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...?

Cooked frozen fish which tasted like water, peas and boiled potatoes. Boiled long enough to hack apart, but not enough to be fluffy. How they tasted so bad I'll never know.

70’s kid here. Rissoles - I flipping hated them, wanted to cry every sodding time they were placed in front of me.

@Tambora

Did anyone else's dad grow runner beans?

We would have runner beans with everything for what seemed like months on end. The worst was when he found a few he'd missed when picking, great long tough stringy things that had to be pushed through a bladed torture instrument, took ages to cook, forever to eat and even longer to digest.

My Granddad used to grow runner beans and he would put them through some sort of contraption with a winding handle, that sliced them up / or removed the stringy side part? For some reason, the contraption is a memory that's stayed with me a long time!

This was in Devon but I guess the contraption/bean torture machine was available nationally (? no real idea).

Ham steaks and cauliflower cheese

A 'risotto' made with just white rice, tinned tuna and tinned tomatoes.

Plain mince with boiled potatoes and peas. I suppose a sort of deconstructed cottage pie but without the gravy and other things that made it delicious.
I also seem to have a recollection that my mother boiled the mince 🤮 but I don’t know if that was my overactive childhood imagination.

I haven't eaten beetroot since 1990 when I was forced to eat it for school dinner. I was so traumatised that I haven't dared touch it since.

See I actually quite like liver and always did even as a child.

Another one we had in school was semolina pudding. It was always cold and lumpy!

My mum was a brilliant cook, very innovative and interested in cooking and we always had pudding. She cooked liver really well, but only I liked it in the family, so it wasnt on the menu very often.

Having said that, like others my heart sank at macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese (we also had it as a main) and kedgeree. My dad loved all these, so we had them fairly often (one of them maybe once a week). We would also have this leek dish where there were cooked whole leeks, wrapped in ham then a cheese sauce and baked in oven. Not a fan of that either. All of these things tasted fine as they were cooked properly, they just weren't to my taste.

On the other hand, even though my mum was a really varied cook, the were some things that we just never ate, I think because my dad didn't like them. So I never had beetroot runner beans, broad beans and lots other veg. My DH had parents who had an allotment, so ate little else during his childhood. He has an absolute hatred of most (boiled) veg as a result.

Anything my mother cooked. Her stew, liver and onions, lambs hearts sat on the middle of the plate looking like they'd just been plucked out of the sheep, tripe and onions, home made bacon and egg pizza with a base like a loaf of bread, I'd be made to sit at table till I ate them

Mince 🤮

Cooked frozen fish which tasted like water, peas and boiled potatoes. Boiled long enough to hack apart, but not enough to be fluffy. How they tasted so bad I'll never know.

I’m now suspicious you’re one of my siblings. I also hated the same potatoes with mince but it wasn’t as bad as the watery fish.

Brilliant thread.

My childhood food often revolved around garden produce for what seemed like months on end, so I rarely opt to eat any of the following these days:

Rhubarb
Broad beans
Runner beans
Marrow ... especially stuffed marrow.

My MIL used to serve up cold pressed tongue on a Friday evening when we’d driven 2 hours out of London. Eugh. Her tongue press was one of the first things to go after she’d gone.

Or some kind of tuna, pineapple and rice number.

As an aside, someone mentioned about their DM substituting ingredients in a tagine. Peaches instead of preserved lemons...

All I could think of was Mrs Cropley in Vicar of Dibley. 🤣🤣

My mother's burnt sausages and chicken...always burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. I remember once she told me to come home from school with an appetite because we were having 'Chinese' for dinner. Very excited all day thinking about my sweet and sour chicken Hong Kong style to come home and be greeted with burnt chicken pieces in a nasty store bought sweet and sour sauce...such a disappointment!!

Again the dreaded .... liver
I used to cry when we had this for dinner
There was one day that I had liver at school and then came home and my mum had made it for dinner.

Mince onions and gravy - I used to watch the fat congeal around the edges - gross.
Lentils with mashed potatoes that tastes of nothing
Also hated fish paste and meat paste sandwiches.
Favourite food then was black pudding which I ate by the tonne - have now been a vegetarian for 40 years!!

Fish. I think it was just fish with mashed potatoes and peas. It made me retch. I didn't eat fish willingly for years after I left home. 🤮

Liver (with tubes in it) and this weird hot sardine casserole with cooked cucumber in it. It had a cheese and breadcrumb top and was truly vile. 🤢

Liver and onions in primary school. So bitter 🤮

There was one day that I had liver at school and then came home and my mum had made it for dinner.

Laughed out loud at this. In a sympathetic way, I promise.

Pork chops
Lasagna- I actually loved it when I ate it but hated the thought!

My mum is an excellent cook but we didn't have much money - sometimes that economy was felt at tea time! I absolutely despised:
Liver
Broad beans
Stew/scouse with any meat in it - could never chew it
Sardines on toast - shudder!

1980s — my mother used to buy this frozen fish that came in rectangles, individually portioned in plastic with a kind of white parsley sauce. She used to boil them in the plastic, then snip the packs open and the fish and sauce would slither out. It was absolutely revolting and it put me off fish for years.

Liver
Stew

Oh and white fish with boiled potatoes