Breasts

There was a time when a breast of lamb was a bit of a treat. My mother would buy one now and then to make what she referred to as Irish stew.  There isn't a lot of meat on a lamb breast, most of it seems to be fat and bone, but it does make a nutritious and tasty meal.  It remains a relatively cheap cut of meat, paling into insignificance alongside the very trendy and popular pork ribs, and yet I still have the occasional yen to buy one and recreate a taste of the past.  I will not go so far as to cook pigs feet or tails, and definitely will not cook a pigs head as my mother was often asked to do.

In my childhood, it has been said that diets were much healthier, and maybe they were.  Fat people were few and far between and most of us were skinny.  It must be hard today to maintain healthy diets for children with so many tasty temptations around, and for most people there is no shortage of food.  Some people seem to make food the centre of their lives, living to eat rather than the other way around.  Every weekend newspaper has pages and pages dedicated to food and eating, and restaurants seem to thrive everywhere, people prepared to pay the ludicrous prices that they charge for their ambience and minimal cuisine.

I can still recall the smell of one of those stews, greeting us as we got home from school. I still remember the taste and the deep satisfaction gained as we mopped up the last bits of gravy with lumps of white bread.  I still love a good stew and for me, dishes like this are one of the few highlights of winter.