The Frugality Thread

[winjim]

Nice chopping board! I like a splash of colour in the kitchen.

Thanks, it's getting on a bit so the coloured stuff is starting to come away at the back. We might need a replacement soon.

 

[Arrowfoot]

I wonder if there is a need to head back to traditional home made Cornish pasties which is a full balanced meal - meat plus veg. Certainly affordable and fresh ingredients and filling at times like this.
https://www.daringgourmet.com/authentic-cornish-pasty-recipe/

 

[oldwheels]

It's one of those "lost" kitchen skills that every housewife would've known how to do back in the day, but now so much comes packaged and oven ready, that there seems to be no need. And then there's the "squick factor" for some people too... As a country girl with a mate who goes shooting, I'm used to handling rabbit and pheasant that way. Really, it's just a matter of knowing where to stick the knife in - not just to take the meat off, but to "pop" the joints free.

I'm another one who tends to prefer the higher welfare birds - they taste so much nicer too. But while I will occasionally buy them full price, I much prefer to snap them up on yellow sticker.

A friend who was a farmer appeared just before Christmas and threw a turkey in our kitchen door so fresh it was still flapping it's wings even tho' dead. My wife was not fazed by such things and we soon had it dismembered. Got a panic phone call from another friend " Alec has just given us a turkey flapping it's wings what will we do?" We got our knives and drove over to demonstrate.
I was also an expert rabbit catcher and we sometimes got salmon and red deer but best not to ask about origins.

 

[bruce1530]

A friend who was a farmer appeared just before Christmas and threw a turkey in our kitchen door so fresh it was still flapping it's wings even tho' dead. My wife was not fazed by such things and we soon had it dismembered. Got a panic phone call from another friend " Alec has just given us a turkey flapping it's wings what will we do?" We got our knives and drove over to demonstrate.
I was also an expert rabbit catcher and we sometimes got salmon and red deer but best not to ask about origins.

"Lovely salmon. Poached twice...."

 

[KnittyNorah]

A friend who was a farmer appeared just before Christmas and threw a turkey in our kitchen door so fresh it was still flapping it's wings even tho' dead. My wife was not fazed by such things and we soon had it dismembered. Got a panic phone call from another friend " Alec has just given us a turkey flapping it's wings what will we do?" We got our knives and drove over to demonstrate.
I was also an expert rabbit catcher and we sometimes got salmon and red deer but best not to ask about origins.

When I was a child in the 1950s, my dad had a former army pal whose son was an apprentice gamekeeper somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland (he'd been in a Scottish regiment during WW2 and never, ever forgot it ...) and sometimes we'd get a message from the local station that there was a parcel waiting for us which needed to be picked up urgently. It was always a dripping, cold thing wrapped in many layers of bracken and wet sacking - usually a fat, glistening salmon, sometimes a haunch of venison or a couple of hares ... It had been put on a train in the Highlands in the late afternoon., travelled down from Glasgow or Edinburgh to Manchester overnight and been put on a very early morning 'milk and newspaper' train up to the Peak District.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I wonder if there is a need to head back to traditional home made Cornish pasties which is a full balanced meal - meat plus veg. Certainly affordable and fresh ingredients and filling at times like this.
https://www.daringgourmet.com/authentic-cornish-pasty-recipe/

View attachment 662335

Just polished-off a most excellent Pastie from the Deli in town... Proper Job!

 

[wafter]

You'd be surprised the mileage you can get out of a chicken if you simply roast one, and then use it to do other things, rather than simply using it as a roast and piling your plate high. Especially with the pickings off the carcass. All those little "bits" end up in things like pasta sauces or fried rice or whatever, and then what's left gets turned into stock for soup.

Thanks - my old dear's spot on with this. Roast at the weekend, pie in the week, soup later in the week.. absolutely as it should be but I bet few are this efficient with their cooking (myself included)..

I've brought home road kill pheasant before and she's always right on it. As much as we often don't see eye to eye / really piss each other off at times, this is one thing I really respect about her

 

[Reynard]

Thanks - my old dear's spot on with this. Roast at the weekend, pie in the week, soup later in the week.. absolutely as it should be but I bet few are this efficient with their cooking (myself included)..

I've brought home road kill pheasant before and she's always right on it. As much as we often don't see eye to eye / really piss each other off at times, this is one thing I really respect about her

I think some part is down to meat having become relatively cheap compared to what it used to be. When trotting around Tesco, the amount of meat people put in their trolleys can be eye-opening. I'd much rather buy less of something better quality / higher welfare and really enjoy it.

That is likely to change now that prices are going up almost on a weekly basis.

I'm lucky insomuch that mum trained in a professional kitchen, and she taught me how to cook. I'm used to using everything so as not to waste it.

Oh yeah, and I've been out foraging for walnuts this week. A worthwhile and enjoyable few hours spent for a pretty good return.

 

[wafter]

I think some part is down to meat having become relatively cheap compared to what it used to be. When trotting around Tesco, the amount of meat people put in their trolleys can be eye-opening. I'd much rather buy less of something better quality / higher welfare and really enjoy it.

That is likely to change now that prices are going up almost on a weekly basis.

I'm lucky insomuch that mum trained in a professional kitchen, and she taught me how to cook. I'm used to using everything so as not to waste it.

Oh yeah, and I've been out foraging for walnuts this week. A worthwhile and enjoyable few hours spent for a pretty good return.

Yup - cost has to be a factor and sadly that seems to be the only thing controlling the behaviour of most people; who otherwise have no problem wasting / discarding stuff if it has little to no obvious financial value.

I have exactly the same attitude to meat / food in general; I won't buy crap and try to shop as ethically as possible. I agree that everyone needs to cut down on meat consumption for all manner of reasons; however for me this is especially difficult as I'm allergic to a lot of veg and try to avoid carbs to manage my weight so that leaves me with not a lot of options and most meals are based around meat, eggs and dairy.

I find the current situation regarding / attitude towards meat utterly disgusting tbh - we have a public who'll mostly only consume sanitised, factory-farmed misery in plastic packets from the supermarket and turn their noses up at the thought of eating any of the genuinely free range stuff that ends up getting killed anyway - venison, rabbit, squirrel... the thousands of pheasants shot by toffs on driven shoots on any given weekend then bulldozed into mass graves because it's "not economically viable" to process them into the food chain. Surely any sane society can see the value in using this quality, genuinely free range meat to offset the "need" for factory farmed alternatives...?


You do sound very lucky with your cooking background - I'd love to be able to cook to a higher standard but since it requires time, thought, planning and commitment I'm lucky if I manage more than something out of a packet with some veg.. Thai green curry is about as complex as my abilities will allow!

Nice work with the foraging; again this is something I'd like to do more of and love the idea of living off the land. In reality of course reality falls well short. I did score maybe a kilo of blackberries on a recent walk; however struggled to do anything with them and ended up giving half to a neighbour and half to my old dear, who managed to incorporate them into something nice

What have you done with the walnuts - all dried out and awaiting future use or are you having a months-long walnut cake extravaganza in your household?

 

[wafter]

In other news, in a rare fit of pragmatism I've been looking at new shoes before my existing ones have completely fallen to bits.. I always buy the same ones - RRP is now £150/pr, cheapest I could find was £135, happened to stumble on a single new pair on ebay in exactly the right size and colour for £80

In future I think I'll be setting up an ebay search for stuff like this that I buy semi-regularly, hoover up any bargains and stick them in the cupboard for future use

 

[Kingfisher101]

Yup - cost has to be a factor and sadly that seems to be the only thing controlling the behaviour of most people; who otherwise have no problem wasting / discarding stuff if it has little to no obvious financial value.

I have exactly the same attitude to meat / food in general; I won't buy crap and try to shop as ethically as possible. I agree that everyone needs to cut down on meat consumption for all manner of reasons; however for me this is especially difficult as I'm allergic to a lot of veg and try to avoid carbs to manage my weight so that leaves me with not a lot of options and most meals are based around meat, eggs and dairy.

I find the current situation regarding / attitude towards meat utterly disgusting tbh - we have a public who'll mostly only consume sanitised, factory-farmed misery in plastic packets from the supermarket and turn their noses up at the thought of eating any of the genuinely free range stuff that ends up getting killed anyway - venison, rabbit, squirrel... the thousands of pheasants shot by toffs on driven shoots on any given weekend then bulldozed into mass graves because it's "not economically viable" to process them into the food chain. Surely any sane society can see the value in using this quality, genuinely free range meat to offset the "need" for factory farmed alternatives...?


You do sound very lucky with your cooking background - I'd love to be able to cook to a higher standard but since it requires time, thought, planning and commitment I'm lucky if I manage more than something out of a packet with some veg.. Thai green curry is about as complex as my abilities will allow!

Nice work with the foraging; again this is something I'd like to do more of and love the idea of living off the land. In reality of course reality falls well short. I did score maybe a kilo of blackberries on a recent walk; however struggled to do anything with them and ended up giving half to a neighbour and half to my old dear, who managed to incorporate them into something nice

What have you done with the walnuts - all dried out and awaiting future use or are you having a months-long walnut cake extravaganza in your household?

You wont get many members of the general public being able to pluck and prepare a pheasant or skin a rabbit etc. They just wont know where to start.
I dont eat meat and fish as I think its morally wrong plus it stinks etc. I'm always shocked at how much it costs when I've seen it at the supermarket.Especially for joints of meat. If people stopped eating it then they would perhaps not be as worried about the heating bills.
Try lentils and pulses/ tofu etc as meat aleratives, these are filling and dont pile weight on.

 

[Reynard]

Yup - cost has to be a factor and sadly that seems to be the only thing controlling the behaviour of most people; who otherwise have no problem wasting / discarding stuff if it has little to no obvious financial value.

I think I mentioned upthread that I always find it very sobering, buying a good amount of my food at the point where people are throwing it away. The current situation is definitely going to make people realise just how much money they are wasting unnecessarily.

I find the current situation regarding / attitude towards meat utterly disgusting tbh - we have a public who'll mostly only consume sanitised, factory-farmed misery in plastic packets from the supermarket and turn their noses up at the thought of eating any of the genuinely free range stuff that ends up getting killed anyway - venison, rabbit, squirrel... the thousands of pheasants shot by toffs on driven shoots on any given weekend then bulldozed into mass graves because it's "not economically viable" to process them into the food chain. Surely any sane society can see the value in using this quality, genuinely free range meat to offset the "need" for factory farmed alternatives...?

Definitely. Horesemeat is another one you could add to that list. For me, the scandal about the burgers & ready meals a few years back was more of a labeling thing in my opinion, but somehow, people do have a certain squick factor when it comes to eating dobbin. I don't - horsemeat is actually very tasty and is right up there with the best steak. Mind, I'm half Belgian, and in Belgium, it's a delicacy. I'm gutted I can't really get it here. And there's also that disconnect where people have lost a sense of where their food actually comes from.

Nice work with the foraging; again this is something I'd like to do more of and love the idea of living off the land. In reality of course reality falls well short. I did score maybe a kilo of blackberries on a recent walk; however struggled to do anything with them and ended up giving half to a neighbour and half to my old dear, who managed to incorporate them into something nice

What have you done with the walnuts - all dried out and awaiting future use or are you having a months-long walnut cake extravaganza in your household?

I've picked loads of blackberries, and along with foraged apples, I've made some lovely blackberry & apple upside down cakes.

The walnuts are currently drying out as the ones I've cracked are still a bit rubbery. I still have one bag left to de-husk, and so far, I've about 10kg of nuts laid out in cardboard trays to dry. I do plan on making pesto with some, as I still have a lot of basil.

 

[Reynard]

You wont get many members of the general public being able to pluck and prepare a pheasant or skin a rabbit etc. They just wont know where to start.
I dont eat meat and fish as I think its morally wrong plus it stinks etc. I'm always shocked at how much it costs when I've seen it at the supermarket.Especially for joints of meat. If people stopped eating it then they would perhaps not be as worried about the heating bills.
Try lentils and pulses/ tofu etc as meat aleratives, these are filling and dont pile weight on.

It's swings and roundabouts tbh... During first lockdown I found myself eating mainly veggie; meat wasn't easy to come by, especially shopping in the evening to avoid the queues and I didn't want to dip into the freezer. In terms of my shopping bill, it really wasn't any cheaper, as I was buying more eggs, dairy and pulses to compensate.

 

[oldwheels]

When I was a child in the 1950s, my dad had a former army pal whose son was an apprentice gamekeeper somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland (he'd been in a Scottish regiment during WW2 and never, ever forgot it ...) and sometimes we'd get a message from the local station that there was a parcel waiting for us which needed to be picked up urgently. It was always a dripping, cold thing wrapped in many layers of bracken and wet sacking - usually a fat, glistening salmon, sometimes a haunch of venison or a couple of hares ... It had been put on a train in the Highlands in the late afternoon., travelled down from Glasgow or Edinburgh to Manchester overnight and been put on a very early morning 'milk and newspaper' train up to the Peak District.

It does remind me of the time when coming back from my grandparent's croft with a few hens and some salmon in our luggage it got lost somehow in the railway system. The cases arrived about a week later on the very back end of a Scammel lorry as far away from the driver as possible.😄
When I worked for the post office I was once given a turkey with an address label round it's neck and told to deliver it and not come back until I had got rid of it as it stank out the sorting office. I delivered it through a top opening bathroom window and heard a splash so it had obviously landed inside the house somewhere it would be found eventually.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Have tested the MrD's thermal cooker for cooking Pasta this evening. Brought to the boil on the hob, put it in the thermal pot for 10mins and perfect pasta!
A small victory for frugality!

Bolognese sauce made in the Ninja Foodie....