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To wonder why DM put mushroom soup on the chips.

83 replies

SueSuddio · 16/09/2024 09:33

I'll preface this story to say I love my slightly eccentric DM and her ways, but even this took me by surprise.

We were over for lunch and as I was getting my DC sorted out at the table DM called out 'Would you like gravy?'. 'Yes please' was the answer from us. A roast dinner? Get in.

However, I was wrong in this assumption. We had sausages, vegetables and chips, still all good, but the chips were piled on top on the veg and were completely covered in gravy.

Now I've had chips countless times with DM over the years, and gravy has never come even remotely near them. So this was a bold new move. Particularly in our part of the country, the South East, it just isn't a thing.

Nevertheless, I start to tuck in and immediately taste mushroom. 'Is this... mushroom gravy?' I ask. 'Yes' says DM matter of factly. Of course. DM then adds, 'I made it with mushroom soup and an Oxo cube.'

Now I'm astonished. This is effectively a plate of chips covered in canned mushroom soup. 'That isn't gravy' I find myself saying, ungratefully. To which DM, quickly tiring of this questioning shoots back, 'Yes it is, your grandmother used to make it that way', like we'd always been doing this - then looks at me like I'm mad.

I can't stop thinking about this!

OP posts:
Sparklywhiteteeth · 16/09/2024 11:31

I think maybe your mum used the term gravy to mean sauce. I can see her logic, mushroom soup and an oxo cube, so beef and mushroom gravy. I can’t imagine it tasted good though. I’d simply assume she’s no cook, rather than she’s demented.

zingally · 16/09/2024 12:29

Gravy on chips is very common in many parts of the country - and bloody delicious - but mushroom soup and an oxo cube IS a bit odd...

If this is a totally "out of the blue" behaviour for you mum, I'd perhaps be a bit concerned.

Does she have any siblings you could reach out to and ask?

notanotherusername2024 · 16/09/2024 12:30

Have literally NEVER heard of this. Ever. Weird and sounds really unappetising.

Planesmistakenforstars · 16/09/2024 12:33

Kago2790 · 16/09/2024 10:52

At Uni, a housemate used to cook pasta and mix with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.

Um. What's wrong with that?

amusedbush · 16/09/2024 12:44

My mum always makes a pie on Boxing Day to use up the leftover Christmas Day gammon and chicken (no turkey here - bleugh!), and she uses condensed soup for the sauce/filling. Half mushroom, half chicken - delicious!

I'm not sure how I'd feel about oxo-fied soup on my chips, though. That sounds... lumpy.

Dennisisamennis · 16/09/2024 12:45

It sounds oddly delicious

TheGrimSqueakersFlea · 16/09/2024 13:02

@SueSuddio It really doesn't matter what you say, people on here will always suggest dementia or autism.

CasperGutman · 16/09/2024 13:14

Sounds a little odd, but not unpleasant. Loads of American recipes (especially those from a few years back) use canned soup as a base for a sauce, so I can well believe this was something your mum and others have done before.

I wouldn't jump straight to "dementia". Although, if she's normally a good cook who enjoys preparing meals from fresh ingredients, and suddenly now is cooking as if it's the 1970s and the last 50 years of culinary evolution haven't happened, it might be worth looking out for any other signs that something is amiss.

notanotherusername2024 · 16/09/2024 13:39

notanotherusername2024 · 16/09/2024 12:30

Have literally NEVER heard of this. Ever. Weird and sounds really unappetising.

Oh and yeah I've cooked with canned soup before as a sauce base, turns out quite well usually. But that is not this.

Scammersarescum · 16/09/2024 14:28

Dennisisamennis · 16/09/2024 12:45

It sounds oddly delicious

I'm going to have to try it.

Maybe on mash tho. Fried food is death to my digestion.

OPS mum might be onto something and I need to know.

KrisAkabusi · 16/09/2024 15:25

Go to a chipper in Northern Ireland. You'll have a choice of gravy types on your chips!
Gravy chip - jet black, beef gravy
Superchip - Light brown, chicken gravy.

Funkyslippers · 16/09/2024 17:29

ISpyNoPlumPie · 16/09/2024 11:28

I love chips and gravy but chips and mushroom soup…oh no no no. My mum used to make toad in the hole with cream of tomato soup “gravy”. Awful. Times were different then 😆

It would have been much better with oxtail, promise

DesigningWoman · 16/09/2024 17:35

KrisAkabusi · 16/09/2024 15:25

Go to a chipper in Northern Ireland. You'll have a choice of gravy types on your chips!
Gravy chip - jet black, beef gravy
Superchip - Light brown, chicken gravy.

I’ve been told both are in fact as vegetarian as barbecue-flavour Hula Hoops.

TheBookShelf · 16/09/2024 17:40

Cooking with canned soups as a sauce base was very common when I was a child in the late 60s/1970s. There is a cookbook published in 1960 called I Hate to Cook (by Peg Bracken) which was very popular at the time - every other recipe seems to include a tin of condensed soup! If you google "canned soup gravy" there are lots of modern versions of this style of cookery online still.

OolongTeaDrinker · 16/09/2024 18:45

TheGrimSqueakersFlea · 16/09/2024 13:02

@SueSuddio It really doesn't matter what you say, people on here will always suggest dementia or autism.

Well our experience(in hindsight) of my MIL’s early dementia was to do with food and cooking. But the OP’s updates show this might not be the case here.

TheGrimSqueakersFlea · 16/09/2024 18:55

OolongTeaDrinker · 16/09/2024 18:45

Well our experience(in hindsight) of my MIL’s early dementia was to do with food and cooking. But the OP’s updates show this might not be the case here.

The op's first post suggest that it wasn't out of character, but lots of people jumped straight to dementia.

Dementia is cruel, We've also had to watch a love one change in the worst way. It's just incredibly irritating when people on here start diagnosing people they know nothing about.

OolongTeaDrinker · 16/09/2024 19:36

TheGrimSqueakersFlea · 16/09/2024 18:55

The op's first post suggest that it wasn't out of character, but lots of people jumped straight to dementia.

Dementia is cruel, We've also had to watch a love one change in the worst way. It's just incredibly irritating when people on here start diagnosing people they know nothing about.

As I said earlier the thing that jumped out at me was the OP’s mum seemed insistent to the OP that she should know about this bonkers combo. The OP later explained this away. If you get so incredibly irritated by people offering an opinion based on a few details, perhaps an internet chat forum isn’t the place for you - I don’t agree with a lot of stuff I read on here, but just do an eye roll to myself and move on without having strong emotional reactions 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sewannoying · 16/09/2024 20:34

Chips and soup reminds me of my childhood, and I really want them now. But DH would look at me like I’m crazy.

HRTQueen · 16/09/2024 20:40

Tomorrowisyesterday · 16/09/2024 09:36

Condensed soup often used as sauces when I was growing up

Yes I was thinking the same

I still sometimes make for myself not sure anyone else would like it a mushroom pasta sauce and add cream of mushroom condensed soup

I do not like it as a soup though

Growlybear83 · 16/09/2024 21:40

Tomorrowisyesterday · 16/09/2024 09:36

Condensed soup often used as sauces when I was growing up

I was just going to say that. My mum was still using Campbell's condensed soups as the basis for sauces until very recently.

It always makes me chuckle the way people on Mumsnet immediately suggest anyone over 55 has dementia if they do something that is slightly outside what they class as normal.

Baike · 16/09/2024 21:46

DM sounds like one of those experimental cooks off MasterChef, who mostly get it wrong but occasionally are genius’!

Ivesaidenough · 16/09/2024 22:05

There was a student cookbook years ago called "Grub on a Grant" I'm sure there was a recipe in that for condensed mushroom soup as some kind of sauce.
Wonder if your mum is the same age as me...

Barney16 · 16/09/2024 22:10

My grandad once gave me beefburgers on toast. He wasn't in cognitive decline he was just quirky.

Funkyslippers · 17/09/2024 12:29

Ivesaidenough · 16/09/2024 22:05

There was a student cookbook years ago called "Grub on a Grant" I'm sure there was a recipe in that for condensed mushroom soup as some kind of sauce.
Wonder if your mum is the same age as me...

As has been mentioned many times on this thread, as a sauce this works but OPs mum called it a gravy

Projectme · 17/09/2024 12:59

Love condensed soups as a sauce on things; I'd probably use one for a pile of chips if I had the imagination...

bloody love chips and gravy