Selfsufficientish.com

I clean house for a man who isn't very clean, to say the least. He has rats and mice appearing in his kitchen, to give you an impression. Just lately things have been disappearing: dishcloths, a whole tea towel vanished from the bottom step of a ladder where I put them to be washed. Without a trace....

PS I threw it out. Should not have hung it as it had been dead for a while when I got given it.

It was dead for no longer than a day. I am hanging it for another day and hope to try and pluck it tomorrow (Saturday), put it in water with some vinegar and cook it on Sunday morning. Does that sound good?

I just got given a dead chicken by the neighbours. I'm very keen to make stock from it. I have experience of plucking pheasants but in that case I use them for meat. This chicken is too old for that. I know you hang pheasants, but do you hang a chicken also, and how long for? And then I suppose I pl...

If you've ever cleaned one you should know, surely.

I love fish liver: when I buy fish, I look for it inside and usually find one. They're not large, at least not in the fish I buy! - which is as well because if they were I'd probably get more omega 3 than I could cope with.

So - are you missing something?

I read that the best bit of fish are the cheeks. So when I cleaned the mackerel today I left the heads on. Having fried them, I had a go at, in the first place, finding the cheeks. Do mackerel have those at all? Worth eating? Or is it the cheeks of larger fish which are so marvellous, supposedly?

Thanks! I've copied it into my cooking file, for the day when I have lots of time and courage.

What I wonder though, is: how long can you keep brawn? In my experience, pork gelatin, and pork meat in lots of gelatin, keeps longer in the fridge than I would expect. But if I make the whole lot into brawn, can I keep it in the fridge till we've eaten it all? There are only two of us. And do I add...

I'll look that up and bear your suggestion (no fancy additions) in mind. How long is, for you, 'cooking it really slowly''? I haven't got a slow cooker, just a wood-fired Rayburn.

I have never made brawn, will look up how to make it. I thought it did need the head though.

Yesterday a neighbour gave me: 8 pork trotters, 4 pig’s ears and a lot of belly fat. All frozen together in one big lump. I could only just fit it in our freezer. I intend to make the trotters into stock to freeze in batches; cook the ears; and would like to make the fat into crackling and lovely dr...

I’m surprised the photographer got out there alive.
And the girl for that matter!

It makes me laugh whenever I see it again.