British Expats - Groceries

My husband hates lamb so I never cook it at home. I occasionally buy some from a friend who raises sheep for meat, it delicious and not the usual overly gamey flavoured Ontario lamb

Dorothy

Oct 2nd 2018 10:27 am

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by bats (Post 12571817)

My husband hates lamb so I never cook it at home. I occasionally buy some from a friend who raises sheep for meat, it delicious and not the usual overly gamey flavoured Ontario lamb

I had never had lamb until we moved to Australia but now I love it. I tried to cook a leg for my sister when I was home a couple of years ago but it just didn't taste right. I don't think Canada's climate is right for the lamb/sheep industry. They need places like New Zealand and the UK where there's lots of rain and a temperate climate so they can eat lovely green grass.

bats	Oct 2nd 2018 11:40 am

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dorothy (Post 12571911)

my sheep farming friend says the funky taste is due to several things: diet of course, grass fed is best but that's hard to do year round in Canada. The age of the animal and older gives a stronger flavour as in mutton.. Finally lanolin, more lanolin means stinkier. Rams have more lanolin as do wool coated sheep. Hair coated sheep don't have lanolin and that's what she farms.

BristolUK

Oct 2nd 2018 12:28 pm

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oakvillian (Post 12571675)

Yeah, but you have sensibly priced lamb. I'd rather shell out a bit more for a turkey once or twice a year and have access to a decent joint of lamb without a second mortgage. Even supposedly cheaper cuts (scrag end makes an excellent stew) is stupidly expensive here, when you can find it at all. I probably buy lamb chops a couple of times a year, and will spring for a leg to roast around Easter time - an unbeliever's culinary sop to his CofE upbringing - but that's about it.

Get thee along to Loblaws pronto. Boneless and short cut leg, both @ $6.99 lb according to the flyer for Mississauga. Offer on 3-pack of shanks too.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...30306131d1.png

Superstore here were advertising the same $6.99 and $5.99 for the short cut but they say they are still waiting for them. However, we got a couple from Walmart for a little less. We have four legs - including a couple of big ones - in our freezer. :o

BEVS	Oct 2nd 2018 12:29 pm

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by BristolUK (Post 12571941)

Get thee along to Loblaws pronto. Boneless and short cut leg, both @ $6.99 lb according to the flyer for Mississauga. Offer on 3-pack of shanks too.
Superstore here were advertising the same $6.99 and $5.99 for the short cut but they say they are still waiting for them. However, we got a couple from Walmart for a little less. We have four legs - including a couple of big ones - in our freezer. :o

Price of decent lamb here is shocking and yet NZ grows the blimmin' things. I see them everywhere - especially this time of the year.

scrubbedexpat091

Oct 3rd 2018 11:27 am

Re: Groceries

I will never understand why developers think apartment living means never needing an oven of normal size, anyhow as I kind of suspected the turkey is too big for the oven, even with the rack on the lowest setting the bird touches the burners.

So we will have to cut the turkey up then cook it that way. I am sure it will taste mostly the same, who knows never had to cut the turkey up before cooking it......

Lesson learned don't buy turkey again...ha ha

Siouxie

Oct 3rd 2018 1:06 pm

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12572491)

I used to have one of those ovens, a real pain in the bum. If you have a good pair of kitchen scissors you can cut the turkey down the middle, through the soft cartilage on the breast and through the rib edges at the other side, then cook each 'half' perhaps?
:)

BEVS	Oct 3rd 2018 1:16 pm

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by Siouxie (Post 12572528)

:nod:

Do you have a slow cooker J ? I think that's a crock pot over there.

scrubbedexpat091

Oct 3rd 2018 3:18 pm

Re: Groceries

We just cut the meat off the bone and cooked it that way. Worked out well and cooked quicker as well.

Dorothy

Oct 3rd 2018 7:48 pm

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12572560)

We just cut the meat off the bone and cooked it that way. Worked out well and cooked quicker as well.

Use the bones to make broth with. You will get more meat off them when they're boiled.

bats	Oct 4th 2018 12:09 am

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12572491)

Poor you. British/European people manage perfectly well without enormous ovens, refrigerators, washing machines, cars.
I have two ovens on my cooking stove and rarely use the larger one. We bought under the counter washing machine and dryer sizes, I hate the ugly huge fridge we have that is never full, the smaller one was more expensive so we went with the monstrosity.

caretaker

Oct 4th 2018 1:16 am

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jsmth321 (Post 12572560)

We just cut the meat off the bone and cooked it that way. Worked out well and cooked quicker as well.

So the lesson learned was how to cook without a big oven. I had to make do with the toaster oven for a few years until getting a stove with an oven door last winter. It's great for a chicken cut in pieces but half a turkey breast at a time was the most I could do. No problem at all.

BristolUK

Oct 4th 2018 6:01 am

Re: Groceries

Cook's Hams at Superstore, a ridiculous 99c lb. Prime Rib Premium roasts : $5.44 lb. Caulis 99c each. PC Sumatra coffee pods $4.99/12 with $1.20 worth of points on every $6.

It seems we have 6 legs of lamb, 5 Prime rib roasts and 5 turkeys among assorted chickens and other packs in our freezers. :o

Time to open a butcher's perhaps. :lol:

Siouxie

Oct 4th 2018 6:47 am

Re: Groceries

Quote:

Originally Posted by bats (Post 12572745)

I've lived in apartments in Canada where the ovens have been exceptionally small.. much smaller than the ones in the UK, which you can easily cook a turkey in - when I was growing up my mother used to cook a 20+lb turkey in ours! Some of the ovens I've come across here were 18" - 24" wide and had no depth or height and wouldn't take a turkey. When you are on a reduced income and need to cook a large item, you can't afford to waste any of it... . so yes, it can be a concern at times. I'd love to replace my small crappy fridge for a monstrosity. I couldn't afford a pair of front loaders let alone ones that fit under a counter, so it was a top loader washing machine for me.. but it's not a monstrous size - unlike the one my sister had in the UK! :)

Each to their own but for someone who has NO choice it's a bit unfair to compare! :)