Jack Monroe #119 She says lots of things, many of which are false

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Lard definitely has its place.....just not in gravy.

My late grandmother used to roast her potatoes in it, I prefer beef dripping. Hiwever with lard my Nan used to add her saved fat which had a lot of flavour.

I have lard in the fridge but no baking spread or I might consider taking one for the team and making the horrific sounding gravy.
 
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I thought baking spread meant marmite until these recipes. I’ve heard of stork etc, thanks for the education! Margarine!
 
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A) I'm so sorry but that recipe made me feel very strange. Blending. Raw. Onions. To. Make. Gravy.

B) I'm sorry but what's the point? Buy a small tub of own brand veggie gravy granules. Seriously, what's the point? If you're not going to make it properly with homemade stock etc then that's FINE. No one expects that, just use granules?

C) I'm way less sorry but why put lard in everything? Congrats your stuffing can be a vegan main! They have nothing to eat it with because everything's smeared in animal fat! Buy a small bottle of cheap oil and use that as your cooking fat instead so, y'know, your guests can actually eat things...

In short, I am now Alarmed and I don't understand why everything has to be made so complicated by her
I think it's because she believes her USP to problem solving for people cooking on a budget and that she's pretending to be autistic so has taken the fact that people on the spectrum often look at situations from a different angle and ramped it up to the point of absurdity. She's not looking at a recipe and thinking about why the ingredients go together like that and then experimenting to see if there's a different way or better way of doing it, she's starting from the point of view that she has to come up with something different to back up her self diagnosed "superpower". Similarly using ghastly ingredients like lard and baking spread helps attract sympathy from her gullible middle class fan club "Oh the poor thing has to cook with lard- still it shows it can be done and at least she's not eating ghastly ready meals".
 
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Just had an Aldi ad come up on my FB - 14p veg. Red cabbage, sprouts, swede, potatoes, parsnips, and carrots. Delicious, healthy, cheap, and no need to drown in lard before eating.
 
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Update on the Patreon.

I can't post any more screenshots, because I suspect they may out my friend. Suffice to say she's gone on a one-on-one charm offensive with some of her Patreons (direct private messages) and deleted any hint of negativity (negativity being things like 'Hey Jack, I love you, you most marvellous person in the universe. I'm ever so sorry to ask, but given that I've been paying for cards for months and have never received one, could you please, please check whether you actually have my address? Pretty please? I'm so sorry.')

I don't think the majority of her Patreons care one way or another whether she actually sends them anything. They feel good about supporting someone 'poor'. I just wish they'd set up a donation directly to the Trussell Trust, but here we are.
If it's not too revealing to answer, has your friend ever actually received anything that might be deemed exclusive content or a 'reward'?
 
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Yes! My husband’s aunt and cousin are like this. They offer to host (because they can’t be arsed to travel) but they clearly hate having to feed people. They’re tight with their money despite being extremely financially comfortable - but that’s how they manage to have so much 💰 in the first place.

Before we’re due a visit, we usually get an email lowering our expectations of the food (“we’ll be having bread, ham/cheese and salad... hope that’s OK” - of course it’s OK, why do you have to make sure we’re aware of it in advance though?) and there’s never an offer of a glass of wine, despite the bottles piled up in the dining room (gifts that never get touched because auntie doesn’t drink). It’s so weird!

I’d always much rather my MIL hosts, because she Ioves to feed people and never sends out emails making sure we’re not expecting a hot lunch 😂
I'm known for never knowingly undercatering, I love cooking, and seeing people enjoy my food. I will cater for any dietery needs, and enjoy doing it.

I will always try and have your favourite drink in, and be free with it.

I hate going places where you get one small glass of wine and mean portions.

If you're hosting you should be generous with food, drink and in spirit!
 
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I really, really want someone to make this gravy. I have all the ingredients (including lard, but I will explain) but I can't justify the waste of onions, cranberry sauce and chicken stock. Please will someone try it, or I might be forced to have a go myself.

I use lard for pastry making. Half lard and half butter makes a really good shortcrust pastry. Perfect texture, and taste, especially for savory pies. I have kept quiet over these past few pages, as everyone seems horrified that anyone could still be using it. Sorry (I'm not really).

ETA, My Mum used to roast potatoes in lard, and the chip pan always had lard in it. Her roasts and chips were really good, but she knew what she was doing. Alternatives were thin on the ground back in the post war 50's and 60's. Even she wouldn't use lard in a gravy or sauce.
I use lard for pastry and for my Yorkshire pudding tin. Always have. Couldn’t smother it on everything and anything though 🤮
 
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Hello all, short time lurker and one time poster here. I have a comment and a question if that's OK please...

Comment: that stuffing looks like a flapjack to me.
Question: who is Brenda?? Have seen her referenced a lot but am none the wiser as to her crime.

Thank you / thankyou / thankSpaceyou
 
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She reminds me of some people I knew a few years ago on a FB cooking page. They tried to make out you could feed 2 adults and 2 kids for a certain amount a week. Watered down milk etc. Shocking. They sat in chat on about what they were eating and drinking etc. Was horrible.
 
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The raw onion gravy.
Like why not fry the onions in garlic first?

Nah just blend them raw with lard and cooking spread and herbs and cranberry sauce...
 
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I have all the ingredients to make the brick of sadness, but feel bad at the inevitable food waste that it will become.
 
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I really, really want someone to make this gravy. I have all the ingredients (including lard, but I will explain) but I can't justify the waste of onions, cranberry sauce and chicken stock. Please will someone try it, or I might be forced to have a go myself.

I use lard for pastry making. Half lard and half butter makes a really good shortcrust pastry. Perfect texture, and taste, especially for savory pies. I have kept quiet over these past few pages, as everyone seems horrified that anyone could still be using it. Sorry (I'm not really).

ETA, My Mum used to roast potatoes in lard, and the chip pan always had lard in it. Her roasts and chips were really good, but she knew what she was doing. Alternatives were thin on the ground back in the post war 50's and 60's. Even she wouldn't use lard in a gravy or sauce.
I'm collecting dripping and bacon fat in a pot ready for my xmas roasties!
 
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Not a single aspect the genious coven has not mentioned so far but...from my humble perspective:
The food is awful. Not bc I want to be a bully but bc I simply know how to cook better food and I am not a chef or even a great great hobby cook. I can feed myself and I feed others. They love my food, not bc it is maverick but it is solid international home-cooked food. The texture is good, my hands are clean and I present it well. Again, nothing FANCY but it looks appetising.
Question: what is wrong with eg. sunflower oil? I never use lard. That way a vegan or vegetarian guest can automatically eat all the veg and I don't have to do several parallel dishes.

Soooo much opportunity wasted on that prawn cocktail!! The reason why one would have a prawn cocktail bc it is supposed to be uplifting, not only by taste but by presentation. If the sauce is not pink, there is no point having it. The pink is what sells it. Even tinned Mel Donte could have been incorporated, maybe with a skewer and some fruit lined up to introduce more colour, then put horizontally on or vertically inside the glass. A child could have drawn a flamingo to put on a skewer...just a few simple ideas to make it fun.

The food she cooks is sad, trying to be maverick but making it tasteless and not appetising. I agree on the peels bit. If that's what you want to do, yes, but as a suggestion for the poor to eat their peels on Christmas, I find this an insult.

As somebody who did not grew up poor but later in life had many many poor spells (not only a few months!) , this makes me want to cry.
If JMs food proves something to someone it is maybe that you CAN'T feed people on so little money. And poor people, I risk to suggest (not a homogenous group, I know) have either worked out how to cook something tasty ish their way due to experience or on Christmas they buy something nice, such as ice cream.
Her food does not help anyone, if only then it is to eradicate the bad conscience of people who are better off. But according to my experience, they don't have a bad conscience. The ones who care help in ways they can (in my circle of friends so many help and volunteer) but I doubt that the Express article will have anything to offer to anyone. Also because she lacks the basics of cooking.
And no, you can't put a raw white sauce into lasagne. And if you are poor and likely to feel miserable you don't knock up a proper white sauce. Also in some parts of Italy they don't see the necessity at all to add white sauce to a lasagne but that is a different issue.

I also 'wonder' why JM is able to so clearly communicate in the Express that she is not poor anymore when on Twitter it was a rather difficult web of ambiguity.
I also know that she does not owe anyone a covid test result (her general oversharing makes me cringe) but when there is a follow up and genuine concern by squiggles she goes all vague. I find that highly manipulative. And this is the reason why I, as an intelligent, educated and not remotely naive person, wanted to donate money to her in the midst of my own poverty when I felt that she must be even worse off according to her portrayal. I will not forgive. Never. I am just glad that I did not give her any money.
But of course, we are all supposed to be bullies. Her constant state of dirty fingernails alone is something that disqualifies her. She is feeling bullied? She does not know how things are in the normal world of work. No person would survive there sitting with these nails using even their own computer without colleagues commenting. Try using a colleague's favourite mug, you go straight into hell.. Everyone offering chocolate and doing the tea run but you never do it yourself? Well...

And if you are a public person, people do talk about you and criticise you. And that is OK, because you have chosen that path and you get much more money for doing jobs compared to people doing normal jobs.

Sorry for the essay.
 
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Hello all, short time lurker and one time poster here. I have a comment and a question if that's OK please...

Comment: that stuffing looks like a flapjack to me.
Question: who is Brenda?? Have seen her referenced a lot but am none the wiser as to her crime.

Thank you / thankyou / thankSpaceyou
A kindly savvy Frau will fill you in.
Poor Brenda. I hope she’s ok.
 
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I really, really want someone to make this gravy. I have all the ingredients (including lard, but I will explain) but I can't justify the waste of onions, cranberry sauce and chicken stock. Please will someone try it, or I might be forced to have a go myself.
i know I’m so intrigued to see wtf and how bad it is, more than any of her bleeping horrible sounding recipes. i really want to do it, but I only have an onion!

has grapefruit and prawn cocktail ever been a thing anywhere? Is it like something in the 70’s that I just don’t know or is it purely to get some del monte in there?
 
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