Much loved family recipes you've never been able to recreate

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

For me, it's my granny's bread. She used to make lovely homemade white bread that tasted somehow... cold? And maybe a sort of flat, mineral taste? I did wonder if it was something in the water (she lived in North Wales) but recently I found a bakery in Devon that had exactly the same bread. I want to ask them for their recipe but don't want to seem weird.

A Boston bean casserole my Grandma used to make.

My mums strawberry shortcake & her sweet white sauce. Also my casseroles never taste the same as hers.

Jambalaya, my mum made jambalaya with condensed tomato soup. A pepper, which was fancy back then, and mince. Tried io replicate it and it was awful. But...maybe it always was.

@slightchill

This isn't a family recipe but since lockdown I have been obsessed with trying to recreate the sticky 'bought' malt loaf I ate as a child (it wasn't Soreen - it was similar in texture - but tasted better).

Every loaf I have made turns out bland and uninteresting despite doubling the malt extract quantities. I don't know what I am doing wrong.

Google Meadow Brown Bakery malt Loaf recipe. It’s delicious.

My mum's spag bol. She's even written down her recipe for me and I still just can't get it to taste the same!

Google Meadow Brown Bakery malt Loaf recipe. It’s delicious.

Thank you so much Southwestten! I will!

@NaturalBlondeYeahRight

Not a family recipe but the’ Deep Fried Crispy Aubergine’ I always had at a Malaysian restaurant in south London- they did Chinese food too so not quite sure of origins- it’s closed down now. Never seen it again on any menus or google recipes. So hot, crispy and spicy/salty.

Don't know if this recipe will help www.marystestkitchen.com/deep-fried-chinese-eggplant-spicy-garlic-sauce-recipe/

@Scarby9

My mum used to make a type of mousse which was always called 'Blackberry Yuck' in the family. Absolutely delicious. Sadly, she has no memory of it, and we have failed to find a similar recipe anywhere to recreate it. It isn't a milk jelly, or a fool. It's a bit like both of those, but definitely different.

Scarby9 my mother used to make something similar for tennis match suppers in the seventies we called "the purple horror". It was a well known recipe at the time. I hate to say it but I think it involved a packet of blackcurrant jelly and a tin of liquid condensed/evaporated milk (can't remember which???) all frothed up together in a Kenwood whisk thing and set in the fridge! There was an orange variety too I'm afraid

If you see this recipe though it is definitely evaporated milk!

jelly fluff recipe.

@Amiable try cooking it for longer on a very low heat, an hour or more (I've seen some recipes suggesting 4 hours)

My father's Lokshen (I think it was the kosher chicken)

Paradoxically grannies brawn, boiled up in the copper.

And her shape. I liked her wobbly shape, always setting in the larder.

She was a bloody awful cook on the whole

My dad's stuffing. Even though he gave me the recipe, it just doesn't taste the same when I make it so he has to bring it every Christmas. One less job for me, I guess!

I'm definitely not passing my best recipes on. Taking them with me to the grave, I am

@slightchill
I made that very recipe last weekend and took it with me on a visit home. First time I have bought a Hartleys jelly and tin of condensed milk since the 1980s, I think!

My parents liked it, and it was less sweet than the original recipe because I served it with a sieved whizzed up sortof blackberry coulis, but it definitely wasn't Blackberry Yuck...

My Nan’s stew. She’d make it every Saturday and my Grandad would bring a bowl around to our house for me. I think she put pea and ham soup in it to thicken it but I’ve tried that and never managed to get it to taste like my Nan’s.

Not a family recipe but chips from Chinese takeaways in the 70s and 80s. They were golden and crispy and had such an amazing taste but now whenever we get Chinese chips they just seem like frozen fried ones.

I thought Phoebe’s recipe came from a packet of choc chips, I bought some once in the US and there was a recipe for cookies printed on it.

@MadisonAvenue See, that's strange. So in the US they sell cookies along with instructions on how to make them yourself? Surely they'd lose custom!

Jesus it was printed on a packet of Nestle chocolate chips, not cookies, and they were an ingredient in the printed recipe.

My Nana's tablet! My mum used to try to make it, and my sister & I have tried, but just not the same! She used to tell my sister & I when she was making it so we could go to her house to 'scrape the pot'! Lol! I am in my 50's now & still haven't tasted tablet like she made.

@KilljoysDutch thanks but no, it looked more like this. A proper batter on it a bit like the one on ‘hot and spicy squid’ Very unhealthy.

My grannies soup and a rice dish my mum made in the 80’s. I asked her the recipe and she couldn’t remember. She knew it had Rice, mushrooms and 5 spice but that was

My Scottish Grandma's shortbread & biscuits

Even while she was alive making them at the same worktop , same time, same ingredients they still weren't quite right

She said hers had Grandma love in as an extra

Still miss them over 23 years later

My Yia yia’s tomato potatoes. They were definitely Cyprus potatoes, and they were slice lengthways and cooked in tomato somehow. I think probably steamed. But I haven’t found a recipe even similar to it and haven’t been able to recreate myself either. They were practically the only thing she cooked well!

@MadisonAvenue ah, that makes sense!

@NaturalBlondeYeahRight those look incredible! I also had deep fried honey aubergine once in Ibiza which was (obviously) different but addictive.

Had to Google tablet. And there's me thinking there couldn't possibly be anything more calorific than fudge - good God!

My mum used to make wonderful cream horns using her own shortcrust pastry, so they were much less sickly than the ones in the shops.
I inherited her conical moulds, but I can never get the horns off them without ending up with shattered pastry, despite greasing the moulds diligently.

I know Jesus - quite glad that I can't make it! Lol!