Ship of Fools: Then they came for our tuna bakes

Thread: Then they came for our tuna bakes Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

BBC Recipes to be taken down as part of 'savings'.

Savings my arse. Keeping existing content online costs nothing. It's a comprehensive, well-indexed, trustworthy and, worst of all, non-commercial collection of useful information. It is, in fact, a Public Library.

So of course the Tories hate it.

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

It's a two-edged sword, both edges of which are as a blunt as a fresh baguette.

On the one hand, it's hard to see how a largely dormant database costs the corporation an arm and leg, so getting rid of it is hardly going to generate a significant saving.

On the other, it's hardly a scarce, irreplaceable resource. What's stopping people from doing a crowdsourcing exercise of copy & paste and put the recipes on a separate website?

Much as I'm a fan of the BBC and critical of their biased news reporting (it was biased to Blair when he was PM, it's been biased to Cameron for at least the last 6 years), this seems like a storm in a teacup.

Are there not bigger fish to fry, poach, bake, broil or grill?

Posted by *Leon* (# 3377) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
What's stopping people from doing a crowdsourcing exercise of copy & paste and put the recipes on a separate website?

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

quote:
Originally posted by *Leon*:

quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
What's stopping people from doing a crowdsourcing exercise of copy & paste and put the recipes on a separate website?
Copyright law

Bollocks. You can make sufficient tweaks to show that it's not one-for-one. I don't think the WI have a copyright on the recipe for a Victoria Sponge. If I want to publish a recipe for one, I doubt anyone will sue me.

Besides, the BBC were talking about getting rid of the website, not selling the rights to it. Who would own the copyright?

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sipech:
Besides, the BBC were talking about getting rid of the website, not selling the rights to it. Who would own the copyright?

Whoever owns it while the website is up. If you publish a book and own the copyright, withdrawing it from sale doesn't make the copyright evaporate.

Personally I think there's an argument for some law reform to make copyright "use it or lose it" so that copyright could be lost, but as things stand, there's no obligation on a copyright holder to continue making material available.

[ 17. May 2016, 10:20: Message edited by: orfeo ]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

There must be some very talented accountants, not to mention chefs, if any recipe website costs £15 million.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

You don't have to go far to find out why the BBC is having to take the recipes down. It's so that other people who the Tories like can make money out of it.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

On an all night radio show
The announcer comes on
Says, "If you've got ideas I'll file the patent for you"
What's an idea that's not in the store
Making a buck or two

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

Internet recipes are sometimes useful, but very variable, in my opinion. Usually it is better to find a cookbook that you know and trust rather than race around the internet trying to decide whether any given recipe will work out.

BBC recipes are often rubbish, because a very large percentage come from tv shows where the chefs sling them together in a hurry as they race a clock. So no great loss.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

Also the chances of Murdoch cornering a very crowded market for recipes online is near zero. There are already a large number of very big recipe sites, why would anyone go to Murdoch's in particular?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Have I misunderstood this? I thought the BBC itself had decided to axe the recipe site, not that it was a direct command from the Cabinet.

Also, the BBC Good Food site will still be available.

Posted by Honest Ron Bacardi (# 38) on :

I don't think the recipes are going away. They just will become archived, and you'll need to rely on a search engine to find the appropriate archived page.

Or so it was said on the radio this a.m. They also said that in future, new recipes from current programmes will go up for a 30-day period.

Posted by Anglican't (# 15292) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Honest Ron Bacardi:
I don't think the recipes are going away. They just will become archived, and you'll need to rely on a search engine to find the appropriate archived page.

The BBC have confirmed this. So we can all now take that tin foil off our heads and use it when baking a delicious BBC recipe instead.

Posted by Doublethink. (# 1984) on :

You'll need a rough idea of the recipe url, which will make it a good deal harder to find anything you haven't already used.

Posted by Anglican't (# 15292) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doublethink.:
You'll need a rough idea of the recipe url, which will make it a good deal harder to find anything you haven't already used.

How so? The BBC Good Food website has a search function.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

As others have said, the cost of keeping it is nothing. The cost of keeping things on there for a shorter time is probably more. So it is not about saving money.

The BBC site is a fantastic resource for recipes. I use it quite a lot, because I have learnt to trust them, they are in English measurements, and (as a rule) use available ingredients. This is important when, as so often, I am looking for something quick for a few hours time.

Yes, there are all sorts of other places, but this means I will have to find other sites that prove reliable for recipes, in the same sort of way.

All because someone thinks they can make money out of it? Which seems to be the answer to everything. And makes me fucking mad, because there is so much more important in life.

As I haven't said it recently, Cameron, please go fuck a pig*.

* Whether he has anything to do with this or not, I still hate him. Vile pile of shit.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:

BBC recipes are often rubbish, because a very large percentage come from tv shows where the chefs sling them together in a hurry as they race a clock. So no great loss.

Have you ever actually cooked anything from the BBC site? Come to that, have you ever cooked anything ?

Your posts are frequently peevish, arrogant and ill-informed - but that one borders on the witless.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Have I misunderstood this? I thought the BBC itself had decided to axe the recipe site, not that it was a direct command from the Cabinet..

You don't think George Osborne's remarks criticising the BBC for having “features and cooking recipes”, arguing it was evidence of the corporation’s “imperial ambitions” and meant it was becoming “the national newspaper as well as the national broadcaster” may have had an influence?

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

Apparently, the 120,000 plus signatures have saved the bulk of the collection. News here.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Have you ever actually cooked anything from the BBC site? Come to that, have you ever cooked anything ?

Yes, I cook on a daily basis. Sometimes I've tried cooking recipes from the BBC.

quote:
Your posts are frequently peevish, arrogant and ill-informed - but that one borders on the witless.

[ ] - how much of a fuck I give.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
[ ] - how much of a fuck I give.

Well, naturally. If you cared - or even comprehended - what a shoddy little whinger you are, you wouldn't be.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Well, naturally. If you cared - or even comprehended - what a shoddy little whinger you are, you wouldn't be.

Fuck you, and fuck the horse you rode in on.

I don't need to like the things you like, I don't need to explain why I don't like them, and I don't need you to cast aspersions relating to my cooking ability when you haven't a fucking clue about me.

[ 17. May 2016, 21:31: Message edited by: mr cheesy ]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

All the clues, Watson, point to an individual of short temper, superficial understanding and limited vocabulary. Nothing need detain us further, I think.

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
BBC recipes are often rubbish, because a very large percentage come from tv shows where the chefs sling them together in a hurry as they race a clock. So no great loss.

Very often they are top quality chefs sharing their recipes that they can make quickly. I suspect that even when they are in a hurry, they taste better than most stuff that either of us cook. And there is no need to cook them in a hurry - they still work, and are often easy ways of livening up food.

It is, as the OP said, like a library. Tips and suggestions from people at the top of their game, stored together for anyone to access. It should be preserved, not sold off. If I could, I would love to buy the rights to it, and host it myself. It would not cost £15M a year.

A few adverts, and it would easily pay for itself.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
Very often they are top quality chefs sharing their recipes that they can make quickly. I suspect that even when they are in a hurry, they taste better than most stuff that either of us cook. And there is no need to cook them in a hurry - they still work, and are often easy ways of livening up food.

I am not a trained chef, I cook for myself and my family. The chances of me being able to have the skills to follow a rapid recipe from a chef on a TV show and have it turn out properly are negligible.

That's quite a contrast to other recipe sites, including the BBC's own Good Food recipe site, where the recipes are properly tested, checked and reviewed by other users.

quote:
It is, as the OP said, like a library. Tips and suggestions from people at the top of their game, stored together for anyone to access. It should be preserved, not sold off. If I could, I would love to buy the rights to it, and host it myself. It would not cost £15M a year.

A few adverts, and it would easily pay for itself.

That's not going to happen. And is like saying that because the license-fee payer invested in Eastenders, anyone else ought to be able to host the content after the 40 days the BBC keeps it on the iplayer. It doesn't work like that.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
Apparently, the 120,000 plus signatures have saved the bulk of the collection. News here.

Meh. I have nothing against Good Food - I have an impressively gravy-splattered cookbook published by them. But the site is nothing as well-indexed as the BBC one, with none of the features on seasonality, say.

It is the usual - we are fobbed off with an inferior product and told it's every bit as good now shut up.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Have I misunderstood this? I thought the BBC itself had decided to axe the recipe site, not that it was a direct command from the Cabinet..
You don't think George Osborne's remarks criticising the BBC for having “features and cooking recipes”, arguing it was evidence of the corporation’s “imperial ambitions” and meant it was becoming “the national newspaper as well as the national broadcaster” may have had an influence?

I’m allergic to Osborne so missed him saying that.

He doesn’t strike me as much of a cook himself, though for all I know he may be able to produce a baked alaska with sublime ease on a regular basis. But somehow I doubt it.

Btw I actually prefer the Good Food site but I think both are useful.

[ 18. May 2016, 07:59: Message edited by: Ariel ]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
Very often they are top quality chefs sharing their recipes that they can make quickly.

What you see on screen is someone performing cooking a dish. It's entertainment, shot and edited to leave out the boring bits - like waiting for the onions to soften or the stock to reduce. Its relation to the recipe is of the blurb to the novel - something to entice you to read the whole thing.

That's why stripping out the archive/taking recipes down after 30 days is destroying the potentially educative aspect of cookery programmes.

It is, she said, shifting into apocalyptic mode, in line with the all-pervasive tawdriness of everything, the hollowing out of content, nourishment, meaning.

[ 18. May 2016, 10:08: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

Maybe next they'll add really dramatic music to cooking programs, and get a whole lot more explicit with their narrative arc until cooking programs become as totally fucking unwatchable as 99% of documentaries on telly.

(Fuck it, they already did, didn't they - that's what those cooking-against-the-clock and dinner-parties-for-competitive-cooking-cunts programs are all about. Well, that's what I come here for - raging against that which is so inevitable, it already is).

Posted by Dafyd (# 5549) on :

I see commercial sites are complaining that the BBC keeping recipes up in response to public demand is cynical and is "hardly helping its commercial rivals".
Because clearly given the choice between helping the public and helping companies trying to make money, the BBC should help companies make money.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

( After looking at UK recipes and shuddering)

As a dyed in the wool Lutheran, I have to protest-- sweetcorn in tuna bake? No. Just no. Something green-- peas, broccoli, even spinach would be better. And sorry, Jamie Oliver-- marinara tuna casserole? Ye Gods, no.

I think I am gonna have to watch some Golden Girls reruns to recover.

[ 19. May 2016, 01:41: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Those are British recipes, which are loved by British people (yes, we can be weird!). That's why they need to be on a distinctively British site, because if they get mixed in with recipes from other places we'll get confused. We'll have to convert these foreign measurements, have to figure out what gas mark they mean, and (horror of horrors!) may end up putting something green in our tuna pasta bake.

Stand up for the BBC being distinctively British. Put sweetcorn in your tuna pasta bake!

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Oh, GOOOD. Solidaridty is HARD.

But c'mon, would you put Cheeze Whiz on a Croque Monsieur?

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

OK, on that we might agree. If I found Cheez Whiz in my kitchen the only thing I would put it in is the bin.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Where it belongs ( Sorry, kenwritez. [Votive]

)

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Of course it's peas. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever will be, world without end, amen.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

See, Alan? See?

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dafyd:
I see commercial sites are complaining that the BBC keeping recipes up in response to public demand is cynical and is "hardly helping its commercial rivals".
Because clearly given the choice between helping the public and helping companies trying to make money, the BBC should help companies make money.

Of course! So the money can then trickle down like a drizzle of butterscotch sauce.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by orfeo:
Of course! So the money can then trickle down like a drizzle of butterscotch sauce.

You certainly get the impression these days of living under a constant rain of something brown and sticky.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
( After looking at UK recipes and shuddering)

As a dyed in the wool Lutheran, I have to protest-- sweetcorn in tuna bake? No. Just no. Something green-- peas, broccoli, even spinach would be better.

Tuna with corn is a well-known combination here - sandwich fillings, baked potato toppings, pasta bakes etc etc.

Popular traditions vary. I remember an American shipmate being horrified by the idea of baked beans on toast a few years ago. "Double carbs!!" they exclaimed in shock. I suppose it is but it's another much-loved British staple.

Having looked at some US menus recently the one thing I did notice was lots of grills, fried stuff, burgers, pizzas, Italian pastas, salads. Very few actual "made dishes" like, as it might be, the sort of pub grub we get here (which includes the above but more). Shepherd's pie, moussaka, curry, hotpot, chilli, pies. Not even sausage and mash or roasts.

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :

You People willingly eat pork pies.

Enough said.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

Food of the gods. And, just like our pasties, they have protected status in the EU.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

[Big Grin]

Which menus were those, Ariel? Denny's? Because every dish you just mentioned as traditional British fare- including moussaka and curry --is available here.

I know the UK has its own crappity franciise restautants, I've been taken to them. ( Not by Shipmates, I hasten to add. ) I certainly wouldn't judge the whole of UK cuisine by them.

Here's the funny thing, whenever we have a foodie thread in Heaven and some American, in a timid, queroulous attempt to bond, mentions how some dish or another is prepared stateside, there is usually someone swiftly on hand not just to say, " we do that differently" but, " ew, gross, who on earth would do it that way?"

So it strikes me as really funny when I make a joke about the Lutheran definitive cassarole recipe-- it's tuna cassarole, for fuck's sake, you make it any way you want, as long as it has noodles and tuna-- and it provokes a pearl clutching, culinary flag waving post from you. You really don't have to do that, plenty of people have beat you to it.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
So it strikes me as really funny when I make a joke about the Lutheran definitive cassarole recipe-- it's tuna cassarole, for fuck's sake, you make it any way you want, as long as it has noodles and tuna-- and it provokes a pearl clutching, culinary flag waving post from you.

I had no idea that was a joke. I thought you meant it.

I guess that's the internet for you: I didn't see any humour in your post, you didn't get that I wasn't actually indignant or shocked, just musing. [Two face]

Posted by Mrs Shrew (# 8635) on :

I propose fusion food- tuna pasta bake with BOTH sweetcorn AND peas.

But then I will put sweetcorn and peas in pretty much anything because they are my favourite....

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
I remember an American shipmate being horrified by the idea of baked beans on toast a few years ago. "Double carbs!!" they exclaimed in shock.

There's someone who needs a good chip butty.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

We don't appear to have Lutherans in the UK. They seem to have skipped straight through from Germany to the Americas a-clutching of their casseroles.

In fact, the impact of Germanic cuisine in Britain is remarkably low (the Wars you know). Chinese, Indian, Italian, French, Thai, Turkish - all over the place. But your chances of lighting on a bockwurst mit sauerkraut - minimal.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Where the crap did tuna noodle whatever the freak you call it come from, then, I wonder? I have a feeling it was those shifty Norwegians.

Or maybe it was a byproduct of all those weird rationing recipes popular n the war years, but at least in tbe US, the legends seem to intone that the Holy People of Minnesota/ Missouri were the early proselytes of this dish. I blame the Norwegians because they brought Lutheranism to that area, and they had a reputation for doing unspeakable things to innocent fish.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

quote:

There's someone who needs a good chip butty

Eee, I'm scrapin'tit offert roof o't mouth, jes thinkin' bah'tit.

(I heard Ian McMillan on Radio 4 yesterday talking about how to write badly in Northern dialect - waiting for't postman to come wi't cheery knock at'door and t'cry 'ere's yer sackfull o't' apostophe's - tha can get t'ritin' nah)

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Just so long as they're proper chips. Not these "Freedom Fries" that they have in the US.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Now you're asking for it, Cresswell.

Only a teabagging knuckledragging Bush baby would eat freedom fries. The new, cosmopolitan Obamaite American eats frites.

Think I'm kidding? "Fish 'n Frites" opened up down the coast last year.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

( And a chips butty sounds good. But then I used to eat cold spaghetti sandwiches on buttered bread as a kid. Yep, as a kid.)

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :

Never had a freedom fry in my life. I would say that was a joke and a bad memory, but it did actually happen...and they are trying to rebrand a beer "America" for a summer. 'Murica?

As for fish baked things: "fish pie" is British when I make it: corn kernals, mashed potato topping, salmon, cream sauce, not much seasoning; "tuna casserole" is distinctly Lutheran basement, with egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup, green peas, and canned tuna. The former's a bit sweeter (what is it with the Great British Sweetooth? Y'alls are almost Southerners in that regard) and contains the potato, that without which a Brit cannot have thought to have eaten, while the latter tastes a bit closer to Home...and is considerably cheaper to make.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Yeah, peas are just the Lutheran hot dish sacramental element. And I think you might have clarified my shudder, Ariston ( I really don't care who puts what in their tuna bake, but I personally find corn plus tuna plus noodles squicky) I have a thing about overly sweet savory dishes. Tuna cassarole is supposed to have that creamy salty umami thing going on, and corn would jar my palate with sweetness.

Fish pie rocks, though. For whatever reason I never if noticed corn was in it when I had it.

(And research tells me that the Ozzies do tuna plus noodles plus corn plus bechamel sauce. Holy God, that sounds like sex.)*

Oh, and fuck Budweiser. Just fuck them, and the pisswater wave they rode in on.

* Have at it, LeRoc.

[ 20. May 2016, 02:09: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Now you're asking for it, Cresswell.

Only a teabagging knuckledragging Bush baby would eat freedom fries. The new, cosmopolitan Obamaite American eats frites.

So, French Fries became Freedom Fries, and in an act of repentance over that stupidity you swing all the way back and use the French word. Doesn't change the fact that they're thin sticks of (supposedly) potato - and, if what they serve in McDonalds isn't so heavily processed that it doesn't deserve the name 'potato' I'll eat the cardboard container they come in, it'll be more nutricious than their burgers anyway.

Chips are chunky, no less than 1cm thick (half an inch for those of you who haven't moved out of the 19th Century). You can see they're cut from a real potato, Maris Piper ideally. They're deep fried, crispy outside and fluffy inside. And, you make no pretense at all about them being healthy, they're indulgent comfort food.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Oh, come on. Do you think steakhouses in the US have their fries shipped in from McDonald's? Steak fries, sir! Big, chunky steak fries that would make any red blooded Englishman's trousers swell!

Y'all wouldn't even have potatoes if some Peruvian native wasn't nice to Pizarro. Just because we offer every variety of fries, frites, chips, fritas, and skins that the world has achieved doesn't mean we don't know what a proper pasty chip looks like. Two expat- stuffed chip shops exist less than a half hour from me.

Ever have causa rellena? Or purple potato mash? Or patatas fritas? I have. That's some OG Andean chips going on right there. I am blessed by living in a region surrounded by the cuisine of migrant workers. They pretty much invented fried potatoes. Que viva California!

[ 20. May 2016, 03:03: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Ariston, why on earth did you import sweetcorn into fish pie? That's not any English dish I know (or would eat, let alone make), If I'm bulking it out or trying to hide vegetables for children I'd add peas - and the first two recipes that come up don't use sweetcorn in fish pie either: traditional fish pie and classic fish pie (with peas) (from the BBC sites, natch)

I'm with you guys, I can't stand tuna and sweetcorn either - sweetcorn is too sweet in that mix.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

Various:

--In some (non-Lutheran) church circles, tuna casserole is tuna, cream of mushroom soup, crushed potato chips/crisps, and possibly peas.

--Re British eating pork pies, willingly: I don't know what the pork pies are like, but they don't automatically sound horrid to me. (Unless eating pork pie hats is meant.) But I understand blood pudding is also eaten?

--Re Jamie Oliver: Please keep him over on the UK side of the pond. Some years back, he did a TV series in the US, wherein he decried the way we eat and endeavored to teach us better. And was very rude about it. (Unlike the various chefs we get on PBS. I think he was on a commercial station.) I don't think he realized that his way of speaking to and about people was more offensive here than it might have been back home.

--Re CheeseWhiz: Some people find it addictive. Not unlike the ice cream desserts at the first San Francisco Shipmeet. Remember, Kelly? We had flavor flashbacks for weeks.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Ariston, why on earth did you import sweetcorn into fish pie? That's not any English dish I know (or would eat, let alone make), If I'm bulking it out or trying to hide vegetables for children I'd add peas - and the first two recipes that come up don't use sweetcorn in fish pie either: traditional fish pie and classic fish pie (with peas) (from the BBC sites, natch)

I'm with you guys, I can't stand tuna and sweetcorn either - sweetcorn is too sweet in that mix.

Marge Inqvist from Lake Woebegon smiles on you, my dear. [Tear]

And yeah, GK, those chocolate chip cookie hot fudge sundaes at Ghirardelli's were-- disturbingly haunting. Think they were cursed?

I have one more thing to say about the Freedom Fries thing (CRESSWELL). My recollection is that this sweeping name change only took place in the Pentagon canteen, and the entire rest of the nation thought it was stupid. Or maybe thought it was funny for fifteen seconds, then thought it was stupid.

But who am I to argue with whatever monopolistic US news outlets the UK is piping in? I only live here.

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

It should be obvious that I consider the notion of "Freedom Fries" to be idiotic, and therefore I consider any mention of them in a post to be something that raises a "do not take seriously" flag.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Don't you want folks to warn you when your jokes are tired?

Shh. I'm ranting.

And another thing...

[ 20. May 2016, 06:56: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:

--Re Jamie Oliver: Please keep him over on the UK side of the pond. Some years back, he did a TV series in the US, wherein he decried the way we eat and endeavored to teach us better. And was very rude about it. (Unlike the various chefs we get on PBS. I think he was on a commercial station.) I don't think he realized that his way of speaking to and about people was more offensive here than it might have been back home.

He doesn't go down that well with some segments of society over here - me, for example. I seem to remember a programme in which he taught some sink estate mother how to cook Real Food - I think it was lasagne. Revisted x weeks later she had reverted to chips 'n' pizza and everyone tutted that was proles for you.

Yes, well if you teach someone a recipe for which they have to travel miles for the ingredients and it takes several processes and a lot of time to assemble properly - plus that is just ONE dish - of course it's not going to take as a lifestyle change.

The point of the tuna casserole, I suspect, is that it can be assembled from ingredients that are either dried or tinned or frozen.

Oh, and what's wrong with black pudding then? Eh?

[ 20. May 2016, 06:58: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

GK: I never saw the Jamie Oliver thing, but let me guess: " You're not British. Be British. No, I said British. Fucking hell-- still not British. WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE BE BRITISH???"

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Well, if we ignore the events of 1775-1783 (nothing important happening then), you are British.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

Yes, well if you teach someone a recipe for which they have to travel miles for the ingredients and it takes several processes and a lot of time to assemble properly - plus that is just ONE dish - of course it's not going to take as a lifestyle change.

A Whole Foods market moved into an economically disparate part if a local town, and WF tried to spin it by offering classes on healthy eating to poor folk. Of course, healthy recipes made from fresh produce the food bank provided was not good rnough, it had to be organic produce WF provided, at a 200% upcharge.

An article in a local weekly described the blank stare of one mother who was told she had to cook up a week's worth of steel-cut oatmeal in advance, freeze it, and convince her kids to eat it reheated.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
GK: I never saw the Jamie Oliver thing, but let me guess: " You're not British. Be British. No, I said British. Fucking hell-- still not British. WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE BE BRITISH???"

It's more: Cor Blimey 'ere's orl yer need for some pukka grub - you jus' grab yer sea bass like this quick fillet wiv the ol' knife an' while that's a-sizzlin' you pops your chantelles in the butter - always use yer organic Devon of course - bit of the ol' samphire in the steamer there, drizzly drizzly wiv the jus - see? This cookin' lark's easy even 'umble Cockney lads wiv just a few million to their name can do it.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
Well, if we ignore the events of 1775-1783 (nothing important happening then), you are British.

Living where I do, I could argue I'm Mexican. Some of my people got here before statehood.

[ 20. May 2016, 07:10: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
GK: I never saw the Jamie Oliver thing, but let me guess: " You're not British. Be British. No, I said British. Fucking hell-- still not British. WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE BE BRITISH???"
It's more: Cor Blimey 'ere's orl yer need for some pukka grub - you jus' grab yer sea bass like this quick fillet wiv the ol' knife an' while that's a-sizzlin' you pops your chantelles in the butter - always use yer organic Devon of course - bit of the ol' samphire in the steamer there, drizzly drizzly wiv the jus - see? This cookin' lark's easy even 'umble Cockney lads wiv just a few million to their name can do it.

His tuna cassarole... endeavour looked like something Wolfgang Puck barfed up.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

The thing is that the British don't really have much of a cuisine that has a defined history. In the US, you obviously had various groups who brought their own "proper ways" to cook, we British barely assimilated with the various waves of immigration that bought new citizens and instead concocted vague approximations of their food that better suited our palate.

This idea that there is a "traditional" British tuna dish is utter bollocks. Before the time that fish could be imported long distances, we wouldn't have been eating tuna at all. 150 years ago, most of our fish was oily - that we caught in large amounts off the coast until we totally trashed their population.

The truth is that almost all "traditional" British dishes go back - at a maximum - of a couple of generations. And as much as our grandparents liked to complain about the loss of proper "meat and veg" meals, even their diet was quite different to the one eaten a few generations before.

Most recipes that exist now are merged versions of things from a range of influences.

So use them, or don't. But don't start making out that one culture is wrong because they don't have the same norms as you.

Other versions of every dish are available.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

I'd also say that I generally prefer to use US recipes when looking for something online. Once I'd got over the stigma of measuring by volume rather than by weighing, I find using cups much easier.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Oh, you brave man. [Tear]

Be kind, Britmates. If you must end him, make it swift...

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

Nobody cares enough.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Well, hi there, Eeyore. I guess I missed it when you got elected British Press Secretary.

Posted by betjemaniac (# 17618) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
The thing is that the British don't really have much of a cuisine that has a defined history.

...

The truth is that almost all "traditional" British dishes go back - at a maximum - of a couple of generations. And as much as our grandparents liked to complain about the loss of proper "meat and veg" meals, even their diet was quite different to the one eaten a few generations before.

From memory, I'm sure over its 500 or so pages from the Norman conquest to now, Clarissa Dickson-Wright's "A Social History of English Food" pretty well entirely disagrees with that...

Posted by ThunderBunk (# 15579) on :

Measuring cups are for those with insufficient intelligence and coordination to make use of a set of scales. It fails completely to take account of the effect of totally incidental details on volume, and their use is generally utterly stupid.

They drive me mad.

Posted by Jane R (# 331) on :

I put leeks in my tuna bake, actually.

<runs away very fast>

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by betjemaniac:
From memory, I'm sure over its 500 or so pages from the Norman conquest to now, Clarissa Dickson-Wright's "A Social History of English Food" pretty well entirely disagrees with that...

Couldn't give a shit. The things we're discussing here were not part of the British diet 100 years ago. Deal.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
He doesn't go down that well with some segments of society over here - me, for example. I seem to remember a programme in which he taught some sink estate mother how to cook Real Food - I think it was lasagne. Revisted x weeks later she had reverted to chips 'n' pizza and everyone tutted that was proles for you.

Yes, well if you teach someone a recipe for which they have to travel miles for the ingredients and it takes several processes and a lot of time to assemble properly - plus that is just ONE dish - of course it's not going to take as a lifestyle change.

Yes, he did something similar here, too. BTW, the show was Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (Wikipedia). In the first season, IIRC, he went to the home of a single mom. ISTM she was struggling, but trying to do the best she could with the situation she had. The kids got a lot of frozen pizza. There, and later in the series, he seemed to have a thing against pizza, and didn't get how it is a very culturally-normal, frequently-eaten food--even for breakfast.

quote:
The point of the tuna casserole, I suspect, is that it can be assembled from ingredients that are either dried or tinned or frozen.

Yes, and ingredients that are often on sale, so you can stock up on them, and quickly throw them together when you're out of time and don't have anything else.

quote:
Oh, and what's wrong with black pudding then? Eh?

Er...um...Basically comes down to "icky", I'm afraid. I'm not all that adventuresome about meat. [Hot and Hormonal]

Interestingly, Filipino cooking sometimes uses "beef blood".

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
And yeah, GK, those chocolate chip cookie hot fudge sundaes at Ghirardelli's were-- disturbingly haunting. Think they were cursed?

At the time, you joked that crack cocaine must have been involved. [Smile]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I like the idea of, say, the medieval English sitting about waiting for the arrival of tinned tuna so they have something to cook with.

'Any sign of ye fish in armour yet, Udo?'

'Nay'

'What about ye Hot Food of the Indies shoppe?'

'Likewise nay.'

'Looketh like it will be the chicken with almonds and saffron* for the tea then.'

'Fraid so.'

Of course Britain had an indigenous cuisine. And look, over there in that bunch of everyday pilgrims -

A COOK they hadde with hem for the nones
To boille the chiknes with the marybones,
And poudre-marchant tart, and galyngale.
Wel koude he knowe a draughte of London ale.
He koude rooste, and sethe, and broille, and frye,
Maken mortreux, and wel bake a pye.

*The Forme of Cury 1390

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I like the idea of, say, the medieval English sitting about waiting for the arrival of tinned tuna so they have something to cook with.

Yes, but they'd be waiting even longer for ye means of opening said tinnes.

Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Think I'm kidding? "Fish 'n Frites" opened up down the coast last year.

This is particularly ironic since in France the same dish is known as “le Fish and Chips”.

(In recent years all things British have become extremely fashionable with chic French people. Marks and Spencer’s food hall is doing a roaring trade selling Parisians stuff like Cheddar cheese and English custard.)

Posted by orfeo (# 13878) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
Well, hi there, Eeyore. I guess I missed it when you got elected British Press Secretary.

Typical American, thinks every position has to be elected.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
In recent years all things British have become extremely fashionable with chic French people. Marks and Spencer’s food hall is doing a roaring trade selling Parisians stuff like Cheddar cheese and English custard.

While the Brits, of course, pay a premium price for "Crème Anglaise",

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:

quote:
Originally posted by betjemaniac:
From memory, I'm sure over its 500 or so pages from the Norman conquest to now, Clarissa Dickson-Wright's "A Social History of English Food" pretty well entirely disagrees with that...
Couldn't give a shit. The things we're discussing here were not part of the British diet 100 years ago. Deal.

So you can making sweeping and inaccurate statements about the history of British food, but we can't correct them because that's not what we're discussing.

I see.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
So you can making sweeping and inaccurate statements about the history of British food, but we can't correct them because that's not what we're discussing.

I see.

Yes, of course, when all the recipes you're discussing focus on swede, offal, oily fish etc, you're fully entitled to pull me up for discussing the notion of "traditional" British food.

But as we're actually mostly discussing pasta, tuna and sweetcorn - none of which have been in the British diet for very long - then I'm fully entitled to point it out. If you don't like it, then fuck off.

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
So you can making sweeping and inaccurate statements about the history of British food, but we can't correct them because that's not what we're discussing.

I see.
Yes, of course, when all the recipes you're discussing focus on swede, offal, oily fish etc, you're fully entitled to pull me up for discussing the notion of "traditional" British food.

But as we're actually mostly discussing pasta, tuna and sweetcorn - none of which have been in the British diet for very long - then I'm fully entitled to point it out. If you don't like it, then fuck off.

Well, they are now. People's habits change according to what's available and what's affordable. Oysters used to be cheap and only eaten by poor people.

Some people, including me, use the BBC website and value it. You don't. Big whoop. No doubt you'd be the first to complain if the BBC were axing something you liked. [Roll Eyes]

Tubbs

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
Never had a freedom fry in my life. I would say that was a joke and a bad memory, but it did actually happen...and they are trying to rebrand a beer "America" for a summer. 'Murica?

As for fish baked things: "fish pie" is British when I make it: corn kernals, mashed potato topping, salmon, cream sauce, not much seasoning; "tuna casserole" is distinctly Lutheran basement, with egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup, green peas, and canned tuna. The former's a bit sweeter (what is it with the Great British Sweetooth? Y'alls are almost Southerners in that regard) and contains the potato, that without which a Brit cannot have thought to have eaten, while the latter tastes a bit closer to Home...and is considerably cheaper to make.

Fish Pie in the manner of my mother. White fish only, cod, haddock, whatever is available, poached in milk, skin removed, flaked. Parsley sauce - lots of parsley (curly), white sauce without the extras for bechamel, which both those BBC recipes include. Made with the poaching liquor. Seasoned with pepper. Mashed potatoes with butter and milk, also seasoned.

Can be poshed up with hardboiled egg in with the fish, which can be variegated with smoked fish and/or salmon, or prawns/shrimps added. Could have grated cheese in the potato. Mum never did.

No corn. No peas - served separately for colour.

Everyone has their own. This one, while British, is not sweet.

[ 20. May 2016, 11:46: Message edited by: Penny S ]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Tubbs:
No doubt you'd be the first to complain

FIFY

Incidentally, the British have been doing pasta since at least the 18th C and tinned sweetcorn and tuna have been a thing for over a century.

(This will doubtless provoke another of the cheesian witty ripostes: which will it be this time? Fuck or shit?)

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
FIFY

Incidentally, the British have been doing pasta since at least the 18th C and tinned sweetcorn and tuna have been a thing for over a century.

Of course the British have been aware of pasta for ever since they've engaged with Italians and there have been Italians in the UK for centuries.

However pasta was not a part of the national diet before the 1930s. There weren't significant imports of pasta and there was no local production. Just a fact.

Tuna wasn't canned until 1903 and canned fish didn't really come to the UK until the 1920s.

Corn has been grown in the US for centuries, but was only canned 1900s and didn't take off as a crop in Europe until the 1950s.

[ 20. May 2016, 13:06: Message edited by: mr cheesy ]

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Tubbs:
Well, they are now. People's habits change according to what's available and what's affordable. Oysters used to be cheap and only eaten by poor people.

Yes, as I noted above, the British cuisine has been in flux for a long time and tended to add versions of other people's food on a regular basis. We've no basis for telling other people what are "genuine" or "traditional" British versions of dishes - particularly when we only really popularised our version 5 minutes ago. We generally do what we're told - partly from popular media (books then TV), by the government (strange long term effects of food rations), partly inherited from family or in school. In recent years the profusion of TV food shows has, I'm sure, lead to a much wider use of many more ingredients.

Oysters really are a traditional British food, and have fluctuated with regard to who ate them over time.

quote:
Some people, including me, use the BBC website and value it. You don't. Big whoop. No doubt you'd be the first to complain if the BBC were axing something you liked.

Tubbs

That's nice.

[ 20. May 2016, 13:21: Message edited by: mr cheesy ]

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Originally posted by Penny S:

quote:
Can be poshed up with hardboiled egg in with the fish

That's the exact recipe I use for fish pie, but if I add hardboiled eggs, it's as cheap way of bulking it out. Fish pie without hard boiled eggs is the posh version in this household.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

Actually I think you'll find there were significant pockets where pasta, or something close to it, was being eaten well before the 1930s.

To my certain knowledge Italian grocery stores were selling dried pasta to locals in and around Cardiff and Newport in the 1880s - I know because my great-grandmother had a recipe book which details how to put together 2 pasta dishes cooked al forno and also a recipe for a tomato sauce; my GGM died in 1901.

And if you look in a copy of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (published 1861) there is a recipe for a sweet macaroni pudding. - worth doing because it is delicious.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:

To my certain knowledge Italian grocery stores were selling dried pasta to locals in and around Cardiff and Newport in the 1880s - I know because my great-grandmother had a recipe book which details how to put together 2 pasta dishes cooked al forno and also a recipe for a tomato sauce; my GGM died in 1901.

I like that. Cardiff and Newport some sixty years ahead of Elisabeth David!

Generally, I suppose the arrival of sugar and the potato have affected the British diet and they arrived some four to five hundred years ago. Before then bread of various kinds was the staple but I expect some of the stews we see now aren't so different from those of centuries ago.

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
Actually I think you'll find there were significant pockets where pasta, or something close to it, was being eaten well before the 1930s.

I didn't say that it wasn't sold at all, I said it wasn't a significant part of the national diet.

quote:
To my certain knowledge Italian grocery stores were selling dried pasta to locals in and around Cardiff and Newport in the 1880s - I know because my great-grandmother had a recipe book which details how to put together 2 pasta dishes cooked al forno and also a recipe for a tomato sauce; my GGM died in 1901.

Right. And there was a significant population of Italians in South Wales, so that's not a great surprise.

quote:
And if you look in a copy of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (published 1861) there is a recipe for a sweet macaroni pudding. - worth doing because it is delicious.

True, although it is mostly described in soups and puddings. So ok, yes, it was being used by some people for these purposes.

It wasn't a significant part of the diet, and it still wasn't being eaten in the ways Italians ate it nor in the way it is eaten today.

[ 20. May 2016, 13:40: Message edited by: mr cheesy ]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, wriggle . . . .

Posted by mr cheesy (# 3330) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, wriggle . . . .

How is that wriggling? Pasta wasn't a big part of the British diet until mass production in the 1930s. It didn't become a major part of the diet until the 1970s.

[ 20. May 2016, 14:05: Message edited by: mr cheesy ]

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Twisting and turning. It's rather like someone trying to keep spaghetti on a fork.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

This discussion is almost as interesting as the British diet. [Razz]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
I put leeks in my tuna bake, actually.

<runs away very fast>

Holy FUCK. [Mad]

You need to see a priest, lady. Right away.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, wriggle . . . .
How is that wriggling? Pasta wasn't a big part of the British diet until mass production in the 1930s. It didn't become a major part of the diet until the 1970s.

My poking around looking for The Origin of Pasta Bake seemed to suggest the practice of chucking various tin food in a baking dish with pasta can be traced back to the post war years, and then it just kind of stops.

Can't find any actual footprint, but I suppose if people were familiar with dishes like baked ziti and lasagne, that might have been the inspiration, but really, it seems like tuna bake is just like jello fruit salad-- it has its origin in women's lifestyle magazines.

It is kind of mesmerizing to see British folk be so protective of a native Mexican grain. "You will have my sweetcorn when you pry it out of my cold dead hands." [Big Grin]

[ 20. May 2016, 15:30: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :

Sweetcorn or death!

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

I found one - ONE - recipe for tuna pasta bake in the whole BBC recipe archive of, what, 11,000+ dishes?

I wish I'd called the thread 'And then they came for our pan-fried sea bass' or something.

ETA. It contains sweetcorn and peas. Make of that what you will.

[ 20. May 2016, 15:37: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

Really? [Killing me]

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :

quote:
It contains sweetcorn and peas. Make of that what you will.

Well it is the BBC. That will be the equivalent of inviting a spokesperson from a minor and obscure political party to give an opposing view to the one that all sane people hold, in the interests of balance and objectivity.

[ 20. May 2016, 16:07: Message edited by: Drifting Star ]

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

posted by Kelly Alves

quote:
It is kind of mesmerizing to see British folk be so protective of a native Mexican grain. "You will have my sweetcorn when you pry it out of my cold dead hands."

As far as I'm concerned you can keep maize/ sweetcorn: just about bearable popped with salt - never sugar - but as a vegetable [Eek!]

tasteless and creamed sweetcorn is vile.

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :

I don't care whether or not there is sweet corn or peas in a tuna bake. For me the only non-negotiable is a crushed potato chip/crisp crust.

Posted by quetzalcoatl (# 16740) on :

It fascinates me how food elicits such extreme reactions, a kind of purism. People say you must never put X in Y, and I suppose it's partly in jest, but there is a hint of meaning it. Food fascism, to a degree.

But I remember this in music as well, you had to be cool, and it was infra dig to like something else. Well, saying infra dig isn't very cool, sorry. I'm a bad man.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle, wriggle . . . .
How is that wriggling? Pasta wasn't a big part of the British diet until mass production in the 1930s. It didn't become a major part of the diet until the 1970s.

And even in the 70s, loads of people weren't really sure what to make of it. I have, somewhere, a 1970s cookbook featuring a chocolate macaroni pudding (it was between the rice pudding and something weird with jelly).

(Whenever I make a fish pie, I have to put in extra boiled eggs, because everyone always wants one.)

Posted by Rev per Minute (# 69) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:

quote:
It contains sweetcorn and peas. Make of that what you will.
Well it is the BBC. That will be the equivalent of inviting a spokesperson from a minor and obscure political party to give an opposing view to the one that all sane people hold, in the interests of balance and objectivity.

Also known as The Referendum (which side is the sane one is up to you)

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
This discussion is almost as interesting as the British diet.

We have over 300 kinds of cheese (more than France) and a good deal our food is distinctly regional. Ten years ago there was a debate in This Place about barm cakes and these were different things in places just ten miles apart.

If there is no such thing as British cuisine it is because it varies too much from place to place, like our weather.

Posted by Rev per Minute (# 69) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Drifting Star:

quote:
It contains sweetcorn and peas. Make of that what you will.
Well it is the BBC. That will be the equivalent of inviting a spokesperson from a minor and obscure political party to give an opposing view to the one that all sane people hold, in the interests of balance and objectivity.

Also known as The Referendum (which side is the sane one is up to you)

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

I think our fish pie was eggless on the wartime principle that you only used one form of protein in a dish. And we lived in a fishing port.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

If there is no such thing as British cuisine it is because it varies too much from place to place, like our weather.

Gee, it must suck to have people homogenize your culture without taking into account your regional variety.

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :

You just can't imagine how terrible it is, Kelly. [Biased]

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

quote:
Originally posted by L'organist:
posted by Kelly Alves
quote:
It is kind of mesmerizing to see British folk be so protective of a native Mexican grain. "You will have my sweetcorn when you pry it out of my cold dead hands."
As far as I'm concerned you can keep maize/ sweetcorn: just about bearable popped with salt - never sugar - but as a vegetable tasteless and creamed sweetcorn is vile.

That's about where I'm at. I'm not even a big popcorn fan. I kind of like it on the cob, but otherwise I only eat it out of courtesy.

And to paraphrase a friend, eating creamed corn is like throwing up backwards.

[ 20. May 2016, 18:54: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:

And to paraphrase a friend, eating creamed corn is like throwing up backwards.

Wait - people eat that? I thought its only purpose was baking into a
casserole. (If you were thinking of making that, chop some green chili in to it.)

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

There's a Recipe thread in Heaven, you know that?

Meanwhile, a national treasure is destroyed by a crowd of elitist ideologues and do you lot care?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I like the idea of, say, the medieval English sitting about waiting for the arrival of tinned tuna so they have something to cook with.
Yes, but they'd be waiting even longer for ye means of opening said tinnes.

Ah, come on. With all those knights clanking around all over the place. Someone must have invented the medieval tin-opener if only to cope with those terrible helmets getting jammed down over someone's face.

quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
I put leeks in my tuna bake, actually.

No, you don't. You put tuna in your leek bake.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
There's a Recipe thread in Heaven, you know that?

Meanwhile, a national treasure is destroyed by a crowd of elitist ideologues and do you lot care?

Hah. Junior hosting.

But she's not wrong. If you want to discuss recipes, you can all fuck off from here. If you want to discuss the Evil Tories™ and their wicked plans to smash our beloved BBC for fun and profit (their's) you may continue to do so at your convenience.

DT
HH

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I like the idea of, say, the medieval English sitting about waiting for the arrival of tinned tuna so they have something to cook with.

'Any sign of ye fish in armour yet, Udo?'

'Nay'

'What about ye Hot Food of the Indies shoppe?'

'Likewise nay.'

'Looketh like it will be the chicken with almonds and saffron* for the tea then.'

'Fraid so.'

Tea? In 1390? Have I missed something?

'Forsooth, there is no tea at all, Arnulf,'

'Never mind, wilt thou then have a ciggie?'

Which is not to say it isn't brilliant. And maybe the tea thing was a bait to which I rose like, say, a big stupid tuna. So can me.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

'So, Udo, what else seeth thou in thy scrying stone?'

'Fearful thinges, Master Arnulf. That men will presently put fysh and a sort of small hard bread and yellow grains lyk unto the shitte of hennes into ane dishe and bakke it'.

'Let us be thankfull ye Blacke Deeth will carry us off ere that'.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
And to paraphrase a friend, eating creamed corn is like throwing up backwards.

Up until the 1970s, canned creamed corn did not have added sugar. It was quite tasty. Then one brand after another started adding sugar.
[Projectile]

Moo

Posted by Dave W. (# 8765) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
I have one more thing to say about the Freedom Fries thing (CRESSWELL). My recollection is that this sweeping name change only took place in the Pentagon canteen, and the entire rest of the nation thought it was stupid. Or maybe thought it was funny for fifteen seconds, then thought it was stupid.

Pentagon canteen? Please! An idiocy so sublime could only have issued from one source: the US House of Representatives.

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :

I just had this residual mental image of septuagenarian idiotic suits high- fiving each other. Somewhere on Capitol Hill.

[ 21. May 2016, 01:14: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]

Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:

And to paraphrase a friend, eating creamed corn is like throwing up backwards.

You could not have summed up my feelings about the stuff more exactly than this...

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Why would anyone want to cream corn? The texture of corn is one of the reasons for putting it in stuff. And, as noted it's already sweet (guess that's why they call it sweet corn) - which is a reason to add it to tuna pasta bake, it offsets the tang of the chilli flakes in a sweet-and-sour sort of way - so why then go and add sugar to it?

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

You're all still talking about recipes. Hell is not the place to do that, unless you want to discuss how tasty your liver would be, lightly fried with some fava beans.

DT
HH

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