Posted on 09/29/2023 11:24:14 AM PDT by Red Badger
There are at least two aspects here —
Unsanitary food is no good. It is reasonable to have the government oversee food production to make sure that the food people buy is not adulterated or polluted and made unsuitable for human consumption.
What stuff should we eat? Are eggs OK? Is coffee unhealthy? Will red meat kill us? Is lard better than Corn oil? These are totally different questions, and it seems to me that the government and major institutions have not been honest and upfront about this sort of thing.
I enjoy lard, and I’m glad that the lard I pure is pure and well made.
I’m not crazy for crust, either - but my Grandma’s pies were really, REALLY good!
I usually do a ‘French’ topping on my pies which is 1 stick of butter (can use lard, LOL!) 1/2 C packed brown sugar and 1 C flour whirled together in the food processor until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the top of your pie and bake as usual, but put some tin foil over it for the last 15 minutes or so, so it doesn’t burn. (Fruit pies are usually baked at 425 degrees, so that matters!)
OTOH...there's NOTHING like REAL butter and lots and lots of it! :-)
Back in the Victorian/Edwardian era, the upper middle and upper classes ate FIVE meals a day.
The middle class ate three or 4.
The lower middle class and lower classes ate less meals, which consisted of inferior quality and quantity.
I saw a very interesting documentary, last week, about the Brit POOR HOUSES, and learned EXACTLY how the infamous gruel, mentioned in Oliver Twist, was made. IT'S DISGUSTING and how anyone was kept alive, at all on it, is beyond me.
A couple of years ago I made fried potatoes as a side when my sisters and husbands came for supper. My older sister remarked that they tasted just like mom’s even down to the crispy edges. I told her that’s because just like mom I cooked them in lard and finished them off with a little butter to brown them.
Everything tastes better when you use real foods. My mom and aunt always cooled with lard, butter, bacon grease and used whole milk. They lived to be 93 and 97 respectively.
The puppies I’ve been raising this summer eat First Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, Dinner and Supper. :)
What's next...SOYLANT GREEN?
Though Upton Sinclair was a stinking SOCIALIST, his book:"THE JUNGLE", laid bare the horrible state of things in the meat and fat processing world of Chicago.
Humans have had food allergies, of one kind or another, since the beginning of time. Some also have an allergy or a bodily resistance to synthetic vitamins. So one or the other should NEVER become the ordered intake for an entire populace, with no alternative.
What's next after food...how many times one is permitted to use bathroom facilities?
Hope that they are all doing well!
My great great grandmother ( whom no, I did not know, but I did know and ate what her eldest daughter, my great grandmother made ) gave up lard, but she and everyone else who followed her, cooked with all of the other things you mentioned. AND THE FOOD WAS/IS DELICIOUS!
The newest outrage is fake fingerling potatoes - the real ones are being replaced with common red potatoes of similar shape, Finally a really heathy ancient potato - and Celebration Potato scammers are faking it.
Someone’s spamming spuds?......................
Are there any food-related ping lists on FR? I heard once long ago that there was a Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) list but was never able to find it.
My dad grew up on a farm. His mom had a large garden & canned food for the winter months. His dad butchered hogs in the fall & made great sausage. They had a smokehouse for storage & a root cellar for canned goods & vegetables they could preserve in a cool environment for months. They raised chickens & turkeys, both for eggs & to eat/sell. They had both beef and milk cows. Maybe one beef was butchered a year - beef was a ‘cash crop’. Milk was kept in the spring house where dad could get a cold mug whenever he wanted - he was a ‘milkaholic’, drank a lot of it during his lifetime ... his preferred beverage. Flour was from grain that Granddad raised & took to the mill to grind. Granny cooked everything mostly with lard - her fried chicken was special. Butter was reserved for bread/toast. Sugar, tea & coffee had to be purchased outright, so the family was definitely not eating the average 200 lbs plus of refines sugar that people currently eat.
Dad passed away in January - he was 100 years old. Real food, clean living in general, lots of exercise via the hard work on the farm led to his advanced age & he was still very active. When asked if there was some secret to his advanced age, his answer was always “milk”.
Food is medicine. Real food, no processed food, cut out refined sugar. Use lard, butter (I make ghee), coconut oil, plus good quality olive & avocado oil. Vegetable seed oils are poison & upset the healthy ratio of Omega 3 & 6 fats (waaay too much 6). I buy half hogs (split hog meat with another family member) from a regenerative farm that raises their hogs on pasture. They aren’t offering beef yet, but it’s in future plans. Currently, my beef comes from a company that sells grass fed beef - have a monthly subscription.
Big Harma/Big Ag have it going on - cheap processed food that has a majority of the population in an unhealthy state (obese, type 2 diabetes, etc.) & plenty of drugs to deal with the symptoms.
True, I have to use Crisco. Lard gives me terrible heartburn.
We save our bacon grease. Nothing better for potato pancakes or hash browns.
“ You can’t make a decent pie crust without lard! :)”
I can. One starts with unsalted butter, melt it in a pot on the stove gently and let the 6%-7% of water in most butters cook off. Then chill it over night along with two cups of flour and some water.
Use a food processor to cut 2/3 cup of the chilled butter into 2 cups of flour, I tsp of salt and 1-2 tbsp of cold water.
If you don’t like this pastry it’s because you’re wrong.
“If you don’t like this pastry it’s because you’re wrong.”
LOL!
So you’re basically making pie crust with gee? I could live with that. :)
Grandma’s recipe calls for a little bit of vinegar (1/2 tsp?) in her pie crust. Ever heard of that?
I don’t clarify the butter, I just remove the water so I don’t think it’s actually ghee but I’m often wrong.
I’ve never used vinegar in pie crust.I’m not sure what acid would do for the crust. Perhaps it retards gluten formation for a flakier product.
Thank goodness we are surrounded by small farms raising real food for sale at their stands and at our local farmer’s market. Meats, flours, oils, vegetables, fruits — all local.
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