Andros, do you mean you need a vegetarian substitute for suet? My only guess would be Crisco, which would probably be horrid. If you try it you might need to reduce the amount of liquid in the rest of the recipe. I would use butter before I tried Crisco, but I don’t currently have to deal with vegans.
I’m in California and have no trouble getting suet. The trouble is finding a grocery store that still has a real butcher, as opposed to a meat cutter. If you have a butcher, just go to the store early in the morning and ask for some suet. If the butcher says no, as for some fat scraps. Either will be better than lard (lard’s been processed, good beef suet is just better in my opinion). Remove any red bits from the fat/suet and if you are making something that need a good dispersal of ingredients, freeze the fat/suet and use a cheese grater to “chop” it up.
Ahem, longjohn, I think Burger King was a Grand Metropolitan brand, and is therefore now ownned by Diageo, which I’m afraid is a U.K. company. We can still hate them though.
You know, I could be offended. But you caught me in a good mood. I am Canuck, born and raised in Québec, the land of such delicacies as ‘fèves au lard’ (baked beans and bits of pork), ‘tourtière’ (savoury meat pies), ‘ragoût de pattes’ (meat stew and bits of hog’s feet cooked to perfection - much more delectable that it sounds) and cipâte (different types of venison made into a stew - a true delight).
Not to mention our less noble endeavours, such as ‘poutine’ (a mixture of fries and gravy topped with curd cheese). Not bad actually, but nothing to write home about either.
Apparently curry, particularly chicken tikka masala, is now the most popular dish in England. (I don’t have a cite, but a politician used it in a speech, so it must be true).
Chicken tikka masala is delicious yet is not served in India. The story goes (yes, I know I’m cr*p on citing) that an Englishman in India ordered it. When it arrived as dry baked chicken on rice, he sent it back saying ‘it needs gravy’**. The chef stuck a can of soup, plus spices on it, and a legend was born.
As for American cuisine, I’ll just say that a superb steak with a jacket potato makes McDonalds taste like mechanically recovered meat with lots of chemicals***.
**this is a very English thing to say
***to avoid confusion, I mean there is a lot of excellent US cooking, especially meat. There are also exceptions.
I think that Chicken Tikka Masala, like many of the dishes served in British curry houses, was invented in Britain by Indian restaurateurs. There used to be an excellent Indian restaurant in Oxford called Shalwar Pink’s, which had on the menu what purported to be accurate histories of all the dishes. IIRC most of them originated in the West Midlands.
I believe that McDonald’s is mechanically-recovered meat with lots of chemicals.
Toad in the hole is a baked batter dish (like yorkshire puddings) with sausages embedded in it, it is traditionallly served with a rich gravy made with caramelised onions. (my wife makes the world’s best toad in the hole) the batter is similar to a pancake batter, but made with self-raising flour (or plain flour with baking powder) and the result is a crisp, light, puffy affair concealing succulent sausages.
Spotted dick is a steamed sweet suet pudding containing sultanas (which are similar to raisins, but larger, lighter in colour and softer)
Vegetarian suet is widely available in Britain (it’s made from vegetable oil and rice stach I believe) and is every bit as good as beef suet.
Many popular ‘British cuisine’ around at the moment can be traced back to ideas imported from one or more foreign cultures (although I think spotted dick and toad in the hole are authentically British)
Apparently the UK’s favourite dish is indeed curry, which is something invented by British colonials in India as being representative of the general styles and flavours of Indian food, rather than being something authentically Indian.
The latest variation of this is the ‘Balti’ where the entire dish is cooked and served in the same individual hemispherical metal pan (the word ‘Balti’ means ‘Bucket’ apparently)
Other genuinely British dishes will include such things as
steak and kidney pudding (basically a rich meat pie, but enclosed in suet crust pastry and steamed)
In days gone by, the suet pudding (containing a variety of fillings) and boiled vegetables would probably have been the mainstay of the british dinner table, as it could all be cooked in a single pot over the hearth.
Surprisingly, a suet pudding, even though it is steamed in a bowl (or wrapped in cloths and actually immersed in boiling water), when properly done is as crisp and golden on the outside as anything that is baked dry in an oven.
The reason for it’s popularity would have been simplicity and availability of ingredients, particularly in winter.
For more background on authentic British country cooking and way of life, I would recommend the novel ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ by Flora Thompson - although the characters are fictional, the background has been very well researched.
As the OP suggests, what people in the UK call “Sultanas” are essentially what is sold as “golden raisins” in the US. This interesting tidbit comes from the Dole web page:
Other sources also suggest that golden or sultana raisins are sulfite-treated, and that somebody in Australia is attempting to breed a variety of grape that will retain its light color when dried without treatment. Indeed, the Sultana grape appears to be a close relative of the Thompson Seedless. If there is any distinction to be made, the Thompson Seedless may have slightly larger fruit.
Nah, it was invented by Paul Bunyan, Famous American.
See, what happened was, a truckload of dried Great Northerns meant for the lumber camp fell into a nearby hot spring, and when Paul heard about it, he chucked a hog down there after them. The men spent all winter eating baked beans out of the hole.
Y’mean y’all can’t tell when each other are being sarcastic? I feel vindicated.
Balti, yummm… Only thirty-two more days.
Sorry folks, I’m an American, drunk out of my mind just now, and inclined to stream-of-consciousness posting. And I think British cuisine is seriously underrated. BTW does ale count as cuisine?
I think as an Aussie boy, with an English Grandma, I have a little authority on this topic, and I must say that I love toad in the hole, but…
[check over shoulder. No family around? Excellent…]
Avoid Pork Pies. Please people. It’s the jelly-meat that makes my stomach turn. Honestly, if I wanted to see that sort of thing, I’d just open a can of dog food and tip it onto my plate. Uuurgggh
I have no more to say.
Except that sultanas are delicious, I used to have a packet in my lunch everyday as a kid. And yes they’re dried grapes that are squishier (less dry? or just a different variety of grape?) than raisins.
Nobody’s mentioned currants* - do you have those over in the US? - they are like raisins but usually smaller, drier and not seedless; they are used in a number of traditional British recipes for fruit cakes and things like Christmas pudding, but due to their gritty texture, many people now substitute raisins.
*****(NB, they are still dried grapes, not anything to do with blackcurrants)
It must have been about 15 years ago that eggs in Britain were suddenly to be referred to only by their numeric sizes and this caused widespread confusion (particularly as size 5 was the smallest and 1 the largest), but we seem to have reverted to S,M,L,XL in the last couple of years or so, which is nice.
