The Recycled Cook

The Recycled Cook By Adrian Sleeman When I was growing up in New Quay, West Wales, my twin brother and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. Although I didn't realise it at the time, We learned a lot about cooking from my grandmother, who we used to call Mamgu,or Mam for short (Welsh for grandmother). In the small kitchen you would find a side of salt cured bacon, not unlike the hams of Italy and Spain but we were never allowed to eat it un cooked, which made it taste even better when we did slice off a piece when she wasn't looking. She would waste nothing, which came from growing up with very little to start with. One of my most vivid memories of her is watching her flatten out old butter wrappers to be used for greasing baking tins. Mam was always baking, or at least that was how it seemed to me as a young boy. Many years later It occurred to me that we have lost so many of those old ways that we could resurrect and in doing so not only be more economical i...