Revisiting food from your youth.

I've never had a Fray Bentos pie...I did used to buy Birds trifle with pink custard and hundreds and thousands and artificial cream when my daughter was small.It was so useful having everything in one box.I vaguely remember it as being far too sweet though so unlikely I'll try it again .

I've never had a Fray Bentos pie...I did used to buy Birds trifle with pink custard and hundreds and thousands and artificial cream when my daughter was small.It was so useful having everything in one box.I vaguely remember it as being far too sweet though so unlikely I'll try it again .

I've never had a Fray Bentos pie...I did used to buy Birds trifle with pink custard and hundreds and thousands and artificial cream when my daughter was small.It was so useful having everything in one box.I vaguely remember it as being far too sweet though so unlikely I'll try it again .

When GS was younger, I thought I would buy some Angel Delight, much beloved of his mummy back in the day! I looked at the back of the packet and read the ingredients and the amount of salt and sugar scared me off! It never occurred to me to worry about what was in it when I fed it to my two. They loved it, so did I!

The first meal I cooked as a married woman was a Fray Bentos pie and I never liked them!
Mention of Angel Delight reminded me of my children's favourite squint jellies.
Half-fill glasses with red jelly and prop them up on something in the fridge so that when set, the surface of the jelly is at an angle. Then top up with pink Angel Delight.
Being aware now of AD ingredients I have never offered this to DGC's!

mcem we had bridies from our local bakery ,quick to heat and sometimes still hot when we got them ,tinned pies seem all wrong somehow .I do the jelly in wine glasses for my girlies we layer it up with diferent colours and top it with fruit and cream .Keeps them amused for a wee while

Fray Bentos pies were always a staple when we went on holiday. Mam would buy a few extra items a week for a couple of months before we went away so that she didn't have to spend too much money on food.

We used to have butterscotch Angel Delight with chopped Mars Bars mixed in.

But my favourite home meal was lap of lamb. It was the only food that mam let us eat with our fingers (well you had to). The grease and gravy would run down our chins as we chewed the meat of the bones. It was the sweetest meat ever. When I grew up and had my own place I used to buy lap of lamb from the local butcher for 10p a pound. One day he commented on how lucky the local dogs were so I told him we didn't have a dog. We ate it. After that he always made sure we got the best pieces .

Lap of lamb isn't the same now that they trim it, stuff it and roll it. The other day I saw lamb ribs on sale so I guess that's the boney pieces we used to have. They were a lot more than 10p a pound though

I've never heard of lap of lamb

I think they call it belly nowadays.

It was the ribs and belly.

I've just looked online and a lot of the celebrity chefs have 'discovered' it and come up with complicated recipes. All we used to do was put in it a casserole dish with a drop of water and bang it in the oven on a low gas for a couple of hours. Then we'd use the greasy water to make a gravy. Oh the wonderful days before we worried about sugar, salt and fat.

lamb flank ? We use it for making scotch broth as its hard to get mutton nowadays

It is actually breast of lamb, and yes I used to buy it too from the butcher in Northern Ireland when money was short, stuff it, roll it and braise it in the oven, in the same way as Vq and my mother did. Loads of flavour. Another very cheap cut my mother used to use was ribs of beef. They were known colloquially as "ladder staves" and were very good and meaty; and cheap - the butcher almost gave them away. These days they are very trendy, known as short ribs, and very expensive, but what a dish they make, slow cooked in the oven with red wine, the meat falling off the bones. Time I bought some more!

Wasn't the Vesta with crispy noodles the Chow Mein not the curry. Either way I loved them both.

I have never eaten pies, burgers, sausages or faggots, etc. As a child school dinners were always a misery as there was always meat involved and everyone had to have a bit of everything on their plate whether they liked it or not. I hated meat and still do - I can't work out why they felt it was essential to force children to eat something they clearly didn't like. I often ended up in tears at lunchtime.

I too remember Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie and steak and kidney pudding from my childhood. Also the Vesta ready meals - you can still buy them from ebay!

Crumbs! This has brought back lots of food memories from when I was first married! We lived on foods like these. I've tried some since and found them yuk I have to say. Mind you the pies were better than my mum's and nan's pastry - always thin, almost white and very crispy!!! I used to love jiffy jellies - and when I cut my chin open that was the only thing I could [or wanted to] eat!

I remember though not liking cheese or tomatoes - but now I love them both though I still give rhubarb a miss. How our taste buds change!

Things I had when living with my parents that I will NEVER eat/drink again;-
Bev coffee
Corned beef
Jellied veal
Pork strips (with the fat poured over)
Boiled suet puddings - with jam
Tapioca
Sago
Boiled beef
Carnation milk
Peas pudding
Plaice
boiled fish
Neopolitan ice cream
Family circle biscuits

yuk yuk - at least we never ate Fray Bentos pies!!!!!

Mam and then I used to make stew with neck of lamb. Took a lot longer to make because you had to cook the lamb, let it cool down, pick off the meat and pick the solid fat from the stock but it was so worth it.

My sister and I called those Frey Bentos puddings "leather puddings" . Gross.

I enjoyed my mum's cooking - however some of the food served at school I never want to see again.

Gristly meat (you weren't allowed to leave it)
Strange clear lumps in the custard
Tapioca
Sago
A strange pink pudding with desiccated coconut
Stuffed heart
White sliced bread with dinner when there was a potato shortage one year

"School food: The piece of cod that passeth all understanding!" Molesworth. ?

Heinz mararoni cheese with Parmesan cheese toasted under the grill to make it crispy.
I think the combination of textures transported a rather ordinary meal into cordon bleu cooling?

Hi you can buy the boxes of curry at Poundstretchers and BM sometimes. My guilty pleasure. X

I have never eaten mashed potatoes since experiencing them at school. My DM always made lovely fluffy mashed potatoes with a little bit of top-of-the-milk beaten in (butter was rationed). School mashed potato was made from potato powder and always had tiny little lumps in it that made me retch.

As for gristly mince, I had a loose tooth, which came out while I was eating a plate of this grey product at school, not realising, I swallowed it, thinking it was just a bit of gristle and then was very upset because I thought the tooth fairy wouldn't visit me because I hadn't got the tooth. DM reassured me that the fairy could see it was in my tummy.

And don't start me on the free milk we used to get.

We used to eat Brains faggots when I was a child and my father used to complain that they didn't taste like,they did before the war. Obviously the memory is always better than the reality.

I was in digs for a year with a landlady who made Spam fritters on Tuesdays. They were lovely, but I put on a LOT of weight that year...

School milk in little bottles (third of a pint) with cream on the top unless you shook them, and too warm if they were left too near the radiator in winter before we got at them. Yup. Remember it well.