Real England

one thing I've learned is the only way to make *proper* onion gravy is to caramelise the onions, which takes an hour. There aren't any short-cuts. I tried one once that involved baking powder and a pressure cooker - the result was so vile I feel physically sick just thinking about it.

Lorne sausage contains all or part beef iirc? Also it is square.

Not the same as a sausage patty, which is a pork disc. The main spicing I notice on them is lots of ground pepper.

Calz, I made onion marmalade/seeni sambol and I must’ve stood over the pot for three hours. The results were glorious (imagine a great big hit of chilli and Sri Lankan spicing in what looks like Tracklements onion chutney).

that sounds amazing. Patience to unlock the flavour in onions pays off bigtime it seems!

(which are known as LINKS in the US).

Links are what (linked) sausages are called in Scotland.

golf sausages

i think i know josh's BIL.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-67913921

Piles of raw meat have been left mysteriously abandoned around a town for months, leaving residents feeling "baffled and annoyed".

People in Stockport, Greater Manchester, have reported heaps of red meat and chicken dumped in the Reddish area, often on an almost weekly basis.

This used to happen regularly in a small park I would walk my dog, in Bow. Like every fortnight there would be another sack of beef, or a couple chickens or something. Could never figure out why.

christ, I'd be struggling to hold my dog back from eating some raw meat in the park. I'm not joking he'd literally eat the lot without some intervention, once he starts eating he goes into a dark food aggression mode and it's hard to stop him without risking a bite. Lol, I get xl bullied by a Lab.

Oh there was a few times that I’d like to stay as repressed memories.

New update. My kid showed her young cousins "Phineas and Ferb," and while they loved it, my bro in law dismissed it as an annoying American show and turned it off. Ha ha, what a dick, who doesn't like "Phineas and Ferb"?

the cousins are only allowed to watch Chorlton and the Wheelies

you come across these types now and then but this is a bad case

I did used to watch capt Pugwash and Ivor The ffwucking Engine but about 80% of my fave animated viewing was imported US cartoon shows as kid iirc

insisting that yorkshire television made the only good TV ever would be a solid and possibly a sustainable bit (bit tougher with kids TV maybe)

ffwucking

Thought this was Welsh for a second.

it is, sort of!

ffwciadwy means fuckable in Welsh. Ivor The Engine didn't fuck!

the hell he did

#king

sorry for the twitter link but I have just watched this video ten times and it's the highlight of my year so far, she is FUMIN

Actually crying laughing pic.twitter.com/5RXvFrwaEZ

— Declan Cashin (@Tweet_Dec) January 6, 2024

https://x.com/jenuflexion/status/1744417656613093871?s=20

guarantee there'll be an ITV drama about the Quality St wrapper SCANDAL

(aren't they meant to be more recycleable? i think all ours ended up in the same bin as always. who recycles 2" square bits of paper?)

I'm sure Starmer's team's working on a response.

I think the wrappers are biodegradable rather than recyclable

https://www.qualitystreet.co.uk/sustainability

interesting bits:

"we are returning to our roots, introducing paper wrappers similar to those which appeared in the first selection in 1936!"

"Recycling works best when small pieces of packaging, like our Quality Street® wrappers, are bundled together:
i) Scrunch foil wraps into a fist sized ball with other foil.
ii) Scrunch new paper wrappers into a fist sized ball with other paper or put into a paper envelope."

turns out the previous cellulose wrappers (the outsides i guess) were compostable, the new paper ones are recycleable and the foil was always recycleable.

- What's your favourite Quality Street?
- Woke-o-nut Eclair!*

* actually no-one likes the Coconut Eclair, always a blue pile left at the bottom of the tin come Boxing Day

i like it, you should send them all to me

^^^ proper recycling

When I was growing up, no-one else would touch the blue ones, which was great because I'd eat them. Then the dregs of the tin would be the toffee sticks and pennies, which was great because I'd eat them. Although in days of yore when we were flush enough to have two tins over the holidays, there'd be an awkward day or two stand off because my father would refuse to open the second tin before the first one was empty.

I do wonder whether the quality of the chocolate has significantly decreased or if it's just that I've now spoiled my palate with non-shit chocolate and there's no going back.

Quality Street have always been fairly rubbish imo

the roses recipe changed from last year to this, and the tubs are 50g lighter (and cost 10% more)

(qs tubs still 600g)

Quality Street seems the same as it's always been? Roses definitely a half-step above Sainsbury's own brand chocolates. They even look similar and I wouldn't be surprised if they were made in the same factory. #oldfart

Roses are way better than QS, good opportunity for a confusingly limited interest poll

the other thing i learnt over Christmas:

QS 11 flavours
Roses just 9

Someone gave me Celebrations and I made it easier on myself by removing all the mini Bounty bars and chucking them.

hazelnut cracknell is the worst ever quality stretch choc imo, glad it is on the dustbin of history

xp I like those, but the cocanut is rougher and gets stuck in my teeth more than the full size bars.

xp I see your Quality Street Hazelnut Cracknell and raise you Roses Peanut Cracknell - was only in the selection for a couple of years but was like eating the glass from a broken test tube.

Difficult to choose between Heroes which has Crunchie Bits or Celebrations which has the Malteser Teasers.

Someone gave me Celebrations and I made it easier on myself by removing all the mini Bounty bars and chucking them.

Quite right, Bounty bars are vile.

I absolutely hate desiccated coconut to the point I find it disgusting and struggle to swallow anything with a noticeable amount of it in which I'm pretty sure stems from puking after eating half a Bounty when I was 6. tbf I also remember puking after being forced to eat sausages at school when I was the same age and I still eat sausages. although that might explain why I was so surprised to read that people exist that actually like Richmond sausages, because they remind me of shitty school dinners sausages.

not sure why you're chucking them when you could be sending them to me, seems rude

The greatest sporting moment of the last 10 years was when they installed cameras in the changing rooms of snooker players for some reason, and when they checked in on Shaun Murphy he was just sitting there eating Mini Cheddars pic.twitter.com/3V7dgCguGI

— Peter (@pickyouredge) January 11, 2024

Sorry just had to post that now

I wish the Celebrations Bounty were plain chocolate like the red wrappered full size bars.