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"meal treats" in short supply?

(53 Posts)
Esspee Mon 28-Oct-19 19:05:29

The BBC is running a story about Christmas meal treats being in short supply due to lack of seasonal workers.
The example they give is of "pigs in blankets" which are labour intensive as the bacon has to be wrapped round the sausage by hand.
Do you agree that it is time that we oldies were hired to train the younger generations how to actually prepare their own food?

Pittcity Mon 28-Oct-19 19:11:06

How hard is it to wrap a bit of bacon around a sausage?
A lot of these things are simply a money making excuse. I am thinking of chilled jacket potatoes ( just put a potato in the oven or microwave) for example.

ginny Mon 28-Oct-19 19:20:14

Pancake mix. !

Calendargirl Mon 28-Oct-19 19:20:19

Burgers already in a bun, think someone bought one on Eat Well For Less recently.

Iam64 Mon 28-Oct-19 19:31:06

I don't think the issue is that people are unable to wrap a bit of bacon round a sausage. It's that many busy families where everyone works outside the home tend to buy pigs in blankets rather than make their own.
It's the lack of people prepared to do this as a job. I won't mention the B word of course.

fizzers Mon 28-Oct-19 19:33:18

sheer idleness, how long does it take to do that?

FlexibleFriend Mon 28-Oct-19 19:35:42

I don't get it, everyone bangs on about how busy families are today and that's why they can't do this that or the other. It's crap, I went back to work full time when my eldest was 10 weeks old and still managed to cook all our meals from scratch on a daily basis. I'm not and never was super woman so if I could do it why can't everyone else?

grannyticktock Mon 28-Oct-19 20:23:50

And we're talking about Christmas time, when people are on holiday. Are they really going to be sitting in their kitchens looking at a pack of chiplolatas and a pile of streaky bacon, saying, "How on earth do we do this?"

I am quite prepared to believe that a shortage of EU workers may mean a reduction in the availability of certain prepared foods, but pigs in blankets are not a great example to give us. If we can't obtain either the pigs or the blankets, I would be more concerned.

M0nica Mon 28-Oct-19 20:30:25

I once saw scrambled egg mix. Just add milk and some butter. Put in a pan and stir. I couldn't see the convenience. In the time it took to open the box and pour out the powder I could have broken eggs into the pan - and the rest is common to both.

Well, yes, milk yes or no, do you add butter but basically the same.

LullyDully Tue 29-Oct-19 07:39:12

Pigs in blankets is a great job for the kids. I would be more worried if the sprouts weren't picked or the potatoes dug up however.

Pantglas2 Tue 29-Oct-19 08:01:54

I understand mixed salad bags - all those lovely different leaves but I’ve also seen bags of iceberg lettuce - why?

EllanVannin Tue 29-Oct-19 08:31:32

One of my GS's had an appraisal from his boss at work for his pigs in blankets which he does for M&S---he's a dab-hand.

Urmstongran Tue 29-Oct-19 09:01:22

If some of them got off their iPhones they could make pigs in blankets! Or don’t bother with the bacon wrapping and just bake some cocktail sausages or warm up pre cooked.

First world problem.

JackyB Tue 29-Oct-19 09:18:25

I've never had a pig in a blanket. Since when are they a (Christmas?) thing.

shysal Tue 29-Oct-19 09:51:00

Urmstongran, I agree about the phones.

I have recently seen cereal advertised, in a one-helping sized box, into which the milk can be poured for eating from the carton. Who is too 'busy' to use a bowl, or are they used on public transport or at the work desk? I bet they are not recyclable.

Witzend Tue 29-Oct-19 09:57:52

JackyB, they were certainly a thing even when I was a child back in the very olden days.
Only they weren't called pigs in blankets then - they were just bacon-wrapped sausages.
They are mentioned in a GH cookery book published in 1970 - I have a 'new' 2nd hand version of this, found online after the original was falling to bits from so much use.

Houseseller Tue 29-Oct-19 10:41:27

I worked full time with 3 young children. I cooked from scratch and made all of our clothes. They have it too easy theses days

maddyone Tue 29-Oct-19 10:42:28

Let’s be honest here, if it’s actually true that pigs in blankets were to be in short supply at Christmas, none of us will starve over the Christmas period.
It’s true that it’s easy to make your own pigs in blankets, however I assume that if they are in short supply, it would be because the necessary ingredients to make them were also in short supply. Or is because the workers to make them are in short supply?

jaylucy Tue 29-Oct-19 10:52:37

My MiL was a cook who worked in a private school and I got roped in to help out when there was a social function at the school so I must have done several hundred pigs in blankets as well as angels on horseback (bacon wrapped prunes).
The prepared pigs in blankets were really only available over the last few years - it was only a few weeks ago that Iceland were selling packs of them for 50p!
If a supermarket sells it, it becomes a must have to some people and until every senior school provides students with cookery and budgeting classes, people will be sucked in to buying whatever the supermarkets sell!

jaylucy Tue 29-Oct-19 10:55:00

I forgot - what annoys me is when you go out for a Christmas meal or a carvery and get charged extra for 1 pig in blanket, where they used to be included with the meal - current going rate about £2 per sausage !!!!

sarahellenwhitney Tue 29-Oct-19 11:11:33

Maddyone
due to Brexitgrin??

Urmstongran Tue 29-Oct-19 11:13:46

I’m with LullyDully the main thing is to have the sprouts, carrots , onions and spuds picked. We won’t starve without a few of the ‘twiddly bits’ going forward!

And as for the firms who make them, I imagine they will either drop the range (and the commensurate cost involved before any sales) or put the price up for what is available for buyers who ‘must have them’ pre prepped.

Nanny27 Tue 29-Oct-19 11:24:50

??? * Urmstongran* twiddly bits going forward. Reminded me I need a new bra.

Margs Tue 29-Oct-19 11:29:20

Of course manufacturers should hire "us oldies" to do the job but then most employers seem to have a 'brick wall' mentality when faced with job applicants over 50.....and the youngsters, having been enthusiastically encouraged to aspire to university education no doubt consider wrapping bacon round bangers rather too lowly and demeaning.

inishowen Tue 29-Oct-19 11:31:10

Ice cubes! My husband buys them because he thinks they're handier than popping a cube out of an ice cube tray.