FOOD GLOROUS FOOD

[johnnyowen]

If you had to name one item of food that always reminds you of your childhood..what would it be..mine would be sausages and beans in a tin

[BABS]

HiJonny

dont know how old you are but the food I remember most from when I was young ,was bread and warm milk with sugar on ,sounds disgusting but it was nice.


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[johnnyowen]

I am 54..i remember sugar butties and dripping on toast..the toast of course done in front of the fire.

[BABS]

JOHNNY

DONT GET ME GOING ON SUGAR BUTTIES ,I STILL TRY ONE NOW AND AGAIN ,BUT THEY DONT TASTE THE SAME AS WHEN I WAS A KID

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[johnnyowen]

my auntie angie used to live on sugar butties...my nanna used to give me dripping on toast followed by ambrosia rice pudding

[BABS]

does anybody remember curds and way I think it was called,

it was cheese and milk put in the oven and topped with tomato

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[Lisa]

Hi Johnny, I remember door-steps done on an open fire and covered in BOD (Bottom of the Dripping) - delicious. I also remember POBS similar to Babs- Bread in milk and sugar. And, not forgetting, REAL Rice Pudding. I still make it the old way with milk, pudding rice, sugar, cream and topped with Nutmeg. Beats the tins of rice pudding any day... Does anyone remember drinking cabbage water? When we were young my mum used to give us porridge oats with brown sugar for us to dip our fingers in. Also dried cocoa powder with sugar as a dip in a newpaper cone. Sweets and chocolates were a real treat and only ona Friiday when my dad bought them on his way home from work.

[johnnyowen]

ONE THING IVE NEVER GROWN OUT OF LISA IS CABBAGE BUTTIES WITH LOADS OF BUTTER ON THE BREAD.........REALLY FANCY ONE NOW AND IVE JUST HAD MY TEA

[Lisa]

Hi Johnny, Never thought of that but it sounds delicious. Dont get me started.......or I'll be cooking cabbage butties tonight.

[BABS]

I REMEMBER THE COCOA AND SUGER,
THE RICE PUDDING ,I HAVENT MADE IT FOR MY SONS SINCE THEY LEFT HOME ,ONLY MAKE IT ON SPECIAL OCCATIONS WHEN THEY ALL COME FOR DINNER,NOTHING LIKE HOME MADE RICE PUD.
WE USED TO HAVE WHITE CABBAGE ON BREAD.
POTATO PIE ISNT THE SAME AS WHEN ITS DONE IN THE OLD OVEN THAT WAS AT THE SIDE OF THE FIREPLACE,THE CRUST WAS BRILL.
DO YOU REMEMBER AT THE CHIPPY ASKING FOR THE BATTER SCRATCHINGS HOPING THERE MIGHT BE A BIT OF FISH IN IT.

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[Lisa]

Hi Babs, Remember the Fish and Chip shop called Franks? I remember the Fish Bits - probably not good for us but BOY did they taste good, What did they cost 1penny?

[Lisa]

Tommy, ::)What makes you think I'm not a good wife already?

[BABS]

Hi LISA

WE USED TO GO SWIMMING EVERY SUNDAY MORNING WITH FRANK FROM THE CHIPPIE

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[tony38337]

Food from my childhood.

Most kids learn from their Mothers about cooking, mostly girls but sometimes boys too. I came to my cake & milk when I was seventeen and moved into my first flat on my own and I realised that I didn't really know how to cook a proper meal. Having lost my Mam young I guess I hadn't completed my training for life and I can remember doing my first grocery shopping. In 1962 it was still mostly the Grocers rather than Supermakets, so you could ask questions about what to buy to make your meals. It wasn't until I sat down with my shopping at my feet and I began to think about all the gastronomic miracles that my Mam used to perform. I set out to try and replicate each meal as I remembered it. One of my favourites was steak & onions. All I could remember was that it was cooked in a frying pan and the wonderful aroma as it simmered in the gravy. I never did replicate Mam's steak & onions but I don't do a bad'un. My next was tater hash, traditionally made with Sunday leftovers, it's an easy recipe to adjust to personal taste because the only imprtant ingredient is a Mothers Love. Next on my list was Lancashire Hot Pot. This one is a very important dish of our heritage. In the 1960's I remember the Chefs from the Cafe Royal and The Midland arguing about the correct meat for Hot Pot, "worrapairapillocks" Traditionally (and I did a lot of research at the time) the meat was Mutton and the reason for that was that it was the cheapest and went the furthest, bearing in mind that steak when I was a kid was poor mans fair. Now then Hot Pot, I could remember that you sliced the onions, spuds & carrots and arranged them in layers together with the meat, and I could remember that you ended up with a double layer of spuds on the top which you finished with butter (and would go brown & crispy) I clearly remember drooling at the smell from the oven and thinking that this memory turned out to be the easiest to remember........... What dissapointment when I came to tuck in, I had made the slices too thick and they hadn't cooked, "Al dente" in those days meant raw! I didn't do bad though I had remembered in principal. Another quest was my Mam's potato cakes. She made the most sublime little rounds of cullinary heaven that actually tasted of real potato. After 45 years I still don't have a recipe, more a rough guide and the knowlege that the variety of spud is the most important ingredient.

Happy childhood food memories, and d'you know? I never remember going hungry as a child, in the days of rationing and I suppose hardship, then that in it's self is a miracle. Mam's eh?

Tony T

[kath]

hi tony
see watching your mam cook made it look easy...till you had a go yourself..
i thought the same when i left home..cooked the way i thought my mam did it..
it was yuk..
took time .but i learnt..
cook just like my mam now....perfect....

kathx

[BABS]

HI TONY
How are you today?.

I dont think any of us can really say that we make something as good as our mums ,there are times its nearly as good,but it was always something special if your mum made it.
You seem to have mastered the arts of cooking alright.
some men are useless at cooking .
my mum never had to weigh anything like they do now but it was always spot on wasnt it.
I dont think there is anything nicer than walking into somebodys house and smelling home cooking ,cakes smell extra special. when I got married we moved in the next street to my mum and dad had a neighbour who had watched me grow up and then my children grow up,she was always baking .I called her auntie and my kids called her auntie,she and her husband had never had children,so she was like an auntie to us all ,everyweek without fail she bake and bring me an apple pie with fresh cream to put on it. I have never made an apple pie that tastes as good as hers ever.

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[Lisa]

All the wondrous appliances that today's women have in the kitchen and yet they still buy ready-to-eat meals at M&S. Cant understand it....

[Lisa]

No But have thought of doing a course in Acupuncture to add to my Diploma. Will that do?

[tony38337]

Hi Tommy, Where have I been?

To put it in a nutshell I have been fitting a new bathroom and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You could say I desperately needed a Plumber, anyway all the pots are in now it's just a case of finishing off.

Tony T

[tony38337]

Every time we go back to Manchester we always stock up on black puddings, proper Manchester muffins and real boiled ham, for some reason there is nothing in the world that compare with fresh Manchester bread and proper northern ham.

Tony T.

[BABS]

Hi Tony

My son goes every week to Bury Market always has a black pudding while he is there and brings back some for us at home to eat.
There is nothing like our muffins ,I used live next door to a lad that worked in a muffin bakery,every saturday he used to drop off a tray full of hot muffins for me and his mum.
I could not wait for them to cool I used to have one with best butter on right away.He also used to bring jam doughnuts ,he always said I have put extra jam in for you Babs.

I am suprised you carnt get good boiled ham near you.
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[Lisa]

Babs, Why did we call it BEST BUTTER? I remember my mum asking me to go to the shops for best butter. She couldnt answer me when I asked "Why is it best, is there worse?". I could never resist the temptation to take a bite out of it......which often got me into trouble.

[linda]

Lisa you asked about drinking the cabbage water I only last thursday gave a cup to my fella he loves it but when we were little my dad always said if you drank the cabbage water you wouldn't get spots my two brother and sister drank it I didn't. They got spots I didn't so that one old wives tale that was rubbish

[Lisa]

Hi Linda, Loved your story about the cabbage water. Do you know, I've never had it since I left home. I used to hang around the kitchen when mum was cooking waiting for her to save it for me. She mashed the cabbage with butter, salt and pepper and that added to the flavour, I think. Apparently, you shouldnt eat cabbage if you have thyroid problems, so my book says. But I still love cabbage. Do you remember Cabbage and Ribs?

[marie fernandes]

Hi Lisa, just logged on Sunday 12.50 the weirdest thing seeing your comments about ribs and cabbage. Had a bad night last night - feverish etc. (not with drink I might add) dreaming and restless. Great big cauldron of cabbage steaming away and bacon ribs sticking out of it!! It is making my mouth water thinking about it now. But how funny to just come on the line and see your comments. Now and again do make ribs and cabbage also bubble and squeak.
Cabbage if any over from dinner, mixed with mashed potato and a little corned beef or bacon mixed and put in frying pan fried lightly on both sides. I dont tend to put any fat in pan because the mash potato has lots of marg. in it. My six children have all left home now and married so they miss out on Mums food. Most of the young ones today will not know how to make apple pie, stew and dumplings etc. Its all packaged food these days, with the exception of salad. And Babs item reminded me of Bury Market. I live quite close to it in Heywood and have gone shopping there Wed/Fri/Sat most times since I moved here from Manchester l962. The black puddings sold there are the best in the land. You can get fatty ones and lean ones. My husband prefers the fatty ones. Anyway my shopping jaunts have been put on hold for a while as I am on crutches and have to use a wheelchair on most occasions now. Since my accident in India last November where I injured my leg very badly after two days there of a 6 week holiday.
Bye for now.
Marie Fernandes

[Lisa]

Hi Marie, Was your feverishness because of the dream or the ribs and cabbage? Are you ok now? Its got me fancying ribs and cabbage now but I will just have to settle for chicken. Sorry to hear about your accident in India. What a shame it was so early on in the holiday too. It makes one glad of our National Health Service when an accident happens abroad, although lately the service abroad appears to be better than the service we get here. Now there's another Thread to start. All us Mancunians seem to dream about the food we used to eat. We were never fat even though we ate dripping and cakes laced with butter. Maybe because we were so active during the day as children.

[BABS]

Hi LISA

My mum always had loose butter which they cut and weighed for you at the shop.
Ribs and cabbage dont start Joe on about that we passed a shop the other day and he said ,I have not had them for ages.

The reason why he has not had cabbage and ribs for ages,because BABS hates the smell of them and cabbage.
My mum used to make us drink the cabbage water ,I feel sick thinking about it.(can you get them in boil in the bag so I dont have to smell them )
I love both green and white cabbage to eat but not to cook,put loads of butter and pepper on it.
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[BABS]

Hi Marie


Sorry to hear you are still having trouble with your leg it must have been a nasty accident to affect you this long,hope you dont get a lot of pain from it.
The black puddings I like are the lean ones,my kids and my husband prefer the fatty ones.
Did you ever make your children apple dumplings and custard I used to love them when my mum made them.
and baked apples in the oven with jam or syrup in where the cores would have been.

I can feel a baking day coming on

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[clancy]

Babs when you boil cabbage or ribs pour 2 table sspoons of clear vinegar into the pan as well it takes the smell away you don't have to measure just pour in and guess tommy oxoxo

[BABS]

Hi TOMMY

ARE YOU SURE IT WILL WORK ,WONT THE CABBAGE AND RIBS SMELL OF VINEGAR THEN.I WILL TRY NEXT WEEK IF IT DOESNT WORK YOU ARE( DEAD MAN WALKING)
CHRIS MUST BE ZONKED OUT IF SHE HAS NOT BEEN ON YET ,SHE MIGHT LEAVE IT TILL TOMORROW,I DONT THINK SHE CAN GO TO WORK HER LEG IS THAT BAD.

I SEE LISA HAS VISITORS FOR TEA MIGHT NOT BE ON TILL TOMORROW EITHER IF THEY GO HOME LATE,BUT SHE MIGHT JUST SLIP ON TO SEE IF CHRIS HAS COME ON SITE.

I AM ONLY STAYING ON A SHORT WHILE AM HAVING AN EARLY NIGHT DIDNT GET MUCH SLEEP LAST NIGHT ,HAD HEADACHE WHEN I WOKE UP ,I WILL HAVE TO TRY TO SLEEP IT OFF IN A DARK ROOM.

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