Thursday, June 16, 2011
Ironmongery
Rather shocked by the price of hinges at our local Travis Perkins yesterday - not that I am complaining about the reliably helpful people from the teepee. I do not suppose their prices are any higher than anyone else's. But the shock was that eight 3 inch butt hinges came to £25 or so. And then there were the screws, the glue (common sense reigned here. No need for proof of age) and the timber to attach the hinges to. Further proof that is often a lot cheaper just to buy whatever it is from IKEA than to make it yourself. OK, so making it yourself you get all the satisfaction of hand crafting and you get to decide on the dimensions yourself, but it is not cheaper. And that is without counting one's time.
Which reminds me of the large number of wooden gates dotted around the Polseden Lacey estate. Foot passenger gates for when footpaths enter fields which might contain sheep or cows. New and substantial affairs, fashioned out of 4 by 4 (inches) if not larger timber, quite possibly oak. Probably weigh a hundred weight or more. Which brings me onto the gate furniture: all new and substantial, fashioned out of galvanised steel, with the flat bits maybe 5mm thick. Not the sort of stuff I would care to have to work with on the sort of vice that I have got. Gate furniture which is cunning enough to allow senior visitors to work it, to allow the gates to more or less shut themselves and strong enough to hold a cow trying to make a break for it. All of which suggests to me that one of these gates must cost hundreds of pounds by the time you have hung the thing. All presumably reflected in the leases on which the estate is farmed.
Although we did hear sheep (and probably lambs) there, our close encounter with sheep had to wait until I purchased an English leg from Manor Green Road, 6.25 lbs of it. Decided on three part cooking: half an hour at 190C, then two hours at 170C, then turn the oven off to let the leg rest for quarter of an hour. Leg rubbed down with lard before the off; oven opened once for basting. Turned out OK. Moist with just a hint of pink in the middle. But I erred in slicing a bit thick, which meant the slices were a bit chewy, in a way that I associate with frozen New Zealand rather than fresh English. Served with boiled cabbage and boiled new potatoes. The latter taste the difference from Sainsbury's (reduced to clear) and not too hot at all. BH explained that this was all down to the hot weather stuffing the tail end of the early potato season on Jersey.
I liked it rather better cold today, sliced thin.
PS: I read this morning in my new Mexican cooking book, that serious cooks of Mexican food make their own lard. That way your get a much nicer flavour than that of the rank stuff you (and me) get from the likes of Sainsbury's. But then I only use it to grease my bread tins these days, barring the occasional egg sar-knee.
# posted by Jim @ 8:22 AM 
