CH food

Share your memories and stories from the Hertford Christ's Hospital School, which closed in 1985, when the two schools integrated to the Horsham site....

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midget
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Post by midget »

How did they get that peculiar Musty flavour into the "blackcurrant" jam?
We never seemed to get any other kind and that, or marmalade or treacle was served out onto your plate, together with a small pat of butter,or more frequently marge. When the treacle was very runny, the plate was a mess even before you got at it!
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Liz Jay
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Re: Hi Mary! Food Memoirs -

Post by Liz Jay »

Angela Woodford wrote:In that kitchen at break, I remember the two "chars" (as we then called those respected cleansing standards operatives. I think they were called Mrs Scraggie and Mrs Palsey; always reliable for a bit of gossip or some wholesome grumbling!
Hi Munch

I thought they were called Scroggie and Dandruff??? That's what Alex told me, and she was a great authority about stuff like that!!!

Will we manage to stay up to see the New Year in? I've had a large turkey dinner and lots of alcohol, so may have difficulty with it, unless the forum turns lively!

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Re: Hi Mary! Food Memoirs -

Post by MKM »

Angela Woodford wrote:Hi Mary!

Brilliant you're here on the Forum!

Caroline has produced a terrific picture of a group of Sixes ?1969 - and there you are waving, top left.

Marmite?? The "jam" came in a tin jug at tea time. Thick, turgid, glutinous, it bore no real resemblance to fruit at all. But I don't remember school Marmite. On Wed, Sat and Sun, when there was "squatting" there were Home Jams from the tuck cupboard, and pots of Marmite got produced then?

One thing that amazes me now is the milk supply we had for the House. It came in a rather unpleasant stained tin churn-thing. It was there chilled on the cloakroom table at Break (11.20). Then the milk stayed at whatever room temperature by the back kitchen door for the rest of the
day. There was no fridge!

In that kitchen at break, I remember the two "chars" (as we then called those respected cleansing standards operatives. I think they were called Mrs Scraggie and Mrs Palsey; always reliable for a bit of gossip or some wholesome grumbling!

I still have unpleasant recall of hideous indigestion after those weird fish fingers for Saturday morning breakfast. But would adore a bowl of school rice pudding. I've never managed to replicate it.

Love

Munch
I'm spending hours catching up on the old posts. It's rather strange to have old memories reawakened. I think I must have blocked them off at some point. I don't really remember what it felt like to be at CH.

I remember the marmite arriving in the same metal jugs that were used for jam. Possibly it was an innovation after the Great Food Strike (which I'd forgotten all about).

We were allowed a fixed number of sweets from the tuck cupboard on the days it was opened. I tried to smuggle extras out (I had one cunningly concealed in the knot of my school tie) and was quite disappointed when the senior in charge didn't care.
Mary
CH 1965-1972
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Kitchen Mafia + Buttered Brazils

Post by Angela Woodford »

I thought they were called Scroggie and Dandruff??? That's what Alex told me, and she was a great authority about stuff like that!!!

That's it!! Well done, Liz. Scroggie and Palsey. But Mrs Palsey did indeed have an acute-on-chronic "scalp problem".

Will we manage to stay up to see the New Year in?

At about 0800hrs I had 2 glasses of strong beer - I know it knocks me out - very unwise. So I've woken up late, alas. Just felt like a bit of riotous living. And how are you, Liz dear?

I wish I knew how to double quote. Katharine can do it.

Mary! I think because there is no Hertford any more, I forgot quite a lot of things about CH. Going to a Horsham occasion didn't do anything for me! But through the Forum I've sorted out memories and feelings quite a bit. Brilliant!

I so appreciated an apology concerning a situation that had wounded me deeply all those decades ago. I sat and cried - absurd, isn't it?

Cunning of you to smuggle out extra tuck in your tie. I once bribed Meg Gunter with a Lindt Chocolate bunny, thinking she cared how many Buttered Brazils I was taking out. I could have saved that bunny.

Hoping that 2007 is good for everyone.

Munch
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Re: Kitchen Mafia + Buttered Brazils

Post by Liz Jay »

Angela Woodford wrote:2 glasses of strong beer - I know it knocks me out - very unwise. So I've woken up late, alas. Just felt like a bit of riotous living. And how are you, Liz dear?

...

Hoping that 2007 is good for everyone.

Munch
Hi Munch and all

Glad I'm not the only one who can't handle alcohol these days, packet of wine gums and I'm away!!!!
No hangover this morning just slightly sore eyes from wearing my contact lenses too long, and a headache from not enough fresh air.
My jeans feel very tight too, and unfortunately *not* in the style of Olivia Newton-John in the final scenes of "Grease".
Obviously will have to cut down on my consumption of tuck and jam!!!!!
Thankyou for being so gracious about not pointing out all my typos from last night, the Polish liqueur which accompanied me home from the World Dog Show must have been stronger than it appeared to produce such an uncharacteristic flurry of misspellings!!!!!!!

Taking this opportunity to wish the happiest of New Years to all on the forum, to friends old and new, hoping that 2007 brings health and happiness, peace and prosperity, fun, friendship and all that your hearts desire for you and your loved ones.
For those on whom fortune smiled in 2006, may the good times continue.
And to those for whom the last year has been challenging, may the new page on the calendar bring a fresh start, and happier days to come!

Auld Lang Syne and all that.

Love
Liz (was Plummer now Jay)
Ex - Sixes ''66 - ''68
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Post by Katharine »

One of those metal pots full of Marmite seems incredible to me. I love the stuff and in our family think the jars are like the widow's cruse (?), they can keep going for so long when the appear to be almost empty.
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

I've just been putting together a good golden mayonnaise, and suddenly -

I seemed to see before me the salad dressing that arrived for teatime in a white jug. The dressing that mingled with the warm grated cheese into a yellow gloopy mess, which then overwhelmed the slices of beetroot in a pinkening flood on one's plate, only to engulf the leaves of limp lettuce!

It was a conglomerate of (maybe?) flour, vinegar, mustard powder, sugar and possibly some incarnation of egg?

I reached for my B Jukes Cookewy Book.

Salad Dressing 1
3 levels tsps flour
1/2 oz marge
1tsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar
1 egg yolk
seasoning

The wecipe begins: Make white woux sauce.... beat other ingreds in.... could this be it? It definitely can't be -

Salad Dressing 11
2 tbsps vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/2 pt cweam
seasoning

Mix dwy ingreds together, add cweam, stir vinegar in slowly to pwevent curdling.

Cream? Cream?? Never! The extwavagence for the Cookery School Budget!

I think the teatime jug effort must have been similar to Recipe 1, but with dried egg maybe? I don't see Miss Milton sacrificing any egg whites - our diet was definitely lacking in meringues.

Tempting to make up no 1, just to get the general flavour?
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Re: CH food

Post by Jo »

Oh go on..... give it a go and report back :D

Though I'd have said the teatime salad cream had a fair old dollop of mustard in it as well.
Jo
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Re: CH food

Post by Euterpe13 »

...and, I add mustard to my mayonnaise to this day... horrifies the rest of the family
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Re: CH food

Post by midget »

Salad dressing? You young ones really were spoilt rotten!! We could have done with some of that for the "winter salad" we had for lunch EVERY Sunday.
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Re: CH food

Post by Jo »

midget wrote:Salad dressing? You young ones really were spoilt rotten!! We could have done with some of that for the "winter salad" we had for lunch EVERY Sunday.
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

Well Maggie, I don't think you could call this a dressing exactly - it turned out as more of a mustardy flour paste, and that's without using the malt vinegar and economy marge of the Cookewy School. Oh yerrggh!

In the name of Health and Safety - do not make this at home yourself!

Still not like the weird teatime white-jug dressing though. It'll have to remain a mystery! :shock:
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Re: CH food

Post by fra828 »

And didn't they used to somehow add vinegar to stale bread to make it last longer, or is this a 'false memory'!!? :?
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

My memory is that the bread was always extremely fresh. And goodness knows, I ate a lot of it. :roll:

If I were confronted with one of those white crusty bloomer loaves now, I guarantee that I could slice it up in exactly the once-recommended way - down the middle, into quarters and then, crust up, into eight slices.

But - do I remember a white old-fashioned bread bin in the House kitchen in which any leftover bread lived? It sat on the top of the huge dresser, and in the bottom left cupboard of that dresser were the marge or butter leftovers on a plate; often bearing the smears of a jammy knife. In summer, they'd be semi-melting out of their ridged pats, with a rancid taste of the smell of the cupboard silverfish.

Yes! It was leftover butter as there was rarely any leftover marge brought down from Dining Hall. A half-pat per girl for breakfast, as I remember.
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Re: CH food

Post by midget »

I don't remember any food being left over! Maybe that was because rationing was still operating----Thank you Sir Stafford Cripps! We always had dark suspicions that most of the butter ration went to the staff.
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