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.

I've just remembered another one mum did for us. We wouldn't eat tomatoey sauces so she cooked mince and mixed it with a cheese sauce and macaroni. Sounds weird but was actually really good (and probably very calorific!). Would love to make it again but I suspect DH would be aghast!

@ooosopink

We were also dosed with cod liver oil and malt extract. When really small we also given a teaspoon of a really thick, sort of yellowy orange mixture, presumably full of vitamins and supplied by the local council run nursery (late 50s/early 60s). Can only think this was given out as an after effect of rationing. (Attending state run nurseries in a whole other conversation!!!!)

For special Sunday treats or at Christmas mum always made a Birds trifle. The custard so solid, it would fight you to stay in the bowl and would finally concede with a satisfying schloooop. Brightly coloured hundreds and thousands on the top, their dye slowly colouring the white topping. Magical.
I didn't think you could still buy the stuff until my SIL said she always made DB said trifle for his birthday (he is in his late 60s).

My mother would always sprinkle salt on a cut up apple; I never saw her eat one without either salt or cheese on it.
Our favourite meals made by Mum were: scalloped potatoes made with a dried packet soup mix; and bacon, mushroom and brown rice. Used to love that stuff!
My grandmother used condensed milk in A LOT of recipes; a favourite was the coleslaw, where the condensed milk went into the dressing. So weird to me now.

I had bagels as a kid in the 70s. No one had heard of them.

Did anyone have Fussell's tinned thick carnation milk? It had a blue butterfly on the label.
When staying with my cousins my aunt would dollop this out into dishes and we'd eat it as it came with finger type Rich Tea biscuits. Washed down with a glass of blackcurrant juice.

Oh it was condensed milk. I am an idiot Carnation is a brand not a type of milk!

@Pieceofpurplesky we had that book too!

I was going to come on to say the Poor Knights of Windsor recipe - eggy bread covered in crushed up cornflakes - which I kept trying to make even though normal French toast was much nicer.

My mum is American and made us French toast with golden syrup and bacon which was delicious.

Herja

The stuff your referring to sweet marmite is called Sunvita fruit spread and it's available from most health shops. Used to give it to the babies all the time.

This kind of stuff may be useful for post-brexit rationing ideas 😂

Chicken and peach bake appeared at every single dinner party/buffett/family gathering growing up. In a dish you layered shredded chicken, peaches, peas several times and then poured over several tins of condensed chicken soup. I was topped with crushed crisps and heated in the oven. As a child it was amazing, as an adult not so much.

Did anyone have Fussell's tinned thick carnation milk?

I did EastMids - I loved that stuff. It was so thick you could practically slice it and so sweet that you could practically feel your teeth start to decay as you ate it. I wonder if you can still get it?

The bonus was, if you dropped the tin it took 20 minutes before it even started to ooze out, so spillages weren't something to worry about.

@DuggeesWoggle you might enjoy a nice macaroni casserole - it was one of my childhood favourites: basically macaroni, mince (with onion, I guess) and eggy, milky cheesyness. I can't really say it was a weird food in my surroundings, though.

The thing in my childhood that my friends thought was weird was that I was given raw veg (swede, potatoes, carrots) as a snack, and we had carob stuff instead of chocolate, and never sweets or biscuits. DM was a good cook, though, even if she tried to make everything as fat free as possible.

DGM once wanted to make pizza for us grandkids, having heard that pizza is something kids like. Her only concept of what pizza is was that it had a bready base, and then you could but leftovers and "whatever you have" on top, and cover with cheese. She made a mashed potato pizza. It was weird, but very nice.

Am I bad for thinking that cabbage water might go nicely with vodka?

My grandparents, they were Italian, my grandmother used to make tripe, in a tomato sauce like you'd have on pasta, and give us tongue. It actually looked like a big old tongue as she'd buy a whole one, it used to proper turn my stomach as a child,

My grandfather used to have a raw egg every single morning, with a shot of grappa, he wasn't an alkie, honest, he lived till his nineties.

The one thing my grand mother did make, and I've never seen again, is she would make a sort of chicken broth soup, with pasta in it, but she would have the butcher give her the tiny little eggs from inside the chicken, they were quail egg sized, but chicken eggs, and put them in it, it was delicious.

Thr other thing she'd do, was make a ragu for the pasta, then cook steak in it, leave it for ages, it would go so soft and then serve the ragu with the pasta , as it then had all the meat juices in it.

So good!

I had that malty stuff too...think it was called Virol? It was nice actually. And National Health orange vitamin stuff. But the National Health cod liver oil was disgusting.
I can remember staying with my auntie’s family in the East End, and her giving me and my cousins Ribena with milk in the late 50’s.....it curdled in the glass..and I was sick. Same auntie poured cold Heinz tomato soup over chip shop fish and chips.

Anybody else have a meat called 'hazlet'? It was sold in slices at butchers for sandwiches. I think it was made from some sort of offal pressed together but I'm not sure.

@Applesaregreenandred my nana always used to get my grandad a slice of haslet as a treat on a saturday from the Morrison's deli counter :) still not sure what it is though!

In the late 60s/early 70s my mum invented her own take on spaghetti bolognese, which was fried mince and onion with tomato puree, sherry and sugar.

It was so sweet and weird but I loved it.

When I was first given proper spag bol at a restaurant I couldn't eat it.

My Dad loved Haslet and Mum always had it in the fridge. It's like a pork deli meat.

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/29737/haslet.aspx

Yeah, I remember hazlet. And brawn (puke)

Just looked up brawn and the description makes it sound even worse :( WTF...head cheese?
Head cheese or brawn is a cold cut that originated in Europe. A version pickled with vinegar is known as souse. Head cheese is not a dairy cheese, but a terrine or meat jelly often made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig, or less commonly a sheep or cow, and often set in aspic.

My Mum made the most amazing fish pie. Fresh fish in a pie of creamy mash, peas, sliced egg and cheese on top. I think I’ll ask her to make it next time I visit!

...oh and parsley sauce was in it too!

eggy, beany gunge. Basically a scrambled egg mixed in beans. Sometimes it would be corn beef and beans and be called corn beef hash. We loved it and I still make it sometimes as a comfort food.

Fresh fish in a pie of creamy mash, peas, sliced egg and cheese on top.

Sorry, my gorge actually rose at that description :( The combination of mashed potatoes and fish makes me heave. :(