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...?

Hard-boiled eggs in mustard sauce. Vile stuff

Liver and bacon with mash and peas.
Have never ever eaten or served my children liver.

I used to go to my dads at the weekend who lived with my Nan. Sometimes we would get fish and chips which was a winner because sometime it would be mince and gravy, boiled potatoes and butter beans. I still loathe butter beans.

Mashed carrot, parsnip and suede 🤢

Irish stew, potatoes carrots in pale 'gravy' swimming in fat...

My mum was a decent cook, never made offal and I was the good child who ate up all her vegetables and didn't complain about mince. But my dad liked a home made steak pie, which had these awful pale sausages like unhealthy turds running through it. Every now and again that would show up for Sunday dinner, and my heart would sink.

Anything my mother cooked actually. It was a relief to get jam sandwiches

As a child my mum gave me brains on toast and tripe cooked in milk. She’d get a pigs head from the butchers, I was allowed to help singe the hairs out of the nose and ears then she’d boil it for hours allowing us to remove the skin and make brawn with the head meat. I used to like removing the teeth.

I am a vegetarian now.

Lliver. Kidneys. Faggots. Stew with prunes in. The cooked banana part of chicken Maryland.

"Salad". I mean, I love a nice dressed salad now, but my DM would put a slice of ham, sliced boiled egg, iceberg lettuce and cucumber on a plate with some boiled potatoes (and I didn't like cucumber). It was grim.

Stuffed Marrow
Breast of lamb - bones with fat on
Tripe and onions
Spam and broad beans
Tinned fruit cocktail with carnation milk and bread and butter for dipping.
Brawn
Pigs trotters

Liver! Even our dog wouldn't eat what we didn't!

Mushrooms in sauce on toast.
We had to finish everything on our plate or we got it at the next meal. I thought it looked like sick and wouldn't eat it. Three mealtimes later I was still refusing and DM was so angry...
I finally ate a mouthful and was promptly sick.

Fish pie. I'm not even sure why. I like fish, I like prawns, I like potato. But stick them all together in white sauce and blergh. I tried it recently thinking "I'm an adult now" but nope, still horrible!

My mum was a good cook, who became more adventurous as I got into my teens (discovered garlic, herbs and spices). She liked tripe, but thankfully never made me or my dad eat it. We used to go to the tripe stall in the market 🤮 and she would buy a quarter of udder, which looked like a sort of granular pale pink pate, and would have it on toast. I tasted it once, which was one time too many!

Liver
Cow's tongue

Liver I coukd get down with a struggle...cow's tongue made me retch. Also 70's...eat or go hungry.

Liver.
It was grey overcooked and vile.

@fredhere
I think I would prefer mashed suede than mashed swede

However I love liver and onions

I like eggs but not in things, if that makes sense. DM used to make a layered dish consisting mainly of fennel, breadcrumbs & hardboiled eggs - it made me gag. And I never ate instant mash after age 7 as I was sick, although I’m pretty sure it was a bug not the mash. Another vote for broad beans. They always seemed grey & leathery. Yet when I had them in recent years, they were so sweet & tender. Delicious!

@SionnachGlic

Liver Cow's tongue

Liver I coukd get down with a struggle...cow's tongue made me retch. Also 70's...eat or go hungry.

Oh, when I was growing up I had a friend who's parents were Ukrainian.

They would boil tongue, then eat it sliced thinly (cold) with an egg and horseradish sauce and a sort of hot chutney of sultanas marinated in garlic and a juice of some sort.

It was truly deeply sublime. I was 15 and I would eat it with much joy.

[quote EastWestWhosBest]My mum is an amazing cook. I actually miss the liver and onions she used to cook and I’ve been vegi for 25 years.

The only thing that I just wouldn’t eat was bobotie.
It’s minced lamb with spices and fruit with a topping like a mossaka.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bobotie[/quote]
OMG my mum used to make bobotie too (she grew up in SA) and we had a conversation last weekend about how much I used to hate it.
Essentially grey mince with egg on it. Bleurgh.
Otherwise she was generally a very good cook.

Meatloaf
Spam fritters
Tapioca pudding
Semolina pudding
Custard

Dripping on toast 🤮

We grew up pretty poor, and towards the end of the month Mum would be desperate to put meals on the plate. Really bad months we had to eat dripping on toast before payday. Greasy, horrible, yucky.

And junket... She believed it was a cheap, healthy dessert. Also disgusting.

Mashed carrot, parsnip and suede 🤢

*swede 😂

Chicken and mushroom pie (not homemade) and steak Canadians. Both made me feel unwell just with the cooking smell.