CH food

Share your memories and stories from the Hertford Christ's Hospital School, which closed in 1985, when the two schools integrated to the Horsham site....

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Pixie
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Re: CH food

Post by Pixie »

Getting back to the Sunday tea cake, for me this is inextricably bound up with the chore of cleaning and polishing the fish knives and forks. I think this was a sunday pm job in 3's and the cake must have been sitting around in the kitchen when it was my turn to clean the cutlery.
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MaryB
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Re: CH food

Post by MaryB »

What did we use for the fish knives etc? I have a sort of sensory memory of a pink gritty paste with a distinctively repulsive smell, which could linger into the Friday fish if it wasn't "taken off" properly. But mercifully it's separate from the cake.
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

Dear, dear Mary!

I have posted before in horrified memory of the fish knives and forks! Here is an approximation -

The fish knives and forks lives in a grubby stained metal box in the House Kitchen. They were made from a dull slightly bendy metal which thoroughly absorbed the rich aromas of every particle of Baked/Cheese Fish. They smelled absolutely horrible. If one were On Hallwork on a Friday, the opening of the fish cutlery tin was a sickening experience; as the cumulative smell of the cutlery which had brewed in the tin broke forth with a fishy vengeance!

The Pink Paste memory is absolutely accurate. Weird stuff. Lingered on the fingers for hours. But then, so did Bluebell and Gumption.
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Re: CH food

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

Angela Woodford wrote:Dear, dear Mary!

I have posted before in horrified memory of the fish knives and forks! Here is an approximation -

The fish knives and forks lives in a grubby stained metal box in the House Kitchen. They were made from a dull slightly bendy metal which thoroughly absorbed the rich aromas of every particle of Baked/Cheese Fish. They smelled absolutely horrible. If one were On Hallwork on a Friday, the opening of the fish cutlery tin was a sickening experience; as the cumulative smell of the cutlery which had brewed in the tin broke forth with a fishy vengeance!



Oh dear, I hope that Sir Colin's sister isn't reading this :oops: In my memory they are EPNS, and the gritty pink stuff is silver polish.



The Pink Paste memory is absolutely accurate. Weird stuff. Lingered on the fingers for hours. But then, so did Bluebell and Gumption.
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Re: CH food

Post by fra828 »

The fish-fingers were the best of the school fish, weren't they? Fishcakes, boiled fish, pilchards.... yuk! :mrgreen:
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

I don't have happy recollections of Saturday morning breakfast fish fingers.

Baked to a state of melded solidity from the very cheapest grey minced fish scrapings-and-remnants, they were guaranteed to induce severe indigestion for me after about a quarter of an hour after ingestion. There were often a lot of leftovers.

it was a fiendish idea to challenge Alex Thrift , who liked the fish fingers, to a how-many-can-you-eat challenge.

Alex, I remember that you managed thirty-six before the hammer fell.

I actually liked the Cheese Fish!
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Re: CH food

Post by Vonny »

Angela Woodford wrote:I don't have happy recollections of Saturday morning breakfast fish fingers.
I don't remember having fish fingers at all at Hertford - that's not to say we didn't have them. I DO remember fish fingers for breakfast at Horsham though - fish fingers sandwiches yum yum!
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Re: CH food

Post by Euterpe13 »

I remember the "fish" fingers - the only near-palatable way to eat them was smothered in brown sauce...
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Re: CH food

Post by J.R. »

At Horsham, I used to find that the Cheese and Potato pie, sometimes serverd at tea-time was greatly improved with a great big dollop of strawberry jam on top.

I still occasionally enjoy this treat today.
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Re: CH food

Post by Angela Woodford »

icomefromalanddownunder wrote:Oh dear, I hope that Sir Colin's sister isn't reading this :oops: In my memory they are EPNS, and the gritty pink stuff is silver polish.[/color


Did you, by any chance, get out of having to clean the fish knives and forks, Caroline? :shock:

Just asking! :lol:
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Re: CH food

Post by Vonny »

J.R. wrote:At Horsham, I used to find that the Cheese and Potato pie, sometimes serverd at tea-time was greatly improved with a great big dollop of strawberry jam on top.

I still occasionally enjoy this treat today.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Anyone else remember not bothering with a knife when spreading butter on toast and just using the block to spread it :lol:
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Re: CH food

Post by sejintenej »

Vonny wrote:
J.R. wrote:At Horsham, I used to find that the Cheese and Potato pie, sometimes serverd at tea-time was greatly improved with a great big dollop of strawberry jam on top.

I still occasionally enjoy this treat today.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Anyone else remember not bothering with a knife when spreading butter on toast and just using the block to spread it :lol:
Vonny: we had those tiny pats of marge so any spreading had to be with a knife.
I don't remember JR's Cheese & Potato pie (sounds too good to be real) but I did enjoy some marmalade in my sausage. Made it seem edible and overcame the fat in which it was dripping.
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Re: CH food

Post by kerrensimmonds »

We've said before on this Forum that the sharpness of the marmalade spread on double-fried greasy fried bread made it absolutely scrummy....Frances has even said that she or her husband have managed to recreate it. Wish I could!
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Re: CH food

Post by englishangel »

I think you have to deep fry the bread Kerren.
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Re: CH food

Post by Euterpe13 »

deep-frying isn't enough, Mary - it needs the added taste from the sausage or bacon fat .... I have never had marmalade on fried bread since I left CH, but I can still taste it ...
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