Old-fashioned foods which should make a comeback

[BarbaraVineFan]

I am just making a cheese and potato pie for lunch, which I last ate circa 1988. It's basically mashed potatoes mixed with an egg and a fuck load of cheese, more cheese on top and then baked in the oven. Bloody lovely, relatively cheap and filling.

Which other old-fashioned foods do you make /have you made recently which you think should make a comeback?

@diddl I was just talking about the minced beef rolls from m and s with ,y mum the other day. I used to love those.

I used to like the spam fritters we had at school with little cubed potatoes and spaghetti hoops.

In Asda!

I wish I could buy more offal.
Sainsbo & Tesco often have liver, kidneys & hearts between them.
But I haven't seen brains or sweetbreads for years.
The sheep are still born with them, so where do they go?

Veal is not usually available, but it was a regular Sunday joint when I was younger as it was cheaper than beef.

The only "butcher" near me (7 miles away) is a shop that sells meat. I asked for Beef Cheek, then said Ox Cheek, & the "butcher" had never heard of it

No apples involved! Apples would be almost healthy, Gypsy Tart is very very unhealthy, but very, very nice!

I used to make these a lot with my DC when they were little. They were easier for them to spoon onto a baking tray than doing individual fairy cakes.

Sounds lovely, but yes, more like a soufflé. DM’s used a lot more breadcrumbs and a lot fewer eggs, as I recall.

I’ve heard you use grated butter if you’re stuck but beef suet is the best for taste/texture.

Veg suet is palm oil so I don’t use it, palm oil doesn’t have a nice texture in the mouth.

@PumpkinsAndCoconuts My 'recipe' is a very ad hoc affair, I'm afraid. Core the apples, sneak a small knob of butter and a sprinkle of the first sugar that comes to hand into the hole, hide the evidence with chopped dried apricots, same subterfuge with butter and sugar on the top. Bake for less time than you'd think before it starts to collapse. Twenty minutes max, but check it after 15.

Who mentioned the dried Vesta meals? When I was a student in the very late 60s and marginally less skint than usual, a Vesta Paella was my favourite treat for myself!

I was serving this last winter. Changed the mash to swede now but still delicious.
Best faggots from the butcher and make your own gravy or Brains faggots from the freezer aisle.

I make something of the sort, plenty of mature Cheddar, very lightly fried, thinly sliced red onion, eggs and milk, S&P in a pastry shell. Only it’s more likely to be called a quiche now!

Birdeye still make arctic roll: Arctic Raspberry Roll - Frozen Desserts | Birds Eye

dried apricots? Interesting!! I feel like the recipe I remember had nuts finely chopped in there…

But I’ll definitely try yours as well. Thank you!

Banana custard
You slice the banana into the hot custard and leave it to stand for 10 minutes
The ultimate comfort food

Still do one or other of these most weeks, especially in the winter months. Great tasting pudding and without lots of dubious ingredients if you use butter rather than margarine.

nonononono. LARGE plug of butter at the bottom, much sugar, brown if you have it, fruit of choice, much sugar, LARGE plug of butter. Someone on here (sorry can't find you) says her Nan bakes them in cider which sounds amazing.

@JudgeJ i can only imagine the Christmas cakes!!! Its so lovely to hear about a proper home baker. X

Blancmange update: Ocado sell it in strawberry, butterscotch and chocolate flavours and there is no sign of gelatine on their list of ingredients (just cornflour, colouring and flavouring).

Bizarrely, it gets packaged in the UAE for Pearce & Duff (part of Greens Deserts).

I've not made dumplings for years, but am tempted to make some now that the weather has turned. I'll always remember when my 1970's Junior school managed to serve them firstly accompanying a stew, only for them to make a reappearance as a pudding with jam on top and custard in the same sitting.

I always have suet in the cupboard (Atora brand, packaging unchanged from my childhood as far as I can remember). Makes great dumplings and a standard ingredient of Delia Smith's Christmas pudding. I'd rather stick with beef suet than go for the vegetarian version, which is palm oil, as someone else has said.

No chopped hazelnuts? I could have sworn they were in there with the melty sugar and butter…

Baking them in cider does sound interesting! We used to bake them on the embers / on the wood (at home). But cider sounds interesting.🤔

the ones at school occasionally contained jam IIRC🤔

They have Chelsea buns in our Co-op, in the in store bakery bit. I was looking at them today!

That's what my Mum used to do: dumplings with beef stew, and more dumplings for pudding with Golden Syrup. 😋

I have done this in America where suet is not common (well it was unheard of 30 years ago) Freeze the butter, grate it coarsley and quickly into a bowl with a little flour in, toss lightly and freeze again. If your kitchen is warm, put the bowl with the flour over a bowl with ice in and grate into that. Once you have done it, the grated floured butter will store will in a box in the freezer. Use straight from the freezer as you would atora.

Not home made, but Findus crispy cheese pancakes - they do meat ones but not cheese any more.