I mean the casserole
Something’s always missing when you improvise. That’s the excitement. And your downfall.
UPDATE: apparently some readers don’t understand the consistency of British casserole.
Bad Machinery
New comics by John Allison
Something’s always missing when you improvise. That’s the excitement. And your downfall.
UPDATE: apparently some readers don’t understand the consistency of British casserole.
“Something missing” is a solvable problem. What you have to watch out for is “Something is in there that really shouldn’t be”.
And I suspect that unkknowable God was improvising when we humans were created.
That extra k is being saved for a later comment.
It’s a Special K!
Nah. I always improvise at least a little when I cook, and it usually comes out fine. Although, I do usually end up with some ideas about how to modify it next time, but that’s not really a problem, just part of the process.
Most of us improvise perhaps a couple of times a week. But for some, notably fashion-conscious teenagers, the figure can rise to two or three improvisations every single day.
Shelley adds icumin in:
Lhude sing cuccu
Quoteth Seeds and questions creeds
And flavours Della’s stew
Sing cuccu
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Cumin seed. The only spice that sounds like a Yorkshireman inviting you into his house.
Is Della a newly created character? I don’t remember her from any earlier storyline. Which means less than nothing, of course
Given that:
a) This clearly isn’t Tackleford;
b) We really don’t know anything about this phase of Shelley’s life;
– I’m assuming that any characters I don’t immediately recognize are newly introduced in this story.
Does “casserole” mean something different in Britain? In the states it’s a baked dish, assembled and cooked in a low pan like you’d use for lasagne. This seems more stew like.
In America, you have to cut into a casserole to get it out of the pan, and then we eat it with a fork. Usually a lot of pasta or potatoes are involved. Often eaten at potlucks.
I’ve always considered it as pretty much stew cooked in the oven in a big dish/pot with a lid, casserole dish I think it’s called. Sometimes there’s a layer of little dumplings on top but that could be cobblers.
A special report on Casserole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-2PRJQvc1s
I love that every YouTube comment is in on the joke
“Look Around You” – Britain’s finest export
Thanks, Casseroles. Thasseroles.
It’s interesting actually, the British “casserole” and US conception of “stew” hold the same linguistic root, being named for Sir Stewart Casserole, a Scottish military officer who drowned in Boston Harbor in the run up to the Revolutionary War
He had it coming after he whipped famed Bostonian mascot James “Soupy” Chowder for lese majesty after ol’ Soupy failed to properly genuflect to a newly arrived portrait of George III.
When Sir Stewart went into the drink, he was accompanied by 50lb of turnips, a half-hundredweight of chopped carrots and a bayleaf. It’s the way he would have wanted to go.
The Chowder family later had a big feud between two of its branches, the New England Chowders and the Manhattan Chowders.
Beautifully done
Yes, I think you’re correct. What Brits view as “casserole” is apparently what we yanks would call “stew”.
It seems the British have been–at least in some sense–spared any exposure to what Americans endure as “casserole”. Y’all should be very grateful for that.
Based on the video & comments, I think British casserole owes more to French cassoulet than to mid-western hot dish.
You just have to taste the notes in between the ingredients
Questions of Divine Intervention and Stew aside, anyone else think that and apron is a bit of an odd souvenir to get from the Tate Gallery? Also, would it be from the main Tate, Tate Modern (London’s equivalent of MoMa) or that one in Manchester focused on war-related art?
The apron literally says “Tate Britain” on it, which is the current name of the original Tate Gallery on Bankside. In the “real world” it didn’t actually get the name Tate Britain until Tate Modern opened in 2000.
The Tate’s other galleries are Tate Liverpool (1988) and Tate St Ives (1993). By “that one in Manchester” do you mean IWM North, which is part of the Imperial War Museum, not the Tate?
Isn’t the IWM North in Leeds? Never been inside but driven past a few times back in the day.
The Royal Armouries museum is in Leeds. IWM North is in the Trafford borough of Greater Manchester.
I believe that the Millbank Tate was rebranded as Tate Britain after the successful opening of Tate Wendlefield in 1995.
Well, aren’t YOU the PotenTate?
Also, Tate does currently sell an apron, though it just has a small tag with TATE on rather than a large logo on the chest specifying a particular gallery .
Those aprons are for well-to-do artists (and wannabe’s) who need to spend 25 Pounds on something.
I had thought maybe Taste Britain was a thing and this was… a strange riff?
It’s only cumin if you’ve run out of cumin. Which you almost always have.
Now the question is, does Shelley believe in the existence of angels?
Definitely Modern Tate – they gave it to their patrons when a rather special happening was taking place.
Shelley needs to put a coat on for supper?
HMMMMM
COULD SHE HAVE JUST GOT HOME AND GONE “DIRECT TO KITCHEN”
COULD SHE BE ABOUT TO GO FETCH JACK FROM HIS HOME
COULD THIS STUDENT HOUSE JUST BE COLD AS THEY OFTEN ARE
COULD SOME OF THE COMMENTS UNDER THIS STORY HAVE DRIVEN ME CLOSE TO MADNESS
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
I had assumed you had her putting on that coat simply because Shelly looks good in that coat.
If it is any comfort, Shelly’s donning of a coat implied to me that she was about to go out.
I guess we’ll find out next week if that’s reading too much into Shelly and the coat.
“Your Honour, I can only say that our ‘steemed author was provoked.”
Just practicing.
Wearing (possibly faux) sheepskin coats around the house? Totally normal for the late 90s.
(I was There. I have Seen Things)
it’s one of those Afghan coats. People tended to wear them indoors for some reason, possibly because they were so trendy. The problem was, they also smelled awful.
I like Shelley’s way to think.
I don’t believe in an interventionist God,
But I know, darling, that you do.
But if I did, I would kneel down and ask him
“What’s the spice that we need for our stew?”
This has a Wendy Cope-ish touch to it. Very nice.
Nice year specific Cave nod
Making a Casserole seems pretty advanced for a student. When I was at Uni everyone ate Cadbury’s Smash or fried egg sandwiches.
It’s possible to make almost anything using Ramen. In college you learn all about Ramen.
Della is clearly a time traveller. The Tate gallery on Millbank wasn’t called Tate Britain until 2000…
Ground cumin: The last thing you see when your parachute fails.
Just occurred to me: if this is 1999 (and I’m used to that), and Jack is 18 or so, canonically the mystery kids are in their early 40’s?
Jack was plucked out of the present and sent back to the ’90s, at the age he currently is/was in 2024. There’s been no indication that the other Mystery kids have been similarly transported.
I’m now realizing that when British folks read US references to tuna casserole with crushed potato chips on top it must be disturbing.
We have no notion of your weird dry casseroles
Frankly, tuna casserole with crushed potato chips on top disturbs me, and I’ve been American all my life.
Great with a side of something called ‘salad’ which appears to be mostly mayonnaise and jelly?!
No, no. Jelly is what we Americans spread on our toast (or combine with peanut butter to make a sandwich). You’re thinking of Jello®.
When I was a kid, tuna casserole disturbed me whenever it was put in front of me with my mom’s clear instructions that I was expected to eat it, or go hungry.
I thank God (the real, self existent, interventionist one) that she soon discerned that having a nauseous kid around wasn’t worth it. Bad things can happen.
Well, it’s not boiled or deep-fried, and it’s not bangers or chips, so it MUST be disturbing.
Oh John, what a delightful use of the most beautiful love song of all time.
I’ve never seen Look Around You before (due to being American). It’s fantastic. Also clears up various Casserole questions I would have had re: daily consumption by London teens.
My introduction to Look Around You was due to the FUNJYS graffito in Steeple at the beginning of this year: https://scarygoround.com/steeple/?pg=323#showComic — well, more from the comments about it than the graffito itself.
I wonder where Shelly got the notion that God is “unknowable”.
From Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, possibly, though I imagine her readings on teh subject have been a little cursory.
She just figures that if He were knowable, she would have met Him by now. Given the number of other mythological figures she runs into over the years, it’s a pretty reasonable assumption.