Awful meals your parents made as a child - lighthearted

[Workinghardeveryday]

I remember my mum used to put half a tomato on any meal that didn’t have veg, I hated it, still do.

Bread and butter pudding made with skimmed powdered milk, absolutely disgusting!!

Tuna sandwiches in my packed lunch that had not been drained properly, so all the bread was wet and soggy - everyday!

Do you have any to share

But at least I was never forced to sit at the table for hours until I finished, like DH was. Makes me angry every time I see my MIL.

This ⬆️ served with broad beans, have not touched fish or Broad beans since!

Do you know, I tried to think of anything and I couldn't. My DM was a great cook - something I'm very grateful for. Doesn't mean I always liked it at the time, but not because it was badly made.

Also we were subjected to stuffed marrow 😬 grim beyond belief

I was a 60s/70s child and I absolutely loved my mum’s food ,spaghetti bolognaise made from scratch with bay leaf,stir fried mince with veg and soy sauce and amazing corned beef rissoles. She really was a fantastic cook ,our roasts were amazing and my children have yet to have better roast potatoes. Miss this lovely lady so much 💕

My mum's a good cook but:

1. Dinner was made at 1pm, everyday
2. I got home from school at 3.30pm or 5pm
3. There was no microwave
4. Dinner was left on the stove to keep "warm" for the 2.5-4 hours which actually meant it dried to a crisp.

Not many dinners survive that.

Findus crispy pancakes with soggy boiled to death vegetables.

I wonder how many of us who were served bland, tasteless food had parents that grew up in the wartime/post-war era of rationing? There was perhaps a lingering attitude that decent portions of things were all you needed to make a good meal.

My gran was a great cook, my mum born during the war definitely didn’t inherit this though

Cabbage and ribs. A huge side of ribs boiled in our biggest pot with a shredded cabbage added. No seasoning in the water or on the meat or veg. Just boiled and dumped dripping on a plate 🤮

Tripe boiled in milk and onions
Liver
Kidney
Heart
Pigs trotters
And for pudding...
Tapioca and jam
Semolina and jam
Sago and jam
Vermicelli boiled in milk... with jam
Tinned peach halves in heavy syrup - nasty, slimy little fuckers

Is it the same as potted hough. I loved it.

My Mum was generally a great cook and I remember enjoying most meals. But I didn't like risotto and that was a weekly dinner and I had to force myself to eat it. I actually love risotto now but couldn't stand it as a child.

She occasionally used to serve up ravioli from a tin for a 'quick tea' and that was grim.

I do recall one time (only once because it was unanimously despised!) she made corned beef pie 🤢🤮

This make me wonder what memories my DC will have of meals I make that they hated!! The difference is my DC do not force themselves to eat food they don't like, they just refuse it 🙄

I had salmon paste on toast just before I went to bed yesterday. It was delicious. We can get it here in M&S.

I also dreaded rice pudding, tapioca, semolina - all those milky puds they gave us 70s kids. Hot milk makes me heave

Me too. I have a horror of it.

My mum still cooks everything in advance first thing in the morning, so she’s free to watch telly all day. The things she serves my dad... But he eats it no complaints as he’s never cooked in his life.

My mum is a decent cook but it's all so very plain. She considers a sprinkling of pepper around a plate (you know, sometimes used as decoration/garnish by restaurants) to be far too firey and spicy. She would occasionally make my dad and I a 'chilli' but in reality it was bolognaise with some kidney beans added to it, she put what she considered to be sufficient spice in it which in reality amounted to not being able to taste it whatsoever. If my dad ever went for a curry he would have to sleep downstairs as she would claim she could smell it coming out of his pores. But she can cook and she can often do that magical thing of cobbling together something edible out of just looking at ingredients left in the fridge which is FAR more than I can do so shouldn't do her down.

However.....kedgeree. Fucking kedgeree. It's one of her favourite things (minus the paprika which I believe is traditional so it's just fish, rice and boiled eggs) and she used to make it all the bloody time for dinner until we finally admitted to her that none of us liked it. Just the most boring dish going.

In full fairness however my kids have posh microwave meals or takeaway on the (mercifully few) nights I'm having to give them a hot meal so they'll have plenty of ammo for a thread like this in 20 odd years!

Pork casserole made with a packet of mushroom soup. Absolutely disgusting and we had it every week.

I use to love jam on digestive biscuits.

One particularly unusual memory that sticks out in my mind was fusilli pasta with a jar of warmed up Sweet n' sour sauce on top.

I feel bad now thinking back because we didnt have much money and my Mum was having a really tough time with various things around that time, so needed easy meals. And I think I ate it out of politeness but we all agreed it was rank and I think she made us pancakes instead that night.

Wow so many revolting experiences. I grew up late 60s / 70s and DM was a very boring old fashioned cook, meat, boiled potatoes and veg and very little else, and a limited budget. But she cooked it all very nicely, everything was tasty and fresh. We had a vegetable garden, which helped, though it was cabbage and sprouts all winter. She also made lovely cakes and great pastry. My gran was a poor cook who boiled veggies to death and overcooked everything, and then topped it off with lumpy gravy. She was a lovely gran though, and did make delicious jams and chutneys. I like liver we had it quite often, cooked nicely (all gristle carefully removed, dusted with flour, seasoned and fried, cooked through but still juicy) with fried onions and scalloped potatoes.

I'm obviously very weird as I like a lot of these:

Boil in the bag fish
Boiled potatoes
Fish paste sandwiches
Sandwich spread
Salad cream
Crumpet pizzas
Crispy Pancakes (TBH was surprised to see this on here - thought everyone loved them)

The only things I didn't really like were neck of lamb stew which mum made on Saturday lunchtimes - it was my dad's favourite and she would put it on to cook while she did the housework

Wasn't really keen on anything lamb (roast or chops) and liver. I remember getting back from school and smelling onions cooking which meant either burgers (good) or liver (bad)

I'm grateful we were never fed on hearts or tripe .

My favourites were fried chicken and rice and chicken Maryland with sweetcorn fritters .

Ah yes - I also hate these but these are more reminiscent of school dinners . Egg custard is a desert my mum made that I hated - can't eat those custard tarts either .

I remember having a beefburger - just a plain burger with no bun or anything else - with rice and butter which was particularly awful. In hindsight, my parents were probably having curried tinned pilchards so maybe this was the better alternative? Also, not a meal, but we had boiled old potatoes all the time, the great big floury ones. My kids have never been given boiled old potatoes.

Kleptronic ·
Stuffed hearts. It was truly awful. The taste is so strong, and the idea of it so rank (yes I am a meat eating hypocrite). They did it because they were skint.

We only had this once! Even the cat turned her little nose up!!

That's all I can complain about! Mum's cooking was great!!