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Post by bjd on Oct 18, 2010 7:38:31 GMT
Going slightly off course here, when I was a kid in Canada we had neighbours from Hamburg. The girl used to get a snack of bread spread with what looked like lard and sugar sprinkled on it. So, I guess that "dripping" kind of thing was not limited to England. Back on subject, I shall contribute a picture I took at the market in Knaresborough, Yorkshire a few years ago. However, not all his cheese was British.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 7:43:20 GMT
More or less finally, unless I think of something else, I'd just like to mention a snack that is unbeatable (yeah, alright, it may be for you but not for me) - pikelets - or what is generally known as crumpets. Known in many countries but you can't beat the English version, dripping in butter - As an after thought, beware if you visit our shores if you are a male and you are offered by a female some Cockle Bread, as it is - a bread baked by English women in the seventeenth century which was supposed to act as a love charm or aphrodisiac. The dough was kneaded and pressed against the woman's vulva and then baked. This bread was then given to the object of the baker's affections.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 7:45:57 GMT
Dripping isn't limited to England, I can't see how it can be really and I don't expect it is. The cheese man above no doubt has put a few foreign cheeses on his stall just to show how cosmopolitan he is.
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Post by bjd on Oct 18, 2010 9:05:40 GMT
The cheese man above no doubt has put a few foreign cheeses on his stall just to show how cosmopolitan he is. Oh sure, working as he does in a major metropolis, with all those foreign tourists longing for food from home. His name was Dave, by the way.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 9:22:46 GMT
And it was a Wednesday?
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Post by bjd on Oct 18, 2010 10:47:57 GMT
It must have been, if that's the day all the tour buses arrive.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 11:51:01 GMT
It was a guess because a lot of Yorkshire towns have a market on that day. After looking into it I find that it is a Wednesday, though I would expect they have a Friday or Saturday one as well maybe. It does depend a bit on which King or Queen issued the charter to hold one and which day they said it could be on.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2010 12:17:56 GMT
I looked for the piece from NPR on British "artisanal" chesses (the word they used,not I. Another one of those overused trendy words I loathe!!! Anyway,I couldn't locate it at the moment,and will look around when more time allows,BUT,did find this piece on British Cheeses altering the way we dream.!!!! www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4851485
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Post by bjd on Oct 18, 2010 12:18:18 GMT
Oh, Mark. I thought you were being funny, since I said his name was Dave.
I don't know what day it was, but if you say it was a Wednesday, so be it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2010 12:24:01 GMT
So,is a crumpet the same as what we refer to here as an English Muffin? They look quite similar.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 18, 2010 12:46:01 GMT
You are quite right Mark - about dripping not being limited to England. When I was about 6 or 7yrs old we came to live at Granma's house for a few months and she regularly gave us (always hungry kids) a thick chunk of white bread spread with a soft dripping - I suppose either room temperature beef or pork dripping - sprinkled with a little salt. It was the best thing ever!
Years and years go by, I'm in my teens and I now see just how beef dripping is made. My parents managed a farm which ran a butcher shop. The animals were slaughtered (humanely with a stun gun even in those days of 1962 or thereabouts), then the entrails were cleaned as much as possible before being put into a large vat which boiled away all the fat clinging to them. If I told you it smelled to high heaven you better believe it! The fat was then poured red hot into special paper "coffee mug shaped" containers to harden. It seems everyone cooked with dripping in those days.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2010 12:50:46 GMT
Mixing beef fat with vegetable oil is supposed to be one of the secrets of the excellence of Belgian french fries.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 13:39:15 GMT
Oh, Mark. I thought you were being funny, since I said his name was Dave. Nobody takes me seriously any more. I don't know if life is worth living. My existence has been tainted by the ridiculous and I am now suffering payback for the scorn I have heaped upon others. Oh woe is me. Casimira, I've always thought it was an old wives tale about cheese eaten just before going to bed giving you nightmares. Maybe there's something in it. Crumpet = English muffin? I think they probably do, though I'm no baker so there might be a bit of a difference with the amount of different ingredients and the holes.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 13:40:45 GMT
tod, it has to be on thick white bread though, doesn't it? It wouldn't seem right on rye or wholegrain or whatever.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 18, 2010 15:26:04 GMT
Absolutely! Actually I never clapped eyes on brown bread when I was young. Everything was white. We didn't eat much butter either - just white magarine. Now there is no such thing - well not in my supermarket! If I want yummy roast potatoes I cook them in Holsum which is a hard white vegetable fat. That is after boiling the potatoes for 15min in a strong solution of Bovril and water(not a lot) then chucking the whole lot into the roaster with the fat. Makes them very brown and savoury!
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 18, 2010 15:28:45 GMT
Dripping isn't limited to England, I can't see how it can be really and I don't expect it is. When I was a kid, before cholesterol loomed large in the public consciousness, every house had a special container for meat greases. I think the containers often came as part of a set of kitchen canisters. They've gone the way of button hooks. Oaxaca has elevated a version of dripping into an essential part of the cuisine. It's called asiento and is the part left after removing the white lard from the rendering kettle. It's dark brown and full of crisp bits of rendered meat. It's spread on all kinds of things and also mixed into tortilla dough to make dumplings. So,is a crumpet the same as what we refer to here as an English Muffin? They look quite similar. My thought exactly. Before seeing that picture, I'd always thought a crumpet was some dainty little cookie thing. Mixing beef fat with vegetable oil is supposed to be one of the secrets of the excellence of Belgian french fries. I've heard that the Belgian secret is specifically kidney fat for the fries.
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 18, 2010 16:03:12 GMT
Absolutely! Actually I never clapped eyes on brown bread when I was young. Everything was white. We didn't eat much butter either - just white magarine. Now there is no such thing - well not in my supermarket! If I want yummy roast potatoes I cook them in Holsum which is a hard white vegetable fat. That is after boiling the potatoes for 15min in a strong solution of Bovril and water(not a lot) then chucking the whole lot into the roaster with the fat. Makes them very brown and savoury! I think King Edward potatoes make the best roast but if I boiled them for 15 minutes first they would have tiotally fallen apart. 5 minutes at the most for me.. Never heard about Bovril before though. Well worth a try.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 16:05:15 GMT
Crumpet = slang = pretty woman also.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 16:57:03 GMT
Bread has been mentioned just now. Well, we aren't so good at bread, not like the Germans for example. There are some good regional breads from the flat type to heavy grain bread but in general the only thing we are good at is a soft white bread that is used in a very delicious way -
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Post by onlymark on Oct 18, 2010 17:29:19 GMT
And yet, there may be room for just one more thing. One more thing we use bread for. You may think it looks wrong, that it may belong in the food abomination thread. You are entitled to your opinion. It was difficult to find any picture that did justice to this food favourite of mine. Searching on it's proper name - "Chip Buttie" or the more known "Chip Cob" produced very little results of note. However this one will give you the idea - Technically the bread is not a 'cob' but is a 'bap'. This is a larger version of the cob/bread roll especially suited to having chips stuffed in it. It is the food of Kings. I kid you not, and here's why. Over time the words uttered by the famous have been mistranslated or altered. For example, Nelson didn't say on his deathbed "Kiss me, Hardy" he actually said, "Kismet, Hardy" meaning fate. Richard III met his end at the Battle of Bosworth Field during the War of the Roses. Richard, for all his faults was more a man of the people than he was given credit for. He was born the eighth son in Northamptonshire, in central England, and spent many formative years in Yorkshire (Wensleydale to be precise). He ran riot and mixed often with those of lesser station in life. He thus had a liking for the food of the common man. At his death he was reputed to have said "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" but at this time Knights used a small sturdy breed of horse called a 'cob'. He actually was supposed to have said. "A cob, a cob, my kingdom for a cob!" and over the years the word cob became horse. What recent research discovered with modern techniques is that he'd been fighting for several days without pause. He was ravenously hungry. He became unhorsed and thought that while he was out of the saddle he'd have a quick snack before continuing. But the dastardly Henry, Earl of Richmond killed him before the food was delivered from the local takeaway. What he in reality said was, "A chip cob, a chip cob, my kingdom for a chip cob!"
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Post by fumobici on Oct 18, 2010 21:45:44 GMT
I knew it was only a matter of time before the chip buttie came up in this thread ;D
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2010 22:08:37 GMT
Actually,New Orleans has a PoBoy sandwich not too unlike the chip buttie,that I love. It's on French bread however,and does have gravy on it.It does incorporate french fry style potatoes in it. But,I've always contended that a decent bread makes up at least 3/4's of a decent sandwich. I can't tell you how many sandwiches I've eaten on horrible bread. Why bother? The British bread pictured is not too unlike the U.S. version of a commercial sliced white bread, Wonder Bread,or in the South,Bunny Bread name brands.
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Post by cristina on Oct 19, 2010 2:42:28 GMT
Mark, I have only now come upon this thread...you've done a very nice job of showcasing good British food. I think cheeses are one of Britain's best offerings, personally. Anywhere that a variety of cows can be raised well is bound to offer a bounty of good cheese specialties. As for the crumpet vs, English muffin question: personally, I find them to be slightly different, although they each have their merits. My Newfoundland Nana used to fry extra dough from bread making and these too, were quite similar to the above (although called "toutons" in NFLD). All three are yeast doughs that are fried in some way. Personally, I think the love of the maker is the thing that differentiates the final product. Also, if I can add a plug for scones here - on my QM2 trip last fall, the scones they served at tea, with clotted cream and jam, were by far the best I have ever had. I had to restrain myself from over indulging every single day. Being a carbohydrate lover, I will add that I love Yorkshire puddings. Sometimes I use leftover bacon drippings to make them. Just because I can. But I will confess that I have no taste for fish and chips.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 19, 2010 4:48:26 GMT
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Post by tod2 on Oct 19, 2010 8:20:22 GMT
Mick, You must use those waxy potatoes or everything will fall apart. These roast potatoes donot go crispy in this Bovril case, instead turn a mahogany colour but are still soft. Actually you don't even have to pre-boil them - just mix the Bovril with a little boiling water and tip into the roaster.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 19, 2010 9:45:28 GMT
How far to the inside does the colour penetrate? What I mean is that to me roast potatoes are white inside, not brown. So I presume it is just the surface and a bit more that gets coloured?
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Post by onlymark on Oct 19, 2010 9:48:42 GMT
cristina, I was hesitant about saying if English muffins and crumpets are different. To me they seem to be but only by a little and I can't quite identify what it is that is different generally. I've not had English muffins for many years and I don't quite remember them well, yet crumpets/pikelets I have two or three times a year when I go back to the UK.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 19, 2010 9:50:26 GMT
And what is a 'roaster'? Not just in a hot oven then?
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Post by Don Cuevas on Oct 19, 2010 12:29:10 GMT
"English Muffins" are generally thicker than the flatter crumpets.
I want more information on the Cockle Bread, thanks!
No, never mind. I read all I need to know.
I may start a new topic on Sexual Breads.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 20, 2010 1:51:51 GMT
A textual sexual bread thread?
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