Best Of

On a more amusing and fruitful note, I have just made a perfectly amazing Salad Nicoise

This is not self praise, merely admiration of the dude who ever invented Salad Nicoise. There is a misconception that it is a summer salad for hot places, but that is so woing. It is ideal as consolation in winter (the umami, the spuds, the anchovies), as a light zzzzip of energy in summer, and it is great as a memory of summer in autumn, It is also extremely healthy and yet tastes as more-ish as the best fish and chips, it has a fast food gastro-vibe

The key is ingredients. You want the best of everything. Ortiz tuna in oil, Ortiz anchovies, Burford's eggs, the finest new potatoes (Jersey?), excellent bread to mop up, kalamata olives, really good capers, fine beans, just make sure everything is good. That means it is not cheap but it is still a world class culinary experience for about £15-20 a salad

Putting potatoes in whilst they are still hot, warm beans and soft boiled eggs at the last minute make sure it’s a perfectly non-summer meal.

I was weirdly going to cook that for some of my family tonight but they pooh-pooed it. Their loss.

Yes exactly! It's weirdly adapted to all seasons. The only difference is that in summer you probably reduce the spuds, a bit

It's also a fascinating example of a classic high quality dish where the "tinned" version of the main ingredient is better than the "real" version

I've had multiple nicoise salads where the chef boasts he uses fresh tuna, not tinned. But no matter how good it is (never that good), tinned is way better. Fresh tuna ruins the dish, weirdly. It dominates and the texture is wrong

Is there any other significant dish where that can be said? Tinned or canned is superior?

Corned beef and onion sandwuch

Not entirely convinced "corned beef and onion sandwich" is a globally iconic dish, but nonetheless I am intrigued. Why does tinned corned beef wim over cold roast beef? And what onions? Pickled? Fried? Raw?

Caramelised, maybe red onion. You'd want a sweeter hit against the salt of the CB

Ooh yes. I can basically taste that right now. MMM

My Dad, RIP, loved corned beef. Probably from his wartime and postwar austerity childhood, where it was practically a gourmet delight

He also had a lifelong love of cold pressed tongue (which I have inherited). It is delicious, and great in a sandwich with mustard

Again I figure this was austerity, offal and weird meat cuts were all that people could get - eg tongue. Sadly this also led to great British culinary cul de sacs, like overcooked school dinner liver, which tasted of ancient wellington boot

Corned beef is awesome.
Offal is generally delicious although I'm not a tripe fan particularly. Liver needs flash frying
Giblet stock for gravy. Nommers

Cow udder is a bit like tinned corned beef. If you're looking to try something unusual. And really quite difficult to buy.

On a more amusing and fruitful note, I have just made a perfectly amazing Salad Nicoise

This is not self praise, merely admiration of the dude who ever invented Salad Nicoise. There is a misconception that it is a summer salad for hot places, but that is so woing. It is ideal as consolation in winter (the umami, the spuds, the anchovies), as a light zzzzip of energy in summer, and it is great as a memory of summer in autumn, It is also extremely healthy and yet tastes as more-ish as the best fish and chips, it has a fast food gastro-vibe

The key is ingredients. You want the best of everything. Ortiz tuna in oil, Ortiz anchovies, Burford's eggs, the finest new potatoes (Jersey?), excellent bread to mop up, kalamata olives, really good capers, fine beans, just make sure everything is good. That means it is not cheap but it is still a world class culinary experience for about £15-20 a salad

Putting potatoes in whilst they are still hot, warm beans and soft boiled eggs at the last minute make sure it’s a perfectly non-summer meal.

I was weirdly going to cook that for some of my family tonight but they pooh-pooed it. Their loss.

Yes exactly! It's weirdly adapted to all seasons. The only difference is that in summer you probably reduce the spuds, a bit

It's also a fascinating example of a classic high quality dish where the "tinned" version of the main ingredient is better than the "real" version

I've had multiple nicoise salads where the chef boasts he uses fresh tuna, not tinned. But no matter how good it is (never that good), tinned is way better. Fresh tuna ruins the dish, weirdly. It dominates and the texture is wrong

Is there any other significant dish where that can be said? Tinned or canned is superior?

Corned beef and onion sandwuch

Not entirely convinced "corned beef and onion sandwich" is a globally iconic dish, but nonetheless I am intrigued. Why does tinned corned beef wim over cold roast beef? And what onions? Pickled? Fried? Raw?

Caramelised, maybe red onion. You'd want a sweeter hit against the salt of the CB

Ooh yes. I can basically taste that right now. MMM

My Dad, RIP, loved corned beef. Probably from his wartime and postwar austerity childhood, where it was practically a gourmet delight

He also had a lifelong love of cold pressed tongue (which I have inherited). It is delicious, and great in a sandwich with mustard

Again I figure this was austerity, offal and weird meat cuts were all that people could get - eg tongue. Sadly this also led to great British culinary cul de sacs, like overcooked school dinner liver, which tasted of ancient wellington boot

Corned beef is awesome.
Offal is generally delicious although I'm not a tripe fan particularly. Liver needs flash frying
Giblet stock for gravy. Nommers

Cow udder is a bit like tinned corned beef. If you're looking to try something unusual. And really quite difficult to buy.

Ooooooh udder. Never tried that

On the subject of lower quality things being better than their 'high quality' versions, I always buy fattier minced beef.

Isn't that actually quite obvious and well known? This is not meant to insult but don't most people realise the fattier the meat, the tastier it will be?

Hence the adoration of well-marbled ribye, or super fatty Kobe Wagyu

There are few meats more disappointing that an entirely fat-less fillet steak. Sure, the texture is butter-soft, but there is almost no flavour

On a more amusing and fruitful note, I have just made a perfectly amazing Salad Nicoise

This is not self praise, merely admiration of the dude who ever invented Salad Nicoise. There is a misconception that it is a summer salad for hot places, but that is so woing. It is ideal as consolation in winter (the umami, the spuds, the anchovies), as a light zzzzip of energy in summer, and it is great as a memory of summer in autumn, It is also extremely healthy and yet tastes as more-ish as the best fish and chips, it has a fast food gastro-vibe

The key is ingredients. You want the best of everything. Ortiz tuna in oil, Ortiz anchovies, Burford's eggs, the finest new potatoes (Jersey?), excellent bread to mop up, kalamata olives, really good capers, fine beans, just make sure everything is good. That means it is not cheap but it is still a world class culinary experience for about £15-20 a salad

Putting potatoes in whilst they are still hot, warm beans and soft boiled eggs at the last minute make sure it’s a perfectly non-summer meal.

I was weirdly going to cook that for some of my family tonight but they pooh-pooed it. Their loss.

Yes exactly! It's weirdly adapted to all seasons. The only difference is that in summer you probably reduce the spuds, a bit

It's also a fascinating example of a classic high quality dish where the "tinned" version of the main ingredient is better than the "real" version

I've had multiple nicoise salads where the chef boasts he uses fresh tuna, not tinned. But no matter how good it is (never that good), tinned is way better. Fresh tuna ruins the dish, weirdly. It dominates and the texture is wrong

Is there any other significant dish where that can be said? Tinned or canned is superior?

Corned beef and onion sandwuch

Not entirely convinced "corned beef and onion sandwich" is a globally iconic dish, but nonetheless I am intrigued. Why does tinned corned beef wim over cold roast beef? And what onions? Pickled? Fried? Raw?

Caramelised, maybe red onion. You'd want a sweeter hit against the salt of the CB

Ooh yes. I can basically taste that right now. MMM

My Dad, RIP, loved corned beef. Probably from his wartime and postwar austerity childhood, where it was practically a gourmet delight

He also had a lifelong love of cold pressed tongue (which I have inherited). It is delicious, and great in a sandwich with mustard

Again I figure this was austerity, offal and weird meat cuts were all that people could get - eg tongue. Sadly this also led to great British culinary cul de sacs, like overcooked school dinner liver, which tasted of ancient wellington boot

Corned beef is awesome.
Offal is generally delicious although I'm not a tripe fan particularly. Liver needs flash frying
Giblet stock for gravy. Nommers

I adore offal. In almost all form. Andouilettes! I actually relish the faint tang of urine, like Leopold Bloom

I've had great chitterlings, I've enjoyed tripe up to a point, and heart can be magnificent. It bursts with flavour. Just needs long and careful cooking

I draw the line at brains. OMG. Brains. The soft squidgy texture. Ach, no