If It Wasn't Meat, What Did They Eat?

Patchwork_Quilt

I was reading recently that we all eat too much meat and that back in the Olden Days meat was such a luxury that families could only afford a chicken on Sundays. It set me wondering what people ate instead. What was the daily menu? Would it be any good going back to it?

I grew up in the late 1960s, early 1970s and meat was definitely on the menu in our family. We had toast and cereal in the morning, a school lunch containing some sort of meat pie or casserole and then a cooked tea in the evening. This revolved around mince, mostly, with ghastly smoked haddock on Friday. Even on Saturday we seemed to have corned beef hash or bacon.

Has anyone else got memories going further back that do confirm people only ate meat once or twice a week or is this some sort of guilt trip arising from the questions that have been asked about the quality and price of meat recently?

murrayfan_2

Beans, vegetables, fruit, nuts and cereals I suppose. Obviously these days there are loads of meat substitutes, and also more exotic grains and cereals that come from overseas. The more 'exotic' stuff (with the possible exception of some of the grains/beans etc from foreign countries) weren't accessible back in the 'good old days', but there certainly were plenty of people managing without meat, either through choice or economy.

I was born in 1971 and I have to say that we had meat every day too, the standard meat and veg diet. But I've lived without it for well over 20 years now and am much happier for it (and I did love the taste and texture of meat). I'm so glad I'm not eating that crap anymore that could be made up of any brain, !!!!!!!!, eyes etc of many and varied creatures from all corners of the world :eek:.

It's really easy to eat meat-free now and have the same type of meals that you're used to, and you can live more cheaply and a lot more healthily too. Just my thoughts.

YORKSHIRELASS

Well I grew up in the 70s and we also had meat every day - but it certainly wasnt meat as you would recognise it nowadays! If I gave it to my kids they would be horrified. There was a lot of fat which was never trimmed off. The meat content in a meal would be much smaller too and we would have more veg and potatoes, plus a hot pudding of some sort.

I also remember having a large joint of beef on a Sunday, then cold sliced beef with veg and gravy on a Monday and the leftovers minced on a Tuesday.

I would be surprised if older generations didnt have meat every day, except maybe fish on a Friday but it will be interesting to see!

scaredy_cat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

sparrer

I grew up in the 50's and we ate best meat every day, properly made sausages, faggots, lean steak, game etc. We seldom ate mince unless it was made from the best cuts, as my step-dad was a master butcher and we were thoroughly spoiled. Mind you if we knew then what we know now about the dangers of too much meat I doubt we'd have got half of what we did! I remember some of the girls at school looking at me with envy when I mentioned we'd had chicken for dinner one day, many people could only afford it at Christmas.

The upside is that I don't buy processed foods and have only ever eaten a frozen meal once. That was enough to put me off for life and send me right back to the butcher.

Mojisola

Patchwork_Quilt wrote: »

meat was such a luxury that families could only afford a chicken on Sundays.

sparrer wrote: »

I remember some of the girls at school looking at me with envy when I mentioned we'd had chicken for dinner one day, many people could only afford it at Christmas.

Got to agree with sparrer - before the big shed production units came in, chicken was a rare and expensive treat. No-one we knew had chicken regularly.

Lamb was much more affordable. We usually had a joint on Sundays and, like YorkshireLass says, that would be used for meals on Monday and Tuesday. Monday had to be cold meat slices and potatoes and veg reheated from Sunday's meal because Monday was wash-day and Mums couldn't be expected to cook as well as get all the washing done.

We always had fish on Fridays. Other meals would be things like macaroni cheese, poached eggs on toast (usually followed by a filling pudding), sausages, liver and bacon, cauliflower cheese and so on.

thriftwizard

We ate a lot of casseroles & stews. We too had the roast on a Sunday, which my Dad could slice so thin you could virtually see through the slices. It would reappear once or twice in leftover dishes (hotpot, stew, curry, casserole, pies) during the week; and there'd be something involving mince, and sausages too. We'd usually have one egg-based main meal - omelette, usually, but sometimes cheesy scrambled eggs - or something fishy - pilchards on toast with salad, usually, but sometimes a fish pie. Mum, now 87, really dislikes cooking to this day but did us proud when Dad died young & left her penniless; we didn't get a lot of treats but I don't remember ever going really hungry. But then, we did have school dinners back then, during term time, at least.

What we didn't have was, say, whole chops, or steaks, or several thick slices of meat. It was more of an accent; as Yorkshirelass says, we'd have more spuds, gravy & veg, and a hot pudding or as a huge treat, a flavoured yogurt.

And somewhere I have a medieval cookbook. If I remember correctly, whilst the nobles were demolishing roast swans, the peasantry mostly ate stews & thick soups which might be flavoured with meat, or made with meat stock, but 90% of their protein came from peas & beans, cheese and the rough but nutritious bread they ate with it. But the peas you made pease pottage with were very different to the sweet, tender things we keep in freezers or buy as mangetout; they were marrowfat-type peas, which can be dried & kept almost indefinitely, certainly through winter and the "hungry gap" before the new season's food crops have grown. I might experiment with growing some this year & see if they're tasty in a stew...

ETA - we were amongst the few who did eat chicken regularly, when Dad was alive - we kept 30-odd layers and raised the same number of cockerels for our own pot and for the butcher every year. But that said, we had it maybe 8-10 times in a year. Mind you, they were much bigger than the ones you buy in a supermarket now - 8-12lbs, 4-5Kg, with giblets - and very, very tasty. We were surrounded by sheep (not ours) so had mutton regularly, too.

Lilyplonk

I'm the same as Sparrer - child of the 50's - and chicken was a luxury. Unless you counted 'boiling fowl' - which was the traditional end for any of our hens, once they ceased laying .

It was fairly common for families to have a 'capon' for Christmas, especially if there weren't many people to be fed for the main Christmas Lunch. Only very rarely did 'a chicken' actual make an appearance.

Our usual 'Sunday Dinner' consisted of either Roast Beef or Roast Lamb - maybe a couple of times a year, it may have been Roast Pork. Sunday tea would be a couple of slices of cold meat with bread/butter followed by jelly/fruit/evap or fruit pie/custard. Trifle if my uncle's g/f was visiting lol! If there wasn't much meat left from the joint, it would be saved for Monday tea and we'd have boiled eggs for Sunday Tea.

Like Yorkshire Lass says, it was sliced meat - sometimes with chips and tinned peas - on a Monday. Usually because that was 'wash-day' and the lady of the house would have had quite enough work to do, without 'proper cooking from scratch' as well.

Somewhere during the week we would perhaps have liver, another evening it would be sausages. Occasionally we would have what my nan called 'Steak and Kidney' which also contained carrots, onions and pearl barley as well as the S&K - served up with mashed potatoes. Friday was always fish - usually it would be cod and occasionally kippers - yuk!

Now and again, for a special treat for grandad, there would be tripe and onions or pig's feet - but I would run a mile from those ...........

Saturdays were usually HotPot for lunch, with grilled cheese on toast for tea that day.

Mojisola

thriftwizard wrote: »

But then, we did have school dinners back then, during term time, at least.

I think this was very important for our family. The children had all had a hot dinner and a pudding at school so the evening meal could be smaller than if it was our main meal of the day.

Slinky_Malinky

We didn`t eat meat daily, egg or beans with chips or beans on toast were frequent meals. I can`t even remember a regular Sunday roast - sometimes chops but only for my dad. Mum used to make stew or corned beef and potato pasties.

SailorSam

Now we're being told to cut down on fat and grill things rather than fry them. I remember if we were ever having bacon as kids we wanted to to soak bread 'in the dip'. The dip being the fat the bacon had been fried in. .......... eeemm dip butties.