The Lemon Fool

Here we go again! The present and past skills tests have included ingredients that I would love to cook, that I have asked local butchers for, but are just not available here in East Devon. Sea urchins, calves brains, calves sweetbreads. Last time I cooked sea urchins was 13 years ago in Bahrain, calves brains in France 3 years ago, sweetbreads maybe 50 years ago in Gleneagles hotel. Notwithstanding that, a contestant roasted a piece of mutton last week! Mutton? The only mutton I found was frozen imported from New Zealand, ugh! And calves liver. I stupidly bought a packet of frozen calves liver from the butcher in Sidmouth, disgusting! I went to the shop to complain, only to be told that my wife had beaten me to it and given them a realy hard time. The outer membrain had been left on and the tubes left in before it was sliced and frozen in a block. The only place to get good calves liver locally is in Seaton and they only get it once a fortnight, when it's gone, it's gone. What happened to all the good stuff when I was all those years abroad?

Grrr.

John

johnstevens77 wrote:And calves liver.

Perhaps it's one of the wealth indicators for an area that it has a Waitrose with regular supplies of calves liver. Presumably it's a spin off from production of (red) veal. Again it may be a wealth indicator, but a Tesco locally has veal steaks.

Alaric wrote:

johnstevens77 wrote:And calves liver.

Tesco locally has veal steaks.

Our local Waitrose do sell veal steaks and veal mince, but nothing suitable for a blanquette for example and certainly no sweetbreads. I sometimes buy their veal mince and make koftas/burgers/meatballs with it, sometimes mixing it with minced cheap bacon offcuts from Sainsburys.

john

We are so lucky to have a local farmer who opened a farm shop. If he hasn't reared the beasts himself he can give you the name and address of the local farmer who has. He has even managed to source rosy veal. He has customers travelling from Manchester just to get ingredients such as those mentioned. Supermarkets have a lot to answer for, they cut prices to the bone so that most of the local butchers have shut up shop. Within 10 miles of where we live there are three local butchers left out of about twenty.

R6

It is a indication of the times we're living when these, chefs they like to call themselves, have no basic skills, can't even cook an omelette or whisk a bechamel sauce, are not classically trained, but instead have taken the shortcut in their cooking "careers" - Asian influences, fusion cooking, "individualism" art on the plate.

I have much more admiration for a cook who can pan fry a pork chop perfectly and make a Sauce Robert with it on the fly.

Is this sort of stuff not available via the web now?

straight question, I'm not being "clever"


https://www.finefoodspecialist.co.uk/veal-brain/
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/ ... 933-152934
https://www.finefoodspecialist.co.uk/fr ... chins-3kg/

Just examples found on a google search.

didds

I'd be very nervous about buying some types of meat off the net. I like to inspect what I'm buying, get the butcher to cut me exactly what I want. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I do like to look, sniff and feel, especially with fruit and veg.

R6

JMN2 wrote:It is a indication of the times we're living when these, chefs they like to call themselves, have no basic skills, can't even cook an omelette or whisk a bechamel sauce, are not classically trained, but instead have taken the shortcut in their cooking "careers" - Asian influences, fusion cooking, "individualism" art on the plate.

I have much more admiration for a cook who can pan fry a pork chop perfectly and make a Sauce Robert with it on the fly.

I am so old fashioned that a chef is the person in charge of a brigade or part of one, i.e. a chef de partie. All the rest are COOKS!