Are we wasting our time trying to produce quality.....

[Paddington]

Why would you spoil a good marmalade sandwich with bacon @Paddington

Urgh, no. Need to be on separate plates as well, bacon sarnies on one and marmalade ones on the other.

 

[Paddington]

If you have to add anything to a bacon sarnie it better be marmalade

Heathen !

 

[Tim W]

Heathen !

This heathen has just had a bacon sarnie with ooddles of ginger marmalade
Delicious ...you should all try it

And i plan to wash it down with couple of pints of stout....is there a better way to start the day?

 

[Sandpit Farm]

This heathen has just had a bacon sarnie with ooddles of ginger marmalade
Delicious ...you should all try it

And i plan to wash it down with couple of pints of stout....is there a better way to start the day?

I have thought it for a while but.... I think we need to send in the men in white coats!

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I’ve seen some loonatics put red and brown sauce on a bacon butty

 

[Poorbuthappy]

and you should add.....start the kids off on addictive herbs/spices, in chicken nuggets or similar, you have them hooked for life.
But is chicken a cheap meat ? You discard about 1/2 the carcass, as bones, feathers, guts etc, they can salvage some of those by 'mechanical recovered meat'. When my other half, worked in a testing lab, all of them in there, did not want to even touch the gunge, made some feel sick. As an after thought, the younger the bird is, the softer the bones, the more 'mrm', they start killing them at 4 weeks. YUK

Actually I'm told decent chickens die out at about 70%.
Yes there's carcass bones after your Sunday roast, but that's still a lot better than our beef and lamb.

 

[Tim W]

I have thought it for a while but.... I think we need to send in the men in white coats!

Don't knock it until you've tried it
(men in white coats can do little for me...they've tried & failed)

 

[unlacedgecko]

Yes, which is what we do. Or roast it and use what's left in sandwiches, curries etc. But can't figure out why there is an isle of 300 different types of biscuit, but no skin on chicken breasts . Ah well.

I suspect the answer lies in the quartering process in the factory. From what I understand, the chicken is butchered mechanically. I suspect the machine will be unable to produce skin on chicken breast.

And there is probably a lack of market demand for such a cut. The majority of people buying breast fillets will do so due to the supposed health benefits of the cut. Skin on would have increased fat content. And fat is seen as the enemy.

 

[Dry Rot]

I used to shoot a few rabbits and since myxy gave them away. I had one 'customer' who would tell me where I had shot them, on the heather or on the low ground. Apparently the taste is quite different. I'm told it is the same for lamb. Lamb off the hill tastes completely different to lamb fed on grass fed or "fed out of the bag".

I have never understood why this difference (for one) is no cashed in on. Maybe it is, but I don't know where to buy it. I do keep a rare breed of poultry on free range strictly for my own consumption and they are superb eating. But if I wanted to buy chicken with the breast skin on, where would I get it?

Somehow I can't see Claridges or The Ritz serving up super market chicken to their guests. But may be they do?

 

[unlacedgecko]

I used to shoot a few rabbits and since myxy gave them away. I had one 'customer' who would tell me where I had shot them, on the heather or on the low ground. Apparently the taste is quite different. I'm told it is the same for lamb. Lamb off the hill tastes completely different to lamb fed on grass fed or "fed out of the bag".

I have never understood why this difference (for one) is no cashed in on. Maybe it is, but I don't know where to buy it. I do keep a rare breed of poultry on free range strictly for my own consumption and they are superb eating. But if I wanted to buy chicken with the breast skin on, where would I get it?

Somehow I can't see Claridges or The Ritz serving up super market chicken to their guests. But may be they do?

There are a few retailers attempting to cash in on this phenomenon.

For example M&S does (or used to do) a premium Oakham Grain fed chicken. They also do a premium salt marsh lamb.

I suppose it can be fairly difficult to quantify. But the Americans manage it with beef...

 

[texas pete]

Part of the problem is (especially with meat) that there's no continuity. That is to say, if you get a really nice bit of meat somewhere its impossible to get any more exactly the same. You go back a day later and the same meat from the same shop is totally different, because its come from another farm, another breed, and fed differently too. I'm sure people would pay extra for quality (I know I would) but of course the quality has to be there 100% of the time to justify the premium.

Meats problem is there's no unique ID on the package that lets the buyer say 'You know what, I'm going to look out for this producer again, that was delicious!' Or indeed say 'That was awful, I'm not buying any of theirs again!'. Each purchase is a lottery.

That's where McDonald's have it right (if that's your thing) The customer knows what they are going to get, pretty much the world over.

 

[Hampton]

This heathen has just had a bacon sarnie with ooddles of ginger marmalade
Delicious ...you should all try it

And i plan to wash it down with couple of pints of stout....is there a better way to start the day?

My Dad's favourite sandwiches are cheese and marmalade.
It was always quite a shock as a child when Mum had made us a shared pack lunch for shoot days and you innocently thought you were tucking into a standard cheese sandwich, only to discover you were taking part in some kind of disgusting sandwich roulette!

 

[steveR]

Same as people putting tomato sauce on a bacon sandwich.
I'd rather taste the Bacon ?

Only one thing should go on a bacon sarnie, and that is a free range egg...

 

[SteveHants]

This heathen has just had a bacon sarnie with ooddles of ginger marmalade
Delicious ...you should all try it

And i plan to wash it down with couple of pints of stout....is there a better way to start the day?

Breakfast beer?

I could possibly get on board with that if I didn't have to drive...

 

[Woolless]

Breakfast beer?

I could possibly get on board with that if I didn't have to drive...

To quote The Doors:

'Well, I woke up this morning, I got myself a beer
Well, I woke up this morning, and I got myself a beer
The future's uncertain, and the end is always near'

 

[Tim W]

Breakfast beer?

I could possibly get on board with that if I didn't have to drive...

Not working today and in Dublin so would be rude not to ?

 

[Dave79]

I think it’s more younger folk don’t know how to cook meat to maximise taste. I married a townie whose family didn’t eat much meat at all, but I cooked her steak, well seasoned, and she took to it, now if we’re out for dinner she eats steak medium rare, but would never have thought to try it before. And as for a Sunday roast, she couldn’t believe how easy it was, thought it would be a whole palaver, but now realises it’s only a bit of prep. The problem is how to teach people to cook with ingredients instead of ready meals.

 

[Hilly]

And untrue. Or at least not wholly true.

Case in point, early lamb trade 2 years ago. Unusually decided to sell some hoggets when they came back from tack. 3 pens from the new season trade caught my eye. Grass reared Beltex x Dorset. Grass reared pure Hampshires. Shed reared pure Charolais.

£125
£80
£85

Why?

Beltex x Dorset had weight, confirmation and quality.

Hampshire’s had weight, probably quality, but too much waste so lost on conformation (it’s not just a big arse)

Charolais had weight and confirmation but creep taint so were knocked on quality.

What’s amazing about live lamb trade is that there’s a market for just about everything. What’s annoying is that’s there’s not enough of a price differential to make farmers believe that quality even makes a difference. I was struck enough by the difference here to ask the buyer about it and he said his orders were to get new season “no shed, no Downs”. He still bought them of course, and the seller was happy to get rid. And that’s the industry’s problem in a nutshell.

You lost me no idea what your on about. When I sell fat stock the price per kilo get better with confirmation and breed the two go together , then the more kilos the bigger the price , nothing to do with eTing quality what’s so ever , everything to do with killing out % quantity not eating quality , an animal that yields lots of meat might taste like sh!t but will make more money.

 

[Woolless]

Not working today and in Dublin so would be rude not to ?

You've some life, Tim! SBRT at the weekend then on the drink in Dublin midweek! Is the Guinness any cheaper than the bevvy at Eastwood?

 

[brigadoon]

As other's have said "quality" in the UK really means carcase conformation and has nowt to do with eating quality