Dripping, Ballybunion Sea Rescue

A Taste of Yesterday

Would you believe that this forgotten food is making a comeback? Yes, you can buy beef dripping in shops now.

Of course time was when you made it yourself? Well, maybe now exactly made it.

In my youth when a housewife bought her meat in the butcher's shop ( It was always a housewife and it was always in a butcher's.) she usually asked him for a few bones for stock and a piece of suet for dripping.

When she got home she boiled the bones with some vegetables and seasoning as a base for soup and she rendered the suet for dripping. Rendering was the process of putting the suet (beef fat) in a saucepan, placing it over the heat and slowly melting the fat into a kind of sludge. This was then placed in a bowl and kept in the fridge or other cool place for future frying. When it was cooled it solidified into lard until it was melted again into dripping.

Frying with oil was a long time in the future and as for deep fat fryers….. 

Chips were made from potatoes you grew, dug, washed and cut yourself and they were cooked in a chip basket plunged into scalding dripping and when browned, they were eaten with salt and vinegar.

Tomato ketchup was also in the future.

<<<<<<<

Sea Rescue in Ballybunion in 1978

This series of photographs was posted on Facebook by Mike Flahive.  The photos were taken by Francis Bennett of Ballybunion. They show the rescue of two brothers who, foolishly, put out to sea in a canoe. The series of photos show their rescue in the early days of Ballybunion Sea and Cliff Rescue. The rescuers were Mike Flahive, Tim Hannan and Robert Stack in Lady of the Shore. The great series of pictures shows the canoeists being towed to the shore with the help of the lifeguard.

\

<<<<<<<

A Little Birdie Told me ……

They're planning a cull

This photo was posted by The Wild Deer Association. The picture was taken by Lisa Stapelbroek.

<<<<<<<