Meringue roulade with strawberries and lovely cream |
So why am I conflicted? Well, I do love a nice steak every now and then, or a spicy chilli con carne or a warming beef stew in the winter (hello cow meat). Most important, though, are the fabulous and versatile dairy products. I adore milk, butter, yoghurt and cheese in their natural state and of course, they are used in an infinite number of cakes, desserts and confectionary to delicious effect. Irish dairy products are rightly considered some of the best in the world, which is of course, down to cattle grazing their days away in our lovely green fields. Most people think that the recent growth of artisan cheese in this country is something new, remembering the choice of either cheddar or the 'cheese' spreads and slices of our youth (Easi-Singles anyone?). The Irish annals (records kept by monks from the early medieval period onwards), however, mention over 400 different types of cheese and milk products in Ireland. Cattle were the currency of the day and the bigger your herd, the greater your wealth and position. Clearly, we lost our way sometime over the last 1600 years, descending from such dizzy, dairy heights to become purveyors of processed cheese and margarine.
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