Dad was a country worker so we ate pigs (well rabbits,whelks,and one of the hens for Christmas).
We had plenty of pork dripping. I used to try and get the brown bits at the bottom of the bowl before father. Pork brawn and pigs trotters were two of his favourites. A fair sized man.
There was always a lump of beef fat in the flour bag for puddins. I used to gnaw that if I was truly hungry.
A different world.
Good, fresh, sourdough bread, preferably the butt with a decent application of butter. Doesnât require toasting, a topping, or any other mucking around with. Perhaps, optionally, a sprinkling of salt.
Good, fresh, bread doesnât ever require toasting. Thatâs what you do with stale bread, or bread of lesser quality.
Did you miss the âslicesâ ? 
Hahaha, I meant salt.
Seems like most on here are seasoned cooks, however when confronted with a new recipe, I find it useful to write it out to follow as books can tend to run things in parallel.
Also, like with chinese, hav everything chopped, sliced etc before cooking
Agreed that good, fresh bread doesnât require toasting, but you can still do it - you might almost say the better the bread, the better the toast. Add some butter and a good jam, it can be quite magical.
I often find it worth writing out a detailed timetable, down to the minute. It keeps me organised, helps make sure I donât miss a step and, crucially in our household, gives me a fighting chance of getting dinner on the table at the appointed time. Itâs especially useful when Iâm making more than one dish - two curries for example. The backs of A5 envelopes are an ideal size.
If you mean St Johnâs in Clerkenwell, that is for serious carnivores only!
It was!
Another tip from me and probably the most important.
Encourage children to help you in the kitchen and try never to shoo away a child who is interested in cooking away. Both my parents cooked and encouraged my sister and I to help in the kitchen from an early age and when we were too young to help we were allowed to sit in the kitchen, to ask questions and sometimes given a little taster of a sauce etc. I am sure that my love of cooking started from these early years experiences. And of course, when cakes are baked allow children to give the mixing bowl a pre-clean.
Tip Iâve recently learnt. If leaving dishwasher unused for more than a week - after the dishwasher is empty, run a hot cleaning cycle using a dedicated cleaner and then remove the water left in the bottom of the machine using a scoop then towel. Engineer suggests if not done, the pump will eventually seize.
So a perfectly good machine - Miele, albeit more than a decade old, but in good condition, is beyond economic repair - the pump whilst available is 40+% of new machine. There is a chance the machineâs control board is faulty, but the computer canât connect to the machine, so diagnosis is hit and miss.
Long way to go before we cease to be a throw away society. As the electro tv prog says, used to be repair shops on every high street!
I remember when Miele stuff outlived their owners.
It must have been somebody elseâs stuff then 
?
I remember we used to,have a dripping jar in the pantry in the 1950s. After everything that was fried the pan was emptied into it and used next time,
I think it was. Keillor Dundee Marmalade jar
The brown gel that came to the top was wonderful on a bit of bread.
You can ask Miele for a fixed priced repair which covers oarts and labour. Itâs ÂŁ269, I did it for an 11 year old washing machine a couple of months ago. They replaced two control boards and reprogrammed it.
Thatâs encouraging to hear, thanks. All my kitchen appliances are Miele, and now about 12 years old.
The brown jelly under the fat is great stirred into sauces and gravy.
Get one of these
Makes the chopping of vegetables, onions etc an absolute breeze as used by James May in his Oh Cook series on Amazon
Appreciate your thoughts. In reality, having contacted Miele, they admit they decide if the machine is repairable - based on the cost to them of repairing it, in other words if it is an economic repair. Otherwise they may allow the repair cost to be offset to a new machine. Their t & c link on their website doesnât work, so I canât see the full terms.
The pump and board are the likely issue on my machine, for each, the spares cost is cÂŁ350. Repair has to be paid up front, serial number not required.
Would have liked to follow your experience, but alas I think having had a Miele engineer from a local supplier already look with 50% of his charge offset-able against a new machine, I have to accept its expired.
Things come in threes sometimes, this was first to go wrong, next two of my three AV boxes!
Graham you may be interested in the above - in reality mine is now c20years old but not heavily used.
That is unfortunate. Fingers crossed, nothing else will develop a problem, but if it does a fixed price repair is usually less expensive. The other thing with that is that you get a yearâs warranty for the product against anything else going wrong.