I yearn for good old fashioned recipes!

No, you don't - you ARE the times!
I find the same annoying thing here where every outlet seems to think everyone wants trendy food.

I long to find a cafe with really light, fluffy scones (anyone got a recipe?) with a dollop of cream and jam.

Fortunately I can still see well enough to bake but I heartily agree with you.

This made me laugh. We visited family recently for the weekend and on Saturday evening there was much huffing and puffing in the kitchen for what seemed like hours, and not much on the plate for the myriad of ingredients and effort, when we sat in to eat. (It was tasty though!)

I made a comment about it to my husband when we went to bed, and he replied "I was hoping for Cottage Pie"

I think many of the 'old fashioned' receipes although tasty and filling would today be concidered unhealthy.

We are all so conscious of what we are eating and watching our figures, fat intake, cholesterol etc that is why more up to date foods are more previlant.

I think my parents generation were much healthier using the old fashioned recipes. They had an all round diet and cooked everything from scratch. My dad grew his own fruit and veg which my mum bottled in kilner jars.

The younger generation are extremely faddy in the name of health. Quinoa is an example of this - can’t stand the stuff. Give me a good cottage pie any day.

I know what you mean! I have really quite simple tastes. An omelette with 2 veg suits me as well as some elaborate concoction. I'm vegetarian and though not vegan people think I'm going to be hard to please.
I do like free range eggs and fresh organic local veg though!
Porridge is on the hob now.

How about a nice plateful of Lord Woolton's pie?

I agree recipes are more fussy. They often demand ingredients we don't have which are only needed for that specific meal, adding to my staples, herbs and spices. I suppose it goes with the shift away from meat which seems inevitable.

I made a rice pudding this week!

I ordered banana bread as a treat... bit into it and it wasnt right.. double checked and the cafe makes all their bakery items with gluten free flour now (which is less healthy than normal flour unless you have a medical reason for needing gluten free).

My "treat" didn't taste like a treat :-(
I <3 gluten!!

I love trying out new foods and new recipes, but I do find that too many recipes have far too many ingredients in them and the larder would be full of bottles used once or twice only if I wasn't careful, so I just reformulate any recipes that appeal to me and remove or replace anything that I cannot see me using more than once. It probably changes the flavour of some meals slightly, but not much.

BradfordLass You want scones? Try any NT property or non chain cafe. We have a little cafe in our town, consciously vintage which does beautiful scones, as does the cafe attached to the local baker.

Try the Mary Berry recipe for light fruit scones.
See if you can get a copy of The Book of Home Cooking from a charity shop and you will find some tasty traditional recipies.

I found that substituting natural yogurt for milk in scones made them lighter and fluffier.

I find that chillies are in everything and they are the only thing I have an allergy to.
My lips swell to twice their size, no it is not an attractive look as some "celebs" seem to think.

Yes, I hate chillies. I just leave them out of any recipe that includes them.

Teetime totally agree about the yogurt.

I also put yoghurt in scones but it doesn’t make them lighter and fluffier - I would like someone to tell me what I am doing wrong! There is a cafe on our local canal that does heavenly scones. They are worth the long walk up the towpath.
I am getting fed up of going out to eat and getting “fiddly” food that costs the earth. There is only one pub we go to now that hasn’t turned itself into a “gastro” pub. People come from miles to eat their steak pie, and other hearty goodies.
Oldgoat if you listen to the pundits, we might all be eating Woolton pie before long!

I expect Woolton Pie will be in here somewhere

OP if you google ‘simple recipe for meat pie’ or whatever it is you fancy, I’m sure plenty of things will come up.

Personally I’m glad we have so many dietary choices today. I can remember the boring old days of the 50’s only too well.

And far be it from me to utter the B-word on here

the secret with scones is to keep the dough soft and dont handle it too much.Just mix flatten to required height cut straight down with no twisting and bake at a high heat for a few minutes.
I love cooking its been my main hobby all my life ,I love to try new things but sometimes I go retro and give the family things like cheese pudding ,or steak diane .My GD and I made a lovel Black Forest Gateau on Sunday ,she likes to make things she hasn't seen before .

annsixty I agree that chillies seem to be in almost everything when I go out to eat , whether in the local pub or in a restaurant everything is spiced up. I can't eat anything spicy for health reasons, and it's annoying that out of a whole menu in some places there might just be 2 dishes that have no spice in them, fish & chips or ham and chips, it's very frustrating !!

Surely we should know all these old fashioned hearty recipes off by heart by now?

DH would be happy never to see a meal containing any of the ingredients in the OP but life's tough....I'm the cook!

Quorn Shepherd's Pie tonight with celeriac mash.

I agree about chillies. I absolutely hate the taste of chillies and so many recipes include them.

My favourite cookbook is The dairy book of home cookery, first published in 1968, my edition is from the early nineties. Falling to bits now, but I’d never throw it out. Great recipes with simple store cupboard ingredients

Grannyknot, I agree. My daughter and her husband have been vegetarian for a couple of years and are now becoming vegan. Nothing against vegetarians, but I’m now finding it almost impossible to cook something that my husband and I, daughter and son-in-law and grand-children will eat when they come for lunch or dinner. They often bring their own food across now, and it defeats the purpose of the joy of cooking for my family.

We tend to have at least 1 or 2 "traditional" meals each week, cottage pie, chicken pie, a roast, Quiche, sausage & Mash and a firm favourite home cooked ham, egg and chips.

We also try to have 1 "new recipe" each week as we have accumulated so many cookery books over the years.

Spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, chilli con carne, curry and stir-frys have become family favourites also.

We are so fortunate in the UK to have such a varied amount of ingredients from all over the world available to us and so many different restaurants.