To ask if there’s a social class issue surrounding Findus Crispy Pancakes ?

[Jumell]

I’ve read some things in mine and sort of sense this might be the case but not 100% sure

Also is there a class issue around Fray Bentos pies ?

I love those !

My local Iceland was my saviour in the first lockdown - I managed to lock myself out of my tesco account three days before and I couldn't get another supermarket account as everybody wanted one.

Iceland was never that busy and I could stock up on fruit, veg, milk, that lovely bread, essential choc chip ice cream etc quickly and easily. The variety of great food you can get in a decent Iceland is impressive tbh. AND they sell crispy pancakes.

I'm working class - we used to get the cheese crispy pancakes as a treat as my parents were hippy vegetarians and usually cooked everything from scratch which must have been great for us but I have never cooked a single thing from my youth as an adult! I loved the pancakes though, so much. My brother said they don't taste the same now so I have never bothered getting any. Vienetta still seems a bit posh to me now...

My father used to take me and my sister trout fishing for a week or so each year, staying in fairly remote B&Bs. For lunch we would tie the boat up and he would get out his camping stove and cook whatever we had chosen from the very limited selection in the local shop’s freezer. Our very favourite was crispy pancakes. I can’t remember how we managed to eat them, but do remember the deliciousness of them on an invariably cold spring day.

He was a real gourmet, but absolutely not a snob about food - as far as he was concerned everything could be eaten and enjoyed. And very much middle class (if not upper).

My children were of course, also introduced to the delights of crispy pancakes, and now I have reached my 60s I take great delight in shopping in Iceland on a Tuesday to get my 10% discount.

Well, I only ever eat Haddock Fish fingers because Haddock is what we ate as a kid in Yorkshire....does that make me middle class!

Findus Crispy Pancakes are very expensive junk food....I wanted to try them for years and mum refused to buy them (on the grounds of price) and was bitterly disappointed when I finally got to test them.

Every year we went on a self catering holiday and my mum would buy something foodwise every week to put aside for the holiday. Fray Bentos, Campbells meatballs, Heinz Soup and Heinz Treacle puddings always made it into the holiday box (child of the 70's). I just have to see those things now to get a rosy glow. Oh and if we were really lucky, on the way back from the beach, Mum would buy an arctic roll or Vienetta for a treat.

Happy Days.

My parents were children during the war too and I think there was a sort of ingenuity about that generation, learned from their parents, because of their circumstances. I spent every holiday camping with them too and always went home with spots and greasy hair from everything being fried. 😂 I wish my mother had met yours in a field somewhere.

I saw some pancake mix in Canada when I lived there - just add egg, milk and fat. So this mix was basically a pack of flour and baking powder (they don’t sell SR flour in Canada, and Canadian-style pancakes do use a raising agent - I’m well aware crepe recipes don’t).

Lol the differing views.
My folks used to live in africa as expats and I was sent to a north yorks boarding school for 12 years. ( prep and senior)

We used to be fed Findus crispy savoy pancakes and most of the school loved them. The que for seconds was huge. It was a case of wolf down what you had and hope there was enough left over.

When my folks came home for their yearly holidays, we would eat every thing out of a tin, Fray Bentos was a favourite. My mothers view was she had to prepare all from scratch and there was very little frozen while at home, so she was going to relax and enjoy all the new fast food creations while in the UK.
I still enjoy fray bentos today.

The old bat used to really enjoy winding up folk who thought certain foods were beneath them by asking how was your holiday? we just spent 3 weeks in Mauritius, what was yours like ?

Quite often I would fly home at the end of term, then the family would go on holibobs. Mauritius, Seychelles, Kenya, Italy, Cypress. This was in the 70s 80s and early 90s. Going to Mauritius from Zambia was like going to spain from the UK for us.

Its still a family joke to send each other tins of brussels sprouts for birthdays, Christmas.

It was never something we had growing up as we only had a fridge with a small ice box so pretty much only held peas, fish fingers and ice cream.

However, I am not in the least but bothered about class indicators and think the obsession on here is strange.

Of course there's food snobbery OP. Crispy pancakes, Fray Bentos pies, Vesta curries etc are considered working class food. I was always surprised that my working class school friends were fed such things because they were actually relatively expensive compared to "proper" food. Like other posters, we never had anything remotely like them in my middle class childhood home. As a result, I've never liked anything processed.

My absolute favourite

What about petit pois?

Is this the Fray Bentos pie equivalent for the middle classes?

I've never set foot in an Iceland either and neither has my 87 year old mother. She's never had a McDonald's in her life, I last had one about 20 years ago. I've never eaten spam, smash, tinned peas or tinned carrots either. I once tried tinned potatoes as I tried a dreadful recipe that included them, my god, the taste and texture were revolting.

I recently came home very late and hungry and knew I had nothing in the fridge, don't usually buy ready meals, but I went to M&S and bought their Gastropub steak and ale pie, it was lovely!

Arctic roll is amazing. I also haven’t seen a baked Alaska on the menu in about 20 years, but would absolutely order one if I saw one.

I’m a bit more on the fence about Vienetta - last time I tried one it wasn’t that good. Loved them as a kid though.

we’re not unreasonable, I mean no-one wanna eats your eyes

I've never set foot in an Iceland

I don't particularly like Iceland but I do get bread and milk there on occasion as it's local

Iceland is fine, it’s just frozen food. Doesn’t have to be highly processed. I use packs of mixed frozen pre-prepped vegetables in stir fries, I use frozen broccoli in broccoli and Stilton soup, I buy frozen gyoza and ice cream mochi. I’m very middle class, and a vegetarian who cooks mostly from scratch, I can still find things to buy in Iceland, Lidl etc.

I find Iceland quite expensive actually, I dont know where this idea comes from that its cheap

We had a Vienetta a few weeks ago. It was very disappointing, thin chocolate and oily ice cream.

I’m a bit more on the fence about Vienetta - last time I tried one it wasn’t that good. Loved them as a kid though.

I bought a mint Vienetta for nostalgia a couple of years ago and thought it tasted like mouthwash. Don't remember noticing that when I was a teenager. Both my kids loved it though!

Never heard of them - am I missing out?

It becomes self-perpetuating because people act to reinforce their beliefs: I can't eat this because it's for those other people. It's not just the school gate, "What you cooking for tea tonight?" Social media brings a whole new level of condemnation and performative eating habits.

Eat what you like. Try and be balanced and healthy.

I'll be having an out-of-date pack of turkey twizzlers. Go on, judge me....

I had an awful lot of this stuff in my teens- anyone remember the Bernard Matthew 'hamwich ' kind ofprocessed ham plus cheese coated in breadcrumbs and fried?

H recently bought a frat bentos pie and a tin of stagg chilli and pronounced them both as disgusting

Findus crispy pancakes were the Iceland chicken nuggets of their day, and sadly, they haven’t aged well in reputation.

I dont know what these things are. Do I win? ))