Nostalgic Food - Good and Bad!

tickingclock · 08-08-2019 10:46pm #1

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Toad in the Hole with Onion Red Wine Gravy and Peas.

<snip pic>

Please don't quote pictures! Thanks! Shenshen

You make the nicest most varied dinners ever. I would love to eat at your house. Its never the same auld dinner like my house!

Gloomtastic! · 09-08-2019 7:44am

tickingclock wrote: »

You make the nicest most varied dinners ever. I would love to eat at your house. Its never the same auld dinner like my house!

When I was a kid, you could tell the day of the week by what was for dinner. Now, if I dared serve up the same meal twice in a month, there’d be ructions! (With the exception of pizza of course).

Seamai · 09-08-2019 6:53pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

When I was a kid, you could tell the day of the week by what was for dinner. Now, if I dared serve up the same meal twice in a month, there’d be ructions! (With the exception of pizza of course).

I remember that growing up, Tuesday always meant liver, no ifs or buts. I now work on a four week rota with seasonal changes and try to do something new every week. Himself gave me an Ottolenghi cookbook last week, some really interesting recipes including a deconstructed (hate that word in a food context but I will be trying this) sweet and salty cherry cheesecake made with feta.

igCorcaigh · 12-08-2019 11:45pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

When I was a kid, you could tell the day of the week by what was for dinner. Now, if I dared serve up the same meal twice in a month, there’d be ructions! (With the exception of pizza of course).

Us too. This was the late '70s.

Friday was always smoked haddock with potatoes and onions in a white sauce. Still love that dish, but these days the proper haddock is hard to come by and more expensive. Don't like coley.

We had pork chops with mashed potatoes and baked beans, midweek I think. Sometimes mashed turnip.

Fish fingers with mushy peas and homemade chips featured (it was always homemade chips in those days, what a loss).

Saturdays unfortunately were tripe and drisheen with potatoes, and the onions in white sauce. Didn't like that so much.

Don't remember Sunday too much as a kid.
I don't think we had roasts.

It was a poor time.

Breakfast was cornflakes (in tea during the winter) or porridge, butter and honey on brown toast, but proper old Cork bread.

Lunch in school was a ham sandwich, cut into triangles, an apple, a Cadbury purple snack (used to love them!) and milk (in an old ketchup bottle).

Apologies for being OT and reminiscing.
Probably deserves a thread of its own, maybe.

Gloomtastic! · 13-08-2019 7:59am

^ I can remember always Roasts on a Sunday, leftover curry on a Monday, fish on Fridays. Bacon and Cabbage lunchtime Saturdays with Rasher and Sausage pie for tea (loved Saturdays!).

BaZmO* · 13-08-2019 11:32am

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Us too. This was the late '70s.

Friday was always smoked haddock with potatoes and onions in a white sauce. Still love that dish, but these days the proper haddock is hard to come by and more expensive. Don't like coley

That’s funny. I was only thinking about this the other day. We used to have something similar but we called it “ice cream fish”

I think it was smoked cod (or haddock?) poached in milk and served with potatoes (mashed I think).

Quite adventurous for a bunch of fussy eaters in hindsight.

Must actually ask my mam how she actually made it. Although I doubt I’d get my kids to eat it!

igCorcaigh · 13-08-2019 4:00pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

That’s funny. I was only thinking about this the other day. We used to have something similar but we called it “ice cream fish”

I think it was smoked cod (or haddock?) poached in milk and served with potatoes (mashed I think).

Quite adventurous for a bunch of fussy eaters in hindsight.

Must actually ask my mam how she actually made it. Although I doubt I’d get my kids to eat it!

I still make it by poaching the smoked fish, onions and bay leaf in milk, straining, then mixing the milk into a roux to make white sauce which is added back into the fish and onions.

No need for salt as the fish is salty enough. Served with potatoes, chopped parsley.

BaZmO* · 13-08-2019 4:26pm

igCorcaigh wrote: »

I still make it by poaching the smoked fish, onions and bay leaf in milk, straining, then mixing the milk into a roux to make white sauce which is added back into the fish and onions.

No need for salt as the fish is salty enough. Served with potatoes, chopped parsley.

Yeah similar to Fish Pie when I've made it.

Grandeeod · 13-08-2019 7:15pm

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Us too. This was the late '70s.

Friday was always smoked haddock with potatoes and onions in a white sauce. Still love that dish, but these days the proper haddock is hard to come by and more expensive. Don't like coley.

We had pork chops with mashed potatoes and baked beans, midweek I think. Sometimes mashed turnip.

Fish fingers with mushy peas and homemade chips featured (it was always homemade chips in those days, what a loss).

Saturdays unfortunately were tripe and drisheen with potatoes, and the onions in white sauce. Didn't like that so much.

Don't remember Sunday too much as a kid.
I don't think we had roasts.

It was a poor time.

Breakfast was cornflakes (in tea during the winter) or porridge, butter and honey on brown toast, but proper old Cork bread.

Lunch in school was a ham sandwich, cut into triangles, an apple, a Cadbury purple snack (used to love them!) and milk (in an old ketchup bottle).

Apologies for being OT and reminiscing.
Probably deserves a thread of its own, maybe.

Apologies too for going OT. But I had to reply to your post IC as it evoked similar memories for me. My mother was a hopeless cook but even to this day insists she was good.:eek: I love pork chops these days because of what you can do with them, but my abiding memory of them in the late 70's was grilled to within an inch of their life and a chainsaw to cut it.

Homemade chips made in a hob top chip pan.:D Fridays were the absolute worst in our house waiting on my Dad to come home with his wages. Anything could be cobbled together and was usually crap.:D Now I know why he had a chipper after a pint on a Friday night.:D

I

anewme · 13-08-2019 11:48pm

Grandeeod wrote: »

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Us too. This was the late '70s.

Friday was always smoked haddock with potatoes and onions in a white sauce. Still love that dish, but these days the proper haddock is hard to come by and more expensive. Don't like coley.

We had pork chops with mashed potatoes and baked beans, midweek I think. Sometimes mashed turnip.

Fish fingers with mushy peas and homemade chips featured (it was always homemade chips in those days, what a loss).

Saturdays unfortunately were tripe and drisheen with potatoes, and the onions in white sauce. Didn't like that so much.

Don't remember Sunday too much as a kid.
I don't think we had roasts.

It was a poor time.

Breakfast was cornflakes (in tea during the winter) or porridge, butter and honey on brown toast, but proper old Cork bread.

Lunch in school was a ham sandwich, cut into triangles, an apple, a Cadbury purple snack (used to love them!) and milk (in an old ketchup bottle).

Apologies for being OT and reminiscing.
Probably deserves a thread of its own, maybe.

Apologies too for going OT. But I had to reply to your post IC as it evoked similar memories for me. My mother was a hopeless cook but even to this day insists she was good.:eek: I love pork chops these days because of what you can do with them, but my abiding memory of them in the late 70's was grilled to within an inch of their life and a chainsaw to cut it.

Homemade chips made in a hob top chip pan.:D Fridays were the absolute worst in our house waiting on my Dad to come home with his wages. Anything could be cobbled together and was usually crap.:D Now I know why he had a chipper after a pint on a Friday night.:D

I

Lots of povo's on the thread.

Goody- soggy bread with milk and sugar...
Googy Egg...warm semi hard boiled egg chopped up in a cup with butter...
Toffee Toast- sugar on pan bread....grilled..,.scalding your mouth stuff
Bread n brown or red sauce
Findus crispy pancakes- filled with brown hot molten lava ready to scald the face off you....

Our treat was Sunday tea, crinkle cut chips and Granby burgers in Bundys

Our Mum was a crap cook....all meat must be grey and leathery...she made stuff out of a Sharwoods type packed called Devilled Pork, im still not the better of it 40 years later

The Nal · 14-08-2019 3:23pm

These guys are good. 70s dinner party. Some of the food is truly revolting.

https://twitter.com/70s_party

EG

https://twitter.com/70s_party/status/1159189242804936704

the beer revolu · 14-08-2019 4:25pm

Both my parents were good cooks and we ate well but it was still very conservative, Irish food.

One of the less wholesome meals I used to love was grilled gammon steaks, grilled pineapple rings and mashed potato. Probably carrots, green beans or sweetcorn with that.

the beer revolu · 14-08-2019 4:28pm

Someone was talking about the grilled to death pork chops. Well my mum would have grilled them like that but used to often do them in breadcrumbs in the oven. Soft and tender.
I used to love them like that.

Grandeeod · 14-08-2019 8:07pm

the beer revolu wrote: »

Someone was talking about the grilled to death pork chops. Well my mum would have grilled them like that but used to often do them in breadcrumbs in the oven. Soft and tender.
I used to love them like that.

Yep that was me. My mother did eventually graduate to wrapping them in foil and doing them in the oven. Marginally better. And no breadcrumbs.:D

tickingclock · 14-08-2019 8:37pm

I'm a child of the 80s. We always had smoked haddock poached in milk on Friday. My mother bought the fish from a fish van that parked outside the local supermarket on Fridays!!
We had a roast most Sundays. Monday we'd have the leftovers and if it was a big roast she'd get Tuesday out of it also. There'd only be enough meat for parents so mammy would cook sausages for us in the watered down gravy!!
The gravy was and still is something to die for. Made with meat juices and stock from the vegetables. I totally haven't mastered it.

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 8:41pm

One of the good things from the '70s and '80s were the bread vans, vegetable vans, milk on your doorstep every morning, and the deliveries of coal, newspapers to your door.

And proper bread too. Skulls and ducks. Still warm crusty sliced pans. No overpriced artisan "sourdough".

Dizzyblonde · 14-08-2019 8:43pm

My mother was a rubbish cook and had an eccentric friend who was a really good cook although some of her creations were a bit dodgy. My mother took inspiration from her. And so once a week we had salmon curry - quite a nice sauce with little chunks of apple in it, but with a tin of salmon thrown in!

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 8:45pm

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

My mother was a rubbish cook and had an eccentric friend who was a really good cook although some of her creations were a bit dodgy. My mother took inspiration from her. And so once a week we had salmon curry - quite a nice sauce with little chunks of apple in it, but with a tin of salmon thrown in!

Bleurgh!

Anyone remember vesta curries?

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 8:46pm

For desert, angel delight was awful.
But I loved Arctic roll!

Mam of 4 · 14-08-2019 8:50pm

Saturdays in our house was a fry at one pm , usual fry with liver and kidney also !
Sunday , pork or ham , then the leftovers on Monday .
Fridays were always homemade chips and either egg or fishfingers . Lots of stews and mam was a great baker so apple/jam tarts and homemade bread , so even if there wasn't much money to be spent on food , she'd bake or make ricepuddings , bread puddings , oh and potato cakes !

Grandeeod · 14-08-2019 8:50pm

All I remember on a Sunday in the late 70's/80's was rubbery Corned Beef and rock solid roasties. No gravy, not even an instant one! My mother claimed we had roast beef back then. We did yeah.:rolleyes: When we eventually got roast beef, it was just banged in the oven on 200 for a few hours and was like shoe leather on the plate with the same old rock hard roasties. But my mother has a different version of events, bless her.

So that's some bad stuff. The good stuff for me back in those days was eating out and sitting down to do it. Woolworths on Henry street Dublin. My Granny paid for that. BHS on O'Connell street. Fish fingers, beans and chips on a paper plate with a glass of diluted orange. The luxury.:D

L1011 · 14-08-2019 8:52pm

My mother cannot cook at all. So it was all pre-packaged stuff as much as possible; with frozen veg microwaved to a mush. So there's not much... to this day I won't cook with broccoli or cauliflower due to how much she's destroyed the idea of them.

Overly salty ham with beans and mash was one I did actually like. Usually followed by this ice-cream, which I'm surprised is still made:

https://shop.supervalu.ie/shopping/frozen-foods-tubs-blocks-hb-sliceable-vanilla-ice-cream-1-litre-/p-1012192000

Also quite liked this jam which seems to be only available in the US now

https://www.amazon.com/Danish-Orchards-Preserves-BLACKBERRY-Premium/dp/B00IMP5Y5Q

Dizzyblonde · 14-08-2019 8:54pm

I loved the idea of Vesta curries, but they never lived up to the picture on the box

Angel delight was yuck - I never tried Arctic roll. We were given tinned pears with ice cream for dessert every Sunday for a long time before the mammy linked it to the horrific hives I broke out in every Monday.

Now Findus crispy pancakes - they were really good!

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 8:57pm

^ Danish Orchards jam was nice.
I remember that from the early '90s

But we did not have microwave ovens in the 70s!

Dizzyblonde · 14-08-2019 8:58pm

Grandeeod wrote: »

All I remember on a Sunday in the late 70's/80's was rubbery Corned Beef and rock solid roasties. No gravy, not even an instant one! My mother claimed we had roast beef back then. We did yeah.:rolleyes: When we eventually got roast beef, it was just banged in the oven on 200 for a few hours and was like shoe leather on the plate with the same old rock hard roasties. But my mother has a different version of events, bless her.

So that's some bad stuff. The good stuff for me back in those days was eating out and sitting down to do it. Woolworths on Henry street Dublin. My Granny paid for that. BHS on O'Connell street. Fish fingers, beans and chips on a paper plate with a glass of diluted orange. The luxury.:D

Oh those were the days! The queue would be out the door and onto the stairs, it was so busy. Eating in Woolworths restaurant was the ultimate treat. BHS was good but it was no Woolworths.

Anus Von Skidmark · 14-08-2019 8:59pm

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Now Findus crispy pancakes - they were really good!

Oh no they weren't!

Lamb chops in an onion-y gravy was the king of all childhood dinners in my house.

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 9:00pm

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I loved the idea of Vesta curries, but they never lived up to the picture on the box

Angel delight was yuck - I never tried Arctic roll. We were given tinned pears with ice cream for dessert every Sunday for a long time before the mammy linked it to the horrific hives I broke out in every Monday.

Now Findus crispy pancakes - they were really good!

I remember liking crispy pancakes as a small kid.

I tried them some time back for nostalgia purposes, and they were vile!

Don't know what changed, the product or my taste buds, that's the problem with evaluating old foods.

Grandeeod · 14-08-2019 9:01pm

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Bleurgh!

Anyone remember vesta curries?

Yep. You could buy it in a can. Heated many a can out camping or on the stove or in a youth hostel in the Wicklow mountains in the 80s.

igCorcaigh wrote: »

For desert, angel delight was awful.
But I loved Arctic roll!

I loved Angel Delight!

Mam of 4 wrote: »

Saturdays in our house was a fry at one pm , usual fry with liver and kidney also !
Sunday , pork or ham , then the leftovers on Monday .
Fridays were always homemade chips and either egg or fishfingers . Lots of stews and mam was a great baker so apple/jam tarts and homemade bread , so even if there wasn't much money to be spent on food , she'd bake or make ricepuddings , bread puddings , oh and potato cakes !

Hated liver and kidney and still do. Often went to bed hungry because of that.:eek: My mother could bake a decent apple tart though. It was often the only treat we got and it was divine. The Tesco/Gubays arrived in Dublin and she hasn't made an apple tart since!:D

Dizzyblonde · 14-08-2019 9:02pm

Anus Von Skidmark wrote: »

Oh no they weren't!

Lamb chops in an onion-y gravy was the king of all childhood dinners in my house.

Ah they were. I was the late 60s/early 70s and processed food was new and exciting!!

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 9:03pm

Soda stream lol!

odyssey06 · 14-08-2019 9:06pm

Is Spam a nostalgic food?
If you are somewhere without fridge and want a morning fry, it actually fries up well as an alternative to rashers. Never would've thought it til I saw James May try it on a BBC programme.

And dang, 80s Findus Crispy Pancakes were tasty.

Mam of 4 · 14-08-2019 9:08pm

Grandeeod wrote: »

Yep. You could buy it in a can. Heated many a can out camping or on the stove or in a youth hostel in the Wicklow mountains in the 80s.

I loved Angel Delight!

Hated liver and kidney and still do. Often went to bed hungry because of that.:eek: My mother could bake a decent apple tart though. It was often the only treat we got and it was divine. The Tesco/Gubays arrived in Dublin and she hasn't made an apple tart since!:D

I still love liver , and kidneys

I remember the Vesta curry , in a box though , and eggs cooked in a cup on the top of the cooker , with a knob of butter and a pinch of salt , best eggs ever

Oh , last one , picking mushrooms and cooking them on the top of the cooker with a pinch of salt , they were ready when the centre was filled with boiling hot juices that would scald the mouth off you !

Purple Mountain · 14-08-2019 9:09pm

Findus Crispy Pancakes were muck.

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 9:09pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

Is Spam a nostalgic food?
If you are somewhere without fridge and want a morning fry, it actually fries up well as an alternative to rashers. Never would've thought it til I saw James May try it on a BBC programme.

And dang, 80s Findus Crispy Pancakes were tasty.

I buy canned corned beef sometimes, but it's a bit gooey. Might be good fried, as in a hash?

Never had spam. More of a British think I guess.

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 9:10pm

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Findus Crispy Pancakes were muck.

Better than boiled tripe.

whiskeyman · 14-08-2019 9:14pm

Those non-pizza pizzas.
I think green isle used to do a pack of 5 or mini pack of 10.
Just cheese I think.
We'd cut up ham and think we were proper Italians grilling our pizzas!!
Topping side down first on tinfoil as it was frozen, then skillfully turn it once burnt.
These were the days before Goodfellas came to town.
Oh how our world changed then!

Rows Grower · 14-08-2019 9:16pm

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Findus Crispy Pancakes were muck.

The fcuking cheek of you.

What would you know about proper food?

The Findus Crispy Pancake was our Domino's and Chinese all rolled into one back in the 70's.

Grandeeod · 14-08-2019 9:17pm

Crispy pancakes were great when I was young, but yet again grilled with a hard outside. I deep fried them once as an adult and had a similar experience to deep frying a burger as a teen. Lift the basket, stick a knife in and release the lava spray.:eek:

Grandeeod · 14-08-2019 9:19pm

whiskeyman wrote: »

Those non-pizza pizzas.
I think green isle used to do a pack of 5 or mini pack of 10.
Just cheese I think.
We'd cut up ham and think we were proper Italians grilling our pizzas!!
Topping side down first on tinfoil as it was frozen, then skillfully turn it once burnt.
These were the days before Goodfellas came to town.
Oh how our world changed then!

Dunnes stores cheapy mini pizzas under the grill. Worst ever!

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 9:25pm

Grandeeod wrote: »

Dunnes stores cheapy mini pizzas under the grill. Worst ever!

They were the first pizza I ever had.

And the first time I tasted herbs.

Remember the little plastic sachet of dried herbs that came with them? Loved them.

Grandeeod · 14-08-2019 9:33pm

igCorcaigh wrote: »

They were the first pizza I ever had.

And the first time I tasted herbs.

Remember the little plastic sachet of dried herbs that came with them? Loved them.

I remember them alright. Was force fed them too. Not nice. Put me off pizza which is a shame as pizza is such a popular thing these days. Fook you Ben Dunne!

Gloomtastic! · 14-08-2019 9:39pm

As a kid, I remember my Granny’s roast chicken was so full of flavour. I asked her once why and she said it was because it was fresh. I can’t remember but were most chickens frozen in the 70’s?

Alun · 14-08-2019 9:47pm

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I loved the idea of Vesta curries, but they never lived up to the picture on the box

Ah yes, Vesta curries! However hard you tried, there was always at least one crunchy bit that refused to hydrate. The Vesta Chinese meals were even worse.

Rows Grower · 14-08-2019 9:50pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

As a kid, I remember my Granny’s roast chicken was so full of flavour. I asked her once why and she said it was because it was fresh. I can’t remember but were most chickens frozen in the 70’s?

Anything we got was always fresh as far as I remember, mind you it was your mothers nose decided what was fresh. There was no best before date.

I remember being instructed to always squeeze a slice pan to check for freshness and I still do it to this day like the cave man I am.

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 9:53pm

Grandeeod wrote: »

I remember them alright. Was force fed them too. Not nice. Put me off pizza which is a shame as pizza is such a popular thing these days. Fook you Ben Dunne!

Ha! Can you believe that it wasn't until 1992 that I had my first pizza from a Pizzeria?

I was bowled over, never tasted anything so tasty. I was 19!

Purple Mountain · 14-08-2019 9:53pm

Did anyone else experience this or are my family unique?
Back in the 80s, anytime we had a salad lunch, mam always had tinned peas as part of the salad. Uncooked, cold peas.
And no, we weren't poor. Just a typical farming family.
Pretty rank thinking about it now.

odyssey06 · 14-08-2019 9:54pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

As a kid, I remember my Granny’s roast chicken was so full of flavour. I asked her once why and she said it was because it was fresh. I can’t remember but were most chickens frozen in the 70’s?

In the 80s I only remember fresh. But our xmas turkeys in the 80s werent... had to be delivered two days before to defrost!

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 9:54pm

Rows Grower wrote: »

Anything we got was always fresh as far as I remember, mind you it was your mothers nose decided what was fresh. There was no best before date.

I remember being instructed to always squeeze a slice pan to check for freshness and I still do it to this day like the cave man I am.

I do too!

Back in those days common sense was common.

How things change.

Grandeeod · 14-08-2019 9:59pm

Rows Grower wrote: »

Anything we got was always fresh as far as I remember, mind you it was your mothers nose decided what was fresh. There was no best before date.

I remember being instructed to always squeeze a slice pan to check for freshness and I still do it to this day like the cave man I am.

I still squeeze the pan too.:D

As for chickens, my memories are fresh and big, bought from a butcher. If you stood in a butchers in Dublin's Moore street, you were in a Q and got a piece of cold white pudding to chew on, if you fancied it.:D

igCorcaigh · 14-08-2019 10:01pm

Grandeeod wrote: »

I still squeeze the pan too.:D

As for chickens, my memories are fresh and big, bought from a butcher. If you stood in a butchers in Dublin's Moore street, you were in a Q and got a piece of cold white pudding to chew on, if you fancied it.:D

Oh lol

When my sister was a toddler she used to eat frozen (raw) sausages from the freezer like lollipops.

phormium · 14-08-2019 10:07pm

Gosh I loved the Vesta curries but it's true there was always one dry powdery bit that didn't soften!

My mother did not really cook, we had a nanny

and she did most of it but on her day off curried mince stew was my mother's special plus butterscotch instant whip which I hated!

The nanny used to give us 'goody' if we were sick, it sounds disgusting stuff but if you are sick it's amazing how nice it tastes.

Nostalgic Food - Good and Bad!

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