Corned Beef – the most dangerous food?…

or we get cast out into exile in Cheshire, which everyone knows is just an outpost of the south, inexplicably marooned in the north.

Oi! Don’t make me have to send my man round.

Fray Bentos in Uruguay, where corned beef comes from.

With family routes in Aberdeen, the story of the dodgy corned beef typhoid epidemic rung around my grandparents house. Never got corned beef there….

https://www.aberdeenlive.news/news/history/tinned-beef-started-typhoid-outbreak-6524105

these beauties… the goblin pudding!

Meat & Gravy? Is that as close as they can get to ID’ing the contents?

Before long, the outbreak was traced back to Scottish grocers William Low and an unsuspecting tin of corned beef from Argentina.

Pollution from the waters of the Uruguay River was thought to be the source of the contamination, which ultimately spread through the meat machines at Fray Bentos which were then sold at William Low supermarket on Union Street.

That makes no sense at all, obviously not corned beef from Argentina – Fray Bentos is a town in Uruguay.

Sounds like anti-Argentine propaganda to me.

Meat & Gravy? Is that as close as they can get to ID’ing the contents?

Some things you’re just better off not knowing

Sausages being another prime example

I suspect ‘lips’n’arseholes’ is the answer to both

That makes no sense at all, obviously not corned beef from Argentina – Fray Bentos is a town in Uruguay.

Sounds like anti-Argentine propaganda to me.

I think it’s Fray Bentos the brand rather than Fray Bentos the town. It appears it was a contamination at a plant in Rosario, Argentina of a tin of Fray Bentos branded corned beef. But Rosario is not on the Uruguay River, so it does sound a bit bollox the way it’s been reported.

Well they said “the meat machines at Fray Bentos” were contaminated, which means Uruguay to me.

Edit: Btw did you know that Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara Lynch was born in Rosario? He definitely wasn’t Uruguayan.

Fray Bentos in Uruguay, where corned beef comes from.

Possibly some of it does, but the vast majority of it comes from Brazil, and Argentina.
Made from Beef brisket.

Great camping food. Break up a tin of it into a pan and add a tin of backed beans.

Sausages being another prime example

Sausages out the local butchers will be mostly lean meat trim, some fat, rusk and seasoning. Supermarket, the frozen or in mass made ready meals kind, wont be as nice. From a bakers like greggs forget it. Bakers sausagemeat is mostly fat and rusk, and very little meat content. Personally I’d never buy a sausage roll out of greggs. yucky yucks

I had a tin recently for the first time in ages. Yeah the tin got me. I can’t believe it isn’t sold in a safer way.

Bloody yummy though as a grilled toastie with cheese, onions and Worcestershire.

Personally I’d never buy a sausage roll out of greggs. yucky yucks

Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it! 😉

When I moved countries I spotted a butcher with the following above his name “corned beef a speciality”

I though it was odd for a butcher to promote having loads of tins of corned beef.

It’s not quite what I thought.

Speciality Meats

Bacon grill for me – out the tin and in the pan…utterly unhealthy due to the salt and other nasties, but I can eat tins of that stuff non-stop once it has been cooked and the slices/chunks are crisping.

Off to shop to go buy some now!

Sweet FA…

Bit of a English language history lesson for you… relating to crunchy corned beef. “sweet FA” is nowadays used to mean “f*** all”. But it originated as Sweet Fanny Adams. She was a girl who was murdered and dismembered, in 1859, in the town where I grew up. In the British navy the canned beef was so bad that sailors would joke “what’s in this, sweet Fanny Adams?”

Everyday is a school day.

Mashed monkey

My butcher used to make corned beef and turkey pies. Awesome.

The finest abattoir floor scrapings come in a tin – always have, always will!

🤔 But, then, there is Haslet…just with added stale bread 😁

Just looking at the contents of a tin of corned beef is enough to induce nausea. 🤢

Just looking at the contents of a tin of corned beef is enough to induce nausea.

Cooked Beef (98%), Salt, Preservative: Sodium Nitrite

I suppose if you are vegan/vegetarian then it might just do that, but theres nothing in it otherwise most people would find repulsive.

Hmm, he said looking at the contents not reading the ingredients. Having googled for images I think I’ve seen canned dog food that looked more appealing than a tin of corned beef.

I’m a northerner and sad to say that corned beef is in the same category as spam. Something that should’ve been phased out with ration cards.

Firstly,if you injure yourself on a corned beef tin then you are bellen#.
Corned beef hash and beans is fabulous.

Is Fray Bentos still sold in the northern provincial towns?

How very dare you….if there’s one thing northern provincial towns know about, it’s pies.

You might find them in Manchester, Liverpool or Leeds, but every godforsaken post-industrial hill town has it’s own, wonderful specialists.

In Burnley, it’s Haffners. http://www.haffners.co.uk/pies/

They are truly amazing.

binners
Full Member
They’re compulsory Ernie. Every northern household has to have one at least once a week or we get cast out into exile in Cheshire, which everyone knows is just an outpost of the south, inexplicably marooned in the north.

Bloody hell, you live in Ramsbottom, basically Knutsford’s unacknowledged bastard brother.
Jesus H Corbett, you even had an artisan pie festival a few years ago.
I know. I was there……and it was delicious.

Im not sure Fray Bentos steak or steak/kidney can be classed as a pie. It’s certainly something, but pie 😕

It’s the type of thing you find left untouched on some abandoned supermarket shelf, 6 months after a nuclear armageddon

Jesus H Corbett, you even had an artisan pie festival a few years ago

Why do you think I moved here? Pie-fest. I think ‘artisan’ is probably stretching things a bit. The best pies were my mate Alex’s cheese and chilli ones, which are off the ****ing chart! He’s an HGV driver and if you accused him of being ‘artisan’ he’d probably head butt you!

To be fair Alex is a pretty poncy name for a HGV driver.

What is all this north talk. I grew up in Oxfordshire, live in Dorset ate it loads as a kid and when cooking from the man alone menu cornbeef hash (made with tin potatoes) is a classic.

Bloody yummy though as a grilled toastie with cheese, onions and Worcestershire.

That is going on the lunch menu!

To be fair Alex is a pretty poncy name for a HGV driver.

I would pay good money to watch you say that to his face 😂

Anyway… he makes ****ing awesome pies!

same category as spam. Something that should’ve been phased out with ration cards.

No way- cooked spam fritters tonight!

When I stopped being a vegetarian about 5 years ago, after making up for lost time with chorizo, prosciutto & salami I got my Mum to make a corned beef pie😋

I would pay good money to watch you say that to his face

Well let me know when he’s next driving his HGV to Croydon.

Making your own cheese and chilli pies sounds a bit poncy too.

The best pies were my mate Alex’s cheese and chilli ones, which are off the ****ing chart!

I knew there was a reason I liked you….yes they were **** amazing.
Sat outside a church in Rammy, in the sunshine, with Mrs S, eating pies and deciding which stout to neck next……life is good.

Making your own cheese and chilli pies sounds a bit poncy too

I’ll get him to make you a proper working class turnip pie then, eh comrade?

You won’t need any chips with it. Your shoulder will easily take care of those. 🙄

Are you sure that Alex doesn’t drive a bakers van?

Now Ernie had a rival
An evil looking man
Called Two Ton Ted from Teddington
And he drove the bakers van
He tempted her with his treacle tarts
And his tasty wholemeal bread
And when she saw the size
Of his hot meat pies
It very near turned her head

Making your own cheese and chilli pies sounds a bit poncy too.

Make your mind up. We were Fray Bentos eating troglodytes not so long ago. 🙂

Anyway, Corned Dog.
Freezing cold, fresh from the tin, on an oven bottom muffin with butter and mustard.
Heaven.

Make your mind up.

Well I thought HGV drivers were suppose to strangle hitchhikers for a hobby, not make cheese and chilli pies.

In between killing prostitutes I’m sure he has time to hand raise a particularly fine crust.

Anyway, seeing as we’re on the subject, tell us about London pies…I’m genuinely intruiged.*
The mash and parsley liquer sounds fine, but what distinguishes a London pie from one south of Deansgate?

And any recommendations for the genuine article?

*There was a great Jay Rayner article about London Caffs and pie shops a while ago, but real life recommendations would be ace.

Ta in advance!

Sausages out the local butchers will be mostly lean meat trim, some fat, rusk and seasoning

Having made sausages and kebabs (proper chip shop ones) when I worked at various butchers between my 17-20th year I’d question your ideas on that. I’ve not eaten a kebab since!

I once worked for a place night shift boning out lamb fours(Shoulders of lamb) and flanks for kebab meat. Personally from a professional point of view i found they were very diligent in the quality, and insisted on near religious trimming of anything that would make it unpleasant, as in bone fragments, ligaments, gristle, skin.

As to sausages in a retail butchers. Theres two items that must be top quality. Mince and sausage. If either are rubbish the shop will be shut in under a year. When you break down carcasses, you have the main cuts, roasting, stewing, frying etc, and a shed load of trim.
Now while in wholesale the price of the entire side of beef might be £1.20/pound, this means fillet, shoulder etc is £1.20/pound, but also bone, fat, connective tissue, gristle etc is also £1.20/pound.
So to remain in business you really need to be able to sell that trim, and in that its lean meat trim goes to mince, and fatty/meat trim goes to sausages. What you throw out needs to me pretty much gristly bits and bone only, the rest you really need to sell or you will not remain financially viable as a business.
If the sausage or mince is fatty, then the customers wont buy it, and if you cannot sell the trim, then you lose a substantial part of the side of beef you’ve bought.

If I ever move back to the UK (gone 15 years) I’ll be heading north.

Best pie shop I have come across was down south in Oxford. Wether it is still there I have no idea…

and having done plenty of butchering and sausage and burger making I would agree with what has been said above. Providing you buy your sausages from a butcher and not the cheapest supermarket stuff then it will be proper meat.