Deryn

Beef drippings = Yorkshire pudding for me. I don't eat much beef any more but the thought of Yorkshire pudding (and the memories of same from my childhood) may convince me to look for a nice roast again soon. I would have to invite a lot of meat eaters though since (carb-lover) I would just as soon only dine on the 'pudd'.

Glad to hear that. They still won't win me over with the Heinz name on the label but at least they dumped the HFCS.

gfron1 - Thank you for your excellent examples. All I can say is ... you have high standards and a conscience. I do understand why your particular substitutions were made, and the fact that you were not comfortable with them (or with not 'advertising' them) tells me all I need to know. Had I been there and ordered 'elk' at your establishment, whether or not the 'elk' I thought I ate was really bison (and there is a good chance even though I have eaten a lot of game meat that I would not have known the difference), the overall quality of the meal would have been excellent I am sure - and even if I found out, all I would have taken with me was a good story to tell for years. Your changes were short lived and not intended nor deliberately designed to deceive. 'Things happen'/mistakes are made - and one compensates on the fly with no real intent to deceive for gain. Understandable. Not so much the other examples you described of others' behaviour. Liuzhou I have had a similar experience with the 'confusion' between butter and margarine - and a similar response from the cook and servers. Absolutely annoying that these people really believe that they are interchangeable or the same product. I question their qualifications to be cooking food for customers for money. Didn't report it (would not have known who to tell to be honest) but I will never go back there either.

I don't think I have ever (in the past decade at least) seen a bottle of the US version that didn't have HFCS in it - never could bring myself to buy that stuff. The Canadian version to my knowledge doesn't have it and never did. I must have at least 10 bottles around the house .. some of them probably 10 years old (and all bought in Canada). I use it quite frequently but a bottle lasts forever since I don't use much at a time. I am now treating them like fine vintage wine - and hope they can store for many more years and get better as time goes on even.

Canada did I think follow the British recipe (thank goodness) but not sure if they still do. I will have to check the label at the store next week to be able to tell you the ingredients. I could not bring myself to buy any when I saw the Heinz notation on the label. Luckily I have loads of the old stuff on hand (because I used to have a bad habit of buying a bottle at least every month for some unknown reason) and hope it stands the test of time because I may never be able to buy any again. Will have to learn to make my own I guess.

I am no good at phonetics either - but yes, that is what I meant too. Thanks, Tere (and Liuzhou). I laugh my head off watching North American cooking shows when they try to pronounce the whole thing (as they always do) - so funny and much more complicated than it needs to be. Up in Canada I see that Heinz is making Lea and Perrins now. I doubt that anything good can come of that.

In northern climes, where fresh vegetables (unless grown in a specialized greenhouse environment) are purported to be 'local', they had better be in some 'preserved' form when served in winter for me to even begin to believe they are still 'local'. They could be organic (maybe) however but I don't know one would 'prove' that. People who dine and/or run restaurants really need to think before they eat or write their menus - and, if you vary the menu by season, you are more likely to have people buy into the 'local' part at least. But, really I don't think most people even care any more. Except in very high priced places, where there is a reasonable expectation for truth in advertising, and delivery of a high quality product, most probably don't 'expect' the flowery descriptions on menus to be anywhere near accurate (other than when it comes to taste and texture and comfort on the plate). And, even with air transportation these days, 'fresh' ocean fish served in the heartland is a bit beyond my ability to fully believe in. Lobster in a tank by the door is not even guaranteed to be really 'fresh' (strange as that may seem) since I know they can be held that way a long time - and in my experience here where I have tried 'fresh' live lobsters both right from the ocean, as well as well out of season but held in tanks, doing that changes the taste/texture, not to mention that even in season one gets very different tastes/textures based on whether the lobster is hard or soft shelled (just molted) at the moment. And yet most menus where lobster is served say the same thing about their lobster all year long. Common sense (which is not so common any more) and a life of eating experience go a long way towards one's ability to discern truth from 'marketing fiction' in my humble opinion. Believing that everyone else will tell the truth is foolish. Whether their 'marketing lies' constitute legal fraud in today's world (where everyone is doing it) is questionable. It is rare (does it even really happen?) for anyone to be prosecuted for menu lies. A farmer purporting to sell organic produce however may be held to account - but not a restaurant that says they serve organic. Right or wrong, it is what it is. As I said, slippery slope - and the result of same. The more I think about it, I think this particular reviewer was just stretching for a 'story' for want of anything else distinctive to report about at the time - even at the expense of making themselves look a bit ignorant by claiming that they were astonished at the 'fraud' that might be going on in the restaurant business.

Dried tomato pesto - yes! Made it, bought it, used it. Not sure I have directly added vinegar to mine (during pesto preparation), but why not? I would try balsamic.

The problem, as I see it, is that now people either expect lies (and therefore wouldn't know truth if it hit them in the palate). Fraud used to be a horrible thing and was somewhat isolated in occurrence but it is expected nowadays and therefore has become the norm.

I think that we are seeing one (possibly unedited, or not yet completely edited) page completely out of the context of the rest of the book and therefore I (personally) would not take that recipe and try to recreate it yet. I presume all those niggling little details will be fixed before book printing/release. I don't think there really is a misunderstanding here - I think we really are just seeing a 'mock up' of a page for layout design purposes, as gfron1 is saying.

I think however that even people with 'no taste' and little life/cooking experience would only order a meal kit that included a very thin pork chop which turned out tough and curled when cooked as directed ... ONCE. And if that was the menu they bought as their first order, they might not return with follow-up orders on the strength of that disappointment. That is not a good thing for a company that wants repeat customers to maintain and grow their business.

I use all the above. Worchestershire sauce (Wuhster to me - as it was always called in my house by my British father) these days is too often now made even without or with very little actual anchovy (check the labels!). I use it though occasionally - and in moderation, it is not really that 'one note' or immediately detectable. Good dark vinegars (black, balsamic) are one thing I use very often that I think can bring an umami depth. Mushrooms, especially duxelle or wild/dried. Techniques such as long slow cooking often work too, especially if tomato paste and red wine are included. A bit of deeply caramelized sugar or onions added to some dishes perhaps would work as well to bring or enhance umami. Is this what you are trying to get at? I am unclear if you want us to just list bottled stuff that we use to add umami?

From your first linked article: Sad to say but I am absolutely not surprised either that in this world this is now more the norm than an anomaly. If one pays attention to other areas of our lives and world then one can see that values and morals have changed significantly over the past 30 or so years. One could attribute the 'seeds' of this particular culinarily-related phenomena to the high cost of organic foods or the weather or whatever you want, but, once one begins to market a 'lie' to oneself and others, it gets easier and easier to conveniently 'forget' that it is a lie - and hey, everyone else is doing it too. It's 'marketing'. It's 'survival'. It is however not honorable! But, it is now the new normal. And because people know that it makes it harder for honest establishments to sell their own stories. Slippery slopes. When someone says I am eating grass-fed beef, much as I would like to believe that from calf to cow/bull, the animal I am consuming was fed nadda except grass from birth to last meal (no grain supplements and no pesticides/hormones/antibiotics were ever used), in most instances, it would be ludicrous for me to buy that line literally. But, 'maybe', just maybe, the meat is a bit closer to truly grass fed or organic than if I went to Golden Corral. If I eat at a high class establishment, I want the food to be very edible and well cooked so my assumption is that the cook at least tried to source ingredients that would make that possible, especially knowing the price they will be asking me to pay and the fact that they want to stay in business. But, do I believe all the hype on the menu? That would be stupid if you ask me. The upside is that you can usually trust that the foods sold in restaurants where they do NOT tout farm to table are indeed just from the local supermarket or trucked in by Sysco from their warehouse and are nothing special other than they were the cheapest available. And by the way, the verbiage 'farm to table' for vegetables, etc. is usually not a lie anyway - since most vegetables are grown on a farm somewhere, probably just not locally. 'Fresh' is a word that gets stretched a lot too. What does 'fresh' mean? Today, in some supermarkets, that can even mean 'frozen but not for long'! If I didn't see you pick it from the back garden, I have to assume that it is not 'that' fresh even if you tell me it is. Bravo. Better to learn in middle age than not at all. Maybe if the school systems (and parents) really taught people (their children) to think critically, we might all be better off. Much of the world is being snowed 90 percent of the time in all areas of life - why not in the restaurant industry too? I would hope that most people know that most words aimed at consumers when it comes to most products are only for 'marketing' purposes, but unfortunately I know that is not the case these days. People are heads down in their iPhones oblivious to truth and logic - and consequently they get taken for a ride. p.s. I will believe someone like gfron1 if he says that x, y or z on my plate is foraged - mainly because I 'know' his personal integrity and background and those particular ingredients are not commonly available on the market or are so perishable that they would not make it to the plate looking at all perky had they come from anywhere but locally and today.

Thanks very much for giving this a go for the benefit of everyone here. I am sorry your first meal was not 'good value' for you, Anna. I probably would not have followed their directions to the T either if they asked me to use a box grater. I might have just put the sweet potato in the oven or microwave and cooked it that way - or, as you did, grate it using other means. I agree with you on thin pork chops. I have no idea why anyone ever buys those for just the reason you stated - they are tough even before you can flip them - especially if cooked in a sauté pan. I probably would have known that too upon seeing how thick they were, and perhaps decided not to cook them as directed either. They are designing meals for the lowest common denominator, not that I blame them, but it means that many just won't 'work' for some reason or other for everyone. If everyone who orders that meal finds the pork chops too thin to cook without being tough, I hope people provide that feedback so the company decides to include thicker chops or changes the recipe or discontinues that recipe in future. I thought the prices were not bad (in line with US kit prices it seems which is a great bargain in Canada - no exchange increase, etc.). I thought the meals pictured for this week looked great (on screen) but seemed very limited as you noted - and I didn't want to push the 'order' button to find out whether I would get to choose IF I was in their delivery area (which I am not). I see that they mention they do occasionally offer gluten and dairy free options (which are not something I would want or need) but I wonder if they allow you to choose not only the main selection but particular elements of the meal otherwise (in other words, could one substitute kale for something else if desired?). I doubt it unfortunately - and I understand why - though perhaps one could ask them not to bother sending kale at all if one knows one dislikes it or cannot eat it even though one's value for a meal goes down if they do that. And, given that apparently only their liners are 'unrecyclable' (but may be reusable), I am wondering what other things in your kit(s) seemed overly packaged (in, I guess, an environmentally poor manner) to you? Another question - Portion size? Did it seem sufficient? If you had only half (i.e. a single portion) of any given 2 person dish (and enjoyed every morsel of your meal), would you have leftovers or been left hungry? Aside from the fact that I doubt I could ever get any kind of 'meal kit' delivered here, one of the issues for me would still remain that so many of them seem to include kale and other cruciferous/brassica vegetables (and soy) which I am not supposed to eat. That is probably because they are fairly hardy and would stand up reasonably well to transport, (as opposed to things like lettuce).

Happy Birthday to your son, Anna. And a(n anniversary of the) birth-day hug for you as well - since, as my father always said, the mother should be the one celebrated that day every year since the kid doesn't remember what he/she put his mother through.

rotuts - I love your defatting method! Thank you. Going to adopt that. I have loads of wide mouth mason-type jars around here. This house has a septic system. Separating out the fat very well from any juices (even if I am not saving the juices) so I can discard it easily before trying to wash the pan is critical, but messy, time consuming and I just don't seem to do it too well and then, because the fat is still quite juicy, it is difficult to discard easily. Can be put in compost here but the (either brown bags or expensive but flimsy 'biodegradable' plastic) compost bags leak if I put really wet 'remains' in there well before pickup day. Apart from that, your ribs look divine. I am not even a big rib fan but they had me thinking I should be.

I am sorry that I don't have a definitive answer to your question, Kenneth, but a) I would consider that the variation in instructions is the result of this being a cuisine, like most, where it could be done one way in one house and next door, a different way (in other words, there is probably no 'right' way) and b) that, for me, toasting and frying might not bring out the same qualities in the shrimp paste (or any spice for that matter) - so it is possible that both could be done, or either could be done, and you will get a different result - either of which is probably fine depending on what you like.

Please, no apps. Make this as manual a product as you can. From a prospective purchaser viewpoint, I think that, while these days it seems that we may get more and more 'automated' and wired to our 'devices' via wifi, I believe that we may see a reversal of that trend down the line, strange as that may seem to those wedded to the idea of 'remote control'. You also limit your customer base if it relies on an app (to those who have whatever device can house it) - and you bind yourself into having to maintain, improve, protect, etc. that app as well as the hardware. I think the KISS principle should apply. I can envision a small batch nut roaster (perhaps 1 or 2 cup capacity) 'cage rotisserie' that could be slid down cylindrical sides of maybe a stainless container to a height appropriate for the particular contents (perhaps several different settings) with a heating element in the bottom and some sort of mechanism that turns the 'rotisserie' cage at a steady rate. Constant heat and turning speed is probably all that is needed if one can adjust the distance from the 'flame'. Add a timer and a way to mechanically turn the cage (a small externally mounted motor of some kind should work). The cage could have several 'liners' to ensure that both small seeds and larger nuts could be roasted without falling out. Not sure that is a good description of what I can envision but I see this as larger than a spice grinder but much smaller than a Thermomix.

My daughter (who lives in Edinburgh) keeps saying I should come and live in Britain, since I was born there, and I really regard my heritage as more Welsh than anything else. Unfortunately, it is just too late for me to do that but I do drool when I read Tere and DianaB's posts - and thank you both for your descriptions of the areas around you both that supply such bountiful culinary treats.

lindag - Sorry you had to go through this 'scare' but I am thrilled to hear it has been resolved in a very wonderful way! I don't know what to suggest to you as a replacement but you might want to consider, if you choose to use any app, whether the data is stored in way that it can be a) viewed without a specialized app at all even if it is not pretty (i.e. has a basic text format that can be seen in a basic OS supplied text editor) and b) can be 'ported' to other applications should you have this issue again in future. Additionally, if it were me, I would want a way to be able to print out the full collection easily (again, the text formatting should help there) rather than 1 recipe at a time (so you can keep a printed copy, allowing for a manual recreation if nothing else, in case everything is lost at some future date).

IndyRob - It may seem as though a discussion related to 'computers' or 'software' in general is a bit off topic here but I am inclined to think that reading this thread could cause a number of people who like to keep their recipes online, and/or in some kind of an app, rather than in a hard copy (book or paper) or even on their own computers (accessed via a purchased program or just in a note/file, etc.) to think carefully about whether that is the only way they want to store recipes that are 'precious' to them. We have had a number of threads here talking about what app, etc. that people like to use for their recipe storage. Several years ago, I carefully scanned in recipes from my great-grandmother's handwritten cookbook (of which only one paper copy existed and it obviously cannot be recreated) and was going to make a real cookbook from those recipes - at least for family distribution, if not more. I took backups constantly however one day I dropped tea on that computer keyboard and fried it. I tried to move the backups to a new computer but for some reason they would not move in any form that was readable - apparently not just the keyboard was destroyed. I could not just go back and redo the work either. The original cookbook was ruined - it was left in a place where rodents got to it, unbeknownst to me - and it now is history. I learned a valuable lesson. Now, I keep several paper copies of anything important and I keep them in different places, and I back up my computer religiously. And I put those backups, like DiggingDogFarm may do, on hard media (DVDs) and a couple of external backup drives as well as keeping copies on different partitions on the same computer. I may never care about any recipes as much as I did about those family ones but I don't want to find out later when I no longer can find them that I did. In short, while I don't think most need to be as paranoid as I am (and DDF says he is too), I do think they need to consider how much they value their recipes, etc. and consider where/how they store them - and whether they would be concerned (and what they would do) if their culinary data (or access to it) was lost.

I read this thread and wondered if you have recently installed Windows 10? If so, you may have the answer if you can move everything to a Win 7 computer. Perhaps the difference between you and those still able to run this program is that they are still using some version of Windows previous to 10. If this guy has 'disappeared' perhaps he never got around the making the software compatible with Win 10. Sounds as though you may be also lucky if your data was not stored on a 'cloud' somewhere (owned by the person who markets this software, who disappeared). This is one reason I do not trust anything to 'cloud' storage - if that 'cloud' fails (and it can since it is on a server somewhere) or the company fails and stops supporting everything you could definitely lose all your data. Nothing magical about 'clouds' - they are still hardware based, just not in your house. But, one hopes that is not the case here. I hope you get all your recipes back, safe and sound. Good luck.

Haha, Lesliec. And we in the 'western world' pride ourselves on being up on everything important first. Or at least some do. I personally am not surprised that even in this day of the internet and instant gratifi(oops communi)cation we are far behind the times here in North America. We are sometimes (oftentimes) very insular here, while touting that we 'know everything'. Thanks for the 'update'. I do now recall seeing Chris's review of Dinner but I guess it never sunk in that it was in Australia (since I know about the one in London - my daughter has been there - and didn't know it had been replicated in Australia). Chris didn't mention that in his introductory pictorial coverage. Someone in passing mentioned Melbourne later on in the thread but I guess that went over my head.

Darn .. if this spring weather here were not more like winter I might have been passing close by Lancaster while you were there. I wanna froggie! Oh so cute! Good luck with the show, Kerry.

I guess that is a possibility, cakewalk - but even that was not clear. By 'half the fruit' I thought she meant either zest half of a lemon (which half? top/bottom/left/right) or she meant zest 2 out of 4 of the lemons (or 1 lemon and 1 orange or both lemons or both oranges) and I certainly wondered 'why'. I didn't see that 'striping' on the final product - never occurred to me to search the picture for it. I thought cutting the peel in triangles was enough especially once something is candied small details often are not that visible. But, then again, maybe those are huge pieces (I went by the size of lemons and oranges I am used to and the seemingly large number of pieces in the picture and figured that the pieces must be small but it is hard to tell from that picture). When I zest I don't create tiny stripes (unless I am told to) because I use a rasp-like tool (as many do - in my case because it is fast and my old 'strip producing' zester just would not stay sharp and I got frustrated with it a few years ago) and it creates tiny slivers of zest and large areas of pith showing. Thanks for your comments because it got me to look at the picture again to see what you were talking about - I thought the gradations were just the way the light was or where the syrup stuck which made parts of the end product look lighter. For me, your entry was not wasted at all. It was interesting to read that recipe so thanks for adding it (though this is not my thread). AlaMoi did indicate pith was the objective .. but I took that to mean that all the peel had been stripped off - perhaps not.