Barry, l am heaving here! 
Mags, I had a feeling it might be Tapioca but now Barry has said, Sago. I don’t know?
Ugh, lt’s the horrible globules, l remember!
I have just remembered sweet milky Macaroni… another Ugh!!
Tinned peas, covid panic buying, oh the nostalgia hit. 
D00d, At the start of the lockdown, l bought a tin of marrowfat peas and two tins of garden peas to have as a standby.
I ate one tin of garden peas but they weren’t great.
The peas we had at school, were they dried peas that came with a white hard thing?
TBH I don’t know what or where our school peas came from. But what I bought in 2020 had a hint of 1950s middle England about them. The sabor took me back. We’ve got another tin … now I’m thinking pie & mash. HP sauce?
This one isn’t steamed, it’s baked in an oven. Lush it is too.
My old mum taught me the basics, but I’m largely self-taught thanks to my trusty copy of Delia and my Be-Ro cakes and buns book. The treacle roll is from a 1905 Daily Mail cookery book. 
I did all the cooking when I got wed and throughout my marriage, passing on some basic skills to the grandkids and showing them what to do. I don’t know if they will cook stuff for themselves or just buy ready meals to warm up in the microwave. (Ugh).
I could be wrong, but have they stopped doing domestic science in schools? A great pity if so.
Tapioca.
Sago and Tapioca look almost exactly the same even though they come from different plants. Either could be described as frog spawn
I’d forgotten about macaroni as a milk pudding… Yum!
That might have been Manchester Tart:-
As a child I ate everything I was given even the dreaded school sago which was like white frog spawn…yuk!! My favourite was apple crumble and I make that now especially when we have apples from the little tree in the garden…
Edited to say I just saw the post referring to white frog spawn and I will how to Judds superior knowledge…yes it was Tapioca
Was going through the hottest threads list (Food And Drink Forum | Over 50s Chat) and spotted this thread - I wanted to say I loved the…
Maybe we had different caterers but I loved the chocolate pudding with pink custard!!!
I also loved the vanilla ice cream with chocolate custard
It was yum, wasn’t it, did you like the mint one too? With chocolate concrete?
There’s a school dinners nostalgia group that I look at now and then, some of the members are old school dinner cooks and they share the recipes
The custard was really blancmange, made with cornflour and no eggs, so it was white to start with, not yellow, and that’s why it took those zingy colours so well! 
I make the sponge with jam and coconut sometimes, my husband likes it. I used to like the cheese flan
One of the old cooks said that the reason the gypsy tart and some other things will never taste quite the same is that they used to use big bottle of something called Bells Butter Essence and it doesn’t exist any more
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Bells may not exist - but Butter Essence does - Amazon is your friend!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/uncle-roy-Butter-Essence-Bottle/dp/B00Q56U7VU
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Thank you, I’ve used some othe Uncle Roy’s and they are really good 
Not sure if it will taste the same as Old Skool though, apparently they got it in in huge bottles and it lingered in the kitchens for years!
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This was the bane of my life at school .
I just could not eat them .
I had to stay in until break was finished and some merciful dinner lady took them away .
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My grandchildren love ‘‘chocolate concrete’’ that we used to have at school with pink custard.
I make it a lot but a healthier option as biscuits with added raisins/nuts/cacao also a version with fresh ginger which is lovely .
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My absolute, all time favourite dessert at junior school was the lemon curd tart, a tray bake.
Until, that is, one memorable day when one of the dinner ladies caught me with my elbows on the table (this was a mortal sin!). I was made to wait till last to go up for mine. I was almost sick with worry that there wouldn’t be any left - when I finally was allowed to join the end of the queue, there was just one portion left, a corner piece which was virtually all overcooked pastry and hardly any filling.
I took this measly offering back to my table, fighting tears, and ultimately couldn’t eat it because I was too upset.
I didn’t eat lemon curd for over 20 years after that episode.
School dinners at Primary School were horrid - and came served on blue and yellow plastic plates with plastic cutlery (shudders). Fortunately I only had to suffer them for two weeks.
Grammar school was better. Everything cooked from fresh and nicely served.
My school dinners smelt better than they tasted.
Tapioca made me heave,frog spawn sprang to mind.
Choco slab and mint custard was a delight and rare too.
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Actually, it’s a delish sandwich from the lunch menu in my last two years of secondary school.
It’s called a Chuckwagon Sandwich. It includes a finger bun, 2-4 slices of processed ham, 2-4 slices of salami and one slice of either smoked cheese or what I call “plastic cheese” you know them dairy slices.
Microwave for 1 minute or two depending on how hot you want your sandwich to be. It’s opened face and once heated up pour French’s style mustard or any mustard you prefer, fold and enjoy.
Be warned, you’ll want a second one… Lol!
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