The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Mrs Pingu]

Holy moly, 80 mins after lighting the fire it's finally going properly. 

[Bledlow]

bugger bugger bugger.

Electrician finished fitting our extra sockets & new so-called consumer unit yesterday. The electric parts of the cooker, i.e. oven & grill, weren't used for the next 24 hours, but I think every other high consumption appliance probably was: shower, kettle, hairdryer, vacuum cleaner. All was well.

I switched the grill on tonight - sudden darkness! We've reset the circuit breaker a few times, & all is fine until the grill warms up.

Instead of grilling, we fried our fish on the gas hob.

Tomorrow, in daylight, I'm going to experiment. Oven on, grill on low, etc.  Is this the end of the old cooker? I've only had it 27 years.

Spoken to the electrician. Of course, he thinks a faulty appliance is more likely than a fault with his wiring - especially as he didn't touch that circuit except to wire it into the new consumer unit.

[mrcharly-YHT]

New consumer unit might have a more sensitive RCD - but that RCD should trip by itself. You shouldn't end up in darkness. Something is wrong with his wiring I think, if the whole lot is going. Crossed neutrals maybe? Or a miswired appliance actually, with live and neutral swapped.

[Kim]

Or a dodgy grill with an earth fault?  Could be a faulty element.

The RCD tripping usually takes out the whole lot, unless it's a split CU where the light circuits are excluded.

[Bledlow]

I have no difficulty imagining that after 27 years, a heating element could be dodgy. Heating & cooling many times can do that, I think.

Mrs B is saying that it's time for a new cooker anyway.

[Kim]

I have no difficulty imagining that after 27 years, a heating element could be dodgy. Heating & cooling many times can do that, I think.

Indeed.  This sort of element is usually a resistance wire surrounded by magnesium oxide powder wrapped up in a (grounded) metal tube.  Typical failure mode is for the tube to split open, and the exposed wire burns out (not here, as the grill still works) or makes contact to ground, perhaps a via a high-resistance path of accumulated oven mank (or in a water heating appliance, the water itself).

Elements are often replaceable with mild screwdriver work and foul language.

[ian]

Our food waste actually gets incinerated in a power plant, as does some of the landfill. I think.

Not sure what they do with ours, but they collect the caddy every week (our actual bins alternate general rubbish/recycling each other week). Considering we're disorganised shoppers (ooh, that's looks nice), we don't throw out much other than the occasional mouldy slice of bread, egg shells and geriatric fruit and veg. I would normally compost it but the bin is full at the moment. I mostly ignore sell-by and use-by dates, if it don't look or smell off, it probably isn't. I have friends who throw out everything the moment the date comes up. It's like Logan's Bloody Grocery Run in their kitchen.

[Kim]

Actually, on the subject of food waste, I wish they'd sell cheese in smaller portions.  If you don't eat it all within a day or two of opening the packaging it tastes nasty and is only fit for cooking with, and I don't really like melted cheese.

[Basil]

If you go to the deli counter in your stupormarket, they'll cut very small amounts.  Often cheaper than off the shelf too.  Probably don't stock the particular cheese you want though.

[Kim]

If you go to the deli counter in your stupormarket, they'll cut very small amounts.  Often cheaper than off the shelf too.  Probably don't stock the particular cheese you want though.

GPWM.  I've been habitually buying cheese at Aldi, which does not have a deli counter, on account of it being convenient and sensibly priced.  But the packages sizes for things like bog standard cheddar have been getting bigger lately.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Cheese? Bigger and stronger, please!

[Bledlow]

I have no difficulty imagining that after 27 years, a heating element could be dodgy. Heating & cooling many times can do that, I think.

Indeed.  This sort of element is usually a resistance wire surrounded by magnesium oxide powder wrapped up in a (grounded) metal tube.  Typical failure mode is for the tube to split open, and the exposed wire burns out (not here, as the grill still works) or makes contact to ground, perhaps a via a high-resistance path of accumulated oven mank (or in a water heating appliance, the water itself).

Elements are often replaceable with mild screwdriver work and foul language.

Replaceable (compatible parts are available, made by Belling, or someone anonymous at half the price), but Mrs B is firmly of the opinion that it's not worth it, & the electrician strongly recommends replacement of the cooker.

[Mrs Pingu]

Cheese? Bigger and stronger, please!

Cheese that goes wrong before you can eat it? Does not compute.

[phantasmagoriana]

Cheese? Bigger and stronger, please!

Cheese that goes wrong before you can eat it? Does not compute.

Absolutely. I don't think I've ever had that problem...

[T42]

Cheese? Bigger and stronger, please!

Cheese that goes wrong before you can eat it? Does not compute.

It does if you keep it in the fridge at 3°C.  Cheese needs 15 - 16°.

[ian]

I don't eat funky cheese. But I've no problem with cheddar from the fridge. Surely it's fine until it starts to turn. At white point it should be conveyed by suitably qualified and PPEd members of the domestic staff to the food waste bin for disposal.

[T42]

Hard cheeses do better but they need to warm up before eating. Soft ones die unless they're factory-made fat-bombs.

[ian]

Dairylea and the Laughing Cow are the only soft cheeses anyone needs.

[Kim]

I don't eat funky cheese. But I've no problem with cheddar from the fridge. Surely it's fine until it starts to turn.

Nahh, it (Cheddar, Red Leicester, Double Gloucester, etc) tastes markedly different^[1] at the surface after a day or more of being exposed to the air.  Wrapping very tightly in foil seems to help, clingfilm doesn't, and leaving it open in the original packaging is right out.  Beyond that point it's edible, but not particularly enjoyable, up until the onset of mould, unless you cut away the outer edges to get to the un-tainted core.  Pre-sliced cheese from the supermarket seems to come in a milder version of this state out of the box, and is fit for use only as a source of body fuel.

Similarly, I quite like Edam, but can't abide the wastage inherent in trimming away the outer 10-15mm or so that are dry and tasteless.  Barkata (who seems immune to such effects) recons that Dutch cheese all tastes like ankles anyway, so it's a rare treat for when I come across some cut and packaged in a way that minimises the wax content.

At white point it should be conveyed by suitably qualified and PPEd members of the domestic staff to the food waste bin for disposal.

Agreed.


_{[1] General experience suggests that anything "markedly different" to my tastebuds is lost on about 90% of the population, so YMMV.}

[Cudzoziemiec]

But whose ankles? Some people's ankles taste "markedly different" from others. 

[Kim]

That's a very interesting question, which I will raise with barakta when she next appears.

[T42]

Dairylea and the Laughing Cow are the only soft cheeses anyone needs.

As I said, factory-made fat bombs.

[Kim]

Dairylea and the Laughing Cow are the only soft cheeses anyone needs.

As I said, factory-made fat bombs.

Still better than actual mould, thobut.  And factories are an excellent place for making things.

In the interests of SCIENCE, I tried some French Laughing Cow last summer, as what I remembered of it from my childhood was greatly superior to the British version.  It seemed different, but didn't quite hold up.  As with Babybel^[1], the individual wrapping lends itself to the avoidance of pannier disasters while cycle touring.

The only Dairylea product worthy of note is the slices - burgers, for the contamination of (which is all most USAnian cheese product is good for).  They're quite fun when you're six.


_{[1] Which is a strange plastic relative of Edam that's immune to the drying out effect of the real thing I described above.}

[TheLurker]

I like my cheese to taste of something, and definitely not of ankles, so I'll take a well aged and room temperature bit of Stilton, Gorgonzola, Cheddar, Brie, Camembert or pretty much _anything_ with a bit of flavour in preference to some rubbery confection like Edam any day of the year. The ready sliced processed muck sold by Kraft and others is not cheese.  $DEITY alone knows what it is but it sure as hell isn't cheese.

There used to be a wonderful dairy at Chewton Mendip that did some of the best cheddar I have ever tasted.  Especially the unpasteurised. Unfortunately it was badly affected by the 2000 foot and mouth outbreak and I think it folded.

As for slavish adherence to "best before/use by" dates? Hah!  If it's not moving of its own volition it's safe to eat.

[ian]

Insanity! Cheese should be splendidly luteus yellow and come in little foil triangles or individually wrapped slices. God abhors a naked cheese.