LL-L "Delectables" 2005.04.31 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: heather rendall <HeatherRendall at compuserve.com>
Subject: LL-L "Delectables" 2005.04.31 (04) [E]

Message text written by INTERNET:lowlands-l at LOWLANDS-L.NET
>I think you mean "tallow" (Low Saxon _tallig_ ['talIC] ~ _talg_ [talC] ~
[talx], Eastern Friesland LS _ungel_, _German _Talg_), in cooking contexts
"suet" in English.  Mutton suet is what's traditionally used in
plumpudding.
My mother only used it when cooking certain cabbage dishes and mashed
rutabagas (suedes), and I thought that was disgusting enough, especially
once the dishes cooled off.  But on sandwiches?!  Cold?!<

I think there is some mis-recalled memories here!!!!

Toast or bread and dripping is the treat being referred to.

Dripping - as the name implies - is the fat and juicy bits that drip off a
piece of meat roasted on a spit. These were collected in a kind of trough
underneath. The thicker dripping was kept and potted for use in frying
potatoes or mushrooms or bacon etc. the rest was eagerly sought by the
younger members of the family and spread on bread or even better hot toast
+ a sprinkle of salt. It was the little brown bits ( baked meat juices)
that gave dripping its flavour and as a subsitute for butter was a staple
food of English families until recently ...................... and is even
indulgged from time to time by some of us yet!

Suet for Christmas pudding is Beef Suet. I have never heard of mutton suet
myself and am fairly sure that all suet ( still) sold is from beef.
When I was a student in Göttingen I searched the butcher shops for suet to
make a real Christmas Pudding with and eventually in one shop a sweet old
lady interrupted my conversation with the butcher and recalled how asa
child they had used Nierenfett to make puddings with. It is a very pure
form of fat from, as the German says, round the kidneys. It makes the
pudding v v light indeed. It is also used for Steak and Kidney Pie (boiled)
 and produces a kind of soft pastry.   I have also used it to make proper
pastry with for meat pies (baked) and it is delicious ........ pity that it
is so high in calories!

Mmmmm my mouth is watering.

Heather

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Delectables

Ah, thanks, Healther for bringing some clarity into these fog-filled
memories!  Much obliged.

I just called one of my friends that regularly makes plumpudding, and she
confirmed that it is beef suet she and others use, and that that mutton suet
thing was "silly."  I'm not sure where that mutton suet came from, but I
think I got it mixed up with my mother using that in certain dishes.  I
don't know why she did, if it was something our eastern forebears had handed
down (with all those other horrible dishes she and her mother cooked --
bless their sweet souls) or if it was because of the vicinity of the
Lunenburg Health with its _Schnucken_ shepherding.  All I really remember is
that mutton fat is pretty icky once it's cooled down, leaving a sticky film
on your palate ...

The mutton thing could have also been fed by lamb and mutton being more
widely used in Britain and Australia than in northern continental Europe.
When I first visited London, at a very tender age, staying in a lower
middle-class area somewhere between Battersey Park and Croydon, everything
seemed to smell of lamb/mutton to me for the first few days, later again in
Australia.

Pie was another interesting experience, first in Britain, then in Australia
and finally in the United States.  It took me decades to wrap my mind around
that concept.  Since my first experiences involved fruit and cream pies, and
pie is made from dough and is baked, I had filed "pie" away under the broad
category of "cake" in my mind, and it was hard for me to shake that off,
driving my wife nuts with my "that cake thing you made, what's its name ..."
even after having been thoroughly exposed to Australian steak and kidney pie
for donkey years.  I am cured off this now, I'm happy to report.  Pie is
pie.  So there!  And I make a mean rustic rhubarb pie myself.  To die for.
:-)  I just saw this year's new rhubarb crop for sale at the stores.  Time
for rhubarb cake ... uh, ... pie!

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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