h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tresspassers will..?? Isnt that where piglet lived..??

'Christopher Robin said you couldn't be called Trespassers W, and Piglet said yes, you could, because his grandfather was, and it was short for Trespassers Will, which was short for Trespassers William. And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one--Trespassers after an uncle, and William after Trespassers.'

William, a closed buttie is a sarnie in my language.

How one gets from settee to buttie just by saying canapé in english rather than french is beyond me. Flipping an anchovy on top of each isn't a convincing argument that the word's meaning has thus changed. Or has it got something to do with eating on the couch?

I have to admit it's not just english where canapé means a savoury tidbit, but also spanish and german, maybe other languages too. In spanish I've also heard it as a term of endearment for a loved one, which struck me as rather good, with the savoury tidbit meaning. Not sure whether addressing your french girlfriend as a sofa would be appreciated though.

Still, I think I'll try your idea out next time I pull in at that caff on the East Lancs, near the Rainford turn-off. Asking the blonde waitress for un canapé aux saucisses rather than a sausage buttie might bring unexpected results. I get might my tea for free, as they say.

Sausage biscuits? You find them on breakfast menus in the USA. Never had one but think they are a bit like hamburgers, but with pork hamburger instead of beef, and sandwiched not between cut rolls but between separately cooked slices on heavy puff pastry.

I'd never realised that a buttie was open in some parts of the world, John. Perhaps we southerners are just get more worried about getting messy hands than Liverpudlians and so have missed out on these delights. I'll also have to be careful about what I'm sitting on next time I'm on the sofa, as well.

Hi G, I'd already guessed it was you, so I knew I wouldn't have to explain where the East Lancs was; you just lived at the wrong end of it for a while.
From our conversation here, you now also know what the song 'Voulez-vous coucher avec moi' is really about - she's asking 'Do you fancy a bit of my butty?'

It would appear that there are quite a few different ways of making the perfect cuppa. I thought it was about time to add my own preference.Apologies to teapot lovers out there.

1) Fill you kettle with filtered water - e.g using one of those Britta water filters or something similar.

2) Get your favourite mug from the cupboard/mug tree etc and put one tea bag in it - My own preference is "Yorkshire Tea Gold" It makes a really good strong tasting brew.

3) When the kettle has boiled, pour it straight into the mug trying to pour over the tea bag as you go. The reason for this is that the hotter the water in contact with the leaves, the better the brew. This is precisely the reason for putting the milk in last.

4) Give the water and tea bag a good stir for a few seconds and then let it brew for about 2 and a half minutes. Leave the bag in for much longer and you risk the oils present in the leaves getting out. This can lead to the appearance of a film on the surface of the tea, which after milk is put in, can look quite unpleasant.

5) Take the teabag out - giving it a squeeze if you like to get the most flavour out of it.

6) Put in sugar to taste and give the tea a good stir to dissolve the sugar.

7 Finally put in your preferred amount of milk. Again the reason for milk last is so the water is hottest for brewing and also for te dissolving of the sugar.

PS My mother-in-law likes her tea so weak that it looks and tastes rather like milky water. It looks terrible

I do not have any preference about which _tastes_ better, milk-first or tea-first. Nor have I noticed any difference in staining the cup, scalding the milk, and so on.

I prefer to put the tea in first for a simple reason. If you add milk to the tea then you can tell by stirring and checking the colour whether you've added enough. It's easy to judge the right amount. However if you add the milk first then you are guessing the amount 'blind' and might add too much or too little.

Okay, you say, why not simply add some milk first and then add the correct amount of tea, stopping when the colour tells you it's strong enough? Because normally a cup of tea has a low milk:tea ratio, if you add too much milk initially you won't be able to add enough tea to compensate. For example suppose you normally like a proportion of one-sixth milk and five-sixths tea, but you add the milk first and accidentally fill the mug one-quarter full. Your cup of tea will be too milky and there's nothing you can do about it without overflowing the mug or pouring some away.

If adding tea first, it is in principle possible to make the opposite mistake and add too much tea, so you can't make the drink milky enough without overflowing. However, it's much easier to judge the depth of tea in a mug and the distance between the tea and the top of the mug than it is to judge the amount of milk and the distance between the bottom of the mug and the surface of the milk. This is especially true when the mug's inside is white.

So I add tea first, then milk, because it requires less hand-eye coordination and judgement than doing it the other way around.

... unless, of course, you put a spell on the tea cup/mug and make itself grow tall enough so there is no problem for adding however much tea you want to get the perfect shade of milk-tea beige...

That is, if you are not a witch, you'll have to pour tea first...

I'm with DNA on this one - see the Salmon of Doubt for making the perfect cup of Earl Grey, although I drink it straight to get the best flavour.

Adding milk to hot tea results in the milk being cooked. When brewed tea is added to milk, it heats the milk more gradually and is not cooked. The resultant emulsion is different. The protiens are not as denatured and any lipids form droplets of a different diameter. The flavour and viscousity of the mixture can be changed depending what is required. The same principal applies in a lot of cooking and in chemistry (Acid is added to water and -ideally- never water to acid).

Adding milk to hot tea results in the milk being cooked. When brewed tea is added to milk, it heats the milk more gradually and is not cooked. The resultant emulsion is different. The protiens are not as denatured and any lipids form droplets of a different diameter. The flavour and viscosity of the mixture can be changed depending what is required. The same principal applies in a lot of cooking and in chemistry (Acid is added to water and -ideally- never water to acid).

If you are using a tea bag, then by no means should you put the milk in first. One reason, the lipids in the milk clog the tiny holes in the tea bag preventing steeping. The boiling water reason isn't correct because you don't actually want to pour boiling tea into a tea bag. Because the tea in a tea bag is ground so fine, pour boiling water into it will force those oils out, and making that film. This is the time you want to pour boil(ed) water in with your tea. Also you never want to beat up or squeeze a tea bag because it will squeeze little tiny particles out, once again because it's ground so fine. You want to bob the tea bag up and down into the water. Any flavor that needs to be squeezed out will be overly bitter. But once again if you are truly serious about your tea, you should take it loose leaf.

About the trouble of adding enough milk. All you need to do is know how much milk you are adding. I mean as a measure. I add five teaspoons of milk per mug. First or second it's always five teaspoons.

I really don't understand all this talking of aesthetics. The color of the mixture isn't any different wether it's milk first or second. The only different is the pretty reverse mushroom cloud the milk makes into the tea. But I think that can be sacrificed for better flavor. Bottom line is scalded milk tastes worse then not scalded milk.

screw the milk and drink your tea properly!

if you actually, genuinely like tea, you will like it black and sugarless.

just out of interest, to add to the debate, does anyone think that it makes a difference if it's whole milk, skimmed or semi?!

Powdered Milk?!?! By God man! If you're that desperate, seek help quickly. If you have no more regular milk left, skip the milk and go right on to the slice of lemon. Or nothing at all.

I personally like milk and sugar in my Earl Grey. Now, because I'm a Stupid American(TM), I'm not sure when to put in the sugar in. I'm guessing it's after you pour the tea so that the sugar disolves when you stir it. Am I wrong?

A difficult question since you should not really put sugar in tea. After you pour or before should be fine, so long as you stir it.

If I'm going to sweeten my tea (usually only the last cup of the day just before bed) I'll use honey - which I put in after pouring the tea. So the correct order (according to me and with no real reason to say it is better than anyone else's view) is milk, tea, honey(or sugar).

ah but you are missing the point that the boiling water should be poured on to the leaves in a pot, left for 3 minutes to brew and then poured from the pot into the cup. The milk should already be in the cup as this prevents the milk from being scalded and thus taintng the flavour of the tea. only lazy people make their tea directly in the cup