General Chat

I think it might be my area but I will look. I did have a liver, bacon and mash ready meal yesterday with onion gravy. It was very nice but possibly the reason I was awake with indigestion until 2am!!! you can't win!!

Ann, have another look when you do your next Tesco online order. I've just done an order with them and they had pigs' liver, lambs' liver and lambs' kidneys all available.

Nameslessone, they certainly are :-S

Daughter and I saw the price on one item, then stood back from the counter so we didn't have to interact with the butcher, while we gasped at the prices!!!

We saw no offal.

Cobbs farm shops are soooooooo expensive.

Ah Maggie I had not realised you were not now near the town. Yes I know where the Worthies are My OH was stationed for a short while int the late 50s at Worthydown. I went to a Christmas ball there.
I have not heard of that garden centre.

I have a message from Detective who used to be on the boards. She follows the chat board and says the following.
"As Gwynn says, Waitrose has Lambs Liver on the butchery counter this weekend. They also had lambs hearts.
Pre-packed lambs liver was also available in the chiller cabinets and slightly cheaper than the counter. We bought 2 packs then divided them to make 6 portions, 4 ready for freezing.

Our main supermarket is Sainsbury's; Waitrose is used for top-up like the lambs liver today. I thought I'd had some in the freezer but didn't.

If they don't have any in the chiller section, they usually do in the freezers. Unfortunately, there is too much in the pack for one meal even with the 2 of us & meat shouldn't be refrozen raw after defrosting.

If it's impossible to prize off enough I usually do a liver, onion, bacon and (canned) tomato casserole the next day. That could be frozen in the required portion size. "

So Waitrose seems the place to go. Needless to say I can't get there without a car.

Ann, it was 'Cobbs' Garden Centre, which is in Headbourne Worthy.

I now live in the 'Worthy's', which consists of a series of villages/hamlets outside Winchester - Headbourne Worthy, Kings Worthy, Abbots Worthy and Martyr Worthy

Perhaps I should change my name to 'Maggie the Worthy one' :-D :-D :-D

I remember in the 'good old days' there was a chain of shops in Manchester and, presumably, in other northern towns, called the UCP.(United Cattle Products)

That sold all tripe and other exotic meat stuffs such as Savoury duck, pigs trotters etc

Lamb's liver on sale today at the butchery counter in Waitrose.

I think it was £8.50 a kilo.

names ........... my mother also used to make tripe. There were 2 or 3 types, and I preferred one of them to the others, but always ate whichever one she'd cooked ...... with a sprinkling of vinegar over it.

I seem to remember that we ate tripe, as well as horse meat, more often in the '40s than later on.

Maggie when daughter lived in your area they used to have a super butcher. He was not cheap and I couldn't begin to explain where his shop is. I think he is still there, it was in the Eastleigh direction by a river I will have to ask her but I am pretty sure there won't be a bus.
Which garden centre has a butcher? We were in both Bambridge and Haskins two weeks ago but didn't spot a butcher at either.

Andysmum, when I moved here, over 30 years ago, there was a fishmonger and butcher in the middle of town. Within 5 years, both had gone.

Winchester is now full of coffee shops, restaurants and mobile phone shops.

Sometimes, on market days, there's a fishmonger and/or a butcher - but not always.
I'd prefer to buy fish and meat from a shop, rather than a trailer open to all sorts of pollution.

There IS a butchers in a garden centre about 3 miles away from where I now live (outside Winchester), but no bus. Daughter took me one - it was expensive, and had no offal.
There's another butcher, recently opened - again not on a bus route - about 2 miles away. Not sure I could walk 4 miles up and down some very steep hills, nowadays :-(

As a veggie names, its all yeeeeuk to me :-D :-D :-D

I don’t like offal. Oddly I could eat school liver - probably because it was so over done.
I used to cook liver sometimes when it was cheap in the butchers but we haven’t done that for years and years. Happy with a steak pie butwould give the steak & kidney a miss.

Parents would sometimes treat ( :-S ) themselves to heart, pigs trotters or tripe. Personally I would rather starve. Don’t give me any Tongue either or brawn.

daughter, who has been hunting liver as well, says that lambs land pigs liver lambs kidney are all available on her Tescos order. I checked on mine not available. Although a liver ready meal is so I have ordered that one.

Strangely although I eat pork and, as a child used to eat pigs' fry cooked by Mum which included the liver, I usually If I can get any, buy lambs liver as it is not so strong. But I would settle for any.

I was in Morrison's yesterday and had a look at the fresh meat counter. They had pig's liver, kidneys and heart. Coop had nothing in that line.

Maggie, is there still a proper butcher in Winchester? If so, don't they sell offal? Perhaps it's a regional thing. :-(

I'm actually annoyed that I can't find meats I used to eat 20+ years ago!
We moved a lot as children, and to save money, would eat 'local' food.

In Malta, mum used to pickle octopus, I used to eat prickly pears.
In Scotland, we ate haggis.
In Cornwall (Mevagissey) we'd eat fresh fish and seafood - though we didn't eat the fish the cat 'gleaned' from the trawlers every day. and brought home to be cooked.

As an adult, we ate a lot of fish in Shetland, in Essex, as ag labs, we ate the pheasants left by the landlord, and our own ducks.
We acquired an abused, depressed drake, and bought a couple of females for company. We intended to keep the ducks for their eggs, but 'Peggy' duck would disappear, lay her eggs in the nearby wood, then reappear with 14 ducklings!

As a 'youff' on poor pay, I survived on offal. It has lots of vitamins, minerals and nutrients - more than muscle meat.
As an 'old biddy'. I'd like to eat more offal, but it can't be found. :-(

True story ...............

Daughter would eat liver somewhat unwillingly when we made it. OH was the cook back then, and she always asked for "just a small piece, Dad".

In her last year of high school, she had a part in a play, Pride and Prejudice. They had rehearsals going late into the evening as it came close to opening night. The school had a boarding house at the time, and the actors and actresses were allowed to eat dinner there. It was incidentally an all girls school and the actors were from the "brother school".

Daughter arrived home late in the evening, and her first words were ..................

"We had liver for dinner and it was MUCH better than yours, Dad" :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

If I remember correctly, it had been fried, when OH usually made a casserole.

I love kidneys but am also noy keen on the smell when they are cooking. Still also have not seen those in Tesco although pre Covid often used to buy them. I looked in quite a large butcher's display today in town, all sorts of meat but no liver.

I don't think I've ever tried heart. I used to buy liver for family meals, but haven't looked for it for ages, so I will check in the shops, when I'm shopping.
The smell of kidney cooking is unpleasant to me, although I'll eat it if served in a pie, but wouldn't choose it.
When a friend and I used to share a whole lamb bought direct from the farmer, I always gave her the kidneys.

A friend felt that her children ought to eat liver at family meals, but they disliked it when she served it. Time for a rethink.
Cut thinly in strips and stir-fried with vegetables and called Chinese meat, they always asked for more :-D