I remember him! I don’t offhand recall anything he cooked, but I remember getting a kick out of how unpolished he was. Seemed to fumble and bumble around the kitchen in a very human way. I think I’d catch him on some local public tv when I was working in the Boston area, so that would place it begin/early 2000’s.

If you Google “The Urban Peasant,” you’ll get links to several YouTube videos of his program.

Yes, FOAS - unpolished is a great way to describe him. No Jaques Pepin to be sure, more like a friend who's home you'd like to be invited to for dinner and conversation.

I absolutely remember him! But why do I remember him as The Frypan Man? He always made the meals in a cast iron skillet. I remember that vividly

So, how did the Plate-scraping Soup taste?? Inquiring minds want to know...

I just looked up Urban Peasant to see if any photos of him rang any bells...they didn't. I don't remember ever seeing him.

Marilyn, my FIL used to cook for his pigs, because 'who would want to eat cold food all the time in winter'....said in a very heavy Croatian accent.

He made a gruel of grains, leftovers, carrot tops, cabbage cores, bruised apples etc...whatever was on hand and cooked it in a tub over wood fire near the barn. He would pull up behind one of the local grocery stores and the produce department would give him all the things past their prime that they were throwing out.

That mixture of grains and stuff used to be common pig feed with the name of Slop. Some people probably do still feed it. Pigs will eat any and every thing.

That's a disgusting idea.

That sounds appalling! (Of course I’m looking him up right after I comment here) 🤓

Doesn’t everyone cook the slop for the pigs? When I was a child and visited my family in Brittany, my Tante Albertine always heated that slop up. It was there and then I decided I wasn’t a pig fan. The way they eat!!! Ugh 🤦‍♀️ I don’t eat pork....except if it’s ham in a quiche....or an occasional baked ham... LOL

Michele, I don't know, I was a city girl. I hadn't even seen beef that wasn't in a grocery wrapper before I was married. We had pet ducks, but pigs, cattle, turkeys and raising them went clear over my head ;0)

Interesting....

We raised pigs and never fed them slop. Were mostly free range with grain. I understood that if you had a cow that using the excess milk was a good method to get rid of it but my mind rebelled at the idea.

I should add that I wasn't advocating scraping plates to make soup, it's just that the soup I made today, contained leftovers (refrigerated in containers) that I wouldn't normally put in soup and that led me to recall that particular James Barber recipe. I have no tried and true pig food recipes to contribute, although I have been know to scramble an egg for my dog once in a while...

morz8......I’m born and raised in NYC! It was some kind of wild trip going between home and such a rural (but so beautiful) place. I was a quiet observer type of kid. I remember getting to JFK, sitting in the cab heading home thinking how ugly everything was.

That soup is about the most disgusting thing I ever heard of.

DH's father was practically an orphan growing up in Poland, then a POW and an escapee. He would eat anything. DH and siblings tell of the time their mom was gone, maybe having a baby, and their father made porridge for their breakfast. That evening he'd taken the remains and the leftover from the pot and fried it in a pan for the passel of kids. No one would eat it, so it ended up in the dog dish.

Sometimes it's what you have to do.

I've made plenty of clean-out-the-crisper stir fry. When there's just a handful left of this and that, including leftovers, it's a great way to use it up. Refried porridge, though...

Did James Barber make the soup for his own consumption? Then I have no problem with it, he can do what he wants. Not sure if want to know if it's being served to me.

"Anyway, on one show he told of how after a dinner party, he literally
scraped everyone's plates and all the leftovers, including salad into a
big pot along with along the left over wine. Brought it to a boiled then
turned to low and left it overnight!"

I had a really good friend, whom I met after we were grown. She grew up in an affluent home, old money, upper class family. When I went to visit her family home with her, she warned me off of accepting any dinner invitations, as this was exactly what her mother did - cleared the plates into the refer and then created new dishes or soup from them. OMG, I was horrified and was so grateful for the warning. One of our mutual friends didn't get the warning...ugh, poor thing. She lived to tell about it

I'm sure he made it for his own conusmption - a lot of his meals were for himself. There are a lot of people in the world who would be very grateful for that soup. We can count ourselves lucky to not be among them. My grandpa, who grew up very poor in Scotland said "fried mush" which is what they called fried, leftover porridge was a common supper for them.

In my experience pigs dont care if their food is hot. At my Grannies house there was a pig bucket in the kitchen. All the left overs and scrapings went into the bucket. They also got pig mash. That was some sort of malted meal that was mixed with water. Pigs eat things we cant eat. They can digest things we cant. Peelings and shells and so forth. It becomes bacon and ham. It is a very old dynamic. Back in the day the family didn't get to eat the ham or maybe even the bacon. That would be sold. Sausage is all the oddments. It is efficient. I am not going to want to eat the scraping from plates. Pigs on the other hand would be thrilled.

Yeah. Pigs will eat anything hot or cold. With vigor. Hence my revulsion.

I enjoy eating Red River Cereal for breakfast, which contains grains including flax. For DH, not so much - he comments that it reminds him of the chopped grain that his grandmother used to cook for the pigs!

I used to enjoy watching James Barber's cooking show. It was different than other programs in the way he was so low-key and casual, e.g. using the tip of a knife to measure spice.

A pig’s digestive system is actually quite similar to a human’s. So are their heart and valves. Pig valve tissue is used in a lot of human surgeries.

My MIL used to feed them the skim milk from milking cows and old eggs, shells and all. The one thing I remember about the pigs were that they never pooped where they ate or slept. They were quite tidy. The cows were another story.

In Canada, it is illegal to feed meat to pigs.

I remember James Barber.

Yes, pigs are the only domestic animal that will designate one area for defecation and urination and use it exclusively instead of messing up their entire pen. The only one. They are very clean animals. Wallowing in mud is for cooling off or fly protection.

Stacey, did you know that they're discontinuing Red River cereal? If you see any, buy it, it's hard to find now.

It seems that Roxie is a pig......she pees in one end of the litter box and poops in the other. Always.

I never heard of James Barber/the Urban Peasant, but it reminds me of Laban and Larry's show, Cookin' Cheap. They were foodies, but used grocery store fair available in middle class 80s/90's America -- not terribly sophisticated by today's standards. I'll have to see if either show is available to watch ... we've already exhausted all the current foodie shows.

As for pigs, if slops is the worst thing you can imagine them eating, you've never talked with my grandpa.

Never heard of him. Died 29 November 2007 (age 84)

So I googled, quote:

" I started to develop a bit of a strange fascination with James Barber. Partly out of nostalgia, but more in the way of being mesmerized by a tornado on its path of destruction and not being able to look away. Specifically, a tornado on the path of destruction proclaiming how easy it is to cook, all the while touching raw chicken then touching everything else without washing its hands. I didn’t really notice while watching when I was a kid, but after getting older, and especially after starting to cook for a living, the Urban Peasant started to become ridiculous. He definitely wasn’t a chef, he barely seemed to know how to cook. His cutting board was always a mess, and his main technique was to add ingredients into barely warm frying pans, then shake it around a bit while lovingly scraping the non-stick coating off with a fork."

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Link to quote

My input....Yuck....

I think it amusing that people connect current cooking methods to how people used to cook. Also the return of some of those "old fashion" cooking methods although now electified.

I used to watch cooking shows back in the day ( Julia Child, The Galloping Gourmet, etc.), but I've never heard of James Barber. I do like leftover soup, but I don't think I would like soup made from leftovers. We never have many leftovers anyway. There is no way I would eat anything made from plate scrapings. That is beyond disgusting, that's nasty !. Yuck !

Because the OP posted that was what James Barber said he did with leftovers.

Plus, he said he brought it to a boil and left it on low on he stove overnight. That would be mush. Adds to the ick factor! I hope he was kidding, and not really that stupid.

The original post mentioned scraping dinner party plates to make soup...by the header title kitchen cook James Barber.

^Similar reaction to the above quote. I did not recognize the name so looked him up on YouTube. Watched part of a random episode. (CBC Canada so we did not have the show here). I totally get the 'use what you have in your pantry' attitude and thinking frugally without waste. But leftover blender broccoli mixed with this-n-that, etc. 🤢

I just cook an amount of broccoli we will have that meal planned. Some salads and roasted veg are great next day and I plan it. Roast two small chickens using the oven heat and have the second one a bit differently, then make stock. Sear a third steak for next day steak sliced salad or a lunch sandwich. Make extra salads while prepping.

And yes, he cubed poultry on his crowded cutting board, then quickly rinsed his hands without soap, 1 second, and called it washing, then touched all things seasoning, Pepper mill, salt pig, then cut cilantro in the same spot on the board. A comedy of errors.

He did mention later that the cilantro cut on the poultry spot was added to the stew so it is safe being heated. Fair enough. But he slid the stems over to the side. Pouring spices from the jars into the hand, an amount goes into the pan, the rest from his hand goes back in the jar. 😂

My mother would definitely take expensive prime rib from a few young grandkid plates, barely touched, and fridge it. Even potatoes, but not 'plate scrapings' all into a pot.

A big family holiday meal I keep half of most side dishes warm in the oven or on the stove...after filling platters or serving bowls. Re-fresh when emptied at the table. Not much left on plates when we just take what we think we will enjoy.

No issues if he wants to scrape plates for his soup, but I'd rather not want such a thing served to me. What if restaurants did that?....(I bet some do 🤢)....take beef bones etc and toss them in stock. They are simmered and safe but yikes.

I dislike food waste so I see a happy medium to prevent it.

I'd just rather keep a separate cutting board for meat, poultry, seafood resting in a sheet pan next to the sink. And my veg prep area separate.

Thank you, Jasdip, for letting me know that Red River cereal is being discontinued. That's too bad, since it's on my regular rotation of hot cereal, along with oatmeal. I will check out our local store and stock up.

Re food safety, some TV chefs are worse than others, but most every one of them would be smacked in my kitchen. Grosses me out, really, but optimistically attribute it to time constraints for the show.

I saw my neighbor ( years ago) dredge chicken in flour to fry it, and poured the excess flour back into her flour jar. Even if cooking killed bacteria, it made my stomach weak to see that.

Oh my - did not intend to offend so many with something that I merely found funny. In re food safety, I am very concientious about it but I think that most of our mothers or grandmothers had not nearly the knowledge that we have and did things very differently. My husband's mother (this would have been in the 60's - early 70's) would cover the leftover Christmas Turkey or Easter Ham with a tea towel and leave it on the counter for a day or two until the kids had picked it clean! My post was just really about my sudden recollection of a funny, very unprofessional cook whom I had forgotten all about. I guess I shouldn't have mentioned the soup...

nekotish, I remember him from his commentary about the mini donkeys that he raised. I won’t mention some of the things he said.

I found him goofy but entertaining.

I did watch an episode last night of one of his cooking shows. He made 3 different chicken dishes, and he did wash his hands with soap after handling the chicken, put the cutting board in the sink. He might have improved his food handling practices over the years of his shows. But really, I don't find any of the tv chefs wash their hands well enough......probably in the interest of time filming.

Like Marilyn C mentioned, there's a popular southern lady who makes marvelous biscuits apparently. Brenda Gantt. She keeps the same large bowl of flour out and mixes her biscuits right in the flour bowl. It makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Oh nekotish you’re good, brought back a memory and a smile!

It seems that my video was removed so I re-posted it. Would anyone make biscuits like this?

Jasdip, my mother made biscuits like that, but without the leftover flour. I don't like putting my hands in that mess, so I make biscuits differently. I cut butter or margarine into the flour, add milk and stir gently with a fork. Then I put the dough on a floured board, knead gently, roll out, cut and bake. Biscuits are a pastry, and as with any pastry the rule is " make it cold, bake it hot", (and don't overwork the dough). I learned the pastry rules from Martha Stewart, who may have her faults, but you can't deny she is a good cook.

Jas, I have seen that before, though not necessarily that woman. I guess it may have started when biscuits were made every day?

I don't mind a cook using clean, freshly and thoroughly washed hands to mix stuff up. But you say she never cleans her flour bowl? I can see making multiple batches one right after the other, but then that bowl needs a good warsh and dry.

Wood rose, that's how I make my biscuits too. I freeze my butter in 1/4 cup slices and then Igrate the butter in whatever I'm making.

Nickel, she stores the flour in that same bowl, just covers it with a towel until next time.