What were your family 'food traditions'?

[ButWhereDidTheWindComeFrom]

I am really interested in family food and recipes that are normal 'family cooking'.

I'd be interested what your family food traditions were when you were growing up, and if you follow any of them now with your own families.

For me (I am 50 years old). My mother was the main cook. She was a very good cook but hated it (when she and dad retired she said she will never cook again so my father cooks).

We used to have one course only. Always meat of some sort (steak, lamb chops, chicken scnitzels, chicken maryland) with three serves of veg, one always a green veg (usually peas or broad beans). Usually a potato of some sort, more often than not mashed. Plus carrots usually cooked with butter and honey.

For big occasions like birthdays the standard food was asparagus soup from a tin, then beef wellington with potato dauphinoise followed by a chocolate cheesecake with tinned mandarin or tinned cherries on the top (made into a jelly).

My dad always cooked on Sundays. He had an Italian Nonna and he always cooked Italian food, cannelloni, lasagne, polpete soup, semolina gnochi. He would often make cannoli as well. Or he would bbq a butterflied leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic. He would make his signature potato salad which had a mustard mayonnaise and chives base plus boiled eggs.

Christmases we would have seafood and salads (hot country). Usually lobsters and scallops.

For MY family, well i have a DC with autism and as a part of that he is severely food restricted. (Sensory issues around food). I try and have a simple vegetable starter daily as he will eat it (usually sliced cucumbers with a bit of vinegar and sugar); carrot salad with an olive oil and honey dressing, that sort of thing. Then I copy my mother's meat and three veg as much as possible (with rice a couple of times a week and pasta a couple of times a week- and tacos or nachos when all else fails) and occasionally (to get more cals into DS1 who is very slim..... ) will do a yoghurt ice cream pudding with real fruit juice jelly etc.

But I am quite fascinated by what real families eat, from a vairiety of backgrounds and cultures. So i would love to read about what other MNetters do as 'normal'.

I’m about the same age. I don’t follow my family traditions with my own family. I’m not from UK so a bit different cuisine (but not very different.) Also my mum wasn’t a good cook and we were poor enough so there were not traditions as such. Now I cook what I like from what’s available (and on offer 🙂) I love cooking. We like soups, roast chicken and vegs, pasta or rice with homemade sauces, baked fish, homemade cakes, brownies, cupcakes.
We’ve just had baked beans with fried egg on toast - favorite quick lunch in a hurry. Dinner today will be roast chicken with potatoes, carrot and parsnips. DD is planning to do cupcakes or biscuits.

In my perfect world I would do a Sunday roast @greenlynx like you are planning today. But no-one will eat it in my family! (Well DS2 would. But DS1 would pass out with horror and DH is a vegetarian.).

My mum was a good cook, but I suppose you’d say, unadventurous. She did a mean meat and potato pie and her light touch with pastry was legendary. Apple pie and bilberry pie were particular favourites.

She did put the sprouts on in November though. 🤣

I don’t think we have had an Italian, Chinese, Indian meal at home. My dad preferred plain food.

I’m 40. Both my parents are great cooks and split the load; both have at least one non-English parent.

Birthdays you had to have stripy jelly when you were little, then when you were big enough to handle the joke, frog jelly. Cake is homemade.

Weekend lunch is always bread, cheese, nuts, hummus, crisps, but always properly laid out on the table – crisps decanted into a bowl, same with the nuts, nice bread on a wooden board, etc. In winter, there would also be soup. Always at 1pm.

In fact all meals are properly laid, with placemats, serving dishes, water and wine glasses, etc, no matter how casual the fare. Even at breakfast (minus the wine glasses), the table is laid and things arranged on it. The only exception is Christmas Day evening, when it becomes a “help yourself to leftovers and 700 varieties of gherkins” type situation. Christmas Day is also the one (1) day a year there is fizzy pop in the house.

Standard meals tended to be a big shared item – eg shepherd’s pie, pauper’s pie, chilli, stew – and a couple of green vegetables. Again, all about the serving dishes and spoons: even baked potatoes and beans, the potatoes would be in a warmed serving dish and so would the beans and the cheese. Breakfast and lunch are a kitchen meal; dinner in the dining room with candles. If someone was late home or going out or the schedule was otherwise off, they might have a boiled egg and soldiers in the kitchen and it was referred to as a “kitchen supper”. Pudding as children was once a week as a treat: ice cream, or a Cadbury’s roll. Once we were older and less work, my parents would bake or make a pudding: often a fruit tart. They still make elaborate puddings in their 70s. After dinner very very small liqueur glasses emerge and so do 800 sticky bottles of things bought on holiday in the 1980s.

Didn’t know about people plating up for others until I left home: I still find it appalling, but DP grew up in quite the opposite way and we have a sleepless toddler, so he’ll often make dinner in a “here’s your plate” way while I like to use every dish in the house even for fish fingers and like a tablecloth and have a weakness for buying serving platters.

If we got fish and chips, they’d be collected and everyone else would be in charge of laying the table, making a pot of tea – with tea cups and a jug of milk – and heating the plates in the oven ready for its arrival. I was shocked as a student when a housemate bought fish and chips and ate them from the paper!

Growing up we had a roast almost every Sunday with a hot pudding usually something and custard. Then in the evening a kind of ‘afternoon tea’ with fresh crusty bread either served buttered with Jams, marmite etc for people to add themselves or in the summer with fresh, sliced tomatoes picked from the garden with malt vinegar, salt and pepper. Occasionally my mum would make prawn or egg and cress sandwiches. This would be followed by a home made cake or scones.

I still often do a roast on a Sunday but certainly not as frequently as my mum. And I don’t do the whole afternoon tea thing! Mainly because we either do the roast late afternoon or in the evening, so we just wouldn’t fit it in.

Growing up ‘curry’ was a meal. There were no variations. Always served with sliced banana and peanuts! I make lots of different curries and certainly don’t have peanuts or banana with them. Unless my mum is coming, then I put them out for nostalgia!

Pretty much every meal had a carb element. Meal was incomplete without a carb. I’m not a carb person, so that one’s definitely gone!

Mum would only serve soup from a bowl, never a mug. DAMN RIGHT too! I literally cannot drink soup!

Christmas dinner always had 10 veg. That’s 100% stuck!

If there was a traditional accompaniment to serve with a meal it was there. Roast beef must have horseradish, fish must have tartar sauce, roast chicken must have cranberry sauce. That too has stuck firm!

Sorry I’m mid 30’s

My parents didn’t have many food traditions, other than the classic Christmas dinner. My dad always made a big fry up on FA cup final day for everyone, to be eaten at lunch time, just before kick off.

My grandparents had lots more. They always had fish on Fridays (usually with chips and peas), steak on Saturdays and roast on Sundays. Sunday dinner was served at 3pm on the dot and woe betide you if you were late! If my sister and I were with my grandparents on a Saturday we would get posh burgers from the butchers in place of steak.

Tea on a Sunday was always cake made by my nana, usually Victoria sponge, fairy cakes spread with butter, or scones with butter and jam. Starting to realise why I was always on the larger side as a child!

My mother was a good cook although very stuck on keeping everything very healthy most of the time.
We only ever had crisps, chocolate or ice-cream when out or on special occasions. For school we had sandwiches made of proper wholemeal bread and containing salad with whatever other filling. With fruit and usually a piece of homemade cake, often her fat-free All-bran loaf. This was in the 90's when all other kids seemed to have pappy (one of my mum's words in fact) white bread sandwiches with plasticky ham or cheese, mini rolls, Penguin or Club bars, and of course a packet of crisps or two every single day.
We felt deprived at the time but I now appreciate her giving us such a healthy start.

She was a very good pastry maker and made pies and quiches quite often, always with wholemeal pastry and often a high vegetable content.
I didn't enjoy some of the more traditional British meals she made, particularly earlier on in the 90's and when I still ate meat. We dreaded "mince" and I hated things like stew and even roast chicken.
I preferred pasta, stir fry and an Indian takeaway was a very and very exciting thing.
Another treat was my mum's homemade pizza, with a wholemeal (of course!) bread dough base, oniony tomato sauce and cheddar on top. We absolutely loved it but it was usually reserved for birthdays as it was fairly labour-intensive.
She was also a great jam and marmalade maker.
My dad mostly did barbecues and a few fish pies with seafood mixes or pasta with tomato sauce with huge bits of onion which were very good.

I remember having boiled ham and chips, with either beetroot or canned potato salad every Saturday tea. It took my dad about 30 years to finally complain about it.

I’m many generations British and nearly 40, so there are no exciting food traditions creeping into my family tree from eg. Italian nonnas.

Cooking was shared between all family members, including children, when it was time to cook we basically all went to the kitchen to cook and stayed there until the meal was finished and cleared away.

We would shop in local supermarket but also as we lived in a city, the “special” Chinese, Indian supermarkets too, and at a wholesalers for value. We had a lot of food my friends had never heard of, which i didn’t really recognise until I was late teens.

We had a tandoori oven pot, a bulgogi griddle, a fondue, a tagine, a proper coffee pot, we rolled sushi, and smoked meat in the shed. I can remember making our own samosa, cooking prawn crackers and poppadoms in hot oil, rolling pasta, making stock in the pressure cooker, putting live shellfish into boiling water, learning to flip pancakes, test the jams, gutting fish, butchering meat on the big wooden block only used for this and sanding it down afterward.

We had a Sunday roast and dessert every week which I continue to this day. We used to get an avocado on special occasions as they were so expensive and they would be halved and eaten from the skin with a spoon, seasoning and lemon juice.

I still butcher meat, gut fish and roll pasta, and make my own preserves/jams/chutneys. I grind my own spices and pastes. I no longer shop in the specialist supermarkets because I don’t need to, everything we used to find there we can find in regular supermarkets now, but not then.

One thing we never did at home was bake birthday cakes but I do do that for me children so I differ there.

I'm 62 - Mum hated cooking - breakfasts were usually cornflakes or rice crispies and milk, and a slice of toast and marmalade. Weekday dinners were usually meat (lamb chops, pork chops, liver, 'minute' steak) and two veg, occasionally cottage pie. Saturday 'tea' was fish paste sandwiches topped with tomato slices followed by tinned fruit salad (I used to ask for the cherries) and evaporated milk. We had 'cook in the bag' smoked haddock most Fridays for dinner - it came with a star-shaped piece of butter in the bag. Sometimes she'd vary it and we'd have cod in butter sauce (again, boil in the bag) with mashed potato. Dad used to do a souffle omelette every Sunday morning for breakfast - it was the only time he cooked. Sunday roasts were the norm, where my grandmother, aunt, Mum & Dad would sit and discuss how much each component had cost - 'the price of peas this week!'. Sunday pud was nearly always apple crumble with custard.

Loving these stories, thank you everyone.

Love also the sweet ideas, and cakes. We just never had sweets so my recipe repertoire is empty. I recall once seeing my mother baking a cake and asking 'who is coming for dinner?' and she got SO upset with me. (She was quite a volatile sort of person). Dad pointed out that the only time we had sweets was when people came and my sister and I were firmly forbidden from touching them.

My dad's mother used to make a plain madeira type cake that was studded with green glace cherries and white almonds. We would visit them on Saturdays and she would bring that out with a cup of very weak sweet tea. She died when I was 5 and I still remember that with a very great deal of affection and love. (She was a wonderful grandmother. i was the oldest out of us all and the only one who has memories of her sadly).

Corned beef pasta, mince n dumplings, spagbol and chilli were always Friday night family meals.
Sunday roast on a Sunday. These were the only 2 meals we ate as a family other than cheeky takeaways. Saturday night, dad would cook a romantic meal for him n mum so we had to either go upstairs or out. Midweek would be a standard freezer meal or from a packet.

I'm 63 and grew up in South London. My mum wasn't English and was Cordon Bleu qualified and was an excellent cook. We ate a wide range of mainly European and English dishes - fresh ravioli, home made pizza, chicken Provencale, roasts, fish and chips salads polish sausage and sauerkraut, mixed grill etc, and also the occasional stir fry or curry.

My mum's baking was legendary and she used to make a lot of German yeast baked cakes with fruit and streusel toppings.

My mother has always cooked- My father is useless!
We always had maybe 5x meals a week that were meat and veg, be it Traditional sunday roast or a spag bol/cottage pie/ Casserol /Boiled ham and parsley sauce.
We would have ' freezer food' the other 2 days - Chips/Sausage/ fishfingers with beans or peas.
We always had pudding - could be cake and custard/Icecream.

I cook the same as my mother, though we dont have a Sunday roast often and I make a few different things such as - Fish Curry and fajitas too.

My mother is a great cook but not very varied with meals out of the ' norm' eg curries/Fajitas.

@Nightwithhertrainofstars Our mums could be sisters. Other kids got squash and penguins. We got lentil salad, fruit, veg sticks and water. Once a week, a cereal bar as a “treat”

My mother was not the best cook. However, she made the best macaroni cheese (roux sauce etc), it was a weekly offering. She then moved to spaghetti cheese (must have run out of macaroni one week!!) and she’d get ham scraps from the deli counter and put them in too. It was like a baked spaghetti carbonara.

I am really attracted to traditions like fish on fridays, roasts on Sundays. I am also really attracted to eating at the table for every meal. But sometimes just getting through the day is hard enough without having to have an extra argument. DH is not interested in food so he usually eats fruit for dinner and is never ready the same time as we are, despite how many times I tell him when ours is going to be ready. So I am really enjoying reading about the traditions people had growing up. Thank you all so much.

@Foxyloxy1plus1

My mum was a good cook, but I suppose you’d say, unadventurous. She did a mean meat and potato pie and her light touch with pastry was legendary. Apple pie and bilberry pie were particular favourites.

She did put the sprouts on in November though. 🤣

I don’t think we have had an Italian, Chinese, Indian meal at home. My dad preferred plain food.

You are definitely from the north. My mums meat and potato pie was legendary and is a very regional dish. Mushy peas were obligatory. Bilberry pie is heaven on a plate and I remember picking bilberries as a youngster. We would spend the end of the summer holidays collecting pounds and pounds of blackberries for DM to make blackberry and apple jelly (no one liked the seeds). DM was a brilliant cook and an even better baker, she would have given all the GBBO finalists a run for their money. We were introduced to a very varied diet from an early age and would happily eat seafood, offal and anything with an exotic name. Cooking is about confidence with flavours and I love to experiment. DH likes fairly plain food but I do introduce foods by stealth.

My Nan British was an amazing cook as was my mother

Nans house all cooked from scratch, thick pork chops, mash, best gravy. Steak and kidney pudding, treacle tart, crumbles

Awesome roasts too, she taught me how to make Yorkshire puddings and fantastic gravy.

She taught me how to make jam, good stock and pastry

My mum was more adventurous, and we used to have to go to southall in the 70's and buy spices, we lived in London and shopped at all the different lovely supermarkets , Indian, Persian etc

Today we're having slow cooked shoulder of lamb, roast potatoes, celeriac gratin and red cabbage

Our traditions are:
Sunday roast
Friday night curry Thai, Indian
Christmas is a big deal and start cooking and freezing from about September

Cook from scratch (we do eat takeaways and oven chips etc) I call it shite from the freezer night 😆

OP, why can’t you have the roast? the best part of the roast is carrot and potatoes (at least in this house). Ours will have chicken today but when DH and I just got married we were quite poor ( high rent) and had a lot of meat free roasts: onion, carrots and potatoes. Also a lot of pearl barley risotto with carrot and mushrooms. Happy days!
My DD has some problems around eating due to her additional needs. I often cooked her something different until 13-14. It’s much better now but eating out is still a bit restrictive. She wouldn’t have tacos or nachos but I’m not keen on them either so it doesn’t feel like a problem. However she would be yours forever with real fruit juice jelly.

My DM learned her good northern plain basics from her mum/aunt and I learned them from her, so still make them on autopilot without weighing or measuring: scouse, roast chicken, pan haggerty, shepherd's pie, beef burgers, cottage pie, apple plate cake, rice pudding, the best bacon sandwiches, ham and egg pie (with grated tinned ham, grated onion, grated apple), Sherry trifle, birthday cake, etc. (This is making me fill up, just thinking about it.) I keep telling my DSC to watch what I'm doing but... they don't.

obviously as a child of the 70s there was also a lot of Supermousse, Smash, that frozen rice & pea mix, Findus crispy pancakes, waffly versatile potato waffles, etc. Freezer foods were exotic and exciting back then.

@greenlynx

OP, why can’t you have the roast? the best part of the roast is carrot and potatoes (at least in this house). Ours will have chicken today but when DH and I just got married we were quite poor ( high rent) and had a lot of meat free roasts: onion, carrots and potatoes. Also a lot of pearl barley risotto with carrot and mushrooms. Happy days! My DD has some problems around eating due to her additional needs. I often cooked her something different until 13-14. It’s much better now but eating out is still a bit restrictive. She wouldn’t have tacos or nachos but I’m not keen on them either so it doesn’t feel like a problem. However she would be yours forever with real fruit juice jelly.

Oh I can have the roast I guess. But I just get tired of cooking things only I will eat. DH eats very small amounts and has digestive issues (I will not mention this might be related to him mainly eating raw food......... or his resulting toilet habitds ).

I have not really worked out a routine that works for us all yet. hence my deep interest in what other people eat!

I'd love to hear more about how you work with your DD's problems around eating if you are willing to share. I have bought seemingly millions of books around sensory issues and restrictive eating and things ARE getting better (last week I sat down and made a list of everything DS eats and got to about 40 items- althought most of them were breaded chicken products) so that encouraged me alot.

I have never tried pearl barley risotto but love it in soups, so I will try that this week. :)

I grew up having breakfast, dinner, tea. Breakfast was a properly laid table, and the main meal was at lunchtime. Tea was bread with jam, cheese, ham etc, and cake. Food was served from dishes on the table. We’ve never adopted this - it’s easier to serve everything in the kitchen, and I do regret this slightly.

We always had tea served from a teapot, using loose leaf tea.

Always sat at the table to eat meals.

We do roasts most Sundays.

My Dad did most of the cooking as my mum worked.
Us kids would eat our tea (dinner) in front of the TV when we got home from school at about 4.30. Mum would eat hers when she got back from work. Dad might have his with us or with her!
Sunday was almost always a roast eaten at lunch time but called Sunday dinner. It might sometimes be a meat pie.
Saturday tea was often a pick and mix affair with baked or new potatoes, ham or luncheon meat, boiled eggs, salad etc.
If we had family round or were visiting family or family friends, it was always for “tea”, not lunch or dinner, which would be eaten at about 3.30/4, and would include French bread, salad, cold meat, cheese, boiled eggs, blancmange or trifle, cake etc.
We had dessert with every main meal, which was called “afters”. We were banned from asking “what’s for afters” until we’d finished the main. Afters was often “fruit from the bowl”, tinned fruit salad, banana and custard, Mr Kiplings fondant fancies or cupcakes, mousse, or Angel Delight. On Sundays it was often apple pie, tinned chocolate pudding, or Neapolitan icecream.

As a family now we never eat in front of the TV (easier because the house I grew up in had one downstairs living/ eating room, whereas we now have separate living room and dining room). We do tend to have “afters” every day although I am cutting back on that as the kids have enough sweet things. We don’t have roast every Sunday, and we rarely have a pick and mix tea.