How do you eat your animals?

 

How do you eat your animals?

                        Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus)

The pig that Tom the piper’s son stole was actually an apple filled pastry and it made me wonder about other possibly misleading food items. I’m mainly thinking about local, British things.

Pigs in blankets, surrounding a roast chicken 

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The first that sprang to mind was ‘Pigs in blankets,’ a favourite accompaniment to roast turkey at Christmas. They are chipolatas wrapped in bacon rashers, very tasty and extremely salty. There are other versions, and I gather in the US that pigs in blankets are sausages wrapped in croissant dough, sometimes with cheese.

Hot dogs originated in Germany and/or Austria and made their way to UK in the early 20^th century via US. Eleanor Roosevelt served them to King George VI in 1939 in New York. Why dogs? They share a passing resemblance to a dachshund, a ‘sausage dog,’ and there was some question around 1880, about where the meat in them was sourced. Some queried whether it was from dogs, or horses. I suppose they might just as well have been called horses, and we might now be eating ‘hot horses.’

                                            Garibaldi biscuits
                                    Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

‘Fly cemeteries,’ more properly known Garibaldi biscuits, are currants or raisins squashed and baked between two strips of sweet pastry. Personally, Garibaldi biscuits are not popular, perhaps because of my older brother’s teasing. Legend has it that the biscuit was named after Guiseppe Garibaldi, after he sat on two biscuits while on a visit to South Shields in England.

                                        Toad-in-the-hole
                                    Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

‘Toad-in-the-hole’ was originally a means of making meat go further in poorer households. It usually consists of sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding batter, though historically other meats have been used. Batter puddings were popular in early 18^th century England.

‘Fish fingers’ are surely confusing to the thoughtful child, though they do have some relation to fish, if not actually digits. 

                                            Langues de chat
                                        Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Almost as horrifying are ‘langues de chat,’ for who would not baulk at the prospect of eating cats’ tongues? These are French-inspired sweet, crunchy biscuits in the shape of a cat’s tongue, and a genteel tea-time treat, or so I’m told.

                                                Welsh rabbit
                                            Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Travelling from France to Wales, we encounter ‘Welsh rabbit.’  No rabbit is hurt in this concoction of melted cheese on toast. It is thought that ‘rabbit’ was an insult, inferring that the Welsh were too poor to provide meat to eat. The name changed to ‘Welsh Rarebit’ in the late 18^th century in a bid to ‘gentrify’ the dish. It often has ale, or mustard, or Worcestershire sauce added to it for extra flavour, and makes a quick, satisfying meal or snack.

In Scotland, ‘Cock-a-leekie-soup’ is a traditional dish. It is made with chicken or chicken stock, and many leeks, and much pepper, and often has barley added to thicken it. Sometimes prunes are an additional ingredient, which give sweetness to complement and counteract the fiery strength of the soup.

Scotch Woodcock is not Scottish, and nor does it have anything to do with the elusive, declining Woodcock (Scolopax Rusticola) It was a popular dish in the mid-19^th century at the House of Commons and the then élite Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. It consists of scrambled eggs and anchovies served on toast, and was recorded in ‘Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management.’

‘Chicken of the Woods’ (Laetiporus sulphureus) is not a bird, either, but an edible mushroom found on the trunks of woodland trees, commonly oak or sweet chestnut, from late spring to autumn. Said to taste of chicken, it has a similar texture to chicken, and is useful in vegetarian stews in lieu of meat. It is also an important food for much wildlife, particularly some beetles which only feed on bracket fungi.

Tom

 

Tom

Scanned page from 'The Baby's Opera' by Walter Crane, 1878 edition by McLoughlin Bros. in New York.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

YP was the inspiration, if that’s the appropriate word, for this post.

There are two nursery rhymes I know about Tom. In each he is a piper’s son, but one presents him as a thief, and the other as a musician.

Tom, Tom, the piper’s son,
Stole a pig and away did run,
The pig was eat, and Tom was beat
And Tom went crying down the street.

The pig in question was not a hefty mammal, but a type of apple-filled pastry, maybe like an apple turnover.

The origins of the ‘thief’ version are unknown, but it was first printed about 1795 in London.

The longer version, touting Musical Tom, was printed at the same time as the shorter verse. It was adapted from a popular rhyme from the late 17th century, as a recruitment song to encourage volunteers to join military campaigns in the early 18^th century (1705)

Tom’s skill was such that everyone enjoyed his music.

Tom, he was a piper’s son,
He learnt to play when he was young,
And all the tune that he could play
Was o’er the hills and far away.
Over the hills and a great way off,
The wind shall blow my top-knot off.

Tom with his pipe made such a noise,
That he pleased both the girls and boys,
They all stopped to hear him play,
‘Over the hills and far away.’

Some found themselves forced to dance.

Tom with his pipe did play with such skill
That those who heard him could never keep still;
As soon as he played they began for to dance,
Even the pigs on their hind legs would after him prance.

Tom’s music entranced Dolly, a milkmaid.

As Dolly was milking her cow one day,
Tom took his pipe and began to play;
So Dolly and the cow danced ‘The Cheshire Round’
Till the pail was broken and the milk ran on the ground.

The Cheshire Round (or Rounds) was a country dance and a prime feature of social gatherings in 17^th century England,

 Following that, Tom’s enthusiasm led him on to further capers.

He met old Dame Trot with a basket of eggs,
He used his pipe and she used her legs;
She danced about till the eggs were all broke.
She began for to fret, but he laughed at the joke.

Finally, he used his piping talent for a good cause.

Tom saw a cross fellow was beating an ass,
Heavy laden with pots, pans, dishes, and glass;
He took out his pipe and he played them a tune.
And the poor donkey’s load was lightened full soon.

Magic carpet

 

Magic carpet

. . . or Flying Bedstead?

I was awake early, after a poor night’s sleep, otherwise I might have been startled into consciousness by an announcement from Tom Tom, courtesy of Barry’s iPhone.

‘Traffic is getting worse.

You are still on the fastest route.

You will arrive at 6:41.’

Then, half an hour later, came another announcement:

‘Traffic is getting worse.

You are still on the fastest route.

You will arrive at 8:10.’

I have no idea where we were headed, or why. Tom Tom had been playing up the previous day and not receiving traffic news. A factory reset solved the problem, but why it chose the small hours to prove itself is anyone’s guess.

Fields

 

Fields

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

A field of honour can be a battlefield or the setting for a duel, but ‘having a field day’ was originally a British military expression from about 1747 describing a day of manoeuvres or inspections out of doors rather than in indoor facilities. Soldiers would leave their barracks to practice battle drills and tactics. It was used in the Royal Navy to describe a day of ‘deep cleaning’ a ship.

Now it means deriving a good deal of pleasure, sometimes at the expense of others.

One may have a field day by playing the field, which can be fun for the principal player but not necessarily for the other participants. The others might not consider themselves ‘on a level playing field,’ where everyone has an equal chance of success, and of becoming ‘the best in field.’  

‘The Killing Fields’ is the term for mass grave sites in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge, under the control of Pol Pot, committed the genocide of between 1.3 and 3 million people between 1975 and 1979, about a quarter of Cambodia’s population at the time. 

Anyone who posed a threat, real or imagined, was either executed or worked to death. Intellectual and professional people, religious groups, including Christians, Buddhists and Muslims, ethnic Vietnamese and Thai groups, were considered an obstacle to the creation of a Communist agrarian civilisation, a so-called ‘classless’ society.

Ultimately, Vietnam invaded Cambodia, and overwhelmed the Khmer Rouge. Subsequent decades were spent bringing the perpetrators to justice, some of whom died before the conclusion of the trials, which ran from 2006 to 2022.

 Photographs

It was a bright, blustery day yesterday, with squally showers. There were some interesting cloud formations.

 I have discovered the purpose of the hideous building I mentioned last week. It is an assisted living development for people with learning disabilities and mental health needs. The aim is to enable people to live confidently with a greater degree of independence.

 It reminds me in some respects of the keep of a mediaeval castle. If the windows were any smaller they could pass as arrow slits. Construction was completed in May 2025. 

It is a two-storey building comprising four separate, self-contained apartments of five bedrooms with associated living space.

There is also a rooftop garden for residents.

The complex is situated in  an established residential area, close to the medical practice, library, community centre, and shopping centre. There are parks nearby and plenty of safe spaces to walk. 

I don't know how places are allocated, or whether there is an on-site warden.

Jiggery pokery

 

Jiggery pokery

Whereas Labradors will do anything for food, wherever it is presented to them, cats can be unpredictable. Jellicoe and Herschel are fed in separate rooms, because Herschel eats more quickly than Jellicoe, and then wants to eat his brother’s fare. In addition, each of them shows a preference for the other’s food, to the extent of walking away from their own bowls, and pretending indifference. Left to their own devices – that is, shut into their rooms - they will return to their dishes and finish their meals.

There has been a change in the last couple of days, with neither of them showing much interest in their own food. I have changed over the bowls and the cats, and that seems to have worked. It appears that they are fooled into thinking they are getting each other’s dishes, simply because they are each eating in the other’s ‘room.’

It is a little worrying, because Jellicoe is usually ravenous, but he has been a little spoilt recently with freshly cooked chicken, so he’s always looking around in the expectation of that particular treat.

We shall keep an eye on him. I’m sure he does it to keep us on our toes!

A game of chess?

 

A game of chess?

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Is politics a game of chess, or it is a guessing game? It shouldn’t be a game at all, of course, but it provides material for discussion.

There was a clever cartoon by Ella Baron in The Times this morning, so clever that I had to read the comments to understand it! Nothing unusual there.

I have not reproduced it here, as I don’t want to infringe copyright.

It was a satirical comment on the latest unsuccessful talks between the US and Iran, and showed J.D. Vance and his team facing Iranian negotiators across a table. Vance is holding a handful of playing cards, interestingly all showing Kings, and declaring, ‘We have all the cards.’ Their opponents have a chess board in front of them, so the two sides are not even playing the same game, which is a telling point. The Iranian spokesman is saying, ‘Checkmate,’ even though the chess position is not showing that.

‘Checkmate’ is a corruption of the Persian phrase. ‘Shah Mat,’ meaning ‘The King is dead.’