General Chat

I got my Mother's cooking notebooks (it runs in the family, I've got two!).

But she didn't write down her recipe for Turkey & Ham croquettes (something a bit different after Christmas lol)

Does anyone have a recipe?

Now,it is not very hard to turn out a roast,although I couldn't make a decent Yorkshire to save my life.

So, why did they need to get up at some ungodly hour and slave away for hours on end in a room full of steam every Sunday?

What were they doing?

On holiday with my mum last month, my sister & I quizzed her about cooking tripe. We'd never got it right.
We (like she did), cooked it with onions & carrots, but we cooked it in milk.
It appears my mum cooked it in water (couldn't afford milk) and added cornflour!!!!
All these years of trying to convince people it was delicious, and we'd cooked it wrong!!

.....now, where can I buy tripe?........

I have to say that anything I cook that mother used to do taste different because I can cook :-S So yes it tastes different because she never taught me to cook my Gran and Dad did. ,,,Mind it has taken me many many years to be able to cook a yorkshire pudding :-D

LOL Island......wondered why I had an early taste for fags !!


Packed up 25yrs ago.......but can still smell them Saffron buns ... ;-)

I can't say my Mum never smoked, she used to have one cigarette at Christmas ( my Dad smoked until he was 60.) But that was one cigarette a year Lol!!

LOL Marilyn :-D It must be the fag ash that is the missing secret ingredient, there you go Ann :-D ;-) :-D

My Gran used to make Saffron cakes & buns.....but never weighed anything all got dropped into the bowl !!

She tipped the currents from the packet, and used to give me a handful to eat.

However the smell of those Saffron Buns will be be with me forever they tasted ..Yummy.


Forgot to say she always had a fag in her mouth whilst cooking !!!..... Ouch !!!!
:-S

Oh goddness Ann, forgetting to put salt in the water would throw my mother into a panic :-0 Like you, I haven't salted the veg water for years and nobody asks for it at the table.

My Mum did cook her veg well, not slushy but not underdone. And to this day I do not like my veg underdone. One thing I have never done that she did though was add bicarb to cabbage to keep the colour. I think she did stop that in later life though. And she always salted the veg, I did when first married but for many years have not added salt at all when cooking veg.

My mums stews were lovely too. Her secret was Foster Clarks soup cubes. 2 oxtail and 1 tomato were the basis of her gravy together with a Co-OP own brand gravy powder.

Like others she dint weigh anything . she weighed by instinct.

We used to love when she was making the Christmas Puddings , all having a stir and a wish. She would put stout in for the liquid and included grated carrots too. They would be steamed for 12 hours. Six to start with then stored for a couple of weeks in the cold dark cellar . then on Christmas day they got another 6 hour steam. They were very dark ,moist and very rich. delicious!!

:-D :-D :-D your mum could have cut a bit off and put him in the pot :-D :-D :-D

Whoops Island, a typing error. But you knew what I meant. LOLOL

Julia in Derbyshire

:-0 your dad was what Julia??? :-0 :-D

Ann,
I think cooking was just done differently then, timing,preparation, pan, food source plus the secret ingredient that was never divulged :-D Your children will probably say the same of you.

Teresa,
My mother did 'melt in the mouth veg' too :-0 good cake/pastry cook though.

My Mum could not cook, something both my elder sister and I are agreed on. But, she had little incentive. Dad was a vegetarian,so I suppose as long as they had a hot meal everyday they were happy in that department.
Mum's family on her mother's side were Master Bakers, and her mother made celebration cakes for the local bakery, now a depot of Warbertons.
On her father's side, they were all good healthy hearty cooks, with a vast array of food available from the estate where they lived.
So, she had been used to fine foods.
Her pastry was so 'short', my OH could not eat it. So, sister and I were never taught to cook.
I learned all about food, cooking and presentation when I went to work, when children were small, in some of the finest eating houses in Derbyshire, at that time.
Sister taught hereself to cook when, as a nurse with three young children and a husband to support in Theological college, it was a case of making ends meet, and having to supply 'teas' for fellow students.
Mum could not knit, sew, darn embroider, or crochet, and big sister and I taught ourselves, all of those also.
But, my God, could our mother work hard, on shifts, in a knitwear factory.

Julia in Derbyshire

That is good Brenda, my Mum always thought that those left on their own didn't live as long as couples because they didn't look after themselves (i.e. cook good food). I am sure that it takes an effort sometimes but worth it in the long run.

Ann I think our mothers had to be very innovative,making the best of what was available.My mother was a wonderful cook and we always had nourishing meals.
She was a lovely pastry cook,one of my favourites was wimberry(or bilberry pie) and her egg custard tart and the pastry always stayed at the base!

She got the most out of the meat ration during the war,rendering down the fat etc to roast the potatoes and the bones for a stew or soup with the veg out of the garden
I learned a lot from mother and I still cook even for myself now I'm on my own.

Brenda x

Don't have the luxury of remembering Mum's cooking other than rice pudding which my brothers and I used to fight over as to who got the skin..lolol

I do remember stepmother #1 and her cooking, you could suck it all through your teeth :-0

Thank gawd I lived with my sister at 12 and she could cook :-D

Maybe that is the answer, not how they made it but what they put into it. Or maybe with our health consciousness it is just that things like packet soups etc have ingredients changed. Like baked beans and tomato ketchup don't taste the same because salt and sugar have been reduced or removed.

I do know why my roasts are different. Mum always used dripping on the meat and the potatoes were cooked in the dripping. I use a very small amount of olive oil and cook the roast potatoes separately. My roasts are enjoyed and are fine but don't have the depth of taste I suppose.

Hmm...

Mums Bonfire Night Soup ( I do remember that took 2 days to prepare), her Cheese Straws and Chocolate Truffles at Christmas

If only she'd written the recipes down. Lost forever. :-0