General Chat

I love black pudding and adore white pudding when I can get it. Like Julia I agree half lard and marg for good pastry.

Thinking back many moons, I recall 'academics' discussing how we were 'fitter'(ie slimmer) during the war, when fat was rationed - then the rot set in, heart valves etc were micro-analysed, lard, butter, real milk etc were deemed 'bad', and trans fats were introduced. 'Real' milk was replaced by homogenised milk (longer shelf life), semi-skimmed milk was declared better for us. Then there was a spate of malnutrition amongst (mainly) middle class children (semi-skimmed milk?), and people started putting on weight (trans fats?)!!

What no-one seemed to consider was, apart from a limited diet - lard, butter & sugar weren't the only things in short supply during the war, was that people were living on their nerves in the towns/cities, and doing hard physical labour - probably the work of 2 - in the country!!

I always use "natural" everything.....butter, milk, lard etc.... after being told that the chemicals used to remove fat cause more problems than the fats themselves.
Always make pastry with half lard, half butter. Despair of meat in Spain which has every gram of fat removed, so is as dry as a bone when cooked unless you add fat to it.
Love Boxing Day breakfast of turkey dripping on crusty toast. Best meal of the season.

My children drank unpasteurised milk from about a year - I don't mean in a bottle, as a 'feed' (they got that from me), but as a drink, for about 3 years until we moved from that area.

Paula,
has your OH tried "Vitalite" as an alternative to Butter?
Its a far healthier option in my opinion, and I love the distinctive taste of it .
(plus its pretty cheap) £1.10 at Morrisons. :-D

I listen and read about the things we should and should not eat and I have to smile. My Mother came from a very large family ( and I do mean large) During and after the war my Grandparents kept pigs, chicken, geese grew all their own veg and baked bread everyday. Today they would possibly be consideed to be eating the "wrong" food but they were all fit and strong heathy and extemely well fed. You could always call at Grannies house and would never leave hungry. My Grannie was a wise old lady with shed loads of common sense. One learned at a very early age never to let her hear you say you were bored for fear of her giving you a chore. I never saw her cross or angry or shout at any of the children, but we all knew who was the boss. God Bless you Grannie they broke the mould when they made you..................... Sorry if I have gone of the subject <3

Butter has far more saturated fat in it than Lard.
(not a lot of people know that) :-)

Scozz, I'm pleased to say I eat black pudding :-D

Paula, agree - most confusing. Seems like too many academics, not enough common sense!!
Trans fat, the chemical gunk used in place of good old saturated fat is really bad for us :-S

ooooooooooops Kay??
wrote.......

Grandad used to rub a lump of lard on his hands in winter,thats why a hand pastry cook will never have chapped hands,

In the 60's, I worked for a while in McDougalls flour mill in millwall docks, and the lady Chef in the Lab,also did that.........
Bob

Maggie I have listened to the programme, Once again we are being told what was once considered to be bad for us is is now acceptable again. I am confused.com :-S

Must try giving dripping on toast to my borderline ADHD grandson on Thursday when he comes for tea. Maybe it will stop him antagonising his poor younger sister.

LYNDA

I don't use margarine any more, it's got too many chemicals in it.

I'm a bit leery of the "solid" spreads (olive oil etc) - how do you make a liquid solid? chemicals again?

We buy low-salt butter, but it take weeks to use a 500gr tub.

I've never bought lard in my life! Lard is pig fat ~ makes me laugh when people use lard, but refuse to eat black pudding.

My mother used to make mouth-watering pastry using schmaltz (chicken fat).

I make pastry about 4 times a year, as a treat (both of us trying to keep cholesterol levels down).

Salt? I don't like it, so don't cook with it, but there's always a salt shaker on the table for those who want it. My mother had to keep her salt intake very low, so I didn't grow up with salt in cooking.

The Catalan word for Pig Fat is Llard, so I guess there is a Latin root to this word.

I recall an American man saying when it was announced that Salt was "bad for you"..."Well that's it for me. I'll give up my last pleasure but i'll sure die healthy".

Hi Paula,
I don't think it mentioned dripping or butter.

Here's the programme:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01npb10

Grandad used to rub a lump of lard on his hands in winter,thats why a hand pastry cook will never have chapped hands,

:-D

Oh nooooooooooooooooooo Maggie I am having difficulty weaning my OH off best butter if he hears this I will have no chance. Did programme mention if dripping was good for you too? :-S

Bob - I drink unhomogenised Jersey. Not easy to get hold of!
Red, Green & Blue caps are all homogenised.

Amazingly - 'they've' 'discovered' that milk is better than water or energy drinks for hydrating the body and replenishing cells after exercise.

In my 'youff' when,aged 18 and weighing 7 stone, I used to drink a pint of 'proper' milk with my sandwich every lunchtime - the number of people who were horrified was amazing! A couple of people even said I'd get fat???? - this was after a year of this regime.

Maggie, we use lard for chips and frying our fish.....


Takes I back to types of milk when I was a Milkies boy,

sterilised, crimped top, or porcelain top with wire latch
pasturised .......white cap....some cream
jersey..............yellow cap...... lots of cream
and homo(genised)...... red cap........no visible cream

For the best dripping by your meat from a butcher and tell him you want a cut that will give you the best dripping, He should then produce a joint that has plenty of fat left on the meat, Supermarkets tend to strip the best fatty parts off for presentation purposes

Use a slow cook method and baste after the first hour of cooking, Then abt every 30 minutes, once the joint is cooked if you want you can return the juices to the heat and reduce down which will help to increase the flavour

Roy

Interesting though Maggie, I sometimes wonder if by being so health concsious we have caused more problems than solved them. There must be a reason for so many children with ADHD, I know we had 'naughty' children when I was young but there were not the problems on the the scale that there is today. And I am not saying that ADHD children are naughty.