The Old Foodie

The yogurt is puzzling--a cup of yogurt, in addition to the eggs, IN the meat mixture? And it stays firm? ← I intended to make this last Friday night - ran out of time to do the rolling into meatballs, so made it into meatloaf instead. It was great - good texture. I used very thick yoghurt - had drained it well so it was labneh (spelling?) really.

Sounds fantastic, and a whole lot better than the 19th C version. Thanks! Janet

Has anyone ever tried making their own Worcester(shire) Sauce ? I have a recipe from 1870 that I have been meaning to try for ages. Maybe I should shut-up thinking about it and get on with it!

It would be a full-time job for several people for a long time, I think.

My favourite meatball recipe ("Indian" flavoured) has mashed potato as the starchy bit. Great texture.

The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book, by Victor Hirtzler (1919) has these: Consommé Diane. Take any game bird, such as grouse, partridge, quail, pheasant or guinea hen, and roast just enough to give a color. Then put in soup stock and boil until soft. Clarify the broth with chopped beef, and strain. Cut the breast out of the bird, cut in small squares, and serve in the consommé. Add some dry sherry wine and a little Cayenne pepper before serving. Poached eggs, Diane. Line a tartelette mould with paste and fill with raw white beans to support the walls, and bake in oven. Then throw out the beans and fill with tomatoes sauté in butter, place a poached egg on top, cover with Hollandaise sauce, and put in hot oven for a second. There's a Canapes Diane too - but I am not sure of the "recipe" - chicken livers, I think.

I have a great recipe for a marzipan cake - a kind of pound cake idea with grated marzipan in the mixture, and some Amaretto liqueur. Adapted from a magazine (forget which) several years ago. pm me if you want it - not sure of the copyright issues. On another note - this is my first post in a long while - been too busy with a lot of things to risk the distraction here. It is good to be back.

HI Medini - I havent tried it, but from your description I know I'd like it. My favourite "B" food is bread - but that probably doesnt count as in the original story that prompted this thread, bread was a staple. Bananas are hard to do without, especially at breakfast. Baked Beans for lunch? Blue-Eye Cod for dinner - with black beans as per the fantastic quick recipe from Neil Perrys new ccokbook. We love this dish. Takes 8 minutes to cook.

Hello Medini - your post has jolted me into action; I have shamefully neglected this game (screaming deadline approaching) Naturally I think Aus is beautiful (although it is far too hot here right now) I now declare The Letter B!

The Frugal Girl has some great tips, and she is on a campaign to waste no food at all.

They havent been proven safe, that's the issue as I understand it.

People who behave like this give breastfeeding mothers a bad rep. ← mortifying unfortunate forced not words I'd ever expect to hear in relation to breastfeeding one's own child. sad, very sad.

In Chicago??? ← I came across this yesterday (looking for something else, as happens) - Manas Journal of May 19, 1971 In an article on Food, Clothing, Shelter, in the right hand column on page 2, there is this interesting bit: “ … It isn't that there is any deep lesson in any of this, but that, over all, the more people relate for themselves to the sources of their food, the more natural their lives become, and a change of taste is always at the beginning of any lasting change in life. What about people in the slums? There it is more difficult, but last year a young man from East Harlem came to California to learn how to build what he called a "food cabinet" – an ingenious arrangement of redwood planks in V formation, one trough above another, five in all, about six feet long, closed in in greenhouse style, with a big metal reflector on one side to shine the sun's rays in at every level. The food cabinet, it was said by its inventor, a California orchardist, would feed a family the year round, if proper care was taken of the soil in the troughs. The man from East Harlem hoped to get people in the ghetto to build food cabinets for their roofs and fire-escapes, and start growing vegetables for themselves. Wild ideas like that can be the beginning of a cycle of progressive self-reliance, in some cases. Sounds like an idea whose time has come. Anyone know anything about this invention and inventor?

I dont think it matters as long as we have fun and it makes us think about foods we wouldnt normally eat - like the man in the original story.

Me too. I dont care what they say, there is very little evidence on safety. Most plastics are "Generally Recognised as Safe" - they even have an acronym [GRAS]. Means no-one really knows, but industry wants them to be safe so has lobbied successfully to have them recognised this way (in the '50's, if I remember correctly, when a huge plastics industry was developed for military use during the war, and industrialists quickly found domestic applications to ensure the industry did not fold when the war ended.) I am far from being anti-technology and am not a conspiracy theorist, but really - there is something in this that makes me feel uncomfortable.