christmas lunch: the boxing day pate

here's what happened to the giblets:



First step was to attempt to bone out the neck, trim the gizzard, heart and liver. This was topped up by about 500g of chicken livers (and the bird was a goose). The trimmings went into the stock pot for gravy. The only knife in the house that works - my opinel.

then into a pot with an onion, garlic and fresh thyme.

and some of this:

I didn't get any action shots on the hob but like most stewed liver it didn't look too pretty. Nor did it look pretty when it was thoroughly blended up. In fact it doesn't look to pretty now that it's done. Lesson one - top it off in clarrified butter, not goose fat. Nice as the idea was to use this it isn't solid enough at room temperature. Secondly I chucked in some left over herb butter that was 1: too soft because of the olive oil added and 2: green, which in turn went a non-pretty brown. 3: next time invest in a bit of sel-rose. Not bad for a freeby mind and it tastes incredible.

christmas lunch: the ham

I gave instructions for the cure and wasn't around to supervise it but it was salt; bay; sugar and molasses... this was an oxford sandy-back and nicely fat.

Over Christmas Eve it got 3 changes of cold water in the garden (about 1C!) and this morning it got new water again, cardamon, casia bark, cinamon, cloves and mustard seed:



then onto the hob LOW for about 2hrs:



Stop for breakfast....



After which they came out and were rested and left to cool.



then the rind and all about about 1/4 inch of fat was removed. What was left got a home-made crab-apple jelly (from last autumn - a use at last!) and dijon mustard. Then into a low oven with several repeat glazings and boom...

London Shopping: Arthur Beale

my little sister has a boyfriend who wrote this. My St James jumper is probably my favourite item of clothing. Mine's like the one on my CT's blog here (aren't we just a big bloggy family).

As much as I like Oi Poloi and what they've done for menswear if I ever get another it'll be just down the road from my office at London's very own 400 year old boaty-shop Arthur Beale and I'm pretty sure they're cheaper! They've got some cool St James beanies you can make out in the window too and for about a tenner I've decided i'm getting one when I'm back in London.

real shit rant: bison smock

What is it that I'm constantly in search of? Mostly real stuff, real food, real music, real people and real clothes. Clothes seems to come to the fore because there seems to have been a more "mainstream" revival in food and music (how succesful? - another subject) but real clothes seem to be the pursuit of a little underground bunch of weirdos, confined to the corners of the internet. The only mainstream airing it seems to get is in that tosser-fest Monocle where it goes all "yeah man, these deck boots are made from organic horoween leather that was massaged off the cow's ass, the soles are recycled rubbers sourced only from people truly in love and they were stitched by Washington's nan in collaboration with Zaha Hadid" oh - and before I forget "RRP £789 / 1,173CHF" price quoted in Swiss Francs to show how damn international/European/independent/rich we all are.

The other problem is the pre-eminence of the US and the movement's close association with Americana. That's a shame because our clothing industry is WAY better and reaches into our pre-industrial history. Unless you like feathers you won't find that in the states. By comparison on Old Bond St you'll find James Lock & Co since 1676 have made hats for Nelson, Wellington, Churchill and plenty of other English warriors (yes - ok, Arthur Wellesley was Anglo-Irish).

I also remember the old-boys shop in Exeter, Lugets couldn't even manage a date, their bags read "Established prior to Waterloo.

Here is something a little more practical to be proud of:

Bison Bushcraft are just down the road from my dad's (as is Ray Mears weirdly) and learned their craft of Mors Kochanski. Starting wanting a proper piece of kit they've created something that I think is sweeeet.

Take one 1963 issue pattern SAS smock and tweek for civi life. Make it out of ventile, the daddy of practical fabric (don't let those goretex likes feed you their plastic) and keep nice details like REAL nato slotted buttons, envelope style pockets etc etc.

No collaboration with a Japanese designer, no "modern interpretation of a classic", no stupid East London boutique price tag - just a very nice, totally indestructible coat made in England available for a reasonable £275 here.

dix photos: le feminin

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simple rules:

3 things you should NEVER wear a tie with:

• a short sleeve shirt.
• a shirt darker in colour than the tie. i believe artists call it negative space, i call it fugly.
• jeans.

more glazed bricks

this time from some toilets at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich

like one of the guys out of chariots of fire.

winner

also, sports kit looks good crica 1924 despite the lack of lycra...

if you go down to the woods today

you might find some designers learning about green wood and working in the vein of classic welsh stick chairs and the like - interesting results eh? From Designersblock

Grenson now online

good news this slightly hungover morning is that you can get a fix of good english shoes online from the one and only Grenson

Shop: ANTA Scotland

I just discovered this and might well visit when I am next at my lovely girlfriends (weather dependant!). Seems a wonderful shop.