I'm truly delighted to be able to say that, largely thanks to the input of some good people over at Jims Beer Kit, I'm now able to source Beef Dripping again.
I'd brought some with me but, that ran out years ago. I hadn't been able to find any here since. And that's been a nightmare; Watching the birds trying to make it through some hellish winters, without my 'Fat Cakes' to pump them full of warmth and energy.
Well, now I'm back. I'm chuffed to bits. So chuffed, in fact, that I thought it high time I shared my secret with you. Want to help the birds make it through the months to come? Excellent!
Only, please don't buy those vile balls sold in green plastic mesh bags or by the bucket full for next to nothing. I have no hard evidence of this. But, I personally refer to them as containing 'Camel Shit'.
God alone knows what filth and floor sweepings go into those things. I do know they're certainly not labelled as " BTO Approved ". Fuck them. Let's make some grub We have control over. It's easy! Here's how .....
Ye need a square slab cake tin ~ push up bottom type is preferable. Pyrex jug. Basic type of food processor. Some peanuts and some beef dripping. Lard Is Useless!!!
Here we go. Takes under twenty minutes, start to finish .....
There's ye Cake Tin. Mine happens to be 6" x 3". Awkward size, actually. Because it's just a bit too big for even the biggest Fat Cake Holders commercially available. " Gardman "make one nearer to 5" by 1 1/2".
I used to have a green plastic coated cage that I could just about clamp almost shut around my 3" thick cakes. Can't find them for sale now. Don't worry though; Finding a cage to hold ye cakes will be the only possible problem.
I even bought my Food Processer simply to make these Fat Cakes with. Less than a score. I've seen suitable kit for a fiver!
Give the peanuts a few blasts ~ easy on that motor. They over heat quickly enough ~ till ye have a bread crumb like consistancy.
Chuck some Dripping in the Pyrex jug and give it a few minutes in the microvave. While that's doing, lay a bed of peanut crumbs in ye cake tin. Inch or so deep. That'll allow the molten Dripping to penetrate the nut crumbs. A light forking will ensure the edges and corners get well soaked too.
Repeat the process till the tin's full. Then top it off to level with hot Dripping, just to be sure (to be sure).
Doesn't that look good enough to eat? Well, don't. Just leave it alone for half an hour. Then prize it up off the work surface and stick it in the freezer.
Now comes the inevitable clean up. Frankly? I used to put down news papers. More mess and fuss than they're worth, in all honesty. Without paper, ye get something very much like this:
It's just not a problem. Dull knife scrapes the bulk of it up. That goes into the jug, for next time. J Cloth and a spot of that stuff they now call " Cif ", believe it or not, actually disolves the residue!
Never thought I'd be strongly reccomending any cleaning product which sounds to be named after a nasty, social disease. But, there it is.
Sort yeself out a cage for it ~ I knocked one up out of wire mesh and cable ties, for now ~ and it's ready to go out as soon as the freezer makes it loose its grip on the cake tin, an hour or two later.
Hang it from a taught length of fencing wire, strung between two points, and the rats can't get at it.
Here's mine. Freshly hung out, tonight. See the little 4" x 4", commercial thing next to it? They cost me £2.50 a peice and don't last three days! This muvva costs me less and lasts weeks!
Nigella Lawson; Eat ye heart out! (Well, come on, guys; Any excuse to have another look at Nigella Lawson, eh?!)
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