What Did People Eat In The 1950's

Chris25

mardatha wrote: »

I live in a village like that now TW, and I love it. But thankfully no lambing ewes in the back kitchen - although I have been in houses that did have, and one with a basket of day old chicks in front of the Aga

My Mum had that many winters but hated it when they were well enough to go into the field.

Once a little one had a bad limp, became a pet and used to follow her around. As Mum used to have to help in the family shop, 'Lambkin' used to sit under the counter by her feet. Health & Safety would have a fit these days as mum used to shave sugar cones or make up twists of tea with the lamb sometimes bleating away & amusing new customers that weren't aware of it :rotfl:

bearcub

We were forced, best part, to drink milk at school. Warm, semi-turned milk turned me off milk for the rest of my life... well, I was around 8 then, and I'm 60 now. I drink tea strong and black, and I have the bare minimum of really fresh, really cold milk on cereal every morning. I can't take plain milk any other way.

Dripping is still available in Morrisons, and at some local butchers; certainly ours sells it. However, it's not the same taste at all as that from a roasted joint.

I find it very sad that people don't have places where they can buy just a couple of slices of bacon, or two sausages. We have a local butcher and an independent grocery shop where we could buy either of those. The butcher makes the sausages, and the grocer cuts the bacon from a joint. No plastic wrapping, or added water - just the meat product wrapped in a paper bag!

thriftwizard

We were forced, best part, to drink milk at school. Warm, semi-turned milk turned me off milk for the rest of my life... well, I was around 8 then, and I'm 60 now. I drink tea strong and black, and I have the bare minimum of really fresh, really cold milk on cereal every morning. I can't take plain milk any other way.

I still remember my incredulity on being given that first third-of-a-pint of nasty, thin, bluish stuff at the city school. I knew where milk came from - my uncle's milking parlour, just down the road from our old house - and it didn't look like that AT ALL - yes, it was warm, like this stuff which had been out in the sunshine all morning, but thick & creamy & utterly delicious! Not only did I turn my nose up at the horrible thin stuff, but it also gave me fierce stomach aches when I was forced to drink it and I too went milk-free as soon as I possibly could. I too drink tea & coffee black and eat cereal dry, when I eat it at all. I do eat butter & full-fat yoghurt & mild cheeses, and make & drink full fat kefir, but still don't eat half the dairy products that most people seem to.

I'm sure we ate more fish - the fish van from Plymouth came to the village twice a week, and we always had something, as well as what Dad caught at the local reservoir, and the cat & the dog had the heads & tails - raw - I remember the crunching! And lots & lots of eggs, not surprisingly; I think red meat only featured about twice a week. Pheasant & rabbit did crop up quite often, though, and even jugged hare.

Also - jam sandwiches. The jam really did taste of fruit, not as sweet as supermarket jams now, and had great big hunks of strawberry or whatever in; a little bit of summer on a spoon, my Mum used to say. And drop scones with preserved fruit & custard for tea or as a pudding...

Bogof_Babe

I was born in 1952, and lucky in that my mum was a great cook, although I don't suppose I appreciated it when I was young.

When I started work in 1969 my office was a few yards from where my dad worked, so he drove us both home every day for a cooked lunch, and we'd have another proper cooked dinner in the evening. Mum did wonderful casseroles (can't believe how many posters on this thread have said they didn't like stews), and her liver and bacon was scrummy. We always had a Sunday roast, and pre-freezer days we used to drive after church to the only little shop that was open on Sundays and buy a block of ice cream for pud. Raspberry ripple and neapolitan were the usual faves.

Oven chips hadn't been invented, and we had home made chips only a couple of times a year. It was a special treat on holidays to have fish and chips from a chip shop, which we'd eat in the car. I can still remember the wonderful aroma of the newsprint that they were wrapped in - it isn't the same nowadays! Nearly every meal had mashed spuds, or in summer new potatoes. When I was first married I produced mash with everything, and one day my OH asked if we could have "grown up potatoes" sometime! He meant plain boiled ones I think.

My dad wasn't very keen on veg, and disliked salad, so those didn't feature much in our diet. Until I was 20 I thought broccoli was an expensive luxury, as we'd never had it at home.

Occasionally the four of us would share one Fray Bentos tinned pie, so presumably either the pies were bigger then or people ate smaller portions! I remember being shocked at work once when one of the lorry drivers who used the rest room cooked and ate a whole Fray Bentos pie on his own! I don't think they were so grim and gristly in those days, and the pastry used to puff up much more.

Mum made a wonderful egg and bacon risotto, also kedgeree, and lovely fruit crumbles for puds. She baked lovely fruit cakes and Victoria sponges, rock cakes and flapjacks most weekends. Oh and in early autumn she would make gallons of stewed apple for the freezer, using the apples from the tree in the garden. I still find the smell of cider making evocative of those apple cooking sessions (I live in cider country ).

Just my luck to be married to a vegetarian (he wasn't when we got together) so meals are a lot less interesting these days.

Possession

Mojisola wrote: »

In the summer we sometimes had ice cream for pudding after Sunday dinner. We didn't have a fridge so, while the plates were cleared away, one of us would run down to the corner shop with a bag and a newspaper. The block of ice cream was wrapped in the newspaper to keep it cold and we rushed home with great anticipation where everyone else was waiting round the table.

My dad worked (on a casual basis when a teenager) for an Italian icecream seller in Manchester who had a cart. Sadly he never liked icecream and still doesn't! The kind of foods eaten definitely seem to have varied according to geographical location though. My dad grew up in Manchester and he loved tongue, oxtail, tripe etc. My mum grew up in London and never ate those things, although she certainly had brawn as did I when a child, my great aunt used to make it.

oldtractor

oh! tripe and cows heel I LOVE them! Served really chilled with plenty of vinegar and black pepper and maybe a sliced tomato.
Its years since I've had either. Wish they were sold where I live now.

AnniMag

I can remember coming home from tea at my friends and telling my Mum about having Heinz spaghetti from a tin.She was very pleased it was so cheap.

I tell my children that as a special treat on a Saturday we used to share a hot black pudding cooked in a huge boiler at the market.It was served on a saucer with salt and vinegar.In Summer we had a plate of tripe [fatty-seam]with vinegar.

Fish was cheap usually Herring or Mackerel though we did have kippers.
We all had school dinners and had to eat all of it to ensure every child had at least one good meal a day

Possession

You might be able to ask your butcher to order in some tripe for you Oldtractor. My dad can get it occasionally and he lives in Kent now.

oldtractor

Thanks Possession will give it a try.

bearcub

Bogoffbabe, the stew thing - I have no trouble at all with gravy, onions and all the stewed veg. I love casserolled rabbit and chicken, but I've never been able to cope with stewed lamb or beef. Although both give wonderful flavour to the gravy, I can't actually swallow the stewed meat, because of the texture. I'm not very keen on meat-based soups, either. It's basically that I can't eat anything that's 'cooked to death'. Having said that, though, I can't cope with the modern fad of eating pink duck.