Im slightly worried the UK is losing its traditional cusine style

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She ant right, she just aint right!

Oh s**t-----I know, bandwidth.

oh sugah honey-pie, baby breathe. It was all a bad dream.
Our blissful utopia is BACK!That short-lived span of time of the witch-hunt persecution is OVA!

I really am curious about Brit cookers. Something about heating elements up the side of the oven cavity in a DIY repair book I snatched up in London. IIRC, many cookers there resemble our Maytag Gemini ("the twins") with a smaller oven just below the cooktop and a larger one below that one.

And on another total tangent: Interesting to note that duel-fuel cookers in Europe in general IMHO do not seem to be such a specialty item; nor are they priced as such.

For your amusement Epinions. Repeat after me: I WILL LEARN TO THINK FOR MYSELF, I WILL LEARN TO THINK FOR MYSELF. LOL

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Maytagbear

oh wow you love Nigel Slater? He is my all time guy. Only this christmas did i send lavamat jon his latest book to help him on his way to cooking. I too am a chef by trade but i gave it up for personal reasons, Nigel is the simplest writer i know who tells it like it is, and his desire for simplicity makes him world class in my eyes, did you read his autobiography style novel called Toast? I read it several times as it really does evoke so many feelings about food and the way i was brought up. Its one for curling up with a mug of cocoa, on a cold night. So full of feel good factor. Nick
 
OOOH In all seriousness I'd love Maytagbear to show off his talents and cook for me....in the kithcen. YUM!

Maytag homepage in linkie.

Faggots? I though I'd let that one slide..LOL I wonder if that meal is cooked over an open flame perhaps twigs and such. LOL

The absolute best thing I ever tasted was on the Greek island of Thassos. Fresh fish cooked over pine cones. It was unreal! and I'm not too keen on that whole genre, seafood and such. (no comments!)

I must say I enjoy the banter of the Brit boys on this site. Most of the time am scratching my head trying to figure out what is being said. But alas, it is always wonderful to step out of one's cultural norms to "See how the other half lives!"



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Do I love

Nigel Slater?....I do, and I would love to snog him.
Snog him really well.

(Now, now. "Snog" is British slang for "kiss.")

An American food writer who is in the same class, as far as writing goes, is the late Laurie Colwin. Her two books of food essays are "Home Cooking" and "More Home Cooking." She wrote about real food, and wrote perfect, delicious, reliable recipes.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

Nick...if you want to, send me an email sometime. Just remove the part that is in ALL CAPS.
 
dual fuel cookers are gaining in popularity big style, electric rings have never been too popular here for the fact they never seem controllable. So most dual fuels have gas rings, electric grill and oven combined in the top cavity and a large fan oven below that. Yes our conventional ovens have elements in the sides which mean we can cook several things requiresing different temps at once. Heat rises, so you can cook traditioal english food perfectly. Say on a sunday you would have roast potatoes on the top shelf in max heat. On the middle your smart beef cooking nicely in medium heat. The middle shelf of a contentional oven is around the set temp. Then your rice pudding on the bottom shelf simmering nicely. However fan ovens have the elements around the fan making the entire oven an even temp. My mums cookers top oven (under the burners) has US STYLE ELEMENTS that are above and below the cavity. Meaning a reasonably even temp although its not fan assisted. Its great for pizza i guess but not for brit food. My cooker is gas throughout. Nice moist oven heat to roast meat to perfection.
 
Cookers

Hey Toggle/all

In older UK cookers side elements were pretty much normal. Im not aware of any British built cookers that used top/bottom elements in the main oven., although they do in the top/small oven.

99% of freestanding models now have fan ovens- there is a circular element round a fan at the back.

Cheap built in ovens still use top/bottom elements but again fan or multifunction models(that have a combination of fan or top/bottom elements) are pretty much the norm.

Personally im all electric and quite happy with that- only thing id NEVER have are solid cast plates- its gotta be ceramic/smoothtop(or if I could afford it induction!!!)

Anyhows waffle over for now!

Seamus
 
cookers and stuff

Hi, all!

First have to announce that I was never forced to eat anything I didn't want - not even half of it - and no child should ever again forced to that!
BUT: my parents always INSISTED on that we had to TASTE every food before we could decide wether we liked it or not!

Today I eat nearly everything - except liqorice (yuk!!) or cow udder (too fatty). I love innards and even eat them raw sometimes (liver and kidney). And I'm always keen on tasting something absolute new. But resist on trying what I call bad food, like snakes and frog-legs or turtle soup and apes - for some reason!

I like very much old recipes and enjoy a lot eating traditional meals - traditional English food is a part of my favourites! - but also like mediterranean and asian food and love real old German dishes! Tonight we'll have Sauerkraut, Klöße and Hackbraten (sour cabbage, potato dumplings and minced meat roast)!

I prefered always British stoves a lot, as they have these side heater elements built in instead of the upper and lower heating in German stoves (but not like americans as they are open visible whereas ours are under the bottom and behind the ceiling cover) and in traditional stoves the British had always these open coil heating elements to cook on which I like a lot as they work more or less like an open gas-flame which I prefer even more than electic stoves!
But there's none better than solid-fuel ranges, I can tell you!
I have/had all three types for years and can say which is best!

A nice Sunday to all of you!

Ralf
 
Nick,
I'm glad you started this thread, diets and appitites are changing over here too in America. I think its a world wide change, for two reasons. One, we, as a society, are much more health concious. I know that as I've gotten older that I've had to limit what I shouldn't eat as I battle cholestrol and other ailments associated with age and health.
The second reason was stated above, that many are just either to lazy to fix a good meal or, more likely than not, just simply don't have the time in everyday life as employers keep expecting more and more from everyone.....60 hour work weeks are becoming a norm.
On my last visit to my doctor, after reviewing my latest blood test, she strongly suggested becoming a vegitarian...then prescribed a much stronger medication. I eat alot of vegitables now. I love steaks, but limit that to only once a week at most.
 
the only electric hob i ever got on with was a Creda Concept halogen hob. Not the original style from 1987 but the later model with pop in pop out dials from around 1990. We had these at school and i always used to use one when in cookery lessons. I personally have got used to my mums past 2 electric ovens over the past 10 years but before that she had a Leisure Mark 2 eye level cooker of which im not sure of the year it was from. Now she has a Kenwood pro stove, replacing a Parkinson Cowan Ovation 60 GLa. And i do like electric ovens but its a gas hob for me any day.
 
Hi Nick. I remember spending summers in Hastings, Sussex. I loved Sainsbury's pork pies and sausage roll. When I lived in New York City, in my area I had a German butcher, an Italian butcher, and a great fish store. Since I moved west, you cannot find a good butcher shop and have to take what is available in the supermarkets. It is not as good as what was available in the butchers back east.

Ross
 
And I think our international friends should know, here in NYC is where many many immigrants first land and stay, each contributing their awesome food palate to the American food "scene".

All kidding aside it is hard to get the quality and variety of food found here in other parts of the country. The sheer volume of inhabitants ensures demand.; Our city has 8 million poeple in it with 12 million in the metropolitan area. The entire State of Connecticut has 3.5 million people.

There are entire stores that sell just specialty light bulbs, beads, condoms etc., any one type of thing, because there is adequate demand.

Frequntly when one leaves NYC we shake our heads and say "off they go to REAL America" TSK TSK TSK.
 
anyhoo..what is the advantage of heating elements on the sides of the oven cavity? Is it just/ mainly a Brit thing?

Any recipes forthcoming? Please......

Our upper element, when used alone is a broiler/grille....
Hidden elements here don't seem to have any advantage in that the majority of ovens are now self-cleaning (pyrolytic), so an unobsturcted top or bottom is not such a big deal..

AHHHHH WAIT.. I suppose one can put a tray of food to cook on the BOTTOM of a Brit cooker (botom ov oven cavity) and on multiple shelves? EUREKA! LOL
 
Our oven has various cooking modes:
It can heat using the fan (sorrounded by elements), using elements in the sides, top and bottom.

You select which cooking mode you want. I only ever use fan or fan+grill (broiler) to brown things.

Bought an induction hob and would *never* go back. It's the most amazing appliance ever. You can control the temprature of a pot/pan absolutely perfectly and it's able to heat things incrediably quickly too. E.g. I can boil a giant pot of water for past far faster than 3KW kettle can boil and a pan is ready to fry in about 10 seconds.
Yet for things like sauces, you can produce the most gentle heat ever.

I think it's even more reactive than gas!

As for British cooking, I have to say I have never been a fan of things like steak and kidney pies. Irish traditional cuisine tends to be probabally less pie-oriented. However the genuinely traditional cuisine has pretty much died out and been replaced by "Celtic Fusion" which basically re-invented the entire concept of Irish food, using traditional ingredients (local meats, cheeses etc) in much more interesting ways.

If you want to take a look at some modern Irish recipes :
Rachel Allen, Ireland's current major TV chef.

There's a link there to a load of recipes.

 
German ovens

German ovens do not have only hidden elements!
the upper element was/is often a grill element and only the lower one is hidden - which makes more sense than the american open ones:
1. things that cook over do not effect the heater element
2. it is much easier to clean when there's no element in the way
3. the allocation of the heat is more evenly when the whole bottom is hot
4. you can cook things in the oven by putting it onto the bottom for preparing jam in an open pot, sterilise jars, etc.

The english element aside produce a constant heat-flow from bottom to top and top to bottom - a kind of fan-oven without a fan and more long lasting than those...smile!

Ralf
 
Nick, funny I should come across this thread after just trying to find liver in the market while doing my mom's shopping over the weekend. She's 92 and doesn't get out much, legally blind and I've been doing her shopping since my dad passed away 10 years ago. What I've found is that the major chain supermarkets simply don't stock liver, other than Foster Farms chicken livers. Foster Farms has all but cornered the market on fresh chickens it seems, and probably makes deals with the stores to also put the livers on the shelves too.

Only the local independent markets regularly carry liver but I can't remember the last time I saw kidneys, or a veal or pork chop with the kidney attached--wow, I had all but forgotten about those! I hated liver as a kid but enjoy it once in a while now. My dad used to fry up kidneys for breakfast and that's how I learned to eat those. On a plate or just wrapped in a slice of bread. Sweetbreads are my absolute favorite though. Once in a while you'll see them on a menu. Too much work to prepare at home.

I feel that corporations like McDonald's have played havoc with the modern diet. So many kids that won't eat anything but burgers and fries and turn their nose up at any home cooked meal, and a lot of those kids are adults now and perpetuating that practice with their own kids. Only recently has there been any pressure on the fast food industry to make their products more healthy and less deadly.

The restaurant industry is exactly the opposite. When I was growing up, you couldn't find decent Italian food in any local restaurant. Now there are Italian chains that make sauce that comes real close to what my grandmother made. Alice Waters started Chez Pannise restaurant in Berkeley and things finally began to change and the American shift to a more sophisticated palate began. It seems that if you want anything outside of the mainstream for dinner, you need to go to a restaurant because the supermarkets just don't have any selection anymore. I've begun boycotting the big chain markets for a number of reasons and will continue to support the local guys who still have meat departments with live butchers to wait on you. I usually can find what I want there.

Your pie looks delicious Nick. Now I'm hungry for kidneys!

Ralph
 
Maytagbear,

Yup she certainly is. She's TV Chef Dorina Allen's daughter-in-law.
There's a whole dynasty of them now!
 

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