I watched his programme on the box last night and it was all about creating a great British menu which is fair enough. He rattled on about free range rabbit (and subsequently shot some for the pot with which I have no problem). He rattled on about quality free range beef which is also fair enough, and he also took time to wax lyrical about the benefits of old breed pork (free range of course). He then went out fishing a caught some Pollock which by their nature are free range (he even returned the under sized conger eel which was very nice of him). All very good and ethical so far however the program was sponsored by Gnorr stock cubes and it seemed that he added stock cubes to pretty much every dish he cooked, apparently as a seasoning not as stock. The advertising bit after the main ad break even had a depiction of a chicken dish identical to his rabbit one; it sort of made a mockery of the whole free range stance for me.
When he wasn’t cooking he also seemed to constantly have a ciggie hanging out of his gob; fair enough if he wants to smoke but I thought that we were supposed to have stopped depicting celebrities smoking so as to not encourage wannabie celebs from starting?
Top pork recipe though and I might have a bash at the rabbit thing if I can get hold of some cheaply enough (I don’t have a shotgun).
I use stock cubes as seasoning for sugo, and soups, instead of using salt.
I know there's salt in there, but they've got other stuff in them as well.
My parents go to italy every year ( my mother's Italian) and instead of presents, I ask for food, so I can have antipasti, stock cubes, veg puree, etc.
I can see what you mean about making a mockery of the free range stance should the cubes be made of un-free ranged animals, unless he used vegetable ones?
How do you find out what the ingredients actually are?
Hang on, going to have a look........
ok, in the chicken one there is in order of amount...
Salt
Flavour enhancers (MSG)
Potato Starch
Vegetable Oil
Chicken fat 4%
Hydrogenated veg oil
Yeast extract
Chicken Powder 1.4% - what the hell is chicken powder?
Onion
Flavourings inc gluten
Parsley
Colours
White pepper
Citric acidAntioxidants
and
rosemary extract
phew......still wondering what chicken powder is though...
Hi SS
Perhaps you should get onto points of view or the channel concerned and voice what you have just said. Both about the stock cubes and the ciggies.
I find it hard to believe the Italian stock cubes would be made any different from ours....with battery hens.
Wendy
wendy wrote:I find it hard to believe the Italian stock cubes would be made any different from ours....with battery hens. Wendy
I doubt they are, they just taste better.
I'm not sure what the whole country is like, I only know what the area my mother is from is like.
Everyone has a little bit of land somewhere to grow their own vegetables, or buys from the farmers or the farmers truck.
Most of the local pork is supplied by my cousin who's got a pig farm.
Most of the local beef/veal is supplied by my mothers friend who has a dairy/beef farm.
People keep their own chickens/ducks, for eating and for eggs, my aunties buy chicks, keep them until they're grown and slaughter them for food over the winter/spring.
It's a completely different life. The kind of life most people on here seem to want to have, me included.
I'm not completely dopey, I know battery farming will exist there, but the attitude to food and freshness and good quality is a lot different than it is here.
If you put a ready meal in front of the people who live in Grumello, they'd probably beat you round the head with it.
wendy wrote:Hi SS I find it hard to believe the Italian stock cubes would be made any different from ours....with battery hens. Wendy
I had a little bit of a look into free range stocks/cubes. Couldn’t find any, there’s organic beef and vegetable (not chicken or pork) but that doesn’t mean free range. I wonder what becomes of the free range layers once they are no longer financially viable; I know that we have discussed this on another thread but they can’t all go to pet food. Surely the manufacturers should realise that there’s a lucrative market for the first one producing a truly free range chicken stock cube or it just more profitable to keep doing what they are doing and not give the consumer the option? What will they do once all birds have to be free range?
You are probably right they can't all go into pet food. But there are such a lot of chicken things around. I am amazed.
When you go to a restaurant or think of getting a take away. Thee is so much chicken. It is unbelievable, fairly obvious they are the cheap meat of choice.
I think there would be a market for free range stock cubes . So it is time you went into production.
Wendy
I went to Romania about ten years back (a load of us went on company business via the sea). Whilst there I bumped into a chap from Scotland who had opened up a chicken processing factory; they imported cheap chickens from Brazil, cooked and processed them into chicken burgers and stuff for companies such as Fingders and shipped them across to us. A squillion food miles, tons of additives (possibly) and the collapse of the local (and predominantly free range) chicken industry around Constanta. I wonder if they knocked up stock cubes as well?
Haven't used stock cubes for years since I discovered vegetable bouillon powder. There are several, the one I use is low salt and vegan, I use it in almost everything, and it is also nice to sprinkle on popcorn
Not that I’m religious but if god had intended us to be vegan he (or she) wouldn’t have made cows out of beef.
Anyway I use a brand of vegan veg stock because it is low salt and actually tastes nice; also makes a nice drink.
Isn’t that illegal? Surely you must need a licence to remove wild bird eggs. I don’t have a problem with sustainable harvesting of eggs and stuff but I’m not sure that I would like to eat an egg that has originated in any of the gull population that used to frequent the Portsmouth landfill; hardly organic and possibly toxic when you think of the tons of nappies and other unsavouries that ended up there.
