To think there is a MORAL OBLIGATION to share recipes if asked?

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Look, it's just a pickle recipe. Your daughter gave me a jar, it tasted delicious and I asked for the recipe when I'd finished the jar because we'd all fought over the last spoonful.

You live 200 miles away and you have refused to give out the recipe.

It's an outrage.

I shall share my secret with you all:

Lard. Lard is the secret.

It is the secret to fabulous proper bread pudding, baked in one of these

It is the secret to the yummiest pastry ever.

It is also the secret to scrummy, yummy bubble and squeak.

AND it is, in fact, a healthy fat.. Full of Good Fatty Stuff.

I can now rest easy, knowing The Secret will not die with me

It's OK to ask and it's OK for someone to say no (without being a tragic freak).

Google it.

I was going to name and shame Nigella for nicking recipes but then I remembered that she does credit people.

So does Sophie Grigson. I got the Meat Course book of hers to accompany a TV series from 20+ years ago which was a good guide to buying, preparing and cooking meat when you don't know what you're doing. She credited people all over the shop.

Another good one is Leith's Fish Bible. Hundreds of recipes and buying, preparation and substitution tips. I think I went a bit mad when I talked about the Ada Boni and Mapie books as having thousands of recipes . Mere hundreds.

All worth hunting down on Amazon though.

I like to think that Mapie, Comtesse Guy de Toulouse-Lautrec was an intrepid siren of the Resistance when she wasn't whipping up une omelette fine herbs pour les downed officeurs gallant of le RAF.

Oddly enough, they're all women, aren't they?

If you haven't any lard you can use suet.

Ah now, limited, suet is, strictly speaking, for dumplings, suet puds and suet pastry. All delicious, I grant you

It's just not as ... lardy as lard!

Does anyone have a recipe for lebkuchen? missespoint

I never get that nicking recipes thing though. If I like a poem, I can't just publish it in a book of poetry saying "oh yes, here's one I'm dead partial to, it's actually by Simon Armitage", can I. But with recipes all you have to do is say faux-graciously someone else did it. Or, if you're Nigella, "oh, I did this myself and then just happened to find it was oooh identical to XXX's" like she does with Claudia Roden's orange and almond cake.

Lard is great for roast spuds too.

And thinking about the healthiness of lard in comparison to many fats, maybe the lardy cake is actually a healthy cake? is that wishful thinking?

It is indeed Jux!

Nigella does credit.
She uses other recipes, but she does give credit.
I like it a lot, because when she credit someone I haven't heard of I go and research their books.
I have a huge and bloody brilliant book by Richard Sax whom I'd never knew about because she used one of his recipes. A chocolate cake with lots of cream.

Opoh, and, lest we forget - Lardy Cake!

She credits, but my point stands that poncing about breathily crediting people is still just poncing about crediting them.

Not that I spend hours devising my own recipes, mind although doesn't Nige have a team doing that for her anyway?

Depends, if they're planning on making money (even at just a bake sale), then of course they can't share. But otherwise, I don't see why not.

Some people are very guarded about their secret recipes.

BoreOfWhabylon

You are right and I always have bought lard or dripping in my fridge.

I also have bits of fat cut from various animals that I render and strain and store like I am Dr Victor Frankenstein. My cat is far too skinny to have to worry but he likes to chew on the pork crackling. It's good for his teeth and gums and cheaper than Dreamies

I tried to explain to someone once that the point of jam roly poly is the faint taste of animal fat. Nothing else will do. She looked horrified.

That said, have you tried Aunt Bessie's Dumpling Mix? I always used to make dumplings with suet, usually Atora, but sometimes with the fresh stuff cut off kidneys plus plain flour, salt, water.

They were always a bit hefty because I'm not that good. Then my mum introduced me to the Aunt Bessie's dark side.

At first I resisted, because I am a fucking snob. But then she brought up a packet and made them. Dream food, if you like that fat and carb heavy stuff. And let's be honest, what normal person doesn't?

They work every time. I am running low on the packets and there isn't an Iceland near me. I'm going to have to set out with a wheely case to Clapham Junction because, as they say in Game of Thrones, winter is coming.

I used to make some lovely biscuits with lard.

Must dig out that recipe.

Haven't tried Aunt Bessie's - but I will do now!

My Granny used to render down fat and I have been known to do so myself, but for suet I stick with Atora (not the veggie version though)

Oh, and SR flour and Atora (half fat to flour) makes lovely fluffy dumplings.

Well, lard was the very last thing I thought I'd take away from this thread but I'm intrigued by its many uses. Do you just use it like butter then, eg, like in the bread pudding?

YOu can use goose fat instead of lard in cake recipes and for pastry.

Bread pudding:

Soak a lot of stale white bread in water for a while
Grab handfuls and squeeeeeze water out
dump bread in mixing bowl
Add sugar, dried fruit, mixed spice according to tast (you have to do it a few times to judge how you like it)
Chop up 2 - 4 ozs lard into small pieces and add to bowl (see above)
Beat everything together with wooden spoon
Turn into greased enamel dish
Bake @ around 180 until done (should still be a bit moist inside)
Scatter sugar on top.

For pastry use half fat to flour and make sure at least half the fat is lard, other half can be butter or marge.

Thanks Bore, will try that and pass it off as a 230 year old family recipe

Bore, my mums Bread Pudding also has a (not) healthy amount of Black Treacle and golden syrup added. Food of the fatter Gods

i always share them because that way there are more people cooking good food in the world, why would i want to stop people eating good food?
i have a lovely recipe book with ones ppl have shared with me and it's like a potted history of my life "dascha's mulled wine" "so and so's soup" etc, i always think of those friends when i'm cooking their food.
thinking about it, i do always credit them when i pass the recipes on though, i would never claim "olga pudding" as my own. that would be wrong.
but sharing recipes in general-why not?
ps thanks for the bread pudding recipe, i will try that this week