School Dinners

Liver (ox?) that appeared to have a green tinge to it, disgusting.

hated school dinners at first primary school, the food was cooked elsewhere and brought in to us in large containers, many a mouthful ended up in a hankie. when we moved my new school had great food - manchester tart, cheese pie with lovely mash and many more favourites. then when at grammar school back to awful food, only stuck it one term. luckily my nan, who had been a school cook, a very good one at that,lived close enough for me and a friend to go to hers for our meal except on a wednesday when a group of us would go to the Cousins confectioners for a sandwich and cake or the local chippy. havent had manchester tart for years

The dinners at my primary school were ‘scrummy’; secondary school not so good, but certainly not awful. There was no choice, but it was all good food. My grandson gets to choose his school lunches, a week in advance! I would love a good recipe for Gypsy Tart.

Primary school time I went home for lunch and in fact my mum even had a couple of extra children to feed - both only children and faddy eaters, one a friend of mine, the other a friend of my brothers, both of their mums worked and funnily enough, they ate whatever my mum put in front of them !
From the age of 11, I went to school in the nearest town 10 miles away, and school dinners. Quite enjoyed them, especially the spam fritters and chips and the roast dinner - amazing roasties! Jelly and fake cream on a hot plate, rice pudding and chocolate crispy, semolina with jam and tapioca that stuck to the plate like superglue!
But the one thing I remember is something that is a Bedfordshire unique dessert - chocolate toothpaste - a pastry base with a chocolate mousse , topped by a swirl of fake cream ! Yum! My son has made it since and there is a couple of bakeries you can buy a slice from too !

Manchester tart was my absolute favourite, it also included bananas in it. I didn't see it for years after I left school but thankfully I can find it in a few places now! Loved chocolate sponge and pink custard, hated green snot pie (gooseberry tart) and liver?

My mum worked so I had to stay for school dinners, which I loved.
She once asked me what my favourite dish was that I had at school. Mince, mashed potato and baked beans was the immediate answer. Things we never had at home. So she made it for me and I hated it! I’m certain she would have used butcher’s best mince, potato mashed with butter and Heinz beans rather than the dehydrated, industrial cheap stuff the school cooked with, but still her healthy, undoubtedly delicious food didn’t stand a chance.

My mum worked in my primary school kitchen when I was a child. School dinners were tasty then (apart from liver ?) .
If there were leftovers the ladies were allowed to bring them home. So occasionally I would get the same thing twice a day!! It was great. Who wouldn't love spam fritters twice a day, or treacle tart and custard again?? Yum yum!!

The only acceptable things at my expensive private school were Gypsy Tart and hard boiled egg and sardine salad. the rest was gross.

One Friday (didn't get meat on Fridays) when there was a national vegetable shortage we were given macaroni cheese, chips and bread rolls. So healthy for overweight teenage girls.

Pretty poor legacy given the fees.

I stayed for school dinners on the first week at being at "big" school and I hated it, so I walked the one mile to my mam's cafe and had lunch there. I never went back again because I have never tasted food so horrible in all of my life and I am not a faddy eater.

Who remembers Frogspawn? Aka Tapioca!! Then there were the prunes, apart from those things, I seem to remember enjoying school dinners, especially the Concrete and Pink Custard! Happy Days!

I remember very little of school dinners other than tapioca which i hated and once a week getting half a slice of brown bread (which I loved) with whatever was served. I only had school meals in Infant School, mum had my brother as I moved into Juniors so I went home along with my brother and Auntie, who is the same age as me and in the same class. Once I moved to Secondary School I used to go to my maternal grandma's for lunch as she only lived 5 minutes walk from my school.........Dinners there were delicious, especially Wednesday which was baking day.

I went to a few different schools and really enjoyed the dinners in all of them.

The roasties at my secondary school were the best I have ever had and the jam roly poly...... !

I loved school dinners. The mashed potato was devine. We had lovely home made pies etc., and puddings were delicious. This was in the fifties and sixties. The dinner ladies cooked from scratch in those days.

Gypsy tart, now you’re talking! Did you go to school in Kent Craftycat? Bit of a local delicacy there, can even get it in Bakeries now. I didn’t like many of the dinners, too much greasy gray mince. Liked the puds, especially GT and the stodgy ones. Hated tapioca, semolina, rice pudding and anything else that looked like something not nice.

I do remember being very disappointed the year in secondary school that I queued over an hour for Christmas Dinner - but when I got to the front of the queue they had run out of Turkey and roast potatoes and were serving (very tough) ham with boiled potatoes and some sort of dreadful industrial piccalilli!

My kids went to school in Sweden where parents can eat for free (and spend time in class) if they want a couple of times each term. The food was pretty good with a huge salad buffet (around 8 different things) and homemade bread every day - and also on the buffet a choice of hot dishes and soup.

I rarely stayed for school dinners, either going home or occasionally having packed lunch. The Ines I remember, though, were pretty awful. As Jane10 says, they were to be endured rather than enjoyed: lumpy mashed potatoes with black bits, dark green over cooked cabbage, semolina pudding and tapioca pudding (nicknamed frogspawn by us kids). Yuk!

Ines, not Ines.

Ones, not Ines!! (Fat finger syndrome) ?

Loved Gypsy Tart, never remember having chips at all, think we had roast potatoes once a week otherwise lumpy mash I still don't eat mash!

I liked school dinners but unfortunately contracted hepatitis from one, I was very ill for weeks and another girl ended up in hospital.

'Cement and tadpoles' is the one I particularly remember. A combination of semolina with a few raisins thrown in.

My school had wonderful food, cooked on the premises every day. Fresh greens, all the vegetables lightly steamed and the apricot pie was so delicious that girls would almost have a fight in the queue if it looked as if it were running out and they might not get some. In later years I worked in a school and the food almost made me weep; with better ovens, warming cupboards, kitchen gadgets and washing up machines unheard of in my childhood, those poor children got stone cold undercooked jacket potatoes with black patches, broccoli boiled so that only the stalks were left, nothing was ever hot, and frequently they were given a doughnut for dessert still frozen in the centre. It took a lot of campaigning to get the supplier changed; for some children on free meals this was their only 'hot' meal - what a travesty.

Has anyone mentioned Fly Cemetery? One of those things, like cheese pie, that only existed at school.

I loved all the puddings, including tapioca.

I HATED school meals. We had loads of salad as the school grew its own. It used to make me throw up till I worked out that I could put it in my pocket instead. Got very hungry with no food all day, though. Havn't eaten salad since
(52 years!)
p.s. There was often slugs in it too!!!