Old Foods

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sidevalve

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Are we in danger of 'forgetting' the older food items ?
I'm refering here to things like mutton [not sure about the US but really it's quite rare here in the UK] quinces - not often seen in stores. Most of the 'offal' ie heart liver or even tripe. There must be lots more. Ok maybe the members of this forum know of them but just check around - the number of folk that don't [and the availability of] these things is pretty low. Seems a waste. After all how many people would turn almost green at the idea of bone marrow and yet it sustained our ancestors - why abandon such a thing ? If you are going to kill something at least use it all - don't just turn the 'unpleasant' bits into dog/cat food. Similar applies to many fruits and vegetables - the old varieties are forgotten. Not sweet enough or big enough.
Just wondering.
 
I'd agree. I'd willingly buy mutton if it were more available - it has a lot more taste than lamb. Are all the lambs killed off young not only because of the demand for lamb but also because it costs more to raise them to the mutton stage? As for offal, the great thing about it is that its so cheap. I love it and eat it quite often. However I think that offal can be rather less versatile than other meat just because of its strong distinctive flavour - a lamb's liver curry, for example, would be just wrong!
 
I used to frequently have quince and apple pie, not to mention the quince cheese I used to make.
I know that Waitrose still sell quince cheese on the deli counter.
The only reason I haven't had it in the last 4 years is because I moved to a house with out any quince bushes! The ones I used to have were excellent. One produced really large fruit, but they were really green and hard, but worked well with apples. That one had no fragrance to the fruit at all, but we also had another one which produced much smaller yellower fruit with a fragrance. I do miss having them and as soon as I have a garden of my own again, then I will be planting all sorts, including quince.
 
morning glory said:
I'd agree. I'd willingly buy mutton if it were more available - it has a lot more taste than lamb. Are all the lambs killed off young not only because of the demand for lamb but also because it costs more to raise them to the mutton stage? As for offal, the great thing about it is that its so cheap. I love it and eat it quite often. However I think that offal can be rather less versatile than other meat just because of its strong distinctive flavour - a lamb's liver curry, for example, would be just wrong!
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we use hogget some times ,its between al lamb and mutton,the beast is a year old ,so has flavour and is not so tough
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I used to frequently have quince and apple pie, not to mention the quince cheese I used to make.
I know that Waitrose still sell quince cheese on the deli counter.
The only reason I haven't had it in the last 4 years is because I moved to a house with out any quince bushes! The ones I used to have were excellent. One produced really large fruit, but they were really green and hard, but worked well with apples. That one had no fragrance to the fruit at all, but we also had another one which produced much smaller yellower fruit with a fragrance. I do miss having them and as soon as I have a garden of my own again, then I will be planting all sorts, including quince.
Click to expand...
membrillo my favourite with cheese and biscuits,absolutely adore it,but can i grow the quince,no way i have a lovely tree its flowered and fruit is formed ,but most years a disease hits the tree,the leaves are silky and soft at the moment,it looks so healthy so fingers crossed
 
some of the old beef cuts are forgotten ,bavette, onglet, hanger,baron of beef,clod ,feather steak,goose skirt and a cut from my home county Dorset popseye,
all being forgotten,i use them regularly and they create a interest
 
Berties said:
membrillo my favourite with cheese and biscuits,absolutely adore it,but can i grow the quince,no way i have a lovely tree its flowered and fruit is formed ,but most years a disease hits the tree,the leaves are silky and soft at the moment,it looks so healthy so fingers crossed
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You need to cut away any diseased looking branches. Be ruthless. Also all of last year's fallen leaves and fruit must be cleared from under the bush. Cut away all of the list branches so that there is a tree like structure not a bush like structure so that the air can circulate around the base of the plant. Finally as the new vigorous growth happens in the summer, cull most of it. The plant needs to protect itself rather than concentrate of new growth and also you may need to be cruel to be kind to it and halve the fruit that starts to grow when they are large marble size. Just twist and pull to separate fruit out. A good feed will help it, a layer of nice compost and a good watering. They do like warm sunny place, but need their roots shaded, so consider putting a few slabs of paving stones close by their truck but not too much to kill their water supply. They don't grow in tubs.
The one we had that was green fruited when ripe was roughly 15-20 high and huge. It also had thorns rather like a hawthorn tree and they hurt! The two yellow one was only about 8 foot high and didn't have thorns!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
You need to cut away any diseased looking branches. Be ruthless. Also all of last year's fallen leaves and fruit must be cleared from under the bush. Cut away all of the list branches so that there is a tree like structure not a bush like structure so that the air can circulate around the base of the plant. Finally as the new vigorous growth happens in the summer, cull most of it. The plant needs to protect itself rather than concentrate of new growth and also you may need to be cruel to be kind to it and halve the fruit that starts to grow when they are large marble size. Just twist and pull to separate fruit out. A good feed will help it, a layer of nice compost and a good watering. They do like warm sunny place, but need their roots shaded, so consider putting a few slabs of paving stones close by their truck but not too much to kill their water supply. They don't grow in tubs.
The one we had that was green fruited when ripe was roughly 15-20 high and huge. It also had thorns rather like a hawthorn tree and they hurt! The two yellow one was only about 8 foot high and didn't have thorns!
Click to expand...
i do cut it back hard,the free now looks great,what i loose in skill ,i gain in enthusiasm ,but it gets hit by a ,bug or air born disease,I'm still trying out what i should spray it with as a precaution .none of my other fruit trees get effected,slightly off topic i had swarm of bees visit my garden on their journey ,so we should be ok on pollination
 
Unfortunately we do not have any butchers near us only at supermarkets and they only sell what they think people want so we cannot get hold of mutton unless we go to a farm and that means driving a long distance and paying a lot for the meat. I don't think many people these days take time to slow cook meals. Very few cookery shows use old cuts of meat so people don't know how to cook them or that some actually exist. I like liver but my husband does not.
 
That's weird. In my country, these kinds of ingredients/food are still considered as delicacies. In fact, my mom can still get these at the market. Perhaps, it depends on the region or country. Our culture is deeply rooted on tradition, so we still enjoy the food that our ancestors once depended on. It's sad that some of the old foods are no longer popular in your country.
 
image.jpg
Here we go the blossom has just dropped the fruit is forming, I will be positive and see how it forms this year
 
The starter of this thread has a good memory of the olden foods. I also miss those food that my mother has been cooking. Fortunately, my husband is a good cook although his dishes are different.

My mother had that dish called DINUGUAN. It is made from pig innards and the main ingredient is pig's blood. It's eww for some people but for Dinuguan eaters like us, it is a treat. Mostly for snacks, that dinuguan dish is now vanishing.
 
I agree 100%. I recently got some mutton myself. But an old one you don't hear about very often anymore is pig brains. When I was a kid every once in a while, when mom and dad were in the mood, we would have pig brains and eggs.
I think people have backed away from eating frog legs.
 
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