Chips in the freezer or no chips in the freezer house?

[Puddy_Tat]

when i was a kitten, mum-tat did proper chips in a chip pan now and then (it was an occasional treat rather than all that regular) - not sure if oven chips existed then, and they would probably not have been approved of if they had.

when it's worth getting spuds, i'll sometimes boil them until they are almost cooked then chop them in to smaller chunks and finish them in a frying pan.

mum-tat has moved on to those cardboard boxes of frozen chips you do in the microwave - they are nothing that special, but she's diabetic so can't have too much in one go and they work out about right.

 

[xenon]

Everyone has spinach in their freezer. It's like the law.

(And sweetcorn.)

Frozen sweetcorn. i’d completely forgotten that’s a thing.

 

[xenon]

when i was a kitten, mum-tat did proper chips in a chip pan now and then (it was an occasional treat rather than all that regular) - not sure if oven chips existed then, and they would probably not have been approved of if they had.

when it's worth getting spuds, i'll sometimes boil them until they are almost cooked then chop them in to smaller chunks and finish them in a frying pan.

mum-tat has moved on to those cardboard boxes of chips you do in the microwave - they are nothing that special, but she's diabetic so can't have too much in one go and they work out about right.

We sometimes had frozen crinkle cut chips. I mean what’s the big Whoopie do slightly crinkly. I don’t know it was a big deal in the 80s or something.

 

[Epona]

Frozen sweetcorn. i’d completely forgotten that’s a thing.

I prefer tinned sweetcorn, I only have a small freezer.
Frozen peas fine (tinned ones can be oddly sweet), and frozen spinach mostly to bung a little bit in curries and pasta dishes fine.
Frozen sweetcorn is just something taking up space in the small freezer when it is near identical out of an easier to store tin.

 

[Aladdin]

Anyone remember Micro Chips?



My nanna always used to do these for us

I remember those. The trick was to leave them in the box for a minute after removing from microwave and giving them a good shake.
I quite liked them..

 

[Riklet]

I usually have some hash browns and oven chips in the freezer but I dont cook them much. I used to eat them growing up regularly, but as I'm interested in cooking and healthy eating I dont bother much now... I try to avoid buying and eating ready made processed foods as much as possible. Saves a lot of money for a start!

More normally will do roast potatoes in the oven or sometimes make proper chips from scratch. I had a deep fat fryer before but not used it for ages (gone in the shed) and have reverted to frying in a frying pan over an open flame which is dangerous but I dont care, im quite good at it and the chips are banging

 

[keybored]

There are hardly ever chips in the freezer, we just pick up a small bag of the posh ones if we fancy chips and have them the same night. Triple-cooked in beef fat or some such guff.

It's good, because we can't just impulse-eat chips whenever we like. It's also bad because we can't just impulse-eat chips whenever we like.

 

[danny la rouge]

Growing up, we only had a freezer compartment not a whole freezer. There were peas, fish fingers and crispy pancakes in it. But chips were made in a dangerous pan.

Now I sometimes have oven chips in the freezer, but they’re dangerous in other ways. In that I’ll eat them with everything given half the chance.

 

[seeformiles]

I grew up in a house where we had chips every night - cut and cooked in a chip pan - from when I first had teeth to when I left home. We didn’t have a fridge or a freezer until the mid-80s. My dad was a very fussy eater and loved chips (usually with sausage, bacon and beans). Last night we had oven chips because Mrs SFM wanted some and there was the remains of a bag in the freezer. As I feel I’ve had my share in my first 20 years I’m indifferent to them now. Mrs SFM grew up in a house where chips were a special treat so they still retain their mystique for her.

 

[Cloo]

I would never have a deep fat fryer. The potential for disaster is too much. The risk, ratio benefit is way off. I’ve heard the stats. we had home-cooked chips as a kid. which was good. But I know my limitations. I know what I’m like. Drunk cooking, death, statistic.

IIRC, one of the reasons house fires are much less common than they used to be is far less deep fat frying, especially post-pub.

That and many fewer people smoking, and fewer flammable fabrics around the house.

 

[lazythursday]

Barely a week seemed to go by without a chip pan fire in the area where I grew up. I can vividly remember the blackened windows of the house down the road that went right up. As a result I was terrified as a child when my mum cooked chips and I start to freak out now if if I go slightly overboard on the oil when shallow frying. There's no way I could have a deep fat fryer in the house.

 

[Steel Icarus]

There are sometimes microwave chips for the kids in the freezer. Day after boxing day is about the only time I eat oven chips, with gammon and eggs.

Didn't have home cooked chips as a kid really, my mum would have burned down the street, but Saturdays when parents were busy 'doing jobs' we'd go to the chip-oil about 12.

This weekly thing has persisted for me; at work Friday is trad. 'Fishy Friday' so I get fish and chips from the college refectory.

 

[danny la rouge]

We didn’t have a fridge or a freezer until the mid-80s.

My parents didn’t get a freezer until after I’d left home, again mid 80s. They did have a fridge though.

 

[danny la rouge]

There's no way I could have a deep fat fryer in the house.

Nor I, but they’re not as dangerous as the chip pans we grew up with. Just open pans full of boiling fat, burnt and crusty on the outside.

 

[Elpenor]

In the late 70s, my dad infamously bought a chest freezer instead of an engagement ring at the time he proposed to my Mum, something my Mum never failed to mention.

 

[tony.c]

Anyone remember Micro Chips?



My nanna always used to do these for us

I remember those. The trick was to leave them in the box for a minute after removing from microwave and giving them a good shake.
I quite liked them..

The microwave fries are still available, but not the crinkle cut ones. About £3 for 4 packs in most supermarkets.

 

[pogofish]

Anyone remember Micro Chips?



My nanna always used to do these for us

I remember when they were first launched. A difficult kid I was working with at the time instantly pronounced them the "best food ever!" because before them, he could never get his mother to make him chips for breakfast.

As far as we could ascertain, his entire diet consisted of chips, more chips, liver and limeade.

 

[seeformiles]

My parents didn’t get a freezer until after I’d left home, again mid 80s. They did have a fridge though.

My Ma just put things in bags in the coal bunker - “Nature’s Fridge” as she put it . Buying the fridge freezer was a great technological leap forward in our house. From the 1940s to the 80s in one appliance.

 

[seeformiles]

In the late 70s, my dad infamously bought a chest freezer instead of an engagement ring at the time he proposed to my Mum, something my Mum never failed to mention.

Sounds like he could teach Casanova a thing or two

 

[pogofish]

The way I sniff out a working class / middle class childhood (of a middle aged person anyway) is to wax lyrical about the unique flavour of the tinned potato. The looks of horror.

We got tatties by the sack from our relatives on farms - A big sack lasted months and was one of the most valued/appreciated presents my ma/gran would get (along with a sack of neeps or carrots) as it helped eek-out the money for food so well.

Tinned tatties would have been a totally needless/expensive folderol to them..!

 

[Elpenor]

Sounds like he could teach Casanova a thing or two

The defence he made was they didn’t have much money and they needed a freezer more than an engagement ring and they were about the same price (I believe freezers were quite dear back then)

 

[pogofish]

My Ma just put things in bags in the coal bunker - “Nature’s Fridge” as she put it . Buying the fridge freezer was a great technological leap forward in our house. From the 1940s to the 80s in one appliance.

Similar experience in the mid/late 1970s here - The kitchen press or the coal hole. Then my uncle visited from Canada and was absolutely horrified to discover that we didn't have a fridge yet. He promptly went out and bought us one!

 

[seeformiles]

We got tatties by the sack from our relatives on farms - A big sack lasted months and was one of the most valued/appreciated presents my ma/gran would get (along with a sack of neeps or carrots) as it helped eek-out the money for food so well.

Tinned tatties would have been a totally needless/expensive folderol to them..!

We got a 4 stone sack of spuds delivered every couple of months too. The idea of tinned potatoes is deeply weird. I mean - how lazy do you have to be to habitually buy such a thing?

 

[sojourner]

I don't think that they had been invented when I was a child. We had a special chip pan full of lard which set when it was cold.

Same here. Me mother used to double-dip the chips for maximum flavour, cor.

As part of my ongoing mission to avoid UPFs as much as possible, we never have oven chips anymore. We just do wedges, oiled/salted or oiled/paprikaed.

 

[Orang Utan]

The microwave fries are still available, but not the crinkle cut ones. About £3 for 4 packs in most supermarkets.
View attachment 408476

They literally taste of cardboard

 

[sojourner]

The way I sniff out a working class / middle class childhood (of a middle aged person anyway) is to wax lyrical about the unique flavour of the tinned potato. The looks of horror.

I don't understand this. Are tinned potatoes supposed to be working or middle class? My mum and dad grew all their own veg, we never had tinned anything.

 

[tony.c]

Sounds like he could teach Casanova a thing or two

It obviously worked or Elpenor might not have been here today.

 

[pogofish]

Nor I, but they’re not as dangerous as the chip pans we grew up with. Just open pans full of boiling fat, burnt and crusty on the outside.

Yup - again, my Gran had her deep-frying pan, always sitting on the hob. Mottled black/brown on the outside and initially solid lard when it was cool, although she did switch to sunflower oil sometimes in the late 1970s/early 80s. It remained in use right up to her death in the early 1990s.

These days, I do keep a bag of chips in the freezer for when I can't be bothered but my preference is to make spicy oven chips in the mini-oven. Which doesn't take long at all.

 

[seeformiles]

It obviously worked or Elpenor might not have been here today.

Case closed!

 

[seeformiles]

I don't understand this. Are tinned potatoes supposed to be working or middle class? My mum and dad grew all their own veg, we never had tinned anything.

I was brought up to believe that tinned soup was posh and that packet soup was fine for the likes of us