New BBC2 Back in time for dinner

snoozer

Until I went to university in 1976 I had never tasted pasta or rice and I think I only ate in a caf! once - when I was on a school trip and we ate at a Golden Egg.


There were 5 children and eating out was just too expensive. Mum cooked everything from scratch - we never had things like angel delight, it was jelly and blancmange (I never liked jelly but loved blancmange, which I haven't tasted since I was a child) and home made cakes. TBH I'm quite glad we never had a Vesta meal, they look quite revolting.

[Deleted User]

My Mum siezed with gusto the new processed foods that appeared in the shops, the vesta curries, the instant whips, the frozen chicken drumsticks etc. all appeared with regularity on our table. We were kids, always hungry so we always ate what was there. I didn't question it at the time, we knew our place and it's only since running my own home that I've realised that after a wartime austerity period and having absolutely no powered cooking or cleaning aids life for our Mums must have been very hard and tedious. I was born in 1948 and can't remember having a washing machine or a fridge until I was in my teens, certainly not a vacuum cleaner or anything to aid food preparation. I think that the new foods were promoted as 'giving the housewife more time' and as such I can understand why they were so popular. Easy for us in this day and age with our food processors, washer dryers, fridge freezers etc. to look back critically but to Mums generation all the time saving must have been very attractive. I must add by the way that I don't use anything 'instant' and much prefer cooking from scratch, best from home grown and realise I'm lucky to be able to do so.

Prinzessilein

I really enjoyed last night's show....it certainly took me back.


My mum didn't get her first washing machine until the (late) 70s. We did get a fridge - and I remember the fascination with it!


We didn't eat much of the 'new' processed food. Mum still cooked most meals from scratch.


I remember the Vesta Meals....we certainly tried them. The little bits of dried meat and veg were like bullets! But I did love the crispy noodles on top of the chow mein!


Angel Delight was our Sunday Dinner Treat. Served with tinned fruit and Dream Topping. When Instant Whip became available we never bought it....Mum thought it was 'lower class' than Angel Delight!


We did love a treat of going out for a Chinese meal....most places did a relatively cheap 'Business Lunch'. We had spent a couple of years in Singapore and this brought back memories of the food we had so enjoyed over there.


Looking forward to seeing the 70s next week.

Butterfly_Brain

PI remember my mum doing the washing in the early sixties using an old copper boiler, washboard, scrubbing brush and tongs, it was all dried in the kitchen on a Sheila maid which is one of those racks that you hoisted up on the ceiling. They didn't mention the rise of the launderettes in the sixties as well as the supermarkets. My mum thought they were fantastic and used them once or twice a week she had five children so you can imagine how happy she was. She didn't get her first washing machine until 1970 and that was on the knock.
She didn't have a hoover until 1970 either, she had a ewbank, I have just bought one because they are really useful and light so a quick run over without struggling with a heavy vacuum is great for me and it doesn't use electricity which is another bonus.

I was astounded at the size of the tesco, I remember tesco in Church street opening which was smaller, but my mum always preferred sainsbury.

Watching that girl with a zoom made me smile, they were twice that size and we preferred fans or rocket lollies when we were little.

The sixties also saw the rise of the ice cream van and that soft yucky ice cream, we had ice cream in between wafers in the early sixties, but did have the occasional treat to the proper ice cream parlour in edgeware road called Alfredo's where we had proper Italian ice cream sundae in tall glasses it was gorgeous,

joedenise

I certainly didn't have Vesta meals in the 60s! I first tried them in the early 70s when I got married and had to do the cooking - I wasn't very good at it and just used to do things like chops, peas & potatoes; shepherds pie, roast dinners. Glad to say I'm a much better cook now and hardly ever use ready meals unless I've made them myself and frozen them.

I was a teenager in the 60s and I remember my mum getting her first washing machine - with a mangle and her first fridge, which was gas not electric! She got these shortly after we'd moved into a house from a flat but the kitchen was so tiny there wasn't room for either of these "gadgets" so builders were brought in to change the breakfast room into a kitchen as it was much bigger. The old kitchen became a small utility room which housed the washing machine (and much later dishwasher and tumble dryer).

We certainly never went out to eat as dad didn't earn very much and mum worked p/t as a cleaner. Most of our food was vegetables which dad grew on his allotment. We usually had a roast on Sunday, leftovers on Monday and mince (usually shepherds pie) on Thursday. The other days were usually vegetable soup or casserole - the same meal but called one or the other depending on whether it has been cooked on the hob or in the oven, LOL!

Looking forward to next week & the 70s as it's probably the decade I remember the most.

Denise

Gigervamp

I couldn't believe the knives they used to chop veg. One looked like a penknife, and the other was a bread knife.

There were a lot of people commenting on Twitter about that and also the way they held their cutlery.

Also, we would never eat sitting in the living room watching tv. We always ate at the table and the tv was off.

[Deleted User]

Downloaded the Cooking in the Bedsitter book to my kindle. Whish I had it when I was at uni and living in halls, its full of lovely cheap recipes!

Islandmaid

Hi al

I,ve held back from commenting as I love the concept of the programme, but the apparent lack of basic cooking knowledge of the Mum really got to me.

I don,t want to put her down, as she has more balls than me going on national TV, but I wish they had chosen someone who enjoyed food.

I was born late 60's, so can,t comment too much on whats been done so far, but I do remember my Nan making huge meals out of not much in the 70's and 80's - mainly stews, suet puddings and a roast on a Sunday lunchtime with a 'proper' tea at tea time, sandwiches, cake, tinned meat, salads with whole lettuce leaves, posh star cut tomatoes, whole trimmed spring onions and beetroot - nothing like the chopped salads I make now and tinned fruit with evaporated milk and cake for pudding with pots of tea

One thing really bought back a special memory for me, and that was the Camp coffee - Nan and Grandad used to make a milky coffee with this which we had with biscuits of an evening - bless ,em.

Loving your memories - social history at its best x

CupOfChai

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Lol tin of corned beef, we have all had that problem!

Tell me about it!


Even if the key doesn't break off and you manage to get it to work, the edges it makes are lethal. Why is tinned corned beef still made this way, surely there must be a better way?!

Rainy-Days

Islandmaid wrote: »

Hi al

I was born late 60's, so can,t comment too much on whats been done so far, but I do remember my Nan making huge meals out of not much in the 70's and 80's - mainly stews, suet puddings and a roast on a Sunday lunchtime with a 'proper' tea at tea time, sandwiches, cake, tinned meat, salads with whole lettuce leaves, posh star cut tomatoes, whole trimmed spring onions and beetroot - nothing like the chopped salads I make now and tinned fruit with evaporated milk and cake for pudding with pots of tea

One thing really bought back a special memory for me, and that was the Camp coffee - Nan and Grandad used to make a milky coffee with this which we had with biscuits of an evening - bless ,em.

The Camp coffee - arh yes I remember this well. Also Ovaltine! I just remember hearty meals. Takeaway was fish and chips and only every now and then. Everything was home cooked. My grandfather used to have two huge allotments and we used to get vegetables - in the main with the odd bit of fruit such as Gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries in the summer. Things such as apple crumble and jam steamed puddings with bright yellow custard I remember fondly.

I also remember my grandmothers old Rayburn and it used to have anything put into it for burning fuel even an old pair of wellington boots. Always remember making cakes with mum on a Saturday and a big Sunday roast. Friday was fish chips and peas and ironically I still do FC&P's even now each Friday. Stews, casseroles, braising steak and frying steak were the main stays.

Oh and the top of the cream on the bottle of milk used to be really thick. It's not now, there is no cream there to have it. In fact we used to go nuts if the birds pecked at the foil lid! I remember those plastic covers that mum bought so the milkman would 'cap' them so the birds couldn't get at the foil.