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 with white sliced, scrambled eggs with toast when you’re on the mend.

And hot Ribena if your illness is cold/throat.

Soup is seeming a more mainstream option...I will bear that in mind for next time!

I'm sure I've mentioned it to people in the past in a "sounds like it'll be a day in bed with some melba toast for you" and no one's ever questioned it = maybe because I've delivered the line with such confidence they've assumed it must be a thing somewhere!

Yes lucozade with the plastic crinkly wrapper was ONLY for hospital - you’d never think of drinking it other than in hospital bed. Not sure hospital side tables were allowed not to have a bottle sitting there.

No.

Another vote for Heinz tomato soup for general illness or plain digestive biscuit/Jacob’s cracker for an upset stomach.

Homemade chicken soup
Lucozade
White toast(white bread could only be consumed when unwell).

No, homemade melba toast was something that we would have for starters at my grandparents house, with pate.

I bloody love HTS but have it so rarely.
Then when even better melted cheese stirred into it.

No, we only ever had melba toast with pate on Xmas day.

When we were sick we had rich tea biscuits to snack on, and a cup-a-soup for lunch.

Never heard of Melba toast for illness.

Plain bread with jam here.

No to melba toast
Clear chicken noodle soup here

@burritofan

The correct food when you’re poorly is Heinz tomato soup with plastic white ready-sliced bread, untoasted, thickly buttered. Maybe salt and vinegar crisps but only once you’re up to it, perhaps after lucozade.

Why would you want crispy thin toast when you feel bad?!

This is the correct illness food. Also add a digestive biscuit with a bit of butter.

Nope, only had it as a starter with pate.

We do stewed apples and dry toast with jam after stomach upsets.

No to the melba toast

I still serve Heinz cream of tomato soup with a slice of bread (plain not pan) with salty butter.

I don't think I ever realised people made homemade melba toast, ill or otherwise

Chicken soup or rice pudding if ill
Ice cream for a sore throat
Brandy n sugar in hot water for stomach ache
Whisky n lemon in water with honey for a cold

Never heard of homemade melba toast.

My mum would have fed me something like cream of chicken soup with white bread or (normal) toast.

No. Melba Toast wasn't served in sickness or in health. Chicken Soup or chips or, if we were ill on a Sunday, roast potatoes and gravy.

Nope, for me it was either Heinz tomato soup or Heinz chicken soup, with cheap white sliced bread and butter. Or egg and dippy soldiers.
If I couldn't keep food down it was cheap lemonade or if I had tonsilitis it was cream soda and neopolitan ice cream.

My nana used to cut (proper, unsliced bakery) bread into cubes, sprinkle with sugar and pour on hot milk when we were ill.

Yes, melba toast served with a cup of beef consommé often appeared when I was ill.
More popular though, was egg-in-a-cup which was widely believed to cure absolutely all ills.

No.
I didn't have a food for when I was sick. I probably wasn't sick that often. The times I was I had to go to various relatives as mum was too busy as a teacher and couldn't take time off.

I remember my nan would have given me hot ribena for a snuffly nose/cold. That's about it!

I'm not even sure what melba toast is...

Tomato soup all the way.

Hot squash with an aspirin in - I couldn't stomach hot squash for many many years.
If you had a proper tummy bug with puking then you were allowed the holy grail of illnesses - the orange lucozade from the chemist.
If you had to go to the doctor and get a prescription then a whistle lolly.
I don't really remember food - but I didn't come across melba toast until I was about 18 at a BF house. His parents ate exotic food like artichokes, melba toast and cauliflower cheese on their roast dinner!!

Hot lemon squash was our ill food.
Not allowed lucozade .
Plain toast for upset tummy.

Flat 7Up. It's been known to cure all ills.