Out of fashion

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Just been watching Brian Turner and Mary Berry’s My Life on a Plate on BBC2. I’ve seen the whole series before and there’s quite a lot of focus on stuff, particularly meat, which has gone out of fashion. Brian cooked and used ox tongue. Now I love it but tend to buy it ready cooked an sliced these days as OH wouldn’t eat very much. Do any of you still cook it?

I remember an earlier programme in the series Russell Grant talking about Best End of Neck now being called the more fashionable Rack of Lamb now.

Any others?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I think Russell Grant needs an anatomy lesson - surely all neck cuts are from in front of the shoulder and the rack is the fore ribs just behind it? I think a lot of the neck goes into neck fillet, a cut I like for kebabs etc if I can get it, neck fillet being better than shoulder fillet

I haven't cooked an ox tongue in years, too big for a small household I agree, though I do cook lambs' tongues with capers if I see any

Sometimes you can get neck of lamb on the bone, but they slice it far too thin, similarly you can get diced heart, but I've really no idea how you are meant to cook it when they dice it too fine. I've seen it in bits about the size of baked beans. I love calves' liver, but it comes into most butchers already sliced too thin to be properly cooked, so people buy it once, fail to cook it well, never eat it again except in restaurants, and it gets more expensive and more difficult to buy

Over cutting is an epidemic, going back to that rack or lamb, often only to be found French trimmed either whole or as cutlets, which I don't necessarily want, and if I do want my cutlets trimmed, I want the trimmings

[Lusciouslush Profile]

There are quite a lot aren't there if you think about it...…..

Breast of lamb (stuffed), scrag end or middle neck of mutton, stuffed heart, sweetbreads, tripe, brawn, faggots, in fact most offal.

I love ox tongue & have cooked it many years ago usually around Xmas - you need quite a few people to feed as they are large - worth it then but a faff now - all that pressing down with weights etc.

All definitely bought from a butchers - trouble is most folk only buy packaged from the s/market & haven't a clue & probably wouldn't try - a lot depends on how you were raised I think.

Brian Turner certainly is a meat man!

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Well Sue, my mother and granny always called in Best end of neck and it was to all intents and purposes a rack of lamb. Maybe it’s a regional thing. Russell was a near neighbour of us in Uxbridge, being in Harefield as he was.

[Lokelani Profile]

You don't tend to see chicken breasts with the small bone on the end. Years ago if you had Chicken Kiev in a restaurant it always had the little bone on the end.

T-bone steak disappeared for quite a while, I guess any bone in steak did due to CJD. They're back now.

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Well Sue, my mother and granny always called in Best end of neck and it was to all intents and purposes a rack of lamb. Maybe it’s a regional thing. Russell was a near neighbour of us in Uxbridge, being in Harefield as he was.

Russell was full of praise for the dinner ladies and his school dinners which he loved .. My Mum was the school cook then Then Brian took him to one of the best bistro pubs in the village (The Old Orchard) for a re-creation of his favourite school pudding .. (yeah, just like they made it at school )

[Pepper Pig Profile]

On today’s programme Brian made a lovely looking marmalade bread and butter pudding for Mary Berry! I was inspired and will make it for Chris when the weather cools down a bit.

If I remember correctly it rained very hard throughout the Russell Grant episode and Brian had his work cut out!

Our school dinners were fantastic back in the day too Pat.

[Pampy Profile]

You don't tend to see chicken breasts with the small bone on the end. Years ago if you had Chicken Kiev in a restaurant it always had the little bone on the end.

They're called chicken supremes - I rarely see them these days but if I joint a chicken myself, I always leave this part of the wing bone in.

[MagicMarmite Profile]

I love tongue and buy it a lot, just sliced from the supermarket, I've never cooked it.
Daughter won't eat it at all.

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

I love tongue and buy it a lot, just sliced from the supermarket, I've never cooked it.
Daughter won't eat it at all.

Same here ...

[halfateabag Profile]

I like tongue, he does not, says he doesn't but if I make a sandwich (which he does not see me make) says it's tasty so I just keep my mouth shut !

I can remember watching my Mum preparing, cooking, pressing and then eating beef tongue. The faff used to put me off but I liked the taste and texture.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

My mother made a list of possible everyday meals in the back of her cookery book in the early 50's. Not much there in vogue today!

Tripe, pigs head sausages or mould, grilled kidneys, stewed liver and lemon ( ), fish curry, roast stuffed heart, braised tongue, veal & herb charlotte, braised pigeon, tinned meat fritters, toad in the hole, steak & kidney pie, spaghetti bolognese, small joint topside, stewed mutton, boiled bacon, mince, cheese omelette.

[Suffs Profile]

Spaghetti bolognese in the Fifties!? Goodness you were a fashionable family ... don’t think we came across it until the late Sixties ... I remember a friend who’d moved to Suffolk from London cooking it for us ... that was the first time I ate it.

[Suffs Profile]

Spaghetti bolognese in the Fifties!? Goodness you were a fashionable family ... don’t think we came across it until the late Sixties ... I remember a friend who’d moved to Suffolk from London cooking it for us ... that was the first time I ate it.

[Amyw Profile]

You don't tend to see chicken breasts with the small bone on the end. Years ago if you had Chicken Kiev in a restaurant it always had the little bone on the end.

They're called chicken supremes - I rarely see them these days but if I joint a chicken myself, I always leave this part of the wing bone in.

Our local butcher does packs of chicken supremes stuffed with different flavoured butters . When I used to eat meat they were lovely

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Apart from the spag bol the fish curry seems quite exotic for the 50s (unless perhaps a hangover from rationing made with canned fish)

The veal and herb Charlotte sounds more dinner party than everyday to me

[MagicMarmite Profile]

My friends thought we were posh for eating spag bol/chilli con carne in the 80's!
I didn't like either much then, watery, and served with far too much overcooked pasta/rice for me.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I just said that was my mother's list, perhaps some of the things were for special occasions and others probably never got further than the list. I don't really remember much about what we ate before the very late 50s but some of those things persisted (unfortunately). I don't ever remember her making fish curry but she did make curries once in a blue moon as my father liked it, as a child I wasn't expected to eat curry or tripe, thankfully. Spaghetti Bolognese was more of a special occasion thing, my grandmother was an Elizabeth David fan. I have no idea what veal and herb Charlotte is!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

It’s currying fish that surprises me, my mother would make a curry from the remains of the joint, and from about 1964 onwards we’d occasionally visit the Taj Mahal in town

[Badger's Mate Profile]

As far as my dad was concerned, curries were beef stews with curry powder and malt vinegar in them, or else made with leftover roast meat. Otherwise a device used in foreign countries to disguise rotting produce.