re umra passim

The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...

Sunday Times 24 December 2023

In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t referred
to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they ended up being
popularly known. A British icon was born.

Fast-forward 33 years and, like an Orwellian nightmare, these slumbering
swine are dominating the festive period. Whatever your Christmas dinner
preferences, turkey, duck or chicken, carrots or sprouts or red cabbage,
one thing is non-negotiable: the ubiquitous pigs in blankets.

These miniature sausages wrapped in bacon were once a mere trimming, the
turkey’s seasonal sidekick, but these days the dish has come to command
proceedings. In fact, their quest for world domination doesn’t stop at
Christmas.

Supermarkets have made them a staple, accompanying Sunday roasts even in
summer. You’ll regularly find them as a small plates option on gastropub
menus around the country.

But the madness doesn’t stop there. Britain has fallen so head over
heels for pigs in blankets that you can now buy “PIB” flavoured crisps,
vapes, roasted nuts and (confusingly) chicken nuggets. And, inevitably,
you can get PIB ice cream too. Last week, Yorvale’s pigs in
blankets-flavoured gelato went on sale at Aldi. When I tried it, there
were top notes of smoky bacon with a not-totally-unpleasant sweet
aftertaste. I went back for more. “I had to run out and get some chewing
gum,” was one colleague’s verdict after trying it.

ADVERTISEMENT

The experts are not so sure about perennial PIBs. “There’s a time and a
place for pigs in blankets,” says the Sunday Times Magazine’s restaurant
critic, Charlotte Ivers. “But I’m not convinced that place is ice cream,
or that time is all year round.”

It’s unusual for a festive food to break out of its Christmas shackles
in this way. Devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and brie and
cranberry parcels rarely show their faces outside of the festive season.
But something about the naughty decadence of double pork, the softness
of the sausage contrasted with the crunch of bacon, has proven totally
irresistible.

But aren’t we supposed to be eating less meat in this environmentally
conscious, flexitarian era? In fact, despite the prominence of veganism
and pleas for carnivores to cut down, meat is back on the menu. It was
recently reported that Brits ate an average of 61kg of meat a year in
2022, compared with 55kg in 2012.

Butchers and cash-waving punters put their all into the Christmas meat
auction at Smithfield Market, held for the first time since the pandemic
in London on Saturday

On the last Wednesday before Christmas, you couldn’t get a pig in
blanket for love nor money in London’s Borough Market. At the Ginger Pig
butchers, burly blokes in flat caps were chopping up every cut of meat
imaginable. Tim Wilson, who founded the Ginger Pig, says that his
butchers make 26,000 individual pigs in blankets by hand over Christmas,
which equates to 1.75 tonnes of meat.

But in his Borough Market branch, there weren’t any on display. I asked
one stressed-looking butcher if they have any in the back and he looked
at me as if I’d just landed from Mars. “Not a chance,” he said. “Try at
the end of the week, we might have some left over from orders.” He
didn’t seem hopeful.

“We sell a lot of sausages and a lot of bacon but somehow when we put
the two together it’s the magic formula,” said Gary Core of the
Guildford Butchery in Surrey. “It’s almost a cardinal sin to eat
Christmas dinner without one.”

Looking at the data, Google searches for “pigs in blankets” have
increased steadily over the years, with searches almost doubling between
2014-15. There are spikes at Christmas but in recent years, searches are
starting to spike in spring, too. The PIBs are coming for Easter Sunday too.

STR.PIGS_IN_BLANKETS.24.12.23.R
When it comes to the secret of creating the perfect pig in blanket, Core
says that less is more — you have to keep it simple. He sources
high-welfare pork from a variety of farms in the Surrey Hills. “We add
some salt and pepper and we use a natural skin casing,” he said. “You
can use a synthetic collagen-based skin but we’ve had terrible feedback
from customers.”

The butchers’ pigs in blankets are so popular that they have imposed
limits on them before. “Our packs of 12 often sell out,” he said. “We’ve
had people ordering 100 at a time.”

Isn’t all this processed pork terrifically unhealthy though? “A proper
pig in a proper blanket — eaten in moderation — I am all for, because
it’s Christmas,” said the nutritionist Stephanie Moore. Pork and other
red meat contains carcinogens and eating a lot can increase your risk of
cancer.

Moore believes that pork is unfairly demonised as an unhealthy meat but
it contains monounsaturated fats — the kind we get in avocados or olive
oil. But with an average pig in blanket weighing in at about 280
calories, moderating how much of that delicious fatty pig you consume is
essential.

Moore also draws the line when it comes to pigs in blankets flavoured
ice cream or crisps. “First of all, sugar in a savoury snack is
absolutely bonkers — then you’re adding all of these artificial
flavourings,” she said. A high fat/high sugar combination is a bad idea
for all sorts of health reasons and can cause “havoc in the body”
including inflammation, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels
and, of course, the dreaded festive weight gain.

Given our growing aversion to ultra-processed food, now might not be the
time to indulge too heavily in pigs in blankets nuts or crisps. “As soon
as you start playing silly buggers with these flavours and creating this
Frankenstein food you’re just adding more bad on top of bad,” said
Moore. “It makes me despair.”

Still, it’s Christmas, so there’s no harm in raising a glass to Delia
and indulging in a sleeping pig or two. Maybe just go easy on the pork
ice cream.

Additional reporting: Marjorie Ewart

THBAPSA

--
Kate B

In message <kuqmf1Fr95uU1@mid.individual.net> at Sun, 24 Dec 2023
12:28:18, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>re umra passim
>
>The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>
>Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>
>In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
>recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
>wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
>at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t
>referred to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they
>ended up being popularly known. A British icon was born.

My mum certainly served them at cocktail parties in the '70s and
possibly '60s; I can't remember whether she called them that, though I
think so. I also can't remember them being specific to any particular
season, though they might have been.
[]
>It’s unusual for a festive food to break out of its Christmas
>shackles in this way. Devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and
>brie and cranberry parcels rarely show their faces outside of the
>festive season. But something about the naughty decadence of double
>pork, the softness of the sausage contrasted with the crunch of bacon,
>has proven totally irresistible.

There's a reason for some seasonalities. I'm not sure about cranberries
- are they a winter fruit? - but I didn't think pork - either form - was
particularly seasonal.
[]
>Moore believes that pork is unfairly demonised as an unhealthy meat but
>it contains monounsaturated fats — the kind we get in avocados or
>olive

Interesting; so as well as being cheaper than most other meats, ...
[]
>Given our growing aversion to ultra-processed food, now might not be
>the time to indulge too heavily in pigs in blankets nuts or crisps. “As

I have noticed - or, become more aware of - increasing silly marketing
of crisp flavours; by the time they've become the powder that's added to
crisps, most things are far from their origin anyway. Cheese and onion
is now likely to be "Stilton and spring onion", beef "steak and ale",
even salt and vinegar "sea salt and xxx vinegar"; since they almost
certainly include the universal weasel-word "flavour" in the
description, I doubt there's any difference. Since both parts of PIB are
of pig origin, I'd be surprised if "PIB" crisps are any different from
what used to be called bacon flavour. But they're all sold in black
packaging (seems to be this decade's shorthand for "quality"), at a
higher price. (Oh, and "hand-cooked", as often as not.)
[]
>Still, it’s Christmas, so there’s no harm in raising a glass to
>Delia and indulging in a sleeping pig or two. Maybe just go easy on the
>pork ice cream.
[]
No PIBs here - I like them, but just didn't occur to buy any. Plus I
think they probably can't be microwaved, and I don't like things that
have to be ovened, just for me. I'd decided I would have something such
anyway for tomorrow, and selected beef brisket - but then reading the
box discovered that can be microwaved too, so that's nice!

(Actually, I grill almost anything that's supposed to be ovened anyway,
if I can't figure out a way to microwave it. I've not used my oven since
I replaced the combination after the 2020 fire, and don't think I'd used
it before that either!)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

half the lies they tell about me aren't true. - Yogi Berra

On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:28:18 +0000, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk>
wrote:

>re umra passim
>
>The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>
snipped lots

A better pork dish is what we had on Friday from Asda
https://groceries.asda.com/product/bistro-by-asda/bistro-by-asda-slow-cooked-crackling-pork-belly-490-g/1000383192953

with potatoes roasted in duck fat and cauliflower cheese. It was a
really very tasty meal.

On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 13:24:04 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver"
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

>In message <kuqmf1Fr95uU1@mid.individual.net> at Sun, 24 Dec 2023
>12:28:18, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>>re umra passim
>>
>>The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>>us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>>surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>>
>>Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>>
>>In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
>>recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
>>wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
>>at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t
>>referred to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they
>>ended up being popularly known. A British icon was born.
>
>My mum certainly served them at cocktail parties in the '70s and
>possibly '60s; I can't remember whether she called them that, though I
>think so. I also can't remember them being specific to any particular
>season, though they might have been.
>[]
>>It’s unusual for a festive food to break out of its Christmas
>>shackles in this way. Devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and
>>brie and cranberry parcels rarely show their faces outside of the
>>festive season. But something about the naughty decadence of double
>>pork, the softness of the sausage contrasted with the crunch of bacon,
>>has proven totally irresistible.
>
>There's a reason for some seasonalities. I'm not sure about cranberries
>- are they a winter fruit? - but I didn't think pork - either form - was
>particularly seasonal.
>[]
>>Moore believes that pork is unfairly demonised as an unhealthy meat but
>>it contains monounsaturated fats — the kind we get in avocados or
>>olive
>
>Interesting; so as well as being cheaper than most other meats, ...
>[]
>>Given our growing aversion to ultra-processed food, now might not be
>>the time to indulge too heavily in pigs in blankets nuts or crisps. “As
>
>I have noticed - or, become more aware of - increasing silly marketing
>of crisp flavours; by the time they've become the powder that's added to
>crisps, most things are far from their origin anyway. Cheese and onion
>is now likely to be "Stilton and spring onion", beef "steak and ale",
>even salt and vinegar "sea salt and xxx vinegar"; since they almost
>certainly include the universal weasel-word "flavour" in the
>description, I doubt there's any difference. Since both parts of PIB are
>of pig origin, I'd be surprised if "PIB" crisps are any different from
>what used to be called bacon flavour. But they're all sold in black
>packaging (seems to be this decade's shorthand for "quality"), at a
>higher price. (Oh, and "hand-cooked", as often as not.)
>[]
>>Still, it’s Christmas, so there’s no harm in raising a glass to
>>Delia and indulging in a sleeping pig or two. Maybe just go easy on the
>>pork ice cream.
>[]
>No PIBs here - I like them, but just didn't occur to buy any.

Nor here. Another ready meal tomorrow, from Sainsburys
Gressingham bistro duck with orange and maple sauce, red cabbage and
mash. No Turkey :). Capt Ex made the best turkey. Stuffed with rice,
sultanas, giblets and things. Good the next day too.

Vicky <vicky.ayech@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 13:24:04 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver"
> <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
>
>> In message <kuqmf1Fr95uU1@mid.individual.net> at Sun, 24 Dec 2023
>> 12:28:18, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk> writes
>>> re umra passim
>>>
>>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>>> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>>> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>>>
>>> Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>>>
>>> In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
>>> recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
>>> wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
>>> at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t
>>> referred to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they
>>> ended up being popularly known. A British icon was born.
>>
>> My mum certainly served them at cocktail parties in the '70s and
>> possibly '60s; I can't remember whether she called them that, though I
>> think so. I also can't remember them being specific to any particular
>> season, though they might have been.
>> []
>>> It’s unusual for a festive food to break out of its Christmas
>>> shackles in this way. Devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and
>>> brie and cranberry parcels rarely show their faces outside of the
>>> festive season. But something about the naughty decadence of double
>>> pork, the softness of the sausage contrasted with the crunch of bacon,
>>> has proven totally irresistible.
>>
>> There's a reason for some seasonalities. I'm not sure about cranberries
>> - are they a winter fruit? - but I didn't think pork - either form - was
>> particularly seasonal.
>> []
>>> Moore believes that pork is unfairly demonised as an unhealthy meat but
>>> it contains monounsaturated fats — the kind we get in avocados or
>>> olive
>>
>> Interesting; so as well as being cheaper than most other meats, ...
>> []
>>> Given our growing aversion to ultra-processed food, now might not be
>>> the time to indulge too heavily in pigs in blankets nuts or crisps. “As
>>
>> I have noticed - or, become more aware of - increasing silly marketing
>> of crisp flavours; by the time they've become the powder that's added to
>> crisps, most things are far from their origin anyway. Cheese and onion
>> is now likely to be "Stilton and spring onion", beef "steak and ale",
>> even salt and vinegar "sea salt and xxx vinegar"; since they almost
>> certainly include the universal weasel-word "flavour" in the
>> description, I doubt there's any difference. Since both parts of PIB are
>> of pig origin, I'd be surprised if "PIB" crisps are any different from
>> what used to be called bacon flavour. But they're all sold in black
>> packaging (seems to be this decade's shorthand for "quality"), at a
>> higher price. (Oh, and "hand-cooked", as often as not.)
>> []
>>> Still, it’s Christmas, so there’s no harm in raising a glass to
>>> Delia and indulging in a sleeping pig or two. Maybe just go easy on the
>>> pork ice cream.
>> []
>> No PIBs here - I like them, but just didn't occur to buy any.
>
> Nor here. Another ready meal tomorrow, from Sainsburys
> Gressingham bistro duck with orange and maple sauce, red cabbage and
> mash. No Turkey :). Capt Ex made the best turkey. Stuffed with rice,
> sultanas, giblets and things. Good the next day too.
>

No wonder you describe him as X’ then, still, sounds like he went down
well. (Burp. ‘Scuse me!)

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

Vicky <vicky.ayech@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:28:18 +0000, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> re umra passim
>>
>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>>
> snipped lots
>
> A better pork dish is what we had on Friday from Asda
> https://groceries.asda.com/product/bistro-by-asda/bistro-by-asda-slow-cooked-crackling-pork-belly-490-g/1000383192953
>
> with potatoes roasted in duck fat and cauliflower cheese. It was a
> really very tasty meal.
>

I shall be slow-cooking-then roasting to finish, a beef roasting joint.
There will be parsnips and potatoes roasted in the air fryer, carrot and
swede boiled with herbs, then mashed and baked, steamed carrots too along
with Brussels sprouts, peas and gravy. Chris McT has made a microwave
cooked Xmas pudding for afters. We are sharing this all with a Chinese
family we first got to know when the now-mother was a student at Bulmershe
College / University of Reading and I helped in her studies on numerous
occasions.

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> re umra passim
>
> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>
> Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>
> In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
> recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
> wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon.

We heard this discussed on DID with Delia this morning. But nothing about
ice cream!

Mrs McT

On 24/12/2023 12:28, Kate B wrote:
> re umra passim
>
> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>
> Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>
> In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
> recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
> wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
> at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t referred
> to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they ended up being
> popularly known. A British icon was born.
>
> Fast-forward 33 years and, like an Orwellian nightmare, these slumbering
> swine are dominating the festive period. Whatever your Christmas dinner
> preferences, turkey, duck or chicken, carrots or sprouts or red cabbage,
> one thing is non-negotiable: the ubiquitous pigs in blankets.
>
> These miniature sausages wrapped in bacon were once a mere trimming, the
> turkey’s seasonal sidekick, but these days the dish has come to command
> proceedings. In fact, their quest for world domination doesn’t stop at
> Christmas.
>
> Supermarkets have made them a staple, accompanying Sunday roasts even in
> summer. You’ll regularly find them as a small plates option on gastropub
> menus around the country.
>
> But the madness doesn’t stop there. Britain has fallen so head over
> heels for pigs in blankets that you can now buy “PIB” flavoured crisps,
> vapes, roasted nuts and (confusingly) chicken nuggets. And, inevitably,
> you can get PIB ice cream too. Last week, Yorvale’s pigs in
> blankets-flavoured gelato went on sale at Aldi. When I tried it, there
> were top notes of smoky bacon with a not-totally-unpleasant sweet
> aftertaste. I went back for more. “I had to run out and get some chewing
> gum,” was one colleague’s verdict after trying it.
>
> ADVERTISEMENT
>
> The experts are not so sure about perennial PIBs. “There’s a time and a
> place for pigs in blankets,” says the Sunday Times Magazine’s restaurant
> critic, Charlotte Ivers. “But I’m not convinced that place is ice cream,
> or that time is all year round.”
>
> It’s unusual for a festive food to break out of its Christmas shackles
> in this way. Devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and brie and
> cranberry parcels rarely show their faces outside of the festive season.
> But something about the naughty decadence of double pork, the softness
> of the sausage contrasted with the crunch of bacon, has proven totally
> irresistible.
>
> But aren’t we supposed to be eating less meat in this environmentally
> conscious, flexitarian era? In fact, despite the prominence of veganism
> and pleas for carnivores to cut down, meat is back on the menu. It was
> recently reported that Brits ate an average of 61kg of meat a year in
> 2022, compared with 55kg in 2012.
>
> Butchers and cash-waving punters put their all into the Christmas meat
> auction at Smithfield Market, held for the first time since the pandemic
> in London on Saturday
>
> On the last Wednesday before Christmas, you couldn’t get a pig in
> blanket for love nor money in London’s Borough Market. At the Ginger Pig
> butchers, burly blokes in flat caps were chopping up every cut of meat
> imaginable. Tim Wilson, who founded the Ginger Pig, says that his
> butchers make 26,000 individual pigs in blankets by hand over Christmas,
> which equates to 1.75 tonnes of meat.
>
> But in his Borough Market branch, there weren’t any on display. I asked
> one stressed-looking butcher if they have any in the back and he looked
> at me as if I’d just landed from Mars. “Not a chance,” he said. “Try at
> the end of the week, we might have some left over from orders.” He
> didn’t seem hopeful.
>
> “We sell a lot of sausages and a lot of bacon but somehow when we put
> the two together it’s the magic formula,” said Gary Core of the
> Guildford Butchery in Surrey. “It’s almost a cardinal sin to eat
> Christmas dinner without one.”
>
> Looking at the data, Google searches for “pigs in blankets” have
> increased steadily over the years, with searches almost doubling between
> 2014-15. There are spikes at Christmas but in recent years, searches are
> starting to spike in spring, too. The PIBs are coming for Easter Sunday
> too.
>
> STR.PIGS_IN_BLANKETS.24.12.23.R
> When it comes to the secret of creating the perfect pig in blanket, Core
> says that less is more — you have to keep it simple. He sources
> high-welfare pork from a variety of farms in the Surrey Hills. “We add
> some salt and pepper and we use a natural skin casing,” he said. “You
> can use a synthetic collagen-based skin but we’ve had terrible feedback
> from customers.”
>
> The butchers’ pigs in blankets are so popular that they have imposed
> limits on them before. “Our packs of 12 often sell out,” he said. “We’ve
> had people ordering 100 at a time.”
>
> Isn’t all this processed pork terrifically unhealthy though? “A proper
> pig in a proper blanket — eaten in moderation — I am all for, because
> it’s Christmas,” said the nutritionist Stephanie Moore. Pork and other
> red meat contains carcinogens and eating a lot can increase your risk of
> cancer.
>
> Moore believes that pork is unfairly demonised as an unhealthy meat but
> it contains monounsaturated fats — the kind we get in avocados or olive
> oil. But with an average pig in blanket weighing in at about 280
> calories, moderating how much of that delicious fatty pig you consume is
> essential.
>
> Moore also draws the line when it comes to pigs in blankets flavoured
> ice cream or crisps. “First of all, sugar in a savoury snack is
> absolutely bonkers — then you’re adding all of these artificial
> flavourings,” she said. A high fat/high sugar combination is a bad idea
> for all sorts of health reasons and can cause “havoc in the body”
> including inflammation, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels
> and, of course, the dreaded festive weight gain.
>
> Given our growing aversion to ultra-processed food, now might not be the
> time to indulge too heavily in pigs in blankets nuts or crisps. “As soon
> as you start playing silly buggers with these flavours and creating this
> Frankenstein food you’re just adding more bad on top of bad,” said
> Moore. “It makes me despair.”
>
> Still, it’s Christmas, so there’s no harm in raising a glass to Delia
> and indulging in a sleeping pig or two. Maybe just go easy on the pork
> ice cream.
>
> Additional reporting: Marjorie Ewart
>
> THBAPSA
>
>

ISTT that WIWAL PIB were chipolata (rather than cocktail) sausages
wrapped in cheese pastry which looks a lot more like a Witney blanket
than a thin layer of streaky.

john

John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On 24/12/2023 12:28, Kate B wrote:
>> re umra passim
>>
>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>>
>> Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>>
>> In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
>> recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
>> wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
>> at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t referred
>> to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they ended up being
>> popularly known. A British icon was born.
>>
>> Fast-forward 33 years and, like an Orwellian nightmare, these slumbering
>> swine are dominating the festive period. Whatever your Christmas dinner
>> preferences, turkey, duck or chicken, carrots or sprouts or red cabbage,
>> one thing is non-negotiable: the ubiquitous pigs in blankets.
>>
>> These miniature sausages wrapped in bacon were once a mere trimming, the
>> turkey’s seasonal sidekick, but these days the dish has come to command
>> proceedings. In fact, their quest for world domination doesn’t stop at
>> Christmas.
>>
>> Supermarkets have made them a staple, accompanying Sunday roasts even in
>> summer. You’ll regularly find them as a small plates option on gastropub
>> menus around the country.
>>
>> But the madness doesn’t stop there. Britain has fallen so head over
>> heels for pigs in blankets that you can now buy “PIB” flavoured crisps,
>> vapes, roasted nuts and (confusingly) chicken nuggets. And, inevitably,
>> you can get PIB ice cream too. Last week, Yorvale’s pigs in
>> blankets-flavoured gelato went on sale at Aldi. When I tried it, there
>> were top notes of smoky bacon with a not-totally-unpleasant sweet
>> aftertaste. I went back for more. “I had to run out and get some chewing
>> gum,” was one colleague’s verdict after trying it.
>>
>> ADVERTISEMENT
>>
>> The experts are not so sure about perennial PIBs. “There’s a time and a
>> place for pigs in blankets,” says the Sunday Times Magazine’s restaurant
>> critic, Charlotte Ivers. “But I’m not convinced that place is ice cream,
>> or that time is all year round.”
>>
>> It’s unusual for a festive food to break out of its Christmas shackles
>> in this way. Devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and brie and
>> cranberry parcels rarely show their faces outside of the festive season.
>> But something about the naughty decadence of double pork, the softness
>> of the sausage contrasted with the crunch of bacon, has proven totally
>> irresistible.
>>
>> But aren’t we supposed to be eating less meat in this environmentally
>> conscious, flexitarian era? In fact, despite the prominence of veganism
>> and pleas for carnivores to cut down, meat is back on the menu. It was
>> recently reported that Brits ate an average of 61kg of meat a year in
>> 2022, compared with 55kg in 2012.
>>
>> Butchers and cash-waving punters put their all into the Christmas meat
>> auction at Smithfield Market, held for the first time since the pandemic
>> in London on Saturday
>>
>> On the last Wednesday before Christmas, you couldn’t get a pig in
>> blanket for love nor money in London’s Borough Market. At the Ginger Pig
>> butchers, burly blokes in flat caps were chopping up every cut of meat
>> imaginable. Tim Wilson, who founded the Ginger Pig, says that his
>> butchers make 26,000 individual pigs in blankets by hand over Christmas,
>> which equates to 1.75 tonnes of meat.
>>
>> But in his Borough Market branch, there weren’t any on display. I asked
>> one stressed-looking butcher if they have any in the back and he looked
>> at me as if I’d just landed from Mars. “Not a chance,” he said. “Try at
>> the end of the week, we might have some left over from orders.” He
>> didn’t seem hopeful.
>>
>> “We sell a lot of sausages and a lot of bacon but somehow when we put
>> the two together it’s the magic formula,” said Gary Core of the
>> Guildford Butchery in Surrey. “It’s almost a cardinal sin to eat
>> Christmas dinner without one.”
>>
>> Looking at the data, Google searches for “pigs in blankets” have
>> increased steadily over the years, with searches almost doubling between
>> 2014-15. There are spikes at Christmas but in recent years, searches are
>> starting to spike in spring, too. The PIBs are coming for Easter Sunday
>> too.
>>
>> STR.PIGS_IN_BLANKETS.24.12.23.R
>> When it comes to the secret of creating the perfect pig in blanket, Core
>> says that less is more — you have to keep it simple. He sources
>> high-welfare pork from a variety of farms in the Surrey Hills. “We add
>> some salt and pepper and we use a natural skin casing,” he said. “You
>> can use a synthetic collagen-based skin but we’ve had terrible feedback
>> from customers.”
>>
>> The butchers’ pigs in blankets are so popular that they have imposed
>> limits on them before. “Our packs of 12 often sell out,” he said. “We’ve
>> had people ordering 100 at a time.”
>>
>> Isn’t all this processed pork terrifically unhealthy though? “A proper
>> pig in a proper blanket — eaten in moderation — I am all for, because
>> it’s Christmas,” said the nutritionist Stephanie Moore. Pork and other
>> red meat contains carcinogens and eating a lot can increase your risk of
>> cancer.
>>
>> Moore believes that pork is unfairly demonised as an unhealthy meat but
>> it contains monounsaturated fats — the kind we get in avocados or olive
>> oil. But with an average pig in blanket weighing in at about 280
>> calories, moderating how much of that delicious fatty pig you consume is
>> essential.
>>
>> Moore also draws the line when it comes to pigs in blankets flavoured
>> ice cream or crisps. “First of all, sugar in a savoury snack is
>> absolutely bonkers — then you’re adding all of these artificial
>> flavourings,” she said. A high fat/high sugar combination is a bad idea
>> for all sorts of health reasons and can cause “havoc in the body”
>> including inflammation, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels
>> and, of course, the dreaded festive weight gain.
>>
>> Given our growing aversion to ultra-processed food, now might not be the
>> time to indulge too heavily in pigs in blankets nuts or crisps. “As soon
>> as you start playing silly buggers with these flavours and creating this
>> Frankenstein food you’re just adding more bad on top of bad,” said
>> Moore. “It makes me despair.”
>>
>> Still, it’s Christmas, so there’s no harm in raising a glass to Delia
>> and indulging in a sleeping pig or two. Maybe just go easy on the pork
>> ice cream.
>>
>> Additional reporting: Marjorie Ewart
>>
>> THBAPSA
>>
>>
>
> ISTT that WIWAL PIB were chipolata (rather than cocktail) sausages
> wrapped in cheese pastry which looks a lot more like a Witney blanket
> than a thin layer of streaky.
>
> john
>

Do they have them in Houston?

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On 24/12/2023 14:47, John Ashby wrote:
> On 24/12/2023 12:28, Kate B wrote:
>> re umra passim
>>
>> <sniperoo>
>
> ISTT that WIWAL PIB were chipolata (rather than cocktail) sausages
> wrapped in cheese pastry which looks a lot more like a Witney blanket
> than a thin layer of streaky.
>
Would you prefer to hide your sausage in streaky bacon (down Lord
Cameron), cheesy pastry (if it wasn't cheesy before it probably would be
afterwards) or a Witney blanket ?

Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> re umra passim
>
> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...

We definitely had cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon as a part of Christmas
dinner in the 1970s. We equally definitely did not call them “pigs in
blankets.” Indeed I first became aware of that term in its American
version, which are wieners wrapped in biscuits (the breakfast quick bread,
not cookies) but these are apparently “pigs in a blanket” which is
obviously totally different.

On 24/12/2023 15:00, Wenlock wrote:
> Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> re umra passim
>>
>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>
> We definitely had cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon as a part of Christmas
> dinner in the 1970s. We equally definitely did not call them “pigs in
> blankets.” Indeed I first became aware of that term in its American
> version, which are wieners wrapped in biscuits (the breakfast quick bread,
> not cookies) but these are apparently “pigs in a blanket” which is
> obviously totally different.
>
>
They definitely didn't exist when I was a lad. I probably didn't get to
actually taste anything that decadent and frivolous until I had a hand
in shopping and cooking in the mid '80s.

I saw somebody advertising Pigs in Duvets. Possibly M&S. They might have
been vegan pigs in vegan duvets.

--
Ric

Joe Kerr <joe_kerr@cheerful.com> wrote:
> On 24/12/2023 15:00, Wenlock wrote:
>> Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>> re umra passim
>>>
>>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>>> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>>> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>>
>> We definitely had cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon as a part of Christmas
>> dinner in the 1970s. We equally definitely did not call them “pigs in
>> blankets.” Indeed I first became aware of that term in its American
>> version, which are wieners wrapped in biscuits (the breakfast quick bread,
>> not cookies) but these are apparently “pigs in a blanket” which is
>> obviously totally different.
>>
>>
> They definitely didn't exist when I was a lad. I probably didn't get to
> actually taste anything that decadent and frivolous until I had a hand
> in shopping and cooking in the mid '80s.
>
> I saw somebody advertising Pigs in Duvets. Possibly M&S. They might have
> been vegan pigs in vegan duvets.
>

Eider that or something down market.

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On 24/12/2023 14:55, BrritSki wrote:
> On 24/12/2023 14:47, John Ashby wrote:
>> On 24/12/2023 12:28, Kate B wrote:
>>> re umra passim
>>>
>>> <sniperoo>
>>
>> ISTT that WIWAL PIB were chipolata (rather than cocktail) sausages
>> wrapped in cheese pastry which looks a lot more like a Witney blanket
>> than a thin layer of streaky.
>>
> Would you prefer to hide your sausage in streaky bacon (down Lord
> Cameron), cheesy pastry (if it wasn't cheesy before it probably would be
> afterwards) or a Witney blanket ?
>

Why is the word "smegma" reverberating in my brain?

john

John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On 24/12/2023 14:55, BrritSki wrote:
>> On 24/12/2023 14:47, John Ashby wrote:
>>> On 24/12/2023 12:28, Kate B wrote:
>>>> re umra passim
>>>>
>>>> <sniperoo>
>>>
>>> ISTT that WIWAL PIB were chipolata (rather than cocktail) sausages
>>> wrapped in cheese pastry which looks a lot more like a Witney blanket
>>> than a thin layer of streaky.
>>>
>> Would you prefer to hide your sausage in streaky bacon (down Lord
>> Cameron), cheesy pastry (if it wasn't cheesy before it probably would be
>> afterwards) or a Witney blanket ?
>>
>
> Why is the word "smegma" reverberating in my brain?
>
> john
>

It’ll come to you…

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 14:22:23 -0000 (UTC), Mike McMillan
<toodle.pip1@virginmedia.com> wrote:

>Vicky <vicky.ayech@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:28:18 +0000, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> re umra passim
>>>
>>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>>> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>>> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>>>
>> snipped lots
>>
>> A better pork dish is what we had on Friday from Asda
>> https://groceries.asda.com/product/bistro-by-asda/bistro-by-asda-slow-cooked-crackling-pork-belly-490-g/1000383192953
>>
>> with potatoes roasted in duck fat and cauliflower cheese. It was a
>> really very tasty meal.
>>
>
>I shall be slow-cooking-then roasting to finish, a beef roasting joint.
>There will be parsnips and potatoes roasted in the air fryer, carrot and

Unfortunately B hates parsnips. And we both hate swedes.

>swede boiled with herbs, then mashed and baked, steamed carrots too along
>with Brussels sprouts, peas and gravy. Chris McT has made a microwave
>cooked Xmas pudding for afters. We are sharing this all with a Chinese
>family we first got to know when the now-mother was a student at Bulmershe
>College / University of Reading and I helped in her studies on numerous
>occasions.
And he doesn't like Christmas pud either. But he got the breadmaker
out today and baked fresh bread as he wants bacon sandwiches fot
Christmas breakfast and I had B&B and jam fot coffee time, so he's
ahead on points. Freshly baked bread, butter and jam, simple but good.

Mike McMillan <toodle.pip1@virginmedia.com> wrote:
> John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> On 24/12/2023 14:55, BrritSki wrote:
>>> On 24/12/2023 14:47, John Ashby wrote:
>>>> On 24/12/2023 12:28, Kate B wrote:
>>>>> re umra passim
>>>>>
>>>>> <sniperoo>
>>>>
>>>> ISTT that WIWAL PIB were chipolata (rather than cocktail) sausages
>>>> wrapped in cheese pastry which looks a lot more like a Witney blanket
>>>> than a thin layer of streaky.
>>>>
>>> Would you prefer to hide your sausage in streaky bacon (down Lord
>>> Cameron), cheesy pastry (if it wasn't cheesy before it probably would be
>>> afterwards) or a Witney blanket ?
>>>
>>
>> Why is the word "smegma" reverberating in my brain?
>>
>> john
>>
>
> It’ll come to you…
>

Many years ago, we had a family gathering at which I had prepared jacket
potatoes as one dish. Some of us like the skins - others are not so fussed
- I like them! I think I had two smallish potatoes and two other larger
potatoes had been picked by other eaters who don’t care for the skins, so
they were donated to my plate. Oh! I said, I have four skins now!….

--
Toodle Pip, Mike McMillan

On 24-Dec-23 13:43, Vicky wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:28:18 +0000, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> re umra passim
>>
>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>> us remembered them in our youth. As for pigs in blankets icecream, I'm
>> surprised Tom Archer hasn't foisted that on the dairy...
>>
> snipped lots
>
> A better pork dish is what we had on Friday from Asda
> https://groceries.asda.com/product/bistro-by-asda/bistro-by-asda-slow-cooked-crackling-pork-belly-490-g/1000383192953
>
> with potatoes roasted in duck fat and cauliflower cheese. It was a
> really very tasty meal.

We both like pork belly, but the very high fat content tends to cause
some regrets afterwards.

--
Sam Plusnet

On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:28:18 +0000, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk>
scrawled in the dust...

>re umra passim
>
>The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>us remembered them in our youth.

I heard that nonsense on the radio this morning. My mother certainly served
sausages wrapped in bacon in the '50s. 'Making' her own, of course, as I
do, with carefully stretched bacon so it clung to the sausage. More bread
and less meat in the sausages back then - a way to stretch the meal with
cheap ingredients.

>Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>
>In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
>recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
>wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
>at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t referred
>to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they ended up being
>popularly known. A British icon was born.

Not sure when I first saw them ready wrapped in the shops.

I like pork-based stuffing too, particularly with chestnuts, but don't make
my own these days so have to rely upon whatever strange concoctions I can
find in the shops. I couldn't find chestnut this year, just sage and onion
(which I've never liked) or apple and cranberry. I had some this evening
(froze the rest as balls) and it was horribly sweet. I thought cranberry
was sharp, not sweet - why add honey?
--
Penny
Annoyed by The Archers since 1959

"J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:

> There's a reason for some seasonalities. I'm not sure about
> cranberries - are they a winter fruit? - but I didn't think pork -
> either form - was particularly seasonal.

Cranberries come with turkeys, and turkeys came here with Dickens, who'd
been to America and no doubt been entertained to Thanksgiving
Dinner. The story of Thanksgiving varies but Mary's (my ex, whom
somerats will have met at a McToodles BBQ) version is that the local
Algonquin Indians helped the new settlers in Massachusetts in their
first year, showing them how to grow corn (maize), forage for
cranberries, and catch wild turkeys. So the first Thanksgiving dinner,
thanking the Algonquin for their help, centred on roast turkey,
cranberry sauce and and corn bread.

Remember that these settlers were not puritans, they were people who
thought the puritans were too wishy-washy and dangerously close to
popery. People who went first to Leiden in the Netherlands and left
there in disgust because the church there wouldn't bend to their
will. People who hated to the death anybody who diverged from their one
true path. By the second winter the settlers had killed all the local
Algonquin. But they still ate turkey, cranberries and cornbread for
Thanksgiving dinner at the beginning of winter.

But I digress, Dickens came home and started writing Martin Chuzzlewit
based on his transpondian experiences. It was not one of his monuments,
to say the least. It sold poorly. Charles was getting a little bit
desperate. He came up with a wheeze for a short book, elegently
presented, that could be written quickly and published in time for the
Christmas market. He was right, A Christmas Carol made him a small
mint. And it ended with perhaps the first reference to a Christmas
turkey in all literature. And cranberries grow here too, although they
are a different species. We didn't really have the wherewithal then for
cornbread.

Rosie

In message <um9soq$2lprm$1@dont-email.me> at Sun, 24 Dec 2023 18:20:10,
Mike McMillan <toodle.pip1@virginmedia.com> writes
>Mike McMillan <toodle.pip1@virginmedia.com> wrote:
>> John Ashby <johnashby20@yahoo.com> wrote:
[]
>>> Why is the word "smegma" reverberating in my brain?
>>>
>>> john
>>>
>>
>> It’ll come to you…
>>
(-:
>
>Many years ago, we had a family gathering at which I had prepared jacket
>potatoes as one dish. Some of us like the skins - others are not so fussed
>- I like them! I think I had two smallish potatoes and two other larger
>potatoes had been picked by other eaters who don’t care for the skins, so
>they were donated to my plate. Oh! I said, I have four skins now!….
>
Oy vey!
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Radio 4 is the civilising influence in this country ... I think it is the most
important institution in this country. - John Humphrys, Radio Times
7-13/06/2003

In message <874jg7733d.fsf@golgonooza.co.uk> at Sun, 24 Dec 2023
20:33:26, Rosie Mitchell <rcmitchell@golgonooza.co.uk> writes
>"J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:
>
>> There's a reason for some seasonalities. I'm not sure about
>> cranberries - are they a winter fruit? - but I didn't think pork -
>> either form - was particularly seasonal.
>
>Cranberries come with turkeys, and turkeys came here with Dickens, who'd
[]
>mint. And it ended with perhaps the first reference to a Christmas
>turkey in all literature. And cranberries grow here too, although they
>are a different species. We didn't really have the wherewithal then for
>cornbread.
>
>
>Rosie

Ah, so you're saying cranberries aren't particularly specific to this
season, but tend to be due to their association with turkey.

WIWAL - and young adult - I was often puzzled why certain sauces were
associated with certain meats only: apple with pork, for example, or
horseradish with whatever (I forget as I don't like horseradish), or
cranberry with turkey.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Radio 4 is the civilising influence in this country ... I think it is the most
important institution in this country. - John Humphrys, Radio Times
7-13/06/2003

In message <Q2%hN.81466$PuZ9.80521@fx11.iad> at Sun, 24 Dec 2023
18:49:20, Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> writes
[]
>We both like pork belly, but the very high fat content tends to cause
>some regrets afterwards.
>
So do I, especially the flavoured varieties (BBQ, Chinese, maple, ...);
I'm a bit disappointed that those only appear in (what I presume the
supermarkets consider) barbecue season.

(Yes, I know I could make my own sauces. I forget who said it - it was
one of the Great Cooks, and I think before Delia, might even have been
Fanny: "life's too short to stuff a mushroom." Especially for one
person.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Radio 4 is the civilising influence in this country ... I think it is the most
important institution in this country. - John Humphrys, Radio Times
7-13/06/2003

On 24-Dec-23 20:28, Penny wrote:
> On Sun, 24 Dec 2023 12:28:18 +0000, Kate B <elvira@nospam.demon.co.uk>
> scrawled in the dust...
>
>> re umra passim
>>
>> The Sunday Times reveals that it's all Delia's fault. No wonder none of
>> us remembered them in our youth.
>
> I heard that nonsense on the radio this morning. My mother certainly served
> sausages wrapped in bacon in the '50s. 'Making' her own, of course, as I
> do, with carefully stretched bacon so it clung to the sausage. More bread
> and less meat in the sausages back then - a way to stretch the meal with
> cheap ingredients.
>
>> Sunday Times 24 December 2023
>>
>> In the 1990 festive cookbook Delia Smith’s Christmas, you’ll find a
>> recipe for a little-known delicacy invented in 1957. It involved pork
>> wrapped in pork, a sausage swaddled in crispy bacon. It was a bit weird
>> at the time, no one had ever heard of it. Although they weren’t referred
>> to as “pigs in blankets” in the book, that’s how they ended up being
>> popularly known. A British icon was born.
>
> Not sure when I first saw them ready wrapped in the shops.
>
> I like pork-based stuffing too, particularly with chestnuts, but don't make
> my own these days so have to rely upon whatever strange concoctions I can
> find in the shops. I couldn't find chestnut this year, just sage and onion
> (which I've never liked) or apple and cranberry. I had some this evening
> (froze the rest as balls) and it was horribly sweet. I thought cranberry
> was sharp, not sweet - why add honey?

It might be different elsewhere, but chestnuts seemed very hard to find
around here. Chestnut stuffing has always been the most important
Christmas dish in this house.

--
Sam Plusnet

In message <4m3hoitf4j24knkn8gf5d0iv4499h5kpl9@4ax.com> at Sun, 24 Dec
2023 20:28:38, Penny <spam@labyrinth.freeuk.com> writes
[]
>I like pork-based stuffing too, particularly with chestnuts, but don't make
>my own these days so have to rely upon whatever strange concoctions I can
>find in the shops. I couldn't find chestnut this year, just sage and onion
>(which I've never liked) or apple and cranberry. I had some this evening

I never liked sage and onion, which seemed to be the default. On the
whole, I always found turkey overrated too, as it can easily be dry: I
was always very content when mum did something other for the Christmas
meal. She did goose one year, which was nice but I think she said hard
work; we sometimes just had a meat joint, which I liked. (Birds in
general do seem to involve a lot of effort.)

>(froze the rest as balls) and it was horribly sweet. I thought cranberry
>was sharp, not sweet - why add honey?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Radio 4 is the civilising influence in this country ... I think it is the most
important institution in this country. - John Humphrys, Radio Times
7-13/06/2003