So, what idiosyncrasies did you inherit from your parents/elders regarding cooking or eating habits? You know, the stuff that makes your spouse go :dubious:, but you might feel obliged to pass along to your offspring?
I have two that come to mind:
Salt on pizza crust. Got it from my father who had five boys and was always looking for ways to stretch a dollar. People look at me funny the first time they see me do this, but when you explain the logic (boring bread + salt = soft pretzel) they comprehend the greatness.
Red jam on chicken - any way you have chicken - sandwich to roast dinner, add jam. This started when my grandmother went to America (from Australia) way back in the 1930s and discovered the people in that remote place put cranberry jelly on turkey. We had neither the jelly nor turkey here, so she adapted - jam on chicken. Been in the family ever since, and I never have chicken without jam.
Ginger substituted for garlic, especially in Japanese, Korean and Chinese food. :o
My corn beef and cabbage has ginger in it, as does my corn beef and onions and my corn beef hash. I find the onion/ginger combo general works well.
My mother grew her own ginger as a kid.
Salt on grapefruit half. Sugar sweetens but masks the flavor; salt shuts down some of the bitterness and, due to the contrast, enhance the sweetness without adding more calories.
Salt on watermelon and cantalope. I was shocked that people didn’t do this.
I will never forget the collective looks of horror on my aunt, uncle and cousins’ faces as I casually rolled an ear of corn on the stick of butter on the dinner table.
I like my bananas to be somewhat green. I’ll eat a ripe one, but not if there’s any black spots on it. But the perfect banana still has green on the tips.
I get this right from my Mom.
I salt my watermelon too, I grew up in Viginia and that’s what everyone did. Just stunned silence in other countries when I did this.
Watermelon salter here.
My mother made friend chicken by taking chicken and putting it in oil. No pesky breading for her. That was my favorite way to cook it until I stopped eating meat. She also made “fried toast,” which was French toast without the egg. Just bread fried in a pan. Yummy!
My father’s father was a commercial fisherman, when he wasn’t a rumrunner. This meant that the Bodoni family was well supplied with fresh fish, and Daddy grew up eating fish more often than not. As a result, when he was an adult, and not living near a coast, he did NOT want to eat fish, except for the occasional tuna fish sammich. So my siblings and I never ate fish on a regular basis.
To this day, I still don’t care for fish, except for the occasional tuna salad, either by itself or on bread or crackers.
Boring? Pizza crust is sometimes the best part of the pie.
Oh yeah, you totally gotta salt watermelon. There’s any other way to eat it? I think not.
There are people who eat melons without salting them? That’s bizarre.
Anyway, mine would be rice with peanut butter. Until I was in grade school and had rice from the cafeteria, I had never had rice, except that it was prepared with cream, sugar, and peanut butter. I seriously thought that was the only way you could eat it, because that was the only way mom served it.
Found out that it was from her growing up in a large, poor, farm family and it was a cheap way to feed everyone and keep them full and nourished.
It’s still the only way I’ll eat rice, if it’s not in an Asian or Mexican dish.
Two from my mother: Sardines mashed with lots of yellow mustard and spread on crackers, and grilled cheese sandwiches with dill pickle slices. My mother is a fiend for pickles. Recently she’s been going through some mysterious health problems that have left her feeling vaguely ill all the time. At Christmas dinner we had roast beef and all the trimmings. All she ate was pickles.
Ketchup on scrambled eggs, and grape jelly mixed in with cottage cheese (it’s not as gross as you think).
I grew up in MA (And my Mother is French-Canadian)
You can’t even pull that banana apart though. And what about that bitter nasty taste that sticks with you forever?
Also, I’ve never heard of this watermelon salting thing. How much salt do you exactly put on a watermelon?
I’ve never heard of salting watermelon before, but in a similar vein, I eat my radishes cut into quarters and doused in salt because that’s how my dad did it. Radishes in salad just seem weird.
A habit I picked up from my mom is smoked oysters on saltines, though I’ve given it up because it grossed The Boy out. I have fond memories of my mom sitting down with a packet of saltines and a tin of smoked oysters… if I asked nicely she’d share with me, so it was always a special treat.
One of my exes had a thing for buttered white toast dunked in hot milk sweetenedd with a couple squirts of chocolate Quik. He tried to convince me it was the best thing ever, but I never did pick up the taste for it. shudder
Just a few shakes. It contrasts with the sweetness, thus making it more noticeable.
I also salt vanilla ice cream.
I learned this fairly recently, and it’s awesome.
Johnny Cake.
We used to eat it for breakfast all the time when I was growing up. It’s just cornbread - but you pour milk over it, then drizzle dark Caro syrup on the top.
My mom thought it was weird, but my dad grew up with it. It’s quite delicious, but I haven’t had it in years since I’ve developed lactose intolerance.