Everyone eats melba toast when they're ill

[ProbablyLate]

When I was young if I ever had a day off school poorly, mum would make me homemade melba toast by cutting the crusts off some bread, toasting it, then slicing it in half horizontally (like making two thinner slices) then grill it with what had been the inside of the toast slice up so it curled up.

I thought, until yesterday, that this was a perfectly standard off-ill delicacy and offered to make some for DH if he had a bad reaction to his vaccine. He was perplexed by the concept and consultation with a wider group suggests this was not as common a practice as I had been led to believe.

So two questions for you all:

1. Is homemade melba toast something that for you goes hand in hand with a day off ill?
2. If not did your parents/carers have any special recipes reserved for the suffering?!

Tomato soup!

MIL did the egg in a cup thing which honestly I never understood for upset stomachs. Eggs and butter (probably margarine as well) 🤢

No, I’ve never eaten it.

We’d have soup when we were ill, and honey and lemon juice mixed in to boiling water (then allowed to cool significantly!) to drink.

Not melva toadt.
Lucozade, stewed apple with raisins from my mum. Tomatoe soup.

Ours is chicken soup- homemade. It's referred to as "chicken potion" in our house and depending on whether or not a sore throat is involved, there is toast. Often with garlic butter

@ProbablyLate

When I was young if I ever had a day off school poorly, mum would make me homemade melba toast by cutting the crusts off some bread, toasting it, then slicing it in half horizontally (like making two thinner slices) then grill it with what had been the inside of the toast slice up so it curled up.

I thought, until yesterday, that this was a perfectly standard off-ill delicacy and offered to make some for DH if he had a bad reaction to his vaccine. He was perplexed by the concept and consultation with a wider group suggests this was not as common a practice as I had been led to believe.

So two questions for you all:

1. Is homemade melba toast something that for you goes hand in hand with a day off ill?
2. If not did your parents/carers have any special recipes reserved for the suffering?!

1) No, I dont think I've ever had melba toast in my life. 2) Lucozade. Toast, plain, with as little butter as possible and sometimes heinz tomato soup.

Mostly it was about the drinks- Ribena, Lechlade and Hot Lemonade or hot honey and lemon. Scrambled eggs on toast when feeling a bit better. No, we never ate melba toast either.

@HeronLanyon

I had a lot of tonsil trouble as a kid and was so upset that Ice cream was inedible (the sugar felt like acid always). Think I just sucked on dry toast or similar. Awful.

Yes, me too! I remember being given a box of roses chocs as a get well soon gift, smiling to say thanks and then not eating any of them because they may as well have been little chunks of acid. The other things that felt like acid or a boiling kettle full being poured down the throat were juices, gravy, milk, jelly, custard and anything with syrup or honey. Antibiotic liquid medicine. All throat sweets and throat sprays! Cough syrup once, that the doctor said would soothe my throat-ugh! I honestly thought it had taken all the skin off. Was so glad to have my fucking tonsils out at 16! I have had tonsillitis twice in the tonsil beds in 20 years. I used to have it every 12 weeks or so from about age 3!

@msannabella

Nope, never heard of that And egg in a cup when you're ill. Boiled egg and butter in a mug and cut into pieces by stirring with a knife served with toast soldiers. Hot lemonade served as well if you had a cold!

Is this a Scottish thing? My Mum who's Scottish used to make this and I wondered whether English Mums made it or not!

I actually have no idea what melba toast is!

Tomato or chicken soup and toast was usually the go to.
Flat lemonade for an upset stomach/nausea.
Warm orange juice for a sore throat (also used for giving crushed up paracetamol if needed, whatever the illness)

I remember having mumps back in the 80s and being properly ill, I was off school for two weeks, I couldn’t get out of bed.
I couldn’t physically eat anything as I was in so much pain, everything she tried was left untouched. She used to have to wake me to make me drink as I was so out of it.
That was the only time I remember being given lucozade when I was ill

Never heard of it let alone eaten it!

• Oh I should say- the egg in a cup thing in our household wasn' t a 'get well soon meal.

1. No, I've never had Melba toast and so it wasn't something I was given when ill!

1. We didn't really have special 'get well soon food'- sickness bugs meant Cola but that was to make sure we took in enough fluids and some calories from the sugar to keep us going.

I've only ever had Melba toast served with a pate starter!

When poorly, I used to be given cut up bread in a bowl with warm milk and sprinkled with sugar. My nana also used to put sugar in lemonade to take away the bubbles, because flat lemonade settled the stomach apparently.

1. No.
2. Lucozade. Cup a soup with toast.

Tomato soup and cheese on toast were my 'sick foods'

No.

My mum used to make us drink coca Cola with an added spoonful of sugar in it to make it go flat after we'd had a stomach bug?! I'm not sure why!

1. Nope
2. Boiled eggs and soldiers, and it’s still my comfort food.

No melba toast here either. We had Campbell's tomato soup made with milk, or mushroom soup. Sometimes a consommé (also canned). Maybe a grilled cheese sandwich using the cheese slices.

Mom also made hot lemon drinks for a cold. I remember some chewing gum called Aspergum which had aspirin in it for sore throats.

More hot Ribena here and Lucazade if really sick, both only bought if we were ill. I wonder if they were advertised as healthy / full of vitamins in the 70s and 80s or something - why did a generation of parents see these as cure alls??

Toast, hot ribena. If really, really poorly lucozade. My Gran would sometimes give us beef tea.
When older bene and hot for stomach upsets. Whiskey all in for colds. Bottle of witch hazel (for external use!) also figured for childhood injuries.

Heinz tomato or chicken soup with white bread and butter washed down with warm vimto was always the "poorly dinner" in our house

If you were really sick then you'd also get a bottle of lucozade and it would be brought up to bed on a tray.

Tea and toast here.

No it goes hand in hand with wanting to lose weight.

No and no

I eat melba toast with pate, thats all!

My mother had a thing about dry toast. If you had a tummy bug the first thing you should eat is dry toast with no liquid. The fact that after a tummy bug you cant choke down dry toast even with a glass of water, never mind without, passed her by :o

My BIL's mum had an epic one. A circle of mashed potato with a tin of oxtail soup poured into the "bowl". To this day, in his late 50's, he will make that if he is feeling off it!

In my teens I worked in an officer's mess and regularly had to make Melba Toast.

Did start a lifetime love of it though, I mean you just have to make a pile when having Liver Paté.

My goto food for when feeling under the weather though is Milk cake and ice cream or chicken broth & crusty rolls.