# family food traditions that you love, but make outsiders cringe **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 26, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091 "2011-03-26T22:08:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/41 "2011-03-27T23:46:36Z")
Chocolate syrup on cereal. It’s excellent on Wheat Chex. Mustard sandwiches for lunch. (Just two slices of bread and some yellow mustard–maybe some mayo.) Popcorn for dinner. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/42 "2011-03-28T00:23:39Z")
> [@capybara](#): > > Ok, I’m intrigued. Details on dandelion choice and treatment, and dressing, please. > Cheers. We used to have this when I was a kid - I remember gathering dandelion greens for dinner as a kid (in early ‘60s NW Pa). They were medium dandilion leaves, maybe 3-4". Meanwhile Mom would be frying up diced bacon and dicing scallions. Serve the greens with oil and viegar, mixed with warm bacon grease and the diced onions. It’s so good! We also rolled our ears of corn on the bar of butter, much to the horror of some cousins. My husband convinced me to serve my chili over spaghetti, and it’s a fine idea. Of course, not only does my chili have kidney and black beans, it has sliced mushrooms, so I’m sure I’ve tortured the sensibilities of chili purists enough to be accused of war crimes before pasta ever came into the picture. We also made mashed potato sandwiches with saurkraut juice whenever Dad made saurkraut and pork. It was a carb lovin’ time! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/43 "2011-03-28T00:45:22Z")
> [@](#): > > Ok, I’m intrigued. Details on dandelion choice and treatment, and dressing, please. > Cheers. Dandelions: You have to pick the greens early in the spring, before they blossom, or they get bitter (this is why it’s an Easter dish). Picking them isn’t too hard, but it takes darned near all day to clean them thoroughly, so lately I’ve been wimping out and special-ordering dandelion greens from the grocery store. The rest of the salad: Onions, boiled potatoes, and hard-boiled eggs. Dressing: Bacon (don’t drain the grease), cider vinegar, and sugar. Make this immediately before serving, and pour it on hot. Substitutions: When dandelions are out of season, the same salad can be made with endive. And for vegetarians, make the dressing with butter instead of bacon. Neither of these is as good as the real thing, though. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/44 "2011-03-28T00:56:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > My family always has dandelion salad at Easter dinner. Huh? Her in Minnesota, you would have to shovel the snow off the lawn to find dandelion leaves at eastertime. Andeven then, they’d be leftover ones from last summer. Not appetizing at all. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/45 "2011-03-28T01:11:33Z")
Boxed mac and cheese with ketchup, mustard and a dollop of mayo. _hangs head in culinary shame_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/46 "2011-03-28T01:17:12Z")
It should be obvious, then, that my family isn’t from Minnesota. We have occasionally had to dig through the snow to find them, but even then, they were spring growth that came up during a previous thaw. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/47 "2011-03-28T01:20:23Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > We make a recipe called Burger Loafer that is basically a meatloaf inside a loaf of French bread. My mother used to serve a ground beef/tomato sauce mixture wrapped in biscuit dough. It was perhaps three inches through by a foot long or so, and my father christened it “dead dog”, which is what we called it every after. It was quite good. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_First\_Time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_First_Time)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/48 "2011-03-28T01:50:51Z")
> [@wonder\_lust](#): > > One of our family traditions, attributed (without verification) to the Pennsylvania Dutch (aka Amish), is one of my favorite breakfasts in the world. > > We call it rice and eggs. There’s a pretty good reason for that. > > It’s white rice scrambled into eggs – approximately equal parts each (a little heavier on the egg). We plate it like that (plain) then we add our own cinnamon and sugar to taste. I load my plate up with both. Deeelish! > > Anyone else do rice and eggs?.. this or another variation? > > What weirdo family recipes warm your hearts and fill your bellies? My family makes the exact same thing. We call it Rice Pancakes. It’s good with Soy Sauce as well - sort of an Egg Foo Young vibe. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/49 "2011-03-28T02:00:56Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Huh? Her in Minnesota, you would have to shovel the snow off the lawn to find dandelion leaves at eastertime. Andeven then, they’d be leftover ones from last summer. Not appetizing at all. Pick 'em from the south side of the house, when easter falls in late April. Last year, we had dandelions blossoming at the end of March in the St. Paul area. If you use chemical weed killer on your lawn, buy them at a store instead. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/50 "2011-03-28T03:21:15Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > **Not so weird, except this was a hot dish. I liked it, too.** > I make a dish my family calls cabbage balls, that consists of large meatballs, boiled cabbage, onion soup mix and potatoes. It’s not a particularly attractive dish, and my (now grown) children insist you have to put it on your plate and chop and mix it up further, with the juices. Now it looks even less attractive, but everyone dives right in and loves it. My kids now make this for their families. This (soiled eggs and potatoes with mustard dressing) sounds a lot like what my Pennsylvania Dutch (Lutheran, thank you) called German potato salad. She used to do up hot (cooked) slaw too. We did the rice and eggs with brown sugar also. That or coffee soup (torn up buttered bread in a bowl with coffee, milk and sugar) were typical Sunday night suppers at my grandparents’ house. One of the things my family eats (not sure if it’s the PA Dutch influence or a midwestern thing) is chicken or beef and noodles over mashed potatoes. Talk about carb overload! But it is tasty, in a comfort food sort of way. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/51 "2011-03-28T03:30:35Z")
> [@ryobserver](#): > > It might be the cinnamon and sugar that make people cringe. The rice & eggs combination, as someone already pointed out, is already found in fried rice, and isn’t that different in concept from a potato omelet (chunks of cooked potato mixed in an omelet, usually with cheese as well), or the starving-student dish Egg Foo Yuk (leftover Chinese food stirred into scrambled eggs). But sweets + eggs seems to be an unusual taste. > > At least, that’s been my experience. If I want an omelet filled with jelly, like the ones my dad made when I was a kid, I have to make it myself. That’s one omelet filling I’ve never seen on a menu. My roommate used to make some sort of scrambled egg concoction with cinnamon and sugar. When you think about it, it’s just custard without the milk. As for my family: pickled watermelon rind. Now, apparently this is a Southern U.S. thing, but my family hasn’t been in the South since 1865. All my friends acted like I had served up an exotic foreign dish when I brought this to a holiday gathering one year. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/52 "2011-03-28T05:33:39Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > As for my family: pickled watermelon rind. Now, apparently this is a Southern U.S. thing, but my family hasn’t been in the South since 1865. All my friends acted like I had served up an exotic foreign dish when I brought this to a holiday gathering one year. I make this once every decade or so, then I remember how it’s too sweet to eat more than one bite. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/53 "2011-03-28T11:09:41Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > Yes, it is…in fact it’s the exact same clipping that my Mom has glued to an index card…and that’s my comment at the end of the comments! We don’t do the MSG or the green peppers. I googled it a few weeks back and was surprised to come across that blog post. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen another reference to that particular recipe. After showing the blog to my boss, she wanted to try the recipe but was disappointed. She brought leftovers to me at work, and then confessed that the loaf of French bread she had used was already stale and crusty when she started…thing was hard as a rock! Plus she added cheese, which was not a good addition. It is a bit hard to cut even when made right, because the bread does get crusty and the top tends to slip around a bit. But we’ve always used an electric knife on it (probably the only thing we use the electric knife on!) so it’s not a problem. I made this two weeks ago for my brother as a thank you for helping when my basement flooded. Now I’m craving it again! What percentage of fat is your hamburger? Mr. singular always get 15%, which I hate because of the excess grease I’m always spooning off. I’d like to try this, but I would think you’d need the leaner stuff. It sounds great, though, and I’m glad you listed the things that would ruin it, since those are things I might’ve tried. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/54 "2011-03-28T13:28:41Z")
Potato-chip chicken Dump about 3 or 4 cups of potato chips into a ziplock bag. Add garlic salt, dried parsley and about 1 cup of cheap, green-can parmesan cheese. Mush everything together until the pieces of chips are no bigger than corn flakes. Beat a couple of eggs together with just a bit of water. Dunk the chicken (whole chicken, cut up, bone in, skin on) in the eggs and roll in the potato chip mixture. Put on baking pan. Put a pat of butter/margerine on each piece. Sprinkle the remaining chips over the chicken and baking pan, drizzle with the remaining egg. Bake at ~350 for about 45 minutes. After you remove the chicken, serve the remaining pan-glop of chips/eggs/ over a mixture of white rice and peas. Feel your heart come to a complete stop as you realize you’re eating something like a 3 day supply of salt and grease. Enjoy the taste though. 😉 I remake this once a year or so, just for the memories. . ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/55 "2011-03-28T13:29:17Z")
My mother always salted her waltermelon, and that’s the only way I can eat it. From the looks people ggive me when I do it, you’d think I was putting ketchup on ice cream or something. One of the first SDMB threads I posted on was about people who salted their watermelon. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/56 "2011-03-28T17:38:17Z")
Tofurky! ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/57 "2011-03-28T19:26:23Z")
Scrambled eggs mixed with tuna. My dad derived it from what he used to eat as a kid - scrambled eggs mixed with pigs’ brains. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/58 "2011-03-28T19:39:49Z")
Turtle Barf: 1 can of peas added to a cream sauce. Pour over toast. Hopalong Cassidy: Tear a hole out of the middle of a slice of bread. Lay in a buttered pan and crack an egg in the hole. Fry. Eat with ketchup. Fishy Piggy: 1 can of tuna added to 1 can of pork n’ beans. Pour over toast. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/59 "2011-03-28T20:16:44Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Potato-chip chicken > > Dump about 3 or 4 cups of potato chips into a ziplock bag. Add garlic salt, dried parsley and about 1 cup of cheap, green-can parmesan cheese. Mush everything together until the pieces of chips are no bigger than corn flakes. > > Beat a couple of eggs together with just a bit of water. Dunk the chicken (whole chicken, cut up, bone in, skin on) in the eggs and roll in the potato chip mixture. Put on baking pan. Put a pat of butter/margerine on each piece. Sprinkle the remaining chips over the chicken and baking pan, drizzle with the remaining egg. > > Bake at ~350 for about 45 minutes. After you remove the chicken, serve the remaining pan-glop of chips/eggs/ over a mixture of white rice and peas. > > Feel your heart come to a complete stop as you realize you’re eating something like a 3 day supply of salt and grease. Enjoy the taste though. 😉 > > I remake this once a year or so, just for the memories. . That sounds so freaking delicious, I can’t even tell you. It’s making my mouth water and I kind of want to cry because I have already eaten my sandwich. _lip wobbles_ I’m going to make this and report back. ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091/60 "2011-03-28T20:42:16Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > My dad derived it from what he used to eat as a kid - scrambled eggs mixed with pigs’ brains. My husband still eats that when he can get his hands on it. Apparently it’s fantastic. I can’t quite bring myself to do it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-food-traditions-that-you-love-but-make-outsiders-cringe/576091.md?page=4)