Nostalgic Food - Good and Bad!

0lddog · 17-08-2019 2:10pm

tickingclock wrote: »

Noone was a coeliac either .......

I think you might mean that no one was diagnosed as coeliac.
.
.
.
Coeliac disease was first put forward as a possibility in the late 1940's

For many years knowledge of the possibility of its existence was limited mainly to a few gastroenterologists.

Due to limitations of early flexible endscope technology it wasnt really feasible to diagnose coeliac disease before the 1970's

Sorry for the off topic post

Leg End Reject · 17-08-2019 5:38pm

Anyone else have ready brek in winter?

My mother used to cremate food, I hated red meat as a child because it was always like old boots. Veg was boiled to the point of nearly being liquefied too.

Sunday - roast beef or chicken, rock hard roasted, lumpy mash and liquid veg
Monday - left over from Sunday, mixed and fried
Tuesday - lamb or pork chops, mash and beans
Wednesday - steak, fried onions and mushrooms, mash
Thursday - mince stew and mash
Friday - egg, chips and beans
Saturday - gammon steaks, pineapple and mash

Desserts were a mixture of angel delight, or jelly and ice cream in summer
Rice, semolina or custard in winter

To this day the smell of home cooked chips reminds me of Friday afternoons and the happiness of no school for 2 days.

Rows Grower · 17-08-2019 5:39pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

Yes there were not so many fad avoidances back then. But I also heard sth interesting about gluten.

A lot of food cupboard items were reformulated to remove butter and animals fats. They were replaced with worse fats and then also more gluten containing products to be vegetarian friendly.
A lot of glutebn intolerant - as opposed to allergic - coaeliacs didnt know they had it. they just thought they had sensitive stomachs or sth nebulous.

One reason why ppl may have preferred the taste of the good old days and its not just nostalgia.

Not in my house. There was no such a thing as vegetable oil, everything was fried using Frytex. Big white blocks of natural beef dripping.

It was left go cold and harden in the pan too ready for the next time, proper recycling before it was heard of.

Black pudding was another thing that was made with pure fat (and raw blood.) and there was no such thing as a health inspector visiting wherever it was made.

Anything used as a spread on bread that wasn't real butter was known as margarine and the people using that were frowned upon. A bit like the vegans of today.

odyssey06 · 17-08-2019 6:40pm

Rows Grower wrote: »

Anything used as a spread on bread that wasn't real butter was known as margarine and the people using that were frowned upon. A bit like the vegans of today.

Fair play there!
But I should have been clearer, I meant the ingredients were reformulated in shop bought soups, stocks, sauces, cakes, biscuits.

Leg End Reject · 17-08-2019 6:49pm

The above has reminded me of Heinz sandwich spread. Vile stuff.

Rows Grower · 17-08-2019 7:07pm

Bovril, the drink of the Gods.

Made from ground up beef bones, take shagging that vegans!

Served in a mug with a Calvita sandwich if you were lucky to get to the cupboards before your siblings.

(Calvita was cheese in a small cardboard box and was wrapped in the thinnest tin foil ever known to mankind.)

odyssey06 · 17-08-2019 7:11pm

Rows Grower wrote: »

Bovril, the drink of the Gods.
Made from ground up beef bones, take shagging that vegans!
Served in a mug with a Calvita sandwich if you were lucky to get to the cupboards before your siblings.
(Calvita was cheese in a small cardboard box and was wrapped in the thinnest tin foil ever known to mankind.)

Still in our cupboard... to thicken beef sauces.

No Calvita then or now... Galtee singles I think.
Lovely melting into hot toast.

phormium · 17-08-2019 7:20pm

I like sandwich spread, still buy the odd jar for old times sake, nice with the banned white sliced loaf

Bovril, how I hate it! Never liked it and my mother insisted on a cup of it every day for lunch in my flask. The smell of it would be enough to transport me back to being about 8 and sitting in the back row of an empty classroom having my lunch. She was the teacher

the14thwarrior · 17-08-2019 7:32pm

boiled ribs
stuffed hearts, picking out the string. dunno how i ate them
granby burgers (and one for the dog with bits of bread mixed into his bowl)
findus pancakes

cod fillets in a plastic bag with the sauce in it, the trick was to get it out of the pan and cut it so that you did't burn your fingers

stealing a slice of my mothers wonder slim bread

my mother adventurous she cooked spagetti blog with pasta and mashed potatoes as well just in case..........

Yester · 17-08-2019 8:05pm

I remember coming home from school and getting a slap of a dead pheasant that was hanging from my bedroom door. It sounds bad but I remember thinking yah pheasant for dinner tomorrow. Another memory from childhood was that after a heavy bout of rainfall I would go fishing with my parents and it was fresh trout for dinner.

Rows Grower · 17-08-2019 8:19pm

Yester wrote: »

I remember coming home from school and getting a slap of a dead pheasant that was hanging from my bedroom door. It sounds bad but I remember thinking yah pheasant for dinner tomorrow. Another memory from childhood was that after a heavy bout of rainfall I would go fishing with my parents and it was fresh trout for dinner.

It does in all fairness, unless there was another 30 pheasants hanging around the house.

odyssey06 · 17-08-2019 8:22pm

Yester wrote: »

I remember coming home from school and getting a slap of a dead pheasant that was hanging from my bedroom door. It sounds bad but I remember thinking yah pheasant for dinner tomorrow.

Based on my one experience cooking pheasant... it smells a lot worse!

Grandeeod · 17-08-2019 8:24pm

Some really nice diversity on this thread in terms of memories. With respect to my Mother who learned to cook from me, but refuses to accept it, she did make a good Coddle using Oxtail soup for an acceptable colour/appearance. Eatin and drinkin in it.

Cushtie · 17-08-2019 8:29pm

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Someone mentioned buttered Marietta biscuits. When you sandwiched them together the butter would ooze out through the little holes. Marietta were long gone but the time I had children, but I used to give them buttered Rich Tea biscuits for old times' sake

You can still get the Mariettas.

rubadub · 17-08-2019 8:34pm

igCorcaigh wrote: »

For desert, angel delight was awful.

I loved it, even used to buy own brand versions with my own pocket money!

I used to sometimes get money to buy my own dinner at weekends. The mother used to go mad at us always turning up late for dinner on saturdays so I think eventually said "you can make your own bloody dinners" as a threat, but we did it. Was typically frozen pizzas at first, but later was proper stuff like chinese, I use to watch "wok with yan" on sky one.

Granby burgers are still about, I used to squash 2 together to make a 1/4 pounder

https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=250834016

We used to have beef curry and I think it was before you got jars of sauce, it was made with powder and those hard blocks of creamed coconut.

Cakes were made using margarine. I think they were 2kg square semi transparent tubs of it and the tubs were rock solid plastic so kept for storing stuff like spices. I still see several of the tubs around. Not sure why they used such good quality tubs for the cheap stuff, maybe to withstand people having to spoon out the hard marg.

Dizzyblonde · 17-08-2019 8:50pm

Cushtie wrote: »

You can still get the Mariettas.

Ooh I'll look out for them.

My mother used to make her own sandwich spread for our school lunches. She had an old hand mincer that weighed a ton, and she'd clip it onto the side of the kitchen table. We'd all want a go at turning the handle - they were simple times

She'd put in slices of corned beef (the square one that you get at the deli counter in supermarkets) with diced tomatoes and onion. What came out was a delicious savoury spread, and I still make it sometimes in the food processor.

rubadub · 17-08-2019 9:01pm

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Ooh I'll look out for them.

garibaldi biscuits still about too, but relatively expensive. "squashed fly biscuits"

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Dizzyblonde wrote: »

She had an old hand mincer that weighed a ton, and she'd clip it onto the side of the kitchen table.

many were "spong" brand. Many of the modern copies are meant to be terrible quality

Lots of people had the same electric knife too.

L1011 · 17-08-2019 9:10pm

tickingclock wrote: »

Noone was a coeliac either or allergic to anything and the words childhood obesity weren't linked together. I was well fed with a Mammy who was a good cook. My Daddy could do steak and bread and a fryed egg and banana sambos for lunch!! Looking back now I didn't appreciate it at all

People just went through life "sickly" instead of being diagnosed. All the issues existed.

We had that ^ electric carving knife but my mother never cooked anything that needed it. Bacon joints would fall apart if you looked at them funny they were so overdone

goldlocks10 · 17-08-2019 9:31pm

The electric blade my mother still has. Fish on Friday. Roast on a Sunday but was like Christmas dinner every Sunday bread stuffed meat,gravy etc. We always had dinner at 1 every day. Soup, dinner and dessert and tea and biscuit were every day. Supper was a slice of bread and sauseage or ham with tomato. Always had 11 o clock and 3 o clock tea. Good times

ldeayton · 17-08-2019 10:04pm

Rows Grower wrote: »

Bovril, the drink of the Gods.

Made from ground up beef bones, take shagging that vegans!

Served in a mug with a Calvita sandwich if you were lucky to get to the cupboards before your siblings.

(Calvita was cheese in a small cardboard box and was wrapped in the thinnest tin foil ever known to mankind.)

The local shop (polish shop run by a Sikh family from Afghanistan) where I live in London has Galtee/ Calvita in stock. Still in the same weird box and ultra thin foil.

Even to this day I tell my own kids the horror of my mothers cooking. Everything that has been discussed and mentioned already. I recall one beauty was a “sausage meat pie”. Even the thought of it makes me nauseous.

L1011 · 18-08-2019 12:40am

goldlocks10 wrote: »

We always had dinner at 1 every day.

That I always found very hard to get used to when I was back with my paternal grandfather - his sister lived next door and cooked the dinner every day (he paid for her shopping at least) and it was served at 1230 or 1 at latest. Sometimes you'd barely be up and it'd be dinner time.

I can see it making sense when you're doing heavy physical labour. He built boats which is far more precision than grunt based; and she was retired when she came back to Ireland so that applied to neither of them.

Seamai · 18-08-2019 8:36am

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Better than boiled tripe.

I think anything is better than boiled tripe, we were never subjected to it but my dad used to like it, once my curiosity got the better of me and I tried a bit, vile! I can still remember the smell in the kitchen while it was cooking (and probably) for a few days, not the most disgusting smell, like a dirty dish cloth being boiled to clean it, definitely not something you should be eating.

Then there was boiled mutton with parsley sauce. I don't think anyone knew any thing about ram taint those days, it was meat and don't turn your nose up at it.

Graces7 · 18-08-2019 9:09am

England in the 40s and 50s.. no fridges or freezers and rice was only for milk puddings .. still is for me!

Chicken was a once a year treat ie Christmas. Sunday roast was beef with roast potatoes, and my mother made the best , with mashed carrot/turnip ; cold beef on Monday, rissoles on Tuesday....fish and chips ( home made) Saturday... pork chops/pork steak another day, with mashed potato. and probably egg and chips one day

My mother was a superlative baker. Every Saturday... apple pie, fruit cake... cakes.... jam tarts... her lemon meringue pie was.... never tasted the like since.

Gloomtastic! · 18-08-2019 9:38am

^ Forgot about rissoles. They were lovely. I have tried to make them but they never tasted the same. My mum had this metal mincer, that weighed a tonne, that turned leftover roast beef into perfect rissole material.

Graces7 · 18-08-2019 10:35am

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

^ Forgot about rissoles. They were lovely. I have tried to make them but they never tasted the same. My mum had this metal mincer, that weighed a tonne, that turned leftover roast beef into perfect rissole material.

Oh yes! That was what we used too.. a nightmare to clean! But wow...

McMurphy · 18-08-2019 1:31pm

Vesta Curry's, holy Jesus I forgot those things existed, boil in the bag swill :eek:

rubadub · 18-08-2019 2:56pm

Looks like Mrs Doyle in the 70's "go on, you'll have a curry"

Leg End Reject · 18-08-2019 5:18pm

I hadn't heard of Vesta curries until this thread, I feel like a missed sn important part of my childhood.

_Brian · 18-08-2019 5:26pm

I’m on a poor connection so not reading the full thread.

Anyone mention Findus Crispy Pancakes.

Something on the manufacturing ensured the temperature of the filling exceeded the temperature of the sun even from cooking at 180c.

Rumour has it this was to hide the fact that the fillings had no actual taste and were in fact all the same 😂

L1011 · 18-08-2019 6:36pm

Home made chips there reminded me further - my Dad *can* cook but rarely did it when he was working (I moved out before he retired anyway), so his two usual contributions were home cut and fried chips, executed extremely well; and a sort of vegetable stew with vast amounts of soy sauce with oven baked potato wedges coated in olive oil and rosemary.

A bit posh/fancy compared to other nostalgic stuff, and also indicative of the "big shop in Superquinn" thing!

odyssey06 · 18-08-2019 7:06pm

_Brian wrote: »

I’m on a poor connection so not reading the full thread.
Anyone mention Findus Crispy Pancakes.
Something on the manufacturing ensured the temperature of the filling exceeded the temperature of the sun even from cooking at 180c.
Rumour has it this was to hide the fact that the fillings had no actual taste and were in fact all the same 😂

Findus Crispy Pancakes have been mentioned ... like fire stolen from the gods. Yes they could burn, which is why probably why your taste buds could not taste their loveliness

dee75 · 18-08-2019 7:32pm

Rows Grower wrote: »

Calvita was cheese in a small cardboard box and was wrapped in the thinnest tin foil ever known to mankind.)

Wow, had forgotten about Calvita cheese. Can remember the box with the little flip lid!

Sonny noggs · 18-08-2019 7:39pm

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xZu63LZnoq4

Anyone remember Birds Eye Hungry Joes? They were potato and onion with a bread crumb coating, like potato rosti or a breaded fish cake with onion instead of fish.

dee75 · 18-08-2019 7:43pm

I remember those steak and kidney pies in a tin. Considered very fancy so rarely had in our house.

We had sheep on the farm so every year a lamb was slaughtered and the chest freezer was filled. Loved lamb chops. Lambs kidney was good too.

Also liver and onions- my mam used to do it with stuffing and it was delicious.

Daisies · 18-08-2019 7:45pm

dee75 wrote: »

Wow, had forgotten about Calvita cheese. Can remember the box with the little flip lid!

I wouldn't even classify Calvita as nostalgic, my Dad still buys it and eats it on cream crackers

Grandeeod · 18-08-2019 7:57pm

Daisies wrote: »

I wouldn't even classify Calvita as nostalgic, my Dad still buys it and eats it on cream crackers

I buy it the odd time too. When you were rared on it, you just can't forget it. Despite all the better cheese available I often go back to it for that childhood taste.

Anyone remember a similar block to Calvita/Galtee, it was called Champion. It was also in the variety triangle pack. Very orange, but nice.

BaZmO* · 18-08-2019 8:17pm

The only cheese we saw in our house was Easi-Singles.

I remember a friend telling a funny story about Easi-Singles. His Dad prepared the school lunches after spending too long in the pub that day. He didn’t take the plastic off the cheese slices!

r93kaey5p2izun · 18-08-2019 8:22pm

My Mam is not a good cook but she did the basics ok. Our dinners were very conservative though. Potatoes every day, no such thing as curry, pasta, rice etc.

Most days were potatoes, veg (carrots, parsnip, peas, green beans), and either lamb chops or pork chops. Bacon and cabbage with what we called white sauce most weeks too. Stew in winter which was beef in a thin soup with onions and carrots. Home made chips from the deep fat frier with Donegal Catch every Friday. Sunday was usually roast lamb or roast chicken with roast spuds. On a Saturday afternoon we had sausages, stir fried peppers and turnover bread. Fried potatoes was the dream. We rarely had dessert and if we did it was raspberry ripple icecream.

Breakfast was always porridge. Lunch was usually a ham sandwich and a Club Milk.

I didn't taste pizza, lasagne, spaghetti or any type of takeaway or curry until I was in my late teens. We never ordered takeaway of any kind even once.

phormium · 18-08-2019 11:22pm

I love Calvita, always have a block in the fridge but then mind you I don't really like cheese so it suits me fine

Recliner · 19-08-2019 2:20am

Leg End Reject wrote: »

The above has reminded me of Heinz sandwich spread. Vile stuff.

I still use this, I love it..
Having it on my sandwiches tomorrow..
:-)

Graces7 · 19-08-2019 10:32am

dee75 wrote: »

I remember those steak and kidney pies in a tin. Considered very fancy so rarely had in our house.

Also liver and onions- my mam used to do it with stuffing and it was delicious.

The flat tins? You can still get the beef pies like that.. Liver and onions with bacon was a firm favourite of my childhood too.

phormium · 19-08-2019 10:44am

Saw those pies in tins lately in Iceland, we used to have those the odd time and I remember using the empty tins for my play mud pies as a kid

BaZmO* · 19-08-2019 10:48am

My neighbour used to use those tins as makeshift dog bowls for food and water for their dog. So as a kid I always thought those pies were dog food.

harr · 19-08-2019 10:50am

Mam was a good cook and always had baked stuff on the go buns, scones or apple tarts and always home made bread.
The food was bland enough mind and the same food on the same day every week.
Saturday morning was always my dads big fry up and it was huge.
Sunday was a roast chicken, bacon or pork and and a rare occasion we got beef.
Monday was always leftovers, Tuesday was rashers and turnip, Wednesdays pork chops, Thursday a chicken or beef stew.
Friday was always fish and the odd time we got a chipper tea on a Friday or mam would bring home two bags of chips after bingo .
Same as if parents went for a pint on a Sunday night they would arrive home with a bag of crisps or chocolate.
Dad always got a 1/4 of home made bread and a bottle of milk for him to take to work with corned beef, tin of sardines or and I remember him bringing those little bottles of chicken paste.
We always had home grown veg and dad fished a lot so always nice fresh food.
Mam did a shop every day no weekly shops back then.
Still remember tasting pasta and rice for the first time.
Good times

rubadub · 19-08-2019 3:40pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

My neighbour used to use those tins as makeshift dog bowls for food and water for their dog. So as a kid I always thought those pies were dog food.

Most dogs would turn their nose up at them! (though I like them) They still do them in tesco and cheaper in dealz, they are poorly stocked in tesco so you would easily miss them.

https://www.dealz.ie/fray-bentos-chicken-pie-425g

https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=255076830

I remember having "quick lunch" (I think thats the name), possibly knorr, it was an oval container with foil lid you poured boiling water into and put the foil down again, before pot noodles.

BaZmO* wrote: »

We also used to have the “wafer man” that came around at tea time me in a blue VW style van and sell ice cream sandwiched between two wafers.

I remember those being called sliders, not sure why, I guess if they melt a bit they tended to slip/slide out of the wafer

harr · 19-08-2019 3:54pm

rubadub wrote: »

Most dogs would turn their nose up at them! (though I like them) They still do them in tesco and cheaper in dealz, they are poorly stocked in tesco so you would easily miss them.

https://www.dealz.ie/fray-bentos-chicken-pie-425g

https://www.tesco.ie/groceries/Product/Details/?id=255076830

I remember having "quick lunch" (I think thats the name), possibly knorr, it was an oval container with foil lid you poured boiling water into and put the foil down again, before pot noodles.

I remember those being called sliders, not sure why, I guess if they melt a bit they tended to slip/slide out of the wafer

I remember those quick lunches in my College days .. luminous yellow food ...got me over many a hangover.

Dial Hard · 19-08-2019 5:11pm

Anyone remember Denny cheesy sausages? They were extremely shortlived, mostly because I suspect I was the only person that ate them. Awful, vile, ersatz cheese but I absolutely loved them.

Like many here, my mam was a terrible cook, god love her, but everything was cooked from scratch and pretty balanced nutritionally. We ate very few processed foods, to the point where Campbell's tinned meatballs (ugh!) were considered a treat. And in fairness, none of us realised how bad a cook she was until we started getting a bit older and taking turns to cook ourselves :pac

rubadub · 19-08-2019 5:19pm

Dial Hard wrote: »

Anyone remember Denny cheesy sausages?

Rings a bell, I used to get breaded turkey burgers with cheese in them.

This was our usual "gravy boat"

the beer revolu · 20-08-2019 1:13pm

Did Irish stew last night - that was a regular feature on our table growing up and everyone liked it.
I've somewhat pimped my mother's version.
Her's was just lamb. onions, carrots, potato, thyme and water.
I've added leeks, celery, turnip. I use lager instead of water and I add lots of fresh parsley and chives.

My mum's was always delicious - mine is even tastier!:D

20-08-2019 1:18pm

The pickled onion flavour were majestic.

Nostalgic Food - Good and Bad!

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