CONNOISSEUR:We are becoming increasingly aware of where our food comes from – and that is a good thing, writes HUGO ARNOLD
REPORTS OF growing sales of duck eggs in the west of Ireland have reached me. Gourmet salad sales are also strong and prime cuts of meat are not just strong but leaping forward. Organic food consumption is showing healthy growth, up 11 per cent on last year, according to the Irish Organic Farmers’ and Growers’ Association (IOFGA), which compares rather favourably with the 2.7 per cent for non-organic food in value terms.
Prime cuts of meat – steaks, but also duck, organic chicken and lamb racks – were being sold to restaurants and hotels but there has been quite a switch as Irish consumers appear to be spending more at home than in restaurants. Duck egg sales, for example, might be explained, not by a sudden shift in taste away from hens’ eggs, but by a renewed interest in home baking.
We may have returned to the idea of a steak supper at home on Friday, but a renewed interest in sponge cakes and biscuits is also welcoming. And IOFGA is quick to point to the two-thirds of those surveyed who said they had every intention of maintaining their organic spend, or even increas- ing it despite the economic downturn.
The reasons we buy our food are many, but advocates of buying local, seasonal and fresh, and maybe organic, are quick to point to superior taste as a key driver. This is a difficult one to prove as organoleptics – the science of measuring taste – is complicated, costly and time-consuming. The emotion attached to animal welfare, pesticide-free farming, supporting biodiversity and sustainable farming, as well as a rediscovery of community and the idea that we are good at growing things, are all part of the matrix.
The idea of adding value to food is evidenced in the world of food manufacturing by so-called functional foods where a “benefit” is bolted on to something else. What happens if premium products are linked to superior flavour? Think of supermarket premium lines and their claims. We like to think we have some of the best tasting beef in the world, but this is neither proven or consistently true.
We have come a long way from the hearth, but our food culture is steeped in the idea of locally sourced, good food. My childhood holidays were spent in Co Sligo, eating food from my grandmother’s 40-acre farm. Two cows provided milk, cream and butter, the latter hand-churned on the back steps. The hens provided eggs for breakfast and baking, and the garden provided a large number of vegetables.
My grandmother never stopped, and was inspirational in the way she kept the place going with one employee. The beef and salmon were occasional treats, the former purchased in nearby Sligo town. The butcher had his own abattoir, bought local beasts and stood over every joint he sold us. And the salmon? That came from a man who knew a man in nearby Co Mayo where the rivers provided fish that called for celebration. It was always potatoes from the garden, hollandaise made from the eggs and butter, and peas and beans picked no more than an hour before.
If memory serves me right, simple, local and good is nothing new, it has just got mixed up a bit. Maybe times are changing.