Jack monroe challenged on twitter

[KarlWrenbury]

Maybe by a sock puppet account Etc but yes- how are they still not making ends meet after all this time ?

There have been budget cookbooks forever, of course it’s not her unique thing. We had one from the 1950s when I was growing up and I remember it saying to keep the oil from a tin of fish and use it in another recipe. this one’s from the 1850s.

Thanks @tenbob and @ermagerdabear, there was something about the phrase that sounded a bit strange to me and that explains it!

The thing that has always bugged me about Jack's whole philosophy, is that she's basically saying:

"I, an intrinsically middle class person, didn't deserve to become poor and I just could not tolerate the poor lifestyle! That's why I teach those real poors, the tracksuit wearing, Jeremy Kyle watching DESERVING poors, to rinse their spaghetti hoops so they can make a decent middle-class meal like cacio e pepe, or to put tinned peaches in their curry. Because everyone knows, actual poor people will think that even a bastardised pasta dish and weird food combos are aspirational for their ickle poor selves."

I don't think she's basically saying that at all!

Then you haven't read what she's said in interviews.

Somebody on another thread mentioned that there was a recent documentary about an American influencer whose promises to their followers didn't add up. I wish I could remember who it was about/which platform - does anybody know?

I don't understand Jacks cacio E Pepe recipe. A tin of spaghetti hoops is, let's say 50p from Aldi. You can also buy a packet of spaghetti for 50p and have some left over for other meals. Instead she advises rinsing the hoops under the taps and using those. Why?!! Save the hoops to put on some toast and buy a packet of cheap spaghetti instead. It just doesn't make any sense to me at all.

It is cooking on a shoestring or pulling yourself up by the bootstraps (the latter being quite a Tory notion, tbh. The idea that anyone can do it, without help, if they just try hard enough).

@ermagerdabear The bootstrap thing is SUCH a tell.

Save the hoops to put on some toast and buy a packet of cheap spaghetti instead. It just doesn't make any sense to me at all

I suppose it's the same school of thought as claiming you melt soap to make shower gel, rather than a) buying cheap shower gel b) using soap. The contortions are meant to prove something or other.

Yes actual budget help would be things like what MSE does, send you a weekly email / regular updates on their website telling you where you can get the cheapest deals right now.

The cheapest way to eat can depend on a number of things and includes taking fuel costs into account. So in some situations, a budget can of beans or hoops is ideal as it’s already cooked . In others, knowing how to cook from scratch using cheaper ingredients can save you money - so learning basic cooking skills, how to save food and reuse leftovers etc, is also very helpful.

I do think JM (alongside others) has provided this helpful info at times, but I agree there’s an element with her of having to make something wildly original with a “clever” trick that no one else would think of - resulting in some weird and not especially cheap concoctions. If you’re rinsing the (veg and vit C-rich) sauce off canned hoops you’re throwing important food away.

A lot of stuff she says doesn't make sense. Like boiling together soap and water to make shower gel - why not just use the soap in the shower? Anyway this is an interesting case of seeing where hubris gets the better of an influencer, much like the Mother of Daughters fiasco a few years ago.

Rinsing tinned spaghetti hoops for a recipe? .

I'd never heard that one, though one of her recipes recommended rinsing baked beans.

@darisdet first line here

😂 i thought it surely must be a joke. That's just embarrassing.

😅 Thanks @Bubblebubblebah

I agree with pp it's like boiling the soap to make into 'shower gel'. A false economy probably.

Though that can't taste great, the rinsed hoops.

Sorry, tagged wrong person for posting the recipe @ermagerdabear

Fuck me.

Jesus Christ. I just can’t. So not only did someone come up with this as an idea, but it then got published into an actual book? It beggars belief. What the hell are they all on?

Tinned pasta is nothing like dried pasta. Nothing, it’s sloppy. Nuking it in the microwave would also make it soft as fuck. Honestly it makes my stomach turn.

I’m intrigued why she’s still continuing to post on Twitter to get her point of view across, but has disabled commenting on virtually every one of her tweets. A bit like expressing an opinion and then shoving your fingers in you ears and shouting, “I can’t hear you!”

It all comes across as, because I’ve got ADHD, autism, RA, long covid, recovering alcoholic, it excuses/justifies my behaviour but also means no one can criticise me either.

To use a cooking analogy, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Totally
For more than 1 reason
1 - groceries.asda.com/product/shower-gel-body-wash/asda-strawberry-and-raspberry-shower-gel/1000064175190
2 - Cheapest bar of soap is nearly triple that price
3 - use of energy on top of the price
4 - just use the bloody bar!

I love bar soap

I think there's already a book called 'Cooking on a Shoestring' that I remember my mum making recipes from - maybe by Gail Duff?

At the beginning of the pandemic I couldn't get any handwash but managed to find some Dettol soap at the very back of a bottom shelf in the supermarket. (Never have I felt more kinship with the Soviet people.) It cost £1 for a twin-pack and lasted for flippin' ever, despite me going through months of excessive hand-washing. It was like the everlasting gobstopper of hygiene products.

Anyway, the account posting about Monroe had a screenshot from December where Monroe talked about the particular shampoo, conditioner and hair-dye she used. Maybe Monroe has been very careful in her wording. Has she been able to say that she hasn't bought any shampoo and conditioner for two years because she is perhaps given it as part of some sponsorship deal with Superdrug? Who knows?

Even earlier - Marguerite Patten provided recipes that could be made with wartime rations. Couldn't get much more basic than that.

Jack Monroe and Liz Jones have a great deal in common, imo.
Constantly changing back stories
Constantly repeating/embroidering anecdotes
Working eleventy billion hours a week
Constantly pleading poverty but demonstrating astonishing profligacy because they feel entitled to own nice things
Multiple self-diagnosed disabilities
Intermittent alcoholism
Proclaim themselves to be animal lovers and collect various animals which they patently have no idea how to care for
Disastrous relationship histories

Jack does have (relative) youth and various trendy gender identities on her side but Jones was at least a reasonably decent writer once.