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Some questions about food that mystify me..

35 replies

LouraLoura · 16/05/2022 01:44

1/ Is a gherkin a pickled cucumber? (too lazy to google).

2/ What are non corn fed chicken fed on?

3/ Why did granola go out of fashion? (I have a lovely plant based one with no sugar).

  1. What's your favourite thing to put on sourdough? (if you eat it that is)

  2. What is essentially wrong with farmed salmon, and are the antibiotics a real issue? Do you prefer farmed? I find it more succulent..

6/ A simple suggestion for homemade fajita?

Am feeling peckish...

OP posts:
twoandcooplease · 16/05/2022 02:05

In the 19 minutes you've waited on a reply you could have googled every single question

This is the height of utter laziness

LouraLoura · 16/05/2022 02:07

And also, i would hazard a guess, the most pointless, humourless response on MN to date.

OP posts:
Fantina · 16/05/2022 02:19

This is a chat board, people can chat about whatever they want to.

all I know, OP, is that when I make homemade guacamole with just right avocados that my fajitas go down very well with everyone.

I put blueberry jam on sourdough.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

MrsLargeEmbodied · 16/05/2022 02:22

i eat granola
i put avocado on sour dough bread, with sun dried tomatoes
avocado also with fajita

bozna · 16/05/2022 02:27

@twoandcooplease this is how normal questions can educate others. Every question one person might think is obvious there's thousands who might not and can learn from it. Never shame someone who is Willing to learn that's how we all start out

StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind1 · 16/05/2022 02:31

Isn't all granola plant based?
I've never seen one with meat in it Confused

IstayedForTheFeminism · 16/05/2022 02:32

Gherkins are a specific type of pickled cucumber.

I love granola.

I like sourdough with avocado or kippers and poached egg.

By homemade fajita do you mean the traditional spicy chicken? Or anything in a wrap? I ask because if I say fajitas I mean ckicken/onion/pepper in a wrap. When my dc put tuna mayo in a wrap its a tuns mayo wrap. My friend says anything served in a wrap is called a fajita.

MrsTerryPratchett · 16/05/2022 02:33
  1. Yes
  2. Butter
  3. When salmon is farmed the food goes into the ecosystem and pollutes it. They also get disgusting parasites like sea lice which escape and get into the surrounding area. Basically salmon farming is really bad for the surrounding area. And pretty terrible for the fish themselves. If you've eaten bad wild and good farmed it's probably because you're paying about the same. Good, wild salmon costs more!
GeorgiaGirl52 · 16/05/2022 02:36

Chickens can be fed with corn pellets, vegetable pellets or chicken carcasses ground up and baked and formed into pellets and fed back to living chickens. Hogs are also fed with chicken carcasses.

twoandcooplease · 16/05/2022 02:53

I don't shame anyone who's willing to learn. But 'is a gherkin a pickled cucumber?' ... then a comment too lazy to google ... you can't defend that

TheLadyofShalott1 · 16/05/2022 03:28

I don't know the answer to any of your questions OP, and as I now think it would be cheeky to look any of them up, I will hazard a guess at some of them.

a) No, I don't think they are just little cucumbers, but I do think that they are probably from the same family (Genus?)

b) I am not aware of you being able to buy a supermarket chicken as "non corn fed", but I am happy to be corrected on that! I think they put corn fed on the packet as it is supposed to be desirable to have a chicken entirely fed on corn, or if they are hopefully fully free range chickens, then the food that their owner gives them is purely corn, but they can also pick up whatever they fancy from the ground or bushes etc.

Really cheap chickens may have been fed on the cheapest chicken feed (I imagine a mixture of grains etc, but I did hear at one time about some farmed animals being fed a mixture of food, that also included bits of their own species. As all of the mammals that I can think of (as being farmed animals meant for our plates) are herbivores, I find it particularly abhorrent that they are fed any animal products at all, but even more so if it is from their own species. I hope that that practice is now illegal, and doesn't happen, but I don't know for certain.

c) I didn't know granola had gone out of fashion, I love it. But I do tend to top other cereals with it, as they usually have a lot of sugar in them from honey etc. So maybe that is why that might have gone out of fashion, because they are not considered healthy enough?

d) Real, lovely, farmhouse butter, and nowt else, as my adopted County might say!

e) As I am a complete heathen and only like tinned red salmon I am afraid that once again I can't give you a conclusive answer.
So I will start with farmed fish - fresh water trout crammed into small lakes are a complete no no to me, and I don't feel like any explanation of that is necessary.
Farmed fish in sea locks in places like Scotland, I am not quite so sure about. Presumably their water is refreshed constantly by nature? But also presumably, they still don't feel like they have enough room to swim freely about (I don't like birds being kept even in really large averies at zoos - but as I am very sadly not Dr Dolittle, I don't know if both creatures would prefer some captivity as it should also greatly lessen their chances of being eaten by bigger predatures (I will conveniently forget about farmed fish at the moment, and their almost certain death at the hands of the worst predators - you know where I am going with this), and also, hopefully, always see them supplied with enough food for themselves.

HORMONES? May I first mention antibiotics in general please?
Every adult in the more privileged countries in the World, should know by now that we have been abusing the use of antibiotics for decades, maybe even since they first became available to the general public in the late 1930's to the early 1940's - my DDad's Dad, died when my Dad was only 7, he died from Septicemia, just a short while before it was released to be used on patients. My poor Dad always believed that his DDad would have survived if he had contracted the illness (while gardening at home, with Lupins, he got blood poisoning from them) a year or two later. As you must know, we have been prescribed antibiotics far too frequently, and the illnesses they are prescribed for have now built up a great resistance against them.

A vet using an antibiotic for a sick animal, whether it is a pet, farmed, or even normally wild, should still continue to do so, but with the same strict precautions that human doctors should be using.

To give any animal antibiotics with the aim to keep diseases at bay, and potentially help quicken the growth of the animal - but from what I do know about chemistry is that that is probably more down to the farmers giving their animals hormones. Whatever the truth is about these intensive and intrusive farming practices, I also find them abhorrent too. IMO they should not be legal.

I have tried to be a vegetarian several times, but have always given in eventually. My body always feels a bit healthier on a mixed diet. I try to always have organ meat. I don't usually eat meat more than twice a week and fish once a week, but I do not want to put antibiotics or hormones into my body, that have not been prescribed to me, for an infection. I never take them for colds or flu.

I don't know if this is true, but some years ago some scientists found high levels of hormones and antibiotics in our water table, and said that that might explain why a rising number of men are having fertility issues. After all any hormones or antibiotics that our bodies don't use, get peed out!

f) My apologies again OP, but I don't know if I have ever eaten a fajita, I have certainly never made one - see, I told you I was a heathen 😂
But I will watch this thread with interest in the hope that someone will share an easy recipe for the on this thread, and I might try one at last.

Are you asleep yet OP, I think my posts often have that effect on people? If you are, I hope you got yourself a nice snack first 🌮🍗🍎🍌

TheLadyofShalott1 · 16/05/2022 03:39

twoandcooplease · 16/05/2022 02:53

I don't shame anyone who's willing to learn. But 'is a gherkin a pickled cucumber?' ... then a comment too lazy to google ... you can't defend that

@twoandcooplease I think that the 'being too lazy to google' is just the OP being humorous! It is late at night (in the UK anyway), and she just thought of some questions thst could stave the boredom off for her, and reasonably like minded mumsnetters. If you are not at all interested in those questions, turn to another channel (there are hundreds of them) - oops sorry, wrong medium!

ps. In case you didn't realise @twoandcooplease that was my attempt at very light humour.

TheGetaway · 16/05/2022 03:39
  1. I have no idea but can tell you they’re disgusting
  2. Don’t know, don’t care, don’t eat it
  3. It makes you fart
  4. Smashed avocado, mushrooms and tomato - or marmite
  5. See (2)
  6. Fried onion and pepper, raw red cabbage with avocado and shirracha mayo
LouraLoura · 16/05/2022 04:09

Really interesting, thanks everyone!
I'm wide awake due to rising very late after a night on the sauce. Thankfully no work tomorrow.

Yes, It was just a lazy list of curiosities.

@TheLadyofShalott1 I feel similarly about meat, and yet have never managed to commit to vegetarianism. Strangely enough I don't even like very much of it, maybe turkey and sea bass, but I loathe beans so...
I am also concerned about farming and antibiotics. Like most environmental issues, short term profit outweighs any consideration of progressive policies that might take animal welfare into account. It's all lip service, isn't it, likewise regarding climate change. If the gov gave a hoot about the environment they wouldn't condone building vast housing projects devoid of infrastructure so people become even more dependent on cars. It's a mess. And don't get me started on their wholesale destruction of our rivers with sewage.

I always prefer to hear MN recipe ideas, they are generally more exciting and mouthwatering than you will find via a web search. It's that simple! I am new to sourdough and would like to try fajita's.

And by granola going out of fashion, I meant the cultural obsession. I do think there are more varieties available now without honey or sugar. The one I use has a vanilla pod flavour and various other goodies. Thankfully my gut likes it. It is interesting how food trends shirt around. A lot of odd myths out there....

OP posts:
FlowerArranger · 16/05/2022 04:13

What are non corn fed chicken fed on?
Seriously, you don't want to know. Just buy free range and/or organic.

What is essentially wrong with farmed salmon, and are the antibiotics a real issue? Do you prefer farmed? I find it more succulent..
They are fed similar garbage to the chickens referred to above, plus hormones and antibiotics for good measure. They live in enclosed pens with probably the same room as intensively farmed chickens. They basically swim in t by ear own sewage.
The reason they are more succulent is because they are more fatty. Because they float in their own shit instead of swimming under their own steam.

DressingGownofDoom · 16/05/2022 04:18

Never look at your phone and, more specifically, mumsnet when you wake in the night. 4.17am and I'm now craving fajitas and learning more about gherkins than I ever knew I wanted to.

Amdone123 · 16/05/2022 04:56

@DressingGownofDoom , same !!!

GayParis · 16/05/2022 05:01

The only thing you should be worried about in regards to antibiotics is bacterial resistance. It's a big old bitch!

BarbaraofSeville · 16/05/2022 08:27

StrawberryLipstickStateOfMind1 · 16/05/2022 02:31

Isn't all granola plant based?
I've never seen one with meat in it Confused

The bagged salad in Morrisons says that it is vegan on the label. If there is such a thing as non vegan salad leaves, I'm not sure that I want to eat it.

Is this because everything needs a special label these days, or that people are so stupid that they don't know what muesli/salad leaves is if it's not pointed out to them?

stuntbubbles · 16/05/2022 08:39
  1. Special cucumbers. The best ones are cornichons.

  2. We always called it crunchy, not granola. Is it out of fashion? Everyone I know eats it, but also makes homemade – much nicer and you can sneak in dark chocolate chips and dried sour cherries and cinnamon.

  3. I don’t, sourdough is a con and designed to cut your mouth open.

  4. Spicy pulled chicken, spicy grilled peppers and onions, grated cheese, pico de gallo. Prefer a burrito though. And tacos are even better.

stuntbubbles · 16/05/2022 08:39

Absolute FUCKERY that I numbered those correctly to match the questions, having skipped the chicken and salmon ones, and THE SYSTEM renumbered them. I’m calling the police.

LouraLoura · 16/05/2022 13:53

Yes, I've noticed everything has a label even if it doesn't need one. Plant Based is a huge one, for marketing purposes I presume, as it is rather 'of the moment'.

Vegan friendly possibly just makes shopping quicker and easier. I often see reviews under products which ought to be (and appear to be) vegan that turn out not to. Usually on Ocado, lol.

We are in a sorry state with mass consumption, and I have no idea how we can reverse it. The worst practices generally mass produce for low cost, so people in poverty or on low incomes are trapped with it. If we could end poverty, or at least ensure everyone had the assurance good food and warm affordable homes, we could make some incredible changes. It's obvious our system prefers this status quo :(

Spicy pulled chicken, spicy grilled peppers and onions, grated cheese, pico de gallo. Prefer a burrito though. And tacos are even better.

This sounds good to me! I love anything with at least some carb, a pitta, slice of good bread, a bit of rice spaghetti. Or sushi rice....in balls with mackerel. I did no carb for a few years, didn't do me any harm but the pleasure aspect was vastly reduced Grin
I think anything is fine in moderation, unless you have an allergy. Moderation seems to be key to everything.

I wonder, does anyone know if the antibiotics in farmed animals actually reach us in a way that will alter our resistance ? And if so, why does no one seem worried about this?
It isn't something I've looked into, so will have a search - sadly the internet throws up too many conflicting results to make much sense of things.

OP posts:
elp30 · 16/05/2022 23:52

IstayedForTheFeminism · 16/05/2022 02:32

Gherkins are a specific type of pickled cucumber.

I love granola.

I like sourdough with avocado or kippers and poached egg.

By homemade fajita do you mean the traditional spicy chicken? Or anything in a wrap? I ask because if I say fajitas I mean ckicken/onion/pepper in a wrap. When my dc put tuna mayo in a wrap its a tuns mayo wrap. My friend says anything served in a wrap is called a fajita.

Regarding the fajita, your friend is very wrong!

Fajita, relates to "fajas" or strips of meat. Originally and traditionally fajitas were made from strips of skirt steak, not chicken.

"Anything in a wrap" is a "fajita" is an odd one because "wraps" are not a word to Tejanos, such as myself. They are "tortillas". And it's still incorrect. A flour tortilla, wrapped around meat/vegetables are called, "burritos". If you put those same fillings with cheese and fold the flour tortilla and heat them up on a skillet, it's a "quesadilla", if you put those same fillings in a flour tortilla but just close it in a half moon, it's a "taco". However, generally, only corn tortillas make a "taco" to Mexicans. The flour tortilla is generally most used along the border with the US and those people from the border, such as myself, we call the, "soft tacos".

There's your culinary lesson for today.

TheGetaway · 17/05/2022 08:39

Some granola contains honey - therefore not vegan.

I hate the term ‘plant based’.

Innocenta · 17/05/2022 09:40

I'm a monster and put marmite on sourdough Grin

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