Hi all, sorry to be off topic, if you only want plant-related discussion, read no further!

Over the winter I've regularly been making a birdy mix for the garden with crumbs, old cake bits and mostly bacon fat from the grill. But I have a vague worry - I've heard that birds can't process salt and I wonder if it's possible that salt from the bacon stays in the fat?

Is this an irrational fear? Am I being daft? Or should I stop using grill fat and stick to the Crisp n Dry?

Incidentally, the birds love it and the garden fills up within ten minutes of it going out into my wee hanging containers.

Any opinions appreciated! Thanks, Bob

"undergroundbob" wrote in message
...

Hi all, sorry to be off topic, if you only want plant-related
discussion, read no further!

Over the winter I've regularly been making a birdy mix for the garden
with crumbs, old cake bits and mostly bacon fat from the grill. But I
have a vague worry - I've heard that birds can't process salt and I
wonder if it's possible that salt from the bacon stays in the fat?

Is this an irrational fear? Am I being daft? Or should I stop using
grill fat and stick to the Crisp n Dry?

Incidentally, the birds love it and the garden fills up within ten
minutes of it going out into my wee hanging containers.
Any opinions appreciated! Thanks, Bob

See :
http://www.rspb.org/birds/advice/birdsalt/index.asp
and
http://www.rspb.org/gardens/whatyouc.../what_food.asp

Jenny :~))

--

"undergroundbob" wrote in message
...

Hi all, sorry to be off topic, if you only want plant-related
discussion, read no further!

Over the winter I've regularly been making a birdy mix for the garden
with crumbs, old cake bits and mostly bacon fat from the grill. But I
have a vague worry - I've heard that birds can't process salt and I
wonder if it's possible that salt from the bacon stays in the fat?

Is this an irrational fear? Am I being daft? Or should I stop using
grill fat and stick to the Crisp n Dry?

Incidentally, the birds love it and the garden fills up within ten
minutes of it going out into my wee hanging containers.

Any opinions appreciated! Thanks, Bob
salt kills birds.
--
www.fenland-fowl.com

The message
from undergroundbob contains
these words:

Hi all, sorry to be off topic, if you only want plant-related
discussion, read no further!

Over the winter I've regularly been making a birdy mix for the garden
with crumbs, old cake bits and mostly bacon fat from the grill. But I
have a vague worry - I've heard that birds can't process salt and I
wonder if it's possible that salt from the bacon stays in the fat?

It can, and it does.

Is this an irrational fear? Am I being daft? Or should I stop using
grill fat and stick to the Crisp n Dry?

You can use it, but clarify it first by putting it in a saucepan with
some water and boiling it for five minutes. This dissolves the salt.

Incidentally, the birds love it and the garden fills up within ten
minutes of it going out into my wee hanging containers.

Any opinions appreciated! Thanks,

You can often get free fat from a butcher. Just cut it into chunks and
pass a string through them and hang them up.

If I'm rendering fat, I often do that with the left-overs - unless I
turn them into scratchings.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Rusty Hinge 2 wrote:
The message
from undergroundbob
contains these words:

[...]
But I have a vague worry - I've heard that birds can't process
salt
and I wonder if it's possible that salt from the bacon stays in
the
fat?

It can, and it does.

Is this an irrational fear? Am I being daft? Or should I stop
using
grill fat and stick to the Crisp n Dry?

You can use it, but clarify it first by putting it in a saucepan
with
some water and boiling it for five minutes. This dissolves the
salt.
[...]

But I don't think the dripping from grilled bacon actually has much
salt in it: doesn't seem to when I spread it on bread, anyhow. Are my
taste-buds getting insensitive?

--
Mike.

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

But I don't think the dripping from grilled bacon actually has much
salt in it: doesn't seem to when I spread it on bread, anyhow. Are my
taste-buds getting insensitive?

A lot of bacon doesn't have much salt in it these days, either.

I buy proper bacon, which if hung up in a lump soon grows a crust of
salt crystals.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Rusty Hinge 2 wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:

But I don't think the dripping from grilled bacon actually has
much
salt in it: doesn't seem to when I spread it on bread, anyhow. Are
my
taste-buds getting insensitive?

A lot of bacon doesn't have much salt in it these days, either.

Yes, and so it doesn't keep. Made worse by the wholesale substitution
of water for salt.

I buy proper bacon, which if hung up in a lump soon grows a crust
of
salt crystals.

Ah, yum! About a twice-a-year treat for me, I'm afraid: but it makes
a very welcome Christmas present for favoured relatives. I never
actually got it together to cure my own when I had pigs: I'll regret
it for the rest of my life.

--
Mike.

The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

A lot of bacon doesn't have much salt in it these days, either.

Yes, and so it doesn't keep. Made worse by the wholesale substitution
of water for salt.

And injected milk protein.

I buy proper bacon, which if hung up in a lump soon grows a crust
of
salt crystals.

Ah, yum! About a twice-a-year treat for me, I'm afraid: but it makes
a very welcome Christmas present for favoured relatives. I never
actually got it together to cure my own when I had pigs: I'll regret
it for the rest of my life.

But the pigs were happy...

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Rusty Hinge 2 wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains
these
words:

But I don't think the dripping from grilled bacon actually has
much
salt in it: doesn't seem to when I spread it on bread, anyhow. Are
my
taste-buds getting insensitive?

A lot of bacon doesn't have much salt in it these days, either.

Yes, and so it doesn't keep. Made worse by the wholesale substitution
of water for salt.

I buy proper bacon, which if hung up in a lump soon grows a crust
of
salt crystals.

Ah, yum! About a twice-a-year treat for me, I'm afraid: but it makes
a very welcome Christmas present for favoured relatives. I never
actually got it together to cure my own when I had pigs: I'll regret
it for the rest of my life.


and over here we still have good old fashioned "Country Ham" which is VERY
salty and smoked and keeps forever. If there is a teeny bit of mold on it,
you just rinse it off and slice it and use it anyway. We slice and fry it
with breakfast and make "red-eye gravy" with the drippings of country ham,
leftover hunks and the bone are thrown into pots of either dried white or
pinto beans or green beans and cooked until any meat falls off the bones and
the marrow is dissolved..............then the dawgs get the bones to
gnaw......yummm, country ham isn't for the faint hearted. It IS salty! My
daddy used to send me a whole ham of country ham from the local pig farm
when we lived in Colorado because back then you couldn't find it. And he'd
also send me 10 pound bags of Martha White self rising cornmeal in white and
yellow because you couldn't find self rising yellow cornmeal. When I say I'm
Southern, I am really Southern..g (for New Year's the tradition is to
make a pot of black eyed peas with the ham bone from the Christmas ham, and
throw a silver dime into the pot of simmering peas. Whoever finds the dime
has good luck all year.........this was my FIRST year I didn't make a pot of
black eyed peas for News Year!) in my family, a pan of either cornbread or
golden brown "drop" bread to go with it slathered in butter hot from the
oven in a black iron skillet was the topper with the peas and ham pieces.

madgardener up on the butt cold ridge, back in frosty Faerie Holler,
overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee

Thanks for all responses, especially Rusty with your fat expertise! (as it were)

And I can't believe I didn't think of tasting the fat to see if it's salty - what an eejit (slaps forhead and admits annoyed grunt).