When did ready meals become commonplace?

missprice

I wish my mother had discovered ready meals.
She was a truly awful cook.
So when I was kicked out, I lived on the microwave type of meal. Because I could not cook/had naff all money for electric
I was never allowed in the kitchen as a child and its only in the last 10 years I have had the money to waste cooking from scratch.

I say waste because if you cook it and no one likes it, its all thrown away plus the gas/electric used to cook it.

charlies-aunt

I was born in 1957 and the first convenience food that I can remember being used at home was Vesta Prawn Curry. A one time experiment with exotic fare that was never repeated - far too sophisticated for us country folk!!


I grew up in a house with no central heating, an open range with an oven and no fridge - these weren't acquired until the 1970's.

Scrapaholic

I remember having Vesta curries in the 60's . Thought it was a treat . I'd say probably in the last 15 - 20 years more people eat ready meals . I rarely buy them as I feel they taste a bit synthetic and sweetened . DS says it's cheaper to buy a big ready made lasagne than to buy all ingredients separately . When he went through what he'd need I thought he was probably right . I can see how it'd be cheaper for families on a budget to go to certain cheap food shops and buy a ready meal to fill up their family . Many people don't know how to cook from scratch as they've never been shown . Lots of people don't have time to make food at home now .

lobbyludd

tinned soup and bought bread is also a "ready meal" and there's not much cooking from scratch involved in baked beans on toast. sausages etc are convenience foods from very long ago.

I think the increase in choice of ready meals/convenience foods is part of a general increase in types and range of foods available.

My gran and her mother may have made everything from scratch, but in all honesty both probably only had a range of ten meals at most, most of these were meat (roasted/stewed) potatoes and a seasonal veg boiled into a pulp, and the same ingredients then into a pie or a stew, all with bread and butter or suet dumplings to fill you up. Most of gran's main meal cooking only involved heating ingedients up - either in fat or water to make it soft enough to eat.

Gran's gravy and baking were superb but the general main meal fare was very routine, from a severely restricted range of cheap ingredients and made to fill you up rather than please your taste buds. I'm not knocking that - she did a wonderful job from very few resources, but I think people can get awfully nostalgic about an era when everyone cooked from scratch as if it were a golden age of nutrition and taste, and I don't think that's necessarily the case.

brightonman123

when microwaves came about, I reckon.

chirpychick

I was literally brought up on ready meals (born 1985) Mum worked 2/3 jobs and often travelled, Dad was director of a company and working sometimes 7am-2am! So often ready meals were in the freezer for me to feed to myself after school.
Weekends my Nan would cook from scratch and my Mum & Dad would do a roast of a chilli but overall everything was a microwave meal/oven pizza and when I went to uni there was no freezer and so i lived off crisps and chocolate!!
When I moved in with my now husband (I was 20) he cooked as he is 20 years older than me, when I left work 2.5 years ago due to illness I began teaching myself how to cook, using MSE and OS as my guide!
Now 80% of meals are cooked from scratch and 20% are easy meals i.e we have a meal deal on pay day or chippy. Once a week my LO has fish fingers and waffles. I now and again use a jar for bolognaise if i have a voucher or get it cheap.
It is a huge adjustment, I will definitely teach my son how to cook and be self sufficient by the time he leaves home.

But my husband (born 65) although didn't have ready meals, his parents now 75 & 77 did rely on easy foods like fray bentos pies a few times a week. He remembers them getting a microwave and what a huge occassion that was whereas for me i dont remember ever no owning them.

Ready meals have their place, my inlaws live an hour away, MIL hurt herself getting in an ambulance last week and cant put weight on her foot, FIL is currently in hospital. I made a few meals for her but being able to take her to fill the fridge with a few microwave meals means we know she is fed and able to cook something until FIL gets out of hospital and im able to batch cook some more for her.

I'd hate to go back to living soley on them though!

Counting_Pennies_2

Nicki wrote: »

I was born in 1968 and my mum bless her was not a keen cook and we had ready meals every night virtually so they have definitely been around for longer than some of you think. In the early days we would have had findus crispy pancakes, shepherd pies, French bread pizzas and birds eye boil in the bag stuff. When I was still at primary school mum discovered marks and Spencer's and our range of meals opened up.

As an adult I now very rarely eat ready meals but would be much more likely to get a takeaway if I didn't feel like cooking.

You have described my childhood meals. I honestly thought cooking was opening a packet and boiling, microwaving or sticking in the oven.

It wasn't until my late 30s I started cooking from scratch