F.H.B

BigBopper

I always buy too much food, I would rather guests take some home with them than not have enough in.

Family hold back has very little to do with how much food is being offered to guests. It's about good manners, waiting until the family are sure guests have all they need, before taking food for themselves.

shysal, my Yorkshire student landlady used to give me Yorkshire pudding - with sultanas in! - and gravy as a first course with a roast. I found it very odd at first but did enjoy it.

I always buy too much food, I would rather guests take some home with them than not have enough in.

It was definitely used at family gatherings when I was a child. My father was one of 16 so the covered snooker table was always groaning with food which always got eaten. Mum used to bake some buns to take but modestly called them 'a few mouldy buns that I had left over'

My mother's large family were in Yorkshire, where we ate Yorkshire pudding and gravy as a starter to fill us up, then it was FHB for the roast beef main course.

Thanks Aldom certainly never heard it in East Anglia my grandparents were from EA and Leicestershire and I have picked up a few saying from them but no never come across this one.
Perhaps we didn’t have many visitors !!!

I’ve only ever read of this in novels. I suppose that despite usually being pretty skint, my mother would ensure that if guests were expected, there would be enough to eat.

Unexpected guests would be a different matter, but I can recall hardly any of those when I was living at home. I dare say it’d be a case of ‘more potatoes’!

BlueBelle FHB is used here in the South East of England. So, no, not a Northern expression especially.

I grew up with FHB! Tried it with my family, to no avail!!

Yes, we had FHB.
My mother got into terrible trouble as a small child when warned there were not enough biscuits to go round and she must wait until last, for announcing as the plate was offered: 'That's a very nice pink biscuit but it's nothing to do with me!'

Not an expression I’d heard until recent years but I’m a notorious over-caterer. Think of an amount and triple it.

My dh tells of how he used to wind his sister up when it came to the last piece of cake or a biscuit. He’d tell her he’d just licked it and she would squeal and run off to tell their mother. He said it was worth getting into trouble for. 😂

Never ever heard this used nor the boarding house one
Are they Northern expressions ?

My mother used FHB when I was little - probably came out of the post-war rationing period. Also the 'boarding house reach' comment.

I have heard of FHB but it wasn't practiced in our house. It was everyone for themselves but my mum did make lots of food if we had visitors so nobody went without. I had to watch my brother though as he would sneak cakes into his pocket and being a sweet little sister I had to tell mum.

Yes, definitely one of my
mother’s along with the ‘boarding house reach’ if anyone rudely reached across the table for the salt or whatever rather than asking people to ‘please pass the salt’….

Charleygirl5

A new one for me.

Me too Charleygirl

However, if you take the last biscuit you'll end up as 'an old maid'.

Some would say that's not a bad thing to aspire to at all 😃

Gosh Eddie - I had completely forgotten about FHB. We used to use it all the time (handed down from former husband's parents). As we no longer entertain, I doubt that it will be necessary!!

Oh yes, and still used by my adult DD. Also its counterpart PMO - plenty more outside (i.e in the kitchen when eating with guests in the dining room).
BiglouisMy elder sister once played the meanest trick in the world when we were about 4 and 6. We liked what were called Lincoln biscuits made up of circles of tiny dots of biscuit which we used to nibble one by one. One day she said I'm going to eat mine all at once. I said So am I, and did so. Then she produced hers from under the table and starting nibbling round the edge. Oh the agony, oh the fury.

We had a rule for dividing food that if I cut it my brother chose which bit to have and vice versa. We very quickly learned to cut evenly!

biglouis - have you and your sister made peace now ? I see sibling rivalry at its best (or worst ?)

I have said it in the past at buffets - when we had children of say, between ages 10 and late teens as they could eat for England!

I also used to let them cut cake/pudding slices in turn. The one who cuts the cake has last "dibs" - this helped them learn to cut things fairly - obvious smaller people needed help but they did on the whole share nicely!

Ive never heard of this but it puts me in mind of a dirty little trick my "golden princess" sister would play. She would eat the last cookie or biscuit and leave the empty pack in the cupboard. Then after the meal she would ask my mother in a "special little voice" if she could have a cookie. When she found the empty packet she would begin to cry and accuse me of eating the last one. That inevitably meant a whalloping for me. Not for eating the last cookie but for leaving the empty packet and being too lazy to throw it out. Of course her word was always taken over mine.

I got in from school before my sister so I learned to check the cupboard for any empty packets, jars or cannisters before she arrived. Last time she tried the trick I chimed in that there were no more biscuits because she had eaten the last one that morning and leaft the empty packet. I was rewarded by a look of the purest haterd from her. She never tried that one again.

She had the ear of my parents but I was a lot brighter than her.

Doodledog

I was brought up with FHB too, as well as never taking the last 'thing' on the plate until it was clear that nobody wanted it, and only then could we say 'is it ok if I have the last biscuit?'

Oh yes we had that as well when my brother would promptly chime in that he wanted it too!

I was brought up with FHB too, as well as never taking the last 'thing' on the plate until it was clear that nobody wanted it, and only then could we say 'is it ok if I have the last biscuit?'

A new one for me.

When doing catering at a Church function it was always SHB (staff hold back), at home usually MDHB (mum and dad hold back) especially when there were unplanned for children's friends to feed.
Just read that again, the children's friends weren't unplanned, just the feeding of them