Sausage in lard

[xylaria]

I agree with you MM

I posted this thread originally aimed at those of us who remembered old style compo rations and the thread has been hijacked by people to give lectures on good food and how cheap food and MRM will kill us. I've not seen so much crap and moral carbage spouted off in a long time.

My home hobby is cooking, without being big headed I very much doubt there are many better cooks on this site than me, but I would not look down on the food others eat either from liking or financial necessity.

Eating sausages in lard will not be a daily occurrence at home, but yes, I'll take a can camping and the rest are in my TEOTWAWKI stocks. I'm lucky in that I can afford to eat whatever I want without worrying about paying for it, but remember, some others don't have this luxury

As Merlin said, there are some high horses on this forum these days, and I'm outraged at the snobbery shown by some, shame on you

Yeap you are right, but at least i got off my high horse to try them.

Health inequality gets me pretty angry. We chose to live on one modest income (13k) rather than both of us work when we had children, I don't believe that anyone needs to eat something so awful on grounds of money. I can understand if it brings back memories of huddling in a bunker outside port stanley, but if that's what we feed the troops crikey that's bad. The suggestion that if you can't afford non-intensive meat you should eat mung beans is appalling snobbery, and is one of the reasons we have such bad health inequality. Britain has the strictest standards on pork in europe, I have no problem buying british pork, but will buy danish if short of few bob.

 

[mortalmerlin]

Yeap you are right, but at least i got off my high horse to try them.

Health inequality gets me pretty angry. We chose to live on one modest income (13k) rather than both of us work when we had children, I don't believe that anyone needs to eat something so awful on grounds of money. I can understand if it brings back memories of huddling in a bunker outside port stanley, but if that's what we feed the troops crikey that's bad. The suggestion that if you can't afford non-intensive meat you should eat mung beans is appalling snobbery, and is one of the reasons we have such bad health inequality. Britain has the strictest standards on pork in europe, I have no problem buying british pork, but will buy danish if short of few bob.

As far as I am aware they don't serve them to troops anymore, they used to form part of the 10 man 24 hour ration pack. Not sure the new meals in bags are any better though.

 

[inthewids]

I really am not a snob and apologise for coming across that way. It just upsets me a lot about the state of food these days. I was brought up on mostly ready meals as my parents both worked a lot and i had no idea about food, after i became a chef i became more aware of vegetables, meat cuts etc, i have worked in some of the best restaurants in Britain, tried some awful things, and some delicious. Im just trying to say that there is no need for MRM, if the producers were not so profit hungry they could sell proper meat for a lower price, like the Tesco chicken war, they sell the mass produced ones for less than they buy them, there is no need to pump the chickens with growth hormones, if they allowed them a few weeks more natural growth they would be a lot nicer,

Also the only reason they pack these poor animals into cages/ barns etc is just for the profits. They are so removed from the natural world its horrible. How many of you would feel completely different if it was dogs or cats packed into barns? Id have no problem eating a dog, anyway...thats my two pence worth, no more from me, im not trying to say dont eat the lardy sausages if you want to just that theres no need to produce a product with a tiny meat content. DONE

 

[Tadpole]

. I'm lucky in that I can afford to eat whatever I want without worrying about paying for it, but remember, some others don't have this luxury

As Merlin said, there are some high horses on this forum these days, and I'm outraged at the snobbery shown by some, shame on you

You don’t have to be rich/well off to eat well, I make a version of Lobby (Staffordshire stew) that cost less to feed three people than serving can of gristle and fat.
The most expensive part is the meat,
Even cheap cuts like stewing steak are too expensive, so I use beef shin or if I can get them beef off cuts and trimmings.
Beef 5lb
Bacon trimmings ¼ lb
2 mid sized onions
One medium Garlic bulb pre-roasted
Potatoes 4lb (don’t peel the spuds)
Carrots 2lb
Haricot beans 1 ¼ lb
Chickpeas ¾
Bouquet garni, bay leaf, celery stalks, and the stalks of basil,
(Salt, pepper et al)
2 pints of veg stock
And 6 pints of water

The total cost of that was(is normally around) £15. Sounds a lot for a stew, but it will make 40 meals. (37 pence per meal) Add a mite of bread or some southern dumplings and the whole lot goes further. I once told an American friend about my stew and she called it poverty food, her reaction was almost as if she’d be ashamed to serve it to her kids, because it would say, “we’re poor”
You don’t have to eat rubbish just because you have no money, it’s as cheap to eat well as it is to eat tinned fat and gristle. Take a bit of time one weekend in four, cook up a storm and stuff that freezer full of goodness. That way so long as you think “what’s for tea” just before you go to work the next day, you’ve only need to spend 20 minutes to make a few dumpling, and pop them in to the stew when it is reheating.

Like a lot of you, I was born into a poor family, mother was in a wheelchair and father worked 13 - 14 hours a day to feed us, and like a lot of you, I’ve never left poverty behind, Like my father I’m working 60 hours plus a week. However, I’m not ashamed of my family history, I don’t feel the need to feed my family on processed food just because it is easier than ‘doing without’ the latest toy/gadget shiny thing.

Inverted snobbery is just as rife and just as bad.

 

[Kepis]

I agree with you MM

I posted this thread originally aimed at those of us who remembered old style compo rations and the thread has been hijacked by people to give lectures on good food and how cheap food and MRM will kill us. I've not seen so much crap and moral carbage spouted off in a long time.

My home hobby is cooking, without being big headed I very much doubt there are many better cooks on this site than me, but I would not look down on the food others eat either from liking or financial necessity.

Eating sausages in lard will not be a daily occurrence at home, but yes, I'll take a can camping and the rest are in my TEOTWAWKI stocks. I'm lucky in that I can afford to eat whatever I want without worrying about paying for it, but remember, some others don't have this luxury

As Merlin said, there are some high horses on this forum these days, and I'm outraged at the snobbery shown by some, shame on you

Well said Rik:You_Rock_

 

[Nagual]

You don’t have to be rich/well off to eat well, I make a version of Lobby (Staffordshire stew) that cost less to feed three people than serving can of gristle and fat.
The most expensive part is the meat,
Even cheap cuts like stewing steak are too expensive, so I use beef shin or if I can get them beef off cuts and trimmings.
Beef 5lb
Bacon trimmings ¼ lb
2 mid sized onions
One medium Garlic bulb pre-roasted
Potatoes 4lb (don’t peel the spuds)
Carrots 2lb
Haricot beans 1 ¼ lb
Chickpeas ¾
Bouquet garni, bay leaf, celery stalks, and the stalks of basil,
(Salt, pepper et al)
2 pints of veg stock
And 6 pints of water

The total cost of that was(is normally around) £15. Sounds a lot for a stew, but it will make 40 meals. (37 pence per meal) Add a mite of bread or some southern dumplings and the whole lot goes further. I once told an American friend about my stew and she called it poverty food, her reaction was almost as if she’d be ashamed to serve it to her kids, because it would say, “we’re poor”
You don’t have to eat rubbish just because you have no money, it’s as cheap to eat well as it is to eat tinned fat and gristle. Take a bit of time one weekend in four, cook up a storm and stuff that freezer full of goodness. That way so long as you think “what’s for tea” just before you go to work the next day, you’ve only need to spend 20 minutes to make a few dumpling, and pop them in to the stew when it is reheating.

Like a lot of you, I was born into a poor family, mother was in a wheelchair and father worked 13 - 14 hours a day to feed us, and like a lot of you, I’ve never left poverty behind, Like my father I’m working 60 hours plus a week. However, I’m not ashamed of my family history, I don’t feel the need to feed my family on processed food just because it is easier than ‘doing without’ the latest toy/gadget shiny thing.

Inverted snobbery is just as rife and just as bad.

I like the sound of that! Must have a damn big pot to cook it though? Probably a big freezer too?

 

[HillBill]

If you have a car, a microwave, a video and a computer you are in the top 1%"

.

Probably more like 15/20%. This thread has been interesting, having never heard of MRM before. We have none of those stores around here or i'd go look what all the fuss is about. I would eat them, I have eaten worse, much worse in fact. The noodles cooked with the sausages is a good idea for winter essentials.No matter how fatty and salty they are. We need fat and salt as part of our diet. The air we breathe will kill us faster than things like this. Especially with the chemicals the gov are spraying into the skies via commercial jets etc. They say they are to reflect the uv from the sun back into space, only thing is the sun is in its most dormant state for years. Hence this winter and others to follow. What you don't know is that the chemical formula they spray has things in it to kill our immune systems etc. Nevermind the food guys.

 

[Tadpole]

Probably more like 15/20%.

Maybe 20% of the westernised world has microwave ovens, but not all the world is westernised.
20% of the world has no access to electrical power (of any kind) and of all third world rural areas, 80% will still be in the same position in 30 years time. Even those places with electricity, few poor people can afford to pay $2 a day for electricity when they only earn $3, it just makes no sense.
2.6 billion People heat, cook, and light their home using traditional methods (wood oil and dung)
I’d say maybe “1%” is overly optimistic

 

[HillBill]

1% of the total population is around 67 million.The uk population is nearly that. Then there's America, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Austrailia, Japan, Russia etc all of which have the sort of things Rik mentioned. The population of these countries combined is over a billion. 1%??? Sorry i can't accept that figure.

 

[Nagual]

How on earth did we get from Sausages in Lard, to arguing about % of microwaves?

 

[xylaria]

How on earth did we get from Sausages in Lard, to arguing about % of microwaves?

You know once you are on the greasy slope the converstion just slips.

 

[Tadpole]

1% of the total population is around 67 million.The uk population is nearly that. Then there's America, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Austrailia, Japan, Russia etc all of which have the sort of things Rik mentioned. The population of these countries combined is over a billion. 1%??? Sorry i can't accept that figure.

The UK has an adult population of 36 million, only 31 million have a job and of those working, 20% have earning that put them below the poverty line (earning of less than 60% of the standard income. ( total income of £8800 per year)
To have all of these items a car, a microwave, a video and a computer, to some in the western world may be a standard, but to the poor and the really poor even owning one item on that list would be something of a dream.
Something like 30% of UK, families do not have access or own a car. Only 70% of people have access to a computer in the UK (the figure seems quite high but many kids have school access)
The poorest in the UK, the bottom third of the population do not have these luxuries,
The poorest in the USA were even harder hit, 20% are lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health.
40% of Americans were consistently below the poverty threshold, (given that it is calculated differently to the UK, it’s not surprising that the figure looks less worse than it is. apply the European methods, 60% of Americans live at or below the poverty line (earning 60% of the average or ‘mean standard’ income)

I’m sure that a car is as much a luxury in the USA’s poorest population as electricity is to those who live in the third world

 

[nickg]

This is a very interesting thread. As an old squaddie I remember the sausages in tins in the 10 man ration packs. And i think that too many posters on this thread have not been REALLY hungry, if they had spent prolonged periods of high energy output (say requiring 5000kCal) with little or no calorie input ( say 0 - 300kCal) they would maybe moderate their views a little. I remember cooking a tin of those sausages by wiring them to the exhaust of an Enfield 350cc army motorcycle on manouvers in N Germany. I tell you that having not eaten for over 30 hrs THEY WERE BRILLIANT.
That isnt a judgement on their opinions merely a statement of fact. I do agree with most of the principles expressed in this thread particularly the permitted adultarations of meat products.
I find it hard to genuinely endorse the organic route however, not just on cost, the question of growth hormones introduced via commercial feeds is a scandal. Many years ago anglers observed a dramatic rise in the numbers of female barbel in the swims, this was tracked down to the practise of baiting the swim with tinned pork products. The meat had high concentrations of oestrogen hormones fed to them to fatten them up - this passed into the fish which prompted the sex change. My point is that our national obesity is as much a product of the manipulated food we eat as the eating habits themselves. Even free range chickens and organic raised animals are supplied with commercially produced feeds - it the case of chickens the meal is selected to produce a particular shade of yellow in the egg yolk etc.
Incidentally you are doing really well to find a supply of 'Fresh' meat in this country unless you butcher your own meat everything you buy in a shop will have been frozen at some point - and refrozen in many cases.

Just my three ha'porth

Nick

 

[Tadpole]

Incidentally you are doing really well to find a supply of 'Fresh' meat in this country unless you butcher your own meat everything you buy in a shop will have been frozen at some point - and refrozen in many cases.

Just my three ha'porth

Nick

Thats not strictly true, most meat is chilled, for a few weeks, but few butchers have the space to freeze meat.

Only about 8% of meat is frozen and then defrosted. Nothing wrong with that, unless it's then sold as "Fresh meat", the Food Standards Agency's will prosecute butchers who do this for mislabelling their meat as Fresh rather than previously frozen.

 

[nickg]

Thats not strictly true, most meat is chilled, for a few weeks, but few butchers have the space to freeze meat.

Only about 8% of meat is frozen and then defrosted. Nothing wrong with that, unless it's then sold as "Fresh meat", the Food Standards Agency's will prosecute butchers who do this for mislabelling their meat as Fresh rather than previously frozen.

I stand corrected - thanks - I had heard differently

Nick

 

[durulz]

You know once you are on the greasy slope...

Would that be the tin of lard sausages?

 

[gzornenplat]

T...the poverty line (earning 60% of the average or ‘mean standard’ income)

I didn't know what the definition was, but that just goes to prove how stupid these statistics are - you could give everyone in this country 100 times the wages they get now, and we'd still have the same level of poverty

 

[h2o]

Some interesting points raised here.

I am not trying to ram my views down anyone's throat and have no problem with anyone else thinking this issue over and coming to a different position but for anyone interested in why someone would choose not to buy cheap filling food this is my position.

I make the choices I do not because of taste or some nostalgic vision of the past. I do it because I care about how the countryside is managed and having lived and worked in the farmed countryside all my life I know the issues.

To me eating MRM from factory farmed meat is as distasteful as wildcamping in the woods and leaving firesites, beercans and litter strewn everywhere or flytipping in lay byes. When you buy that tin you don't see the damage done but if you could trace it back to where it was produced I assure you the damage is there. I think this is why so many here have strong feelings on the subject, cheap meat has a very unpleasant effect on the environment. The cost argument is simply a non started. I have been very poor at times. I worked for the National Trust for years whilst on £7K a year with £10K negative equity, it didn't change my moral position or my buying habits.

"If your home has something other than a dirt floor, you are in the top half of the worlds population.
If your home has a roof, a door, windows and more than 1 room, you are in the top 20%.
if you have refrigeration you are in the top 5%
If you have a car, a microwave, a video and a computer you are in the top 1%"

One problem is we have learned to look to our immediate neighbors and covet what they have. We look to the 5% of the world who are better off and feel hard done to instead of the 95% and feel grateful for what we have. Eating meat 7 times a week has become part of aspirational culture, if you don't have meat on the table you feel cheated somehow, some folk feel the same with SKY or TV or a foreign holiday so if you are hard up cheap meat it is. For me if I am hard up I buy a sack of spuds, rice and beans which is far cheaper. It's not a new situation Thoreau in "Walden, or life in the woods" used to wonder why the Irish navies would endure such incredible hardship in order to eat meat once a week when they could relax so much more if they ate beans. Walden was written in 1854.

Money, meat and sky tv do not bring happiness.

Ive read all the posts on this great sausage debate but i think comparing people who eat cheap sausages to vandals and flytippers is a bit strong!!!

 

[burning]

Ive read all the posts on this great sausage debate but i think comparing people who eat cheap sausages to vandals and flytippers is a bit strong!!!

Well there's the crux, MRM comes from the worst of all possible animal welfare scenarios farming wise.
On the other hand it gives cheapish stodge to fill empty tums and uses nearly every part of the animal.
Buying it is your choice, same as sweatshop clothes from the far east. Would the slave kids be happier if they didn't get a few pennies to take home.

It's a moral minefield and the decision is yours, assuming you have even considered the discussion bernard.:togo:

 

[rik_uk3]

So many here would not eat this then, Korean chopped ham and pork with sliced olives, 5 tins for a quid, got these back in 1999/2000, very nice in a sandwich with onion