This year’s lambs are now at a local butcher, and I was pleased they were graded in the highest decile. Many butchers and farmers do not know the system of grading used by abattoirs, but experience means they can pick a good meat lamb on the hoof, or when they see the carcass.
The grade system is based on appearance and fat content but cannot assess flavour. This varies according to age, breed, pasture, and length of maturation in a chiller room.
The butcher quickly learns which cuts will sell and how much a customer is prepared to pay. The commercial farmer gets to know what the butcher wants and then keeps sheep that he thinks will match the demands.
Our non-commercial flock are Dorset Downs and, although they do not jump fences to escape, they do run to fat which most customers don’t want. They are however flavoursome in having a lovely hint of herbs.
Thankfully, the latest thinking in nutrition has returned to the notion that saturated fats are not the killers they have been portrayed as being, but are wholesome, and better for the normal body than most processed plant-based oils. Palm oil especially.
For years I have read and listened to food and nutrition experts. All claim ‘science’ as their source of information, but then dispense a range of opinionated knowledge as wide as the list of foods it is possible for a human to consume. Like all experts they never agree. No wonder ancient wisdom says, “A little bit of what you fancy does you good.”
My wife Marie comes from a family not prone to the extremes of expert opinion, and so she will continue to use extra virgin olive oil, butter, and lard in cooking with a slosh of wine now and again.
But now to waste on a massive scale; Recently, the sound card in my laptop crashed and I was told that a plug-in external one costing a fiver was excellent value. On-line. I usually pay by PayPal, but this time used my credit card. However, an extra layer of security had been introduced by my bank, and so I was asked for my Visa password. I didn’t have one, and so rang the supplier, who took the card details as usual without a password.
I had then to ring the bank to ask how to generate a password on their visa card. This took an hour.
I am fed up with having to organise my life around the criminal fraudster who is the reason we have so many levels of security. I wonder if anyone has added up the number of levels we now have to negotiate? Unique Customer number, Job number, Account, and Pin Numbers. Passwords. Phone verification codes and more. And this applies to every bank, building society, insurance company, local authority, shop, garage. The list goes on. Oh, and don’t forget the daily email reminders not to tell anyone our login details.
Will this trend continue for eternity? But more importantly, how much are attempts to avoid fraud costing in computer hardware, software, electricity, countless employee time, multi networks and interminable answering machines and, of course, the immeasurable overall customer waiting time?
How much human endeavour must be thrown away on this issue before the fraudsters and assorted malefactors are stopped? A “good talking to” about personal responsibility does not seem to be working? In the meantime, I’ll just have to think of yet another password and wait for the mobile to ring with a verification number.
I will close by saying the grade of our lambs was U3L but I prefer a U2H which is fattier and even more flavoursome. The Dutch bred Texel gets equal or better grades. Their lambs look good but have no taste and are a bit like their roses in that they look great but have no smell.
However, the word smell according to a Professor of English is the result of one’s olfactory processes, not a glandular or digestive activity. Therefore, his instant riposte to my usage above would be:-
“I smell.”
“You stink.”
View from the Pew 