I was going to call this post “Waste Not Want Not”, but that’s a hard maxim to live by in the modern first world. We try not to waste anything, but it’s almost impossible to never throw anything out, and I’m not about to force my boys to eat mouldy bread for the sake of a principle.
I think what’s important, though, is to make a concerted effort not to waste anything – and to feel a little angst when you do.
There are two persuasive reasons for training yourself to think like this. The first is obvious – it saves a bit of money. It won’t necessarily be much though, and as an incentive, that alone will be unlikely to sustain a permanent change in thinking.
The second reason, to my mind, is more convincing.
As many of you know by now, I’m a big River Cottage fan. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall often talks about treating food with respect – in the case of an animal, he interprets that to mean ensuring the beast has had the best possible life prior to slaughter, and then making use of every last bit of the carcass.
By adopting an attitude of “waste with angst”, I feel that we’re showing respect for the generous bounty we’ve been given. It ensures that we don’t take our food, or the energy and resources put into creating it, for granted. It helps us to view what we have through grateful eyes, and reminds us to always give thanks for what we have.
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Here are some of the little things we do to minimise wastage (and therefore angst!) in our kitchen – I would love to know your suggestions!
- Don’t throw out old bread, unless it’s mouldy or just too gross to eat. We turn our stale loaves into panzanella salad (great recipe here), bread and butter pudding, and breadcrumbs (which we use in meatloaf, hamburgers, and occasionally just deep-fry and scatter over pasta).
- Keep an eye on expiry dates, particularly on refrigerated items. If cream is nearing its use-by, turn it into custard, icecream or ganache.
- Turn leftover cream into a little butter. There is nothing quite like eating homemade bread smothered in freshly churned butter. You don’t need a lot of equipment to do this – we use either the mixer or our mini food processor (with whisk attachment). A little salt will help the butter keep a bit longer. Here are some photos which might be of use.
- Freeze your garlic – break it into unpeeled cloves and put them in a double layered ziplock bag (to prevent it stinking up your entire freezer). Not having to throw out mouldy garlic ever again is good for your soul!
- Freeze all your excess egg whites, or turn them into meringues and then freeze them, for use in either trifle or Eton mess. My friend Dan makes meringues on mass, freezes them, then pulls them out one at a time to make a “parfait” for little T – crushed meringue topped with strawberry jam and Greek yoghurt. Perfect princess dessert!
- Recycle leftovers – I know this is terribly clichéd, but it really does make a difference, especially when you’ve put a lot of effort into the original dish. I made my scotched egg meatloaf a few days ago, and the following night, Pete turned the leftovers into a simple pasta sauce, by breaking them up and adding his homemade tomato pasatta. It was literally the work of minutes, and it felt like a totally different meal to the one we’d had previously.
- Learn to preserve – a great way to store surplus produce, as well as creating gifts for your loved ones. Start by turning all your apple leavings into homemade pectin, which you can then use to create the most delicious jams ever. Since Pete took over this process (which I must say, he’s become very good at), we’ve been giving jars of homemade jam away as presents, and it’s made Christmas gift giving a joy rather than a chore.
- Finally, spread the love around! Get to know your neighbours and share your bounty with them. We regularly cook too much dinner, but we also have friends and neighbours who work very long hours and are usually happy to have a homecooked meal. It works out brilliantly for everyone!
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Anybody that’s got more than a passing interest in British food should really look at Dorothy Hartley’s book, Food in England…one thing in it about mutton that I find quite funny really, but also quite nostalgic, and it comes from a time when you had your roast and it had to last, so it said:
Sunday, you have your mutton hot
Monday, cold
Tuesday, hashed
Wednesday, minced
Thursday, curried
Friday, broth
Saturday, shepherd’s pie….presumably back to Sunday and another joint!
Chef Rick Stein, Rick Stein’s Food Heroes
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
It is very appropriate that you write about this. I just made 8 litres of milk into ricotta and mozzarella. The problem is that it leaves an awful lot of whey. It broke my heart to throw the beautiful white liquid down the drain. I nearly emailed you then and there to see if you had any ideas. I will research before I make the next lot to see if I can find a use for it.
Had an idea for using milk approaching its use by date. Turn it into buttermilk with vinegar and then freeze in lots to use for pancakes or muffins.
Let’s write a book on being frugal!
Chris, you made mozzarella? Wow…forget the book, let’s invest in some buffalo!! :)
I often keep the whey left over from turning old cream into butter – that’s true buttermilk, and I’ve made it into cakes before. I was thinking it might be good to marinate chicken in, which is what people do with cultured buttermilk. I wonder if your whey might be good for something similar. Oooh, I just had a look on google and found this – it might be of use?
Cheers, Celia
I’m pretty sure there is a use for whey in bread making.
Yes, I have just looked and in the HandMade Loaf there is a recipe for Whey bread with butter and honey, and a lovely essay on the facing page which begins “If you have any sense of economy, you will find that wasting food is painful…”
I was going to say
croutons
swedish apple sauce cake made with breadcrumbs I think
and I was going to say compost heaps, wormeries, bokashi bins
which just about covers the bits of food you can’t turn into other things for indoors.
PS Marty the Fieldfare is dining on watermelon and sourdough crumbs today, a strange bargain to find in the local greengrocer in the coldest January for thirty years – he’s a lucky boy, hundreds of his bretheren who overshot my garden and went to Ireland in search of pastures green are exhausted by their journey.
“If you have any sense of economy, you will find that wasting food is painful…” ooh YES, that’s what I wanted to say! :)
Compost heaps – yes of course – I’m sorry I forgot to mention them! And chook food!
Marty the Fieldfare is the fattest most well fed bird in the UK at the moment, Jo. He’s probably glad he decided not to fly south for the winter!
Of course chook food. I had some really old lasagne sheets in the cupboard with weevils. I soaked them in water overnight and the chooks loved them, made me feel so much better! Turning pasta into eggs – the opposite process!
You are one lady I love!!!!!!!! I will be freezing egg whites this weekend and also making a meatloaf, thanks to you!!!! I’ve posted my twist on Eton mess, using broken up macarons!!!!!!! Lots of love
Aaaah, the feeling is very mutual, dear Ozoz! And I LOVE your Eton Mess (hardly the right word for that magnificent chocolate and raspberry concoction of yours!). What a fab example of reusing your leftover baked goods! :)
Sending lots of love back to you and yours from our side of the world (where it’s ridiculously HOT)!
Today I made soup, vegetable soup, with a jar of home made passata, oh YES, and home grown garlic and veg from the farm at Riverford, leeks, carrot, potato, celeriac, red pepper, but the piece de resistance, as this was supposed to be a minestrone (vaguely) was that from the depth of the freezer I found…. old parmesan cheese rinds… which I added into the soup…. I am sure that was a tv chef tip from years back. So don’t throw them away or give them to the chickens unless you’ve used them in your soup first. Wish I had chickens, but Marty would probably terrorise them too!
Hahaha…Christina and Jo, you guys put me to shame! Recycling lasagne into eggs and reusing old parmesan rinds – truly inspired! And you’re right Jo, soup is a wonderful way to use up everything – we almost always make a big batch of pasta soup the night before we go to the markets, to use up any leftover veggies. It’s always flavoured with free ham bones too, make it a super-frugal, super-delicious meal! :)
Found it – it was Nigel Slater in The Observer – I didn’t make it up honest :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2004/apr/18/foodanddrink.shopping3
A most timely comment, Jo. After reading it, I went into the fridge and found some buffalo parmesan rind and a couple of old leeks, so I now have the Slater recipe from your link (potato, leek and parmesan soup) simmering in a pot for lunch! Thank you! :)
Hi Celia,
I need some help. I’ve been a long time covert reader and really enjoy your posts. I’m looking for a recipe, but am not sure if I had seen it from your blog. It’s a cake or desert of some sort that uses all the left over cakes and bread. Is it something that you have posted about before??
Hi Melissa! I think what you’re looking for is Le Pudding – the link is here.
Thanks for delurking to say hi.. :)
Celia
I think you may be able to use whey to make bokashi bucket starter.
One way to save money on beauty treatments!
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Hi Celia – what a truly wonderful find, I am so enjoying your site. After reading up on your butter-making, might I just suggest that it’s perfectly acceptable – indeed a long standing thing in my house – to use quite sour (ie off)cream in almost anything, IF IT IS BOILED. So, while I don’t use it if it seems disgusting/mouldy, of course, I do use it way beyond pleasantness (say 2 weeks or so after use by, but tell by sight and smell) for such things as finishing off a pasta sauce, or even (though can be slightly ‘heavy’) in a pannacotta as I did last week. Boiled cream, reduced down heavily or only slightly, just does not retain any smell or taste of being off – it just evaporates. I learnt this in my first commercial kitchen and have always known it to be true. Anyway, thank you, will really enjoy more reading and regular visits. Cheers, J.
Jack, that is really great advice, thank you! I will definitely bear that in mind next time I’m tempted to bin some off cream!