The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: PipKelpy on January 27, 2020, 11:47:13 am
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Please don't suggest the oven! Due to the multi fuel stove (winter) and slow cookers (summer) I have actually gone over 2 years without using the oven. Not recently though! Missed my crispy roasties but have managed with spuds cooked in the meat.
Right, we've been given (in date) one of those fray bentos pies, take the top off and wack in oven.
However, I'm tight! I cannot and will not, run the oven for half an hour. Not worth it. It might be fancy and have multi options etc, but half an hour?? (That and the fact I use it to store my cast iron crockpots).
So, has anyone cooked one of these pies in a slow cooker or on top of a stove. When I cook on stove, I slap meat and spuds into cast iron pot, put straight on top of stove and leave to cook. Why does meat always taste better with the burnt bits at the bottom??
I have cooked cakes the same way, both Christmas cakes actually, on a trivet in the pot, on the stove. More of a pudding consistency but very nice!
But these pies are pastry and somehow I don't think that pastry reacts the same way. Any suggestions? Preferably ones that work.
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I can't answer your question PK, but worth considering that using the oven is, in Winter, just an electric room heater. Using ours overrides the thermostat and the radiator heating switches off.
We have bought (€30 Lidl) a tiny electric oven, not a microwave. It consumes a small fraction of the power of the main oven and was calculated to payback in less than a year. Just right for a Fray Bentos pie- if you get another.
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The thing with Fray Bentos pies is that they have puff pastry on top, which has to be cooked hot. My suggestion, but I have never done it so no promises, would be to separate the top from the bottom. Cook the bottom in one frying pan with a lid on and the top in a very hot frying pan also with the lid on. In fact it might even work to keep it all together and to cook in one deep frying pan plus lid if you have one tall enough. Perhaps you could cook the bottom upside down so the bottom pastry had a chance to rise - the bottoms on those pies are always soggy and slimy. Whether you would save any money compared with turning on the oven I don't know. The best economy for ovens is to put several dishes in at once or in sequence, so you do the initial heat-up only once, for several dishes.
The slow cooker won't work because of the nature of puff pastry which needs a high temp.
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Totally agree about the oven. I load it full so we have enough grub for several days, in theory!! When I do the Christmas cakes in the oven, they are 2 hours so I shove other dishes in around them to make the most of the heat. On the fire, slowly steaming they take around 4, but the stove is going, keeping room warm, water warm and anything else cooking alongside so it's free energy, in a way. Apart from Apple pies i don't make pastry as it's addictive! - i use butter and lard and several pies or merangues down the line and the pounds creep on easier than it is to drop off!
Seems a pity to waste this pie. Oh well, will have to bite the bullet, run the oven, Apple pie, home made custard, fruit cake, (made with butter, it will keep) fray bentos....
Having chicken tomorrow, Wednesday looking good at moment!
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By meringues I meant lemon meringue pie with egg enriched pastry, then I discovered that the homemade lemon curd recipe, also works for lime curd (pie) or orange curd (more pies). We ate several! Egg enriched pastry, once put that in a pie, really don't want to go back to the normal tasting stuff. Crumbles I find are faster, flour, butter, sugar....... No wonder I'm not losing any weight!
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Have you got a couple of cast iron pots that you can try this method on top of your stove?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/richardburr.london/2016/02/14/baking-on-a-camping-stove/amp/ (https://www.google.com/amp/s/richardburr.london/2016/02/14/baking-on-a-camping-stove/amp/)
It effectively creates an oven, I've used it to make bread a few times, may work with a fray bentos if you take it out of the tin
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Got 3 of various sizes (only 2 of us). I have actually thought about trying bread then decided against it as I have a bread maker which goes once every now and then. I love bread, but only when I want it. Bit like chocolate. Unfortunately bread takes longer to cook, whereas chocolate is open cupboard and drool!
Cakes, I have put in a deep enamel bowl, or a loaf tin, then on a pastry cutter and then use water in the pot to steam. This works for slow cooker and cast iron on mf stove. One thing that has gone wrong is I forgot to account for expansion. Wrapped the pudding up beautifully in the bowl, greaseproof paper, string etc (pudding itself only 3/4 filled the bowl and in my eye, I gave plenty of loose paper), put on top of fire and leave to "cook". Couple of hours later, mum on phone "rattling, banging, lots of noise!" were some of the words! I came into the house and pudding had expanded and was trying to push a cast iron lid off its pot. Because there was a gap, the water had all boiled away so now there was a smell and the the pastry cutter was cooking onto the enamel of the pot. Mum thinking she is helping wants to put cold water straight into it and I stopped her just in time!!
I love using it to cook on. Chillis, stews, roasts (I'm too coward to try baked potatoes!), even veg, put the pan on with the water in early enough, once boiling, then shove the steamer on top!
I forgot about pastry being different. Agree, it needs time. Never mind, tomorrow will be a cooking day!
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Why would you want to eat a Fray Bentos pie? It's wartime food isn't it? :coat: :coat: :roflanim: :roflanim:
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We were given it and mum said let's have it! Seemed a pity to waste it. Besides, we're hoarders here, stock up for Armageddon and if it could be cooked in any other way then we know that's another thing to put on the 'just in case' list. I don't like spam!
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We were given it and mum said let's have it! Seemed a pity to waste it. Besides, we're hoarders here, stock up for Armageddon and if it could be cooked in any other way then we know that's another thing to put on the 'just in case' list. I don't like spam!
Good luck with that. We used to have them in the 50s They're disgusting greasy things. I can't believe someone hates you enough to give you a Fray Bentos pie :roflanim: :roflanim:
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Nothing wrong with the (very) occasional Fray Bentos tinnie ;). Not a patch on home-grown freshly-made, of course. But there is far worse out there ;D
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You've made me get nostalgic and fancy one now....then I'd be fancying corned beef hash the next week..
Or..if in doubt... fry it :roflanim:
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Does anybody know if you can still get Findus Crispy Pancakes?
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Does anybody know if you can still get Findus Crispy Pancakes?
My teenage self used to love them! :yuck:
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Does anybody know if you can still get Findus Crispy Pancakes?
Google confirms - now under bird's eye brand. Sainsbury has them....
But if you like spicy stuff try a Jamaican Beef Patty - best I've had recently is the brand Iceland stock. Not quite as good as fresh on the island but not bad. (don;t bother trying the chicken one - bland)
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Findus crispy pancakes, I remember those! Loved them in my youth!
On a cutter in a CI iron pot on top of MF stove does not make a nice pie! Thought it was pastry as in flaky, more like suet with the taste! Didn't rise! Doughy taste and where was the filling?? Didn't over flow, got about 4 table spoons of minced beef if you could call it that!
Good job I had a lasagne cooking in another pot by the side of it! Finish that off tomorrow!
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Findus crispy pancakes, I remember those! Loved them in my youth!
On a cutter in a CI iron pot on top of MF stove does not make a nice pie! Thought it was pastry as in flaky, more like suet with the taste! Didn't rise! Doughy taste and where was the filling?? Didn't over flow, got about 4 table spoons of minced beef if you could call it that!
Good job I had a lasagne cooking in another pot by the side of it! Finish that off tomorrow!
Even when you cook them properly in an oven, the bottom is soggy and there's little filling. That's perhaps why they were given away :yuck:
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Oh dear, sorry to hear that. They are clearly not as good as they used to be. Mind, neither am I :/
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Oh dear, sorry to hear that. They are clearly not as good as they used to be. Mind, neither am I :/
Bad pie = horridBad girl = popular
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Oh dear, sorry to hear that. They are clearly not as good as they used to be. Mind, neither am I :/
Bad pie = horridBad girl = popular
:roflanim:
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Oh dear, sorry to hear that. They are clearly not as good as they used to be. Mind, neither am I :/
Bad pie = horridBad girl = popular
:roflanim:
You mean we can look forward to soggy bottoms!
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Oh dear, sorry to hear that. They are clearly not as good as they used to be. Mind, neither am I :/
Bad pie = horridBad girl = popular
:roflanim:
You mean we can look forward to soggy bottoms!
We have been ooking at soggy bottoms in the rear view mirror for some time here... :/