Nostalgic Food - Good and Bad!

Lady Haywire

Alun wrote: »

Not sure if these ever made it to Ireland, but does anyone remember Brain's fagg0ts (don't worry Brain's was the manufacturer!)?

Cooked in the foil tray in the oven with mashed potato and peas, yummy

You can still get them in the UK ... https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/282049626

(P.S. had to replace the o with a 0 to get around Boards swear filter!!!!)

I tried those a couple of years ago, found them in Iceland. Wouldn't be a fan!

Alun

Lady Haywire wrote: »

I tried those a couple of years ago, found them in Iceland. Wouldn't be a fan!

Have read some stuff online that would suggest the current ones aren't a patch on what they used to be.

I remember them being quite strong tasting with quite a high liver content, so maybe they've cut back on that seeing as people don't seem to like offal of any sort these days.

We also used to be able to buy them loose from a butcher in our local covered market, and those were even nicer.

I wasn't a major fan of Findus Crispy Pancakes- Beef- as a kid but their Apple and sultana pancakes were lovely: a good combination of sweet and savoury.


https://www.hatads.org.uk/catalogue/record/95b85c39-656a-443c-91a0-7f1bade6a3f2

Graces7

igCorcaigh wrote: »

They're worth a shot Grace, I quite like them.

Ah OK: finalizing my (email) order even as we speak. lol... Watch this space...;)l

Graces7

the beer revolu wrote: »

I remember my dad saying that when they'd get sausages, what the didn't eat on the day would be boiled so that they would last a few days without a fridge.


Regarding the crispy pancakes, the last time (good few years ago, now) I had them was in a Portuguese restaurant in Cork. They were serving them as a starter. I think they were calling them rissoles but they were, as far as I could make out, exactly the same as crispy pancakes - I bet they are still popular in Portugal.

Rissoles for us were home made. Usually on Tuesday, using the last of Sunday's roast beef minced with mashed potatoes and onion.

the beer revolu

Graces7 wrote: »

Rissoles for us were home made. Usually on Tuesday, using the last of Sunday's roast beef minced with mashed potatoes and onion.

Yes, we used to have homemade rissoles, too.
The ingredients changed depending on what was leftover but I seem to remember ham featuring, a lot, beef too, and always potato and onion. I think a lot of herbs were used and they were always breadcrumbed and pan fried.

Probably, one of the last things that my dad ever made was rissoles.

I also remember him kindof poshing them up at one stage too - 90s notions!
For these he mixed up cubes of ham and cubes of cheese with mashed potato and onion. He formed these into sort of crescent shapes and breadcrumbed them. These were usually deep fried from frozen as a handy snack but were quite different to the far more rough and ready rissoles.

My dad was great for freezer food and breadcrumbing! He loved breadcrumbing stuff. He'd buy several chickens and fillet them into breast and leg fillets and breadcrumb them for the freezer.
I also remember him doing lots of single steak pies, topped with puff pastry.

He loved doing chicken Maryland (got to breadcrumb pineapple rings and half bananas!) and chicken Kiev - more breadcrumbing:D

For about 15 years or more, his signature dish was sweet and sour chicken. He did that dish way too much!

Graces7

the beer revolu wrote: »

Yes, we used to have homemade rissoles, too.
The ingredients changed depending on what was leftover but I seem to remember ham featuring, a lot, beef too, and always potato and onion. I think a lot of herbs were used and they were always breadcrumbed and pan fried.

Probably, one of the last things that my dad ever made was rissoles.

I also remember him kindof poshing them up at one stage too - 90s notions!
For these he mixed up cubes of ham and cubes of cheese with mashed potato and onion. He formed these into sort of crescent shapes and breadcrumbed them. These were usually deep fried from frozen as a handy snack but were quite different to the far more rough and ready rissoles.

My dad was great for freezer food and breadcrumbing! He loved breadcrumbing stuff. He'd buy several chickens and fillet them into breast and leg fillets and breadcrumb them for the freezer.
I also remember him doing lots of single steak pies, topped with puff pastry.

He loved doing chicken Maryland and chicken Kiev - more breadcrumbing:D

For about 15 years or more, his signature dish was sweet and sour chicken. He did that dish way too much!

Those rissole recipes sound delicious. A skilled man he was.

Seamai

Were the rissoles Fanny Craddock's recipe?

the beer revolu

Seamai wrote: »

Were the rissoles Fanny Craddock's recipe?

Don't think there was ever a recipe in our house.

Rows Grower

Seamai wrote: »

Were the rissoles Fanny Craddock's recipe?

That's a new one for me and right up there with Big Mickey when it comes to memorable trade names that make me LOL.

Seamai

Rows Grower wrote: »

That's a new one for me and right up there with Big Mickey when it comes to memorable trade names that make me LOL.

There's a tale told that after one of Craddock's cookery programmes on BBC in the 70's the continuity announcer made the comment "And I hope all your rissoles turn out like Fanny's"

Dizzyblonde

Seamai wrote: »

There's a tale told that after one of Craddock's cookery programmes on BBC in the 70's the continuity announcer made the comment "And I hope all your rissoles turn out like Fanny's"

It was actually buns :pac:

Seamai

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

It was actually buns :pac:

Same outcome though 😄

tangy

Alun wrote: »

Not sure if these ever made it to Ireland, but does anyone remember Brain's fagg0ts (don't worry Brain's was the manufacturer!)?

Cooked in the foil tray in the oven with mashed potato and peas, yummy

You can still get them in the UK ... https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/282049626

(P.S. had to replace the o with a 0 to get around Boards swear filter!!!!)

Yeah, but the fagg0ts (thanks for the tip-off ) are now are a travesty of what they were. The photo in your link shows ball-shaped things, which is what I remembered, but when I got some in a fit of nostalgia a few years ago they were nothing like - just an obviously extruded tube of crap, chopped into lengths. So disappointing

Markcheese

tangy wrote: »

Yeah, but the fagg0ts (thanks for the tip-off ) are now are a travesty of what they were. The photo in your link shows ball-shaped things, which is what I remembered, but when I got some in a fit of nostalgia a few years ago they were nothing like - just an obviously extruded tube of crap, chopped into lengths. So disappointing

I did homemade ones once ... Wasn't impressed till I had them with onion gravy ... Incidentally they sound much better in French .. crepinettes ..

Graces7

igCorcaigh wrote: »

They're worth a shot Grace, I quite like them.

This was potato waffles. I have a packet in the freezer! Watch this space!

Alun

Markcheese wrote: »

I did homemade ones once ... Wasn't impressed till I had them with onion gravy ... Incidentally they sound much better in French .. crepinettes ..

Yes, the traditional ones we used to get in the local market were wrapped in caul fat like those are, the name comes from the French for caul fat, crépine.

Gloomtastic!

Had a flashback this evening with my tinned prunes and custard for pud.

Removing the stone with your tongue and pushing it on to the spoon where you’d then line it up on the rim of the bowl. We don’t have rims on our bowls anymore.

Planet X

Cuppa?

Gremlinertia

Planet X please give me your recipe, I can never replicate my mams or grans, not for the lack of trying

Planet X

Without getting off the couch.........:D,
I think, 450 mashed, 3 tbsp plain flour, 25grs butter and 2 tsp salt.
Butter for frying.

borderlinemeath

Have just read this thread from start to finish. Loving the memories of the meat being rubberized with cooking. I remember a very regimented dinner schedule, sausage pie, bacon and cabbage (hated cabbage), on Thursday night we always used to have homemade chips and fried egg. The oil was left in the deep pan til the following week (like someone else on this thread mentioned!). Friday was shopping day, out to Superquinn in Sutton, then out to Howth for fresh fish for Friday dinner. Sundays used to be either roast beef or roast pork with crackling. I don't recall ever having chicken that much as a kid. And we had a homemade version of the beef steak pie, it was basically as thick stew in shortcrust pasty and it was divine. I'm going to have to make it now, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I was an odd enough child in that I wasn't that much into sweets and cakes, although we always had apple tarts as we had 2 apple trees in the garden. My preference used to be scotch eggs and deli meat. If I ever had to go to the dentist which was about 30 mins walk away, my treat on the way back was a quarter pound of salami or sliced ham from the delicatessen which was a rare thing in the late 70s, early 80s. There was never that many treats in the house, except for the obligatory packet of mariettas or arrowroot biscuits, but I developed a taste for paxo packet breadcrumbs, which I used to pilfer from the press. I also used to eat super noodles dry from the packet.

I also had a sister that attempted to be a vegetarian in our house and was told eat what was in the pot or get out. She ate what was in the pot!

igCorcaigh

Jeez borderlinemeath, you're childhood sounds guilded compared to mine lol!

borderlinemeath

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Jeez borderlinemeath, you're childhood sounds guilded compared to mine lol!

Ah it was and it wasn't! There was a lot of us, there was always enough food, but treats and goodies were scarce. Christmas was the only time there would be a tin of biscuits (that people had brought to the house as presents) or even fizzy drinks. My dad was a strict pioneer so there was no alcohol allowed in the house, so maybe that's why food was a bit more plentiful!

First time I went out for food was when I made my confirmation, we went to Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge, the Coffee Dock (for those that remember it!) and I had Chicken Maryland. It was very exotic for the time!! I also remember the first "pizza" I ever had was one of those little mini frozen ones with a sprinkling of cheese. That was when I was about 13. It was around the same time we switched supermarkets to Quinnsworth when we moved house, so the menu started varying a bit!

Gloomtastic!

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Ah it was and it wasn't! There was a lot of us, there was always enough food, but treats and goodies were scarce. Christmas was the only time there would be a tin of biscuits (that people had brought to the house as presents) or even fizzy drinks. My dad was a strict pioneer so there was no alcohol allowed in the house, so maybe that's why food was a bit more plentiful!

First time I went out for food was when I made my confirmation, we went to Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge, the Coffee Dock (for those that remember it!) and I had Chicken Maryland. It was very exotic for the time!! I also remember the first "pizza" I ever had was one of those little mini frozen ones with a sprinkling of cheese. That was when I was about 13. It was around the same time we switched supermarkets to Quinnsworth when we moved house, so the menu started varying a bit!

I went to Jurys for my Confirmation too. All I remember from the evening was my big brother being sent away to eat somewhere else because it would have meant 13 at the table...........

borderlinemeath

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I went to Jurys for my Confirmation too. All I remember from the evening was my big brother being sent away to eat somewhere else because it would have meant 13 at the table...........

My brother got confused and put sugar on his chips. It was in one of those american dispenser things that the likes of us weren't used to.

Rows Grower

Jury's?

Jasus lads, ye were fierce posh altogether.

If my parents brought one of us to a hotel every time there was a communion or conformation we would have had fierce notions about ourselves altogether. We wouldn't have been able to eat anyway because every aunt or uncle we visited laid on a spread of sandwiches, scones, cakes, lemonade and tea.

It was all homemade cakes too and we were well warned before we went in how much effort and expense they had gone to and how it would be rude not to show appreciation. By the middle of the day you'd be bursting out of the suit, stuffed and sick of saying cheese for the camera.

I had a fair few older siblings who had me well tipped off about who were the aunts that would give the big money (paper money was big money) and it was always the woman of the house that pulled you to one side before you left and said "Here, that's for yourself".

We wouldn't be back home until late that night by the time we had visited all my Mam and Dad's brothers and sisters but my own siblings waited up until we got back to hear how the day went and help count how much money "I made".

I'd guess there might have been a drink or two consumed throughout the day while I was playing outside with my cousins but nobody got drunk and there was no such thing as drink driving.

Happy days.

L1011

borderlinemeath wrote: »

My brother got confused and put sugar on his chips. It was in one of those american dispenser things that the likes of us weren't used to.

I did that in the John Dory in Stranorlar when I was about 13. They replaced them FOC, after laughing at me.

I'm fairly sure I would have seen them before then - actually, definitely sure as I would have been to Eddie Rockets when it opened in Blanchardstown - but why you'd have them on every table in a cafe...




My family were comparatively well off in the 90s, also not drinkers which would have helped back when drink was ridiculously expensive here (I've read a lot of old newspapers and I've seen awful bottles of wine for £8 in the early 1990s when shop workers were on £15 a day or less).

We lived in outer suburbia so there was no Jurys but there was probably at least one meal a year in the towns "posh" restaurant, or somewhere else that could deliver my mothers desired meal - steak, burnt; with chips and peas.

She has been finally moved to medium well by many years of my father and myself cooking steak "underdone" for her and realising that it actually has some flavour at that stage.

borderlinemeath

Rows Grower wrote: »

Jury's?

Jasus lads, ye were fierce posh altogether.

If my parents brought one of us to a hotel every time there was a communion or conformation we would have had fierce notions about ourselves altogether. We wouldn't have been able to eat anyway because every aunt or uncle we visited laid on a spread of sandwiches, scones, cakes, lemonade and tea.

It was all homemade cakes too and we were well warned before we went in how much effort and expense they had gone to and how it would be rude not to show appreciation. By the middle of the day you'd be bursting out of the suit, stuffed and sick of saying cheese for the camera.

I had a fair few older siblings who had me well tipped off about who were the aunts that would give the big money (paper money was big money) and it was always the woman of the house that pulled you to one side before you left and said "Here, that's for yourself".

We wouldn't be back home until late that night by the time we had visited all my Mam and Dad's brothers and sisters but my own siblings waited up until we got back to hear how the day went and help count how much money "I made".

I'd guess there might have been a drink or two consumed throughout the day while I was playing outside with my cousins but nobody got drunk and there was no such thing as drink driving.

Happy days.

Up until this point that was exactly the run of the communions/confirmations. But there had been a family bereavement literally 2 week beforehand and "going round the houses" was seen as bad taste I suppose. I don't think I'd ever been further Southside than Grafton St at that stage in my life, but we had relatives close enough by in Dublin 6 so I suppose it was logical to go and meet there.

Just on the mention of cakes, there were never too many cakes in our house, plenty of pastry dishes (one of the the few things I could make from childhood was shortcrust pastry) but fancy looking sponges and fairy cakes were never to be seen! Jam was a seasonal thing, the fruit trees and bushes in the garden would be raided and big bubbling pots of jam would be made and last til Christmas. Gooseberries and loganberries and rhubarb grew in our garden and the blackberry brambles from next door would be raided as well.

The jam pot was the everyday big pot that cooked soups and stews. Looking back it looked like an industrial sized catering pot. The kind that everything went into. A leftovers stew would have sausages and granby burgers (yes, those cheap ones that were mentioned up thread) , a packet of oxtail soup and whatever was left after the weeks shopping.
We were never posh enough to have a food mixer or a meat knife, but at some point in the 80s, a pressure cooker arrived in the house. I think it was well into the 90s before a microwave oven appeared. When I moved out of home (I998) into a house share, the first thing adult thing I bought for myself was a microwave oven. It came with me when I bought my first house and lasted years after that.

rubadub

borderlinemeath wrote: »

I developed a taste for paxo packet breadcrumbs, which I used to pilfer from the press. I also used to eat super noodles dry from the packet.

haha, I ate those 2 aswell. The noodles were like a substitute for crisps, probably costed more then crisps would have. I used to eat cooking chocolate too, the mother had to hide it. I used to even buy it with pocket money as you got so much for the same price as a regular bar.

I remember eating it in dunnes and 2 girls looking at me in horror and saying to their mother "look, he's eating cooking chocolate". I was sort of embarrassed thinking they were having pity on me or something. Only years later I thought of it again and thought their mother might have told them it would make you sick if it was not cooked, to put them off nicking it.