hi my name is bob and i work at my job

[pensnest]

We had jam roly poly for pudding today. That sentence brought to you by All Things British, and possibly difficult for other nations to parse. Never mind. Come here, order jam roly poly, and experience a revelation.

Anyway. We noted that it was in fact a vegetarian-friendly pud, and thus must be using vegetarian suet. Which is of course a good thing, but possibly the original beef-fat-from-around-the-kidneys version might have resulted in a fluffier pastry.

From whence, I found myself wondering, what happens to discarded beeve testicles?

There was a lot more information about the process of castration than I really cared to know, but you will be glad to know that I eventually found my answer: the discarded testicles end up either in pet food or in burgers.

You're welcome.

*

In quite different news, J Timberlake is giving a free concert in London on Friday. There is a lottery for tickets. I doubt I have any avid UK Timberlake fans reading here, but if you are, you can go here to enter the lottery for tickets.

I'm guessing the idea is to gauge how many dates he might like to perform when the Euro leg of the 'world tour' is set up?

Comments

[turlough]

Steamed puddings are certainly Very British. They also seem quite Victorian to me, though I don't really know why.

Pet food would have been my first thought so I'm happy to hear I was right :-)

I though Justin had stopped singing. I wonder what gave me that idea?

[watervole]

Suet - dumplings.

I'm not sure anything made with any kind of suet could be described as 'fluffy'...

Now, have you tried Yorkshire oatcakes? The kind you fry in a pan?

They are really nice - I like thin slabs of oaty fried porridge, especially with butter.

[pensnest]

Dunno, since (a) Justin, JC, Joey, Chris and Lance fairly recently recorded a song (for the latest Trolls movie), and (b) Justin has put out a single (called 'Selfish', and I will refrain from editorialising on that point) recently. It's all over Instagram, but I think you don't do Instagram. But did you see the Hot Ones interview on YouTube? It reminds me so very much of the Nsync interviews back in the day...

[pensnest]

I think dumplings can sometimes be fairly fluffy, or at least, not the boiled lumps of doom that they can also be! A really good suet pastry ought to result in something delightfully light. I have not really managed to achieve this, but I don't try very often, suet pudding being an unnecessary indulgence.

I have not tried Yorkshire oatcakes, but that sounds rather good.

[watervole]

The trick with dumplings is to cook them slowly and to add some baking powder to the mixture. That's my husband's trick. He says using SR flour isn't sufficient.

do try the oatcakes - Richard uses 50/50 oakflakes and oat flour - leave the mixture for several hours before cooking to get the best results.

[rikes]

Is suet something that you can easily buy in the UK, if you want to bake something like that yourself? I don't think it is here.

[pensnest]

Yes, it's readily available, not so much as beef-fat-from-around-the-kidneys, but in little pellets which have probably been dipped in cornflour or something so that they remain separated. Beef version and vegetable version both available.

Do you make dumplings? If so, what are they made from?

[rikes]

Not really, at least not the kind that you do. There are some dumpling soups, but the dumplings are smaller and glued together with egg, or in some parts of the country, blood. So they're not big and fluffy.