Comfort Food

Anne here, and today I'm blogging about comfort food. Of course what we class as comfort food varies from person to person, and is often culturally influenced, but it's usually something from our childhood, a simple, everyday dish of the kind that never makes it into recipe books of fancy restaurants, though some hotels and breakfast cafés might include some dishes.

But when you're feeling down, or tired, or maybe a little bit sick—or recovering from being sick— we tend to turn to comfort food. Or at least I do.

For some people it's their mother's chicken soup, or if their mother wasn't a cook, maybe a particular brand of canned soup. A childhood friend of mine always wanted canned tomato soup, made with milk and served with dry triangles of toast. She was always very specific about it. Triangles, not squares. And dry, not buttered.

When another friend of mine was very ill, she craved chicken soup, but kept rejecting the various soups her husband made. Friends brought different versions. It turned out my mother's chicken soup was the one she liked— because it was the closet thing to her own mother's recipe. It was comfort and nourishment and nostalgia all in a bowl

It's not just about illness — when a friend of mine's grown children come home to visit, they always want her to make chicken pie, and for dessert, golden syrup dumplings. To them it's a kind of ritual meal that means they're home. In my family a favorite childhood  food was "scrumfus" -- minced steak (ground beef) cooked with onion and celery and carrot — a bit like an American sloppy Joe, only served on toast, not on a bun, and made without any sugar or tomato. (It was called "scrumfus" because when I was a toddler I heard my big brother say it was scrumptious, and thought that's what it was called, so it became one of those family names.)

For me —and this is an Australian thing that most other people in the world do not understand — the comfort food I turn to most often is toast with butter and vegemite. Vegemite is a black salty spread, a yeast extract, and most Australians were raised on it. It's a little like the English Marmite, but not the same. Those not raised on it don't understand the craving for it that the rest of us do. As you can see, you don't slather it on the toast — it's quite strong.

After a period of illness, or maybe a food poisoning episode, when I haven't eaten anything for a few days, toast and vegemite is the first solid food I will eat. This was my lunch today -- a piece of Turkish bread, toasted, buttered and spread with Vegemite. Not that I'm ill or anything; I just wanted it. And thinking about why inspired this post.

It's a cultural thing — a Macedonian friend will turn to toast with butter and a chunk of fetta cheese, or scrambled egg (no milk) with fetta — served on toast. For a Japanese friend, her comfort food of choice is a bowl of miso soup. Or maybe a bowl of silky tofu.

Another favorite comfort food is the boiled egg with toast soldiers. Do you know what I mean by soldiers? Toast cut into narrow strips, which you dip into the egg yolk and eat. Childhood bliss and still a favorite comfort meal of mine.

People often have little rituals associated with a comfort food, for instance with a boiled egg, some insist you must "behead" the egg in one swift movement, while others will tap gently over the top until it's cracked all over, and then gently lift the 'lid' of the egg.

In my books, I often like to include odd-sounding Regency-era dishes, like stewed lettuce, or buttered smelts, or cocks-comb-a-la-creme, which I find in my wonderful old Georgian-era cookbook, but sometimes the scene calls for something we all recognize as comfort food. For instance this scene, in my book, The Autumn Bride, when Lady Beatrice is discovered in a dire situation, badly neglected and fed only on gruel—which she loathes.

    “I’ll make you something tasty to eat,” Damaris said. “What about a soft-boiled egg with soldiers?”
    “A soft-boiled egg with soldiers?” the old lady repeated in a whisper. “I haven’t had that since—” She broke off, her mouth wobbling. Her face crumpled and she scrubbed at her brimming eyes. “Blast the dratted dust in here. It’s got into my eyes again.”

We all know and recognize that feeling, that it's comfort food, a dish from childhood that makes you feel loved and cared for.

Toast is central to quite a few comfort dishes, I suppose because bread is so central to our culture. On cold winter nights when I was a child we often used to make toast in front of the fire, toasting thick slices of bread, and sometimes crumpets, on long toasting forks. Toast tasted so much better that way, even if it was slightly blackened in parts or you had to brush off a bit of ash because you accidentally dropped it.

I've written several toasting-by-the-fire scenes because apart from the association with comfort food, sharing a fire fosters intimacy. This is from The Winter Bride:

    It was late and the three three girls were gathered in Jane's room, toasting crumpets in front of the fire, and spreading them with butter and honey. Lady Beatrice was always tired after Literary Society days, and retired to bed early, while the girls enjoyed an informal supper.
    Eating like this, supper on a tray, with soup, boiled eggs and toast, or crumpets and honey, eaten in their bedclothes in front of the fire, evoked their earliest days together, before they'd even met Lady Beatrice and reminded them all how lucky they were to have found each other.
    Tonight three half-grown kittens watched the butter dish with propriety interest.

So what's your comfort food of choice? And do you have any little rituals associated with it?

Comments

[Michele]

My mother wasn't much of a cook, either, but she made great gravy. Unsurprisingly, mashed potatoes and gravy is my comfort food of choice. My husband's is American-Chinese, which is what his mother liked to make when the family was together.

[Janga]

I always want chicken soup and ginger ale over ice when I am ill. Both were part of my mother's TLC when we were ill as children, and now they feel like her stroke across my brow when I am achy and feverish and generally miserable.

A comfort food for emotional rather than physical malaise is my father's tomato gravy served over biscuits. It was a nostalgic dish for him, a relic of his Depression-era childhood when it was a cheap meal for a large family. For my brother, my sister, and me, it was a reminder of happy times when Daddy took over the kitchen, a treat for us and for our mother and an amazing act for any friends who were visiting since we were children at a time when fathers rarely took on any domestic tasks.

[kay]

It seems that all of my comfort foods have some kind of dough involved in it. Beef and noodles, chicken and noodles, sauerkraut w pork and dumplings, pirogi's stuffed with sauerkraut and let me tell you nothing says comfort better than fried dough.

[Beverly Abney]

I love good bread more than cake and this post makes me want to go and toast some.

[Cynthia Owens]

My mother worked when I was growing up, and every Saturday she'd make a huge pot of beef-and-vegetable soup, chocolate cake, and molasses cookies. My idea of heaven. Mom's gone now, but I continue to serve these foods to my family, and it's like she's there with us on a Saturday afternoon.

[Elisabeth Lane]

My grandmother was a terrible cook, a devotee of 1960s American convenience foods. I don't think I ever had a single meal at her house that didn't include Jello (as either salad or dessert).

But.

My parents were health nut, food co-op hippies. So Bama's house meant bologna and American cheese on white bread with mayo. She also taught me the art of cocktail hour with Shirley Temples (for me--she drank straight vodka--is it still a martini if there's no vermouth in it?), black olives and cheese cubes. She would have loved my obsession with bourbon, though she died before I could legally drink. So...bologna sandwiches and bourbon, my comfort foods. Clearly I missed my calling as a noir detective.

[Anne Gracie]

Michele I think mashed potatoes and gravy would be on a few peoples comfort food list. Delish.

[Anne Gracie]

Janga, I can almost taste that ginger ale over ice. And yes, mothers chicken soup always tastes best. I love that your dad made dinner occasionally. My dad used to make breakfast — porridge in winter and poached eggs on toast in summer. I have never eaten biscuits and gravy — something to be rectified next time Im in the US — biscuits look so much like scones to me and scones are served as morning or afternoon tea with jam and cream or butter and honey. The idea of smothering them with gravy seems quite exotic.

[Anne Gracie]

Kay youre right -- most comfort food is starchy, and noodles and dumplings -- especially home made ones are delicious. Youve just reminded me, my mother used to make stewes and sometimes make dumplings that were cooked in the juice and they were so yummy. Havent had them for years.

[Anne Gracie]

Beverly, I think the world is divided into people who prefer cake and people who prefer bread or toast. Im in the bread/toast group too. If Im dieting, cake will never tempt me to break my diet, but toast now...especially if I can smell my neighbor cooking it. . .

[Anne Gracie]

Cynthia, isnt it lovely how making these simple and delicious dishes can bring the past alive. Such a nice thought that your mum is with you. I think part of the reason for this sentimental post is that its my mums birthday today. She died some years ago, but talking and thinking about some of these foods has brought her to mind again. Thanks.

[Jana]

My five year old son won't touch an egg to save his life, but he loves his toast, dripping in butter, cut into soldiers and served with cheese cut into cubes. His preferences are quite specific already. I love eggs and toast or grilled cheese as my comfort food. My husband likes cheese sandwiches.

[Sonya Heaney]

I'm Australian, but I HATE Vegemite! People keep trying to get me to give it another chance...

I'm actually not sure I have a particular comfort food. Whatever is nearby and easy to prepare. :)

[Janice]

I've never met Vegemite, but I don't think I'd like it.

Comfort food for me was ice cream, because I'd remember how I'd make a hole in the top of my scoop and my dad would spoon some of his hot coffee into it. No Midwesterner considered a meal complete without dessert and coffee.

My mom did wonderful corned beef hash, lima bean soup and apple pie, and those are comfort memories for me too.

Now I made do with a diet coke or a cup of green tea :(

[Anne Gracie]

Jana, yes, some littlies start developing firm preferences early on, dont they? I do like grilled cheese on toast, but if Im having a toasted sandwich I like ham and cheese.

[Anne Gracie]

Sonya, as I said, I think you have to be raised on Vegemite to love it. Its a taste you either develop in childhood or not at all.

[Anne Gracie]

Oh dear, Janice -- diet coke or green tea doesnt sound much of a substitute for corned beef hash or pie and icecream.
Healthier possibly, but comfort food? Not so much. :)
I love the idea of your dad pouring a little coffee into your ice cream — sort of like affogato for kids, only without the Frangelico.

[Faith Freewoman]

Lovely, nostalgic post, thank you, Anne.

Faith

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks Faith

[Kathy K]

My comfort food growing up was chicken in rice. You used the chicken broth instead of water for the rice. This was especially good as a bland meal after a tummy bug. But when I grew up and got married my husband wasn't a fan of it, so I haven't made it in a long time.

[Ella Quinn]

This is a great post. My comfort food depends on the weather and how I'm feeling. One of my favorites is macaroni and cheese. When we lived in Germany that manifested itself as käsespätzle. Noodles with Emmentaler. If I'm in the States, it's regular mac and cheese, but it has to be homemade. After we married, I had to wean my husband off the boxed kind. For breakfast, I can't decide between grits or corned beef hash. When we were in Beaufort, SC recently, I found a restaurant that served both. Very unusual. I was in heaven.

[Elaine Brown]

One of my fondest memories is going down the road to my grandmother's house and having her corned beef stew and dumplings. She died in 1961 so it's a pretty powerful memory.

[Karin]

I've got a number of comfort foods, and they are mostly things that I learned from my mother or grandmother. They both cooked a sort of Jewish influenced pan-Eastern European cuisine. My grandmother made matzo brie, which is matzo covered with a sort of batter and pan fried. It's for breakfast, similar to French toast. She also made apricot and plum dumplings. The entire piece of fruit in enclosed in the dumpling dough, they are boiled, and then browned in buttered bread crumbs and sprinkled with sugar. I think the recipe is Czech. My mother made those wonderful Vanillekipferl, crescent shaped cookies made with ground almonds and dredged in powdered sugar. And sometimes for supper she would made buttered egg noodles, topped with either ground poppy seeds and sugar(Mohnnudeln) or ground walnuts and sugar(Nussnudeln). These are Viennese recipes and my definition of comfort food. Sugar, fat and carbohydrates, I'm sensing a pattern here!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Anne, what a great topic! My mother was not an enthusiastic cook, but she made really good mashed potatoes--lots of butter *G*--so mashed potatoes and gravy are high on my comfort food list. She made good meatloaf, too. They mashed potatoes and meatloaf went -very- well together!

[Patricia Franzino]

Since I now deal with food intolerance, one of my favorite comfort foods is spirilized zucchini/tomato sauce/veggies as a substitute for pasta.

I also enjoy Lily's chocolate (find it in a health food store), which has no sugar and tastes great. There's nothing like dark chocolate as a sweet after any kind of pasta, substitute or not.

[Anne Hoile]

Oh, my gosh! This is my post. That's my mom's old time dish that I loved!! Anyone remember Lake Titikaka? That's the hold in the mashed potatoes for the gravy. :)

[Janice]

I can still remember the people, even if the food is different :)

No worries, as you Ozfolk sometimes say.

[theo]

Dippy eggs and fresh white bread, not toasted. Just soft and white and preferably warm from the oven. Of course at this point, if I don't make the bread, it's not warm and soft from the oven so I'd settle for almost anything starchy for comfort.

You know, I never realized it until you just mentioned it how often people are toasting things in your stories. I think when Dorrie gives Sebastian half her toasted muffin, I didn't stop crying for hours. So just keep toasting! ;)

[Anne Gracie]

Theo, what a great memory you have — Id forgotten how often I must write about toast, myself. Thanks.
But for me its a powerful childhood memory, toasting bread or crumpets on a long toasting fork in front of an open fire. Probably that was when we were on holidays or something, which is why its special for me. And its something Im sure Regency-era people also did.
I love fresh white bread, too. I remember the first time I got it warm from a bakery — it was about 5am and I was about 10 and was with an older friend of the family, and she knew the bakery was baking then and we knocked on the door and they sold us hot rolls with butter on them. Bliss!

[Anne Gracie]

Kathy I make a version of this -- a kind of chicken risotto, to which I may or may not add cheese. But rice cooked in chicken stock is delicious.

[Anne Gracie]

Ella, so many people mention Mac and Cheese -- if this was a competition, Mac & Cheese would win. Ive never had grits — I assume its a bit like porridge. Im adding it to the list of things I need to try next time I go to the US . The trouble is, Im usually in a hotel where they have bacon and eggs and i dont look past that :)

[Anne Gracie]

Elaine, beef stew and dumplings is yummy. Those old-fashioned dishes were out of fashion for a while, but some of them seem to be coming back.

[Anne Gracie]

Karin, matzo brie sounds yummy. And those fruit dumplings sound a little like the ones my mum used to make — she learned a lot of dishes from Czech and Hungarian and Polish ladies when I was a kid, so even though were pretty anglo, we ate a lot of middle european dishes. When we moved to another part of the country where the population was pretty much all anglo, the kids really used to stare when Id pull out a cold stuffed pepper for lunch, instead of jam or vegemite sandwiches. :)
All the things you mentioned sound s=delicious — I remember after one of Eva Ibbotsons books where so many yummy cakes and sweets were mentioned, I borrowed a viennese cookbook from the library, and it contained the most delicious recipes. Alas, the library got rid of that book when they had a purge, so I never got to make most of them.

[Anne Gracie]

Good mashed potato is a very fine thing, Mary Jo. As for Meat Loaf — I had a yen for it the other day and made one. It was delish. no spuds though.

[Anne Gracie]

Patricia, food intolerances are a nuisance, arent they? But I think you end up appreciating good food more when you get it. Spiralized zucchini sounds good.Im trying to stay off wheat products, too, and I saw this gadget that turns zuccini into pasta-like shapes — a spiralizer I guess its called — it looked great.
And dark chocolate is my favorite.

[Anne Gracie]

LOL, Anne -- I thought you werent supposed to play with your food

[Anne Gracie]

We do indeed say no worries -- though my mum hated the expression. And yes, you dont need the food to remember the people, thats for sure.

[Janice]

I remember destroying several toasters because I buttered the bread before I dropped it in the toaster slots. It's a wonder I didn't burn the house down. But it tasted so much better that way.

[Anne Gracie]

I can sympathize. I don’t have a toaster — I much prefer to toast mine under the griller (broiler) which lets me do all kinds of things with bread and toast — including burning it g

[Janice]

It was the 1950s. We knew not of toaster ovens :)

[Anne Gracie]

Not a toaster oven — just the ordinary griller under the gas jets on the stove. My kitchen is tiny, so no space for toaster ovens or useless gadgets.

[theo]

My youngest's first attempt at grilled cheese:

Butter 2 slices bread
Slap cheese between slices
Squish together
Stick in toaster

I got a new red toaster the next day...

[Ella Quinn]

Grits are made of corn meal. You can only get grits in the south, Anne. I like them in all forms; cheese grits, shrimp and grits, grits with butter and a side of scrambled eggs. The next time you come to a conference here and we're in the south, I'll find a good place and we'll go.

[Sonya Heaney]

Well, there is the fact it's apparently VERY salty. And I love salt. So maybe one day soon I'll work up the courage to try it again!

[Sue W. McCormick]

Ella, you can get grits in Missouri (but then we're partly of the South). I only mention this, because I wonder about the other border states and the border areas just north of the Ohio.

[Sue W. McCormick]

When I was young, I was often sick; my mother fed me her homemade beef-based vegetable soup and lemon "ice" (lemon sherbet); I remember them fondly. But I don't make a good vegetable soup and food intolerances and diabetes have mostly removed the lemon sherbet from my diet. So these are memory comfort foots.

For today, there are many good, simple foods that comfort, but the high favorite would be steak and potatoes (mashed with gravy, or baked with sour cream). The is easily found at home or in a restaurant. Also, French Onion Soup at restaurants or from a can at home.

[Mary Jane]

As a Canadian whose winters can last from Oct to May (sometimes) my comfort foods are rather substantial. My grandmother brought back two New England dishes after an extended stay - baked beans with molasses and rum and a New England boiled dinner (for those unfamiliar, peamealed pickled rolled pork and root vegetables with mustard and coriander seed seasoning). The beans take two days to make, so I seldom cook them, but the boiled dinner is done several times over the winter (and frozen for in between). Add the Devonshire trifle recipe handed down for 5 generations for Christmas too.
My all-time favourite (last dinner request) would be rare roast beef with sharp cheddar on molasses bread. That I will eat anytime!

[Anne Gracie]

LOL, Theo. A learning experience for him... :)

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Ella. Im thinking grits might be a little like Italian polenta, which I love in all its forms. Will be interesting to try it.

[Anne Gracie]

Sonya, no need to force yourself to try it. There are plenty of other salty things youll enjoy. The thing with vegemite, you slather a piece of hot toast with butter, and only put a very little bit of vegemite on -- just a scraping. Little kids love it and thats where we get our addiction from. I remember a family story where my brother as a little boy used to pinch the vegemite jar and hide under the table with it, eating it by the fingerload as fast as he could -- a bit extreme for most people.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks, Sue, yes dietary restrictions can wipe out a lot of our childhood comfort foods. That lemon sherbet sounds delicious. I remember being sick at my cousins house once — I think he and I both caught measles or mumps or something on the same holiday, and my aunt used to feed us red jelly with icecream - every day! (ice-cream was a rare treat in our house )

[Anne Gracie]

Yum, Mary Jane -- youve given us a veritable feast there. The baked beans sound particularly yummy. And the Devonshire trifle — I make a pretty good trifle myself, and its often requested for parties. Not quite sure what a Devonshire one would be, but Im guessing a lot of cream. Thanks for painting that lovely word picture for us.

[Janice]

Don't use my stove anymore. It's original to this unit and I suspect the wiring is fried. When I get the kitchen redone I may not even bother with one (let the next owner be baffled and buy their own). I like single purpose gadgets like microwaves, electric teakettles and toaster ovens. Harder to screw up. Actually, in LA one can live off the phone because everybody delivers, even breakfast (which I think is crazy).