To miss the simple tasty Christmas food of my childhood.

[NotSoGloriousFood]

I'm old enough to remember Christmas family gatherings when mum didn't have the option of going to Iceland or M&S and everyone pitched in.
Simple but tasty spreads of homecooked meats, cheese, uncle Kens legendary pickled onions, Aunty's Gloria's beetroot chutney, Mary's green tomato chutney and pickled red cabbage, cheese (usually cheddar and Caerfilly) and homemade pasties and sausage rolls. Crisps were ready salted.
It was tasty, wholesome and real.
Desserts were all homemade. chocolate cakes, mince pies, trifle, Christmas cake.
Simple food shared together......no-one could forsee then what food would become.........ultra processed with long lists of ingredients.
I watch some of the Christmas food adverts with a heavy heart and wonder what we have done to food.

The thing is it was women who made all this stuff. All under a lot of pressure and expectation. I remember when I had my two children in the 1980’s the pressure from our parents to still do the same when working full time. Now as retired grandparents with our ow n children working full time we have M and S and farm shops do the catering! So much better and we can all enjoy ourselves.

You are such a wonderful person OP! I am one of the poor saps who doesn't have the time or space to make chutneys, I shall weep over my locally bought substitutes.

So basically you’re sad that OTHER people are eating UPFs, and see this as bad for society?

I mean, you’re probably not wrong but unless you’re head of public health for the NHS I’m not sure why you’re dwelling on this. Nobody likes other people telling them how to live.

Don't most people have homecooked food at Christmas? I know our household does (and most of the year too). We also grow most of it ourselves so our chutneys, sauces and pickles are already made and ready to go. Rest of the veg are ready to be dug up on Christmas morning. Just because crap is sold in supermarkets, it doesn't mean we have to buy it.

but the OP wants Aunty Gloria to pickle the onions and is saddened by shop bought pickles...

I am sad that society is killing itself eating crap and the food industry is making millions out of it!
It a myth that cooking from scratch takes a huge amount of time, it doesn't have to but sadly many people don't have the skills now...its also cheaper.
Ordering on an app or microwaving a ready meal is easier

I expected to get flamed.

Do you make your own cheese?

Is it just Mary and Gloria and "mum" who should be pickling cabbage and making chutney, or do Joseph and Ken roll their sleeves up in June and bake the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding or in October October to start the mincemeat for the mince pies?

Ultra processed food, ultra processed text 😂

YABU

As an old fart in her 60's , my Christmas is still all about family, and the Christmas dinner

I did go through the the fad of buying "party food, Christmas food" and threw it away a couple of days later

Nowadays Christmas dinner is the turkey and ham and trimmings. The Christmas pud - gone - nowadays we have ice cream and decent choccies and coffee.

The big pig out supper - decent bit of stilton, good crackers and a glass of port

I buy very little "extras" for Christmas. I spend a good lump on the turkey and the gammon, but buy the 15p veg and as I say, we don't go overboard on cheap choccies, just buy one or two boxes of mid range ( more posh then a tin of quality street but not mega )

Christmas for us is simple, its just a day

Oh dear me, no:

Unrecognisable pressed ‘meat’ out of a tin
Russian salad out of a tin
Half a tomato
Beetroot leaking purple vinegar all over the plate
….. and a very small amount of salad cream

Yum 🤢

We still eat like that in our house OP.

I do however draw the line at pressing an ox tongue. My mum used to boil it, skin it😧and then press it in a basin with a massive weight she kept exclusively for that purpose.

Most people roast meat and prepare fresh vegetables for Christmas.

Few people make their own cheese, smoke their own cold cuts, make chutney and pickles unless running a farm shop or entering a country fair, because when you say "everyone" you mean "women" and most women work now and don't start picking and making Christmas cake and mincemeat months in advance unless it's their hobby.

There’s nothing in me would be digging up veggies on Christmas morning. I love home cooking but there’s also space on my table for bought in condiments but I have generous leave over Christmas. I’m not going to judge anyone making life a bit easier for themselves - it’s fine to pine over Aunt Gloria’s pickles but maybe aunt Gloria would have preferred to sip Bailey’s and watch Love Actually of an evening.

No I don't make my own cheese.....I'm happy to buy it. I didn't say I avoid processed food like cheese....its the UPFs I avoid.

i’m an 80s child, we had cheese & onion crisps growing up & my mum never made chutney. Loved our xmas dinner growing up & love it now.

I don't understand this thread?

You don't like Christmas food on offer. So make your own like you did previously.

Amed Waitrose staff arent going to force you into a delivery van

You are describing what we eat at Christmas. I love really old fashioned trad food. Turkey with home made stuffing then Christmas pudding on Christmas Day; home baked ham with home made pickles and a classic trifle on Boxing Day. I sometimes try to update it and suggest sticky toffee pudding instead of Christmas pudding, or tiramisu instead of trifle but the family object.

I'm 67 and my Christmas dinner is very similar to what we ate in childhood. The main difference would be the dessert as I make a chocolate one instead of a trifle. Also few people in my family like pickles so we don't have pickled onions like my grandad used to make.

I don’t think the majority have a microwaved ready meal for xmas dinner do they?

Well OP I may not make it myself but at Xmas I buy a particularly nice chutney or two from our local very good farm shop, the cockerel and sausage rolls come from a great butchers who also have a farm, the veg from a local guy who has a market garden you can see everything growing and drive up to and pick produce from his barn - these days ( depending where you live I guess) there can be many ways to still get great food without necessarily standing and making it all yourself -

Just at Christmas? I’m not going to weep over someone buying a Christmas pudding or prepared roast potato’s. Nor am I going to beat myself to death as I throw fish fingers and chips into the oven after a busy work week.

The food industry has always made millions, and there’s always been very variable quality in ready made/preprepared food.

😂

I wouldn't want that either🤣

@Sofasu Trifle and chocolate pudding aren't mutally exclusive. My friend makes the most incredible chocolate orange trifle.

Orange jelly with sherry soaked chocolate swiss roll in, chocolate blancmange, whipped cream topped with segments of chocolate orange and halved jaffa cakes on top. Probably a nightmare of UPF but what a treat.

I made my own mincemeat once and put myself off it for life. The amount of fat in that stuff is terrifying.