Fish and Chips DIY

[Paul Henry]

All right, tell me about "Dundee cake."

Dundee is a lovely fruit cake, decorated on the top with whole blanched almonds, which are positioned on the top before cooking. The cake is a bit lighter in colour and density of fruit than a traditional fruit cake. When I make it I often put a bit of marmalade into the mixture , instead of some of the sugar, this makes it moist as well as enhancing the orange flavour, which I always think of being very "Dundee!"

[auld argonian]

I remember that it was always said that a fresh newspaper was sterile...that's antiseptic sterile and not intellectually sterile...and that you could use it to wrap a newborn baby if you had to do an emergency delivery outside of the hospital.

...okay...probably another urban myth and I did grow up in a place where such nuggets of wisdom just abounded...apparently smoking Marlboro cigarettes could make you sterile as well...but I digress as always.

I'd venture to guess that the use of newsprint paper had less to do with the flavor than the probable use of a different cooking medium. Back in the day they probably cooked them in lard with a little beef tallow thrown in for added character...now it's vegetable oil and, while that's giving you those poly-unsaturated fats, it ain't giving you those beefy-porky free radicals that made it taste so good back when dad was eating them while strolling down the pier with his little stick of Blackpool rock and his little ukulele in his hand.

We have much the same phenomena here with the hot dog. There will never be a hot dog as tasty as the ones that you bought from the disreputable looking guy who had the little cart on the corner down the street from your house when you were growing up. A lot of people swear by the 'dogs at their respective local ball parks. Any franchised operation that tries to serve a proper hot dog just misses the mark by a significant margin.

...and remember...this IS Chicago...NO KETCHUP...EVER!

I'm certainly not a connoisseur of the fish and chips but I have heard that visitors from the UK find the f&c at my local, The Duke, to be as close to the genuine article as they have ever had outside of the homeland. Wednesdays and Fridays are "all you can eat" f&c days and I hear that the record is currently 20 pieces of fish.

Best

AA

[lethearen]

Had an order of f&c at a nearby "Irish" pub, and the fish was fried in cornmeal like one might fry a catfish. Come to think of it... it may have been catfish :P And the chips were just plain old french fries. Served with a side of tartar sauce and ketchup. Not a lick of newspaper to be seen. At least they brought a bottle of malt vinegar to the table, too.

Methinks they weren't very authentic :P

[Tobus]

At least they brought a bottle of malt vinegar to the table, too.

There's a place here that has pretty decent fish and chips (well... waffle fries) and they automatically bring malt vinegar with it, God bless 'em. But there's another joint in town that I went to one day and saw that they had fish & chips on the menu, so I ordered it. I asked for malt vinegar, and she brought me a bottle of white wine vinegar. *face palm*

[Bugbear]

Dundee is a lovely fruit cake, decorated on the top with whole blanched almonds, which are positioned on the top before cooking. The cake is a bit lighter in colour and density of fruit than a traditional fruit cake. When I make it I often put a bit of marmalade into the mixture , instead of some of the sugar, this makes it moist as well as enhancing the orange flavour, which I always think of being very "Dundee!"

That sounds good, Paul; I like fruit cake.

The recipe I have suggests putting the peal of an orange in the mix, but calls for candied peal, as well. It also says fruit cakes are best if aged for a few months in a cool place. Must be a keeper.

[Paul Henry]

That sounds good, Paul; I like fruit cake.

The recipe I have suggests putting the peal of an orange in the mix, but calls for candied peal, as well. It also says fruit cakes are best if aged for a few months in a cool place. Must be a keeper.

I usually bake a Dundee a few weeks befire I need it, but I never really think of it as a keeping cake, unlike a Rich Fruit cake ( for Christmas usually) which I usually bake around now so that it can have at least 3 months to age!!

[Pleater]

Mrs Beeton does a grouse pie, if that is any help.

Place one pound of rump steak in the bottom of a pie dish, cut into neat pieces.

Put grouse on top of this. Small ones can be put in whole, large ones should be jointed. Season highly with salt, cayenne and black pepper. Pour in half a pint of well seasoned broth and cover with puff pastry. Brush the crust over with the yolk of an egg and bake for 3/4 to one hour.

If the grouse has been cut into joints the backbone and trimmings can be used to make the gravy by stewing them with an onion, a little sherry, a bunch of herbs and a blade of mace. This should be poured in after the pie is baked.

In season from the 12th august to the beginning of December.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Bugbear]

Hmmm, grouse and rump steak pie... Interesting.

Actually, I don't care for the parts of the bird that have the wirey little bones.

I like to shop for roasts, sometimes on sale, and cut them into steaks or what ever I might need. I seem to get a lot more meat that way.