Pinch My Salt

Food, Recipes, and Photography

Comfort Foods

by 35 Comments

Banana Pancakes

So many of our memories are forever entangled with the aromas and tastes of special dishes and special meals. We call them comfort foods but we all know that it’s not the food itself that comforts, but rather the memories that are triggered when the kitchen fills with the scent of baking bread, simmering spaghetti sauce, bubbling casseroles, fried chicken, sizzling bacon, or pancakes on the griddle.

Cinnamon Swirl Loaf

We each have different comfort foods but they all have one thing in common. Comfort foods trigger memories of times when we felt safe and warm, when loved ones were near, when laughter came easily. These are the foods we turn to when the world feels just a bit uncertain, when we need reassurance that yes, tomorrow will be a better day.

Biscuits and Gravy

Sometimes it’s a huge meal we crave, sometimes all it takes is a side of gravy. And sometimes, all of life’s worries can be pushed aside with something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

What are your comfort foods? Do you have a favorite family food memory?

Barbara from A Writer Afoot has shared some of her memories in a beautiful post titled Of Biscuits and Sunday Mornings. She has invited us to visit her site and share some of our own family memories that revolve around food. I’ll have to think about what to share, but I plan on writing something soon. Join me?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Katiez says

    Very bizarre, but the first one that came ot mind was my mother's liver, bacon and onions! I should be worried I think. All of your photos look very comforting... Must give this some thought!
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  3. amy says

    Nana's cheesy cauliflower dish and her twice baked potatoes are some of my favorite comfort foods, and bring back lots of good memories of coming "into town" with Grandpa from the ranch, and staying with them for a week. Everytime she makes those dishes, it really floods me with those memories! you know! :)
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  4. Lisa (Homesick Texan) says

    I think you captured it for me with your photo of pickles and a grilled cheese sandwich--the ultimate comfort plate! My other favorite comfort foods of choice are refried beans wrapped in a fresh flour tortilla, my grandpa's pancakes, my grandma's chocolate pie and my mom's garlic mashed potatoes.
    Reply

  7. Curt says

    I don't know if I can post links, but there's an interesting article on gender differences in comfort foods here: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/uoia-gpi070203.php I think comfort foods stem mostly from childhood; most have so far commented on their mother or grandmother making something, and memories are mentioned in the post. Comfort foods take us back to a safe place as a child, when we felt cared for. For me, it's chicken and homemade egg noodles on top of mashed potatoes. Yeah, very starchy, but the only way to eat chicken & noodles! I wrote about some more of mine a while ago on my blog, but I also think holidays are wrapped in comfort foods; that's why we make the same things year after year for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.
    Reply

  10. Augustina says

    peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, mac and cheese, grilled cheese sands w/tomato soup, chocolate chip cookies and milk, tuna salad and egg sandwiches, fried eggs over rice...those are just a few of my comfort foods. btw, wonderful photos (espec. the grilled cheese shot!).
    Reply

  11. Maria says

    My dad's cinnamon rolls, ice cream, fresh cookies from the oven...and really any baked good pulled right out of the oven is good:)
    Reply

  12. swirlingnotions says

    Love the shot of grilled cheese . . . definitely a comfort food. Although, honestly, it's the ketchup that I dip it in that gives me the most comfort (I'm a ketchup addict). Hmmm . . . good topic to ponder as autumn sets in. I'll get back with more thoughts . . .
    Reply

  14. Leslie says

    My very favorite comfort food was Campbell's Scotch Broth soup! I absolutely loved that soup and it always comforted my soul. Unfortunately, they no longer make it the same as they used to, but the MEMORY lingers on. Yum!
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  15. Terry B says

    A great post and interesting question, Nicole. In your amazing previous post on biscuits, I named biscuits and gravy as a breakfast comfort food. Another odd one for me used to be Nabisco Ginger Snaps dipped in cold milk almost to the point of disintegration. In fact, at least one would lose its structural integrity, much of it plopping back into the glass, when I ate them. Unfortunately, as with Leslie's Campbell's Scotch Broth Soup, the recipe seems to have changed. They still taste pretty much the same, but they don't soak up milk in that same satisfyingly dangerous way.
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  16. Ruby says

    Great post! The grilled cheese photo takes my memory back to our younger years and our late night visits to Denny's or IHOP at 2am. You ordered a grilled cheese and dipped it in ketchup. The banana pancakes remind me of Central Camp and waking up to the aroma of your Dad making them for us. Going even further back and having come from a Mexican family, my fondest comfort foods are the sound of a wooden roller pin pounding away while smelling the lovely aroma of fresh tortillas bubbling on the stove. Also the faint scent of pinto beans brewing on the stove (we had beans with every meal, breakfast lunch and dinner!) Fun post!
    Reply

  17. Nicole says

    Thanks for sharing, everyone! It's so much fun to learn what the words "comfort food" mean to each of you! For me it's homemade mac n' cheese, tuna noodle casserole, homemade cinnamon swirl bread, potato leek soup, Thanksgiving food (turkey, mashed potatoes, peas, gravy, stuffing, jellied cranberry sauce, and a dinner roll), grilled cheese sandwiches (white bread, american cheese) dipped in ketchup, my grandmother's tamale pie. The list could go on but those are the main ones :-) Katiez: Well like I said, it's the memories that often make the food comforting :-) I'm not a liver eater but it reminds me of going out to eat at a particular restaurant with my mom and grandmother when I was a kid. My granda would always order liver and I must have tasted it once or twice. And even though I haven't eaten it since I was a kid, I still remember exactly what it tastes like and how much fun those dinners were because my sister and I would get to eat the fruit cocktail that came with the dinners my mom and grandmother ordered (doesn't take much to make a kid happy) :-) Curt: Thanks for the article link, I'll check it out! Lia: I actually have another photo of the grilled cheese with ketchup on the side because that's the only way I eat them! But I decided that most people would think it was a little strange and I chose to publish the one with just the pickles ;-) The ketchup shot is probably somewhere in my flickr photos though. Terry: Have you tried Newman's Own Ginger-O's? I don't know how good they are for dipping in milk but I love them! Ruby: For me, the grilled cheese and ketchup thing goes way way back to when I was a kid and going out to eat at The Fruit Basket in Madera. I would always order the "Go-Getters Grub" off the kids menu which was a grilled cheese with fries. I would dip both the sandwich and the fries in ketchup and I just never grew out of it :-) I wish I had someone to make me fresh tortillas and beans every morning!! Mmmmmmmm...
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