Economy Gastronomy - new budget cookery programme; BBC

Gigervamp

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

Does (BRITISH) veal taste like beef?

I don't like the idea of wasting an animal just cos they are male...however! Is UK beef MEAT usually from dairy cows? I was under the impression our beef meat is from specially reared cows and (possibly castrated?) bulls??

I wouldn't know, as I don't eat meat!

But you're right, beef is from beef cattle, not dairy cattle. But in order to get the cow to produce milk, she first needs to have a calf. Female calves go on to become more dairy cattle, but there's no use for the males born. It is such a waste.

purpleivy

rosieben wrote: »

my dd, dsil and dgd go camping in their trailer tent every chance they get, they live in Oz so the climate is kinder. they're so well kitted out that their friends call it 'glamping' last time she did mulled wine over the camp fire

Glamping! I like that. We don't have all home comforts, but with a bit of thought you can do quite a lot. We have 'drinks cabinet' - well, gin bottle plus tonic in the camping fridge, wine, good catering.

Some folks might argue we might as well stay at home. I disagree! The kids entertain themselves in and out of the lake for free, we cook, they do the washing up. There is no iron and a washing machine etc that is only used in dire emergencies. No bathroom to clean. Friend has a 12v vac. I give the small carpet a flick of the brush if there is an unbearable amount of grass on it. Lots of benefits.

thriftlady_2

r.a.i.n.b.o.w wrote: »

I just made the treacle tart from last week, but after an hour in the oven it's still runny - slightly burnt, but very runny.

What did I do wrong?

I think the recipe in the book has too many ingredients in it. I made treacle tart this weekend and it contained shortcrust pastry, breadcrumbs and golden syrup. This is a much easier and much more thrifty way.

Treacle Tart
Make enough pastry to line a pie plate or tart tin. Roll it out and line your tin.

Put 2 or 3 cups of breadcrumbs in a bowl depending how big your tin is. These don't have to be freshly made nor do they need to be from white bread and yes, you can use the crusts.

Pour over some warmed golden syrup. You need enough to make all the crumbs sticky but not so much that the mixture is in any way runny.

Spread crumbs over pastry and bake for 25 mins at 180- 190c until pastry is crisp.

When I was making the filling I felt it wasn't going to be deep enough so I simply added more crumbs and syrup.




On the subject of beef cattle. If I remember rightly from reading The River Cottage Meat Book* in this country we have dairy cows for milk which are no good for beef. Just imagine a Friesian's (the black and white ones) backside -it's a bony thing and you wouldn't want a slice of rump from it.

Then there are dairy-cross cattle which are reared for beef. These are the result of mating a beef bull with a dairy cow. Most dairy farmers do this with their cows because, as you know a cow has to keep having calves at regular intervals in order to produce milk. These calves are reared mostly indoors and fed on cereal concentrates rather than grass.

For the dairy farmer to replace his old dairy cows he must mate them with prime dairy bulls. The resulting female calves go on to be milkers and the male pure dairy calves either get slaughtered at birth or go on to be raised for veal. Being a prime dairy bull is probably one of the best jobs in the cattle world;)

If you want beef from beef cattle such as Aberdeen Angus and Hereford then what you want is beef from a 'suckler herd'. These are herds that are never milked and raised purely for meat. They are called sucklers because the calves are allowed to suckle from thier mothers. This is usually in fields and after they are weaned they remain in family groups in the fields eating grass. This system produces the best quality beef.

A good butcher will be able to tell you from what kind of cattle his beef is . Mine has it written on a chalkboard in the shop. It can be difficult to tell what kind of beef you're buying in a supermarket though. As Hugh F-W points out this is because supermarkets don't want to tell you that beef from suckler herds is best because then customers will start being more discerning about their beef buying.

*Btw if you want to know how your meat is produced then I recommend borrowing this book from the library.

Butterfly_Brain

Can't wait for tonight but will probably have to watch on i player cos the rest of the family want to watch Harry Potter - I have been out voted.

ginvzt

Lots of talk since last episode and a lot of is not about it - was hard to find what people thought about it!!!!

I couldn't watch it last week, since I was on holiday, so watched it online on Monday and decided to get a whole salmon and try out the recipes. So, after a run around the shops, finally got a salmon in Morrisons of nearly 5kg for £27. There are just 2 of us, but my OH can eat for 3 (and often does, as I can't stop him!!!).

So, Monday evening we had poached salmon and prepared the stock. We had it with boiled potatoes, green beans and asparagus (wasn't going to buy it, but was on offer at Tesco's). Also, prepared Gravalax (hope it will taste ok - OH doesn't like dill too much), and half of the salmon was sliced into decent size fillets - 6 of them are in the freezer now for use in the following weeks. Last night we had the chowder and it was really good - OH had a repeat, we are having it for lunch today and there is still some to have tonight before we start making our fishcakes. Might use a different recipe though, as I don't like putting too much of breadcrumbs in them.

I never bought a whole salmon before, and yes, it was more than we usually spend (or try to spend) this week for our groceries, but considering that we had fantastic meals so far this week and still looking forward to others and will have quite a bit for the next weeks (6 salmon fillets, 2 chicken breasts), I think it is a good result. Yes there are always ways to spend less for food, but we both enjoy our food...

newlywed

Thanks ginvzt. I'm interested to know how many meals in total that Salmon gives you, as I was wondering whether that would work out fairly economical for me and OH or not.

ginvzt

newlywed wrote: »

Thanks ginvzt. I'm interested to know how many meals in total that Salmon gives you, as I was wondering whether that would work out fairly economical for me and OH or not.

So far we had 3 meals:

1) poached salmon
2 + 3) chowder. Eating a bit more sensibly, we had enough soup for 3-4 meals (there was 3 litres of soup!!!), but in our case it is just 2...

Then we will have:
4) Gravalax, probably with hot potatoes
5) Fishcakes - I expect to have more than 2-4 fishcakes we will need for tonight, so possible another meal or 2 as well.

In the freezer:
6 + 7 + 8) 3 meals are in the freezer (6 fillets of generous size in total)

So, it will be at least 8 meals (2 people = 16 portions). I think it is easily possible to make 12 meals (24 portions) out of the salmon we bought if my OH was not eating for the whole village!!!!

Will let you know once I get to the end with it!!!

newlywed

ginvzt wrote: »

So, it will be at least 8 meals (2 people = 16 portions). I think it is easily possible to make 12 meals (24 portions) out of the salmon we bought if my OH was not eating for the whole village!!!!

Will let you know once I get to the end with it!!!

Thanks. When it comes to decent salmon, OH says the usual supermarket portions are much too small so I think he'd be wanting very generous portions too!

NickiM

I am looking forward to tonight, I have to say. Out of the recipes they're going to be showing, I think I would most likely cook the fish pie. As others have said, I am surprised that there aren't any pasta dishes and it'll be interesting to see whether the students keep it up. I wonder what their budget will be.

robpw2

i cant eat fish but i love the show so may be othe tips to help

i watched virgin cooks last night it was so funny you should have seen what they did to eggy bread ...eww