A Question For Mr Kipling

[poliphilo]

Khan came to the door last night with a fruit cake. His wife had bought it at the shop and one of his kids had read the box and discovered it contained pork fat. Instead of throwing it in the bin, he thought of me...

Now, seriously, why would a major manufacturer use an ingredient that puts its product off limits for Muslims and Jews? It's not as if pork fat is an essential ingredient of fruit cake. What's wrong with butter, or vegetable fat or vegetable oil? Don't they want to reach the broadest possible market? 

Nice cake, by the way.

PS; Ailz has worked in a bakery. (A big one). They didn't use pork fat: partly because they were working for the "high end" market and partly because it would have entailed operating under "meat regulations"- which (for obvious reasons) are tighter than those governing other foodstuffs. For instance they'd have had to have the premises tiled- like a butcher's shop. Clearly the pork fat didn't arrive in Khan's cake without decisions having been made at a high level...

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That does seem very strange. "Revenge for 1857" was the first thought that came to mind, no doubt because of the Kipling name.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Empire strikes back.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Given that they even make lardy cake without lard these days, that does seem very odd.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Lardy cake without lard- doesn't that breach trade descriptions?

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

For many things, lard is vastly superior to any other shortening.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Surely not for fruit cake.

I make cakes. I never use lard.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

My grandmother and mother used lard in pastry, but would never have used lard in a cake.

I know I don't bake much, but I don't think even Mrs Beeton's old fruit cake recipes contained pork fat.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I prefer to use butter in pastry, but lard is fine.

I can't think I've ever seen a cake recipe that called for pork fat. If I did I would turn the page quickly.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Really? I find butter can make pastry tough. When I make pâte brisée, I use a mixture of butter and lard at a ratio of four to one.

When I make biscuits -- not your biscuits -- I invariably use lard. For the record, I seldom make biscuits.

I don't think I have ever seen lard used in a cake recipe of any description, though.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Weird decisions happen like this all the time.

A Vegan friend of mine used to love 'Linda McCartney's Vegetarian Pies' because they were actually Vegan and tasted nice (and Vegan convenience food is in short supply).

They changed the recipe to add (I think) butter to it, immediately striking it off the Vegan 'okay' list.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's very strange.

They cornered a niche market and then they blew it.