts in the freezer. if anyone knows of a recipe for stuffing them, I could take them to the next scottish meet up...
EDIT: for those who like their posh offal, the hearts are from organically mollycoddled Shetland lambs.
