calumscott
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- Sep 12, 2011
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The Ploughman's Plus Challenge
graysalchemy and I (being the incorrigible foodies we are) have been chucking around the concept of what it would take to create a ploughman's lunch from scratch, like, *really* from scratch!
But why should we keep the fun (or silliness) to ourselves? So here is The Ploughman's Plus Challenge! Your opportunity to get a bit silly and create a Ploughman's Lunch (plus) getting as far back to basics as you can and take the title of "THBF Ploughman".
Ploughman's Lunch Plus?
Well, a traditional Ploughman's of beer, bread and cheese didn't seem like enough of a challenge so we've added some other bits that you would commonly find in a pub Ploughman's nowadays.
Your Lunch must have the following seven components:
- Bread (traditional British styles)
- Cheese (any traditional British style, blues score highest, then hards, then cottage and similar)
- Ham (any traditional British style cure, boiled and/or roast)
- Pork Pie (ideally a style similar to a Melton Mowbray)
- Picked onion or egg
- Pickle or chutney
- Beer (again, traditional styles so avoid APAs, Belgians, lagers etc. We want Bitters, Milds, Porters, 70/-, 80/-, Stouts etc.)
Points are awarded for the rawness of ingredients used in each component - effectively the amount of effort you've had to put in to make it!
Expect deductions for items not really in a traditional British style.
For example if you brewed a cider and made vinegar from it to pickle your home grown onions then you will score higher than if you buy the onions and vinegar to make them...
The basics are that a shop bought item scores zero, a missing item scores -2 (just to stop random entries of a single pork pie or pint of beer) and the points available rack up depending on just how far you go towards "from scratch".
There are also discretionary points available for efforts not covered in the basic score card.
Of course photos of the growing/foraging/making of the components of your Lunch are positively encouraged and will likely result in higher discretionary points...
As with everything like this, it's just for fun, just to push the boundaries - I really want someone to go and milk a cow by hand to make their cheese!!! :lol: Please be honest, don't go claiming that your Taste the Difference Melton Mowbray is actually your own hand-raised hot-water pastry pork pie.
Judging is, as per The Feck Test, pretty subjective and will be carried out by grays or me (or anyone else we deem pedantic enough!) and is final. If we declare a new "THBF Ploughman", then the new "THBF Ploughman" is declared and that's that.
Only a positive score of 1 or greater can be awarded the title, so forget the early opening attempts of photos of empty plates or a single slice of half-chewed ham from your sandwich...
The score card can be downloaded from here.
Now, before anyone says that the beer judging is unfair because it automatically gives more points to AG brewers, tough. AG brewing takes more effort and uses rawer ingredients and that's the whole point of the challenge. Want those extra points? Check out the Back to Basics threads to see how easy it is to make a small batch of AG beer with nothing more than standard kitchen equipment.
Yoke the Clydesdales, turn the sod, make lunch!
Who's going to be the first THBF Ploughman?!?!?
graysalchemy and I (being the incorrigible foodies we are) have been chucking around the concept of what it would take to create a ploughman's lunch from scratch, like, *really* from scratch!
But why should we keep the fun (or silliness) to ourselves? So here is The Ploughman's Plus Challenge! Your opportunity to get a bit silly and create a Ploughman's Lunch (plus) getting as far back to basics as you can and take the title of "THBF Ploughman".
Ploughman's Lunch Plus?
Well, a traditional Ploughman's of beer, bread and cheese didn't seem like enough of a challenge so we've added some other bits that you would commonly find in a pub Ploughman's nowadays.
Your Lunch must have the following seven components:
- Bread (traditional British styles)
- Cheese (any traditional British style, blues score highest, then hards, then cottage and similar)
- Ham (any traditional British style cure, boiled and/or roast)
- Pork Pie (ideally a style similar to a Melton Mowbray)
- Picked onion or egg
- Pickle or chutney
- Beer (again, traditional styles so avoid APAs, Belgians, lagers etc. We want Bitters, Milds, Porters, 70/-, 80/-, Stouts etc.)
Points are awarded for the rawness of ingredients used in each component - effectively the amount of effort you've had to put in to make it!
Expect deductions for items not really in a traditional British style.
For example if you brewed a cider and made vinegar from it to pickle your home grown onions then you will score higher than if you buy the onions and vinegar to make them...
The basics are that a shop bought item scores zero, a missing item scores -2 (just to stop random entries of a single pork pie or pint of beer) and the points available rack up depending on just how far you go towards "from scratch".
There are also discretionary points available for efforts not covered in the basic score card.
Of course photos of the growing/foraging/making of the components of your Lunch are positively encouraged and will likely result in higher discretionary points...
As with everything like this, it's just for fun, just to push the boundaries - I really want someone to go and milk a cow by hand to make their cheese!!! :lol: Please be honest, don't go claiming that your Taste the Difference Melton Mowbray is actually your own hand-raised hot-water pastry pork pie.
Judging is, as per The Feck Test, pretty subjective and will be carried out by grays or me (or anyone else we deem pedantic enough!) and is final. If we declare a new "THBF Ploughman", then the new "THBF Ploughman" is declared and that's that.
Only a positive score of 1 or greater can be awarded the title, so forget the early opening attempts of photos of empty plates or a single slice of half-chewed ham from your sandwich...
The score card can be downloaded from here.
Now, before anyone says that the beer judging is unfair because it automatically gives more points to AG brewers, tough. AG brewing takes more effort and uses rawer ingredients and that's the whole point of the challenge. Want those extra points? Check out the Back to Basics threads to see how easy it is to make a small batch of AG beer with nothing more than standard kitchen equipment.
Yoke the Clydesdales, turn the sod, make lunch!
Who's going to be the first THBF Ploughman?!?!?
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