Winter Recipes

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Richard
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Winter Recipes

Postby Richard » Sat Dec 30, 2017 9:48 pm

All contributions for casseroles or stews are welcomed.
Could be beans or meat or chicken stew.
What's the difference between a stew and a casserole - I have no idea.

cbe
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Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2014 7:29 pm

Re: Winter Recipes

Postby cbe » Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:15 pm

Nor me - but if they are different things I like them both.

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seahermit
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Re: Winter Recipes

Postby seahermit » Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:33 am

I've had a long day at the sales
(done well with some new technology which might well be of interest to others - but I'm too tired to explain further tonight!).

A stew as I understand it is cooked on top of the stove in a saucepan or whatever - I have a splendid large copper-bottomed stewpot grabbed in a sale and it cooks beautifully. The trick is frequent poking/stirring and putting the pot on the lowest possible heat to make it just simmer gently away. For an hour or two even, it just gets nicer.

Casseroles take their name from the traditional earthenware utensil I think (although also different materials nowadays like cast iron) - at any rate the cooking is done in a large lidded pot which stays in the oven for an hour or two. Because the heat is all around and the liquid is sealed in from evaporating, the cooking is more efficient and the resulting flavour is quite different and usually vastly superior. You still have to be watchful and learn to be a good judge of when things look and smell right, but overall it's an easier process.

I'll be glad to post my ideas on here - they have served me well and made me some new friends, so can't be too bad I think!

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Richard
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Re: Winter Recipes

Postby Richard » Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:29 pm

A 'Marmite' is a french name for a pot-bellied casserole dish vessel.
A ragout is the French word for a stew but an Italian ragu is a sauce.
A Hotpot is traditionally a famous lamb stew topped with sliced potatoes i.e. Lancashire Hotpot.

Henry Fielding lamented the demise of traditional Old English Roast Beef:

When mighty Roast Beef was the Englishman's food,
It ennobled our brains and enriched our blood.
Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good
Oh! the Roast Beef of old England,
And old English Roast Beef!

But since we have learnt from all-vapouring France
To eat their ragouts as well as to dance,
We're fed up with nothing but vain complaisance
Oh! the Roast Beef of Old England,
And old English Roast Beef!....

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seahermit
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Re: Winter Recipes

Postby seahermit » Mon Jan 01, 2018 5:56 pm

It was ok for Fielding to rhapsodise but .. One has to remember that in the past roast beef was largely on the menu for the wealthier classes - the plebs couldn't afford good meat often! Even for soldiers and sailors, whilst there was some beef available (probably because a fighting force needed a reasonably adequate diet), their heavily salted issue certainly wasn't the kind of cut that Henry Fielding would have enjoyed in the better local taverns!


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