General Chat

When it comes to waste the supermarkets are the biggest culprits,

eg, They insist that veg has to be washed by suppliers and some shrink wrapped or placed in plastic bags,
most veg as soon as it is washed will start to decay,
Take potatoes and carrots both these will keep fresh for 12 months if they are not washed and simply put in a box preferably wood and then kept in a dark cool place ideally at 4 degrees

Potatoes are harvested around September October and are stored in cold stores at around 4 degrees and then sold as and when needed all year round

New potatoes are harvested around May/June/July and depending on the variety can last for 6 months, all other new spuds in this country are imports from abroad.

I never use tin veg as they are processed from low quality veg and have got added preservatives

Edit,
Amendment to my post
Must be getting old, we used to set our cold store at 4 degrees with air flow at harvest time to help bring down the temperature and then ( as Lesley pointed out below) it should be between 7/10 degrees for long term storage



Roy

You sound like my kind of man Roy.

Shame Valentines is past.Lucky escape for you though!

Farmer near me sells sacks of spuds for a fiver. They are excellent and seem to do everything.

However, I did not buy one of his sacks until recommended to do so by somebody who had tried them because, if you buy a sack of spuds and they turn out to be rubbish then you are left with half a hundredweight of rubbish taters to use up!

Never mind Sharron, their will be another Valentine day next year,

If you buy spuds from your local farm, check before you buy for any soft or rotting spuds and take them out of the bag immediately or they will affect the rest of the bag, If they are sprouting don't buy as thats a sign that they have not been kept in the correct conditions and will not keep however if they are sprouting but still firm then their is nothing wrong with them and can still be eaten

Roy

We bought a sack of potatoes home from Herefordshire, when we were there in January.
They are great and we have previously bought the same variety from the same people. Trouble is we are not using them fast enough. When I last went to get some I remarked that they must be the 'homing' variety as they were sending out shoots to get back to their county.

We have a weekly food waste system here on bin day and I'm amazed at the bulging bins put out regularly by some people. I was shooing seagulls off them when I walked by this morning.

I was brought up by a thrifty Mum,but we always had good nourishing food. Old habits die hard, so my meals too reflected this way and now my daughter makes great meals on a budget.
Sadly many people brought up on 'Ping meals' as grandson calls them, are not then able to guide the next generation.

Bring back Home Economics, with a better slant on Economy.

Gwyn

I have been watching a TV show called Superscrimpers. It comes up with some great ideas for cooking, clothes etc

How long is it safe to keep a cooked chicken? I have had food posioning twice when eating out and am a bit paranoid how long things can be kept.

Teresa

talking of ovens, some modern ovens are not big enough to cook all that at once. Mine only has two shelves and once a joint is in the top shelf is very high. It is a built in double oven. I remember when I had a free standing cooker and the oven had room for 3 shelves well spaced out.

Another way to stretch mince in shepherds pie is to add aubergine or squash. We have very little waste. I think we have less waste in this house too since they brought in the food waste bin and banned food waste from the land fill bin. I hate putting food in the food bin and wrack my brains as to how to use it instead of throwing it. We are fortunate and don't actually have to watch the pennies but do so by choice.

I Think Roy and i are of the same feather ,so tight assed ,we should BOTH be of Scottish descent ,we even save the skins off tatties in this house ,scrub the tatties first ,peel and then use the skins for making tattie and leek soup .
Called ,mean ,tight or in Geordie land Canny with the money lol,Fred :-D

"How long is it safe to keep a cooked chicken?"

Home cooked, as long as it has been stored properly in the fridge, probably 5 days. After that, I start to get a bit cautious. Mind you, we do have caste-iron stomachs!

Fred, I just no their is a Scottish connection some where in my tree, but i have still not found it yet :-S

Roy ;-)

I am ultra cautious with chicken and would usually only keep it for three days.

Did anyone watch countryfile the other week about chicken and pylobactor. 70%of the fresh supermarket chicken they tested had it. That is why chicken must be cooked really well. And why I never eat chicken in restaurants.

3 days is max i would keep a chicken, without using it or freezing it,

As long as the chicken is thoroughly cooked, there shouldn't be a problem with it as long as it is put in the fridge as soon as it's cold enough, and used withing 3-4 days.

Mine doesn't last that long, my OH likes chicken too much for me to have it hanging around for too long, I have to use what I can quickly or he's in and out the fridge picking at it. :-S

Ah, you got one of those too TW. I have t be quick if I want to make soup or he is off picking the bones. Well not at the moment with his tooth problem, at the moment he rather likes the soup :-D :-D

Thanks Ladies, thats great

Teresa x

Roy. 4 degrees is to low a temperature to store potatoes less than 5 degrees and the starch turns to sugar, the optimum temperature is around 7/8 degrees Celsius.

Lesley, I stand corrected,

Must be getting old :-S we used to set our cold store at 4 degrees with air flow at harvest time to help bring down the temperature and then you are correct it should be between 7/10 degrees

I will amend my post

Roy

There was a thread with household tips some time ago. perhaps someone could find it - I have tried.

:-D :-D :-D

I was raised by a mother who was very thrifty ............... having lived through WW1 with her father overseas, then through the 30s and finally WW2.

OH was also raised by a thrifty mum

so we have both lived that way since we married almost 45 years ago.

We buy very little prepared food, yet I have a freezer full of meals.

There are just 2 of us now, but we have a roast almost every Sunday ......... then we have cold roast meat on Monday and sometimes Tuesday. If there is enough left, I'll make a version of a risotto or a curry (if it's lamb) on either Tuesday or Wednesday. If not enough, then I'll have a roast meat sandwich for lunch. So that is at least 3 meals from one piece of beef, pork, lamb or whatever

If roasts are on special at the store ............ OH will buy either a much larger one than usual or two smaller ones. He will cut the large one into 2, and that is frozen, as is the spare smaller one.

We bought a very big ham on the bone on a special sale last year ..... and OH cut it up in smaller sized roasts. He swore he would never do that again, it was so difficult! But we got 4 roasts out of it .................. and in fact, he did repeat the exercise a few months later when they again came on sale. We still have one of roasts in the freezer. I think we will ask the butcher at the supermarket to cut it up for us next time we think of buying one. As long as we buy all the pieces, they are willing to do things like that.

I have sliced roast chicken in the freezer .......... 2 packets, each containing enough chicken for a dinner for 2. We had a large chicken the other week, and ended up being out for 3 nights, so we froze most of it. We got the hot meal, the legs and thighs cold another night, I had 2 sandwiches, and 2 meal sized portions frozen from the one chuck! I also froze portions of the sage and onion stuffing

I have also frozen sliced roast turkey.

The one thing I am not good at is making soup ............. I've tried, and they just taste awful! so carcasses get thrown out.


I buy extra lean ground beef when it comes on special, and freeze it until I need it. The same with cans of wild sockeye salmon (they come on at about half price). Then I make large shepherds pies or fish pies .......... and freeze the excess in 1 serving sizes, using aluminum foil as the main wrap. The foil packets take 30 minutes to heat up if thoroughly thawed, or 1 hour if still frozen.

I figure to get at least 5 portions from 1 pie ......... 2 fresh, 3 or more frozen. Last week I got 5 frozen shepherds pie portions and 4 frozen fish pies.

Added later ............... I also buy stew meat when it's on sale, then make large stews, always casseroled in the oven. Eat 2 portions, and freeze the rest. Two weeks ago, I made stew, and froze 2 boxes for 2 people, and 2 boxes for 1 person each.


We buy turkey sausages from the butcher ................. always buy extra, and freeze them.

The butcher also makes something he calls Hollywood lamb chops ................ minced lamb formed into a patty, and then wrapped with bacon. Again, we buy more than we need, and freeze the extras.

OH has a small veggie patch in the garden, we usually have enough potatoes to last from September to January.

We are eating leeks picked fresh from the garden right now. He sows the leek seed in spring, then just lets them grow, doesn't even bother thinning them. When everything else has been dug up in September, he pulls and thins the seedlings, and transplants them all. Then he just leaves them until February, when we start to eat them.

They are delicious, so tender.


If bread is on special, we will buy 2 loaves, and freeze one.


I have quite a large freezer under my fridge, and we have an upright freezer in the basement ..... although that mainly contains frozen juices (always bought on special), ice cream (or my soy dessert), frozen fish.


I never buy jams, except for strawberry jam when he wants to make a trifle.

We make all our own jams, jellies and marmalade ........... he does all the work now, I just tell him when they are at setting point.

Quince and crab apples are free from the Botanical Garden where I used to work. We go out to pick blackberries wild. We have to buy Seville oranges or kumquats from whichever grocery store has decided to carry them "this" year. Blueberries come on very good specials at the height of the season, either from the farms or in the store. We go to the local fruit farms to buy tayberries and other soft fruits. I never make strawberry jam!

Although, I do have to admit that making your own jams is not a cheap way of getting them ......... they just taste soooooo much better!




sylvia