Green back bacon

[MossCommuter]

I've just been in a butcher's shop. I usually go to the supermarket and buy stuff pre-packed.

I asked for green back bacon. The lady looked at me like I'd gone stark raving mad.

 

[Amheirchion]

I just had to google it, I thought you were on about Dangermouse's arch-nemesis! Well I never, it's really called that.

 

[vernon]

The green element is now largely redundant.

Back bacon would have been sufficient.

A lot of younger assistants are mystified by the traditional terms used for groceries and even by common fruit and veg. Ignorance of food ingredients extend to the asion community too. I was astounded at have to identify the contents of my basket in an Asian supermarket to a young Asian girl at the till. Clearly she hadn't had to spend time in the kitchen preparing food.

 

[Fnaar]

My butcher asked if I wanted my bacon cured... I thought... I'm not buying it if the pig's been ill, no sirree!

 

[Norm]

My butcher asked if I wanted my bacon cured... I thought... I'm not buying it if the pig's been ill, no sirree!

Shall we get the fresh-ground coffee one out of the way too?

 

[Paulus]

I still ask for green back, but then again I am getting old. If you look at green back you can see a slight green shimmer on the rashers, hence the name.

 

[rusky]

I doubt there's many under the age of 35-40 that know what green back means!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

The green element is now largely redundant.

Back bacon would have been sufficient.

A lot of younger assistants are mystified by the traditional terms used for groceries and even by common fruit and veg. Ignorance of food ingredients extend to the asion community too. I was astounded at have to identify the contents of my basket in an Asian supermarket to a young Asian girl at the till. Clearly she hadn't had to spend time in the kitchen preparing food.

I remember arriving at the till and the young Indian sub-continental girl clearly didn't know what a grapefruit was. I know she didn't know because she was looking at her picture list of fruit and vegetables whilst repeating the words ''big lemon.''

It was funny when it happened but I know that I wouldn't find it all that easy to tell some kinds of sweet potatoes from some kinds of yams. So someone else can laugh at me for that...

 

[vernon]

I still ask for green back, but then again I am getting old. If you look at green back you can see a slight green shimmer on the rashers, hence the name.

Green means uncooked and differentiates raw bacon from boiled bacon and the like.

The green sheen/shimmer on bacon is also visible on cooked ham and slices of cooked beef. The greenness is caused by a suspension of fats in water which refracts light. For a while I equated the effect with tainted meat and refused to eat shimmering meat until I discovered the cause.

 

[Aperitif]

"Vernon quickly solved the problem of shimmering green meat by encasing everything in pastry."

All cooked on Shimmerno hobs.

 

[PBancroft]

A lot of younger assistants are mystified by the traditional terms used for groceries and even by common fruit and veg. Ignorance of food ingredients extend to the asion community too. I was astounded at have to identify the contents of my basket in an Asian supermarket to a young Asian girl at the till. Clearly she hadn't had to spend time in the kitchen preparing food.

A couple of years ago I nipped into the local Co-op to buy some courgettes. The young lad behind the counter - obviously very new to the job - looked at them for a moment, and then asked me "what are these?" I told him, and he priced them up. I paid, and just as I was about to leave his curiosity got the better of him.

"And what country do they come from?"

As amusing as it is, I find it heartening that he evidently had an interest. Young people rarely spend time cooking, so don't get the chance to learn about different foodstuffs. In fact people don't spend time cooking generally. A woman in her mid-twenties I worked with came in one day proudly telling everyone about the chilli con carne she had made the previous night. Turns out she cooked off some mince and stirred in a jar of Uncle Ben's.

I'm not sure where I was going with this post, so I'll stop now.

 

[Arch]

A couple of years ago I nipped into the local Co-op to buy some courgettes. The young lad behind the counter - obviously very new to the job - looked at them for a moment, and then asked me "what are these?" I told him, and he priced them up. I paid, and just as I was about to leave his curiosity got the better of him.

"And what country do they come from?"

As amusing as it is, I find it heartening that he evidently had an interest. Young people rarely spend time cooking, so don't get the chance to learn about different foodstuffs. In fact people don't spend time cooking generally. A woman in her mid-twenties I worked with came in one day proudly telling everyone about the chilli con carne she had made the previous night. Turns out she cooked off some mince and stirred in a jar of Uncle Ben's.

I'm not sure where I was going with this post, so I'll stop now.

It's true, and sad, that a lot of people have lost, or never had, the ability to cook. A girl who worked at St Nicks, I dunno, early 20's, and working as a youth volunteer coordinator, so relatively intelligent and educated, was talking about how people don't cook any more, and how it was all the fault of the supermarkets. I opined that this was rubbish, since I do all my grocery shopping in supermarkets and still cook a proper meal every day - supermarkets do sell ingredients, not just ready made stuff. She wasn't convinced, and then said that anyway it was really complicated to cook, you had to time stuff.... My rather curt response was "get a watch then..." But of course, it's not hard for me, because I learned at my mother's (and then when roles changed, my father's) apron strings. I'm confident enough to produce pasta dishes, curries, risottoes, roasts, because it's all second nature. Yeah, there are things that have to be learned - that's what recipes are for.

 

[Adasta]

It's true, and sad, that a lot of people have lost, or never had, the ability to cook. A girl who worked at St Nicks, I dunno, early 20's, and working as a youth volunteer coordinator, so relatively intelligent and educated, was talking about how people don't cook any more, and how it was all the fault of the supermarkets. I opined that this was rubbish, since I do all my grocery shopping in supermarkets and still cook a proper meal every day - supermarkets do sell ingredients, not just ready made stuff. She wasn't convinced, and then said that anyway it was really complicated to cook, you had to time stuff.... My rather curt response was "get a watch then..." But of course, it's not hard for me, because I learned at my mother's (and then when roles changed, my father's) apron strings. I'm confident enough to produce pasta dishes, curries, risottoes, roasts, because it's all second nature. Yeah, there are things that have to be learned - that's what recipes are for.

I went to uni not really knowing how to cook. I was quite lucky in that my Mum and Dad cooked and I had an older sister who would also cook for me if we were at home together. However, after being at uni for about a month I had already learnt how to cook most meals, slowly making more challenging ones. I mean, how hard is it to brown off mince? I suppose I may have been "lucky" in that half my family are Italian so I already knew that almost all meals had onions, garlic, olive oil and tomato paste at their base!

Some people are just lazy.

 

[Headgardener]

That advert for M&S meals annoys me as it tells you how to make a meal from fresh meat and veg then says it would be eaiser to pop to their food department and buy the ready meal. Well I don't drive and the nearest M&S food department is at Hedge End (I don't think there is one in the West Quay shopping centre in Southampton), which is the other side of Southampton, on the way to Portsmouth. So no it isn't eaiser and so I will go to Waitrose or Tesco's to get the ingredients and cook it myself .

 

[danphoto]

Several years ago I was in Waitrose intent upon the purchase of some sandwiches for our neighbour, and one of the staff brought out some more sandwiches from the back place.

She was a wench of perhaps 50 years, and I was fascinated to see her start putting tuna sandwiches out right under the "VEGETARIAN" sign.

"So how long has tuna been vegetarian then?", says I, cheerily.

She thought for a moment, looked at the sign, looked at me and said "Well I suppose it depends what they eat."