Kitchen Garden Forum

Nothing is wasted in our house, anything that cant be eaten is off to the compost.

I do chopped spuds in olive oil & butter, save the left over juice for next day for a pasta dish, save on washing up as well.

Recipes are the first pages I go to in the magazine, so you have my vote Stravaig as cooker advisor.

I,m reading a book about life in Elizabethan times (the first Elizabeth,). Apparently water was a very short commodity in many areas as they had no running water supplies and often poorer families only had one large cooking vessel. Cleaning them after use them was often a problem and they would simply be scoured clean with stale bread or toast of some kind.

Yeah, and they didn't have plates as we know them, They ate off (often stale) flat breads known as trenchers.
You can still get trenchers these days but they're often made of wood or some other attractive material.

Actually, come to think of it some people still use the flat bread idea. When I worked with Afghans it was quite the norm to slap your naan bread on the table (if you had one) or onto the floor on a washable "table cloth". Then you spooned your kebabs, or rice and red stuff, whatever onto that.

The good thing about not having water is that they drank (small) beer instead.

Was it Mead that was used when water was in short supply?

having read a lot of history (fiction & non) small beer was the go-to for the everyman, it was a very weak beer. Stronger beer in better establishments, and wine served at private houses and the like.

Water was very unsanitary in those days and continually made people ill so I suppose the fermentation process in making beer and ale, even if it was very weak, helped to sterilise it.

I think small beer was made with the mash from the good strong beer, rewatered and rebrewed.

Whilst working in Iraq, there was a rumour that Saddam's boys had poisoned the water in the nearby reservoir.The employer (an Australian thingy) gave us all countless bottles of water for drinking and bathing. I quickly figured out that cans of beer (imported from Turkey) were cheaper than this water. So I saved them money by drinking beer instead. Some of my colleagues joined me in my quest for thrift. But not all.

Actually it was quite weird. Water was an expensive product. You could fill your large vehicle with fuel for next to nothing, buy imported beer (lager, yuk) for not very much, or spend a lot on the luxury item of water.

Mead, also called hydromel, is made by fermenting honey and water. Technically it's neither a wine or a beer.

I just did a Google search for mead and loads of interesting results came up. It was popular with Vikings. Its popularity nose-dived in the 17th century because of some kind of tax.

It's probably the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world.

The ancients Greeks thought of it as being the elixir of the gods.

I've never tried it. (Not that I remember anyway.) Must have a look and see if it's available near us.

my local brew shop launched a new set of sparkling mead drinks last summer......I can't remember the brand, but it's out there for sure

This afternoon Mr Primrose has been been experimenting with making a cheat's 10 minute Coronation Quiche in the microwave using potato cakes as a quick substitute pastry flan liner. It was surprisingly good for an "off the cuff" experiment although you probably wouldn't risk serving it up to guests at a party!