Not a superstition but my Grandmother told my mom when she was younger that rich people eat artichokes when it rains. They were not well off an my mom thought this was especially neat. It wasn't until my mom told this to my dad when they were newly married that she realized her mom was just trying to get her to eat the d*mn artichokes.

Do not ask my husband what he wants for supper. 65% of the time he will say spaghetti, 20 % of the time he will say pizza, and the other 15% he will say I-don't-know-what-do-you-want.

No superstitions about food, but my dietitian told me, "If it tastes good, spit out. Its probably bad for your diet."

An observation when living down on the farm as a boy: If one did not have a starter for making cottage cheese, it seems that the best time to try making it was on a sultry summer afternoon with a threat of a thunderstorm. Apparently, these were the conditions that promoted the presence of the proper bacillus for making cottage cheese. (This lends credence to the German MIL who stated that food spoils if left out during a lightening storm.)

A hint: Cottage cheese can't be made from store bought milk. That product contains a bacteria inhibitor. It usually spoils by a fungus or mold instead of bacteria and it is foul. Cottage cheese requires raw unadulterated milk that has not had the cream (butter fat) removed.

jemdandy - wish I could get cottage cheese that tastes like that now. I used to love it, but it has all of the butter fat taken out of it and lots of additives. Has no taste except like chalk.

The one I always think of is throwing a pinch of spilled salt over one's shoulder. Another one--can't remember where I read it--was that a menstruating woman shouldn't handle raw milk, because it would sour.

Seagrass, try to find Nancy's Organic Cottage Cheese. I think they have a non-organic, too, but I always buy the organic. It says low fat, but it tastes like full fat. It tastes like cottage cheese used to taste when I was a kid.

My grandpa who was a veterinary used to say. Feed a cold and starve a fever. Or was it the other way???

mama goose, my sister-in-law stills believes a woman shouldn't go into the vegetable garden at that time of month. One time she told me that could have been the reason my pints of canned tomatoes had spoiled. Nooooo, I don't think so......I was done with all that years before. : )

I have made cottage cheese from organic, pasteurized and homogenized milk and buttermilk. The trick is controlling the temperature, which is easy with a sous vide circulator. The milk doesn't curdle by itself, anymore, but it's easy to curdle it.

I know some food superstitions, but I don't hold them myself. All the little things I can think of are real, rather than metaphysical. The closest I can think, is that the round edge of half a slice from a boule is better on the left than the other way, though usually you can just turn the right side over, if it's not too slopey a loaf, and make it a left side. :)

I worked with a woman years ago who had all these crazy ideas about how you couldn't eat certain foods (commonly eaten in combination) together or somehow you would get sick. It was an alarming attitude because she was as skinny as a string bean and pregnant, and because of her weird food beliefs not eating a healthy diet.

My former secretary’s mother told her she would get sick if she didn’t eat bread when she ate meat. I have no idea where that came from.

My father would only eat Chinese food on the weekends. I don’t think that was a superstition. I think it was a way to keep us kids from pestering him to go to the Chinese restaurant all the time.

People used to think you had to stir gravy in the same direction or it would lump. If you plant potatoes when the moon is in Pisces your potatoes would have toes. People today have astonishing ideas about foods. Because we normally have all sorts of foods to choose from it doesn't matter but it has always struck me as something well fed people can afford to believe. If it makes you happy is all I can say.

Oh I forgot you had to use a silver spoon for that gravy, I have seen silver plate spoons in thrift stores with one side worn off. No Wisk I guess.

Only make divinity on a day that was cool and clear or it would fail.

I've also heard old-timers say that it's bad luck to switch directions when stirring food or mixing batter or dough by hand.

Funny, I was making banana bread the other day and my kids mentioned that my mom won’t let them change direction when stirring pumpkin bread batter. I was going to ask her about that. I’m gonna guess she thinks there’s science behind it not superstition.

Marrying into a (half) Greek family has me looking for good luck coins in New Years Bread and by trying to win egg cracking contests. Wish me luck tomorrow!

maifleur, that pretty much goes for all candy recipes and seven minute fronting. Humidity does make candy making challenging. My mother wouldn't make seven minute frosting for my birthday cake because my birthday is at the rainy time of year :-(

I have made it successfully when this area had one of our week long rains so I know it can be done. It helps if you cook the sugar to a slightly higher/firmer stage. Early days I did not have a candy thermometer so had to experiment.

I didn't say it was impossible, just challenging :-)

MIL always said it was bad luck to sprout anything food related like a sweet potato and keep it growing in the house.

Not a food, but when anyone dropped a dish towel on the floor, my mom would always say it meant company was coming. It's uncanny, but sure enough not long after dropping a towel on the floor, someone would knock on the door. Some times it would be a family member or a friend and other times it might be a sales person, a meter reader, repairman or even someone who was lost.

It was true often enough when I was a kid, that as an adult I go to great lengths to take care not to drop a dish towel on the floor!

Mother used to tell us that we had to wait for an hour after we ate to swim, or we'd get cramps. After I grew up and we had a swimming pool I ignored that entirely nearly every day all summer for 20 years and never did get a cramp, LOL.

If you spill salt you have to throw some over your left shoulder with your right hand. Eat greens on New Years Day for money and black eyed peas for luck. Never give someone a knife as a gift, because you'll "cut the ties of your friendship". Garlic keeps vampires away. If two people pull a wishbone, the one with the bigger end will get their wish. If you blow out all the candles on your birthday cake your wish will come true.

I'm sure there are more. Grandma told me all of those things and I don't think she believed any of them, although she did make me give her a penny for a set of steak knives she bought me as a Christmas gift once, she said she couldn't give them to me, but I could buy them.

Annie

Dawn, you reminded me of the superstition that if you drop a knife it means a visitor is coming. My FIL used to say it would be the doctor coming the sew up your foot :-)

There's the idea that you can divine your near future through the arrangement of tea leaves remaining in your cup.

I was always told that if your nose is itching, it means unexpected company was coming.

I was told that if your nose itches someone is talking about you....and if you trip going upstairs you're not going to get married that year.
My grandmother believed that fish and any dairy in the same meal would poison you....and when eating at her house if there was fish I wasn't allowed milk. I remember once wanting ice cream after a fish meal and the ruckus involved because of it....my father had me go with him on "an errand", and we got an ice cream cone.
The first food in your mouth in the new year must be pickled herring....for luck.

There are more but I can't remember now.

No real superstitions about food but when I eat out with someone I try to avoid ordering the same exact meal off the menu they do. One of those meals will have an overdone piece of meat or or burnt toast or the last scant ladle of gravy and it will be the one I get.

A friend once told me that if you eat avocados and dairy together, you will have bad dreams. I think it is the dairy that is the problem - not the avocados. I frequently have bad dreams (or at least disturbing ones), and I have not linked any foods with that, although there may be a correlation.

I thought if your ears were hot that meant someone was talking about you. Never heard of the nose itching one. The only food superstitions i have heard have already been mentioned: about greens and black eyes peas on new years. I hate them both so i would rather not eat them and take my chances with whatever the next year throws at me.

Don't eat yellow snow cones

My mother also had the superstition about dropping a dish towel - that company was coming. She also said if your nose were itching, it meant you were going to kiss a fool. If your palm were itching, it meant you were going to come into some money.

I don’t recall having to have black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. Of course, we had them so often that Mom might have fixed them and I thought it was just another meal.

I grew up with many of these, now that I read them. How about if you take the last piece you'll be an old maid? Anyone, during this lock down, wishing they'd taken the last piece?

I too always heard that if your nose itches you'll kiss a fool. I'd say to my husband, " Come here fool!" He never minded one bit. ;-))

I often wished that an itchy palm would bring money.... but it never did.

My great grandmother (Italian) said women should not pick or can tomatoes for sauce during their time of the month and also while pregnant. Never gave a reason why and you didn't dare ask. She lived with my grandparents and would chase you with a broom handle if you came within a certain distance of her tomatoes during "your time".

I just remembered that my Mom also wasn't allowed in the garden during her "time". Knowing her she probably faked it all the time. She also had a saying that if something someone cooked turned out really good she would say "you must have been holding your mouth right". Also if someone made a comment about someone else helping with the meal, she would sarcastically say "they stirred the gravy".

My mother used to tell my sister and me to eat our bread crusts because it would make our hair curly. It worked for me but not for my sister. ;)

My dad used the curly hair line for all sorts of food. Too late, I was born that way!

haha I always throw salt over my shoulder if I spill salt and I stir my rice in the same direction when I rinse it.

How about "coffee will stunt your growth"? My parents did not say it but others did. My siblings and I drank coffee at times when we were young and were some of the tallest children and adults in the area. And the green, unripe apples that were supposed to result in stomach aches never affected us either.

Annie, I heard the don't swim for an hour after eating, too. When I took American Red Cross Lifeguard training in my teens we were told that was not true, but that a person might have some difficulties swimming or doing any active sports if they overate. I wonder if picnics at the beach lead to overeating or food poisoning in the past that give a bit of truth to the advice. When we went on camping vacations as kids our parents usually had us wait after lunch a bit before going to the beach. I think it was mostly to keep us out of the most intense sun of the day and prevent sunburn - especially for my red-haired brother!

no.

oh wait, when were were teens we used to joke.

'never eat popcorn and drink red cream soda together. That will make you sterile.'