THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

thriftwizard

Happy New Year to you all! Persisting down with rain here this morning, which is a bit of a relief after the last few days of thick fog. It was so bad the other evening when I drove DS1 to the station that I couldn't actually see the kerb on one of the rural roads. Yet some people were still driving well above the 50 MPH speed limit, and clearly getting quite cross with those of us who were taking the time to try to see where we were going. I'm just surprised there weren't a lot more accidents.

One of my little resolutions is to go through my food cupboards and use up some of the dried pulses etc. that have been lurking there for a couple of years. I know dried food keeps forever, but it doesn't stay nice forever! So I will rotate my stocks... this coincides with a potential opportunity for some summer employment demonstrating medieval cookery, so I shall be playing with some very old recipes, trying to get it all as authentic as possible on a very limited budget. Pease pudding turned out to be rather nice...

mardatha

Wow, I'd be very interested in medieval cookery- can you pass on any wee snippets to us TW? The RV says why can't I get very interested in modern cookery lol but that's not at all the same thing is it..!

thriftwizard

Indeed it isn't, Mardatha. Never mind the social history aspect, our ancestors by & large just had to make do with what was available or grew around them, unless they happened to be nobility. There's a lot of evidence that in general, they ate a lot more widely than we do, in the sense that if it could be eaten, it would be eaten. However some of it probably tasted pretty foul, to our modern sensibilities! But no worse than some exotic foods seem to us today; my Chinese step-SiL adores sweets made from Durian fruit...

It's one of those skills that translates well into both money-saving & prepping, and I've been experimenting for some years, alongside my adventures in fermenting & preserving. The way they did some things would go down well in healthy-eating circles; they did have access to spices & honey, but they didn't have refined sugar, or particularly heavily-refined flours. Bread in particular was very different to what you'd pick up in the supermarket today - and all the tastier for it!

[Deleted User]

THRIFTWIZARD there is a super little cook book by MAGGIE BLACK that was produced for the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum some years ago and it is all Medieval Recipes and I also have acquired another one fairly recently which is Tudor Recipes for the Modern Cook by SALLY MURDOCH ISBN 978-178035-582-5 published in 2013 by Fastprint Publishing of Peterborough. Both good reads.

thriftwizard

Thanks, MrsLW - I have the Maggie Black book & the other one is duly "bookmarked". I shall continue to pursue my studies & experiments, whilst remembering that this is not the first time that my friend has decided to "give up" and asked if I'd be interested in taking over. One day she actually might! And I'm having fun trying things out, and mostly it's a very inexpensive & productive way of amusing myself. I was delighted to find fresh galengal at the county town market recently, for just £1, for example.

ETA: oops, slip of the finger - Tudor Recipes for the Modern Cook will be winging its way towards us in a day or two...

mardatha

Traquair House nearish to me has a medieval fayre in summer, I always meant to go as they do foods there..

ivyleaf

Happy cooking thriftwizard

mila Sounds like you've had a busy and happy time :T

You said you liked my blog, but you must be addressing that comment to someone else - I don't have a blog

milasavesmoney

ivyleaf wrote: »

Happy cooking thriftwizard

mila Sounds like you've had a busy and happy time :T

You said you liked my blog, but you must be addressing that comment to someone else - I don't have a blog

Oops! Who on earth am I thinking of then? :rotfl:

TW, over the weekend I used some dried kidney beans in the crock pot that were 4-5 yrs old. It took all day and all night to get them soft. They turned out fine but wow what a process. I had even soaked them the night before I started cooking them.

BBob. I'm not sure because I can't remember what I was doing that day. Probably up to no good! :cool:

Mar, my youngest gave me a bottle of Tomlintoul and was quite proud of himself for picking it out. I haven't tried it yet due to evil migraine but am looking forward to giving it a shot. (Hehe)

ivyleaf

Sorry to hear about the migraine mila i hope it's easing now x

HoneyBee83

Happy New Year All!

So 2017 here we are... First day back at work today which was quite a shock to the system, have to admit I have been enjoying the lie-ins and pj days

I have joined the preppers to prep ready for our new house.
My landlord decided to sell up last summer and gave us the shortest amount of time to leave as he was convinced it would sell in double quick time (still for sale as of today ). With nothing suitable in our area DD and I moved in with my parents. We are planning on moving out April time or sooner if somewhere comes up but I have gotten so so lazy with my OS ways
Obviously I have been saving extremely well, which is a huge plus!! But my outgoings have been very minimal, so when it comes to living alone again I think I'll be in shock lol Plus I have been sharing the cleaning duties...which has been bliss, but I have lost my flare and routine. It could take some doing getting on my feet again.
I also want to make sure I can continue to save once paying outgoings again. I have started a sealed pot challenge which I hope to do each year from now on.

I'm very much a lurker but will make more effort to pop up and say HELLO!