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Tilney St Lawrence school lunch in the 1960s

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NeneDave Tue 10-Apr-18 10:26:02

I'm hoping someone can help me...
From 1961 to 1967 I attended Tilney St Lawrence primary school in West Norfolk. The school cook was Mrs Griib.
Our school lunch menu - which I enjoyed immensely, by the way - included a weekly salad, which was always accompanied by Mrs Griib's own "salad cream"... only it wasn't remotely like Heinz's familiar version.
It was white and had a strong, distinctive smell and a very sharp taste, which I found delicious. She made it in a great bowl and you got a large spoonful on the side of your plate.
I have never tasted anything like it, before or since, and I would dearly love to know how to recreate it.
Sorry if I'm repeating myself, I stress that it wasn't anything like salad cream or mayonnaise or any other dressing I've tasted since. It was something altogether different.
I don't know whether it was Mrs Griib's personal recipe or whether Norfolk's education authority issued this recipe for salad dressing? I doubt if it was the latter, though, because when I went up to the local Grammar School in 1967 they dished up ordinary (but watered down) salad cream (like runny Heinz).
Maybe there's a fellow ex-Tilney pupil on here who can recall it and, better still, share their on how to make it! I'd be very grateful if you could...

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hildajenniJ Tue 10-Apr-18 13:33:25

I see that nobody has responded. Home made salad cream is easy to make. James Martin has a good recipe. My mother used to make something similar in the '50's and '60's
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/salad_cream_31658/amp

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NeneDave Tue 10-Apr-18 13:44:29

Thank you HildajenniJ for your response - I'm most grateful. That recipe sounds really tasty and I will definitely try it.

However, the ingredients required suggest to me that in the austerity-affected early 1960s a rural primary school cook would be unlikely to have "luxuries" like fresh cream at her disposal. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the mystery goo that I'm pining for tasted and smelled nothing like salad cream. It definitely had a very sharp, astringent taste and smell that I find hard to describe more half a century later, but which I know I would recognise instantly if I was ever to encounter it again.

Sadly I do not know whether the cook concerned (Mrs Griib) is still alive, but she was about the same age as my mother (95) and Mum is still with us (and still living in Tilney) so you never know...

Anyone from Tilney school of 1950s or 60s vintage reading this??

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NeneDave Thu 12-Apr-18 14:14:27

I'm sure that this particular recipe for "salad cream" must have been on the menu at other primary schools in the 1960s.

Perhaps you can remember something similar from your own school in that era?

Can nobody out there help on this, please?

Many thanks,

DP

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Auntieflo Thu 12-Apr-18 14:21:38

Could it have been a German recipe with ascetic acid added?

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Situpstraight Thu 12-Apr-18 14:24:56

Go onto Facebook and type in the area where you went to school and ask anyone who might have gone to the school to comment, you might get all of your old school mates to look you up, they might know the recipe.

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Jalima1108 Thu 12-Apr-18 14:36:58

Your school could have a FB group

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NeneDave Thu 12-Apr-18 16:12:29

Great idea! Thank you. I have just gone to Facebook and done exactly that. Fingers crossed...

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