nr706 wrote:When I was young, and wasn't feeling well, my Mom would make milk toast - a heavily buttered piece of toast, cut into small (i.e. 3/4" x 3/4") pieces, served in a bowl with warm milk. I almost wish I could get sick now, just to have some.

No, on further reflection, I'd prefer not to get sick.

in my family, if one of us kids was sick, one of my parents would make us a bowl of crumbled graham crackers in cold milk. comfort food. (though buttered toast in warm milk sounds great. i'm going to try it without waiting to be sick.)

Breakfast for dinner. When my parents were going out for an evening and got a babysitter I was was allowed pancakes and bacon for dinner, it's still a comfort food for me. I also love chicken matzo ball soup when I'm sick.

Anything braised in the oven on the weekend. It's all about the smells and anticipation.

Katie wrote:Edited to add: The editor in me thinks I should change "innate aversion to bitterness in newborns" ( ) to "innate aversion of newborns to bitterness."

Yes. I hate those bitter newborns!

EvA wrote:Yes. I hate those bitter newborns!

They're not so bad if you top them with a sweetened pesto sauce.

AlekH wrote:Anything braised in the oven on the weekend. It's all about the smells and anticipation.

Definitely a winter thing. As mentioned above, "comfort foods" seem more likely to be cold weather items. That's not uniformly the case, but more often than not it seems to be so.

AlekH wrote:Anything braised in the oven on the weekend. It's all about the smells and anticipation.

EvA wrote:

Katie wrote:Edited to add: The editor in me thinks I should change "innate aversion to bitterness in newborns" ( ) to "innate aversion of newborns to bitterness."

Yes. I hate those bitter newborns!

A few hours of braising in the oven will take all the bitterness out of the newborns.

According to wikipedia, the common features of comfort food are nostalgia, simplicity, and carbs.

There is a family recipe simply called "Shells" that we ate 2-3 times per month when I was growing up. We don't eat it quite as often in my household now but I just made it last night and it's still great, simple and nostalgic and loaded with carbs, in addition to being a bit of an umami bomb.

At its simplest, it has 4 ingredients. A 1lb box of shell pasta, cooked. 1/2-3/4 lb bacon. An onion, diced fine. A 28oz can of tomatoes. You dice up the bacon and cook it until crisp, pour off most of the fat then sautee the onion in what's left until soft & translucent, add the tomatoes, bring it to a simmer, then once the pasta is cooked and drained you add the bacon and the pasta, stir to combine, and serve.

Last night I altered the blueprint a bit by adding a little minced garlic into the onions a minute or two before adding the tomatoes, and hit the tomatoes with a small splash of balsamic vinegar and an even smaller splash of fish sauce, as if the dish wasn't enough of an umami bomb to begin with. I'm not sure the dish needed it but it didn't hurt it either.

Anyway, I've been curious recently about whether this is commonly known or just a cheap thrown-together thing that ended up being a tradition in my family. I asked my mom this morning, who says there was never any recipe, it's just something her mom used to make as a side dish when they were having hot dogs for dinner. Mom grew up on the south/southwest side though, maybe it was a neighborhood thing? I don't know.

Anybody else ever have this dish growing up? If not, try it out if it sounds good to you. It's cheap, filling, and super tasty, and Mom would get a kick out of knowing that grandma's Shells dish lived on outside the family.

Jim, I've had dishes like the one you describe, but not exactly the same. Fish sauce is a cool addition.

About the Wikipedia definition of comfort food, it seems more or less accurate for North American comfort food, but I've discovered in this series that, quite predictably, comfort food varies by cultural context. Mary Aregoni of Saigon Sisters listed pho as her comfort food, and pho is not that simple and it frequently contains relatively low amounts of carbs (noodles are not any more predominant than the meat, veggies, etc.). The nostalgia factor is inarguable, but again, the comfort food you grew up with depends on where in the world you lived as a kid.