Parson's nose fat lot of use

Don's World - Weekly column by Don Farmer, Chief Reporter

For those of you who have led a sheltered life, [it] is the tail stump.A FEW words at the tail end of a letter (no pun intended as you will realise as you read on) to our columnist and medical consultant Gary Payinda just about made me heave this week.
The letter writer was seeking advice on whether he/she should remove the skin from chicken prior to cooking, as health professionals almost universally suggest.
Nothing nauseating about that.
It was what immediately followed that turned my stomach and I quote "When I was growing up I always put in a claim for the parson's nose - skin and all the underlying fat. Your thoughts."
For those of you who have led a sheltered life, the parson's nose is the tail stump of a chicken - literally the arse end - and is about the most awful-tasting part of a bird imaginable.
It is, in reality, a clump of straight fat with a tainted piece of skin drawn over it that spent its entire working life in very close proximity to the bird's "vent" as it is so politely put in poultry circles. Is there really anyone out there who would rate it as prime food?
Dr Gary's measured response was to enjoy chicken skin in moderation unless you have underlying health problems but to "abstain" from the parson's nose.
Good advice indeed.
Food per se has been in the news this week with the on again, off again allegations being made over the source of Germany's frightening e-coli outbreak.
First "culprit" was imported, organically grown cucumbers, but they were cleared.
Attention then turned to Hamburg-produced bean sprouts but the beleaguered farmer who marketed those looks to be in the clear now, with a whole heap of tested product coming through with a clean sheet.
Over 20 people have died so it remains crucial for authorities to locate the source - if there is a single source - of the contaminant.
I found it a bit ironic that healthy food such as cucumbers and bean sprouts were fingered as likely sources when the world is awash with all sorts of horrible offerings (such as the parson's nose).
It's fair to suggest spiced sausage, blood puddings, pickled fish, sauerkraut and many other distinctly German dishes must now go under the microscope.
Meanwhile I wish the growers of the cleared cucumbers and bean sprouts every success in pursuing financial recompense for the hurt their businesses must have suffered from the jump-the-gun publicity they wrongly received.
You should not blame the authorities for quickly issuing warnings but surely these must have some solid backing in fact, otherwise they only serve to alarm and frighten people, and wreck livelihoods that should have remained unaffected.