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

meritaten

Teisen Lap or Bara Brith or a Victoria Sponge (only jam in middle though)

My nan and granch (who we lived with until I was about 8, had very sweet tooths! so I usually found my way into their room at teatime. nan would have made either Welsh cakes or pikelets or a bit of bread pudding or rice pudding.
let me explain for the youngsters - my parents lived with mums parents after they married and had me and younger bro - the council house waiting list then could be up to ten years!!!!!!!!! and this was actually quite common - if no room at parents then usually the newlyweds would have 'rooms' at an elderly neighbours - sort of 'casual lodgers'!
mum and dad were given the 'front room and the front bedroom. aunt slept in the smallest bedroom (which is actually the same size as the 'master' bedroom in my house) and grandparents had the largest room at the back.
mum and grandparents didn't share mealtimes - Dad worked shifts - Days, Afternoons and Nights. granch worked days only - delivery driver for abbatoir (and no! he didn't get cheap or free meat! - but sometimes the butcher would slip him a few chops or sausages when he carried in the meat for them).

Thinking about it - the homemade cakes would have been made by Nan and for her guests.
Mum used to buy cake - Battenburg or Fruit cake. she cannot bake to save her life! tho she does manage a decent welsh cake!

Old_Joe

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.

Haven't read the other replies but just to add I'm that ancient the only time I tasted chicken as as a nipper was on Christmas Day.:)

Goldiegirl

I miss my nan's fruitcake.

It was better than any fruit cake I've ever tasted.

My nan taught my mum and aunt to cook, and my mum taught me, but we never recreated that perfect fruit cake

Goldiegirl

Old_Joe wrote: »

Haven't read the other replies but just to add I'm that ancient the only time I tasted chicken as as a nipper was on Christmas Day.:)

You are obviously the same age as me, we only had chicken at Christmas!

meritaten

I can remember one Christmas mum was thrilled to be given a large chicken plucked etc and ready for oven by my uncle (they kept chickens) - he neglected to tell her though, that it was a boiling fowl - and she roasted it for Christmas dinner...........was she mad!!!it was tough as old boots! I just hoped it was the horrible old chook who used to peck me!

pigpen

We had meat most days.. chips once a week, the night my nanna went to flower class. Fish on a Friday after the trawlers got in on the Thursday. Saturday we baked in the morning and had our wares for dinner.. bacon and egg pie, scones, tarts etc. Sunday we had chicken every week. in between we had corned beef hash, stew and dumplings, leftover day.. you got whatever you got that was left over from earlier in the week.. oh.. monday we had bubble and squeak.. all the leftovers from sunday dinner. Suday evening we got salad.. I loathe salad with ham and bread and crisps..

I ate tinned baby carrots, tinned peas and tinned mini hotdogs until I was about 8.

I was about 15 before I had pasta, rice was from a packet, pre-flavoured and yellow so it stained your teeth and plate.

We never had lamb or beef or red meat at all really apart from corned beef and stewing steak. Pork, gammon, ham shank was a favourite, chicken. We never had mince.

suki1964

My granny was blind as a bat and deaf as a post but she made puddings like no one else

Steak and kidney

Bacon and onion

Jam roily poly

Spotted !!!!!!

Treacle sponge

All so yummy

And we had morning coffee, made with camp coffee and sterilised milk with grandad slurping it from his saucer. Me and my sisters thought this was such a treat lol

She had an open fire and gas lights. Hot stodgy food was needed for warmth We loved crumpets toasted on the fire with big mugs of tea. And in the winter, my uncle filling a shovel with chestnuts and laying it on the fire to cook them. Burned fingers whilst popping them from the skins

meritaten

Camp coffee was the only coffee kept in my nans that was for 'visitors'. I honestly think the one bottle lasted about five years! No-one drank coffee! Ovaltine was the night time drink - I used to love it .........but, sadly it does not taste as I remember it!
we had coal fires and used to toast bread on huge forks - it tasted better if slightly scorched!
I can remember my friend making me a cup of coffee with nescafe powder when I was about 11.........I loved it! mum wouldn't buy it though as 'no-one likes coffee'! think I was about sixteen before she bought any!
and mum wouldn't have any 'foreign rubbish' either! so no curries or chow miens! even Vesta meals I used to buy and cook for me and bro when mum was out! we thought we were so adventurous!

ciderwithrosie_2

Slinky_Malinky wrote: »

Mum used to make corned beef and potato pasties.

My favourite meal from childhood - corned beef and potato pasties with peas carrots and gravy. This was sometimes our Sunday lunch as my parents couldn't always afford a joint of meat.

Other things we used to eat (back in the 60s)...

sardines on toast
fried soft roe on toast
Egg, tomato and bacon flan (before it changed it's name to quiche)
smoked haddock
prawns with bread and butter
offal - liver, heart, kidneys
Soups
Egg and chips
Salads
Boiled eggs and soldiers
Macaroni/Cauliflower Cheese
Stuffed marrow
Cottage pie (leftover roast minced up)
rissoles
fishcakes
Tinned Ham, baked potatoes, peas and parsley sauce

foreign_correspondent

My grandma is 97, she still speaks fondly about her mum's cooking.. her mum was left alone with 12 children to feed, in the 1920's so well before any benefits were available, so she took in washing to earn money, but it must have been a massive struggle for her.

My gran well remembers her mums cooking and says it was delicious - it seems to have been mainly things like shin beef cooked slowly in gravy with onions, then made into a rolled suet pudding, and cooked again, or a pigs head cooked slowly, then the meat made into another dish, or rabbit pie, so although there was meat it was the cheaper cuts, used sparingly and a little was made to go a long way!

They also had a lot of potatoes (cheap, small potatoes, intended for feeding to pigs, so called 'pig taters') cooked in a big copper pan over the fire, and lots of cabbage grown in the back garden.

She also clearly remembers the anticipation of waiting for food.. her and her siblings sitting lined up, silently waiting, watching her mum make scones and cook them on the range over the fire..

Although money was very tight, and I'm sure they weren't over fed, in a picture of my grandma, taken when she was about six, she looked a healthy, well scrubbed little girl with a neat haircut, so her mum obviously did a sterling job in hard times..she also managed to keep a dog, who was apparently fed mainly on bread and tea!