Trying to give up red meat

I remember Margaret Powell's books.

Yes, chicken was a luxury even for those who weren't city folk. Beef was the normal Sunday roast, chicken eaten not so often and a capon at Christmas.

i remember Margaret Powell.
she wrote series of memoirs, on the back of the upstairs, downstairs popular tv series.
she had been in service as a young girl and was inspired to take O-level and A-level english, and began writing her life story.
below stairs was followed by climbing the stairs, and then, the treasure upstairs.
i can still remember many of the anecdotes.

I distinctly remember Margaret Powell doing an advert for chicken when I was a child in the 60's. She said something along the lines of "chicken is no longer a luxury, now everyone can afford it".

I was perplexed because as country folk we kept our own chickens and so did many of our neighbours. Chicken was not a luxury at all. I asked my Dad what she meant and he explained that for city folk chicken was indeed a luxury.

He also told me about the new fangled battery farming and how chickens were being sold frozen. All of which was reducing the cost of chicken and making it more accessible to the masses.

He was very disparaging about the whole thing.

Does anyone else remember Margaret Powell? She wrote a book which I think was called "Below Stairs". She became quite a TV personality and was on everything for some years.

I don't think soya does well as a stew really. Quite nice as a stir fry ingredient. A non meat stew might be better with root vegetables and some flavouring such as smoked paprika, top with cream or yoghurt.

LucyAnna

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I find that meat replacements don't need long, slow cooking.
It reduces them to mush.

Puy lentils are my favourites in place of meat, because they have a more chewy texture.

Quorn mince is ok bit I personally prefer to mince up chestnut mushrooms in the processor and use that as the "meat". Dont like soya chunks.

Allsorts, if you do use meat substitute products, avoid the slow cooker. Meat responds well to long cooking, the alternatives do not.

I dont like tofu or quorn, I simply have more veg and pulses.

I do not think processed foods are any better for you than red meat.

Maremia Yes, the PfL meat I buy is expensive, but as I have halved our average meat portion size, from the budgetting point of view, it is half the price and comparable with other meat

Yes, Monica, I buy the M&S 'kinder', but oh so much more expensive, turkey at Christmas time.

Stir Fry using Quorn Pieces, is quite tasty. Also, Quorn mince in a curry. The sauces cover any flavour 'problems'.
The thing about using Quorn instead of chicken is that you no longer have to worry about salmonella &co, and the meals are so much quicker to prepare.
Problem with Quorn sausages is that they are just as highly processed as the meat versions, and that is not good.

If you are giving up meat for animal welfare/ environmental reasons, you could instead move to only buying 'Pasture for Life' reared meat www.pastureforlife.org/ . This meat comes from entirely grass fed cattle, who are usually out all year and live healthy normal lives, without being fed corn, rape and other feedstuffs that are not part of the animal's normal diet in the wild and causes health problems and requires continuous medication for cattle fed this way. Because pasture for Life animals eat only grass there is less need for medication and antibiotics. Better for the animals and healthier for consumers.

I have also just cut down an average portion size. We eat lots of casseroles and stews, so you do not really notice that there is less meat and more veg in every porion.

Chicken became cheap when battery farming started. It was in the mid-60s and I think the first company into it was Buxted Chicken - in Buxted.

I say that because we visited some familty friends living there who talked all about it. That was c 1965.

I make my veggie stews with vegetables. Super healthy and delicious. Same with curries and pasta.

Callistemon, tiba tempeh is lovely. It is a lightly fermented soya and much nicer than tofu. Very high in good bacteria for the microbiome

I make my own tofu from time to time via organic soya beans, my soyabella and a press. I don`t like it plain but it easily takes on marinade flavours

I would not touch quorn with a bargepole, pink manufactured flab

I would go the simplest route and add beans/whole lentils to a casserole, also grated carrot and if you do need a meat look-alike then you can buy tvp mince which you can soak a little while in oxo etc. Also curry is a good disguise for that

I am not veggie, nor vegan but most of my meals are meatless, yesterday was a hm veggie lasagne, I froze 8 portions. It was yummy and the main protein was beans plus it needed the extra amino acids from a whole grain, which was via the wholegrain spelt lasagne sheets

I have some tvp in my cupboard, good to add to a hm soup equivalent as a layer in a lasagne, it needs extra taste eg concentrated tomato

silverlining48

In the 50 s and 60 s we only had chicken once a year for Christmas dinner, not sure if the reason, cost? Availability?
I-like the vegetarian idea but woukd struggle without either fish or meat on my plate, but have reduced the amount of red meat we eat by 50%.

Chicken was relatively expensive then silverlining48 - in that era I don’t think we ever had a Sunday roast chicken! Beef or pork were cheaper. That would have been before battery chicken farms 🙁 of course.

In old novels you see mentions of roasting or ‘boiling’ fowls - the old ones were presumably considered too tough for roasting.

We have cut down on meat generally, so I use a lot of lentils (red and yellow) and various beans. Chopped mushrooms make a good substitute for mince. When a dd was vegan for a while I once made a big vegan lasagne for her birthday - surprisingly very good - the ‘guts’ of it was a lot of mushrooms, chopped small and initially cooked down to get the water out.

Among other things, now and then I make a ‘main meal’ minestrone, with plenty of pasta, lots of different veg, and a tin of butter or other beans. Preferably with garlic bread - I often make a batch for the freezer.

In the 50 s and 60 s we only had chicken once a year for Christmas dinner, not sure if the reason, cost? Availability?
I-like the vegetarian idea but woukd struggle without either fish or meat on my plate, but have reduced the amount of red meat we eat by 50%.

Meat substitutes are not the answer, especially if they are, as you say, 'rubbery'. Last weekend I was staying with my vegan son and his partner. I was offered tofu in small chunks, fried and looking like croutons, but tasting of nothing in particular and quite 'chewy'. But the Moroccan dish they served up was wonderful and needed no meat substitute. I seem to have lost 1kg over my weekend with them!

I've used Quorn mince and it was ok but the white tofu we found just revolting no matter how it was prepared.

I try to avoid processed meats but DH still will eat them no matter what I say.

I had a vegetarian lasagne yesterday and found it quite unpleasant .
I'm going to stick to just chicken or fish from now on. And limit those to three days week with salads etc on the other days.

vegansrock

www.bosh.tv/recipes/ultimate-chilli

This looks delicious vegansrock. Guess what's on the menu for this weekend ?