Food Confessions: We're Not Here to Judge

[JTMacc99]

7 hours ago, harrie said:

We don't do bubble and squeak, but we do colcannon, 

Colcannon for me as well. Mmm... comfort food. 

Haven't made it since I decided to live like a skinny person. I think it's time for a treat one of these days. 

Edited April 29, 2017 by JTMacc99

[spiderpig]

On 4/29/2017 at 4:25 PM, JTMacc99 said:

Colcannon for me as well. Mmm... comfort food. 

Haven't made it since I decided to live like a skinny person. I think it's time for a treat one of these days. 

Trust - you only live once.  At a certain point you give up fat-guilt and simply indulge.  I love crunchy greens and straight-from-the-garden veg, but I want my last earthly meal to be carbs and cholesterol.

[Wings]

I love colcannon.  I have never made it but have had it an Irish pub.  Looks easy enough to do but I tend to eat carbs when out and rein them in at home. 

Edited May 1, 2017 by wings707

[JTMacc99]

21 hours ago, wings707 said:

I love colcannon.  I have never made it but have had it an Irish pub.  Looks easy enough to do but I tend to eat carbs when out and rein them in at home. 

It's totally easy. I like the versions with bacon, specifically Irish bacon. 

[Sandman87]

On Friday, April 28, 2017 at 11:23 PM, spiderpig said:

OK Anglophiles - I can't be the only one around here who loves bubble and squeak.

We do a version with hamburger, bacon, cabbage, and diced potatoes.

[rcc]

I looked up Irish bacon and that sounds so good and healthier.

[JTMacc99]

24 minutes ago, rcc said:

I looked up Irish bacon and that sounds so good and healthier.

The first time I tried it was tossing some in an order I was making for my Dad for father's day from Oscar's Smokehouse. He discovered the actual place and not just the internet site when he was working as a consultant for FEMA after some really bad ice storms in upstate New York.  He was travelling from town to town and at one point ended up in the town where these guys were located. He brought home a bunch of great bacon. That was many years ago, but I still like to order from them once in a while because he likes it, and to be honest, the bacon IS really good.

[spiderpig]

@JTMacc99 That is so good to know about Oscar's.  They had me at "Irish Whiskey".  Have you tried any of their other products?

[JTMacc99]

3 hours ago, spiderpig said:

@JTMacc99 That is so good to know about Oscar's.  They had me at "Irish Whiskey".  Have you tried any of their other products?

Mostly in it for the bacon. Both the hickory and applewood smoked as well as the Canadian and Irish are all good and I would buy them all again. I think we tried the smoked cheeses once which were fine. 

[FormerMod-a1]

Having just come back from a trip to Ireland, I can attest to the goodness that is Irish bacon.  Yum!

[Wings]

52 minutes ago, aquarian1 said:

Having just come back from a trip to Ireland, I can attest to the goodness that is Irish bacon.  Yum!

How is it different? 

[biakbiak]

2 hours ago, wings707 said:

How is it different? 

It includes the loin as well as the belly. Give me crispy American bacon anytime over it.

[FormerMod-a1]

Irish bacon on the bottom right.

[Mindthinkr]

Oh gosh I miss the Scottish bacon. I ordered from two different places, but it just didn't have the same taste (it looked right) and saltiness that I was craving. I'll give the Oscars Smokehouse a try. I'm hoping that the third time is a charm!! 

Thanks @JTMacc99

[JTMacc99]

Well, I hope you like it! With stuff like this, there is such a personal angle to what it should taste like, that it can be a while before we find something exactly right for us. I feel confident that the standard hickory smoked bacon from Oscar's will satisfy almost everybody. I'm a little less confident in the Irish one, even though I liked it. It may not be for everybody.

[Mindthinkr]

It is subjective and the tastes between American (streaky) bacon and U.K. are quite different. To me the U.K. one was an acquired taste as it's very salty. Shame is, once I got used to it, the U.S. kind not longer hit the mark flavor wise. It's been a few years and I may just have to go across the pond to satisfy this craving. I'm hoping that your recommendation will save me the trip. My latest bacon thing is a BLAT. Bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado. Yum.

I'll let you know how it turns out. 

[Bastet]

2 minutes ago, forumfish said:

What's the longest out-of-date food you've eaten?

I pay no attention to best-by dates, since they don't actually equate to anything meaningful, and instead go by how a food smells, looks, feels, and tastes, so I've definitely got six weeks beat by a mile, but I can't come up with specifics (because of the not minding the dates thing).

[biakbiak]

19 minutes ago, Bastet said:

I pay no attention to best-by dates, since they don't actually equate to anything meaningful, and instead go by how a food smells, looks, feels, and tastes, so I've definitely got six weeks beat by a mile, but I can't come up with specifics (because of the not minding the dates thing).

I am the opposite I can't eat anything that I know is past the best buy dates even though I know what you are saying is completely true, that said because I know that is true I frequently just ask my boyfriend to check foods for how they look and smell and just not tell me what the best buy date is so that we don't waste perfectly edible food. The one exception that I have to check is milk products because I have weird irrational things with milk so I can't use it even if it's just a day past the best buy date and smells and looks fine. 

[Mittengirl]

I once found an angel food cake mix in my cupboard that was a full decade past it's expiration date.  I baked it, ate it and lived to tell the tale.  

[Mellowyellow]

I use spices that are YEARS old and drink tea until I finish the pack. I have about 20 different teas at home so they are all expired by the time I finish them!

I will drink milk that is a few days old, same with yoghurt. Will use cheese no matter how old it is if it hasn't got mould!

I generally go by looks, taste, smell, texture. That said our entire family tends to walk on the wild side with food and our tummies are used to it! 

[Quof]

Quote

I once found an angel food cake mix in my cupboard that was a full decade past it's expiration date.  I baked it, ate it and lived to tell the tale.  

It was a cake mix. Surely you don't think it contained any ingredient found in nature???

Edited May 7, 2017 by Quof

[ariel]

I remember an old "Married With Children" episode where Peg Bundy told Al the expiration dates were only a suggestion, not a fact.  ;)

Edited May 7, 2017 by ariel

[Jaded]

34 minutes ago, ariel said:

I remember an old "Married With Children" episode where Peg Bundy told Al the expiration dates were only a suggestion, not a fact.  ;)

Married With Children made me realize what a Bon Bon was. ?

[GreekGeek]

22 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

I use spices that are YEARS old and drink tea until I finish the pack. I have about 20 different teas at home so they are all expired by the time I finish them!

I will drink milk that is a few days old, same with yoghurt. Will use cheese no matter how old it is if it hasn't got mould!

I generally go by looks, taste, smell, texture. That said our entire family tends to walk on the wild side with food and our tummies are used to it! 

Me too, especially about the spices. I've never followed the "replace the spices every six months" rule. Does anyone? Milk doesn't last long, though. I've had containers go sour even before the sell-by date, especially in the summer.

If the mold on cheese is green or white you can just cut it away and eat the rest, though the flavor may be affected. Watch out for red/pink mold though!

[FormerMod-a1]

1 hour ago, GreekGeek said:

Me too, especially about the spices. I've never followed the "replace the spices every six months" rule. Does anyone?

I don't. But while I've found spices don't go 'bad', per se, they do lose potency so I'll have to use more.  Not all of them though, but some.  

[ariel]

19 minutes ago, aquarian1 said:

I don't. But while I've found spices don't go 'bad', per se, they do lose potency so I'll have to use more.  Not all of them though, but some.  

I'm a big fan of Penzeys Spices & don't always use them up within 6 months.  After 6 months, you just may need to use more for your recipe.

[JTMacc99]

13 minutes ago, ariel said:

I'm a big fan of Penzeys Spices & don't always use them up within 6 months.  After 6 months, you just may need to use more for your recipe.

Me too! And no shot of using them up by six months, but the high quality of the Penzey's stuff generally makes me feel fine about using them well past that time.  I smoked a couple of gigantic chicken breasts yesterday using a Galena Street Rib and Chicken Rub that is more like 6 years old than six months, and they were great.  

I forgot I had that jar. I go through tons of the BBQ 3000, and this was a nice change. I'll use it up quickly now and replace it with some fresh stuff soon.

[ariel]

Sometimes the supermarket spices have been sitting around forever.

[spiderpig]

On 5/7/2017 at 4:35 AM, Mellowyellow said:

I will drink milk that is a few days old, same with yoghurt. Will use cheese no matter how old it is if it hasn't got mould!

I generally go by looks, taste, smell, texture. That said our entire family tends to walk on the wild side with food and our tummies are used to it! 

I'm glad you brought that up.  Isn't cheese old cultured milk?  And we pay a bunch for cheese run through with blue mold.  How do you tell if Roquefort or Gorgonzola is moldy-moldy anyway?

I love cheese.

[Mindthinkr]

1 minute ago, spiderpig said:

I'm glad you brought that up.  Isn't cheese old cultured milk?  And we pay a bunch for cheese run through with blue mold.  How do you tell if Roquefort or Gorgonzola is moldy-moldy anyway?

I love cheese.

For the Blue cheese I go by smell. There is a fresh moldy odor when it's good and (to me) a sour smell that tells me to toss it. Also fur. If it looks furry throw it away. 

[Qoass]

I had an unopened cardboard carton of organic half-and-half on the bottom shelf of my fridge from last summer.  The expiration date was marked September 29, 2016.  I opened it and made ice cream with it last month.  It was fine.  No, really,  I swear.

[ariel]

I used some Jarlsberg cheese that had a little mold.  I cut it off. Me & Mr A are alive & well to tell about it. ;)

[Mindthinkr]

I'm having a wee problem. Is it me or...

I watch some cooking shows and they seem to add a lot of salt. 1-2t per recipe for 4 ppl. It seems to be a trend lately. I watch ppl salt their food all the time without even tasting it first. Chefs on most of the shows make a big deal of having enough seasoning. Do we become immune to the taste of it because of over usage? I began a low sodium diet at age 12 because my Dad couldn't have it due to health issues and I became accustomed to the taste of foods unenhanced. That's not to say we didn't use spices. We used lots...perhaps to compensate for the lack of sodium. Now when I eat out (especially if it's a chain restaurant) I find the food unpalatable. Too salty. 

   I was discussing this with a friend. How I couldn't do regular prepared soups because they were too salty. He told me there was a specific reason why. Cost. Salty food cooks and boils at a lower temperature and faster if it has a certain sodium content. That it's cheaper for the manufacturers to use copious amounts of it and that we as a society have come to expect that taste now. I look for low salt versions and now love the sodium free stocks and broths to cook with. Mostly I have to cook from scratch which tastes good but sometimes I'm just too tired to throw much together. Packaged foods are full of chemicals, dyes, sodium and if I can't pronounce it, I don't want to eat it. That means a PBnJ night. 

 So back to my original question... Is it me? 

[callie lee 29]

I'm bad about expiration dates, I truly embrace the suggestion aspect of it. 9 out of 10 i'm good, it's the tenth that is bad. Once i was eating lemon greek yogurt before I thought "maybe this shouldn't be so tangy". i took it to a coworker and made her smell it. They made me throw it out in the outside bin. And then they opened the office windows. Apparently 3 months past date is pushing it. 

[theredhead77]

I go by smell and taste, for most things. Spices don't go bad they just lose potency. About 15 years ago my mom went on an extended vacation and to surprise her, I deep cleaned their house which included purging crap my dad OKed to be purged. Some of the things were spices that were older than me.

What's the deal with pink mold? When I was a kid I ate a pink string cheese that was moldy (I thought it was pretty pink cheese my mom bought).

[spiderpig]

16 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

For the Blue cheese I go by smell. There is a fresh moldy odor when it's good and (to me) a sour smell that tells me to toss it. Also fur. If it looks furry throw it away. 

The words furry and food should never be used in the same sentence.

I know what you mean.  Reminds me of George Carlin's classic riff on cleaning out the refrigerator:  "Is is meat or is it cake?"

[spiderpig]

I have a really nice vacuum packed roll of goat cheese of undetermined age in my dairy drawer.

Should I feel free to eat it, or should I give it to my husband?

[Mellowyellow]

8 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

I'm having a wee problem. Is it me or...

I watch some cooking shows and they seem to add a lot of salt. 1-2t per recipe for 4 ppl. It seems to be a trend lately. I watch ppl salt their food all the time without even tasting it first. Chefs on most of the shows make a big deal of having enough seasoning. Do we become immune to the taste of it because of over usage? I began a low sodium diet at age 12 because my Dad couldn't have it due to health issues and I became accustomed to the taste of foods unenhanced. That's not to say we didn't use spices. We used lots...perhaps to compensate for the lack of sodium. Now when I eat out (especially if it's a chain restaurant) I find the food unpalatable. Too salty. 

   I was discussing this with a friend. How I couldn't do regular prepared soups because they were too salty. He told me there was a specific reason why. Cost. Salty food cooks and boils at a lower temperature and faster if it has a certain sodium content. That it's cheaper for the manufacturers to use copious amounts of it and that we as a society have come to expect that taste now. I look for low salt versions and now love the sodium free stocks and broths to cook with. Mostly I have to cook from scratch which tastes good but sometimes I'm just too tired to throw much together. Packaged foods are full of chemicals, dyes, sodium and if I can't pronounce it, I don't want to eat it. That means a PBnJ night. 

 So back to my original question... Is it me? 

I like my food "flavoursome" which means a fair bit of salt and what I tell my kidlet is "magic dust" (MSG). I find the MSG helps me use less salt. I cook from scratch but do love to add a sprinkle of magic dust to help it along.

[Mindthinkr]

To get mine "flavoursome" I use lemon juice (or zest), fresh parsley, mint, thyme, chives, basil (which I grow all year long in a kitchen window...just make sure to get enough seeds during spring as they get harder to find during the winter months) and garlic. Rosemary branches make great skewers for grilling and give the meat (especially chicken) such a good flavor. I also use a lot of pepper. Marinating allows what spices and herbs I do use to really infuse the flavor deeply. I'll use yogurt and tandoori spices for great grilled chicken. The yogurt makes the meat juicy and tender. Breadings also stick better to the yogurt marinade. I also use flavored oils to add flavor. The lemon one tastes great in dressing as well as quinoa and tabbouli. 

Too many people I know get headaches from using MSG but I appreciate your reply @Mellowyellow

[Mellowyellow]

I think I am immune to the stuff! Doesn't affect me/the family at all so I'm pretty lucky in that regard.

When I don't use the magic dust I still cook with a lot of soy sauce and fish sauce so that's also loaded with umami. 

My other food confession is I buy pork shoulder which is 1/3 of the price of pork neck and then add a bit of bicarb to the marinade. Comes out as tender as pork neck when flash fried! At a third of the price! 

[Mindthinkr]

Bicarb...interesting. I may have to try that. I also get cheaper cuts of meat and cook them longer (braising). Especially for stew beef type stuff. It's cheaper to buy a larger cut and cut it into bite sized pieces myself. Another trick is that I add a little vinegar to my pork shoulder cooking liquid. Pulled pork is popular where I'm currently living. I use baking soda in my beans to keep away the wind if you get my drift. I love soy but use the lower salt version and I'm allergic to fish and seafood so have to be careful in choosing Asian dishes. I love Tongkatsu tho. As in I can't stop eating it once I start! 

[spiderpig]

3 hours ago, Mellowyellow said:

I like my food "flavoursome" which means a fair bit of salt and what I tell my kidlet is "magic dust" (MSG). I find the MSG helps me use less salt. I cook from scratch but do love to add a sprinkle of magic dust to help it along.

Mellow!!!  Are you from The Commonwealth?  I'm not, but I've spent so much time tooling around that I vary my spelling depending on how I feel at the time.  qv behavior/behaviour.

I also have a strange attraction to British/Canadian/Aussie food.  Gimme a big huge unhealthy breakfast anytime.

[Mellowyellow]

@spiderpig Yes I am!!!! Aussie here! Land of Tim Tams!

[spiderpig]

1 minute ago, Mellowyellow said:

@spiderpig Yes I am!!!! Aussie here! Land of Tim Tams!

OK...(husband is half-Aussie).  What's the best brand of chicken salt?  I've seen it marketed on Amazon, but I'm not sure if the domestic versions are inferior to the awesome deliciousness of Aussie salt.

Also, I read they are developing truffle farms in Oz.  True?  If so, we are emigrating.

[Wings]

11 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

@spiderpig Yes I am!!!! Aussie here! Land of Tim Tams!

What is a tim tam? 

[Mellowyellow]

Ok I'm a bad Aussie and have never bought chicken salt so can't help you there! I just go to the charcoal chicken shop and ask them to load my chips with chicken salt. Soooooo good and bright yellow in colour (the chicken salt).

Oh we have truffle farms in various places already. In New South Wales the closest one is in Canberra. You can go on a tour there and then buy some fresh truffles to take home or order the truffles online during truffle season. 

[DeLurker]

11 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

 So back to my original question... Is it me? 

It is at least "us" because I am in the same boat.  I grew up with my Mom's cooking which did not use a lot of salt, although there were many dishes with a fair amount of soy sauce in them.  As I got older and was cooking for myself and my family, I made a conscious effort to use less salt for health reasons.  Now when I eat out, either the food tastes too salty to me or I wind up parched for the next 12 hours.

You'll always find ramen in my house - it is a quick and easy meal my kids can put together for themselves.  If I'm relying on it for a meal I am preparing I use two packs of ramen, only one pack of the seasoning, broth instead of water plus left over meat and vegetables (celery, carrots, green onions, zucchini and spinach can usually be found in my fridge).  I'll use the leftover seasoning packet in making fried rice or some other dish that needs similar seasoning.

For boxed pasta or rice (like Pasta Roni and rice pilaf), I buy some plain pasta or brown rice (usually Mahatma) and add some to the pot while cooking and adjust the water accordingly.  I use the package's seasoning package but since I've increased the volume of pasta or rice it is spread over, you get the same ease of the package but a more muted flavor profile.

[Wings]

When I was in Australia I had chicken potato chips and they tasted like they had been sprinkled with chicken bouillon.  So is that what chicken salt is, basically? 

[Mellowyellow]

2 minutes ago, wings707 said:

What is a tim tam? 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Tam

Chocolate biscuit with a cream filling covered in chocolate. It's like our go to biscuit! 

We have a few famous ones: Monte Carlo, Milk Arrowroot, Iced Volvo, Wagon Wheels

Tim Tam is probably the most popular though.

Do you guys have any "national" biscuits or cakes?

[spiderpig]

4 minutes ago, Mellowyellow said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Tam

Chocolate biscuit with a cream filling covered in chocolate. It's like our go to biscuit! 

We have a few famous ones: Monte Carlo, Milk Arrowroot, Iced Volvo, Wagon Wheels

Tim Tam is probably the most popular though.

Do you guys have any "national" biscuits or cakes?

Mr. pig worships at the altar of The Holy Oreo.

Sometimes, for variety, he opts for Nutter Butters or Little Debbie Nutty Bars.