To say that some things about old fashioned school dinners tasted nice?

[malificent7]

Ok..so admittedly they are mostly puddings but i will start with australian crunch and that cornflake, jam treacle flan thingy. I want the recipie!

[Troels]

Mine are school dinner memories of the 70's. Lots to love.
I loved the roast dinners of all kinds. Lancashire hot pot, Cheese pie, Chicken a la King with rice, Lobscouse and crusty bread, Hot chcolate drink in the mid winter with home made short bread.
The started to give us Pizza occasionally, but none of us seemed to like it.
I loved all the dinners we got at school.
In high school if you were last in, they would have run out of food so you'd get a big salad with salad cream and a load of fresh hot chips. Yum.

[Crowdfundingforcake]

YY to gypsy tart, served with half an apple in a last ditch attempt to stop the tart having your teeth out.

A coconutty sponge with jam and custard.

Semolina with jam, stirred in to make your whole pudding pink.

A sort of scotch brothy soup with bread rolls.

Cheese pie.

Shepherds pie.

I even liked the liver with gravy and mash.

Sausages, chips and beans.

I'm a glutton - I loved school dinners .

[NutElla5x]

I really miss the steamed puddings-jam roly poly,spotted dick with custard and then chocolate pudding with chocolate custard YUM!

[Crowdfundingforcake]

Oh, and steak pie with proper shortcrust pastry.

[dangermouseisace]

I liked pink milk

But that was literally it!

[HarrySnotter]

God I LOVED school dinners. I can't remember anything that I didn't like but I do remember some things that stood out that I loved. Semolina, mince round with mash and treacle sponge with pink custard which literally made everyone happy. This was in the 70s and 80s and our school dinners in my school were brilliant!

[Lwmommy]

Cheesy mash, must have been a good half cm of orange cheese baked onto the top so it was crispy and runny with buttery mash underneath. Yum

[redrobin212]

I was a child in the 80's (primary school age).
I remember going through the 3 dinner ladies.
First was main course, second "beans or peas" and 3rd was "chips or potatoes".

Main course was often meat and veg pie with pastry.
We always had two scoops of smooth mashed potato with gravy and veg.

Puddings (loved the custard and pink custard).
Chocolate shortcake with peppermint sauce (aka green custard).
Manchester tart (always burnt my mouth with that!).
Then there were the little plastic cups with jelly and a squirt of cream on top.

Then when I was about eight they change over to a new menu system where we could tick a form of what options we wanted.
Burger in a big floury bap, hotdog, surfburger (fish burger a bit like a fishcake).
Chips every day (except one day in the week when they washed the chip pans and we had jacket potato!).
Puddings were choc ices and big shortbread biscuits.

[Torvi]

We had the most delicious Chicken Supreme. Chicken in a creamy sauce with mushrooms and possibly leeks served with rice. I'd love the recipe.

Also chocolate sponge with chocolate custard and lovely salad with tuna mayo and cottage cheese (i suspect it was Longley Farm).

[HexagonalBattenburg]

I always liked the toxic green coloured curry, rice and chips option best myself.

Mind you I had one of my own kids' school dinners a week or two ago and it was actually really really nice - pulled pork pitta and salad.

[InvisibleToEveryone]

I make junior school dinners!!

[Fakeflowersandlemonade]

I remember getting milky coffee. It was put in the middle of out table in a blue plastic jug and we had plastic blue mugs to drink it from. Imagine giving primary kids coffee now.

[Grumpbum123]

Primary I have memories of Jacobs crackers and warm cheese for pudding and pink custard with choc sponge on other days.

Middle school- tin foil dishes with rice on the bottom then beef curry on top or hotdogs and chips plus the tuck shop for 5p bags of meanies and chesesies and highland toffee

Secondary - 20p crusty rolls filled with grated cheese and prawn cocktail crisps scooped into little pots of phillidelphia.

6th form- 50p cheesy bread. Omg a huge chunk of bread with layers of melted cheese through it and melted cheese on top

[Doghorsechicken]

I came to say Australian crunch too! Bloody gorgeous!

[PinkSquidgyPig]

I am the only person I've ever met who liked spam fritters.
I loved them, I'm vegetarian now though ...

[problem1234567]

We had hot food in primary (I remember lots of lovely sponge and custard type dishes and I had a penchant for turkey drumsticks!!)

Juniors we had to take packed lunch which I did in my now very old school lunch box with matching flask.

Secondary school we had hot dinners as part of our school fees but they were not that great. Recall eating jacket potatoes and cheese or beans on many days as that was a permanent option.

[problem1234567]

Oh and I think we had to clear our plates or eat a certain amount to the supervisor's approval before having dessert as now it's coming back to me, I grew a habit of chuck the things I didn't want to eat under the table.

[jmh740]

I was at primary school in the early 80s my fave dinner was cheese and onion bake which was instant mash with unions in and melted cheese on the top it was served with beans and then a chocolate eclair

[CardiganB]

oh wow, this thread.... I had totally forgotten about the mashed potatoes piped into swirls (fancy) and then kept warm in the oven so the swirls developed crispy brown edges. And the jam in the rice pudding that tasted of strawberries and rosehip syrup at the same time. And the fake cream. And the huge roasting tins of aereated sponge cake, where the sponge took on a deliciously sweet rubbery texture where the icing hadn't spread to the edges.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

@malificent7 - cornflake tart recipe.

[SheSnapsThenSheFarts]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it already but there's a cool book that I have devoted to school dinner recipes, it's by someone called Becky Thorne and it's called School Dinners. It's brill.