General Chat

eeeeuuuwwwwww :-0

rofl

In the mid 1960s I brought some yoghurt home............ dad muttered for days that I was turning into a hippie :-D He had a few things to say about muesli too.

Thirty years later he was making his own concoction with lots of weird things added. It smelled horrible and he couldn't understand why nobody else wanted it.

Weird things? He had a shelf full of packets & bottles that he got at a "health food" shop......:-D

The main problem was that he never emptied the gloopy container, just kept topping it up! errrrrk :-(

:-D

"....eaten by vegetarians and other suspect individuals...." :-D :-D :-D made me laugh Sharron. You can add 'foreigners' to that list then 'cos grandma was a foreigner and always making what my brother and I termed as 'funny food', most of which is on the shop shelves these days but wasn't around in 50's and 60's Britain.

Warm milk and a dollop of yogurt in a Thermos overnight is the recipe.

I think most plain yogurt is live now but you used to have to look out for it especially if you wanted to make your own.

Don't remember it being around before the early sixties but I think it was eaten by vegetarians and other suspect individuals before that.

It was a long time ago :-0 but I think she saved some from each batch she made, so as to have a culture (whatever that meant). Sadly my mother didn't follow suit with making her own too or I would have a more recent memory....and most likely a recipe & method !

If the yoghurt is a few days past the use by date & I'm not sure about it, I make brownies :-D Have done this for at least 10 years (since I found the recipe) and they've always been good.

Heart <3 Foundation cookbook recipe

:-D

Can you remember how she started it Karen?

I make yoghurt if I want some but always have to buy a pot initially and when the culture is on it's last legs but have never really known how it all began.

One day I am going to do some sourdough bread as well, one day!

P.S. I had to laugh at the last couple of lines in LadyScozz post, ref: the yoghurt being past the sell-by-date and niece declaring it as off'. I have a friend who does the same, whereas I will eat yoghurt whatever the date since it is fine until it has a mold on it. I have tried explaining to my friend that, actually, yoghurt, is already 'off' by its very nature but I can tell she doesn't believe me.
I remember my grandma making her own yoghurt, but of course, those were the days before we had shelves of them at the supermarket.
In fact, if I think about it, it was before we had supermarkets :-D :-D

Appalled at the amount of food waste coming out of hotels I've often had this conversation with my OH, executive chef in the hospitality industry, he has worked for donkey's years in 5* hotels and/or resorts.

The amount of food waste is truly despicable, he agrees, but there is nothing they can do about it. They can't (officially) let staff take items home because once some staff are seen walking out with items, signed approval chit or not, others will see it as an ok to take stuff. The logistics are difficult to control, ie in his present job he has 123 kitchen staff, so not always easy to control folks wandering off the premises with bags of food. Security guards at the staff entrance have 650 employees to control coming in and out and various times of the day and night. So there lies problem No 1.

But the main reason is good old 'Elf 'n Safety whose rules just won't allow it - their laws govern food temperature, storage, hygiene, packaging, cross-contamination, cooked v raw, frozen v thawed, sell by dates, use by dates, perishable foods, etc etc .
Then there would be the discarding and distribution factor, which again, is a matter of logistics...supervision, control, distribution etc. Or do you just let anyone under the sun wander onto the premises and help themselves from the back of hotel kitchens?
Finally the possible reprisals....from those who get genuinely sick, or those who are compensation seekers.
And there's always the possibility of some evil swine, perhaps an ex employee with a grudge, who may decide to put something nasty in the food bin.......story gets reported to the press, hotel gets a bad reputation, owners get sued, hotel loses business/trading licence, travel agents can't send any more guests, no guests means no work, hotel closes down and everyone out of a job.


I can't say I agree with all of the above reasons, but I do understand them. I would much prefer if there was a way to counteract such extreme food wastage, I really really hate waste. :-(

One of our offspring occasionally goes through our cupboards and tries to throw out cans with an expired BBF date. If it hasn't 'blown' its still safe to eat! Mind you, if its been lurking for that long, we probably don't want it anyway. :-0

According to the Andrew Marr show, one of the Sunday papers is highlighting supermarket and domestic food waste this morning.

EDIT - it's the Independent
Supermarkets urged to end BOGOF as shoppers waste 222m tons of food a year

Scratch & Sniff........... that usually let you know what's ok.

I have a nose like a truffle pig, I can smell anything "off" from 100 metres!!

We didn't have "use by dates" on food when we were young........ but we knew when it was no good........ my niece gets upset when we laugh at her for "this yoghurt is old, I can't eat it".... & the use by date is yesterday's!

:-D

Fred used to empty the cesspit of the nunnery in the next village and struck up quite a friendship with Reverend Mother.

At Christmas we would always receive a box of goodies from them. Their mince pies were spectacular!

I remember the neighbours coming round to say the nunnery had been on the phone, we didn't have one then, to say that they had been given some food, I think that may have been from M&S and would he like to up there and collect some.

We shared a bit round the neighbours and all lived rather well for a few days.

Back in the 80s I worked in a home for children with learning difficulties & we all looked forward to the twice weekly donations of food from M&S.
They were very generous.

How I loathe waste....
Don't know how anyone these days could cope as us older ones did during the war.

It's the compensation culture as far as the retail trade are concerned,but ordinary households tend to take the dates on food literally without the use of their nose and eyes.
Too much food is thrown away when perfectly edible! :-S

a friend asked at the supermarket if she could have the discarded fruit & vegetables to give to her chickens.

NO!

Because the shops think people will eat them.... then sue if they get sick.

:-S

Years ago my b i l worked for a well known food/clothing/furniture chain store....and they gave all their out of date, dented food to homes, homeless etc...it all stopped because of health and safety....bloody ridiculous, :-P :-P :-P :-P

jude

Why not ask your local supermarkets Ann? You could offer to send a van/car round at an agreed time each day.

They might be willing to give you dented tins, and possible 'sell by' dated foods if its been stored correctly. They daren't pass on foods over the 'use by' dates even if you and I in our own homes would eat it.

I run a homeless hostel and although I hold food vouchers not everyone qualifies for one .But still people go hungry. It would be wonderful if we could receive some of the food before its been put in the bins xx

Some while ago a group of people took the food from supermarkets that would have been thrown away and did a buffet for the local councilors and made quite an impression.
Maybe it can be done again and include the elf n safety bods too.

The 'Fregans' or otherwise known as Skip-divers must have missed that haul Michael ! :-D

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2551810/Astonishing-haul-food-grabbed-supermarket-bin-just-10-minutes-skip-divers-tempted-eat-it.html