Posh Ingredients

[jeral Profile]

Are giblets an under the counter secret cache jobbie with EU Regs about innards, or is that 4-legged animals?

Totally agree about sensible butcher's approach. I asked a butcher to trim off the fat from a pork chop. Madness I know, but Jack Sprat's take one look and eat cornflakes instead. I said "I know I know but give it gratis to somebody who'll appreciate not waste it." Makes sense to me.

When New Zealand lamb was imported, there were tiny thin rib chops that you grilled like bacon and frazzled the fat, very posh at the time. Are they still so, given much larger cost-optimum slaughter age nowadays? By the same token, is hogget now posh?

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Code: Select all

posh would be being able to afford the National Rail train fare to get there

Not sure the train gets any closer than Oban or Ardrossan, the ferries and taxis would cost even more...

Unless of course, you've got a free bus pass.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I was wondering about adding truffle oil to this thread, it’s an odd one, truffle is posh, but we all know that truffle oil has as much to do with live truffles as cheap vanilla essence has to do with orchids

Then I saw the Tweet below - for those eho don’t know Stoke Newington is also “Stokey”, the “London Village” in which I live. It is quite arty and fashionable, full of hipsters and so on

Only in Stoke Newington do you get served up KIDS mac and cheese with truffle oil. Which of course kids don’t like.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Sue

I think of truffle oil as a byproduct. I make some every year in the truffle season using the trimmings/ Waste not etc!

I think there is an EU rules about innards in poultry sold ready prepared but if you get it from the butcher or the farmers market then you get the giblets wrapped seperately.
Just about any offal is avaialble here including in the supermarket.
Everything from calves heads downwards! Can be nose to tail eating if you want it to be.

[Uschi Profile]

It's coming back here, too, Joan.
You can get packs of pork "Schnüsskes un Öhrkes" (little snouts and ears) in the supermarket these days and sometimes tails thrown in for good measure.

Ox cheeks and pork cheeks were cheap cuts once, but they are becoming fashionable now, so the prices are rising.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I don’t think there’s any ruling that says you can’t sell poultry with the giblets, iirc the ruling says you can’t sell them “New York dressed” i.e. plucked but otherwise whole. Properly posh suppliers such as Clerkes Farm (Heston’s favourite) do supply giblets

I think that as Mick my butcher and I discovered decades ago most home cooks don’t want them so it’s more efficient and economical to remove them, sell the livers separately and the rest presumably go into pet food or stock cubes or something

Good posh organic chicken livers are one of the current food bargains - about £2 for s big tray

[jeral Profile]

Thanks Stokey Sue, very interesting. Are giblets or chicken liver ever used on posh canapés?

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I suppose chicken liver paté is used for canapés. At least it used to be. It seems to have been replaced by something called chicken liver parfait...

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Thanks Stokey Sue, very interesting. Are giblets or chicken liver ever used on posh canapés?

Well a classic canapé is chicken liver wrapped in bacon

And as BM says there’s always chicken liver pâté/ parfait, more often served as a starter at the table but also used to make canapés on a pastry or cracker or bread base

I think the difference is that parfait is smoother and richer but I suppose that in the age of the Magimix it’s all more like parfait

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I think all the chicken liver patés I've ever eaten and certainly all I've made have been smooth. I get the impression that parfait is the current term for what would once have been called paté, regardless of any real differences in correct definition.

There was a recipe I have used for decades, just using livers, butter, sherry and S&P. Duck liver would get orange liqueur instead of sherry. I can't remember where I first saw it, I'd use a stick blender now but must have used a liquidiser in the past.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

That’s pretty much what I do + garlic might have been Josceline Dimbleby, Delia in the Evening Standard days or even Robert Carrier


Or all of the above. Only the alcohol and the proportion of butter varies

[Renee Profile]

I well remember those recipes. My favourite was by Elizabeth David, I think, for a coarse French Country Paté. The loaf tin was lined with streaky bacon slices. It might have contained brandy.

[jeral Profile]

I used to like the coarse pork paté (before being non-meat). Don't see that now. It was sold as a slice from a c.10" dia. ceramic-coated terracotta bowl that you could scrounge once it was empty. Scrounging = un-posh, but they were nice bowls, brilliant for potted plant or herb displays.

Talking of bowls, what's the faddy "new black" for serving rice? It's been through: an empty ring around the edge of a plate (70's), separate small bowl for knife and fork meals, chef ring <- none make sense to me. Maybe soon they'll extol single rice grains aligned like jus droplets?

Squid ink is probably posh for rice, not being something you could pick up at the corner shop here.

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Hemp oil on tonight's show.
Should I buy some to elevate my cooking?

And the best curry the judge has ever eaten. Wow.

I like black bowls I guess, Jeral. But not the slate ware, that feels horrid against the knife.

[Wordsworth Profile]

Ah, hemp oil.

A couple of years ago I applied some hemp oil hand cream.
The dog wouldn't come near me.

[Luca Profile]

Just about any offal is avaialble here including in the supermarket.
Everything from calves heads downwards! Can be nose to tail eating if you want it to be.

How I miss that! I can find offal in London but the selection in supermarket and butcher is limited. I can make an effort and find a butcher but it's a bore.

[Luca Profile]

I well remember those recipes. My favourite was by Elizabeth David, I think, for a coarse French Country Paté. The loaf tin was lined with streaky bacon slices. It might have contained brandy.

One of my mother's favourite dishes to make when we were going on rustic picnics. I must look it up.

She had a file, passed down to her from her mother who wrote, cut and stuck, a variety of her favourite recipes. My mother followed the same pattern and when she died I got the file. I really should update it! There's something rather lovely about the home made recipes hand written by them both.

[Alexandria Profile]

Joan,

Le Mercat de La Boqueria has Ofal butchers ..


We like calves liver with calçots ( A Catalan Onion Variety ) ..


It is quite common on The Iberian Peninsula especially in the major urban hubs and rural villages & small towns ..

Sorry to hear about your not so pleasant lunch ..


Have a lovely week ..

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Having earlier posted that giblets are hard to find, I was back at Edmonton Green this morning, one of the market stall had trays of various types, chicken hearts, turkey necks and 'turkey tails' - Parsons' Noses...

[jeral Profile]

Struth! Better be careful, there are ears everywhere hopefully not alongside those trays though.