Station Cooking

[Noddy]

Nope.  If you bring in your own food then it’s no cooking and no washing up but it’s hands off the fruits of the mess.  There is normally one on the watch who’ll never cook or help wash up after a supper but will gladly take any leftovers or dip their hands in…… thats a punishable offence! 

[Steve]

On 04/08/2021 at 20:51, Kinmel said:

Most stations were busy, so meals were served with a slice of buttered bread on each side of the plate. Making a roast dinner sarnie in about 3 seconds was an art form.

Ahhh, the infamous 'Shout sandwich' no matter what was served (pretty much) the contents were put between a slice of bread to be consumed en-route. 😉

[Br9mp81]

You could tell when people had settled into the job,trying to gulp tea down as fast as the 'bells were ringing' on the way to the bays

[Dyson]

The mess manager cooks, non messers still do mess duties such as washing up, cleaning the mess and assisting the mess manager. These are station routine duties that all firefighters do on our watch. 

It’s very popular with some non messers 🤗

[Deano89]

I'm putting in a PER 7 for whatever watch this is! 😂

[Becile]

Im guessing a per 7 is a transfer request?

[Halligan]

Not quite as upmarket as Carl’s offerings, but an enormous steak baguette soaked in gravy with mozzarella, hanging over the edges of the plate always goes down well. Failing that, a huge Yorkshire filled with sausages and mash is a cheap and easy lunch

  

[Luminoki]

Burgers are the theme for our watch right now, although its a come dine with me style competition with how much is home-made

1 - seasoned and chilli’d homemade burgers with sweet potato fries, peri peri salt and coleslaw

2 - seasoned with oregano and all purpose seasoning burgers topped with halloumi cheese and rocket lettuce, southern fries and homemade coleslaw

  

[Carl]

Im glad you brought this one back. This is the latest instalment from the GMFRS station. 

Elvis burger (giant beef patty, peanut butter, strawberry jam, smoky streaky bacon and an egg) with dirty cheeseburger fries.

[OscarTango]

Bloody hell are you checking the toilets with a defibrillator when people finish that?

[Rory-495]

I'm back in the mess this month.... standby for "fat boy mess" as it's known

[Messyshaw]

Catering when I joined in the late 1970s was all about 1) Size, 2) Spice and 3) Mince, and non of this poncey stuff you lot eat now.

SIZE: Even the cheese and onion sandwiches at 11:00 were huge and would now (with H&S),  probably attract a 2- person lift. We would endure two rounds of sarnies of uncut white bread, hand sliced with 25+mm slices, with thickly spread heart attack butter and lashings of grated value cheese and raw onion. Most stations in west London would have Branston pickle as well.... as we were posh.

Then two hours later at 13:00, we would scoff down a roast dinner for lunch with all the trimmings - plus apple tart and custard after 

Then at 16:00, we may enjoy a bit of iced sponge with our afternoon tea. To be fair, you were probably going to the pub next door after work (not the gym like now) so it was a good idea to line your stomach 

SPICE: Curries had their own Hazchem signage and station toilet paper was made from asbestos. If your eyes watered when you ate Mick's chill con carne, you were a poof. (1970s speak). If you refused to eat it, you would face a good hosing down, especially in the winter. Gradually, Branston pickle was augmented by arse-burning 'inferno' chilli sauce. That was terrifying stuff that took no prisoners. 

MINCE: I defy even David Copperfield or Penn & Teller to use their combined magic skills to make 4lbs of mince go further and in more variations of meals than a LFB Mess Manager. The guy who wrote the book (photo is attached) calls himself the 'Prince of Mince'. My God, I have worked with a few of them. 

We once helped a neighbouring station with their open day. We didn't have a yard so couldn't have one. So we did the catering. Our very resourceful Mess Manager went out on the ponce and came back with a manner of freebies including what looked like 3,750 tonnes of canned hot dog sausage. I reckon we could have supplied New Yorkers for a fortnight. We had them stacked everywhere around the station.

Even though we sold a lot of food that day, we hardly made a dent in our stock. A few cans went home (mainly for pet dogs), but the Mess Manager had other ideas. We lived off the bloody stuff for months. Minced, boiled, grilled, roasted and flambéed. We endured hot dog curries, chillies, meat balls, lasagne and some kind of roast wellington thing which had pastry and... yep... hot dog sausage meat in side it. Eventually we used the supplies and he went back to poisoning us with out of date mince picked up at the end of the day. What a relief!

Thank God things have moved on as you lot will definitely live longer. Just as well as you have to wait a bit longer for your pension🤔. Before I left Ops and went into Fire Safety, I was eating egg on toast for breakfast. The old fry ups in lard had gone by now. I listened to a group of guys and gals talking about the pros and cons of unsaturated fat and which was the best muesli. I thought ..... just for a minute..... what the old boys (when I joined at 18) would have thought about this conversation by a group of educated body aware young firefighters. Then I realised I would never know, as they pretty much all died young. 

[TrainHardFightEasy]

The interesting thing about that Messy is back in the 70s less people were overweight in society despite eating more unhealthy.

[Br9mp81]

Ah the joy of savoury mince and mash, how many eating? 8, so thats 8 pints of water to start 

[JonnyHolbs]

@TrainHardFightEasy cracking documentary about that on Amazon- Fat Fiction.

[Luminoki]

We’re still sticking with the handheld food theme at my station, recent offerings have been 

1 - Piri piri chicken with a naan wrap and salad and spicy curly fries

2 - Tikka Masalla wraps with dirty tikka fries ( i went for the non dirty option )

3 - seasoned homemade burgers but the lad that cooks them is experimenting with the spices he adds

Ive managed to get out of cooking for a while as ive decided that my bext offering will be “Walking Dead Burgers” and no-one is brave enough to try them ( google it )

[TrainHardFightEasy]

One pot meals- curries, chilli, fajitas & pasta bakes are the favourites here. Fry up/grill up on a Saturday.

[TrainHardFightEasy]

Are cheese & onion sandwiches still on the menu in LFB?

[Rory-495]

They were part of the monthly rotation one guy did. He was our senior Firefighter who wholeheartedly believed in mince, pasta and fray bentos pies. Very old school

[Harve88]

20 hours ago, TrainHardFightEasy said:

Are cheese & onion sandwiches still on the menu in LFB?

Thankfully not 

[TrainHardFightEasy]

What have they been replaced with?

[Jet]

Cheese and onion toasties 😂

[Harve88]

As above really most mess managers have got quite inventive 😀

[Rory-495]

Kicker I struggled with sometimes in LFB was stand easy was about 1030/11am. That's brunch. I'm  brummie, what on earth is brunch?!