Stuffed

A couple of weeks or so ago, it came to mind that we had not had stuffing for a good while, with search this afternoon suggesting well over a year ago, as noticed at reference 1. Seems a bit improbable, so perhaps I will check again later. Was it so bad that I failed to notice it?

BH had a chicken in the freezer, a loaf shortly thereafter (snapped above), so all that remained was to knock up the stuffing, a knocking up which started in the margins of a visit to St. Luke's, as noticed at reference 2. Managed the necessary bacon, but not the nuts or sage, but on return BH discovered that she had a 100g bag of Turkish hazel nuts at the back of the cupboard, not so many months past their best-before date. They looked OK and the couple I tried tasted OK. While I sourced a couple of packets of Kenyan (leaf) sage in Waitrose. 20g a packet.

On day minus one, I took the crumbs out of the interior of the loaf, a little damp, but they dried off well enough. I used the crusts for cheese and onion sandwiches, something I don't have very often, brown bread not being suitable at all, for which these soft white crusts did very well. Left the crumbs, chopped nuts and chopped sage (half a packet off to the freezer) overnight. In the morning, added onion, celery and two eggs. Forgot about pepper and we don't usually use salt. It filled our white pie dish nicely, after which it was roofed with about half the bacon from M&S. No oil, either in or on the mix, excess oil having been an issue in the past. Serving suggestion: eight portions.

One dodgy looking nut discarded.

The other half of the bacon went on top of the chicken.

BH told me about using extra chicken wings to make gravy, but too late to be able to actually do it. It sounded like a good idea, something to be tried on the next occasion, perhaps at some point during the Christmas festivities - turkeys being a long time in the past for us.

In the event, we had seven servings out of the chicken, plus the soup. Seven servings out of the stuffing, plus grazing. When the stuffing was hot, I did wonder about whether some oil would have been a good idea, but cold it had firmed up and I decided that it would not have been.

With the snap above looking very like that half way down at reference 1, with spot the difference being the beer now instead of the wine then.

On the plate, hot. Stewed plums for dessert, red and foreign, probably from some warmer part of Europe.

Then cold for a couple of meals, the stuffing spinning the chicken out well. Plus a meal for one somewhere along the line.

The soup, more pork and lentil than chicken, came after that and has already been noticed at reference 3.

PS 1: further search only turns up reference 4. On which occasion we declined stuffing, with some talk about it being too hot.

PS 2: inquiring about turkeys, I find from reference 5 that we did do turkey 2006-2009. One of them probably from the butcher in Cheam, a good enough turkey, but rather dear compared with the offering from Sainsbury's. Too dear, given that we are not that keen on turkey. Probably keener on its symbolic value than on its culinary value. Nothing in the next volume, although plenty of mentions of Turkey. And it is not just nuts that we buy from them.

PS 3: another economic puzzler, this one from the September number of 'drinks business', ex Raynes Park. The story is that Jeremy Hunt's hike on the tax payable on spirits - whisky being a lot of this - last year cost the Treasury £300mn in lost revenue. Furthermore, the consequent hike in the rate of inflation cost the Treasury an extra £2.3bn in borrowing charges. Lifted from the Scottish Whisky Association (SWA) at reference 6. I dare say there is a name for the situation in which revenue falls when you raise the rate, but I forget what it is, assuming, that is, that I ever knew. 

I had a little poke, as is my wont, and it seems that the best source for statistics is going to be HMCR, if their detailed guidance at reference 7 is anything to go by. While reference 8, from where the snap above is taken, suggests that the SWA may have chosen the period for comparison with care. There is also the question of the trade betting, in effect, on changes in duty. Or is economics nothing to do with it: just the puritan streak in our governing classes peeking out a bit? Or the health streak? 

On the off-chance I have a go with National Statistics, where the best I could do in ten minutes is the snap above, taken from something called the Retail Sales Inquiry. Nice long series, impressively jagged in recent years, but I have yet to find out what the percentage which it graphs is. 

Then I turn up the publication snapped above.

From which I extract the snap above, in millions of pounds a year. Cash.

So there looks to be lots of data there. Just a question of getting at it. Maybe I will do a bit more a bit later.

PS 4: there is also the SWA puff at reference 9. There is also something called IBIS which produces lots of industry reports  - instantly available at getting on for £1,000 a pop.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/04/black-legs.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-last-luke.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolley-758.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/chicken-lite.html.

Reference 5: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=turkey.

Reference 6: https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/newsroom/hunt-tax-hike-on-scotch-cost-nearly-25-billion-new-analysis/.

Reference 7: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/excise-notice-39-spirits-production-in-the-uk/excise-notice-39-spirits-production-in-the-uk.

Reference 8: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/alcohol-bulletin/alcohol-bulletin-commentary-february-to-april-2022#alcohol-duty-receipts-from-spirits.

Reference 9: https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/media/2170/scotch-whisky-economic-impact-report-2024.pdf.