Breakfast weirdness...

[simonineaston]

This morning, I fancied a treat in the form of a dead animal, pre-ride... so I cooked Aldi's Toulouse-style sausages. In the pan I detected minor weirdness and on inspection I find that my pantry-world is rocked. What gives?

[simonineaston]

Every Q. answered...
https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Exper ... the-future

[ANTONISH]

Pig and seaweed sounds appetising.

[Norman H]

Yes, as the name suggests, alginates come from algae or seaweeds. They're naturally occurring polysaccharides and are safe to eat. Because of this they find wide spread application in the food industry, mostly as thickening agents. In this instance they are a constituent of the vegetarian sausage skin.

When used in food products you will often see it listed amongst the ingredients as Carrageenan. Carrageenan is commonly extracted from the red seaweed Chondrus crispus, which in Ireland is known locally as Carrageen moss. I've collected carrageen moss from the seashore in West Cork. When dried it can be used to make carrageen pudding, a type of milk jelly and a local delicacy.

[Cugel]

Pig and seaweed sounds appetising.

Especially when the pig bits are snouts, eyelids, pizzles, sphincters and the other parts one would not really like to present as a roast, eh?

When I were a lad, 294 years ago, me mam often went to one of the local Tyneside pork shops (there were loads of them at that time) where the less posh parts of pig could be purchased, prepared and pushed past the teeth. Coming from a dirt-poor household of the 1920s-30s (born 1923) she was used to the very cheapest pig and other beast-parts. Trotters, heads, guts and so forth. A smack o' her lips preceded the guzzling of such fare. I used to go elsewhere during her feasting .......

For although I was raised through the 1950s, when rationing and general poverty still had their effects on most of us in Tyneside, I got enough of the posh stuff to make me leery of the not-posh. But of course, the not-posh can have it's full nature hidden by the sausage (all skin & mystery) and pie (minced innards in a seductive pastry jacket preventing you seeing what's in that pie before you put it into yer muncher).

I still enjoy a sausage, although I rely on the kindly butcher's wife who makes them to put in only the wholesome stuff, even if it does have the eyelids and pizzles included. If I read any label she doesn't put on them, I would decline the fine tubes of deliciousness out of my feeble inability to supress the thought-wrought gagging as I visualise what the content looked like before it was minced.

Cugel, a gustatory wimp.

[briansnail]

I only eat only vegetables.
However on today's BBC radio World service they featured German butchers.The Germans love their meat.It is the proper non processed stuff.Here's the problem.Butchers are closing down.No one wants their kids to become butchers.they think its a tough job and pay poor.Apparently it is more automated and butchers earn a good whack.The same goes for masons and plumbers.They are trying to get people in to fill in the gaps.However if Butchers are on the endangered list. Suggest you make the most of it now.Bear in mind yesterdays Channel 4 programme. Keep MEAT portions small.Add lots of veg.Avoid processed meats.
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I ride Brompton and a 100% British Vintage

[simonineaston]

Just as a postscript to my earlier comments on the weirdness of sausage skins made from seaweed, I'm now a cautious convert. The skins work well to contain the minced meat and are easy to eat, without a trace of unpleasant texture or taste. In fact they are less obtrusive than some trad. skins made from intestines I've come across in the past. I will have no hesitation in buying sauso.s using this alternative, in future.

[francovendee]

The only part of a pig you can't eat is the oink.
Mind you I draw the line at pig's trotters. I never fancied trying one although my mother loved them.

[Cugel]

The only part of a pig you can't eat is the oink.
Mind you I draw the line at pig's trotters. I never fancied trying one although my mother loved them.

The grammar here is imprecise! If I don't eat certain parts of the poor pig, is this because I can't or because I won't? One might point out that involuntary gagging when attempting the consumption of, say, a pig's eyeball or pizzle probably means I can't eat 'em rather than it being merely a matter of taste or choice. On the other hand, mince those parts up and put them in a sausage and I may smack my lip, drool and tuck in with gusto.

Who is it differentiating between these cases of attempts to eat whole parts or disguised-by-mincing-and-sausaging parts? If it's "me" why am I suffering the illogic of inability to eat a whole part whilst actively seeking the minced part? This is a serious epistemological question!

Can one be taught to eat pig eyeballs and pizzles still whole or is it an education beyond the reasoning mind because decided by a lower brain-churn?

I have heard that when one is truly hungry, as me mammy was in the 1920s & 30s probably, one's gagging responses are easily supressed by one's starved state. There is the urban myth of the cyclist with serious bonk being prepared to eat car-squashed hedgehog overlooked by the crows ..... ? Any hedgehog munchers out there. then?

Cugel, thinking of doing a study (no I'm not).

[simonineaston]

Pierre Koffman, he of La Tante Claire & their 3 Michelin stars - 3 ! is said to have been much influenced by his grandparents' cookery. They'd spent their lives in south west France, in a very rural setting and passed on their skills & ways of using absolutely everything to little Pierre. My dad went to the restaurant a couple of times, back in the early days, when he worked in Knightsbridge.
Anyway, their signature dish was indeed pig's trotters, however much "elevated" as they say these days, it being boned (can you imagine that - I tried boning a pig's trotter once and it struck me as an near impossible task...) and then stuffed with mousse of chicken, sweetbreads & morrels, which once eaten, never forgotten I imagine.... now that's cooking!

[axel_knutt]

Who is it differentiating between these cases of attempts to eat whole parts or disguised-by-mincing-and-sausaging parts? If it's "me" why am I suffering the illogic of inability to eat a whole part whilst actively seeking the minced part? This is a serious epistemological question!

It's more about texture and feel than nutrition.

I have heard that when one is truly hungry, as me mammy was in the 1920s & 30s probably, one's gagging responses are easily supressed by one's starved state.

My father grew up during the depression, and would eat anything because he'd known what it was to go really hungry, but when I was a kid I was seriously emetophobic, and equally phobic about anything rubbery or gristly that I thought might make me gag & wretch. Fortunately I grew out of it, which I don't think I would have if I'd been forced to eat stuff.

Even as an adult, I did draw the line at sea cucmber though, which is a cucumber-sized slug, not a vegetable.

[rualexander]

The only part of a pig you can't eat is the oink.
Mind you I draw the line at pig's trotters. I never fancied trying one although my mother loved them.

Don't fancy the teeth and bones much either

[Tangled Metal]

One thing I learnt recently was that I the 70s USA banned the use of lung based products due to unfounded fears they can carry tuberculosis. That means haggis is banned if made traditionally.

Perhaps use of alginate casings get around natural casings that might be banned in one of their markets. Bear in mind aldi are in many countries and they're not going to make different versions but standardise on one casing that's universally accepted. Just one idea and possibly not the real reason.

[francovendee]

The only part of a pig you can't eat is the oink.
Mind you I draw the line at pig's trotters. I never fancied trying one although my mother loved them.

The grammar here is imprecise! If I don't eat certain parts of the poor pig, is this because I can't or because I won't? One might point out that involuntary gagging when attempting the consumption of, say, a pig's eyeball or pizzle probably means I can't eat 'em rather than it being merely a matter of taste or choice. On the other hand, mince those parts up and put them in a sausage and I may smack my lip, drool and tuck in with gusto.

Who is it differentiating between these cases of attempts to eat whole parts or disguised-by-mincing-and-sausaging parts? If it's "me" why am I suffering the illogic of inability to eat a whole part whilst actively seeking the minced part? This is a serious epistemological question!

Can one be taught to eat pig eyeballs and pizzles still whole or is it an education beyond the reasoning mind because decided by a lower brain-churn?

I have heard that when one is truly hungry, as me mammy was in the 1920s & 30s probably, one's gagging responses are easily supressed by one's starved state. There is the urban myth of the cyclist with serious bonk being prepared to eat car-squashed hedgehog overlooked by the crows ..... ? Any hedgehog munchers out there. then?

Cugel, thinking of doing a study (no I'm not).

I don't think it's just parts of the pig that people wouldn't eat unless minced up and mixed with other things. In our everyday diet we are eating things that have been altered to make them edible and more appealing.
It may be different in darkest Wales, but the idea of sitting down to raw cow and a plate of raw spuds and greens just doesn't appeal, although I've never tried it.
Cooking brings with it some problems with loss of nutrients in veg and a study I saw linked over cooked meats with cancer.
I take no notice of these sorts of things and eat what I like and what agrees with my digestive system. Less and less these days, maybe all the Haslet I've eaten is the cause.

[al_yrpal]

Coming from a cockney family I have realised a lot of folk dont like the cockney diet which consisted of much cheap seafood. Shrimps not expensive prawns, whelks, bloaters, kippers, herring, cockles, mussels and crabs etc. On frequent yachting visits to Normandy and Brittany with pals I gradually enticed them to fully enjoy the fruits of the sea. After slurping many glasses of the local plonk it usually got easier, especially the whelks. A proper unfilleted kipper for breakfast is a real treat. Unfortunately that means a trip to Waitrose around here.

Al