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Food you don't understand

996 replies

ChippySauce · 12/09/2025 10:21

Crumbed ham.

I don't get it.
What does the crumb bring?
It can't be textural as it's usually soggy.
Can any crumbed ham aficionados please enlighten me?

Are there other food mysteries you'd like clearing up?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Plastictreees · 15/09/2025 11:31

autumnsessions · 15/09/2025 11:13

I don't understand fish - the taste is horribly fishy - except when it's really fresh and then it tastes of nothing. I really wish I liked it but it's just bloody horrible and fishy

🤣🤣🤣

CherryRipe1 · 15/09/2025 13:05

Pork pies, just urgh. That jelly, horrid pink meat and greasy pastry. Battenburg cake. Yikes. Edited to add Stollen, nauseating & gives me a blinding headache.

Bleachedlevis · 15/09/2025 14:08

JayJayj · 15/09/2025 10:25

I find it crazy!! I’ve spent time making the perfect crunchy roast potatoes or the amazing Yorkshire puddings, then he makes them all soggy!!
He also bugs me by putting hot sauce or mint yoghurt sauce all over food I’ve made before even tasting it. I said to him, how do even know what it tastes like?!?!?

Agree. I sound such a snob but I think it’s so naff to swamp a meal with gravy. What’s the point? Everything just tastes of gravy. It’s like eating a meal made of gravy with lumps in it.

Interested in this thread?

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Bleachedlevis · 15/09/2025 14:10

CherryRipe1 · 15/09/2025 13:05

Pork pies, just urgh. That jelly, horrid pink meat and greasy pastry. Battenburg cake. Yikes. Edited to add Stollen, nauseating & gives me a blinding headache.

Edited

OMG! I LOVE Battenburg 🤣

DeanStockwelll · 15/09/2025 14:20
candle GIF

@pinkspeakers , was it a Beyond burger by any chance ,? Like you I have had them quite a few times buf the 1st few times I thought the kitchen/ chef had made a mistake.

@CalzoneOnLegs , use this one till yours arrives 😃

Mokel · 15/09/2025 15:18

Pouring gravy over chips is grim

LittleBitofBread · 15/09/2025 15:20

CherryRipe1 · 15/09/2025 13:05

Pork pies, just urgh. That jelly, horrid pink meat and greasy pastry. Battenburg cake. Yikes. Edited to add Stollen, nauseating & gives me a blinding headache.

Edited

Stollen is very overrated, IMO. I'm sure people just pretend to like it because it's marketed as all northern European and cosy.

Mokel · 15/09/2025 15:21

I’m surprised that no one has mentioned this - overnight oats.

The texture is awful. It’s like fruity wallpaper paste.

Yet, I’m ok with eating oats, yoghurt and fruit together as soon as I made it.

mydogisthebest · 15/09/2025 15:36

Bleachedlevis · 15/09/2025 14:08

Agree. I sound such a snob but I think it’s so naff to swamp a meal with gravy. What’s the point? Everything just tastes of gravy. It’s like eating a meal made of gravy with lumps in it.

Both me and DH hate gravy and don't see the point of it apart from, obviously, a stew.

Even if you like it, as you say, why would you have your food swimming in it?

ChippySauce · 15/09/2025 15:42

What's going on here then?
I miss a few pages and now we have people dissing gravy, and lighting candles?!! 😅

OP posts:
Timeforabitofpeace · 15/09/2025 15:46

I like proper gravy but I very much resent paying a high sum for a roast dinner in a restaurant, only for it to arrive already swimming in half a pint of gravy. Horrible, and why the hell are restaurants so cheeky as to decide you wanted it?

Needmorelego · 15/09/2025 16:14

So about gravy....
I don't like roast dinners so gravy isn't something I ever have.
I have always assumed it was invented as something to warm food up because in the old days in big houses it took time for food to travel from kitchen to dining room and be served up.
By the time food was served it would have been going cold so hot gravy was to make it warm again.
Is that not it's purpose??

Projectme · 15/09/2025 16:14

These have probably already been said (ive only read first 3 pages...)

Salted bloody caramel in chocolate...its everywhere!!! Just stop!

Coriander can get in the bin. Utterly vile. 🤮

Yes agree olives are yuck.

So are anchovies.

And what is that French sausage that's made of shit? Andoilette? That's just grim.

sueelleker · 15/09/2025 16:21

DiscoBob · 12/09/2025 11:44

I don't understand people who think you can reheat cooked pasta. It makes me feel nauseous. And people who meal prep pasta mixed with sauce and freeze it, then reheat. The texture! So soggy!

I don't see the purpose of whelks. I had them once at the seaside and it was just chewing vinegary rubber. I literally couldn't swallow it. Awful!

My worst one is margarine. It is not food. It's some kind of horrific byproduct of the petrochemical industry. Just the smell freaks me out. And when people call it 'butter'. Arrgghhhhh!!!

Edited

First (and only) time I had mussels was on a school exchange trip to France. It was like trying to chew rubber erasers; my teeth just kept bouncing off them! Never bothered again.

DiscoBob · 15/09/2025 16:37

sueelleker · 15/09/2025 16:21

First (and only) time I had mussels was on a school exchange trip to France. It was like trying to chew rubber erasers; my teeth just kept bouncing off them! Never bothered again.

I always find mussels to be soft and tender. I have never had rubbery ones. You must have been unlucky! To me they have a very different texture to whelks.

NotToday1l · 15/09/2025 16:43

mydogisthebest · 15/09/2025 15:36

Both me and DH hate gravy and don't see the point of it apart from, obviously, a stew.

Even if you like it, as you say, why would you have your food swimming in it?

But don’t you think a roast dinner / Christmas dinner is a bit dry without it or do you have other types of sauces and just dislike gravy?

Justbobbins · 15/09/2025 16:45

Plastictreees · 12/09/2025 14:07

I had a friend who did the same job and she said the same, she described it so viscerally that I’m scarred for life 😂

I had a friend who worked on the deli in Safeway. She opened a huge tin of corned beef to slice and halfway through there was a complete eye..with the lashes! I've never had corned beef since

NotToday1l · 15/09/2025 16:46

Needmorelego · 15/09/2025 16:14

So about gravy....
I don't like roast dinners so gravy isn't something I ever have.
I have always assumed it was invented as something to warm food up because in the old days in big houses it took time for food to travel from kitchen to dining room and be served up.
By the time food was served it would have been going cold so hot gravy was to make it warm again.
Is that not it's purpose??

No, it’s a lubricant, chicken, turkey, stuffing etc etc can be a bit dry without it, it also adds flavour as again chicken, turkey, beef can be a bit bland, I wouldn’t eat a roast without it……Christmas dinner without some gravy would be a disaster in my opinion

Plastictreees · 15/09/2025 16:48

@Justbobbins I have always loathed corned beef (any tinned meat is not to be trusted IMO) but this takes it to the next level 🤢

mydogisthebest · 15/09/2025 16:57

NotToday1l · 15/09/2025 16:43

But don’t you think a roast dinner / Christmas dinner is a bit dry without it or do you have other types of sauces and just dislike gravy?

No, neither of us find meals dry without gravy and we don't have other types of sauce on meals either.

I can never understand why people say meals are dry without gravy.

mydogisthebest · 15/09/2025 17:01

Timeforabitofpeace · 15/09/2025 15:46

I like proper gravy but I very much resent paying a high sum for a roast dinner in a restaurant, only for it to arrive already swimming in half a pint of gravy. Horrible, and why the hell are restaurants so cheeky as to decide you wanted it?

A few years ago me and DH both ordered a cheese and onion pie and chips in Debenhams restaurant and it came with gravy all over it, We had just moved to East Midlands from Essex and were just amazed as never had gravy poured over a meal before. Also no way does gravy go with chips or cheese and onion pie.

CalzoneOnLegs · 15/09/2025 17:07

@mydogisthebest you should have called the police

LittleBitofBread · 15/09/2025 17:10

Needmorelego · 15/09/2025 16:14

So about gravy....
I don't like roast dinners so gravy isn't something I ever have.
I have always assumed it was invented as something to warm food up because in the old days in big houses it took time for food to travel from kitchen to dining room and be served up.
By the time food was served it would have been going cold so hot gravy was to make it warm again.
Is that not it's purpose??

If they couldn't keep the rest of the food hot, how could they keep the gravy hot?

Needmorelego · 15/09/2025 17:12

LittleBitofBread · 15/09/2025 17:10

If they couldn't keep the rest of the food hot, how could they keep the gravy hot?

A jug of boiling liquid stays warm longer ??
As I said I don't eat roasts so I don't have gravy.
Personally I think it looks horrible but I know a lot of people love the stuff.

LittleBitofBread · 15/09/2025 17:16

Needmorelego · 15/09/2025 17:12

A jug of boiling liquid stays warm longer ??
As I said I don't eat roasts so I don't have gravy.
Personally I think it looks horrible but I know a lot of people love the stuff.

Is gravy made by boiling, as in will it still be boiling when poured into a jug? (I like roasts but I don't have gravy with them, so am ignorant about making it).