Tropicalsenior

The BBC did a fantastic program about life on a farm in Britain during World War II. It's a reconstruction but it is so well done that you feel that you are actually living through it with these people. It is well worth watching. But to get back to convenience foods, it is still being debated whether it filled a niche that existed at the time or whether their advertising created an itch to have something new. There's no doubt that it came at a time when there were more women in the work force and it was a handy way to put food on the table but people were also more prosperous and by using more convenience foods they had more time for other activities that they were beginning to enjoy. Everybody bought a TV so they had to have TV dinners to go with it. Like everything else, lifestyles and cooking styles go through phases. And it all comes down to choice. Some people choose to cook and some people choose to grab the convenience foods. Some people like @heidihs stepmother just can't cook and it's a whole lot better to grab a good convenience food than to put unedible slop on the table.

I'm not a Brit but I entirely agree with @liuzhou. Before World War II, 2/3 of the food of the British Islands was imported. With the blockades, that was cut to almost zero. That was not only rationing, that was severe rationing. Girls couldn't learn to cook because they had nothing to cook. And contrary to our belief over here, rationing didn't end until 1954. But I think the problem goes back even farther. England suffered two terrible Wars. It not only devastated the food supply, it devastated the working population. They lost almost two generations of wage earners. Now the women not only had to cook the food, they had to put it on the table. Things could never return to pre-war years. And there's another factor that people don't take into consideration. Before, the upper classes ate well because they had good Cooks. Domestic help was no longer available and women that had never even had to boil water for their own tea were now having to learn to cook their own meals. That led to a lot of dismal failures and a lot of bad meals. England has had centuries of history of good food. Yes, there was a period of time that it was almost impossible to get food but I would say that England has made a great recovery and that some of the old favorites never did die.

Bacon has gone through a curing process that draws moisture out of meat, changing the texture and making it more resistant to bacteria and more shelf stable. Thinly sliced pork belly is just fatty pork meat. It not only Cooks differently, it has an entirely different taste. I like pork belly for certain soups and I use it almost exclusively when I make Char Siu. Last night I was stuck for something different for dinner and I had a couple pieces of pork belly in the refrigerator. I froze it for about 20 minutes and sliced it very very thin. I then sauteed it and used it to make a quick chili. It was delicious.

Welcome to EG. We need more Brits, I'm glad to see that you are joining us. I've never been to the UK but I've had a lifelong love of the history and the food history of the British Islands. The Indian food of England may be different than what you would find in India but by simplifying it Britain has contributed some pretty fantastic dishes and enabled the rest of the world to enjoy The Taste of India without a lot of the complications. I would love to be able to cook Indian food but because of allergies in our household to onions, garlic, and fresh peppers, it is almost impossible. I would love to work with you to find some recipes that I might be able to make. I'm looking forward to your contributions to our community.

I have two questions. I can't get chicken gravy here but I can make chicken gravy. How many ounces are in the can? Also, it calls for sour cream. Do you mix it this in before you start to simmer it? In Mexico, can you get sour cream or do you get what we have here that is called Natilla. Sometimes ours breaks down if it is simmered very long. Would it be possible to it add it at the end like stroganoff? By the way, thank you for the recipe it sounds great.

Thank you @rotuts. Instead of feeling guilt for not scouring all of that off, I will take pride in Remembering all the delicious meals that put it there.

That picture was taken the day after I bought it. I am totally ashamed to take a picture today. Just isn't going to happen.

I guess that I am kind of addicted to Dayglow red. I have to admit I used some red coloring on this batch.

Yours looks almost exactly like my Hamilton Beach. I use mine for everything except storing cast iron skillets and cookie sheets which is what I use my big oven for. I found an 10x12 unglazed tile that I use to bake bread on. It doesn't take as long to heat and it has plenty of air flow around the tile.

Isn't there also some sort of red bean sauce that they use as a red food coloring for this?

Thanks! It's interesting that it's served in a sauce and it doesn't have that red color that you see in so much of it. Just looking at it makes my mouth water. I've got to make some this week and try making a sauce for it.

Just out of curiosity, how is Char Siu typically served in China? I haven't been in a Chinese restaurant in the US for years but many used to serve it sliced with ketchup, mustard and sesame seeds. I've never seen it served that way in any other country. It is used strictly as an ingredient in other dishes.

He didn't say Mornay, he said béchamel. Sorry, we must have posted at exactly the same time.

My father was not a blacksmith but he had a forge and he used to make all his own horseshoes and shoe all his horses. As a kid, I used to love to watch the town blacksmith and was always amazed at the things that he could make and the repairs that he could do. My first husband was in iron worker and he taught me a little bit about acetylene welding. Not easy and not my favorite thing to do but it gave me an extra appreciation of the people that could do it. I never underestimate what a good blacksmith can do. Unfortunately it's a skill that is almost nonexistent today. Sorry, I misspoke. What we were actually doing was arc welding. We spent one whole winter building a horse trailer. Never again touched a welding machine. Never wanted to.

He did mention something about it being the blacksmith that would weld them on. Seems to me it would have to be a very talented blacksmith. He had two examples of pots with welded feet. One was done quite well and the other one was quite clumpy. For the Dutch ovens without feet, one common piece of equipment was the spider. They were trivets of various heights that could be set in the fire to raise the pot above the coals. But for many people this was an added luxury or for people that were cooking on open campfires and on the move, it was an extra piece of equipment to carry along. That's why the pots with the feet became popular.

@Duvel I got my air fryer as a gift from a friend who just didn't like it. It was too small for her. If I have any advice at all it would be these two things. When I was considering buying one, I read a lot of reviews. The people that were unhappy with theirs were the ones that bought the cheap ones. Anyone that's thinking about going that route, should just think about twice about buying one. Get the best when you can find. Get one that's big enough! With the size of family gatherings that you have, if you have a small one like mine you will be standing there forever trying to make enough. It's been a couple years since I did my research but at that time people were having much better luck with fryers with control knobs then the digital versions. The high heat seems to knock out the digital controls quicker, and they felt that they had more control with the knobs. Something that no one has mentioned yet. You can use baking pans and ceramic dishes in the air fryer. That adds a lot more variety to the things that you can make. I've even heard of some people baking bread in them. I hope that you get one, it would probably be great for reheating octopus.

That's why I love it so much. Got a problem? Got a question? All you have to do is ask and within minutes someone is there with the answer. And it is someone with the knowledge and the personal experience to back up that answer, not just some robot spouting facts. It's like having your own personal Google.

Thank you so much. This should keep me going for quite a while. It's been a 5-day marathon but I finally hit the end of The Townsends. I've learned a lot, not that it's going to do me any good. I just wish that this had been available 30 years ago when I first came to Costa Rica. I haven't exactly been living in the wild frontier, but if it hadn't been for my collection of early 20th century cookbooks I probably would never would have made it.

I was watching an expert on antique cookware and the evolution of what we call the Dutch oven was interesting. A lot of the early ones were made of or the same material that bells were made from, but bronze doesn't play well with a lot of food and can cause poisonous reactions. Cast iron didn't have these problems and was much cheaper to make. A lot of the earlier ones with legs had the legs welded on instead of being cast on the pot. He said that one good indication of age is wear on the front legs. They're usually shorter from being dragged in and out of the fire. The Dutch oven was a definitely an important part of Frontier living. For many families it was the only piece of equipment that they had so they had to use it to bake, roast, stew the food and wash the dishes.

As you said before, salt was King. Without salt there was no way to preserve meat to feed the soldiers or the ships crews. And the colonists would never have made it through the winters without some form of food preservation. If they had succeeded we would still be saying God Save the King.

The Townsends did a short video on the importance of salt in the colonies during the Revolutionary War. The British felt that if they blockaded the colonies from receiving salt that they would have to surrender.

I've never been backpacking but I have been camping and what you say is so true. A warm bath or shower is heaven compared to bathing in a cold mountain river. I've lived in seven states and three countries so I have pretty much learned to adapt to a lot of different situations. I've cooked in kitchens everything from the size of one in a closet to one so large that I had to run a mile to fix a meal. But if I really think about something that I would never give up it has to be my automatic washing machine and my dryer. I remember my mother washing with a ringer washing machine and having to heat all her water in a copper boiler on the wood range. In the winter time she would bring the clothes in from the line frozen stiff and stack them on the kitchen table until they thawed enough to fold. I've lived for short periods of time without my dryer in the last 60 years, but never again. That's one repairman I have on speed dial just in case.

I understand that. It wears me out just thinking about all the work that you do for these beautiful meals.

Yes, please! Since my eyes no longer permit me to read for very long, I've been watching a lot of YouTube and the BBC has done a marvelous job presenting several series about people that have spent an entire year living and running farms during different periods of time. They lived on a Farm during medieval times, the Tudor period, Victorian, Edwardian, and during World War II. They aren't just reenacting the period, they are actually living the lifestyle that these people would have endured. It's a fascinating series and it certainly makes you appreciate the times that we are living in.

That would be fascinating. I think that salt is probably one of the most underappreciated items in our kitchens. Some of us have problems living with it but we certainly could never live without it. Many of our expressions, like salt of the earth, come from Salt and a lot of our words, like salary, are based on salt. Thanks @Raamo.