Dinner parties with contentious food

Urmstongran

From Wiki:

“Dressed tripe was a popular, nutritious and cheap dish for the British working classes from Victorian times until the latter half of the 20th century.[4][5][6] While it is still popular in many parts of the world today, the number of tripe eaters, and consequently the number of tripe dressers, in the UK has rapidly declined. Tripe has come to be regarded as a pet food, as the increased affluence of postwar Britain has reduced the appeal of this once staple food.”

If that's what it looks like dressed, I'd hate to see it naked!

I had to look that up MissA!
How our tastes have changed.
‘Nippers today don’t know they’re born’ .... ooh, where have I heard that before?

I've never looked up haslet, but I gather it's made of all sorts.

I adore haggis.
Different beast altogether, served hot, especially with a tot of whisky poured over it!

Miss A ... ‘Don’t look Ethel!’.
?

Oh, I ate that once by accident.
Hidden in a bacon roll, it was.
It tasted very bitter to me.

It is quite a few years ago, we were laughing last week with the family some of whom had been for supper and had rotten sharks head.
They asked what was my worst and I remembered the experience. It was Dinner we were young and were being judged DH especially.
The chap next to me a friend ate his soup with the wrong spoon. Then after all the gorry details the hare arrived, I had never had anything cooked wholly in blood, wine a sauce or stock yes. There were definitely vertebrae on my plate so maybe the hostess did not know her hare from her a.... or how to cook it.
When pudding arrived the chap was allowed to eat a tiny ramekin of chocolate pudding with his soup spoon no sliding of a dessert spoon.
Dh ate everything as he always does and past muster.
When I had to host I usually chose lamb and a vegeterian option DH colleges were from many different countries and had varied dietry laws. I always told what would be on the menu.
Times have changed and now we have family and friends for supper and I usually cook Italian which seems to go down well with the GC as well. Thankgoodness those days are long gone.

If we invite friends for dinner we make sure we serve things that we know they all enjoy.
If friends invite us they do the same.
I suppose the only time we might come across this strange situation is if we accepted an invitation from strangers which is highly unlikely these days.

My nan used to make jellied eels.
They would be swimming around in her bath for a while before she chopped their heads off.

Thank goodness we don’t live in the days when Mrs. Beeton’s cookbook reigned supreme. When I was in my teens our next door neighbour had an old copy (well thumbed with splashes on some pages). It was an eye-opener. And the kitchen equipment was something else. Some utensils (drawings, natch) looked positively medieval!

Oh Miss A that’s off-putting.
Bleurgh!
?

I loved those old books.
I liked the medical ones, too.

Not at all for the reasons in the OP but my best friend, a wonderful cook, took my willingness to try new things to lengths I couldn't go to. Preserved egg. Couldn't do it. And duck blood. Couldn't bring myself to try it.

I did try jellyfish, tripe and stinky tofu. Only like the tofu, but the other two weren't to my taste.

Muscles, ligaments and dissected eyes. Put me right off.
No wonder we were in awe of the family doctor calling at our house with his little black bag when we were small.

What?? Stuff and nonsense I hear you cry.

You were brave Gaga. Hats off to you woman!

I had a Nigerian boyfriend for a short while, and used to eat cowfoot.
I knew then it would never work out.

He ate it.
Not me!!!

I’m remembering ‘The Duchess of Duke Street’ now Gaga that you sourced last year and I totally enjoyed rewatching!
Just the ticket for this thread too.

Pig’s trotters anyone? I’ve never known anyone actually eat them.

Remember in the early 70’s when pubs used to sell pickled eggs in jars on the counter? And a chap with a tray held up round his neck used to come in late at night (when we were pickled) selling tubs of cockles, mussels and winkles?
Himself used to buy some.
Ate them with what looked like a toothpick.

BlueBelle

I haven’t been to a dinner party for as long as I can remember
Never walked in those sort of circles
Dinner parties sounds very ‘poe sh’ I m a working class gal
So I wouldn’t be going unless they offered a nice vegetarian option

Oh dear, you mean friends getting together over a meal. Surely that happens all the time, a dinner party by another name. We had great ones in the 70s, with our Service neighbours, all living in the service flats. Much hilarity, great food, and plenty of lovely German wine with Baileys and coffee after. Nothing at all snobbish about us .

Urmstongran,when I was a child I used to love eating winkles, we used a pin to get them out. Never swallowed the pin, luckily.

I don't mind a pickled egg.

Urmstongran

Pig’s trotters anyone? I’ve never known anyone actually eat them.

I adored pig's trotters. Mum would cook them and I'd sit on the back door step happily chewing away. I didn't have a sweet tooth and compared to trifle and cake they were divine.

I was about nine I think.

Q. Pigs trotters?

A. No, it's just the way I walk.