Oeufs is oeufs
Sir: Jeanne Strang (Letters, 1 June) attacks Mr Kelly's chauvinism over the question of British food produce as opposed to French food produce. She alleges that English eggs are not safe unless they are fried rock hard. This is a gross exaggeration. I have always made my own mayonnaise both before and after the salmonella scare and my wife, myself and our respective families have never suffered any ill effects. If Mrs Strang toured many parts of rural England she would discover independent butchers mak- ing their own sausages out of 100 per cent pork. I have not visited the local fishmon- ger in Albi but my own local fishmonger here in Norwich frequently has some 23 different types of fresh fish on sale in his shop and very good they are too.
Mrs Strang finishes her attack with a huge generalisation: 'the balance of quality is so tilted in France's favour that one wonders what it is that has prompted Mr Kelly's chauvinism'.
The fact of the matter is such generalisa- tions cannot be made. There is good quality and bad quality meat on both sides of the Channel. The market demands lean meat and many housewives prefer a bright red piece of meat on the grounds that it is `fresh'. What governs the quality of meat is the rearing of a particular animal, its last 24 hours before slaughter and the first 24 hours after and also whether it is hung properly. Having eaten meat and bought meat on both sides of the Channel, I would say there are many independent butchers on both sides who take care that the meat they buy and sell to the consumer has been properly reared, slaughtered and hung but there are a substantial number who do not.
This silly nonsense of 'my country has better produce than your country' or 'our eggs are healthier than your eggs' gets us nowhere. Quality is maintained as a result of effort and care by individuals, and no matter how much effort a farmer may put in rearing either his Aberdeen Angus or Charollais, if the animal is not slaughtered properly or hung properly the meat will be tough and tasteless no matter who cooks it. It seems to me that Mrs Strang's 30 years cooking in goose-fat has resulted in a hardening of her arteries.
A.N. Matthews
33 Guernsey Road, Norwich, Norfolk
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