[Sca-cooks] Return of the Wanderer (partly OT)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

johnna holloway wrote:
> I am reminded that one of John Thorne's small
> pamphlets covered "bangers" and mentioned that
> they contained so little meat that they were not
> allowed to be labeled as meat when taken over to
> the World's Fair in Belgium.

Just out of curiosity, what year are we talking about? This is the kind
of thing that I would associate with the bad rep English food has had in
some quarters for a long time, first probably since the early days of
Victorian institutional and school food, and probably reaching its low
point just after the second World War, but not really recovering on a
really large scale until the seventies or eighties (some might add, "if
at all", but I would not). It seems that many sausage recipes from the
Brtish Isles in general frequently have some amount of starch product
added, not necessarily as a bulk/cost measure, although in some cases,
particularly during the extended rationing of WWII and afterward, the
cost effect had not escaped the eyes of the manufacturers. In theory,
this would be putting the cart before the pig, but I suppose it has
happened at times.

Another consideration is in the proportion of lean meat to fat. Most
American sausages are somewhere between 15 and 30 percent fat; often
because they are 100 percent (or close to it) fatty meat, cuts such as
pork belly or shoulder butt. On the other hand, you could as easily say
some bangers, for example, are perhaps 50% lean meat, 30% fat, 10% rusk,
and maybe 10% added water. Not unheard of. My point is only that
depending on the different food regulations in different places, the
previous scenario would allow British sausages to be described, and
accurately, as either a mere 50% meat, or 80% meat _and_ meat
by-products, which sounds a lot better. Oh, and 30% fat ;  ) .

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98