Little rant about little bags

[Outdated]

A good example for city people. I buy Short Cut bacon. That's the meaty end of the bacon rasher without the stupid long bit of fat hanging off the end. Why pay for what you don't want anyway? You can also consider it to be Low Fat bacon.

https://www.coles.com.au/product/thomson's-deli-short-cut-bacon-1.25kg-3930439
Not sure if that link will open from other countries or not. It's one of our major supermarket chains. 1.25 Kg of shortcut bacon for $15 Australian. That's a bit less than US$10. Or almost exactly 10 Euros.

I separate it into little packets of 4 rashers and freeze it. That thaws out pretty quick when you need it, that's 2 bacon and egg sandwiches or the right amount of topping for a pizza. That 1.25 Kg pack of bacon has about 30 slices in it, 7 or 8 packets. It just makes simple economic sense to shop this way.

If you're feeding more people than just yourself you can always grab more packets out of the freezer. But if you freeze food in big lumps then you have no choice but to use it in big lumps.

 

[Progster]

I have a slightly different approach. I cook for 4-5 days at a time, and keep the food in the fridge. I keep heating up individual portions until I use up all the food. Then I make another pot of food. Food can keep for up to 5 days without going off. It means that I eat the same meal for 4-5 days in a row, but that doesn't bother me.

If I make a lot, more than I can eat in 4-5 days, I also freeze, but I freeze 2-3 portions at a time.

 

[Outdated]

Then I make another pot of food.

I do similar with soups and stews but they don't go in the fridge because the pot's too big and because there's another much more old fashioned way. It works if you obey the rules.

Pease puddin' hot
Pease puddin' cold
Pease puddin' in the pot
Nine days old

Yes, Pasteurisation is that old, dear old Bill Pasteur is merely the man that put his name to it.

Your soup or stew must be brought properly to the boil every day. You only serve while it is properly boiling. Serve, replace the lid on the pot, then turn the heat off. As long as you do not disturb the lid the contents of that pot is pasteurised. It will still eventually go off but it will last a lot longer than normal, as long as the lid is not disturbed.

As soon as someone lifts the lid you have to boil it again with the lid on to restore pasteurisation.

Old English soups and stews work well with this method, the older they get the better they taste. 3 day old pea and ham, yum!

[Edit] In Greece it might be easier to get chick peas rather than the English split peas - a perfect replacemet, if you can get some well smoked bacon from somewhere too you're in business.

 

[Lecia Wynter]

I still don't understand why we haven't gone back to using cellulose fibre - cellophane, cellotape, etc. It's made from farm waste, corn husks and stalks etc. It can have many of the same properties as plastic, you can make it stiff and brittle or soft and supple.

Unlike plastic you can also cook it, oven bags are made of cellophane.

When it comes to recycling we did far more and did it far more efficiently back in the 70s. Today's ideas of recycling get called "greenwashing", I call it commercial self aggrandisment and masturbation.

All I hear are a bunch of youtube cheerleaders going on about how this or that will save us from global warming. Yet I see none of most of the tech they are talking about, available to consumers at real life stores or online. What gives?

 

[Outdated]

All I hear are a bunch of youtube cheerleaders going on about how this or that will save us from global warming. Yet I see none of most of the tech they are talking about, available to consumers at real life stores or online. What gives?

Money and politics. It doesn't matter what country, it doesn't matter what political party. Political parties rely on donations to fund their election campaigns and in order to keep those funds rolling in they have to keep doing things that keep those donors happy.

In this manner all democracies are corrupt, most other forms of government too by the way. We have a situation where a lot of laws and policies are much more likely to be influenced by companies that can splash a lot of cash around than by any sense of doing what's right for the people.

Some governments are much more easily swayed by those donations than others but none of them are immune to it. If they don't do what the big mining companies want then they won't have enough money to win the next election.

 

[Lecia Wynter]

Money and politics. It doesn't matter what country, it doesn't matter what political party. Political parties rely on donations to fund their election campaigns and in order to keep those funds rolling in they have to keep doing things that keep those donors happy.

In this manner all democracies are corrupt, most other forms of government too by the way. We have a situation where a lot of laws and policies are much more likely to be influenced by companies that can splash a lot of cash around than by any sense of doing what's right for the people.

Some governments are much more easily swayed by those donations than others but none of them are immune to it. If they don't do what the big mining companies want then they won't have enough money to win the next election.

Mainstream society is a Ship of fools but political talk is forbidden here so i shant say more.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I still don't understand why we haven't gone back to using cellulose fibre - cellophane, cellotape, etc. It's made from farm waste, corn husks and stalks etc. It can have many of the same properties as plastic, you can make it stiff and brittle or soft and supple.

Unlike plastic you can also cook it, oven bags are made of cellophane.

When it comes to recycling we did far more and did it far more efficiently back in the 70s. Today's ideas of recycling get called "greenwashing", I call it commercial self aggrandisment and masturbation.

Cellulose has some real issues as paint only worked after nitrated. Think smoke less gun powder or old movies from my perspective the one substrate sticking paint to is very difficult.

 

[Outdated]

Mainstream society is a Ship of fools but political talk is forbidden here so i shant say more.

It's very difficult to say anything in a truly unbiased fashion and so I agree with the moderators decisions on that, too easy for people to get inflamed about certain topics. That said, take a look at my posts in the political section.

 

[Outdated]

Cellulose has some real issues as paint only worked after nitrated. Think smoke less gun powder or old movies from my perspective the one substrate sticking paint to is very difficult.

With the printing inks we have these days I don't think there'd be too much trouble with that any more, but yes, that nitrate was nasty stuff.

 

[stevens]

I'm single. When I do my shopping I break all my food up in to single serves and freeze it. I eat far better than most people and still live very cheaply doing this. I buy chicken schnitzels in bulk and freeze them as individuals. I split sausages up in to pairs and freeze them. Everything in to tiny little one person freezer bags.

Except now they've stopped production of the little itty bitty freezer bags and I don't understand why. In this modern age more people than ever are living by themselves and need to be able to store food in appropriate sized servings. Why can't we get the little bags any more?

Yes I now use bigger bags, what about pollution and wasteful societies? Or maybe it's just my autism and the longing for the fulfillment of old habits, I want the little itty bitty freezer bags back again.

P.S. I'm writing this while packaging up the next month's worth of meat so it's also very topical. Feel free to comment.

I've been doing this for years, using food science and good recipes to make frozen foods of my own. Here's a possible alternative for you, when determining how to store these.

At a commercial foodservice store (Chefstore, formerly known as Cash and Carry, for example) you can find storage containers made by Dart or Solo. These come in 2, 4, 5.5, 8, 16, 32 oz. and other convenient sizes. The lids for these are sold separately, and some of these containers share the same lid size. These are excellent for all kinds of single serving preparations and ingredients.

For bags, you can buy a box 2,000 Interplast plastic bags, which come in different sizes, and seal them with a simple tape sealer. Way cheaper, and less waste, than zip-locs. This is one of the best sealers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G9QSJB6?tag=bravesoftwa04-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1&language=en_US . You can seal thousands of bags with one roll of tape, and they work well in the freezer. The bags are good for pizza dough, bread, bulk food items, etc.