I yearn for good old fashioned recipes!

I'm inclined to agree with the OP. It all went tits up back in the seventies. Probably when foreign holidays really caught on. Magazine recipes just aint what they used to be.

Cant cope with all this new stuff, although it does taste good when someone else cooks it for me. And that's why I go for ready meals.

paddyann I have tried to replicate my mother’s cheese pudding, without success. I know there were eggs, cheese, milk, breadcrumbs, and mustard. Any suggestions? I’m wondering if it’s just that the cheese ain’t what it used to be.

I've never varied my meals to anything other than old-fashioned, the way my mum cooked and as long as there's a good gravy that's all that matters. Recipe books are wasted on me and I've got rid of them over the years.

I eat what my body is used to and anything different would probably alter the balance.
I'm not faddy nor would I refuse to try anything but I feel much happier with my " stick-in-the-mud " food.

I guess the Galloping Gourmet didn't do it for you then, Gonegirl?

Me neither. I was more of a Keith Floyd kind of gal.

I have just dug out an old Delia Smith book Frugal Food. Some of the recipes in there are very tasty. I especially love the potato, carrot and leek pie.

DH and I are in our early 70’s but still mainly like to eat the food we had when we married in 1968. I wasn’t a great cook then (may be some would say that hasn’t changed!) but I used the recipes my mum gave me. DH has always only ever wanted quite plain food and I have always cooked from scratch although we didn’t call it that in the 60’s, I bake and make as much as I can that we like to eat. For lunch DH has just finished the last portion of home made Christmas cake and a batch of marmalade is simmering on the cooker to be finished later. Our menu for this week has been
Sunday Beef casserole, mash and vegetables.
Monday Cheese omlette, chips, peas and sweetcorn.
Tuesday Cod fish fingers, potato bake and vegetables.
Wednesday Lamb casserole, mash, carrots, peas and broccoli.
Tonight will be either salmon or bacon and cheese pasty etc.
Neither of us eat between meals or snack but usually have just a very few pieces of chocolate each evening. We rarely eat out, DH has a glass of home brewed beer most evenings but neither of us are at all overweight and still quite active so think may be the ‘old fashioned’ way of eating is ok.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46865204

Anybody going to cut down on red meat?

Deborah Ross in the Times today said that she was given three copies of Ottolenghi's Simple cook book. She said that it was supposed to use only ingredients already in the larder. She really wonders if everyone's basic larder contains black garlic and swears that the only recipe book she would write is the resentful cookbook. She is very funny and I know I haven't conveyed this( just come out of hospital yesterday) but I do so agree with her. I remember Jamie Oliver's cook book with a few ingredients many of the recipes I like but never have the ingredients in. I still use Indsey Barehams One Pot Cooking as it cuts down on the washing up her regular column she uses seasonal for what's for dinner tonight.

Half of it is such poor quality anyway, you could sole your shoes with some of it. Apart from a good fillet steak !

Merlot I loved the Galloping Gourmet! Didn't bother with his cooking but it was a good show.

My MIL once gave me her pretty new copies of Nigel Slater's Real Food (unbeknownst to her, Nigel was already my god by then) on the basis "the recipes are too difficult".

DH swears my jaw hung open. I accepted the gift with effusive thanks since the pages of my much loved copy were somewhat stained by then. (Yes, I like the book in arm's reach when cooking a recipe; no, the poor books do not fare well on such treatment)

Real Food and Real Fast Food tend to use a pretty minimal ingredient list and all of it to be readily available. Real Fast Food in particular is brilliant for this.

By eating the likes of Charlie Bighams' ready meals, you can cut down on the amount of meat whilst still eating it almost daily. Good compromise.

Used to hurry home from our weekly shop at Bejams to watch the Galloping Gourmet.

I have my good old stand by recipes which I can prepare almost blindfold but it is sometimes it is good to try new things. So every so often I have a week where I look up 3/4 recipes I have not made before & cook them. I find doing it that way, in a block, makes me really think about what I fancy eating and if any extra effort is worth it!

Oh for a deep filled Homity Pie.
Anyone still make it?

Paddyann, hope I’m not treading on your toes, but I have a recipe for Cheese Pie, given to me by a friend, that is very tasty.

4-6 ozs cheese, grated
1oz marg
3/4 pint milk
2 eggs, beaten
2-3 slices white bread, cubed
Paprika
(optional, garlic paste)

1 round Pyrex dish
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees

1/. Using the one dish, for economy, (saving on the washing up)
2/. Place milk and marg, in dish, and microwave for 1 minute or so, sufficient to dissolve the marg. (if using garlic paste, add to milk before heating). Stir.
3/. Add cubed bread and lightly stir into the mix.
4/. Stir in the beaten eggs and 3/4 of the grated cheese.
5/. Sprinkle remainder of the cheese on top, and lightly sprinkle with a dash of paprika, for colour.
6/. Place dish in oven, middle shelf, and bake for approx. 45 minutes.

If you feel that it is cooking too quickly, lower the heat after 30 minutes.

The pie will rise and will have a light crusty look, sort of soufflé texture underneath.
Serve with a green salad and tomatoes, and maybe ham.

Eat and enjoy.

We were newly weds. DH loved the Galloping Gourmet so we watched all the programmes.

Daddima I dont use breadcrums I soak two slices of white bread in half a pint of warm milkfor a few minutes thenadd 4 ounces of strong cheddar one ounce of utter a small teaspoon of mustard and two beaten eggs .Bake it around 190c or 175 in afan oven .

problems with my keyboard ..need to proof read.Not Crums crumbs,and I add butter

cavewoman Yes..it is one of my favourites and the DGC love it too! Still have my old Crank's recipe book!

Auntieflo your cheese pie looks quite similar .My mum used to call cheese pudding a cheats souffle

I am just waiting for a post disparagingly referring to 'foreign muck', which one of my aunts always talked about.

All these foreign foods are just as good for you as anything we are familiar with. They have been basic foodstuffs in other countries for thousand's of years, even if they are unfamiliar in the UK.

When this thread started I thought it was about those hundred of extra flavours that recipes require today, smoked paprika, chilis by name, special kinds of rice, 15 different pastas, 3 different types of soy sauce. Instead it has been about sticking to traditional recipes and not sampling the various new food stuffs and cuisines that have come to us over the last 50 years, which I find rather sad

I am perhaps fortunate that in my childhood we lived in the Far East and mainland Europe and my father was immensely curious about food, so, back in the 50s, curry, goulasch, risotto, Chinese fried rice and pasta were all every day recipes in our household. My mother was an excellent cook.

I get fed up with recipes requiring a teaspoon only of 8 different special ingredients costing £ 15 at least, if you do not have chinese fish sauce, golden soy sauce, plum sauce and several other flavour inducers already in the larder,

But when it comes to the new foodstuffs; butternut squash, courgettes, aubergines, sweet potatoes, quark, parmesan, I can't sample them fast enough and love the recipes in magazines that introduce these foodstuffs to me.

Why would you be waitin g for that Monica? Do you expect it from GNrs?

daddima My mum’s recipe for cheese pud. Serves 2
1 cup white breadcrumbs (2 thick slices)
4oz grated Cheshire cheese (Wensleydale will do at a pinch but Cheshire is the best)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup of milk
Good pinch of mustard powder

Butter a pudding basin very well
Combine all ingredients and put in basin
Bake uncovered at 180C until well browned, about 30 mins.

Serve with sticks of celery or a salad.

Sorry to disappoint you Monica I cook all kinds of food ,just now and again I'm tempted by the comfort food of my childhood.Last year I made my mothers cheese rissoles ..they weren't a success ,far too dense .I might try again though.