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Best Value - what's yours?


Bettie Boo

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Noo, noodles come in flavoured water! this counts as dip/sauce!

HOWEVER, if you're feeling fancy, you can add Marmite instead of the flavour sachet.

MMMMMmmmmmmm - just tried your Marmite recipe - delicious.

 

Sad not to see one of those technicolour photos to big it up though.............

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  • 2 years later...
 

I am not keen on cheap, fast reared chicken; they require cooking skills that I do not have. I end up with flavourless, chewy meat as found in 'ready meals' and similar to the 'broilers', (old, scrawny egg layers) of my youth. No doubt, Bettie and Cal can do much better than I!

 

I remember in the 1950s we always had roast beef (topside or silverside) on Sunday; occasionally my mother would say "Maybe we can afford a chicken this week".

 

MtB, thank you for the tip about frozen lobsters in Asda. I have seen velvet crabs in Lidl. I would relish either but I have no idea how to cook them.

 

Surely, offal, pig's trotters, turkey thighs etc. are the best value. French chefs make offal into delicious dishes but I turn liver into leather. I have ruined many a good beef rump steak when grilling them but I have had good results now that I pan-fry them.

 

Alan (sans compartiment congélateur).

I don't eat a lot of meat these days, I was once a farm and food hygiene officer, therefore my rules are straightforward : only eat what you can recognise.

Never buy value/savers meat or ready frozen food [see above]

Buy the best meat available and take it out of the fridge an hour before cooking. The difference between a fridge temperature steak grilled,fried, and a room temperature steak is amazing.

If you like liver, but it goes tough, buy calf's liver, pop in some room temp milk for 30 mins, coat in breadcrumbs [Ruskoline], fry in moderate heat for a few minutes, serve when just pink in centre but not bloody.

 

 

 

Edited by LadyG
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I don't eat a lot of meat these days, I was once a farm and food hygiene officer, therefore my rules are straightforward : only eat what you can recognise.

Never buy value/savers meat or ready frozen food [see above]

Buy the best meat available and take it out of the fridge an hour before cooking. The difference between a fridge temperature steak grilled,fried, and a room temperature steak is amazing.

If you like liver, but it goes tough, buy calf's liver, pop in some room temp milk for 30 mins, coat in breadcrumbs [Ruskoline], fry in moderate heat for a few minutes, serve when just pink in centre but not bloody.

 

 

I often wonder if in 200 years' time, we will regard eating chopped up animals with as much distaste as we now view slavery or cannibalism. 

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I often wonder if in 200 years' time, we will regard eating chopped up animals with as much distaste as we now view slavery or cannibalism. 

I think if teenagers were to be asked to kill and dress their own meat, just once,  they would refuse, as  it is a gory business, yet the majority ignore these inconveniences. 

I know I used to do a bit of food gathering as a youngster: rabbit, trout, mackeral, pheasant,  but only for the pot, I never thought much about  it.

 These options are not available these days, and I am a lot more concerned with welfare than I once was, but the majority of the population are still buying on price, regardless.

I don't think we will ever get past a mixed farming strategy, and I would not encourage mass veganism, but a more educated and balanced view would be better.  I enjoyed farming in the 1950's when the pace of life was so different, but as an agriculuralist in the 60's and 70's , I became increasingly disappointed, this was a time when The Soil Association was considered rather radical! These farmers considered themselves as stewards of the land, and they were often evangelistic christians.

Edited by LadyG
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I am not keen on cheap, fast reared chicken; they require cooking skills that I do not have. I end up with flavourless, chewy meat as found in 'ready meals' and similar to the 'broilers', (old, scrawny egg layers) of my youth. No doubt, Bettie and Cal can do much better than I!

 

I remember in the 1950s we always had roast beef (topside or silverside) on Sunday; occasionally my mother would say "Maybe we can afford a chicken this week".

 

MtB, thank you for the tip about frozen lobsters in Asda. I have seen velvet crabs in Lidl. I would relish either but I have no idea how to cook them.

 

Surely, offal, pig's trotters, turkey thighs etc. are the best value. French chefs make offal into delicious dishes but I turn liver into leather. I have ruined many a good beef rump steak when grilling them but I have had good results now that I pan-fry them.

 

Alan (sans compartiment congélateur).

That's what I remember too. Chicken was a special occasion. Hard to think now. 

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That's what I remember too. Chicken was a special occasion. Hard to think now. 

Best chicken I ever had was home made in a cafe/bistro attached to a village garage in Brittanny, it was delicious: very obviously a former resident of the farm, a Leghorn type judging by the local, free range chickens..

We used to have a Capon at xmas, some sort of chicken injected wth hormones....................... the rot had started.

Edited by LadyG
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Best chicken I ever had was home made in a cafe/bistro attached to a garage in Brittanny, it was delicious, very obviously a former resident of the local farm, a Leghorn type judging by tthe local, free range chickens..

Bet it was a Froghorn, not a Leghorn :)

 

 

Foghorn_Leghorn.jpg

Edited by rusty69
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I think if teenagers were to be asked to kill and dress their own meat, just once,  they would refuse, as  it is a gory business, yet the majority ignore these inconveniences. 

I know I used to do a bit of food gathering as a youngster: rabbit, trout, mackeral, pheasant,  but only for the pot, I never thought much about  it.

 These options are not available these days, and I am a lot more concerned with welfare than I once was, but the majority of the population are still buying on price, regardless.

I don't think we will ever get past a mixed farming strategy, and I would not encourage mass veganism, but a more educated and balanced view would be better.  I enjoyed farming in the 1950's when the pace of life was so different, but as an agriculuralist in the 60's and 70's , I became increasingly disappointed, this was a time when The Soil Association was considered rather radical! These farmers considered themselves as stewards of the land, and they were often evangelistic christians.

My son, when he was at college training in Butchery spent a day at the Army Aldershot  abortoire, in the morning he met a sheep and a cow. In the afternoon he slaughtered them. He hated it. But he was working in butchers shops from 14 years old until last year when he gave it up, he is 41in April. Just went of being a butcher.

So,yes, ask 'anyone' to kill dress cook and eat an animal would get an adverse reaction from most. I do like a good bit of meat though.

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I went to Glasgow meat market age 16, taken by my father [strange idea], the last animal was a kosher killing, now that is pretty bad. I still went in to agriculture but not farming animals for myself.

Edited by LadyG
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I went to Glasgow meat market age 16, taken by my father [strange idea], the last animal was a kosher killing, now that is pretty bad. I still went in to agriculture but not farming animals for myself.

 

Yes kosher slaughter seems just plain vindictive to me. The animal is required to be aware it is being slaughtered, IIRC. 

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I went to Glasgow meat market age 16, taken by my father [strange idea], the last animal was a kosher killing, now that is pretty bad. I still went in to agriculture but not farming animals for myself.

Showing people where their meat comes from and how it gets to the table is I think very important. 

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Showing people where their meat comes from and how it gets to the table is I think very important. 

At that time things were probably little better than third world practices, and indeed such practices still occur in rural areas [poachers]. General standards are better, but with exceptions, as abattoirs are more scattered these days, so stock have to travel further, and I assume they still have to be held overnight in lairage, which must be stressful.

Anyway, better to encourage UK welfare standards and be prepared to pay a few pence extra for the privilege. We have a choice though many in the world have no choice.

Edited by LadyG
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At that time things were probably little better than third world practices, and indeed such practices still occur in rural areas [poachers]. General standards are better, but wih exceptions, as abattoirs are more scattered these days, so stock have to travel further, and I assume they still have to be held overnight in lairage, which must be stressful.

Anyway, better to encourage UK welfare standards and be prepared to pay a few pence extra for the priveledge, remember that we have a choice. Many in the world have no choice.

Yes we have a choice which is why it is so disappointing when people still make that choice based on price rather than quality of life for the animal and quality of the product.

In some cases I do genuinely believe that it is ignorance from the consumer but also misleading information and packaging from the larger supermarket chains.

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 I assume they still have to be held overnight in lairage..

 

Thank you for this word, which I had not previously encountered. It looks somehow Scots, but the S.O.D. mentions no such regional usage.

Fortuitously, it is an anagram of Algeria, perhaps a part of the world where the meat industry is less well regulated than it is here.

Edited by Athy
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