The Vent and Rant Thread

[Renate]

Turnips get complicated.
I really prefer the yellow/purple ones.
The names go backwards in different places.

I really don't like Halloween gruesome stuff.
A cute ghost saying "Boo" and hoping that they haven't scared you is ok.
Human entrails are right out.

[Quoth]

spinrut is pronounced swede

Beets are not all beetroot. Rape (plant) is from the Latin for turnip and Canada renamed the rape seed oil (produced since ancient times) to Canola. All brassicas.

I don't know if I've ever seen a manglewurzel, (a kind of beet). We used to feed our goats with some residue from beets (sugar was produced from sugar-beet). That's all gone now so as to not disadvantage sugar cane growers with an unfair subsidy. Napoleon offered a reward for improving the sugar extraction.

The goats only ate grass if nothing else (like next doors roses) was left.

[BetterRed]

We (mum, dad, brother and me) sometimes used to take a punt up the Thames for summer holidays, other times we would pick hops in Kent.

Dad's B.I.L worked at Windsor for you know who. I have a memory of him cutting the leaves off turnips and putting them into a rafia basket strapped to his back. The turnips (sliced with a hand operated mechanical contraption) went to the pigs, the leaves went to the kitchens.

Animal Farm bought to life.

Added: we went to Guernsey once, I never thought to ask Mum and Dad where they got the money for that.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You never got cigarette ash in "fast food"?

Once a "pastie" from a "chipper" had an entire butt.

Not that I've noticed. Admittedly in food places here, smoking inside has been banned for decades and even smoking outside has strict limits on how close to doors and air intakes you are allowed to smoke. I still have unfond memories of sitting in non-smoking sections and having smoke drifting in from the smoking section. I have a vague memory that smoking in restaurants in the UK was banned in 2007 as one friend of mine griped about it from a family reunion 15 years ago—she and her husband were the type of people you see standing outside the restaurant to smoke.

Originally Posted by Quoth

YPastie= N.I. UK potato / mince concoction in batter, deep fat fried. About diameter of a 1/4 lb burger and maybe x2 thicker. They might have them in Scotland too. Never seen them in England or rest of Ireland.

Does having Cornish pasties in Truro count? Semi-circular and crimped on the side.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Curiously turnips and swedes are two related plants. One is large with yellowish flesh and is neeps; it's called turnip in most of Ireland. The related plant, usually called a swede in Ireland, is much smaller and white flesh.
In some parts of Ireland and most of England the names are reversed.

Around here, turnips are the smaller ones with purple/white exterior and white flesh. The larger ones with the yellow flesh are rutabagas (AKA Swedish turnips, wax turnips, swedes or neeps). I've used both in cooking. The rutabaga does better in cool climates.

Why does the UK seem to love using French names for foods? Sounds more pretentious?

[Renate]

Deep-fried pasties? That sounds like sacrilege. Baked.

Wow, @BetterRed, picking hops in Kent!
I've always read about that.
Kind of half a family holiday.
I suppose that's been long gone a while now.

[Martinoptic]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Does having Cornish pasties in Truro count? Semi-circular and crimped on the side.

They are proper ones. Though I recall my father having a Cornish pasty in Launceston and complained that there was gristle behind each piece of potato. I have to concur that those were horrible.

I quite like the idea of a fried mixture as @Quoth described though maybe not called a pasty - how about a mancake (m(eaty p)ancake)?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

Deep-fried pasties? That sounds like sacrilege. Baked.

There is no pastry and internals are not remotely like a Cornish Pasty. Both real and counterfeit Cornish pasties are in the local supermarkets in the Mid West of Ireland.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Around here, turnips are the smaller ones with purple/white exterior and white flesh. The larger ones with the yellow flesh are rutabagas (AKA Swedish turnips, wax turnips, swedes or neeps). I've used both in cooking. The rutabaga does better in cool climates.

Why does the UK seem to love using French names for foods? Sounds more pretentious?

Interesting your area has the Scottish neeps (called a turnip here) & English naming for both roots.

<rant>
It's the big one with yellow flesh (Scottish neeps) that is turned into a Goblin head. Not pumpkins!
</rant>

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth

<rant>
It's the big one with yellow flesh (Scottish neeps) that is turned into a Goblin head. Not pumpkins!
</rant>

…because pumpkins are turned into jack o’lanterns.

We’ve got rutabagas here, but it as it happens, the native pumpkin is better for jack o’lanterns. Better size, better shape.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by issybird

…because pumpkins are turned into jack o’lanterns.

We’ve got rutabagas here, but it as it happens, the native pumpkin is better for jack o’lanterns. Better size, better shape.

Worse than pineapple on pizza or red wine with fish.

Jack O'Lanterns are Irish and made hundreds of years before Americans adopted pumpkins.

From the American Encyclopaedia that killed off the paper & CD versions:

A jack-o'-lantern (or jack o'lantern) is a carved lantern, most commonly made from a pumpkin, or formerly a root vegetable such as a mangelwurzel, rutabaga or turnip.[1] Jack-o'-lanterns are associated with the Halloween holiday. Its name comes from the phenomenon of strange lights flickering over peat bogs, called jack-o'-lanterns (also known as will-o'-the-wisps). It is suggested that the name also has ties to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who bargains with Satan and is doomed to roam the Earth with only a hollowed turnip to light his way.

And at least the scooped out "neeps" tastes of something and has nutrition. We simply used a table knife and spoon at about age 6. No need for sharp knives.


Also the other Celtic tradition is that it's a goblin's head. A pumpkin is not like a head and doesn't last as well and is more fragile.

Such a waste of resource growing them here as almost no-one in Ireland eats pumpkin.

EDIT
October 2023. A spoon and vegetable peeling knife used.


and in daylight

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Not a single line of the enabling legislation has been written, it's just a brainfart from Starmer to stave off Farage. If Starmer's advisers had any sense they would have wedged Farage by framing digital ID as a way to stop woke banks from cancelling your account

And looking at the online petition set up with gov.uk to not introduce digital ID that has over 2.6 million signatures and rising introducing such a thing may not be such a good idea

[Graham44]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Does having Cornish pasties in Truro count? Semi-circular and crimped on the side.

I would say it definitely counts The Cornish Pasty enjoys protected status and to be called a Cornish Pasty by law it has to be made in Cornwall and include the following ingredients: Sliced or diced potato, Swede, Onion, (of which these three must make up no less than 25% of the whole pasty) , diced or minced beef (making up no less than 12.5% of the whole pasty), seasoning (mainly salt and pepper)*

Cornish pasties are serious business!

* https://assets.publishing.service.go...ty-pgi-pdf.pdf

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Worse than pineapple on pizza or red wine with fish.

That's objectively wrong. These are assaults on your palate; a hollowed out berry with a candle in it doesn't compare.

Jack O'Lanterns are Irish and made hundreds of years before Americans adopted pumpkins.

We're a nation of immigrants; we borrow, we adapt. And if the olde country doesn't like it, they don't have to follow suit.

From the American Encyclopaedia that killed off the paper & CD versions:[

We can't put a foot right, can we?

And at least the scooped out "neeps" tastes of something and has nutrition. We simply used a table knife and spoon at about age 6. No need for sharp knives.

The innards of a pumpkin are inedible strings which are scraped out and discarded plus seeds and the seeds are highly nutritious and tasty.

Also the other Celtic tradition is that it's a goblin's head. A pumpkin is not like a head and doesn't last as well and is more fragile.

Huh. IMO, pumpkins are more head-shaped than turnips. And which is it? Soft and easy to scoop or needing a sharp knife? You can't have it both ways. Pumpkins are sturdy stuff.

Such a waste of resource growing them here as almost no-one in Ireland eats pumpkin.

If they're grown for decoration rather than eating, that's their purpose. No one here eats decorative pumpkins; they're nasty. Canned pumpkin for eating.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Graham44

And looking at the online petition set up with gov.uk to not introduce digital ID that has over 2.6 million signatures and rising introducing such a thing may not be such a good idea

Methinks it's headed the same way as Maggie's Poll Tax, only sooner.

The tenents of classic liberalism still survive (just) in England. Nearly fell out of bed when the Chancellor quoted Burke in her Liverpool speech

Originally Posted by Graham44

I would say it definitely counts The Cornish Pasty enjoys protected status and to be called a Cornish Pasty by law it has to be made in Cornwall and include the following ingredients: Sliced or diced potato, Swede, Onion, (of which these three must make up no less than 25% of the whole pasty) , diced or minced beef (making up no less than 12.5% of the whole pasty), seasoning (mainly salt and pepper)*

Cornish pasties are serious business!

Unlike the EU the UK does not enforce such restrictions on countries with which it has a bi-lateral FTA.

In Sydney 'The Kentish Chef' cafe features Cornish pasties, pork pies and such.

When I first saw the cafe (it's only been open a few months, and it's nearby) I immediately thought "Aaah, Kentish Town - Starmer's borough", it's north of the river in Middlesex.

"Kentish" derives from "Caen Ditch" a drain that runs through the area, nothing to do with the county of Kent and nowhere near the counties of Cornwall, or Leicestershire the home of the pork pie (Melton Mowbray).

Sir Keir Starmer is not the most famous person to have lived in Kentish Town — Karl Marx lived there, he's buried nearby at Highgate Cemetery.

BR