Tell me your secret ingredient or things your mother used to make that other people don't

[ettieb]

What do you add to your recipes that make them great. Thinking about this as I was looking at people's recipes for cottage pie.... mine is HP sauce... sure other people use it too but wasn't in any of the recipes that people shared... my mother used to make a pudding which I think was called milk jelly....a packet of jelly made up with 1/2 a pint of boiling water.. cool a bit and then fill up to a pint with evaporated milk.. blooming lovely!

I am going to try this one thank you!

My mums secret "recipe" was baby potatoes seasoned with an oxo cube (most other brands are too salty. You just toss them in oil and a crumbled oxo cube then put them in the over for 20-30 minutes depending on size. It's not much of a secret anymore as everyone always asks what the flavour is when we serve them at BBQs

Big Spanish onions cooked in a pressure cooker and served with cheese sauce. Yummy.

Big cod fillets grilled until nearly cooked, then put loads of grated cheese on so it melts and goes golden. I'm salivating.

Lovely cauliflower cheese. Lovely lasagne which I don't have the confidence to make. I can make a lot of things, just not that.

My Dad made baked rice pudding with nutmeg and butter on top. Delicious.

My Nanna made lemon ice box pudding. It was fantastic, but can I find the
recipe ? .Today it would be a semi-freddo.

Thats taken me back to my childhood - I’d forgotten all about celery salt, a favourite with my Mum who put it on everything 😄

Like a few other PP my mum used to make curry with apple, curry powder and sultanas. It was a 70s staple but it was only when I went to an Indian restaurant for the first time when I was 18 that I realised that although it was nice it most definitely wasn’t curry!
Also Nutella in mince based dishes gives it a richness. Worcestershire sauce perks up most homemade vegetable soup…

I make souffle omelette by separating the yolks, beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the yolks. Cook in frying pan for a few minutes, then put under the grill to cook the top. Especially good if you put grated cheese on the top before putting under the grill.

I too remember curry with sultanas and not in a good way.

A tsp of sugar instead of salt in peas on the other hand tastes great.

Add a heaped teaspoon of peanut butter to Korma ( or any curry) it really is tasty.

My mum made the best ever pastry and I still don't know how she did it.

Mars bar cake. A chocolate sponge with melted Mars bars in the middle and whipped cream

Some chicken recipe that I've never been able to reproduce! Cooked in the oven in a Pyrex dish, chicken with rice and a tomato/onion/spicy sauce

A kind of Eton mess but done with a mix of yoghurt and whipped cream

Wellpaddedintherear My mums was rice pudding too, always with nutmeg on top. Follow the Carnation online recipe it’s exactly as you describe.

DM used to make a steamed salmon mousse with tinned salmon and crumbled Jacob's crackers in. We always used to have it for lunch on Good Friday. Never got the recipe.

In most savoury stew-type dishes, a good slosh of Thai fish sauce at the beginning of cooking (after browning the onions). Gives that lovely umami depth, especially in vegetable-based dishes. (I'm not veggie but am trying to reduce meat consumption.)

My granny made mars bar and apple sandwiches! They were lovely.

Whenever I make a salad with cous cous , quinoa or pasta I use mint sauce as the dressing it tastes divine!

Mango chutney and apricot jam are interchangeable in curry.

That's very similar to queen of puddings, the only difference is that you put a layer of jam between the custard and the meringue in queen of puddings. Hopefully if you use a recipe for that, but miss out the jam, it'll taste something like the pudding your Mum made.

Our family recipe is for cornflour cakes. They're not like anything else I've ever eaten - a cross between a viennese whirl, rock bun and shortbread. Lovely. The recipe is probably 90 years old. Think it originated in Canada.

OOOh I’m from around that area, I love a sweet curry.
My mum used to bake big jacket potatoes, scoop the flesh out, mash it with butter and cheese,m pile it all back into the skins top it with more grated cheese then pop them back in to melt the cheese.
She made her own gravy the proper way, flour, meat juices, gravy browning and stock.
She did the milk jellies, banana custard, apple pies.
Ham shank stock for veg soup.
We didn’t have shepherds or cottage pies, mum didn’t like them, the first time I had shepherds pie was in my twenties at a friends house, it was bloody gorgeous. I asked how she made it, she told me and said don’t forget the brown sauce. And that’s how I’ve made it ever since.

Milky jelly is my favourite. My mum still makes me it for my birthday dinner.

She also used to do baked potatoes which had eggs 'hidden' in them.

A thin layer of horseradish sauce under the cheese on cheese on toast is a game changer

Mix an egg into your dry dumpling mix then add the cold water. It makes the most amazingly fluffy dumplings.

This brings back memories.
My mum was desperate to make milk jelly but didn't have a recipe (pre-google!). She experimented, and I remember bowls and bowls of curdled milky jelly until someone told her how.
She was an amazing cook and could make the most amazing soup out of anything... and yes, Oxo cubes and a shake of Worcestershire sauce in most mince recipes.
My nan, who was very classy and elegant, used to add a tin of baked beans to cottage pie. I know that sounds revolting, but it was really good.
She also used to make a sandwich filling out of grated cheese, salad cream and tomato ketchup mixed together. I remember it was delicious but have not been brave enough yet to recreate it!

@ToffeeNotCoffee I’ve got a recipe somewhere for the lemon ice box pudding. Made with evap and digestive biscuit crumbs?

My mother used to make custard with Birds custard powder and evaporated milk instead of fresh milk. It was SO yummy. I've only just remembered this!

My mum makes legendary coronation chicken and the sauce is mayo, apricot jam and curry powder. It's absolute perfection and gets devoured at parties (we host a lot). It's the only thing I eat iceberg lettuce with!

Banana wrapped in a spiral of Jusrol flaky pastry, baked in oven and drizzled with chocolate sauce- served with ice cream- lovely stuff!!