Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic A question about British and European Dinning

Recently we were watching a children's video, 3-2-1 Penguins, and one of the characters is from England, a GrandMum type, don't you know.

Anyway, she mentioned several dishes by local names and I have no idea what they are.

Bangers and Mash

Something called swib <?>

and

Haggis, but her description of Haggis is not what I thought it was.

James

James, bangers and mash is sausages and mashed potato. That's real sausages, not the weird flat stuff you get in some US restaurants.

I have never heard of swib, or even anything sounding remotely similar.

Haggis is a Scottish dish - LabRat or Loriel could tell you more about it than I can. All I know is that it's spherical in shape, and that the ingredients are sewn up in the lining of a sheep's stomach. What those ingredients are I could not tell you!


Wendy

LabRat can tell you that she's never tasted it and has no intention of if she can help it. Bleah. <g>

Here's a traditional Haggis recipe, I found on Google:

Lady Login's Receipt, 1856

1 cleaned sheep or lamb's stomach bag
2 lb. dry oatmeal
1 lb chopped mutton suet
1 lb lamb's or deer's liver, boiled and minced
1 pint (2 cups) stock
the heart and lights of the sheep, boiled and minced
1 large chopped onion
1/2 tsp.. each: cayenne pepper, Jamaica pepper, salt and pepper

Toast the oatmeal slowly until it is crisp, then mix all the ingredients (except the stomach bag) together, and add the stock. Fill the bag just over half full, press out the air and sew up securely. Have ready a large pot of boiling water, prick the haggis all over with a large needle so it does not burst and boil slowly for 4 to 5 hours. Serves 12.

No idea what the lights of a sheep are and somewhat terrified to find out really.

LabRat

Personally, I prefer the links to the patties...you can usually specify links and get them in most places...

More on 'swib' in a moment...

Ok, that gibs with what the Grandmum said.

Eeww, that sounds disgusting.

As to lights...that has to do with the lungs...truly disgusting.


As to 'swib', that was sort of a typo, I meant to type sqwib or it could be squib. I'm sure that I will be watching the show again tonight(This will be the 15th or 16th time...) I'll turn on the CC to see if I can get the spelling.

I also had another question...Why would the GrandMum refer to her grandkids as 'bugs'?

James

Now, funnily enough, when I was posting earlier I did wonder if you'd meant squib as that rings faint bells with me. The problem is I have absolutely no idea why.

Yeah, now you know why I've successfully avoided it for all these years.

As for bugs - beats the heck out of me.

LabRat

Do you mean squid, by any chance, James? A squib isn't food, as far as I know... we do talk about a damp squib, as in something (like a firework) which hasn't exploded properly...


Wendy

I don't suppose it could be a squab? That's a baby pigeon, and people do eat them.

I think GrandMum is saying "little bunks" not bugs...

Can't help you on the squib thing, tho. Unless it was bubble and squeak?

PJ
who has also sat through this video many many many times but can't find it right at the moment, to check

Over on this side of the pond, the haggis is sanitized a bit for North American palates. I had it once where they left out the heart and lungs and all this bits most of us here won't eat, and it was actually quite good. But I won't be volunteering to eat any of the authentic stuff!

Irene

Eeeeew! Haggis sounds disgusting.

It sounds even more disgusting than czarnina or "duck blood soup." It's a Polish delacacy. Growing up, my parents used to tell me it was "chocolate soup" so my sister and I would eat it. We wondered why they called it chocolate, though, because it didn't taste like it at all , but we ate it and enjoyed it. However, since I found out the ingredients, I haven't been able to eat it since.

Here's the delicious recipe very similar to the one my grandfather's sisters used to use. http://recipe-beef.com/01/009034.shtml

- Laura U.

The Haggis recipe reminds me of a Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish) food called "scrapple". Basically, it is cornmeal and pork, cooked together til thick, then allowed to set (like an Italian polenta). My grandfather had this for breakfast everyday. (We kids could never be convinced to try it.) He would slice it and fry it in butter, then eat it with maple syrup on top.

I tried searching the web for a recipe, but the ones I could find all called for "pork shoulder". That's not the way I remember it being made. As I recall it was made from the left over "scraps" of meat (hence its name), such as the pigs knuckles, heart, liver, etc. Mmmmm!


- Vicki

<shudder> Scrapple. I'd forgotten about it 'til you mentioned it... my step-dad ate it for breakfast a lot, with syrup on top... smelled nauseating.

I did like some PA-Dutch food, though. Loved how they did chicken pot-pie, which unlike what everyone seems to think, was not actually a pie with crust, top or bottom, just chicken and squares of pasta in gravy. Down here, I can find a fairly close substitute called "chicken & dumplings." mmmmm.... oh, and potato bread. I love potato bread.

PJ

Well, according to the CC it is bugs, but your are right, it is Bubble and Squeak that GrandMum was referring to...

On a side note, when I was telling Elisabeth about the Haggis, she said, "Is that why McDonald's food is so popular in Scotland?"

James

Actually, this Scot prefers Burger King. Chicken Royale...yum.

LabRat

...and this Scot-by-birth-if-not-by-parentage absolutely loves haggis. Which is odd, because if anyone's squeamish about eating weird bits of animals, it's me. The thing is, though, you can't tell what you're eating, because it's all minced up together into tiny pieces and it just tastes like spicy, meaty, dry mince with lots of oatmeal mixed in. Add neeps (turnips) and tatties (mashed potatoes) and you've got a meal made in heaven.

On a side-note, I've never heard anyone talk about 'GrandMum' over here. Granny, Gran, Nanna, Nan - that's about all I can think of right now.

Yvonne

Yeah, I have this experience with Scotch Pies.

I'm usually the most squeamish eater when it comes to icky bits, but no matter how many times I'm told the 'meat' in them is reclaimed, steamed off the corpse, offal, eyelids, etc <g> I still love them. Seems spices go a long way.

Although not a healthy diet option at all, so these days I tend to steal them off Stuart when I just can't resist temptation any longer and then feel terribly guilty.

LabRat

I've tried vegetarian Haggis and it's lovely... maybe you should all give up meat too, it's a lot less riskier that way, no nasty bits in my dinner

As for Bubble and Squeak... I once had to explain this to an American tourist when I worked in a restaurant as a waitress, and it didn't go to well. Basically it is fried mashed potato and cabbage... usually yesterday's leftovers... and it too is lovely. It's called bubble and squeak because that's the sound it makes when it's cooked.

After past my experience with the tourist, I must stress that 'Bubble and Squeak' is the name, there is no 'bubble' as a seperate entity from 'squeak'. You cannot have bubble and no squeak or vice versa. This was a concept she just wasn't able to grasp. I think she had the chicken pie in the end

Other dishes you may come across:

Toad in the Hole: Yorkshire Pudding (which aren't sweet at all, but a type of batter) and sausages (not flat )

Spotted Dick: A type of sponge pudding (sweet this time) with currants (which make it looked spotty).

Faggots and Peas: A type of meat ball... with peas (small green vegetable )

Mushy Peas: Green gunk found in a tin, or bought from the chippy with your cod and chips. You can make it yourself apparently, but I've never actually known anyone who does.

Hope that helps

Helga

yes, that was very helpful.


Thank you.


So is there any other strange European dishes that need to be revealed???

James

Well, I hear in some countries they eat tiny, slow racecars.

You know, "Look at the S-car go!"

S-car go?