Cultch
Cultch/ Webster's Refined Unabridged Dictionary: "Empty oyster shells and other substances laid down on oyster grounds to furnish points for the attachment of the spawn of the oyster." or
"Rubbish; débris; refuse"
This is a new word for me. I found it whilst looking for yet another word to mean bits and pieces, this and that ... It's occasionally spelt 'culch' but almost always with the 't'. I am using it here because of its secondary meaning that Google AI explains as:
"Chiefly in New England and regional dialects, it is used as a noun meaning clutter, debris, refuse, or odds and ends."
Well I hope the following does not quite mean the rubbishy element.
And isn't it wonderful that it's yet another word with this loose meaning that is connected to food - in this instance to the farming of oysters - whether for cultured pearls or for food. And cultch seems to refer to two different methods.
The first is where a substrate is laid down on the bed of the sea, a river, a lake - underwater anyway and the second is where things - normally empty oyster shells are strung on lines that are dangled in the water. Sometimes other things are used - stones underwater, coconut shells on strings, for example. Because:
"Free-floating oyster larvae (spat) need a solid surface to land on and grow; cultch provides that base." Google AI
I try not to use Google AI too much but in this instance the explanations were either far too scientific, couched in jargon I could not decipher, or missing altogether. Google AI had the clearest explanation.
So I'm hoping that the words that follow provide a basis for some ideas to grow or for further questions to ask.
I guess kids have a tendency to not like the crusts on bread, and lots of mums give in and cut off the crusts when you are making lunches for your family. Which means that you get left with a whole lot of bread crusts. Well The Guardian's Rukmini Iyer came up with a few ideas for what to do with them - the major one being the following - having frozen the crusts as you travel through the week. At the weekend you thaw them and then:
"whisk a couple of eggs and a good splash of milk with a handful of grated cheese, then stir this through the chopped or blitzed sandwich crusts. Bake in a shallow dish at 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 for 10-12 minutes, until just set. Once cool (you can refrigerate it overnight, if you wish), cut into squares, then fry in a little olive oil until golden brown and crisp. I billed these as “bread rosti” to the family, and topped them with cream cheese for the children and sriracha for my husband."
There was no picture but the picture above of some fried cheese, was the closest I could come to what I think it would look like - well shape them however you like of course. Her other suggestion was to make a kind of chocolate bread pudding.
Green peppercorns
Where have all the green peppercorns gone? Remember the 70s and 80s when green peppercorns were all the rage? I love them, and went looking for some the other day because I fancied making something with them. I can't quite remember what now - maybe it was a steak au poivre but with the milder green ones. Anyway I have now searched all possible close supermarkets and delis and there are none. Is this just a fashion thing - no demand - so not stocked any more? Or is there a problem? In fact I did see that there may well be a general peppercorn shortage looming - poor harvests and all of that. I shall search further afield. And my favourite tinned sardines are back on the shelves. The boat must have come in. So maybe the green peppercorns will return too.
I came to this via a Taste list of 2026 food trends, one of which was 'cheeseburger anything', which was going to be this item. But as I waas looking for what these trends were I first of all decided it really required a whole post to itself, but as a related thing I came across this TikTok thing of eating a MacDonald's cheeseburger by dipping it in your MacDonald's Coca Cola. Sounds revolting? Well you probably wouldn't be eating a MacDonald's cheeseburger anyway, but this guy, who tested it out - with and without the coke - said:
"It's like a combination of sweet and salty ... The cheese inside of the cheeseburger kind of enhances it. You taste more of the cheese. ... Strangely if you just eat the cheeseburger, you don't taste cheeseburger as much ... if you dip it in Coke it kind of elevates the flavour, it kind of elevates the taste of everything." FOX32 Chicago
Who knew?
I'm a bit late with this one I guess, seeing as Halloween has come and gone. Out with the spooky stuff in the shops, in with the Christmas things.
I think I just assumed very mistakenly and somewhat stupidly that pumpkin spice was some kind of spice mix for cooking pumpkin. And in a way it sort of is. But of course it's the spice mix you use for making pumpkin pie, which we don't really do here do we? Pumpkin scones, pumpkin bread but not pumpkin pie so much. Pie meaning tart in this context of course. I have never tried it and am not actually that tempted to try it. Maybe I should. Maybe it's what I've been missing all my life.
Anyway it's a spice mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves - even though the cloves are not shown in that picture. And you could use it to make these rather tempting looking Pumpkin cinnamon rolls from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen. She uses cardamom instead of cloves.
Poor man's potatoes from Andalusia, via Meera Sodha in The Guardian.
"potatoes, onions and green peppers are cooked in a generous slug of olive oil until fudgy, soft and near confit-like, with garlic, parsley and lemon as a final flourish. It might not seem much, but, as with most things, if given extra time and attention, it can become the stuff of the gods."
she says.
Magic moments
Nothing to do with food. A couple of days ago as I was walking I experienced two magic moments. This was the first. Seeing an echidna is always magical for me. We see them occasionally around here. And in spite of those alarming prickles they are so beautiful and so cute. When they see you they bury their heads in the ground and turn their backs. If you look closely you can just see this one's long nose. He was just around the corner from us, near a small creek.
And then just a few yards further along, a cabbage white butterfly fluttered along the path just in front of my shoes for a few metres, joined halfway by another one, and so they fluttered along together. I felt as if I was in a Disney cartoon and all manner of little creatures were going to join in whilst somebody sang a Disney song. It took me back to my childhood. Silly I know, but they really seemed to be showing me the way.
YEARS GONE BY
November 6
2025 - Nothing
2024 - Nothing
2023 - Nothing
2022 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Cooking on pebbles
2017 - Scones and Devonshire teas
2016 - On crumbles
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