Topic: What was the first convenience food you or your parents bought?

[Jeannine]

I don't mean fish and chips or fast food . I mean the dried, tinned  or bottled food. The sort of stuff we are surrounded by now.

Mine were Batchelors dried chicken and noodle soup, Dairylea cheese triangles and St Ivel lactic cheese.

XX Jeannine

[shirlton]

Mine were Vesta chow mein and paella. We met a chap a while ago who used to drive the big containers that held the stuff and he said that you wouldn't have eaten it had you seen the state of them. What the hell when you're seventeen and you are hungry ;D

[manicscousers]

ooh, yes, vesta paella, thought they were great, then..remember my mum using gravy browning, can't remember the name, came in a tin?   ;D

[Paulines7]

I don't mean fish and chips or fast food . I mean the dried, tinned  or bottled food. The sort of stuff we are surrounded by now.

Mine were Batchelors dried chicken and noodle soup, Dairylea cheese triangles and St Ivel lactic cheese.

XX Jeannine

Probably tinned peas.  We had dried egg too as it was wartime. 

[djbrenton]

Pickled dodo.

[Twoflower]

Do farley's rusks count? Growing up in the 70's it was all Convenience food wasn't it or was that just my mum ;) Not knowed for her cooking bless her ;D

[irnhed]

Don't know about the earliest, but Pot Noodles spring to mind.

Me and my mate always used to eat them as kids when we played at each other's houses.

Beef & Tomato was my favourite.  His was Chicken & Mushoom.

[rosebud]

 POM, that ghastly mashed potatoe, one day when we had been flooded out YUKKKKKKKK. ;D ;D ;D

[susan1]

custard powder and chivers jelly , I still buy custard powder :)

[Trevor_D]

The only convenience foods I ever remember seeing in the house were Bird's Custard, Bisto gravy powder and Oxo cubes. (Thinking about it, apart from Lea & Perrins and Branston Pickle, they were probably the only ones that had been invented!)

But my father did have two allotments and a garden full of chickens!

[Digeroo]

Does fish and chips count.  Had them about once a week out of the newspaper, no clean liner in those days - they tasted better then. ;D

I also liked those vesta curries and particularly the risotto one.  Used to take them on camping trips.  I like it so much that I was very disappointed when I had my first real risotto.

[pookienoodle]

I too instatly though of Vesta chow mein when I read the opening post,they seemed so exotic.
I actually bought one a few years ago to see if they were as I remembered...oh my it was vile though I do still love crispy noodles.
I find it funny that my Mum used to make her own yoghurt and sprout her own seeds,both of which are becoming very fashionable again....Its all one big circle.

[lewic]

My earliest memories are of luncheon meat, spam, corned beef, treacle pudding in a tin, rice pudding. Yuk  :P

Did love those Vesta curries though, and my Mum used to make a mean fish pie with a tin of tuna and a tin of bachelors condensed mushroom soup. I think its the MSG that makes it taste so nice!

[Mrs Soup]

Got to be either frozen mixed vegetables or pizza bases. Does artic roll count?

[katynewbie]

 ;D

Ok, so I was a victim of Vesta Curries as well, followed by Angel Delight mmmmm, how many e numbers in that lot?!

[markfield rover]

Frey Bentos  steak and kidney pie in a tin.

[gaz2000]

goblins irish stew

mushy peas

fray bentos as mentioned

micro chips

[Carol]

Mum used to buy Fray Bentos Steak & Kidney Pie sometimes or  Halls of Broxburn  Mince Round.

 ;D

[Jeannine]

Oh dear, it seems I missed out on the Vesta curries stuff.. never got one of those. I did get tinned rice pudding once, I remember telling Mum it was better than hers..oh eck.

Burdalls gravy salt came in a tin, went rock hard if the damp got to it.

My husband still likes Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies, thinks that's how they should be..

Treacle pudding in a tin..oh that brings back a memory, hubby left one on to boil,fell asleep, the pan ran dry, fumes all over the kitchen and killed the parrot called Knickers, I was on night duty and got the info later.

POM also brings back a memory, just a couple of years ago a neighbour was drooling over the memory of it, I bought a dried one fron Costco which was a powder not a flake and she was overjoyed!!

Anybody remember National health wartime orange juice, concentrated. You had to have a baby to get it, my Mum used to swap something with a neighbour to get it for me,, I used to drink it concentrated when she wasn't looking. Very similar to the concentrated frozen stuff here, I still taste it concentrated.

Going back to fish and chips... we had fish by names in Hull and the cheap fish was called cutfish,,which meant anything which was cheap in the market that day.My friends thought we were posh cos my Dad always insisted in buying haddock. Patties in those old days were made from POM and the left over cold fish from the day before. How did we survive.

Off my own subject really but remember what we used instead of toilet paper, we had a neighbour who cut hers so neat, then came the flat packs, and rolls, crisp and scratchy, Izal or something, then my Dad came gome with samples of the new stuff,soft and white..my Mum said it was a waste to use it on your bums!!

Can you still buy canned potato salad, and the posher one that had peas added to it?

Remember when mayo was only used by the posh, we all had salad cream.

What about local stuff that was not packaged but pre cooked for you. Store bought baking etc was a real treat.

I used to love the home catered weddings .

XX Jeannine

[Tin Shed]

Birds Custard powder and Greens caramel pudding which we had for pudding on Sunday. I liked helping to make that as I liked to lick the caramel sauce sachet ;D