Before I begin, I was raised as a vegetarian. My late father was a vegetarian and my uncle is still one. I have nothing against vegetarians, it’s a fair and reasonable, ethical or health related life option. My beef is with the bias of menus and the lack of focus across the table. There are various estimates of the number of vegetarians in the UK, but generally seems to fit at less than 3%. If you offered 10 menu options per course on a menu, you would expect to see at least 1 of these being vegetarian. Quite often, this is not enough for some people and they want to see 2 or more, non-meat dishes. I went on to ask one of the most famous vegetarian restaurants in the country if they has a meat option on the menu. The answer was of course … NO. My own belief is that we risk diluting our dining  experience if things are labelled in such a way. Why not call a vegetable dish by it’s name rather than tag it lamely as vegetarian. Put some effort in and create something delicious rather than a token offering. Many more diners prefer a non-meat option than there are vegetarians out there.

This however, is endemic in food everywhere. A good friend of mine rated a local Chinese because it did a great steak, the only thing he would eat there. This was not a Chinese steak, it was grilled sirloin served with chips. If John had said a steakhouse did a great steak, this would be fantastic. There is so much amazing food out there that is Chinese, Indian, French, Italian, Vegetarian, Thai etc, there doesn’t need to be scampi and chips on these menus. Food should be about uniting people, not about diluting bonds or trying to please everyone. I know a brilliant seafood restaurant in the South West. They don’t do vegetarian dishes, they have some delicious vegetable dishes. They don’t do a solitary steak, but surf and turf. It is a balanced menu and a vegetarian is not going to be disappointed with the off-handed dish of chili non carne or the like.

I am actually glad the vegetarian restaurant stuck to what they do, why would you want anything else if you have gone there out of choice.

Now don’t get me started on Childrens’ Menus …

After watching popular BBC show on 7th October 2010, two teams competing to learn, make and sell their own sausages, we had to put the story straight. As some of you know we make our own sausages, charcuterie and smoked meats, so this was now personal. One team went for the pile it high, sell it cheap model. They went for cheap meat, maximum non-meat and, well you can guess the rest. One classic moment was when they chucked all the ingredients into the mixer and then hoped they had a working recipe. Try that with a cake recipe and Jane Asher will be round your house with a cricket bat So the rusk clumped, the moisture went everywhere and they produced cheap errrm slurry in a skin. The other team went for a premium sausage with a quality take, I won’t knock anyone going down that route as they still had a steep learning curve ahead.

OK, let us look at the difference between a good sausage and the wretched insult to the poor piggy that team “bloke” produced.

Meat content:
Pork sausage needs to contain 42% meat by EU regulation. By the time you take in allowable fat and connective tissue, the recognisable lean meat content is 19% of the sausage. A good sausage has a higher meat content, at least greater than 80% of which most is lean meat with some fat. Fat is flavour, adds moisture and helps to bind and hold the sausage. Not too much fat though, too much of a good thing and all that.

Rusk:
This is the part where the boys really buggered up. Rusk, dried breadcrumbs, biscuit or cous cous can be used to help with moisture retention in the meat, but need to be soaked first to plump them up. If not, you have hard lump bits in the sausage that are useless at balancing moisture once they are in the casing. Rusk also helps to cling to the fat and the meat, binding. Presoaked rusk holds the sausage texture together, regulates fluid and gives an extra anchor or other flavours. If you get a build up of leaking fluids in a cooking sausage, it boils, turns to steam and then the casing explodes. These little eruptions are what give the sausage the nickname, banger.

The rusk and added fluids should not be much more than 10% of the sausage. To complete the 100%, there are a couple of legit natural chemicals, extra ingredients and the casing. Herbs, cheese, fruit and spices are the private recipes that few sausage makers will impart. The casing is a matter of preference but something edible after cooking is very desirable.

Bangers is a Great, British term that has history and meaning, much like going for a Burton. More on that one another day…

This story starts with an article that hit the national papers, the full story is at: www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/Wildlife-expert-raps-RSPCA-on-selective-cruelty-ideas.htm . The real controversy comes out as two very opposing groups express their views. My own opinion was that the case was about the RSPCA overstepping the line by a mile, but the issue of cruelty is a difficult one to take a side on. Apparently you should not drown any animal, it’s cruel and prolonged, but rather knock it out or shoot it. For those of you who believe that grey squirrels are cute and fluffy and all animals live in peace and harmony, this article is for you.

I grew up in the Lake District and we had red squirrels living in an abandoned bird box in the garden. My dad would hand feed the squirrels and they were pretty good neighbours. A few miles down the road Beatrix Potter wrote Squirrel Nutkin and I gained a Tufty club certificate. So, I like red squirrels, they are native to the UK and are now endangered.

The grey squirrel however, is not a nice creature. It will clear out berries, pillage nut trees, dig up bulbs, destroy birds nests and their eggs, kill red squirrels with squirrel pox (they themselves are immune), eat the wiring in your roof and ravage your hamster without so much as a cheap bottle of wine and some smooth banter.

In a field, you would shoot pigeons and rabbits if they are harmful to your crops. So why not the squirrel? I guess it’s because they look cute and very few people buy into the idea that these creatures are as dangerous as they are. Grey squirrels are pests, simple as that. When you catch one in a trap, you would risk prosecution to release them as they are classed as a pest. You then have two choices; hand them over to a sanctuary or dispatch them. Most of these traps do not have any means to help you out. There are no connections so you can plug the thing into the mains, nor is there is a convenient mob of victimised field mice to perform a lynching.

The only thing you can do is get your hands dirty. Maybe the manufacturers should provide freepost packages to send them over to the RSPCA, they seem to know what to do. Of course, there would be air holes in the boxes, anything else would be cruel?

Very rarely do I get angered by a subject to take a stand, this is one occassion.

The Mail, a national paper in the UK published a story about a mother being fined by the council for feeding ducks, it was litter apparently.

Full article here

The councils reply was that they had a problem with Canada geese and feral pigeons and that the wardens don’t use handheld computers??? Well thought out defense.

Canada geese had flown by the time this “offence” was committed, about a month ago, I know these things, I run an award winning restaurant and understand shooting and game seasons. Besides which, I heard them leave our village pond over a weekend about a month ago.

Harry is smaller than most Canada geese and would be terrified of them, they get VERY aggressive when being fed, which leads me to think that this lady was feeding, wait for it, DUCKS with her young child.

One of the redeeming features of being a human is that you can put you hand up, say sorry and accept responsibility when you get it wrong.

If Vanessa Kelly is forced to pay a fine for her and Harry’s family afternoon out, I pledge to pay it for her.

Shame on you Sandwell !!!

The preserve of hunting has usually fallen into two basic camps, for food or for pleasure. My father in law is a very keen fisherman and in his mid 70s this is a hobby that gets him out, in all weathers, for fresh air and some relaxation time. I on the other hand am a shooter and this comprises removing pests or providing something from the table. Ask a farmer which beasts cause him the most grief and he would tell you; rabbits, pigeons and foxes. As a herb and nut gardener, with an interest in attracting wild birds, my arguments are against squirrels, crows, squirrels, magpies and errm squirrels. The problem is that half of these creatures are inedible and growers would probably need to bring in hired help to solve their pest problem. The other half appear in recipes and this provides the shooter with his pay for aiding the land owner. Rabbit, pigeon and latterly squirrel are prolific pests and a few sharp words will not deter them from ravaging crops.

A twist in this tale is that the pigeon, for some inexplicable reason, may be getting a hand out from one of our governing bodies. An organisation, you know who you are, put in a recommendation that a condition would be added to the general license for shooting wood pigeon that they may not be sold on. Luckily common sense or country sense came through and this was lifted, at least for 2010. The general licenses lay out what can be shot, when, for what reason (eg conservation, pest control etc) and with any conditions stated. They are issued annually and basically lay out the rules for general shooters.

If you take away the motivation behind pest control, there will be none. Land owners have held arrangements with hunters for over a thousand years in the UK and there was always something in it for both of them.