School Dinners

I hated school dinners and remember missing playtime as I was forced to sit there until I finished the inedible food. Secondary school was better as no-one tried to force us to eat the awful food.

Glad to see I’m not the only one who was made to sit over my cold, fatty, gristly meat until I ate it. Only I didn't eat it. I just went on refusing. There was nothing they could do. I won. This was in the 1940s, and because nobody had much food then I normally loved any sort of food, even school dinners. The same teacher who tried to make me eat the meat expressed alarm about the large quantity of prunes and custard I managed to eat, constantly going back for more like Oliver Twist.

This was a private girls’ junior school, and lunch was supervised by the teachers. We didn’t have dinner ladies.

Before that I was at a very small infant school, about 40 pupils in all. We were taken by bus to a local baker’s shop where we took over an upstairs room for our lunch, which was presumably provided by the shop. The only food I remember was very brightly coloured jelly, which looked delicious but definitely was not.

I forgot about the prunes, Grandma70s. We had those too, about the only fruit you could get in those days. With custard. I still like that as a dessert.

Hi crafty cat
Please could you give us the recipe for Gypsy Tart?
I remember it from Primary School brings back such good memories!

Gypsy tart was on Radio 4 The Kitchen Cabinet on Sunday. It’s also mentioned apparently in Joe Brands memoir, she said you could hear your arteries furring up as you ate! Pretty sure they gave a recipe.

My school meals were horrible until the sixth form, when a kitchen was built on the school premises and they were lovely.
Then I went to training college and the food was appalling. When teaching I was forced to eat a school meal sitting with the children every day, until one of the Unions discovered it was not part of our contact, and we were free to refuse.
I never ate another school meal for the remaining thirty-seven years of my career.

If you Google gypsy tart, recipes come up. Sorry I'm not good at links. It seems to consist of brown sugar, butter, evaporated milk and a couple of other things.

I must be an exception as our school dinners didn't feature lumpy mash or custard but were absolutely delicious - and I had Mum's home cooked perfection to compare it with.

I got free dinners and Cheese Pie was my favourite, very buttery short pastry with layers of cheese, onion and potato inside. I've tried to duplicate it but never seem to get it right.

I also loved the Apple tart and Custard but wasn't too fond of sago.

We always had fish on Friday mostly with mash or chips if we were really lucky and always served with beetroot. Could never quite work that combination out.

www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/03/the-perfect-gypsy-tart-recipe-dessert-felicity-cloake

The Guardian's version of Gypsy Tart.

I went home for lunch when I was at primary school, but when I went to secondary school I stayed for school lunch. The head cook was very strict but fabulous. I loved the meals and remember gypsy tart. My absolute favourite pudding was Manchester tart, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Mrs Sampson, I salute you.
Gypsy tart recipe and the history of the pudding.

Thanks for the recipes everyone - I can see the calories from here! Looking forward to trying it out

I have fond memories of school dinners. Lived too far away to go home lunchtime. Small village school where cooks were also Mums/Grans and food cooked fresh in school kitchen.
Third pint of orange juice in summer for each pupil, milk in winter. We sat at tables of eight and monitor dished out each meal. I loved sausage and mash, cawl, and shepherds pie. Treacle tart with cornflakes on top with custard, two scones - one with jam, the other with cheese.
My mother always had a cooked meal ready after school. We weren't overweight, guess we were more active then, I was always out on my bike.

There were a lot of the dinners I really liked although some of the "stews" were not so nice with fatty/grissely meat!

Among my favourite main dishes
- roast dinner
- shepherds' pie
- fish and chips
- cheese pie
- school salad - a huge long tray with rows of different finely chopped salads - usually rows of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, grated carrot, tiny cubes of cooked beetroot and sometimes sliced radishes and defrosted peas.
- I even sort of liked spam fritters

Then there were the desserts:
- chocolate crunch with chocolate custard
- iced sponge with sprinkles and custard
- pink blancmange and homemade shortbread biscuits
- cornflake tart
- Bakewell tart
- rice pudding with jam

Oh and the school "cheese and biscuits" - 2 Dairylea triangles, a butter pat and 3 cream crackers

I never had school dinners; we were expected to walk home and back. Even at grammar school I went to my aunt's for dinner as she lived 5 minutes from the school.
But when I became a teacher I had my first taste of school dinners! I loved them. Our cook was brilliant, and what we did was called 'family service'. Tables arranged in groups of about 8 children and one teacher. The teacher served the dinner to the children and we sat, ate and chatted together. It was good for fostering table manners, sharing, learning to use cutlery, and encouraging the children to try just a little bit of unfamiliar food. My favourite dinners in those days were the roast, and a lovely lamb pilaf (which I got the recipe for).
Not like that now, I fear, it seems to be self service and get it down as quick as they can.

School cheese pie was my absolute favourite . I have tried so many times to copy it but it’s never been the same.

Also Manchester tart with pastry, jam, custard and coconut on top. Delicious.

My favourite pudding was butterscotch tart yummy ,we had cold lunch twice a week marmite sandwiches or cheese and salad nice in the summer as we had a big hut in the playground for cold lunches.

Our school lunches were fine. Good old comfort food, especially the puddings. It was my mother’s cooking that was dire and where you’d most likely find a caterpillar in the ?

Don't remember too much about the dinners but I do remember we had buns and cocoa in the winter at break time. Lovely bath & Chelsea buns.
At primary school we had the obligatory third of a pint of milk, it was often left next to the radiator and tasted disgusting.

I seem to recall nice stoggy type puds like jam rolly poly made with suet.

Rice puds with jam.

Thick custard as well.

This was at secondary school , mind end of rationing may have made some change.

Mick

Thankyou all for recipes, definitely a baking day on the “to do list?
I was talking about school dinners with a friend the other day, and we both remembered “Toffee Cream Tart”, we seemed to think it was a butterscotch, toffee taste, very creamy and yummy ?

We lived just a short walk from my son's primary school so normally he didn't stay to school dinners but took a packed lunch or came home.
But he craved the experience, so on one occasion I let him stay.

'What did you have for lunch?' I asked when he came home.
He wrinkled his nose, 'Some long orange things with tiny weeny bits on them but I enjoyed the salad.'

The 'long orange things' turned out to be fish fingers, something my 7 year old had never seen, let alone eaten.

In those days we were passionate wholefood adherents - we're just a little more relaxed now.

I always went home or to granny’s for lunch, but I remember pestering my mother so much, I was allowed to stay for school dinner ( which was served in the classroom).
Cottage pie with raw shredded carrot, followed by dry cornflakes with figs. No more school dinners for me.

When working in schools I loved the spaghetti pie, puff pastry topped with tinned spaghetti and grated cheese. My attempts to recreate it just don’t work.

Semolina and Liver the worst school dinner . It was thought I had a fish allergy and I can remember one year being on a table with a teacher who was a bit of a tartar, and telling her I couldn’t eat the fish. She was having none of it, you will eat it. When the school cook appeared with a fried egg on a plate, you mustn’t have fish must you dear! The teachers face was a picture.this was late 60’s. I was also in said teacher class age 6 on one particular day someone did a poo which ended up on class room floor, nobody owned up and we were all taken to the toilet to have our bottoms checked. To find the culprit. I did later become a school cook!

Gypsy Tart is just a pre cooked pastry case with a filling of a large tin of Evaporated Milk &280 g Dark Muscovado sugar. You whisk the 2 together until it is all fluffed up & just pour it into the pre cooked pastry case & let it cook until set.- about 20 mins.
My son went all gooey eyed yesterday when he dropped the children off & heard we had that for pudding. Very unhealthy but as a rare treat it's OK.