What was the worst stuff your parents made you eat?

[Sunray]

"...do not eat innards..." Ever eat any kind of sausage? Ever eat a hot dog(you really don't want to know what's in a hot dog)? Ever eat any kind of 'cold cut'?
For me it was fish. Had fresh(literally caught hours before) lake trout forced down my gullet when I was about 5 or so. It came back up a few hours later. Haven't eaten fish or anything else out of water since.
Anyway, the whole thing is mostly about how our ma's learned to cook. Usually from their ma or worse a Home Economics teacher(had a female Cadet tell me her's said if you don't score a cucumber's rind with a fork it's poisonous.). Who learned from their ma. Most of whom had to deal with inadequate refrigeration and trichinosis in pork.
And it's rutabaga. Needs to be cooked with an onion, then mashed with butter, brown sugar and a bit of nutmeg.
Brussels sprouts are fixed with lots of cheese, but they have to be boiled properly too.

[AZshooter]

That's one reason why my folks never forced me to eat certain foods and I in turn didn't try to force my children. You never know how they feel or what their digestive system will react to. My mother always said she would fix me something else to eat or I could just make a sandwich if I didn't like what she had prepared. My parents remembered how it was being kids themselves and certain foods you just have to acquire a taste for as you mature. Greens, turnips, liver, rutabaga, carrots, broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomatoes and others while you may hate them as kids you may actually like them as old age starts setting in. My dog even has a very finicky stomach and I don't persuade him to eat. I don't get concerned unless he goes for a day or two w/o eating.

Actually, my Mom eventually decided to write off the bell peppers from my menu (as a kid) and instead baked my bell pepper stuffing in a little pytrex glass dish - worked out well. It was later in life that she decided I needed to eat the damn things & chopped them up extra fine. Came a certain point in life SHE could no longer eat the wretched things (Dad said she got deathly ill).

There were things my parents grew up with that they never ate & that I missed out on: Mom was forced to eat fish her Dad brought home for dinner during the depression. She would cook them for us, but wouldn't eat them herself - I always found it amusing to watch her wretching & gagging while preparing fish to bake, broil or fry. For Dad, it was turnips, rutabagas and a couple of other similar things. I was an adult when I first tried mashed turnips & they really weren't that bad. Of course, I grew up with fresh-caught trout & canned smoked sardines & nowadays, there isn't much I won't eat, except for stuff that won't digest ... and eggplant ...

[aintright]

Cottage cheese , to this day don't like it . My mother was probally the worlds worst cook , she hated cooking and you hated eating it . Everything she fixed was cooked or fried on high and cooked to death . Fried potatoes you probally could have fashioned a frog gig from , hamburger ? Holy shiet ! You could have brought blood if you had winged one at somebody . They actually crunched when you ate them , through and through . Was made to eat everything on the plate , didn't matter how long it took , you wasn't getting down from the table till it was gone . Have sat there and gagged at bite after bite , grease had turned to lard on the outside of the burger or potatoes .
Lmao , it was nuts .
After I got out on my own , I learned to cook as years went by and progressed pretty good as I did have grand ma's that could whip a mighty fine meal , so I knew that there was good vittles out there. Just not under our roof .
Fish eggs from dipping suckers when they would run the creeks , grandma on my dads side could make a delicious batch of them . She would cook the suckers , the entire fish and grind it up and make fish cakes with it that would rival any salmon cakes you could eat .
Bake , oh yeah , some real deal pies and cakes , lol , I don't know that mom was even aware there was an oven on the stove . Thank god for grand ma's .
Kenneth

[leftyo]

Cottage cheese , to this day don't like it . My mother was probally the worlds worst cook , she hated cooking and you hated eating it . Everything she fixed was cooked or fried on high and cooked to death . Fried potatoes you probally could have fashioned a frog gig from , hamburger ? Holy shiet ! You could have brought blood if you had winged one at somebody . They actually crunched when you ate them , through and through . Was made to eat everything on the plate , didn't matter how long it took , you wasn't getting down from the table till it was gone . Have sat there and gagged at bite after bite , grease had turned to lard on the outside of the burger or potatoes .
Lmao , it was nuts .
After I got out on my own , I learned to cook as years went by and progressed pretty good as I did have grand ma's that could whip a mighty fine meal , so I knew that there was good vittles out there. Just not under our roof .
Fish eggs from dipping suckers when they would run the creeks , grandma on my dads side could make a delicious batch of them . She would cook the suckers , the entire fish and grind it up and make fish cakes with it that would rival any salmon cakes you could eat .
Bake , oh yeah , some real deal pies and cakes , lol , I don't know that mom was even aware there was an oven on the stove . Thank god for grand ma's .
Kenneth

ill bet my mother would be good competition with yours for worst cook.

[togor]

ill bet my mother would be good competition with yours for worst cook.

but no Lutefisk right?

[jmm03]

birds eye frozen boiled okra... just the thought of it can induce dry heaving, although frozen lima beans are a close second. I am from an age where if it was put in front of you you ate it.

[leftyo]

but no Lutefisk right?

you would have to go to my grandparents for that nasty stuff.

[togor]

Anti-starvation rations become delicacies in gentler times, LOL.

I went to Iceland for work once. A couple of local guys took us out to dinner. One of them ordered Rotted Shark as an appetizer. A lump of grey goo about the size of a boy's fist on a plate. He explained to me that this was something I probably wouldn't want to try as he carefully sliced away the grey stuff to get at the marshmellow-sized lump of pink in the middle. I was in full agreement with him!

It's easy to imagine that one starting out as a bunch of starving Icelanders encountering a carcass on the shoreline. Beggars can't be choosers.

[S.A. Boggs]

One of my acquired likes is butter milk from my youth, I like the tang of it. When our daughter was 4 I was drinking a glass of it and she came in hot and thirsty. She grabbed my glass [we always share] and took a big drink. She made an awful face and hollered that "Dad is drinking that spoiled milk again!' She likes it in pancakes or biscuits, otherwise no. She and her mother, along with Wolf, will eat yogurt...nasty stuff! I enjoy cottage cheese and relish it with breakfast.
Sam

[jaie5070]

Ever tried poi. The hawaiian veggie. It's kind of like eating wall paper paste and looks like greyish snot on your plate. It mite be edible if it was prepared like a bake potato or mixed with hot sauce.