Very well written about Horse Meat Saga

I was beginning to think that I was a voice in a gale. Not just a well written piece, but correct in its direction.

We are in an apparently irreversible slalom, of the down-hill variety, and I'm not sure where the answers lay.

Can you imagine a Government Minister, asking of his accountant "Where's the best place for us to put our money"? And the reply being "Tescos are doing well, at the moment, but then we can always change to Morrissons, should the returns be better". Will that Minister stand against the tide? I very much doubt it!

It should be of cold comfort to those who, as I, are capable of sourcing their food either from what they produce themselves, or from a known supplier, and to argue that a young mother, with two dependant children and no partner'd support, and reliant upon benefits, should do what's ethical and right, isn't being practical, and don't the supermarkets know that, and don't they rely upon it?

The argument is to do with Society, and how, through choice, we live our lives. We have a way to go, I suspect.

Alec.
 
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For the majority its pure laziness.
My gran used to work a part time job which became full time when her husband retired, and managed to cook a good meal EVERY DAY with meat from the local butcher, and veg from the greengrocer.
Milk was bought from the farm, or the milkman but was again locally sourced.
And get this....SOME stuff was grown in the garden! Apples, plums, blackcurrents, raspberries....all for the making of preserves and jams and the odd pie.
Nothing was wasted. Things like runner beans were blanched then frozen for a later date.
Until we get back to those ethics and start supporting our local shops (butchers/bakers/greengrocers) who in turn are supporting local farmers, nothing will change.
3.5 mins in a microwave for 99p versus a wholesome meal that takes 1.5 hours and will likely give you portions to freeze for another day for about £5.....we have become a nation of lazy assed people I am afraid.
 
Excellent article.
Perhaps the TV companies should source people like the writer to air their views instead of seeking out people who seem to conform to their own agendas and stereotypes.

I have said before If youre REALLY skint you quickly realise how expensive ready meals are and soon discover how far you can make a modest amount of meat stretch. Its true that necessity is the mother of invention and for a helluva lot of people today, the old make do and mend mentality is alive and kicking.

You dont need an ultra high IQ, lots of time on your hands or care a jot if your meat is raised in endless rolling pastures and slaughtered with kindness to the soothing strains of Satie ...you just need an ounce of common sense.
If you care what is going into your, your children and loved ones bodies and have a little compassion for the animals that feed you, you dont buy from packets that read more like a chemistry meets algebra car crash. Ready meals are called convenience foods because it sounds better than calling them CBA* foods.

It wouldnt surprise me that 4D meat is or has been used in this whole fiasco, Maybe a bit more focus on the welfare of the living source of a lot of this horsemeat would not be a bad thing to show the public, to contrast this with the welfare and good husbandry and cost of such decent working practices by the vast majority of UK farmers and butchers.

(Lack of punctuation courtesy of ancient keyboard.)

* Cant Be Arsed
 
The author is spot on.

Within this small French community I can shop in three villages each one about 3 miles away. Between them all we have three butchers and two specialist pork butchers/ charcuterie and the meat is local.

We have two markets, one on Thursday and one on Saturday.

Also four bakers one of whom is an artisan. Two post offices, two banks, three non-chain garages.

Size of our little towns about 3,000 people for each.

The community support the local traders - exception? The local ex-pats. Non of my English friends shop in the local butchers. They claim it is too expensive which is rubbish.

Home cooking?

I am always infuriated by the "I haven't got time" excuse. I had a very demanding job in sales and marketing, two babies born 13 months apart and went to night school two evenings a week. My children never ate microwave meals. I always found time to cook.

I am now retired but tonight, I prepared some mince, from a butcher which is on a slow simmering plate - 15mins preparation time. This will make a lasagne and either a shepherd's pie or chilli.

Tomorrow free range chicken - this too will make two meals and a very good soup.
 
I agree, the ingredients for healthy meals can be sourced often cheaper than ready meals, especially for the larger family. My mother used to provide a home cooked meat and veg meal for a large family 7 days a week on a very limited budget.

But someone pointed out to me yesterday the biggest difference between now and those days, (cost wise) is fuel costs.
Mother had a solid fuel range that was on all the time most of the year, and looking back, our meals in the summer were less stews, pot roasts etc, and more foods that cooked quicker when she was using electric cooker and to hot to have range running.
The cheaper meats generally need long slow cooking. Although they are tastier and more nutritious, 3 or 4 hours using gas or electric at today's prices compared to 2 minutes in a microwave is pretty costly.
Something I hadn't considered until pointed out to me.
So yes, sometimes it's the cost of the product, often it's laziness or lack of ability, but I do now wonder how much the fuel bill must add to the price of a cheap cut of meat, cooked for several hours.
It seems an impossible situation for many.
 
About time people got back to basics I think, and YES it is cheaper to cook your own food from a Butcher and Grocer just spend that time 'cooking' rather than on Facbook or Twitter or worrying about the soaps or Xfactor, let's all get back to the REAL WORLD!
 
An excellent article. Has anyone EVER eaten a ready made meal and thought ' wow that was delicious' :) There is no need to put casseroles in the oven these days to use cheaper cuts of meat, there are things called slow cookers which I don't think use a lot of electricity and produce really good meals.
 
I think another huge difference these days is the enormous amount of single person households.
I can think immediately of at least 20 people who live alone and that is without really thinking hard.
Cooking for one must be quite uninspiring, and much more expensive in terms of electricity/gas.
I completely agree with the article, and am lucky enough to rear and grow much of our own food. I enjoy cooking and love feeding a table full of people who enjoy the meal.
I can however see how easy it would be for the single person to fall into the trap of shoving a ready meal into a microwave at the end of the working day.
I do despair of the mother of 3 or 4 children who cannot make a shepherds pie from the roast dinner she cooked the day before.
At the end of the day though I think if you buy a cheap pack of beef burgers you shouldn't be that surprised that the meat is the roughest scraggy awful bits of beef. I think you are justified however to be outraged that it didn't come from cattle at all, but horses.
I would never buy something like chicken nuggets as I'm sure they are mostly ground up feet and sinew. But I would expect it to be feet and sinew from a chicken.

Yes customer demand for cheap food has played havoc with quality, and we have only ourselves to blame for the rubbish that is produced, but this is different, this is fraud, and
illegal practice, this is meat from one species being widely labelled and sold by huge companies as meat from a different species. Simply criminal activity.
 
LOL Ribbons, I live on my own and worse HATE cooking :D

But am also a vego, so have to think outside the box a bit too and a well used wok is my best friend.

This blog has been world wide, but I said same on another thread here last week. In the end it was consumer driven, people wanted cheap stuff they could chuck in the microwave and that's what they got. :rolleyes:
 
get a decent size piece of meat or chicken, roast it, slice it, make some gravy from knorr chicken stock cubes, it tastes great with all meats, put into packets, i usually get 6 - 8 dinners, while cooking the meat i do roast pots which freeze well, and freeze most of it in handy portions, sometimes do an all in one basin cake mix or a large tart, to put in the oven while its on, so getting maximum use of the heat.

then buy loads of veg spend 40 minutes chopping and scraping then steam and freeze, et voila! lots of healthy choices, just defrost during the morning and heat, minimal use of fuel.

someone i know buys good quality ingredients and makes a huge pot of whatever recipe they go for and live off it all weekend.

the only way is to keep trying to cook ,and eventually you learn, a bit like riding really.
 
So how long ago was it that "The Scandal" hit the news? A month?

Ready meals are STILL being found which are contaminated. These revelations are coming to light, and the concoction has been offered by the manufacturers and accepted by our suppliers, and all in the last couple of weeks, I would think. Are our suppliers taking the p***?

Alec.
 
ribbons said:
I think another huge difference these days is the enormous amount of single person households.
I can think immediately of at least 20 people who live alone and that is without really thinking hard.
Cooking for one must be quite uninspiring, and much more expensive in terms of electricity/gas.
I completely agree with the article, and am lucky enough to rear and grow much of our own food. I enjoy cooking and love feeding a table full of people who enjoy the meal.
I can however see how easy it would be for the single person to fall into the trap of shoving a ready meal into a microwave at the end of the working day.
I do despair of the mother of 3 or 4 children who cannot make a shepherds pie from the roast dinner she cooked the day before.
At the end of the day though I think if you buy a cheap pack of beef burgers you shouldn't be that surprised that the meat is the roughest scraggy awful bits of beef. I think you are justified however to be outraged that it didn't come from cattle at all, but horses.
I would never buy something like chicken nuggets as I'm sure they are mostly ground up feet and sinew. But I would expect it to be feet and sinew from a chicken.

Yes customer demand for cheap food has played havoc with quality, and we have only ourselves to blame for the rubbish that is produced, but this is different, this is fraud, and
illegal practice, this is meat from one species being widely labelled and sold by huge companies as meat from a different species. Simply criminal activity.
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Cooking for one need not be more expensive. I lived alone when we moved to France and had a combi oven and hob.

I could cook med. vedg in thin slices with a chop, or thin steak on a skillet in less than 20mins. Jacket Pots, combi micro and convection also 20mins, with salad and cheese or tinned fish.

Cook one freeze one was my philosophy when I had small children. Cook double and freeze one for next week. I had a demanding full time job but always managed to feed the family on a small budget.
 
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