DIY SOS this week.

[ban-all-sheds]

Seems to me that if you're that squeamish about which parts of an animal you will eat, you should become either a vegetarian or an American. True, the MRM slurry is disgusting, but some of the examples you quote of parts which you seem to be saying are unacceptable are a bit narrow-minded:

Skin - Peking Duck, or crackling on a roast joint of pork, anyone?

Cartilage - probably with you there, although it's presence as a gelling agent in stock is useful.

Bone - not so good, but the marrow on the other hand...

tail - err - oxtail soup?

offal (heart, lights [lungs], sweetbread [pancreas], tripe, t e s t i c l e s, etc) - you are an American, aren't you?

udder - I've never eaten tripe, but many people swear it's a delicacy, so why not udder?

ear - again, never had the opportunity, but on one of the River Cottage programmes pig's ear was visibly an enjoyable nibble when sliced thinly and fried until crispy.

and anything apart from brain and spinal cord which have been banned recently

.
I've also eaten brains. Just the once - wouldn't bother again, as they were extremely bland and pointless, IMHO.

So, when the label says contains 60% meat minimum, you know what to expect. Lips and eyelids may well be there!

Remember this when you next eat a sausage.......

Sausages have always contained items like that. It's often said of the pig that you can eat everything except the squeak. The whole point of sausages, and brawn, is to use up the cheaper cuts to improve the overall economic proposition of a pig. As I said at the start, the excesses of MRM (often a high pressure hose is used, not a "machine") are disgusting, but for thousands of years butchers with sharp knives made organic, free-range, traditional sausages containing all sorts of odds'n'ends.

 

[AdamW]

I had read they use a pressure-washer type arrangement for MRM.

That Sainsbury's advert, "We only use neck, back and belly pork to make sausages" is wrong. If you buy their "Finest" range of sausages, it lists "natural pork casings" as an ingredient. This is intestine.

Yes I still buy those sausages, I put the whole "eating poo pipes" thoughts out of my mind. But occasionally you find yourself trying to cut through an extra thick bit of intestine and you can't help but leave that sausage and try another one.

I don't want to eat offal. I know it makes the killing of animals less senseless as one animal will feed more people (every stopped to think how many chickens were killed to get the breast meet that fed you and your mates on a curry night? I prefer lamb curry, but hey!)

But I just really don't like the taste of offal, in the same way that many people don't like a "gamey" taste.

 

[waran]

I seem to recall an advert that said that McDonalds now use real chicken in their chicken nuggets.......I wonder what they were using before???

I don't mind too much that they expect humans to eat this stuff (at least we have a choice) but what annoys me is that until not so long ago they were feeding animals the cheap bits that humans wouldn't eat. So cows and sheep (herbivores) were being fed animal products..............and well hence BSE and the rest as they say is history. Will we never learn?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

That Sainsbury's advert, "We only use neck, back and belly pork to make sausages" is wrong. If you buy their "Finest" range of sausages, it lists "natural pork casings" as an ingredient. This is intestine.

Quite right, too. Would you prefer your sausages to have an artificial casing?

But I just really don't like the taste of offal, in the same way that many people don't like a "gamey" taste.

Fair enough. But I can't imagine life without liver & bacon, liver & onions, steak & kidney pie, devilled kidneys, liver pate.....

And it's all so different - how can you say that pig's kidneys taste the same as lamb sweetbreads? Or even with the same organ, that ox liver is the same as chicken liver? There is no more a "taste of offal" than there is a "taste of meat"......

 

[AdamW]

I agree they all taste different, and I have actually tried many different offals! I worked in a posh golf club restaurant, one the chefs would let us try different things so I made sure I at least tried it!

One of the things I tried was calf's liver, apparently great stuff, pan fried and served with a heavily reduced balsamic and red wine sauce. To me, it tasted like cheap beefburgers! I could appreciate why people would like it, but to me it was rubbish.

I don't even like paté!

 

[pipme]

Where's the 3 amp fuse then ?

 

[securespark]

Ban

No, I'm not American, and I'm veggie (since 1991) but trained and worked in the food industry in a previous life.

I'm not at all squeamish - I used to rip animals apart for a living (dead ones......)

I was just letting people know what they could find in their food which they may not have thought about - no ulterior motive at all.

Seems to me that you are being a bit defensive. I was not saying that the parts used were unacceptable nor was I being narrow-minded - just purely and simply trying to be informative - nothing more.

Basically I was saying that when you see ads for meat products you think only the best cuts of meat go into products....think again.

Sorry if I've got your goat (but only the best cuts, mind!)

As for chicken nuggets, they have a large proportion of feathers in them.

Are you still against me now?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Was never "against you".

Must have misinterpreted the thrust of your posting - sorry - thought you were saying "beware of meat products because the meat might consist of <list>", when most of the items on the list were OK. Delicacies even, in some circumstances.

Maybe the Chinese have got it right - went for Dim Sum yesterday, one of the items available was chicken's feet....

 

[securespark]

I meant would you agree eating feathers is a delicacy???!!!

Heard of spitting feathers, never eating them - until chicken nuggets were invented.

That is probably why certain FF restaurants say their CN are now made from "real chicken". Maybe they used to contain feathers...still real chicken, but hardly real tasty.

I'll stick to PB sarnies....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

What about the urban legend that the reason Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their name to KFC was that they'd genetically engineered their raw material to the point where it could no longer be called "chicken"?

I love this place. Somebody posts about shaver sockets in TV makeover programmes and within 14 replies we're arguing about what should go into sausages....

 

[AdamW]

And genetically modified chicken monsters

I wonder how these urban legends get started. I reckon there is a sarcastic English guy somewhere in America, who occasionally tells his gullible friend "Did you know that Kentucky Fried Chicken changed it's name to KFC because...", "Did you know that Red Bull contains a chemical that was used to create super-human soldiers during the Vietnam war?".

The gullible friend says "REALLY??!?!" and then sends this out along with the "forward this on and you get a free trip to Disneyworld" e-mails.

 

[securespark]

BTW

I feel like an old crone, but in my days in the food industry, MRM was "harvested" with machinery, not HP water jets. Things have moved on in 21 years, I think you'll agree!

 

[ninebob]

Anyone remember this? :

 

[securespark]

That a p*ss-take?

It looks hilarious, unless you're the one chomping into it.....

Reminds me of the supposed (alleged) K******* F**** Rat.

And also my sister (who also worked in the food industry) analysed a complaint from a member of public who found a mouse in her sliced loaf.

in each slice was a perfect cross section of mouse from snout to tail....

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Anyone remember this?

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/chickenhead.htm

http://www.truthminers.com/truth/fried_chicken.htm

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/friedrat.htm

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/mcchicken.html