School dinners

The school I attended had the kitchens which supplied meals all the other local schools so the food we ate was always over-cooked and tasted disgusting.

MaggieMaybe Did the same for me over the Manchester Tart! Mrs Pearson, stern lady with a black bun, tall and thin!

I actually liked the liver casserole ....

Now that cheese pie anyone have that recipe?

I was born in 1944 and I liked the school dinners except for that pink custard stuff.Ugh! Special place in my heart (gut?) for chocolate concrete which we would smuggle into the pocket of our regulation navy blue knickers to sustain us through a double maths lesson in the afternoon. Didn't like maths, loved that concrete
Years later I made some chocolate shortbread - dodgy oven, too low temperature, result? chocolate concrete!
I met a lady years ago who was a school cook and had all her recipe books,btw.

I always loved school dinners when at school and when teaching.
The best ones were at a school outside Glasgow where they were cooked on the premises - excellent!

I have always hated onions, raw cooked what ever, when I was in primary school must have been about 7 ,we had them one day in salad and I left them ate the rest. A dinner lady came over told me I had to eat them and stood over me until I had , as she went to take the plate away I was promptly sick all over her, karma ? so no fond memories of school dinners.

I went to infant school in 1947, and loved the school dinners. We had a small school, and the cooks were great. We had on site kitchens, which probably helped, as I think these days, a lot of food may be cooked and brought to the schools in containers.
I loved all the milky puddings and it was the first time I had crunchy, raw cabbage with mince, I enjoyed the different textures.

My mother was an excellent cook, even if the food in thisendaysnwas fairly plain.

There were no packed lunches and no-one was allowed home at lunch-time unless they had a letter from a parent with a good excuse!
This went on right up to sixth form - there was never any choice.
Some food was OK, I remember a steak pie with a kind of short crust pastry, cut into squares, that was good and sponge puddings were nice if the custard wasn't lumpy.

Oh, God, I remember the pig bins and the truly disgusting smell and the swill lorries that collected it - and the smell that surrounded them - . I think we left an awful lot. Those of us whose mother's were even half-decent cook reeled in shock from the food we got fed at school.

You're right M0nica, and I've just remembered the pig bins outside the back door of my junior school! So we can't have eaten in all!

I suspect that a lot of the gap between those who liked and those who loathed school dinners can be explained by age. The older posters among us, at school in the immediate aftermath of the war, are the ones that loathed school dinners, because quite frankly any food not on ration was the worst of the worst, and children's stomachs were often treated as the national dustbin. If there was any food that was really poor quality and really cheap, it went to school dinners. Children were seen as one great mouth and it was always open, uncritically to swallow what ever was dropped into it.

I hated school dinners. There was very little I considered edible and was often kept in to finish it, which I couldn't do, and missed playtime. We had meat that was mostly gristle and fat, ox liver, lumpy mash, lumpy gravy with overcooked greens. Puddings were regularly milk puddings such as rice, semolina, tapioca, all of which I hated. Custard was lumpy. Luckily at secondary school noone checked if you didn't eat it. I do remember often being hungry as a teenager. It was no wonder I was skinny.

Oh the gristly mince! In the early'50s I just couldn't get it down one day and a vile dinner lady kept me back and stood over me forcing me to eat it all up. I was gagging. What I should have done was be sick all over her shoes but I was a well behaved little girl!

At our school we had to sit on tables with girls from each year, a sixth former as table head.
We weren't allowed to choose where we sat.

Being a 'new girl' faced with a disgusting meal was just all too much for me especially as no-one was allowed pudding until everyone had finished their dinner.

I enjoyed school dinners, the food was OK but mainly for sitting with my friends and chatting.

We had every variety of stodge ( suet pudding) going.

Meat stodge, jam stodge, spotted dick stodge, treacle stodge, apple stodge , stodge stodge. If not , all the above with pastry. Not to mention the rice pudding and semolina in a variety of odd flavours.

No wonder we put on weight.

I loved Manchester tart as well MiniMoon yummy. I used to pray for the corner bit.

I loved the school curry and cheese pie too.

Oh, yes, MadeInYorkshire, cheese pie! It was my favourite - they certainly didn’t stint on the cheese.

I was easily pleased, and loved most of my school dinners, the puddings in particular. My only hate was gristle/fat, so I was wary of any meat, and absolutely hated liver (oh, those pipes! ). I once sat in solitary splendour at a table in the school hall for a whole afternoon, swinging my legs and gazing at a piece of liver I refused to eat. Waste of everyone’s time, as they had to let me go at home time. I’m very surprised, my teachers being the old bats they were, that they didn’t give me a couple of whacks with the ruler to speed me on my way. By then the cleaners were in though, and they were on my side.

Thank goodness we were never served heart, Callistemon. That calls for a few more .

My favourites were curry, spaghetti bolognese, cottage pie and cheese and potato pie. I still enjoy these dishes.

The meals at secondary school were much better than the ones we had at primary school.

MadeinYorkshire I loved Manchester tart, pastry case with jam on the bottom, custard filling and coconut scattered over the top, blooming lovely.
Our school cook did an apple pudding with a syrupy cornflake topping which was delicious, the chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce was good too. My friend,who was watching her weight used to get a pudding and give it to me. I was an active athletic girl, and very slim.

Gypsy tart looks good though but I don't remember ever having that.

I cannot look at gristle on meat, hate lumpy custard with skin and have never eaten tapioca or sago puddings (someone else would eat them). The smell of heart made me want to throw up and I would cry because we had to eat it all.
Dry white bread instead of potatoes when there must have been a shortage or potatoes one year and over-boiled cabbage.

Other food was OK and some of the other puddings were good.

I used to love my school dinners, and like Sussexborn I used to eat the skin on the variously coloured custards for my friends. Still love the skin . I work in a Primary School now and you wouldn't believe how many different menus we have to cater for: Nut free, Dairy free, Gluten free, Soya free, sesame free, Vegetarian, Vegan etc. We also have to have 2 "meat free" days. The list is endless. I'm surprised some children are allowed to eat anything at all! Give me Roast Pork dinner and Pink Custard dessert any day!

I used to eat the skin from milk puddings for all my friends! Still the best part IMO.

School dinners came from a central kitchen at my infant school. Only one I remember is goulash. Lumps of gristly unidentifiable meat.

I also remember steamed sponge pudding gate. We were given various steamed puddings every day at school and my Mum decided to make one on the Saturday. I refused to eat it and had to sit at the table for most of the day. I was told it would be brought out again for breakfast next day but fortunately it disappeared over night!

I actually quite like steamed puddings now!

Loved ours! Freshly cooked on the premises - my favourites where their Cheese Pie - never found anything like it since - it was NOT a Quiche! Chocolate Concrete - stick your spoon in that and it would fly across the room half the time! And they did a gorgeous date shortbread too ....

Loathes though were any form of 'milk pudding - rice, sago and tapioca and the dreaded Manchester tart - a custard flan - yuk!

Ooooh chocolate cake and chocolate custard and mixing it into a stodgy paste... Could not do that now so gross but I make it for my children x