A genuine mistake made in Ireland

[snopes]

This was actually sold in the supermarkets in Ireland - until they twigged!!

[frogpond]

I must be extra tired tonight - I'm finding this much funnier than I should at my age.

[Amigone201]

The more I look at this, the more I snicker.

Since this is "Fauxtography" and not the humor section, I'm assuming we're debating real vs. fake?

If this is real, how come 1) the only pictures I found on a quick internet search of this were identical to the one above? 2) The ingredient list is blocked out? 3) The cooking directions (?) are as big as the product name, and 4) the whole thing looks like it was done in Windows Paint in about 2 minutes?

-Tim

[callee]

Originally Posted by Rehcsif

Since this is "Fauxtography" and not the humor section, I'm assuming we're debating real vs. fake?

If this is real, how come 1) the only pictures I found on a quick internet search of this were identical to the one above? 2) The ingredient list is blocked out? 3) The cooking directions (?) are as big as the product name, and 4) the whole thing looks like it was done in Windows Paint in about 2 minutes?

-Tim

And not only that, but why are the cooking instructions exclusively confined to pricking with the fork? Is there nothing more to cooking sausages in ireland than that? do they even heat the darn things?!

[Floss]

It seems to have been made by someone by the name of KittyVomit at b3ta.com.

http://www.b3ta.com/board/6324508

[BringTheNoise]

So, fake, but very funny.

[lynnejanet]

OK, I have to ask. Who is Ainsley Harriott?

ETA - Sorry for the stupid question. Never mind - I googled him.

I guess it's a regional thing - I don't think it's all that funny. Is the guy really a prick?

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by lynnejanet

OK, I have to ask. Who is Ainsley Harriott?

ETA - Sorry for the stupid question. Never mind - I googled him.

I guess it's a regional thing - I don't think it's all that funny. Is the guy really a prick?

Not knowing him personally I couldn't say. I think over here we have a love-hate relationship with our celebrity chefs. We watch the shows, but love to mock them. They tend to cook dishes with the most pretentious names, tossing in the obligatory French or Italian names for them (and sometimes I suspect words they have made up themselves) and end up with something that looks like you wouldn't feed it to a dog. Or they show you how to make something 'really simple.' Three hours later you are weeping in a corner of the kitchen having failed miserably to replicate the recipe.

Also most celbrity chefs seem to be really smarmy and patronising.

Personally I think Jamie Oliver would be a better target.

Saucisson blanc, l'oef et des pommes frites anyone?

[BringTheNoise]

Originally Posted by Eddylizard

Saucisson blanc, l'oef et des pommes frites anyone?

PUKKA!

Added big-tongued mockney text.

[Eddylizard]

Antony Worrall Thompson gets on my tit too.

{whiny nasal voice} Today I'll be making rôtissez l'agneau avec carottes, pommes de terre de rôtis, haricots et pudding de Yorkshire.

A roast lamb dinner then.

Served with its own jus.

WTF is jus? Oh yeah right, it's gravy. Why not just say gravy for NFBSK's sake, 'cause I'm English, so are you, and that is what we call it.

[kjbrasda]

Ainsley Harriott on wikipedia. I've seen a couple of the Ready Steady Cook episodes on BBC America, they're kinda fun.

[BringTheNoise]

He's alright as a host, but when he was cooking it always felt like he was talking to 5 year olds. Mr Salt and Mr Pepper indeed...

it does look fake, but ,still it made my laugh.

[dlloyd1]

Just a comment on the "cooking instructions".

Pricking sausages before cooking them is apparently a throwback to wartime and post-war Britain*, when the sausage meat was bulked up with rusk. The extra water involved would cause the sausages to rupture when cooking (often with a bang, hence the term "bangers") and pricking the sausages would alleviate the pressure.

Premium recipe sausages (like these are claiming to be) would not include rusk in the recipe, and there would be no need to prick them. I can't imagine anyone would be able to find "prick with fork" in the cooking instructions of any sausage nowadays, not even in the cheapest economy sausages.

*I can remember sausages exploding in the late 70s/early 80s, but not since then.

[Eddylizard]

I have an empty sausage packet (Richmond thin pork brand) from last nights dinner and the instructions clearly state "Do not prick.

Originally Posted by dlloyd1

Just a comment on the "cooking instructions".

Pricking sausages before cooking them is apparently a throwback to wartime and post-war Britain*, when the sausage meat was bulked up with rusk. The extra water involved would cause the sausages to rupture when cooking (often with a bang, hence the term "bangers") and pricking the sausages would alleviate the pressure.

Premium recipe sausages (like these are claiming to be) would not include rusk in the recipe, and there would be no need to prick them. I can't imagine anyone would be able to find "prick with fork" in the cooking instructions of any sausage nowadays, not even in the cheapest economy sausages.

*I can remember sausages exploding in the late 70s/early 80s, but not since then.

I always thought sausage rupture was due to shrinkage of the skin upon heating, disproportionate to shrinkage of the filling. Bog knows my sausages still bang if I don't prick them, and they're good sausages, too.

Blue "You in the back, stop sniggering!" Byrd

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by dlloyd1

Premium recipe sausages (like these are claiming to be) would not include rusk in the recipe, and there would be no need to prick them. I can't imagine anyone would be able to find "prick with fork" in the cooking instructions of any sausage nowadays, not even in the cheapest economy sausages.

I've noticed premium sausages do something different, though - the fat inside them melts and pressurises, then you get a pinhole rupture in the skin and a continuous jet of hot liquid fat squirts out and hits the grill element and turns the sausage into a miniature flamethrower. It's quite impressive, but it smells bad. Pricking them with a fork gives the fat a way to escape under lower pressure.

I've seen the "Do not prick" instruction too, but I'm not sure of the logic. It doesn't seem to do any harm.

I thought it was a difference in the skin of the sausages that meant they didn't explode any more, but a lower water content might explain it too.

[snopes]

Comment: I was sent this with the tag line ‘This was actually sold in the supermarkets in Ireland - until they twigged!!’ and wondered if it was true. It made me laugh even if it isn’t

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by dlloyd1

Premium recipe sausages (like these are claiming to be) would not include rusk in the recipe

It is not the rusk that is the problem, but the higher fat content. Very few brands of UK sausage (even the most expensive premium brands) do not have rusk. I know this as my mother has Coeliac Disease so she cannot eat wheat/rusk, so I am always checking ingrediant lists