70's Recipes

Eenymeeny

I've just been delving through a box of recipe cards that I've had since the 70s. (Boldly emblazoned with a picture of a stew pot of 'exotic' veg like red peppers, yellow pea pods and asparagus tips and the exciting title of 'Here's What's Cookin' ) I was surprised to see how pretentious we were with the naming of food which really contained quite a lot of 'convenience foods' that we would have proudly presented to our friends with a flourish!
For example: Sausage Saxony; Sausage, Bacon, Onions, fried and added to a can of condensed oxtail soup and half a can of water. ('Don't forget the mixed herbs and serve with noodles or rice for a really exotic touch!')
Piquant Pork, basically cooked pork, added to frozen veg and a packet of made-up savoury rice and stir-fried. ('Add 4 teaspoons of soy sauce and a teaspoon of curry powder for a real Oriental flavour!')
I could go on, with Crispy topped Liver and Bacon (the topping was crumbled bacon flavoured crisps) and Beef burgers in mushroom and cider sauce (bought beef burgers, topped with sauce made from mushroom soup powder and cider) I've had quite a laugh as I can remember us all getting dressed up in our maxi dresses, boys in velvet jackets and floppy bow ties to eat what we would now consider to be a 'quick tea' (Don't forget the Mateus Ros! and Blue Nun )
I wondered if any one else remembers these times and if they still use any similar recipes? Maybe your mothers used them? After all, many of us were newly-weds struggling to pay high-interest mortgages and had to eke food out as cheaply as possible. (I seem to remember chicken chasseur with baked potatoes being a particular favourite when it was my turn!)
I'm sure that it would still be relevant during these hard times and would love to add some new recipes to my repertoire!

carriebradshaw

I remember the free recipe cards that use to pop through the letterbox from time to time.None of the recipes ever appealed to me enough to try them.You just can't disguise the yukky taste of tinned or packet soup bleurgh! I still drink Blue Nun though as I really do like it

Eenymeeny

I've got some of those recipe cards too carriebradshaw. They look tasty but I haven't tried making them...
I've just part-remembered (!) a 'Citrus Cheesecake' which had dream topping and lime jelly amongst the ingredients, now I'd love to try that again if anyone has the recipe please?

thriftwizard

I remember those! And my sister-in-law proudly presenting the resulting dishes... it seemed like a wonderful change from my poor mother's meat-and-two-veg-boiled-to-death cooking - she hated cooking with a passion, and still does!

I suspect we couldn't have afforded the exotic veg & other ingredients; Mum did a superb job of raising my younger brother & I when she was widowed at a young age, but money was very, very tight. Before I was born, my parents & elder brothers had lived in India, so unusual ingredients were not a complete surprise to us & curries were regularly served. I still remember her excitement at discovering Vesta dried curries - and her utter horror at the taste & texture - but we loved them! With plenty of Aromat, of course...

I have & use a couple of 70s cookbooks, but they're mainly cooking-from-scratch types like Mary Berry's Farmhouse cookery. Her Stroganoff recipe is still one of the simplest & best.

dandy-candy

I love the "Keep calm and fanny on" blog which is recreating recipes from the Fanny Craddock part works. Some don't look to bad!

http://keepcalmandfannyon.blogspot.co.uk

VfM4meplse

My mum had a carefully-hoarded pile of weekly magazines that stretched from the early 70s to 1980 which covered here early child-rearing years. They were nothing like the glossy mags of today, and far more centred on domesticity which meant there were plenty of recipes, especially for one-pot meals and cakes. Piped whipped cream, tinned apricot halves and angelica were de rigour when it came to decorating puddings. As for savoury party food, anything in aspic was considered to be the height of sophistication.

Butterfly_Brain

I still have quite a few 70's cookbooks among them are the Paupers cookbook, Family Circle Thrifty cook and money saving menus, Pennywise cookbook, Jimmy Young cookbooks, though that was late 60's, eight Marguerite Patten books, Good housekeeping, women's weekly books which are small paperbacks and cost the princley sum of 15p/25p/50p, The farmhouse cookbook by Grace Mulligan and Shirley Goode books, both appeared on Pebble Mill at one as I recall.
Then there are the Dairy Books and countless others.

Butterfly_Brain

Fanny Craddock's shows are all on you tube