Portion sizes when you were young

Butterfly_Brain

Pollycat wrote: »

My Grandad had quite a few Yorkshire puds with his Sunday dinner then had some more for 'afters' with jam.

Yorkie puds and jam............Yummy
DD calls them her drunk food. If she goes out she asks me to make some especially so she can munch on them when she gets home :rotfl:

LameWolf

I think in days gone by there were more likely to be set meal times - breakfast at 07:30, lunch at 13:00 and dinner at 19:00 for instance, and a lot less nibbling in between, or if anything was eaten in between, it was "elevenses" in the morning and "tea at three" in the afternoon. Certainly not the ad hoc snacking that seems to be the norm nowadays.

That said, I always struggled mightily to get through the amount of food my mother put in front of me, it was always more than I could manage (always had a tiny appetite, still do even now). Anything I didn't eat would be put back in front of me the next mealtime.

thorsoak

There was still some form of rationing of meat until 1954 - by which time I'd just started grammar school. Fats - butter, marg and cheese - were also still rationed, I believe. I can remember taking my mother's ration books (one for her, one for my father, then five childrens' books) up to the grocer, then on to the butcher- and feeling very important that such treasures were entrusted to me.

I can still remember the thrill when sweets went "off ration" and the newsagent stayed open until 8 o'clock and we could spend our two-pennorth at one go. :-)

Rations were pretty small - 1 egg per person per week, 2 oz margerine, 1 oz butter and 8 oz other fat. Sugar I think was 8oz and tea was 2oz. And that was for an adult. So meals were pretty basic, and really filled out with potatoes, carrots and other veggies. I think the meat ration was up to the value of 2s.0d per week (that's 10p) although sausages were off ration. Bread was rationed too, after the war ended.

Berni888

kiss_me_now9 wrote: »

Woahhh, sorry, didn't mean it in that way at all

I read your comment I believe in the way you intended and didn't read it as an attack either, just an observation about how some people abuse the system. But like my boss always reminds me sadly it's not the way it's written but the way it's been received.

Loving this thread, as I know for sure I truly lack portion control....I even went out and purchased larger plates as the 'normal' ones just weren't good enough. I also tend to intentionally put the blinkers on when visiting my folks as their dinner plates are what I'd use to put a cup on

moneyistooshorttomention

One thought here is that it might be worthwhile getting some cookbooks from the 1960s and 1970s - even 1980s possibly.

I have cookbooks from all eras and it is a bit of a revelation sometimes to see the quantities given as, say, sufficient for 6 in some of the older cookbooks - whereas I (in early 21st century) would often translate that into - equals enough for 4 people. But I do know that these older cookbooks are the ones that are accurate - ie yep....the recipe really is enough for 6 people.

Bathory

One of the most shocking and wasteful food habits I encountered was at one of those 'all you can eat' Chinese buffets. Last time I went I noticed that some people would pile their plates high with food, eat a few mouthfuls, leave the rest and then go back for more. By the time they had left a huge pile of plates with perfectly good food squashed between them was left on the table.

I remember growing up and having more fat and less sugar in my diet. Milk was always the full cream variety. Sometimes the bluetits would get at it first and peck off the caps so then we had to resort to the Nessels condensed tinned milk which was horrible in tea. We always had butter and cooked in lard. Every Saturday would be baking day and whatever was baked was to last the week. If it did not then tough as there was no shop bought cakes and biscuits in the house. We lived out in the sticks so takeaways were unheard of and although I had a hearty appetite as a kid I burned it off with all the running, cycling and horse-riding that I did. Portion sizes would by typically one of those small cereal boxes you get in packs or hot oatmeal for breakfast, lunch was sandwiches and dinner would be fish in sauce/fishcakes or sausages with veg. I grew up in the 70's so instant meals were coming in but we didn't fully rely on them. I also remember some sort of supper that we had which replaced teatime when I got older- water biscuits, cheese, celery sticks and crisps with the blue salt bag. I use to take a scrubbed carrot to school as a snack if I got hungry.

Nothing ever got wasted. If one of us didn't eat it then an obliging dog, cat or a flock of argumentative sparrows outside ate it. I was often reminded by my mum that she grew up in the Depression era and back then you ate what you could get. Therefore waste was a big no, no.

cyantist

My portion sizes were pretty much the same now as when I was young, though my meals are much more varied now and have more fruit and veg. Also I often had chocolate sponge pudding and ice cream or half a pack of chocolate digestives for my breakfast!

But my parents now eat way bigger portions and I am drastically overfed each time I go back to visit.

I've just cooked mince for us and used half of a 500g pack but I'm pretty sure my mom would have done the lot.

Kim_kim

We didn't buy sweets or crisps in multipacks or family packs in the supermarket the way we do now.
Sweets were bought in the little individual portions one at a time from the sweet shop - who does that now? We all buy super & multi packs for sweets/crisps/chocolate.

Pollycat

cyantist wrote: »

My portion sizes were pretty much the same now as when I was young, though my meals are much more varied now and have more fruit and veg. Also I often had chocolate sponge pudding and ice cream or half a pack of chocolate digestives for my breakfast!

But my parents now eat way bigger portions and I am drastically overfed each time I go back to visit.

I've just cooked mince for us and used half of a 500g pack but I'm pretty sure my mom would have done the lot.

I think it's because how meat is packaged nowadays.

Years ago, if you wanted mince you went to the butchers and bought the amount you needed.
It's the supermarkets who think we need 12 oz, 1lb, 1.1lb etc.

If I buy larger packs of mince (I usually buy in multi packs to freeze), I rebag it when I get home into portion sizes I know suits what I'll use it for (bol, chilli, shepherd's pie, burgers, meatballs).

That way, it reduces portion sizes and reduces cost per portion.

Farway

Bathory wrote: »

Nothing ever got wasted. If one of us didn't eat it then an obliging dog, cat or a flock of argumentative sparrows outside ate it. I was often reminded by my mum that she grew up in the Depression era and back then you ate what you could get. Therefore waste was a big no, no.

I was told, people are starving in India, and they really were, leave nothing of rationed food on your plate