Your Mom's Worst Meals...

[LBIJim]

Did your Mom (Dad, grandparent, household help) cook anything particularly disgusting when you were growing up?

My mother's meatloaf used to be pretty bad. It had Minute Rice in it, and was very dry. She used an envelope of powdered brown dust to make a gravy for it. She finally discovered the Lipton Onion Soup recipe when I was a teen, and that was much better. DW's meatloaf was vile too, until I taught her the correct way to make it.

Any kind of beef or pork chops were cooked until the molecules changed into solid steel. Vegetables almost always from a can, even potatoes. About three or four times a summer we got fresh corn on the cob.

My father liked everything very well done and vegetables mushy. After he died, her cooking improved. To be fair, there was plenty of good stuff too.

Paternal grandmother made fishcakes. Tuna, shreds of whatever stale bread was around (rye, pumpernickel, Kaiser rolls, etc.), then coated in bread crumbs and fried (probably in lard). Hard as a rock. We called them Cannon Balls. She also used to boil beef liver and then drink the liquid it was cooked in after it cooled.

Maternal grandmother put bits of fatback (salt pork) in sauerkraut.

(At least none of them ever served a canned chicken.)

Anyone else? Even if your Mom was a great cook, Shirley she had a failure or two.

 

[tazdev3225]

My mom was a fairly decent cook she could reinvent spam in so many ways that it was actually edible.

She could not make chicken soup. I swear she put the beaks and claws in it. She said she didn't, but I don't know. Thee were strange things floating in that soup.

 

[ronandannette]

Did your Mom (Dad, grandparent, household help) cook anything particularly disgusting when you were growing up?



Anyone else? Even if your Mom was a great cook, Shirley she had a failure or two.

Nope, I recall everything fondly, even if much of it would be {{shudder}}-worthy by today's standards of healthy. LOL and don't call me Shirley!!

 

[diznygirl]

My mother was not the best cook - I've blocked most of it out but the dry meatloaf rings a bell. I know she never added any seasoning except ketchup. Her stuffed cabbage was good tho.

 

[Disneylover99]

In the summer, my dad always bbqed. Once or twice a week, he'd bbq his own "special recipe" hamburgers. It was just egg, salt and ground beef, but he would form them into thick balls and bbq them till they were black. We called them hockey puck hamburgers. I ate a lot of carcinogens as a child.

 

[Oodalally13]

I remember my mom deciding to cook chinese food. There was a demo at our local grocery store and you bought the wok, ingredients, the whole thing. Well it tasted horrible....so horrible that we threw it outside to our mouser cats.....they actually growled at it and tried to cover it up!

 

[low-key]

My mom worked over 40 a week so she didnt cook much, but when she did everything was tied for the worse thing she made

 

[Newsies]

Stuffed cabbage. Makes me want to throw up every time it's even mentioned.

 

[lizabu]

I used to hate steak. I never knew it wasn't supposed to be tough and chewy until I grew up. We would put ketchup on it so it would have a little moisture. Liver and onions was pretty gross too. My dad used to like to cook too. I'll never forget his lasagna. He would use that kind of cheese that comes in individual plastic wrappers. The kind you make grilled cheese with. The cheese slices on the top would turn black and that's when you know it's done. Then there was the year I turned 12. We got our first microwave. My mom got a cookbook that promised you could cook anything in the microwave. Roasted chicken in the microwave does not work. By the time I was 10 or 11 I was fending for myself whenever possible. I used to bring home kids cook books from the bookmobile so I could learn to cook. My mom didn't mind as long as I cleaned up after myself. I think she just really didn't like to cook.

 

[MomofKatie]

My mom has become pretty awful as she has gotten older. Part of the problem- my dad is extremely picky, and he absolutely hates food with any spices at all. We joke that he will ask, "what's in this? Green pepper? Onions? Are you trying to kill me? My mouth is on fire!!" She also lost her sense of smell several years ago due to oral surgery, so she can't taste as well, either. She never adds salt to anything- she says there is enough natural salt in food without adding any to it. Wrong, Mom- you need to add a LITTLE salt while cooking to bring out the foods' flavors.

Pretty much everything she makes is bland and way overcooked. She makes roasted pork loin a lot, and it is always dry as a bone and so underseasoned, it basically has no taste at all. But the worst thing she makes is her pancakes. She uses buckwheat flour and they are heavy, dry, and bad tasting. Ugh.

 

[Tozzie]

My mother, father and Maternal grandmother were all excellent cooks, i am thankful that as a teen I used to hang in the kitchen when my mom was cooking so now I can make things the way she did.

 

[ronandannette]

My mom worked over 40 a week so she didnt cook much, but when she did everything was tied for the worse thing she made

Glass 1/2 full translation: Everything was tied for the best thing she made! (Give the lady a break!)

 

[McKelly]

My mom's meatloaf was bad too. But the worst was....she would take leftovers and grind them through a meat grinder. Then she would throw them in a frying pan and fry it up with some tomato juice over it. She called it hash. It was disgusting, but my dad LOVED it. I starved those nights.

 

[NewRVLady]

Way back in the olden days ...Catholics could not eat. Meat on Fridays
Fish was not plentiful like now..except the dreaded Fish Sticks

So Mom invented Spanish Rice for occasional Friday meal
Basically rice in red sauce baked in oven..then topped with poached eggs

Yum

 

[low-key]

Glass 1/2 full translation: Everything was tied for the best thing she made! (Give the lady a break!)

your right, sorry mom, now that I think about it, you made a mean Beefaroni

 

[powellrj]

My mom was the queen of the casserole. We also had chopped up iceberg lettuce at every meal. I was an adult before I had many normal foods like butter and mayo. She always uses oleo and salad dressing.

 

[Disneylover99]

My mom's meatloaf was bad too. But the worst was....she would take leftovers and grind them through a meat grinder. Then she would throw them in a frying pan and fry it up with some tomato juice over it. She called it hash. It was disgusting, but my dad LOVED it. I starved those nights.

I was starving along with you. Yuck! my mom made "hash" too. Not very often though. Thankfully.

 

[wenrob]

Ever seen the show Worst Cooks in America? My mom could make these people look like gourmet chefs. The only person worse is her mother. I've blocked most of it out and on the rare occasion we might get together my sister and I insist on doing the main courses then skirt whatever they may have "cooked."

 

[lizabu]

My mom's meatloaf was bad too. But the worst was....she would take leftovers and grind them through a meat grinder. Then she would throw them in a frying pan and fry it up with some tomato juice over it. She called it hash. It was disgusting, but my dad LOVED it. I starved those nights.

This reminds me of breakfast a my house. My dad would fry up leftovers. Usually stuff like hamburger helper or Kraft dinner and throw in some frozen veggies. He would fry up a couple eggs and put it on top. I couldn't eat breakfast for years because the smell of food cooking in the morning would turn my stomach.

 

[Tiffylv]

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