No surprises.

  The master has spoken and the news is as you'd probably expect. The master I'm talking about is the fellah with the fruit and veg shop just near me that I frequent when I'm looking for a bit of quality. I showed him the picture of the stock vegetables from yesterday's post to gauge his thoughts.

  Sadly, (we'll do the bad news first), it seems like the Brits don't make stock. This is a generalisation of course but as the majority of us don't, neither he, nor the supermarkets, bother with bundles of stock ready ingredients. It looks like we're far more interested in using stock cubes or, and I shudder at the thought, gravy granules.

Tonight's supper club, for me and one guest.

  To give you an insight into this egregious example of faud, let me give you a glimpse into the ingredients of gravy granules. In a nutshell it's basically thickeners, (flours of wheat and potato), flavours, (with salt and sugar highest on the list), and yeast extract, (Marmite, basically). There's also some palm oil, (for a creamy texture), and some dried vegetables, (supposedly to help you get your five-a-day). 

  I realise that convincing everyone to make stock will be a bit of an uphill battle so I'm not going to bother. Similarly, there's no point in me shouting at the supermarkets to sell packs of stock veg because without demand, there'll be no supply. Instead of admitting total defeat though, let me at least suggest this. If you're going to eat chicken, buy a whole one and use the carcass to make stock. You're charged for any butchery so the kilo price of portions is always more expensive so it turns out cheaper too.

  Oh, but there is a bit of good news. Apparently, (according to my veg guy), some markets do sell a veg selection bundle, especially around christmas, so it looks like there is a demand for fresh veg at least. One thing I really struggle to understand is why so many people are so happy to pay such a high premium for packets of pre-cut veg. Weird and very lazy.

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com