Childhood dinners that made your heart sink?

[Harveypuss]

A lighthearted post!

Do you remember any childhood meals, that when you asked your mum (or dad) "what's for dinner?", their answer made your heart sink?!

Mine was Lamb's hearts. My Mum cooked these often, presumably it was a culinary delight and was probably cheap, but I hated them (this was back in the late 70s so you ate what was given or went hungry). I don't know what she did with them, but they were as tough as old boots and really chewy. I'm sure offal like that is probably quite delicious in some top-end restaurant but dear Mum didn't cook it like that! I'm in my 50s now and I've only just told her I hated that meal. She was mortified!

We have this with our son now, aged 17. He hates pasta and when we have a family pasta meal, I cook him something different. He's off to Uni next year, so don't know how he's going to manage as I'm told all students live of pasta as it's really cheap...!

What was your least favourite childhood meal...?

Mother believed that girls should be taught to eat frugally so an entire lunch might consist of a small plate of butter beans, or a boiled onion. Not both, that would be greedy.

In the summer we'd collect empty pop bottles for the returns money and stuff ourselves with food. Not just sweets - actual food, like a loaf of bread to share out and raw sausage meat.

Bonkers really.

When I saw the thread title my first thought was "LIVER" - I see I wasn't the only one lol

Liver and boiled potatoes. (Luckily it wasn't often.) As soon as I left home I went vegetarian; and also have never eated a boiled potato since then either. BLECHHH.

'Stew' consisted of frozen lamb chops, frozen mixed veg and gravy salt. Brought to the boil and served.
It.Was.Rank
I made casserole at school and DM said it was the same as her stew - no, its not, I could actually eat the casserole.
Oxo, bovril, were all foreign to her. Sunday gravy was a little bit of the yorkshire pudding mix mixed with water and comptons gravy salt. Again, RANK. I used to have a bit of mash, a yorkshire pudding, meat if it was chicken, no gravy. Every veg had to be mashed, carrots, cauliflower, turnip, peas (steepy kind) no butter added. Just gross.

Liver here too. My Mum used to flour and shallow fry it. You could have soled work boots with it! She wasn't a bad cook generally,but oh dear, the liver...

@Divebar2021

My MIL served cooked beetroot in a white sauce... never seen it before or since.

DH's mother did this too!!!!

Just why? DH loves it. although his dad (who mostly worked away) apparently insisted on doing the cooking when he was home. His dad was a terrific cook.

Liver
Kedgeree
Stew (cooked in the pressure cooker)

@Goddamnroids

A mid week “dinner” of boiled potatoes, braised steak and boiled veg. It was the pared down version of “Sunday dinner” that was always a fabulous roast. I enjoyed hearts and liver, cook them for the dog mostly now but always pinch a bit

This

Plus the liver, kidneys, tripe and stew. My dad was the king of stews, he’d stew anything, it’s not that they tasted bad it was the fact we lived off them. Dad cooked just as much as mum at least there was a bit of variety when mum cooked. There was one time mum was in hospital for several weeks and we had stew every single day twice a day. I couldn’t eat one for years after that. Then after living overseas for almost 20 years the first thing I said to my dad when I was back is can you make me a stew 😂

My mum is actually quite a good cook, but a small budget along with a shortage of time meant that in my teenage years she just made stuff that was quick and cheap. Other than the dreaded stuffed hearts:

Chicken 'paprika'. I would guess that the original recipe was probably quite nice, but my mum had adapted it to be super simple and not very nice. Her version was a roast chicken, drenched in a sauce made from a can of condensed mushroom soup with a few tablespoons of curry powder mixed in. Served with rice and sliced tomatoes and bananas (why?)

Soup made from Sunday roast leftovers. Everything went in apart from the meat - potatoes, peas, carrots, broccoli and gravy ffs. All whizzed up in a blender. It was grim, but she and my dad loved it for some reason. I think she actually served it at a dinner party once - those poor guests. I refused point blank to eat it.

@JustMeAndWheatley

Sweetcorn. Literally just an ear of corn on a plate, nothing with it except a blob of margarine. it was always presented as if a special treat too. It has put me off sweetcorn for life.

We had friends of DH's stay for 8 fucking days a few years ago and the wife made a big song and dance about what a great cook she was. (She would stand over me while I was cooking and tell me how I was doing it wrong... she also criticised how i pruned my roses and one night when we went to the pub told me to take my top off because the colour did nothing for me)

[and breathe]

anyway- the last night she decided to cook for us. A plain cob of sweetcorn without any butter or anything else was the 'starter'. Nothing else, just sweetcorn. Wrapped in cling film and cooked in the microwave. It was still crunchy. The main was a 'mushroom stroganoff' but the mushrooms and onions were boiled as she was vocally all about health and had told me off for gaining 2 stone after DS2 telling me that having a baby was 'no excuse' and she would have to 'teach me' about being healthy.

[and breathe again] .

I'm now 3 stone overweight but that is still no fucking reason whatsoever to eat sweetcorn without butter or boiled fucking mushrooms.

Tripe. We always had it when my dad’s mum came.

As my own boys were growing up, although they liked bolognese, chilli and shepherds pie, mentioning one of those always provoked a response of “Not mince again!”

My mam is actually a good cook but things that would make my heart sink were

Chops- horrible solid fat that makes me shudder
Gammon - solid fat again and too salty
Stir fry - just disgusting - why ruin vegetables in this way

As an adult, I’m so grateful that I can avoid all of them!

Liver and bacon casserole with dumplings.

Stew and chips. I mean, I love stew, and I love chips, but not together!

Most things really, my parents were not good cooks.

Meat and vegetables were overcooked, we only had boiled potatoes or mash ever, not roast, and food was generally bland, 1950s type stuff in the 1980s as that's what my dad liked. Although my dad could do decent mashed potato at least and occasionally made chips. Though I preferred the chippy ones!

Salads were boring, limp lettuce, ham and salad cream. Cakes were Mr Kipling, I nearly died and went to heaven when I had home made cake when I was older. Never had fresh fruit and cream, it was always tinned fruit and evaporated milk.

All the food I enjoyed in childhood were at someone else's house, eating out or from the chip shop. School dinners were usually better than the fare at home. Oh and courtesy of Vesta - curry, beef risotto, and the apex of excitement, Chow Mein with the crispy noodles. The individual pork pie from the market I was allowed on Saturdays after my dance class.

I suppose it could have gone either way but it turned out I was a born foodie trapped in a drab food environment and I jumped at any chance to try new things. Started cooking for myself (and my mum, who wanted to break out too) when I was 14 and was at least always given money and was allowed to go and buy whatever I could find at the local supermarket or deli.

Anything with 'new potatoes', which my parents were obsessed with come Spring and Summer. I just found them bland and boring and still do!

Irish stew (hate lamb and especially hate the smell of it stewing)

Lamb chops
Cottage pie

meatballs. just never liked them much.

My heart still sinks at chicken even when i am cooking it. i just find it boring

@CorianderBee

Lamb chops Cottage pie

omg my heart leapt at these

Tinned peaches. They had all the charm of slugs marinated in their own slime.

My granny's fish tatties. The whole fish, exactly as it came out of the sea, thrown in to boil with a huge pan of potatoes, when all cooked she'd mash the whole lot up together, so mashed tatties with scales, eyes, bones, the lot 🤢

Also her Potted Heid (Hough) You got it in little pots and it was as bad as the fish tatties.

Other than that, Liver, or Fish Fingers were the worst I think.

Just remembered, Cheese Tatties, like the fish ones, but with cheese.

I can't stand any kind of seafood now or mashed potatoes.

@ProfessionalWeirdo

Tinned peaches. They had all the charm of slugs marinated in their own slime.

Oh god that reminds me of 'Peach Melba'. Tinned peaches with a tiny scoop of ice cream. Only my older brother was allowed it.

He was bloody welcome to it.

@zukiecat

That reminds me of a descriptive paragraph from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

He eats slowly and carefully, even when he is very hungry or when the food is not very good, and he eats the eyes of the fish in his soup, but only when they are still in place, not when they are loosely floating around in the soup.

Not sure what the difference was, but considering he was in one of Stalin's gulags and food was at a premium at all times, there must have been a reason.

@GingerFigs

Liver and onions 🤢

Cauliflower cheese. As an adult I like cauliflower cheese as a side dish to a main meal but as a child it was the main meal. Not only did I have to force it down (if you didn't eat what you were given there was nothing else) but it also didn't fill you up and I was was always hungry afterwards 😐

I had cauliflower cheese once at a neighbours house. I think it was my parents way of punishing me and to show me what they fed me wasn’t bad at all. Never ever again 🤢