My mum’s cooking, salmon for the poor

My mother's pastry was not very good, she readily admitted it and always said that mine was much better.
I have two sisters and mum once whispered in my ear that she liked Christmas at my house best as I am the best cook but not to tell my sisters, I never will.

My great grandmother, born in 1870 worked as a cook in the house of a family of seven.At the age of 20 she was their only cook with a younger girl caring for the children, I think they shared their duties.She passed on her cooking skills to my grandmother and my mother, I can never come up to their skills.Both my mother and grandmother baked and cooked all the food we ate, my grandmother never had what she called ''bought cake'' in her house, she deemed that the height of laziness.When she died we had to set about baking cakes for her funeral wake as my mother said she would come and haunt us if we bought cakes in!
My mother's Yorkshire puddings were to die for, she always used lard in the tin, and get it smoking hot before the batter, which had stood for an hour, went in.My grandma's meat pies were her speciality.She baked gorgeous bread, always proving the dough by a coal fire.
I have these lovely memories from my childhood, my cooking is passible but never been up to their standards.When I was at school, my grandma never asked me about my acadamic progress, it was always ''How are you getting on in cookery?''

WRT "Salmon for the Poor"... Growing up in the North of Scotland, we weren't exactly poor, but we certainly ate a lot of salmon - courtesy of the small gill net my father used to lay out discreetly at low tide on the shore near where we lived.

My mum, born in 1909, told me they bought fresh salmon, very cheap, to feed the cat; they much preferred tinned salmon, eaten with a salad. I was taught to make pastry with lard, and I still buy it and use it occasionally. Also suet for dumplings.

Living in the Scottish Borders my mother not infrequently found a salmon (or sometimes pheasant) wrapped in newspaper at the kitchen door from a grateful/ generous/ friendly local.
“Poached Salmon” then would be on the menu.
A city girl she had to learn to grit her teeth and deal with the innards and also hanging and plucking a pheasant!

Allira

Esmay

My grandma made wonderful pastry.
She had cold hands and a light touch .
If making pastry I cool my hands in a bowl of water with ice cubes .
Grandma used lard or half lard to margarine or butter .
She used as little water as possible.
I have to admit to using Jus roll these days !

I used to buy Tesco readymade pastry which was made with all Normandy butter but now they've changed it to rapeseed oil and palm oil.

Why would Tesco use French butter??

I* make pastry with hard Stork. TBH I prefer it to all-butter pastry, though to be fair I’m not a great fan of pastry anyway.

*Though when I say I, I really mean my trusty old Kenwood Chef. 🙂

I remember having 'rock salmon' I was led to believe it wasn't salmon at all- can anyone enlighten me?

I remember a day when things like pig cheeks etc were food the poor ate- now you pay hundreds for 'poor' food in pretentious restaurants- can't imagine the price mark up on these dishes that the poor could buy for a few pennies...

I've just googled it Keepingquiet and apparently it is a small shark.. also known by several other names huss being one..

it's very popular as it is quite meaty and takes up spices well..

Oh thank you Pascal30! Meaty? Probably- maybe in those days people didn't like to say they were eating shark- though I've eaten it as an adult.

My mum would never have served it with spices though- she was hopeless at putting any flavour into food at all- the blander the better lol!

I lived near a river in the 1950s where Salmon was caught in nets. All gone now.

My mum was no good at making pastry ( nor am I) but my mother-in-law would knock up an apple pie in no time and it was delicious. Mum made a fruit cake every week. It was lovely. Her Victoria sponges were as flat as a pancake though.

Cabbie21

My mum was no good at making pastry ( nor am I) but my mother-in-law would knock up an apple pie in no time and it was delicious. Mum made a fruit cake every week. It was lovely. Her Victoria sponges were as flat as a pancake though.

Mum and Granny made delicious patry. Cold butter was key. It's a bit more difficult as vegan and no copious quantities of butter.

Rock salmon is another name for dogfish.
Also known as huss or rock eel .
It does look like a shark and is one .
They tend to have nematode worms in their gills,which has put me off eating them.
But now they are an endangered species and shouldn't be sold .

One of the things my mother used to cook when money was tight was slow cooked beef short ribs. The butchers used to practically give them away. They were absolutely delicious. These days they have come to the attention of high end restaurants and cost an absolute fortune, if you can find a butcher that sells them. I serve them sometimes as a treat.

My mum baked every Monday. An apple tart, a custard tart(for dad), scones, coffee kisses, jam tarts, oaty biscuits and custard creams, all out of the Bero book. Once it was gone, that was it until the following Monday

I still have that Bero book GrandmaB
Sepia photographs, the milk chocolate cake was divine.
A few years back I sent for an up to date version but it didn’t hold the same appeal.
Actually I never bake now, I have lost the appetite, in both ways , for it.

UTBB I still make the milk chocolate cake. It's the best chocolate cake recipe ever!

I learnt to bake with an old cloth bound cookery book.
I started at age four .
There wasn't much on the TV and far less distractions .
The recipes are tried and tested .
I've made them over and over again despite having much swisher cookery books with fabulous eye watering photographs .
I once made scones the Nigella way .
You could have fractured your jaw biting onto them and the dogs refused them.
I don't have the Be Ro book , but I'd like it .

I've just Googled Beero Milk Chocolate Cake the recipe is there.
It's under the heading Lavender and Lovage.

Coley has also been known as Rock Salmon (when I was young). Very hard to find these days as it is "out of fashion". The name was changed, probably because huss also got known as Rock Salmon, plus, it isn't a type of Salmon. Huss is a different, eel-like fish, quite glutinous and with a thick backbone. Coley is similar to Cod but slightly darker flesh and not as dry - but dryer than Basa, which seems to be replacing it. Basa is a type of cat-fish