Re: Dinner
 

Slow cookers are brilliant. Often use them at home if we're going to be out all day: 15 mins prep, and it's ready when we're back -- don't need to worry about an exact time, either.

Chicken and lemon tagine is a favourite, but the possibilities are huge.

Re: Dinner
 

are you serious? the smell of bacon frying/roasting is very RANK for me. And nope i don't eat any form of beef or veal bacon or pepperoni or turkey bacon etc

Re: Dinner
 

It's psychological as they have been brought up to despise pork and pigs. As my bf puts it when I query him (as he is otherwise very much a foodie), would you eat dog? (Actually I would but that captures the mindset).

Re: Dinner
 

Amen.

It's conditioning to dislike something. A Jewish pal told me it's too close to human meat....but also that he hadn't tried human meat or pork.....

Re: Dinner
 

The smell of bacon cooking is very distinct from that of pork (and one of the most delicious smells imaginable). But if you are talking about the smell from cooking it, how do you get that at Spinneys or wherever?

Re: Dinner
 

And you can use cheap cuts of meat, and they will be as tender as anything after 12 hours in one. Once you get used to it they are great, especially as you say prep time is minimal.!

Re: Dinner
 

bacon, pork...it's all from the same frigging animal!
it's a very distinguished smell and if you can't smell it then clearly you are accustomed to it.....all the supermarkets which have the port session reek of the smell.

Re: Dinner
 

You do not eat meat at all????

Re: Dinner
 

I'm not a fan of frying smells but frying pork is no different than frying chicken or beef. Fried chicken can easily have a greasy rank smell. True, bacon can be a bit strong if you let it burn but flavourwise pork is quite mild compared to, say lamb, which is much gamier than most pork products except ham.

MAT is correct. It's 1500 years of cultural tradition that is telling you to avoid pork. Which I still find odd because pork has traditionally been rarely available and pigs never seen in the Islamic world yet it was still so well known as haram. Funny to see how it was turned into a bogeyman, and I suspect it became one because it was easy to keep a product never seen and never tasted a haram one compared to other things that should have become haram, such as tobacco.

Re: Dinner
 

Not buying that. Bacon cooking has a smell, yes for sure, but they don't cook it in the supermarket.

Raw meat all smells similar (except for fish) assuming its at a similar stage of putrefaction. Cured meat (regardless of the type) can smell sour or smoky depending on the type of cure but that has nothing to do with the meat itself.

Re: Dinner
 

I just wonder to what extent the conditioning to dislike / be averse to it stems purely from its being haram. There are surely fairly obvious reasons for its being so -- pork contains harmful bacteria that proliferate in heat, and so when Islam came about pork was rightly seen as dangerous.

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i luv my chicken.......occasional beef (but only as a steak) and occasional lamb (but only in a curry).

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maybe i am mistaken here...but isn't pig meat the one only meat that goes off the quickest and as you said above is loaded with bacteria compared to other animal meat?

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Pigs are susceptible to certain types of parasites to which they are particularly vulnerable in hot climates and which can transmit to humans in hot climates when the meat is not handled correctly. I can easily see how this could have got codified as religious tradition by religions that are based in this region. Christianity took hold in the Roman empire which had a tradition of safely handling pigs. In the meantime the Copts and other non-Muslims have bred pigs resistant to these problems over the centuries so even here it is no longer such a concern.

Re: Dinner
 

i have never been in the pork session of any of the supermarkets out here and so i don't know if they pre-cook any of the meat on offer...but i can tell you there is definitely a smell from something they are doing to the meat and it's this smell that is very distinctive.