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?

I bought some from Asda

I use a tin of salmon (skin and bones removed) for a pasta thing copied from an M&S ready meal I used to buy for a very fussy DM, but I’ve tweaked it. A white sauce with a little cheese and a splash of white wine added, flaked salmon added, all mixed with cooked penne pasta and very lightly cooked broccoli florets. Very tasty!

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/real-lancashire-eccles-cakes/056202-28181-28182

That's right, it's pannacotta that uses gelatine, there's none in blancmange.

Thank you, but I’ve been told before that Waitrose stock them - mine never has them! Maybe they sell out very fast, but I’ve never once seen them. Maybe I’m in the wrong area (outer SW London).

This thread has been so much fun to read, lots of memories, and even though I like both these things I never want to read the words Blancmange or faggots ever again, I’ve read them so many times that they are seared in my brain 😂

I'm probably much older than you (a child of the 50's and 60's) but I agree with you about the size of bought snacks such as cakes. When we were children everyone ate meals that were generally smaller, though we usually had a small home made pudding too. We often had a more snacky "high tea" rather than a whole meal in the evening. If we did (rarely) eat tea whilst we were out the cakes would be smaller than those we see today - and usually much less sweet and/or rich. Even bought whole cakes are often too sweet and rich today.
I'm not so bothered about buying a single sandwich, but I don't like them stuffed full of greasy mayo. I'd rather have the bread buttered which doesn't always happen.

I think that it may be something that they stock regionally, but I've just checked and Ocado do two versions. I'm in west London.

I don’t have deliveries, so maybe I’ll have to have a hunt the next time I’m up north!

Come to South Wales - pretty much every pub has their own version of it here

I've found myself hankering for bread and milk, as administered by Dad when I was poorly before I went to sleep. Served in a white china pudding basin. White soft bread torn into chunks heated in a saucepan of full cream milk with soft brown sugar. You can go posh and cut the bread into squares and the crust off, but the crust breaks down anyway, and the bread is better rough edged.

Asda sells dream topping

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

You might be right about it being something to do with local stores opting not to stock them.

I'll have a look in the stores in my area (London EC/E).

Waitrose in Kent sell Eccles cakes. On the bottom shelf under the Mr Kipling fruit tarts and Battenburg, beneath the tubs of rocky road and flapjacks.
They do not sell gypsy tarts. Not regional.

One of the Ocado ones is from M&S so you could try there?

My cheaty syllabub is whipped cream, sweet sherry, and lemon curd, preferably the home made stuff from the countrywomen's market. Safest consumed from very small glasses.

And yet many blancmange recipes do include gelatin. As linked previously. So I suppose different preparations are known and preferred by different households.

Google says you can

Kunzle Cakes.

So pretty!

I wish they still made them.

I was a bit under the weather at the weekend so I popped round to my mum’s to be “looked after” a bit as DH was away and I felt sorry for myself.

She made me an egg in a cup which I haven’t had in years. So comforting. (Just a soft boiled egg chopped up in a mug with butter, salt and pepper. Served with cheap white buttered toast.).

according to my local waitrose, waitrose stores don't individually have a choice about what they stock. Decisions are made centrally.

The late Sarah Kennedy spearheaded a return of these, their proper name was Kunzle Showboats and Waitrose stocked them but they were very expensive and didn't take off.

I've been buying the Dairy Diary for years. You can get a set like this
2025 Dairy Diary Set : Burfitt, Louise, Davenport, Emily, Lee, Steve, Smit, Elzani, Scanlan, Stephan, Lewis, Clare, Hawkins, Kathryn, Veale, Wendy: Amazon.co.uk: Stationery & Office Supplies or just the bigger diary for £13 I think. Link is for website, not app.

Also referring to posts above, when I was a child, my parents had a cruet set of three on a little stand with a handle sweeping over the top. Small salt, white pepper powder and a chunky mustard pot in the middle with a hinged lid and tiny spoon. The trouble was they'd make mustard from Colman's powder and it would sit in there for ages, turning into a kind of brownish khaki colour, appetising.

My GC come for breakfast every weekday before I take them to school and they have chopped eggs every day.

Yes! Haven't seen those for decades. What a shame.