What Did People Eat In The 1950's

lizzyb1812

You might find this site interesting: http://rationingrevisited.com/

It's about a modern family living on WW2 rations - so nearly the fifties. Lots of recipes and weekly menu plans. It's an interesting read. It's actually easier to find WW2 era info than the Fifties.

Boodle

My mother recalls bread or cereal for breakfast. Lunches were at home or she and a friend grabbed a pie from a local shop; my grandad took a tin of fruit with bread and butter to work for lunch. Dinners were the meat and two veg type, followed by rice puddings or sponge and custard. I think as Itismehonest suggests, the snacking was less because the meals were a great deal bigger, and people were kept busy in between. Although, I thikn it was fairly common to have a biscuit with a cup of tea, but that wasn't really "counted in" as a snack, because it wa taken as a given!

Also my mother said she naturally asked permission from her mother, even as a young adult, everytime she wanted to get herself a drink never mind a snack. Me and my sister did the same growing up in the 80s and 90s. My two at 5 and 3 at least give a "can I have a pear mummy" even if they have already taken the first bite! (the fruit bowl being the only thing they can get at themselves at the moment.) I think often now, people just grab without thinking or because they are bored.

WeegieWumman

Because Roman Catholics were forbidden to eat meat on Fridays, the chip shops were busy serving fish suppers on on that evening. If I remember correctly, the only other cooked foods they sold were scotch pies, ashet pies and black puddings. Some sold fritters.

[Deleted User]

I was the eldest of seven children and mum and dad worked very hard but there was no money as dad was self-employed. We were poor and all clothes were hand made or given to us

Breakfast was always porridge with syrup

lunch (called dinner) was hm fish and chips ( only on fridays), liver, stuffed lamb breast, small piece of breaded pork, hm meatbals, thick pea soup, lentil pea soup. Standard veg were potatoes, carrots and cabbage
apples were shared as were bananas (when we could afford them)

tea was sandwiches,or maybe pancakes

cakes were cooked with a max of one egg

biscuits were rare

christmas we had a chicken. Sundays peaches and tinned cream

we had to line up for our daily dose of cod liver oil

We were spotless and very happy, no tv and always playing out. No fridge and no freezer

Pee

I think rationing, especially of sugar, went on until 1953. I am not sure if anything else was still rationed by then, paper maybe, but I don't suppose anyone ate much of that!

My family were farmers, so they were at home during the day and would eat a large lunch which they called dinner. They often had pudding before dinner as the pudding was cheap and if everyone was full before they tucked in to the meat they would eat less. This was sometimes a batter like Yorkshire pudding and sometimes sponge pudding or crumble. (but presumbly only once the sugar rationing had ended?)

Itismehonest

WeegieWumman wrote: »

Because Roman Catholics were forbidden to eat meat on Fridays, the chip shops were busy serving fish suppers on on that evening. If I remember correctly, the only other cooked foods they sold were scotch pies, ashet pies and black puddings. Some sold fritters.

Sausages & saveloys, too. Oh, & who remembers 'crackling'? The bits of batter that broke off during frying. We used to buy 6 penneth of chips & thruppence worth of crackling They stopped chip shops selling it, I believe

WeegieWumman

Rationing finished mid 1954.
Because meals were made from fresh foods with meat bread and milk being bought daily and very few homes had fridges, the modern practice of throwing out food was totally unheard of.

lizzyb1812

Itismehonest wrote: »

Sausages & saveloys, too. Oh, & who remembers 'crackling'? The bits of batter that broke off during frying. We used to buy 6 penneth of chips & thruppence worth of crackling They stopped chip shops selling it, I believe

We called it "scraps" - I was deemed to be very lucky as my grandad ran a fish and chip shop

pelirocco

Apparently a greater % of income was spent on food then , then now . I was brought up in the 60s and money was tight ,you had 3 meals a day and that was it , we didnt have snacks , or prepared meals , in fact fish and chips was a huge treat for us

Itismehonest

Boodle wrote: »

Although, I thikn it was fairly common to have a biscuit with a cup of tea, but that wasn't really "counted in" as a snack, because it wa taken as a given!

Elevenses!!:D

Yes, you are right. We never took any food or drink without asking or being offered &, if the family was at home they all ate at the table together.
There was no getting up from the table before everyone had finished without express permission, either.
That led to wild flights of fancy about where you'd like to put the second helping of pud which Uncle John insisted on having

I think most of our generation learnt to cook because we had to help in some way. Even the young boys got roped in to do some things be it only shucking peas or broad beans.
I can remember a friend getting into enormous trouble one Sunday when she quite innocently opened the front door & her father, who'd been sitting on the back doorstep shucking peas, got batted down the garden by the slamming back door. :rotfl:

And who remembers mincing. A lot of that went on. You minced your own meat in a big metal mincer that bolted on to the edge of the table. Cheese (mainly Cheddar) for salads got put through a smaller mincer. It was amazing how far a couple of ounces of Cheddar could go when it looked like tiny yellow strands of angel's hair