Did anyone else's mum give them a food nobody you speak to has heard of?

[Rollerbird]

Although with mumsnet I bet others have had 'it:
In my case it's a' treat' of Cabbage Water
Basically when she cooked (boiled) cabbage (which was with a chopped onion, pepper and nutmeg) I could have a cup of the water after (veg stock I suppose)
I did see it as a treat and am drinking some now, remembering her fondly.

Mine used to make various dishes called If-It (If-Its soup, If-its hotpot, If-Its chilli etc) I was an adult before I realised that was my parents code for we have fuck all money and essentially if its in the kitchen it's going in the pot.

it was generally either rice and any left over or frozen veg cooked with stock cubes or gravy granules, possibly with shredded left over chicken. A sort of hot pot made out of left overs and any random tins, all mixed together with potatoes layered over it. Pasta/spaghetti/a mixture of the two cooked in Sainsburys own tomato soup with onions and if we were lucky bacon. Chilli, using any veg, tins of baked beans, lentils etc to bulk the mince out. Or if things were really bad mum discovered that with a blender you can make soup out of pretty much anything, including apples and pears, so would literally just chuck anything she could find in a pot, boil it and blend it.

Texas One-eye. Fried in lard white bread, with a hole cut in the middle of the slice. Egg broken into the hole, then the cut out bread put on top of the egg as a lid.

Mangle Wurzels were only cattle fodder!

Carrot salad with peanuts and dried fruit in Olive oil. YUM! My mum used to give us Iceberg Lettuce with sugar on it.

I love this thread. It seems like most of our parents didn’t have much money so made all kinds of weird and wonderful dinner creations hoping the kids didn’t know how poor they were. But in the end these mostly seem to be your favourite comfort foods. You can see why some of the best traditional dishes from around the world are from traditionally the poorer parts of the world. Paella, risotto, curry, noodles. All cheap and easy to make and adapt with anything.

Baby onions in white sauce! We had that from the freezer shop too.

Runner bean and corned beef hash - basically, lots (and lots, and lots) of sliced runner beans, cokked and returned to the pan, then a tin of corned beef chunked up and warmed together until it sort of disintegrated.

that was one of the wilder outliers of our need to eat up whatever my granfather's large vegeatebl garden produced.

Oh, and damson jam for breakfast instead of marmalade - because oranges to make marmalade had to be bought, but the damsons came off his fruit tree for free. My mother used to hoard sugar all year for the mad jam-boiling season.

Blancmange (milk and cornflour) cooked, served up in bowls with bottle of food colouring to choose from to be stirred in - i usuaklly went for yello (probably tartrazine) but DBro liked his blue.

Semolina served with ribena poured round it (or damson juice, in poorer times).

'Sausage loaf' (home made liver loaf, with a tiny amount of sausagemeat, cleverly rebranded.)

Cheese pudding, from earlier on in the thread, I recognise.

'Pretty oranges' - oranges halved and served like grapefruit, with demerara sugar.

Was anyone else ever fed 'Parrish's food' as an iron supplement?

We used to have Symington's table creams too. Quite liked those.

Tripe - yuk! I was just reminiscing with DH that the only time I ever ate it was in Spain (as tapas) - never again.

We used to have rissoles made with minced (leftover Sunday lunch) pork, mashed potatoes, sage and onions, made into patties and fried. Yum.

My mother used to make the most vile dish. It was rice cooked in beer, to which she added slices of tinned spam and would serve with a topping of crushed crisps.

Good grief 🤮

Bacon bones. Rib bones which must have come from a side of Polk cured while I am guessing. My mum then pressure cooked them until the meat was falling off the bones and we would eat them with our fingers as a hot snack.

tuna splodge.condense tin of tomato soup.tin of tuna.pasta.greated cheese on top.amazing.and still have it now.its come from my g-dizzle(grandpa) right down to us and will continue.

tuna in pastry.jus rol sheet of pastry.tin of tuna and sweetcorn in a white sauce.pour over the sheet of pastry in the middle. and bring the corners in like an evelope effect.brilliant and so simple.

My mum gave me cabbage water too! I had forgotten.

She also made me eat a spoonful of malt a day as a vitamin supplement. I hated it and she could only force it down me with the promise of a square of chocolate. Even then it made me gag.

Off the top of my head:-
Vesta curries
Tinned mandarins and evaporated milk
Salad cream sandwiches on white sliced
Butter beans
Angel Delight

At school we were given a thing called mince and ‘American Biscuit’. The biscuit was like a savoury scone on top of the meat and it was delicious.

@Herja We’re possibly long lost sisters. Though I liked Sosmix (still do - it’s like stuffing). Hate Tartex. The sweet marmite thing was pear and apple spread I think. Basically fruit juice boiled until it’s black. Gross.

My great gran used to give me melted fried cheddar cheese, with bits of chopped up bacon in it. Literally a heart attack on a plate!!

She also gave me something that she called pobs (I think), which was bits of white bread with hot milk poured over it. She also gave this to hedgehogs and injured birds 😂

Sugar on Toast from "my fun to cook book".

Also brains on toast and herring milts on toast. Stopped being able to get brains due to CJD, and herring milts are really hard to come by too. Both were surprisingly delicious.

I used to love Brains faggots until I discovered what was in them. They went very well with cabbage and creamy mash.

What are herring milts????

I think we got off lightly as DM was a good cook but we were never keen on steak and kidney (which we probably had one a fortnight).

Never keen on offal here.

We used to have a cornflour milk pudding with coca cola jelly (good combo) which we used to call liver and bacon for some reason I can't remember....

Herring mints are herring roe. That reminds me my mum used to give ya fried cod roe. Bloody loved that with toast!

Sounds worth a try, babyno5.

My mum used to make macaroni pudding. Nobody else seemed to have ever had that! Sometimes it was lovely, but sometimes it went wrong and was just like a brick of macaroni.

Not exactly an unusual dish, but mum thought she was very adventurous making curry. It was basically left-ove chicken and vegetables cooked in the oven, in water, to which she added a tiny amount of curry powder. It was disgusting! No wonder my dad insisted he hated curry (that was the only type he ever had).

My dad used to fry cornflakes in the frying pan after the bacon. I thought everyone had that - but everyone I have ever mentioned it to thinks it was bonkers. I remember them being nice, but haven't ever done it in my adult life.

Racecardriverme me me! Though we didn't call it fairy bread. Condensed milk sandwiches, anyone? Bloody lovely!

Wisked chicken egg yolk with sugar till the yolk would become very creamy. It was alright then.

Blancmange served warm with "top of the milk" poured over it. Takes me straight back to listening to "listen with mother" on the radio.
Also jelly made with frothed up evaporated milk.
I miss my mum :(

Ribena made with milk

I have a memory of this from when reallllllly young and was beginning to doubt myself as when I've mentioned it people look at me dumbfounded.

Teacher22 did you grow up in my house?! All those foods were staples in our house.

I also remember digestive biscuits with butter, dandelion and burdock, kit kats with squirty cream on the top and perhaps the weirdest of all-after my dad had eaten a tangerine, he would also eat the peel and I would do the same!