Did you used to have some really good school dinners?

I did...ranging from greeat beef stew with mashed potatoes and dumplings to baked fish with tomatoes.

Winter salad had the most amazing 'home made' salad cream which I discovered was made from condensed milk, wine vinegar and a touch of mustard.

What about you? Any good memorable dinners?

Nope! I remember getting a piece of meat with tubes & gristle and it put me off for good. Took packed lunches after that.

The break time food was great. Mini pizzas made by topping a stottie with tomato puree, cheddar and onion.

Chocolate 'concrete' with pink custard.
Tapioca & Sago.
Scrambled egg made with dried egg powder.
Gristle and bone stew.

The joys of boarding school.

We used to have cowboy hotpot - I'd love to be able to make that

Oh and Chocolate Crunch pudding and pink custard

We had stovies (a Scottish dish) which I loved but never managed to recreate it yet! So if anyone has a recipe?

ETA we also had horrible warm milk at break time - why oh why did they store it next to the radiator!!

School dinners at my primary school were brilliant: mince and potatoes followed by caramel cake and custard.

Butterscotch or Jam tart with shaving cream

My school dinners used to be lovely - in fact some of the desserts were so good I made my Mum go and get the recepies from "Cook"

This one sounds the nearest to what I do

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/da...ies_8180.shtml

Jam roly-poly and custard... oh yes.

The puddings were always fab in my school.
Chocolate cake with pink custard, apple tart & apple crumble. Mmmmm.
Even the rice pudding with jam was nice.

I think Arctic Roll and Treacle Sponge were the only things I actually liked in school dinners. The rest of the food was pretty tasteless and stodgy.

Ooooh .... yes .... steamed treacle pud or treacle tart!
Not to mention spotted dick!
Fab.

Cornflake tart and custard! Yum

We used to have red jelly with pink meringues and I loved cornflake tart - still make it as a treat now and then.

The school beef stew was so good my brother adked me to find out the recipe when I started to teach in the local primary school!

I loved the puddings with custard with the skin on top,chocolate sponge and chocolate custard. We also used to have goulash which was my fav dinner.

Remember the warm milk in the tiny bottles well

Oh thanks will give it a go- What i remember is the texture being like corn beef hash but meat instead of corn beef

I mostly took packed lunches or went home for my lunch because my school dinners were pretty grim, pizza, chips, fish fingers, burgers, soggy sandwiches, lumpy custard... total junk food basically. Looking back I can't believe they were allowed to serve us all that unhealthy crap, who the hell thinks it is a good idea to serve children greasy crap with next to nill nutritional value whatsoever day after day, it's shocking to think that up until quite recently that was the norm in some schools.

Hi!

I started school in 1958 and people were still recovering from wartime rationing so food had to be nourishing, filling and economical.

To give the school kitchens their due - they did a great job.

Probably by today's standards there'd be too much fat, salt, sugar etc. but the meals really were delicious - even the liver

Once I left primary school the meals were disgusting and I lived on rolls filled with crisps and luncheon meat or cheese from the local corner shop...I'm suprised I've lasted this long

Yes - I remember the warm milk in the little bottles but I never drank it - I never did like milk and still don't to this day

My favurite was maccaroni cheese which was done once a week but you had to be their quickly else the teachers brought it and we were left with other things

I don't have fond memories of school dinners in the early fifties. Cheese pie with salad containing diced beetroot and sultanas - yuk. Prunes and custard, rhubarb and custard -no. The only thing I liked was chocolate crispy with a white custard. I spent many an hour after everyone had gone out to play, crying over a bowl of prunes. I wouldn't eat them.

I only had a tea when I got home, I was so skinny my legs were like matchsticks! I didn't have any interest in food.

All my school dinners were lovely, that was going to school from the mid 70s onwards.

Well I was in school during the late 80s, early 90s when wholesome school meals were replaced by local authority services competing with private catering companies to provide the cheapest of cheap convenience foods, which were full of fat, grease, sugar and salt. By the sounds of it my generation onwards drew the short straw when it came to nutrition and school dinners.

Went to primary school in the 70s and the puddings were the real star of school dinners, apple delight (stewed apples topped with fake cream and covered in cornflakes), flapjack, jam tart, pineapple upside down cake all with custard but the real treat was trifle.

Yes me too, late 70s, early 80s... fabulous

Re. my previous post. We used to call it 'shaving cream'