Things you cannot believe you ate as a child

[NovemberAutumn]

One of my mother's favourite sandwich fillings- deep fried crumbed lambs brains with iceberg lettuce and salad cream in white bread.

I did eat it a few times until I properly realised what it was- but- [shudder]. Just why?

DH used to love and adore his mother's pureed (pickled!) beetroot in white sauce. Just pureed pink slop surely (I made it for him once).

Faggots
Steak & kidney Pie
Liver & Bacon
Shepherds pie

All shit my mum used to feed me and turns my stomach now, but I do remember not liking the taste of kidney and liver even back then. Or the texture of sheperds pie.

Surely it varies doesn't it?

As I said, I was brought up on all kinds of convenience food and hardly anything fresh or cooked from scratched, and had all manner of sugary, additive filled and unsuitable drinks and a ton of sweets.

DDs didn't have fizzy drinks until well into primary school, mostly had water, had fussy phases but were generally good eaters, and fed on fresh and home cooked food. Also they cope with a much wider variety of food than I had as a kid.

I wasn't massive as kid by any means but was solid and tall and DDs have always been a good deal lighter than I was at various ages with a bang on healthy BMI, whereas I was always at the top end of the healthy range or slightly overweight. And it's not because DH has skinny genes, he is rather solid also. They have a much more nutritious diet than I did.

Tripe

I had to work hard not to think what it was, so I could eat it. (Also heart and tongue). If I dared not eat it, there would have been arguments and nothing else would be offered, so I'd go hungry. I don't blame my mum though - money was very tight and she always did what she could to make things as tasty as possible. Never eaten it since childhood though. 🌹

@GettinChillyHereFFS - It's interesting how many people like steak pie but not steak & kidney. In my opinion, kidney adds greatly to the depth of flavour of the gravy, and I get disappointed that supermarkets are full of steak pies of all varieties but only have the little flaky-pastry-topped ones with steak & kidney. I'd love to be able to buy short-crust steak & kidney pies.

I also love liver & bacon and faggots, although the frozen Mr Brains faggots have far too little gravy.

I don't really like steak much either. I've only liked steak when I've had rib-eye when I've been out. I rarely do a beef joint either. We might have it at christmas for a change because I wouldn't normally buy it. I never buy steaks either. I'd be more likely to do pork chops.

I loved offal as a child and still do. It's cheap and tasty if cooked right which mums of the 60s, 70s and 80s rarely managed.

Things I used to love was going to a Berni Inn and having a shared starter of loaded potatoes, onion rings and breaded mushrooms. Then victoria wood made that musical and it made me feel all nostalgic for a dinner at the Berni Inn

Fried bread. Bread that had soaked up about a gallon of oil like a sponge and was hard and crunchy.

Pigs trotters my mom didnt have a lot of money but she used to cook them and made them tasty dont think i could eat one now, and oxtail braised in the oven they were really thick with loads of meat nowadays they are dead skinny with no real meat on them

Berni Inn! I remember the first time I went. It felt so fancy, like something off Dallas
I like fried bread too. I put marmalade on it.

My and my sister used to love these
in retrospect your description is spot on 🤣

Raw oxo cubes - loved them. Also spam and ketchup sandwiches were a staple packed lunch.

Half a grapefruit with a load of sugar on top.

Paste sandwiches. We had fish paste or beef paste. Even then I thought it was repulsive.

Baby rusks. I used to eat them regularly. I tried then in later life and they weren’t nice!

Oh God, rusks. My sister in the early 2000s had a rare self-resolving autoimmune condition and we had to eat rice bread, rice cakes etc. absolutely disgusting. I can’t stand any of the foods she used to eat any more - bizarrely she can!

I still eat my toddler's rusks.

Farley's Rusks and black tea were all I could stomach when I was pregnant

We used to eat them with butter and jam on. I have no idea why.

@meatbaseddessert

I used to like the french bread pizza. Thought it was a good idea. Whenever mum asked what I wanted for lunch I would say this. I don't particularly like Pizza!!

Frog legs, alligator (both very delicious but my aversion to eating animals is too much now) and massive amounts of sugar any way I could get it. I remember adding sugar to my cereal once and it was piled up an inch thick on the bottom. That was the same day I finally realized more isn't always better. Our version of sugar sandwiches was cinnamon toast- buttered (margarined) bread with sugar and cinnamon on top, toasted in the oven. We could eat a loaf a bread that way at once, easily.

I remember older people talking about eating brains, just can't imagine it. They said it was like scrambled eggs. It's normal where I come from to eat snake, pig feet and ears, cow stomach and chitlins too. I could do snake but none of the rest. I can't understand why anyone would! It's not even nutritional. One time my DD was about 5yo and begged me for fish eyeballs after she read a manga where they ate whole fish and made it look really good. After trying it she never asked again lol.

I guess I was pretty lucky - my parents were vegetarian and decent cooks. The things as I remember as awful from my childhood I'd love now, like red dragon pie or lentil bake. My siblings and I would sit for hours with that in front of us but I'd love it now. . We rarely had deserts but I remember a large tub of gloop which was apparently apple spread which we had in place of the choc spread my friends would have it wasn't nice but it was one of the only sweet things we'd get so are it anyway 😆. I always wished have the tinned Mac and cheese and deep fried freezer stuff and burgers that other kids had. Of course now they eat totally differently. Now eat meat and feed my kids all kinds of sugar and e numbers 😅