Whats the first thing that comes to mind when you think about your mum and dads cooking?

[PunnyBeaker]

Ready meals

Chips done in a chip pan were always the best. I still prefer a deep fat fryer to an air fryer

I would say that my mum was a good basic cook. Fantastic pies and fairy cakes. Her mash potatoes left a lot to be desired. My dad liked to cook though, spaghetti, lasagne and chillies. Also, soups and casseroles. They were ahead of their time and shared cooking duties. My dad had a fear of us being hungry like he was in his childhood though.

Exceptional and adventurous. Just back from a visit.

Yesterday we had: roast corn fed chicken, baked ham, home-made coleslaw, baby new potatoes and a greek salad. Starter was smoked salmon with smoked salmon mousse, dil cucumbers and hard boiled eggs; baked peaches and vanilla ice-cream for pud.

It's very simple now mother's nearly 90 with Parkinsons and step's 83. She instucts, he chops and assembles.

Mother was cooking spag bol, bourgignon, coq au vin and curries in the 60s. She made fresh chicken kievs in the 70s and a glorious chocolate and mint bomb and baked alaskas. Her mantra was always that no recipe could ever be better than the ingredients that went into it.

What a lot of mince.

Mum - apologetic

Dad - creative

My late mum was actually perfectly capable of cooking but never quite believed it. She tended not to be too adventurous with it due to her lack of confidence, and I don't recall her ever serving anything without first apologising for whatever she thought was wrong with it - even though it was usually very tasty.

My dad really enjoyed cooking but made it up as he went along so we never had the same meal twice. He did most of the cooking when my mum was alive but has somewhat lost the will now that she has gone. When younger, he liked nothing more than cooking for a crowd.

I was so lucky. Both parents great cooks. Vfather specialised in Italian and Indian. Mother did the true British greats… beef wellington, rissoles, all the roasts. Father also had a thing for French food. I think I was weaned on French onion soup.

Dad didn't cook ever. Unless it was a bbq then my mum must stand aside (after doing all the prep) and admire his skills

Delicious and high quality but repetitive. They would find something the three of us would eat and then repeat it until we couldn’t stand it anymore. I thought we were to blame - fussy- but they still do it now and the youngest is over 30!

When Mum had to go into hospital for a hysterectomy when I was about nine, she minced a load of lamb and froze that and a pile of duchess potatoes.

I can remember my Dad serving this every tea time whilst she was away with loads of gravy. All my early memories gravitate around food 🤣

A big blank. I don't think I ever ate a meal prepared by either of my parents.

Mum - decent, healthy, homemade, no fun frozen foods (disappointing as a child, understandable and appreciated as an adult)

Dad - can't cook, won't cook

Early to mid 80s mum was an early adopter of international cuisine so we had curry's and stir fries and spaghetti bolgnaise.

Dad was a meat and two veg man and we saw him mainly at a weekend so generally a Sunday roast involved. Saturday tea could be anythinf from chops and new potatoes and veg to egg gammon and chips with peas to fish with rice veg salad chips mushy peas. Was mainly British though.

We did get taken for curry's and Chinese out. Oh and sometimes if really good he would get a m and s pizza as would mum for a treat . Both fed us really well and balanced always veg or salads with meals.

We were typically working class and I had a very lucky childhood even though they split when I was 3 I felt looked after, and loved which I know makes me so very lucky.

My dad would cook lovely Caribbean inspired dishes. Mum's was much more basic. In later years as their appetites got smaller, their portions got so smaller including for guests, so we would often leave still feeling peckish.

Cheese on toast topped with fag ash Happy days!

Dad's - non-existent! He was born in 1934 and never really learned to cook. He could keep himself alive if he had to when my Mum was away, but largely with convenience foods, ready meals, takeaways and eating out.

Mum's - excellent years ago. Not that varied, but what she did do, she did well. Traditional Scottish fare - mince and tatties, lovely soups, stews, roast beef, trifle, crumbles, plain but tasty baking. I miss her cooking. She's 93 now and has been getting too frail and easily tired to cook over the last few years.

Sitting at the table, not allowed to leave until my plate was clean. The sensation of my throat refusing to cooperate and swallow and the taste of meat that’s been chewed for too long.

Adventurous for their time. They are in their 80s and have always kept it modern, we never really had meat and two veg meals growing up, it was usually curries, stir fries, pasta etc, we had a full spice rack and it was all used.

DILs are meat and two veg people, but DFIL is a superb baker.

Mum: plain, wholesome, very dull
Dad: watching things grilling under the eye-level grill while conducting music on Radio 2 with a fish slice

Mum was a fabulous cook and baker. She would make scones, tarts, cakes and biscuits on a Monday to last the week. She loved to experiment and we had some weird concoction ie hawaian mince. In later years, she learned how to make cordon blu desserts which were incredible.

Dad made watery scrambled eggs

Roast chicken every Sunday,homemade, beef stew in the winter, and homemade meatball pasta she was such an amazing cook, sadly I lost her a fee years later to ovarian cancer but I always remember her early Sunday to me and my brothers.

"I'm teaching you how to cook beacuse one day you might married or living with a woman and cooking cleaning, ironing is not a woman's job it's an equal responsibility. Sometimes when I'm having an hard day I will take some flowers to her grave and talk about what I've cooked recently or plan to cook.

Shit

Leftovers. In a good way!

My parents grew up in war zones, suffering extreme privation. They had no background of good food, apart from my dad’s pre-war memories. They both ended up excellent cooks. Pretty much anything mum cooked turned out good. Their friends knew not to eat before they came over!

But mum would not throw any food away. She would even put a leftover spoonful of food in an eggcup in the fridge. And it would all get used up in delicious pies, flans, stews etc.

Because of this no waste attitude, we frequently had Evolution Soup. A big soup pan that would go from hob to fridge to hob to fridge etc, for several days in a row, with the soup evolving as different veg were added.

Xmas turkey that was dished up every dinner-time well into January.
Just cold, with chips or mash + peas - not a sauce in sight.
It's one of the few foods that I avoid now.

Boring.

I was born in 1966. Mum was the cook; she wasn’t interested in food but fortunately during my childhood she exercised a lot of common sense about nutrition - so we got fresh fruit and veg, fish, eggs etc. All very bland. Dad liked traditional stuff so we had lots of things like mince and dumplings. Sponge puddings were often produced and were delicious. Portions were small generally.

No garlic, spices or nonsense like that. Breakfast was porridge from October to April every day. Summer was some form of cereal.

In the 80s she lost what little enthusiasm she had for cooking - possibly after having had no help for years - so there was a bit of a swing towards ready meals, ranging from lasagne to crispy pancakes.

Old country classics