Things you assumed were normal

My moment of revelation was staying at a friend's house when they had Ready Brek for breakfast. We always used to have it the consistency of porridge, but they had it with about a tablespoonful of the oatmeal in a bowl of hot milk, so almost completely liquid!

Sacrilege - how can you swirl the brown sugar into it when it's that runny!

@ImportantWater Another one where a word that was in common usage many years ago but has gone out of use. Stockings USED to be the name for leg coverings like socks, the only real difference was the length as socks were for feet & stockings went further up the leg e.g. knee length. So when you see historical dramas with the guys wearing knee breeches, those are technically stockings underneath not socks.

I have a wealth of useless facts stuck in my brain, leaving little room for much else

If you use a salt mill then add cumin seeds to it, it's lovely

I used to have baked beans with ready salted crisps crushed into them 😂

Sinkgirl - no, no salt on potatoes although I do admit shop bought ones are a bit naff so maybe they'd be improved by salt. Actually I do use salt as a form of rebellion sometimes, I have bread with butter and a good grinding of pepper and flaky salt, just to crunch the salt

TrippingonSunshine
You thought apple pips have cyanide in them, if they do I should be dead long ago. I always eat the pips. I don't eat a lot of apples anyway though.

@Toddlerteaplease I absolutely love the James Herriot books. I have read them over and over again!!

We used to have strong tea in sippy cups when we were babies.

We also had a number system for manners, eg Number 6 was elbows on the table. My GM used to suddenly yell No 6 at the top of her voice during dinner.

My husband is from a farming family and they have very weird rituals. They call leftovers 'orts' - eating up the orts the next day. Also have 'cut drowns' which are little pancake things.

Suet pastry cooked in the fat around the joint of beef. It goes golden and crispy on top, and takes up the juices from the meat underneath. Also egg in a cup. Hot hard boiled egg mashed with butter and salt and pepper in a tea cup, and eaten with a teaspoon.

I was raised by a very etiquette conscious lunatic mother who had a long list of things that were considered "Very Rude", and on growing up and moving out I've realised no one (except a small MN conglomerate ) also thinks are rude

• elbows on the dinner table
• yawning in presence of others
• asking for a drink (or heaven forbid, a biscuit) at someone's house
• not asking before you can sit down on someone's sofa - my mum has a friend of 40 years who she still asks!!
• not taking your hat off at a wedding until the MOB does - I went to one with her once a few years ago where the MOB had an elaborate fascinator pinned in to her hair. My mum refused to take her hat off. It was August and 32 degrees she nearly fainted!
• not finishing your dinner, be it at a restaurant or someone's house. I had the appetite of a mouse as a child and spent more evenings than I care to remember being eyeballed by mum while I stuffed food down my neck to the point I was almost sick

(Excepting aforementioned medical reasons, obviously)

You don’t put salt in anything? Even a bakedpotato? I don’t think I could eat potatoes without any salt unless it was life or death. I also can’t understand why anyone would use unsalted butter for anything. Salted butter for all thing IMO.

I eat the apple the core and break the pips...love the taste and crunch ...alive and well
Tomatoes salted
Ice cold milk on any cereals
Duck / Goose fat or pork lard (homemade) - the shop one is horrible - spread on fresh white crusty bread, salt, pepper and a bit of paprika...OMG!!
Feta cheese crumbled on soft egg yolk and chips

I thought it was normal to have a "bit bin" for veg peelings etc for the compost until I was at a friend's house aged 16 and asked where I should put the carrot peelings!
Home made bread was standard. Also my mum never puts salt in anything (except bread) , so I don't, except pasta water because my Italian friend was so horrified

@Sleeveen It's mentioned in the James Herriot books. He also introduced me to Christmas cake and cheese in the same mouthful. Good of the gods!

I like chip-sticks (salt and vinegar) wrapped in that really cheap wafer-thin ham, and then dunked in salad cream.

Pancakes with gravy.

Yorkshire puddings with onion gravy before Sunday lunch - but never at Christmas, it would all pile on.

But I also don't get hot and cold items on a plate. For example, my other half likes carved ham (cold), with chips and egg. Also don't quite understand mash and baked beans, but apparently it's quite nice!

@inwood even better in chocolate milkshake!

I always put cheese in my hot cross buns which I thought was totally normal until my husband asked me what I was doing!

I have weetbix two ways, usually with cold milk but plenty of milk so it soaks right in and if I have a sore throat I microwave it with milk, make it in to porridge and add a bit of honey.

We also used to eat them dry with butter and jam as kids.

I had never heard of warming weetabix until I was a student nurse. not envy

Christmas lunch with a boyfriends large Yorkshire family. Huge Yorkshire puddings and delicious gravy served all around to everyone, ( there was twelve or more of us) Then the plates were all taken back and washed so Christmas lunch could be served on them. It was surprising, but delicious.

But this is the traditional reason Yorkshire puddings (and equivalent cheap starches in other cultures) exist -- in poorer times, they were served first to fill people up before the expensive (meat) part of the meal.

MissDew i really want to like fruit teas.but i dont.i have sniffed and tried so many.

weetabix had a special routine.2 in a bowl next to eachother.cold milk but only pour over the top of one biscuit. eat the uncovered one first so your eating it still crispy.then carry on watching tv/chatting etc so the second goes soft.i loved the different experience in one bowl(i was a very strange child!oh but both had major amounts of sugar on.we put way to much sugar on our cereal.my sister used to love the sugar pile at the botttom of the bowl.
at school i was teased( ihate kids) for having 'different' sandwhiches which we always thought was normal.so intead of cheapo ham we had beef and horseradish,or cheese and marmite.

Had dry Weetabix with butter and marmalade on a camping trip once instead of toast. Twas good.

I cannot bear hot Ribena. Yuck. Didn't know it could be drunk hot. Tried it, didn't like it. It makes little bits of white, 'paper' appear in my mouth which I have to discretely spit out. Unpleasant.

This is why I dislike fruit tea. They all smell sickly sweet like hot Ribena. Yuk.

@CameFromAway Hurrah! I have found my people. Well, person. Of course, you might be my sister or my cousin. We should do a DNA test.

I love this thread!

Mine I've only recently discovered isn't normal - whenever people talk (or I talk) I see the words written out in front of me like on a typewriter. Sort of like my whole world is subtitled. And I'm really fussy about name spellings because of it! Had no idea not everyone does this 😂 it's a form of synesthesia apparently.

Food wise we always put salt on oranges. Various friends over the years have been completely horrified by the concept but it makes them taste sweeter! Oh, and we bbq our breakfast at the weekend - also didn't think that was weird till I moved into my own home and did it for visiting friends who were baffled!