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?

@EdithStourton I have a small cookbook that's so old, the price on the cover is pre decimal that does ingredients based on the weight of the eggs. The small cakes recipe doesn't weigh the egg but the large chocolate one does. Its 2 eggs & the same weight in self raising flour, butter & sugar, salt, 3oz chocolate & 2 tbspn milk. It's old torn and stained & I use grams instead of oz now but its been very reliable!

That sounds lovely.

I think M&S used to do a minced beef roll (maybe still do!)

Minced beef in a suet pastry roll?

My mother used to make cheese and onion pies, I think my late OH would have married her for them had it not been a bit weird or illegal or both! I recall going into a bakery on the Isle of Wight in the late 50s or early 60s and as well as pasties etc we asked if they did cheese and onion pies, they didn't but after a long chat with the owner Mum stayed there for a couple of hours and made some, showing the staff how to make them!

Stuffed hearts
Viennese tart
chocolate concrete

Heinz toast toppers. I even wrote to Heinz about these. They discontinued them about 5 years ago :-(

How do people make dumplings if they can't get suet? Most places also have the vegetarian version too.

If you are northern Booths supermarket have semolina

Sorry I thought I quoted someone, whoever said dream topping, Farmfoods sell it
I bought it once thinking it was squirt cream

My mum used to buy lardy cake from Fudges back when they were the village bakery and not the biscuits company they are now. She’d split it, butter it, and put it in the aga to warm through.

We used to call it "milk jelly". We melted the jelly tablet with hot water then let it cool (not set) then made up to a pint with milk. Then set in the fridge. If you didn't let it cool before adding the milk it separated with clear jelly at the botton and curdled milk at the top.

@JudgeJ your mum sounds like an amazing cook

Fitzbillies in Cambridge do Chelsea buns you can order. I tried one but it was too sweet for my liking. They’re pretty famous though.

A stall in our local meat market sells dripping in tubs and it's delicious on toast and sandwiches.

It's in most of the supermarkets, but it's a single sachet, not the box of several sachets that it used to be, and there is chocolate or strawberry. Always keep packets of it on hand. Oh, and if you make the chocolate one more runny it's the same as Cafe Nero's Milano posh hot chocolate

No, that's a milk jelly. completely different.

That depends on what "good old days" you are talking about.

How do people make dumplings if they can't get suet?

A few supermarkets do a packet of dry mix.

DH is, like me, of 50s vintage but unlike me, simply loves the old fashioned food.
So, from time to time, we have cottage or shepherds pie, beef cobbler, liver and onions, a meat or fruit dish with dumplings, of either suet or veggie variety, steak and kidney pie or puddings and occasionally toad in the hole and spotted dick.
All with loads of boiled vegetable, often carrots and cabbage.
We had this sort of food when the DC were little, because we were skint and it went a long way. It was supplemented with a lot of poached meat, mostly rabbit, pheasant and occasionally, venison.

We are both from Kent and think of gypsy tart as a more regional than an old fashioned food. We can think of several pubs where it is still offered as a pudding.

I won't be making pea and ham soup though.

Why ever not? Peas steeping as I write, pea soup for lunch for the next few days, wonderful! The butcher sells packs of smoked bacon off cuts which are useful for soups.

I'm starving now! I absolutely loved toast toppers too.
On the subject of blancmange, at school we had chocolate sponge with pink custard. That was basically the blancmange mixture still hot before it was allowed to cool and set. Some days we had green mint flavoured custard with chocolate sponge or chocolate concrete. Absolutely gorgeous.

That menu looks delicious, might give that a go next time we’re there, diolch 😊

I make them with veg/ sunflower oil. Haven’t used suet for years.

@CarterBeatsTheDevil I remember we had to boil it as it was before my family had a microwave. Once we got a mic my dad, bless him, used to eat a whole one nearly every day. 🤣
My home made oven baked version is pretty good. But I always use the whole tin of syrup!

I have a Bero recipe book that belonged to my Mum. I still use it today. All the measures are imperial and oven temperatures in Fahrenheit or Gas mark. The recipes all work well and are delicious.

Can be found in Morrison's Irish section. Disappointing because, in a pointless attempt to make them more healthy, they have removed the sticky biscuit coating and it's now like eating cardboard.