What's on your mind?

[AlSymerz]

2 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

And I'm not alone in this opinion.

No, just like the saying 'fat is flavour', but sometimes health has to be a factor. I do think burnt edges are a bit different to burnt across the meat, I'll accept some burnt edges on the bacon rind, but not the meat.

 

5 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 I'm a city boy, have no experience with livestock or butchery. Bacon comes in a package labeled "Bacon" and we buy it and cook it, that's all I really know. And I also know the stuff I got on my plate in Australia and NZ bore little resemblance to what I have always thought of as 'bacon.' 

To be fair a lot of country folk don't know where their meat comes from either. But most people here could name streaky bacon and short cut because it's packaged in bags that way. For years we've had variety at the deli's and supermarkets, half the time it's impossible to see what's in the bag because of labelling but they are generally named short cut, streaky and cooking bacon. Don't your supermarkets etc have the same thing? Is it one choice only?

[navybsn]

On 7/29/2023 at 5:29 AM, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 

Don't know what is going on with the quote thing, but Kuke we have basically 2 choices: Thick cut and regular. Lots of choices for curing but not what I'm getting out of your description. As always, local butcher shop bacon is way better than anything in the supermarket but not everyone has one of those nearby. I've bought my own pork belly and done my own bacon before. It's fun but not really worth the effort when I have access to several excellent butchers locally.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

3 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

Steak cooking is BS these days. Stupid TV chefs and reality TV shows have driven the world to believe that uncooked in the middle is how meat should be cooked. Lamb, pork, beef, the only meat TV chef's cook properly is chicken because they are shit scared of showing anything pink in a chicken. This idea that a steak has to have uncooked portions of a deeper red in it to be rare is BS. If any part of the meat is uncooked it's raw, not rare.

There is no uncooked meat in this first picture. Even the center of the 120° one they have designated as 'rare' in this picture is not raw, it has been cooked. Almost all TV chefs will say (and I agree) that the perfect temp for steak is 130° (55°C) medium rare which as you can see in the picture is hardly raw. I prefer to eat my steak medium rare but will accept in basically anywhere from rare up to medium. Anything past medium is ruined as far as I'm concerned. Once it all turns grey there's no flavor left and you can hardly chew or swallow it. But obviously we're all free to eat it however we like it, even if you like it well done that's your problem. Lamb I would prefer cooked slightly longer to medium. I've never seen anyone cook pork to medium where it's all pink in the middle, pork is always cooked at least to medium well or I've heard you'll risk getting sick. 

 

 

Now there is a way some people cook steak called black & blue where it's seared/charred on the outside and left raw in the middle. This is much too raw for me and I wouldn't want to eat it like this. I could, but I wouldn't want to. 

 

 

47 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

No, just like the saying 'fat is flavour', but sometimes health has to be a factor. I do think burnt edges are a bit different to burnt across the meat, I'll accept some burnt edges on the bacon rind, but not the meat.

To be fair a lot of country folk don't know where their meat comes from either. But most people here could name streaky bacon and short cut because it's packaged in bags that way. For years we've had variety at the deli's and supermarkets, half the time it's impossible to see what's in the bag because of labelling but they are generally named short cut, streaky and cooking bacon. Don't your supermarkets etc have the same thing? Is it one choice only?

Yes, that's what I've been saying. What you lot refer to as 'streaky bacon' is the only kind of bacon found in US supermarkets. As Navy said, at a specialty high-end butcher shop he would probably be able to cut you whatever you wanted, because obviously our 'Murican pigs have all the same parts as your Ozzie pigs. But as far as pre-packaged bacon in the supermarkets is concerned we have just one kind of bacon (the one you call streaky bacon) which many companies now offer in 'thick cut' versions where the individual slices are a bit thicker, which is what I usually get. The short cut bacon or middle bacon or any other types of bacon y'all may have down there most Americans have never even heard of these things. I only know about it because I married a Kiwi and have been down there and eaten it.

 

[AlSymerz]

Maybe the short cut gets thrown in things like minces or pet foods. Surely they wouldn't waste it.

[Thatguy]

I agree with the GG on what rare steak is and what raw steak is, as in the pictures above.

I pity the GG in that real bacon is not available to him so he is forced to buy the least desirable cut and overcook it to make it edible - to him, I still wouldn't touch it.

2 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

Maybe the short cut gets thrown in things like minces or pet foods. Surely they wouldn't waste it.

It's hard to understand, isn't it?

[AlSymerz]

10 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

It's hard to understand, isn't it?

Short cut with fat and rind is edible, but if it's rindless shortcut then it stays in the shop.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

11 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

I agree with the GG on what rare steak is and what raw steak is, as in the pictures above.

I pity the GG in that real bacon is not available to him so he is forced to buy the least desirable cut and overcook it to make it edible - to him, I still wouldn't touch it.

It's hard to understand, isn't it?

Yes it is hard to understand because I don't even know what that is. Ignorance is bliss Doc. If our shyte Yankee bacon is all we've ever known, then we can't miss the good stuff we've never seen, tasted or even heard about. BUT...I certainly wasn't overwhelmed with the awesomeness of AUS/NZ bacon that I was served at various cafes in those two countries though. But I sure did like them flat whites, which were also totally unknown in the US until very recently, just the last 5 or 10 years.

But I'm glad to see you understand that our US bacon is just not good undercooked, it's far too fatty to eat until it's been crisped up a bit. I don't really eat a ton of bacon anyway though, I mostly cook it to put a few slices on burgers, sandwiches and in salads n stuff. Sausages are my breakfast meat of choice, and thank the good lord above I don't need to incinerate them.

[Dead1]

Bacon is overrated IMO.  I don't mind it every now and then especially if I am at a cafe having a big breakfast (which is increasingly never).

I too prefer sausages for breakfast.

[AlSymerz]

I don't remember the last time I had bacon for breakfast, would have to be 20 years. I occasionally have bacon and egg rolls for dinner, a BLT but with eggs, cheese and beetroot, but rarely cook bacon just to eat by itself. I'll add it into fried rice, zucchini slice, spag bol etc, and for lunch today I have bacon wrapped chicken, but it's not something I seek out to eat by itself or for breakfast.

[Dead1]

We never had bacon on own either.

 

I did know a couple who used to make bacon nachos ie use bacon instead of corn chips.

Both were massively obese and thought substituting bacon for corn chips was somehow healthier.

[navybsn]

Can't imagine I've been cooking and eating bacon wrong my whole life, and if I am I don't want to be right. At least it's not that bullshit Canadians try to pass off. Plenty of other good uses for pork belly (small diced and marinated is the way to go in fried rice @Dead1) too. Streaky bacon as I'm reading it is the wonder ingredient that just makes everything just a bit better. 

And you're all wrong, chorizo is the way to go for breakfast. Some scrambled eggs, root veggies, maybe some brussel sprouts and some peppers. Fuckin banging.

Anyone trying to hand me a steak 1 degree past medium will be shot on sight. Anyone preparing or asking for one in my house will be disinherited and expelled. Inexcusable bullshit. Blasphemy. War crime against humanity. My grandfather used to order his by saying "knock off the horns, wipe it's ass, and walk it across the grill". I'm not a lifelong Texan, so I prefer a little more heat, but just a little. Don't get me started on steak sauce.

 

[FatherAlabaster]

My son has become a big fan of bacon lately, after us never having it at home because my wife doesn't eat stuff made from pigs. Now it's got to be bacon egg and cheese every morning for him, and I'm almost sorry I ever let him try it. Seems like the "center cut" bacon cooks up better here. We thought (we were told) that the stove here was induction, which I wasn't too psyched about, but it's just a regular electric stove, which I'm really not psyched about, and I still haven't really gotten a handle on which settings on which burners do the right things. I love the cleaner air up here but I might trade some of it back for a gas stove.

[Dead1]

In other news a Taylor Swift earthquake caused a 2.3 magnitude earthquake in Seattle.

Talk about taking rock n roll literally.

 

https://www.nme.com/news/music/taylor-swift-fans-cause-earthquake-level-activity-at-eras-tour-show-3474941

[GoatmasterGeneral]

45 minutes ago, navybsn said:

Can't imagine I've been cooking and eating bacon wrong my whole life, and if I am I don't want to be right. At least it's not that bullshit Canadians try to pass off. Plenty of other good uses for pork belly (small diced and marinated is the way to go in fried rice @Dead1) too. Streaky bacon as I'm reading it is the wonder ingredient that just makes everything just a bit better. 

And you're all wrong, chorizo is the way to go for breakfast. Some scrambled eggs, root veggies, maybe some brussel sprouts and some peppers. Fuckin banging.

Anyone trying to hand me a steak 1 degree past medium will be shot on sight. Anyone preparing or asking for one in my house will be disinherited and expelled. Inexcusable bullshit. Blasphemy. War crime against humanity. My grandfather used to order his by saying "knock off the horns, wipe it's ass, and walk it across the grill". I'm not a lifelong Texan, so I prefer a little more heat, but just a little. Don't get me started on steak sauce.

Haha steak sauce is for poseurs.

Maybe you weren't here the other day when we were talking about breakfast burritos, but yeah chorizo is the shit. I can't even eat scrambled eggs at this point without it. Or even poached eggs which is my normal way to eat eggs, I only make 'em scrambled sometimes for the 9 year old. All egg dishes need chorizo. When I said sausages I wasn't talking about Jimmy Dean's maple links.

 

41 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

My son has become a big fan of bacon lately, after us never having it at home because my wife doesn't eat stuff made from pigs. Now it's got to be bacon egg and cheese every morning for him, and I'm almost sorry I ever let him try it. Seems like the "center cut" bacon cooks up better here. We thought (we were told) that the stove here was induction, which I wasn't too psyched about, but it's just a regular electric stove, which I'm really not psyched about, and I still haven't really gotten a handle on which settings on which burners do the right things. I love the cleaner air up here but I might trade some of it back for a gas stove.

Every weekend my son makes me drive him down the hill to the Quick Check (local gas station/convenience store - or dairy for the Kiwis - milk bar for the Ozzies) for a $3.79 sausage, egg and cheese on an English muffin. I offer to make him one at home but he refuses, he's convinced the gas station one is better than dad's.

[FatherAlabaster]

27 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Every weekend my son makes me drive him down the hill to the Quick Check (local gas station/convenience store - or dairy for the Kiwis - milk bar for the Ozzies) for a $3.79 sausage, egg and cheese on an English muffin. I offer to make him one at home but he refuses, he's convinced the gas station one is better than dad's.

I'm not sure whether I'm glad or sad that he likes my bacon egg and cheese sandwiches the best. The gas station here is easy, and good, but then I have to get a burrito don't I, and before you know it that's $12 on breakfast. Best as an occasional treat.

At least we got him off Dunkin. How did any of us survive adolescence.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I'm not sure whether I'm glad or sad that he likes my bacon egg and cheese sandwiches the best. The gas station here is easy, and good, but then I have to get a burrito don't I, and before you know it that's $12 on breakfast. Best as an occasional treat.

At least we got him off Dunkin. How did any of us survive adolescence.

Because they didn't have any of this shit back then, and even if they had our parents would have told us to shut up and eat what we were given.

I stopped at a Starbucks next to a gas station in PA on the way back home from Florida a couple of years ago and got us two XL ice cold coffee drinks with whipped cream on his. He asked me for the next year to take him to Starbucks for a $7 coffee drink and I just laughed at him til he forgot about it and stopped asking. Til the next time we go on a road trip anyway.

And you nailed it, go to the Quick Check he gets his $4 egg sandwich, but then I have to get my $9 burrito. Then he wants a strawberry Quick and some Twizzlers...and the next thing you know I've spent $25 for his little egg sandwich. He's only 9 so this is only going to get worse.

[AlSymerz]

Back when I was a kid there was fuck all fast food for us to eat too. There was restaurants everywhere but they were where adults got dressed up and went to eat fancy food. We didn't have the fast food that is around now. There was take away food places that would sell fish and chips, hamburgers etc. There was cafe's that might sell things more like BLT's and sandwiches. But Maccas didn't start here until '71, Red Rooster (chicken burgers etc) was '72, Burger King (called Hungry Jacks everywhere but Western Australia for legal reasons) was '71 and KFC was '68. But they had so few stores that it was really only the city folk who got to indulge.

If we went on a family road trip it wasn't that hard to find fish and chips or a bakery for pies or bread rolls but in most cases money wasn't abundant so we got rolls or sandwiches from home. So really for us surviving the junk food generation was easy because it wasn't there. It got harder once Maccas and KFC started appearing in regional towns, but it was 87 before we got a local Maccas where I grew up, even then it was 25ks away and I'd moved to the city.

 

[Dead1]

32 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

It got harder once Maccas and KFC started appearing in regional towns, but it was 87 before we got a local Maccas where I grew up, even then it was 25ks away and I'd moved to the city.

 

It's insane now with the level of junkfood.   One of my friend's son and his mates live on Uber Eats.  I don't think they'd know how to make a sandwich if they were starving.  I walk past a Maccas every day and part of the parking lot always has Indian dudes pulled up and waiting for orders.

Modern society is become perverse and ludicrous.

 

We get takeout maybe twice a month - usually it's sushi with Maccas every couple of months or so.  Rest of time it's made lunches and homecooked meals.  We even eat dinner at dinning table with no TV.

 

In my youth we were too poor for takeaways - a cheeseburger each once every 12 months and that was it (parents preferred to spend money on cigarettes). 

[AlSymerz]

I hate the way the delivery drivers think they are given some sort of fucking priority. There must be about 10 different pick up services available these days and no matter which food shop you go to, be it Maccas or some where that actually makes food. Some fucker with a food storage bag pushes their way through despite knowing that pretty much none of the food places prioritise them.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

12 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

Back when I was a kid there was fuck all fast food for us to eat too. There was restaurants everywhere but they were where adults got dressed up and went to eat fancy food. We didn't have the fast food that is around now. There was take away food places that would sell fish and chips, hamburgers etc. There was cafe's that might sell things more like BLT's and sandwiches. But Maccas didn't start here until '71, Red Rooster (chicken burgers etc) was '72, Burger King (called Hungry Jacks everywhere but Western Australia for legal reasons) was '71 and KFC was '68. But they had so few stores that it was really only the city folk who got to indulge.

If we went on a family road trip it wasn't that hard to find fish and chips or a bakery for pies or bread rolls but in most cases money wasn't abundant so we got rolls or sandwiches from home. So really for us surviving the junk food generation was easy because it wasn't there. It got harder once Maccas and KFC started appearing in regional towns, but it was 87 before we got a local Maccas where I grew up, even then it was 25ks away and I'd moved to the city.

 

They did this to me in New Zealand, stoped while on a 6 hour road trip to New Plymouth and took me into a 'bakery' for pies and bread rolls. And they made me try something called a Lamington. We don't have these kinds of meat pies and bread rolls here in the states either. Or I guess we have something like your rolls but we just call them sandwiches or heroes and we typically like to get them made to order. A bakery in the states just bakes sweet things like donuts and pastries and cakes and cookies and fruit pies, not meat pies or any kind of savory food. And I suppose we must have chip shops here somewhere but I've never seen one (aside from two I used to serve in Brooklyn owned by an ex-pat Brit). Fish & chips is just something you'll sometimes see on the menu of a sit down restarant that has other kinds of food as well. We don't have shops just dedicated to fish & chips. Our Chinese and Asian restaurants sell Chinese and Asian food (or Americanized versions of Chinese and Asian food) and maybe even fried chicken wings but not fish & chips.

Fast food chains on the other hand like Maccas, BK, Wndy's, Taco Bell, Arbys, KFC... is just gross and should be avoided at all costs. They're seemingly everywhere but amazingly we don't have any fast food chains in the town where I am now. We have a diner and some actual restaurants which aren't very good, 3 pizza shops and several Asian food take-out places, a deli or two, and of course we have the Quick Check convenience store and like the deli they'll make you a shitty sandwich in there too. But I'd have to go at least 20 minutes (10 miles - 16 k's) to Franklin for Maccas or BK or Taco Bell or any of that kind of corporate franchise garbage. 

[AlSymerz]

What you would have seen as our fish and chip shops would be vastly different to what they used to be. Originally our they were just that, fish and chips or anything that was deep fried. They did move into hamburgers, but not the Maccas, BK, type, they were made to order with pretty much anything you wanted on them. They generally also sold things like ice creams, lemonade and milk drinks (milk shakes, thick shakes etc) as well. But very little else. They were also predominantly a sea side town thing.

By the 80's they sort of turned into places where they tried to cater for everyone but still in a fast manner. They added things like sandwiches, souvlakis, salads and things like pies or pasties that could be kept warm in a small oven. "Fish and chip shop" became the go-to term for these places just like milk bar became the go to term for the corner shop that sold milk and newspapers but then moved into selling just about everything before closing down and being almost non-existent now.

A real fish and chip shop in the 70's (and probably before but I don't remember) was run by a Greek family and only served dinner wrapped in newspaper. Hence the term "Greek Roast" which was popular in the 70's and 80's before it became racist.  By the 90's and 00's the fish and chip shop was only such by name, it was nothing like they used to be and for some reason many of them were run by Asians.

These days we have Asian take aways that sell fish and chips. We have pizza shops that sell ribs. We have Mexican restaurants that sell Chinese food. We has steak houses that sell pasta. And we have big corporates like Maccas, BK and KFC introducing 'international' flavours every other week as if they are some kind of exerts on what's eaten in other countries.

[Dead1]

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

And I suppose we must have chip shops here somewhere but I've never seen one (aside from two I used to serve in Brooklyn owned by an ex-pat Brit). Fish & chips is just something you'll sometimes see on the menu of a sit down restarant that has other kinds of food as well. We don't have shops just dedicated to fish & chips. Our Chinese and Asian restaurants sell Chinese and Asian food (or Americanized versions of Chinese and Asian food) and maybe even fried chicken wings but not fish & chips.

 

Fish and chip shops (or takeaways as we call them) are a dying art in Australia.  Too much emphasis on franchises and it doesn't help takeaways are that bit slower than a franchise joint.

They're not cheap either due to inflation of both potatoes and fish - just 20 years ago $5 of chips could feed half a dozen people.   Now you get a small tub for that.

 

Quote

Or I guess we have something like your rolls but we just call them sandwiches or heroes 

I now have this Homer Simpson style vision of sandwiches storming the beaches of Normandy.

[AlSymerz]

I agree that fish and chip prices have gone up, cost us $55 to feed 4 adults last weekend, but I don't see them dying. Even in country towns fish and chip shops have car parks full of cars at around 6pm every night of the week. Many of them also open for lunch to get workers and a lot of country towns have multiple fish and chip shops. Even sit down restaurants are booming these days. Our nearest major town (26,000 people) has 9 fish and chip shops

[RelentlessOblivion]

Great, now I want bacon, thanks a lot…

Great, now I want bacon, thanks a lot…

 

First day in culinary school, it’s for theory stuff for the first couple of weeks, so I will breeze through that

 

also, all this talk of fish and chips makes me want to make my own twist on the classic, service is part of my course and I’m pretty sure we have to do our own recipes. Maybe I’ll start brainstorming

[FatherAlabaster]

9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I guess we have something like your rolls but we just call them sandwiches or heroes

Don't forget hoagie, sub, and grinder!

9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

A bakery in the states just bakes sweet things like donuts and pastries and cakes and cookies and fruit pies, not meat pies or any kind of savory food.

I haven't found this to be the case. Plenty of small bakeries near everywhere I've lived do savory pastries. Hipstered-out places do croissants stuffed with named meat and fancy cheese, local fruit pie bakers make chicken and beef pot pies - I mean, NYC is full of Spanish food and Caribbean places that make meat pastelitos and Jamaican beef patties. True we don't have many places doing actual British-style meat pies. There was this place in Boston that made Cornish pasties though, that was tasty food.