Grandma’s Larder

VfM4meplse

mumf wrote: »

We have a proper walk- in pantry with brick floor and thrall ( cold shelf ) at the back.Wouldnt be without it.Estate Agents would rave about a 'utility room',our pantry is far more valuable.

Licks lips with envy

I'd love to have a larder - but satisfy myself with a food cupboard in the kitchen.

Anoneemoose

Ooh, mine has a cold shelf too!

PollyWollyDoodle

A proper larder had a marble shelf, as said above, for keeping butter and milk cold. It would store meat, cooked food such as pies, vegetables, pretty much everything we'd keep in the fridge now. Bear in mind that the butcher, fishmonger, milkman and greengrocer delivered daily so you didn't have to keep stuff for too long. Really grand houses had a game larder, where game could be hung till it was ready (eugh).

The pantry was the dry-goods store, although I think in many homes the two were combined. 100 years ago* it would have contained flour, sugar, currants and dried fruit for baking; rice, sago and tapioca (eugh again!) for puddings; porridge oats, dried peas and beans, bottled goods like fruit and vegetables (probably made at home); spices, jam, honey, golden syrup, pickles, vinegar and so on. In those days food was mostly either fresh and purchased very recently, or dry goods which could be kept quite a while.

I'd love to have either a larder or a pantry. No chance in my house, not even a 'larder cupboard'.

*Strictly speaking, 100 years ago rationing was in force and sugar and a lot of other stuff was in short supply!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

What a great thread:T

I have a floor to ceiling food cupboard in my small kitchen - lost a bit of worksurface to accommodate it but now that I am keeping my kitchen tidy & also doing ongoing decluttering I find that I do not miss the work surface :rotfl:

If we ever move I would love to have somewhere that had a very large kitchen with a larder AND a pantry (would be nice not to lose food if/when there are power cuts (Also a decent sized bathroom wouldn’t go amiss)

I vaguely remember both my grandmothers having a larder and a pantry - bliss

Look forward to reading along

MrsSD

ziggy2004

We have a big understairs walk in pantry but no larder, the house is old enough to have had one so I suspect that it would have been in the part of the house we do not own as it was split in the 80's.

My grandmother stored food in the basement - it was a tiny basement and stuffed full of tinned food.

System

ziggy2004 wrote: »

We have a big understairs walk in pantry but no larder, the house is old enough to have had one so I suspect that it would have been in the part of the house we do not own as it was split in the 80's.

Same here though my house was converted from the dark ages in 1972. Moms larder and the outside toilet is where the bathroom is now.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

My Nan's pantry had a beaded curtain for a "door", that I was repeatedly told wasn't to be played with, but found irresistable....I remember Iced Gems being kept in there (on a high shelf). My Nan bought them just for me I think.

Primrose

We had a larder in my childhood home. I was a wartime baby so it was generally sparsely stocked because of rationing but I do remember amongst the odd tins of peas or corned beef the big row of Kilmer jars full of bottled tomatoes. Of course there were no fridges in those days so milk was kept on a. Owl of cold water placed on the main marble slab and there was rarely enough surplus butter or bacon to store for long to worry about it going "off" in the current heatwave we,ve been experiencing.

I do wonder how we would all cope in hot weather without the current fridge and freezer faciilities we,ve become so used to. I suppose we would have to return to shopping on a daily basis to reduce waste which certainly wouldn't fit into today's busy life styles.

A relative of ours recently moved into an older house with a massive pantry. It has rows of deep shelves to store all those cumbersome items like food processors, anutomatic breadmakers, massive casserole dishes and it makes life so much easier. In our house it,s an ongoing battle emptying cupboards to access rarely used items
They would probably be used more frequently if getting at them wasn,t such a time consuming process !

[Deleted User]

Where we lived in Blackheath during and after WW2 we had a very large larder with a long mrble shelf at waist level.It was an Edwardian house that had far too many rooms and my Mum hated it as it was far too big really to keep warm.
Mum kept fats dripping pot butter (when avaiable it was on ration ) and if I remember Summer County margerine which supposedly had 10% butter (it still tasted of marg to me ) She also had a galvanided white metal pail which was half filled with cold water to keep the milk cold as possible.

Milkmen delivered from a horse and cart back then, I would have to give this grumpy bad tempered horse an apple to eat (which he also tried to munch my fingers as well) in return the milk man gave us milk and the horse gave manure for the garden.

Saturdays we had an extra pint of gold top as he didn't deliver on Sundays but that jersey gold top was gorgeous thick with a creamy top bit my brothers and I would fight over.

When I moved into my first house in 1971 it also had an old fashioned larder which was brilliant as the kitchen cupboard were horrible and damp so everything was kept in the larder It was a walk-in one, and it too had a marble shelf
Just as well as my fridge was very small and only had a tiny top shelf that froze a packet if fish fingers and a packet of peas and it was full.

I have a modern kitchen now in my house, and I would love to have a larder but not enough room.Perhaps in my next house when we move to the Isle of Wight in two years we may be lucky enough

JackieO xx

Shropshirelass

We lived with Grandma just after the war, I can remember the smell of cheese in the pantry, which had a marble shelf at waist height, wooden shelves above. As mentioned in a previous post, there wasn't much on the top shelves after years of war and rationing. The cold joint was kept covered from Sunday to Monday, then was soon eaten and soup stock made from the bones.

When we moved out to a new council house, there was a built in pantry, but it was not particularly cold, as it shared a wall with the fireplace and chimney. Milk was kept in a bucket of water in the summer. Cheese was bought in small quantities, and eaten quickly, sometimes ending up as cheese on toast (rarebit).
Planning a week's menus must have been a nightmare, depending on what was in the shops each day. When we first moved, although we were a few miles from the main high street, local shops were very limited, but enterprising shopkeepers soon started a grocery van service several times a week. The milk man also delivered cheese and orange juice. As kids we were often sent to the local farm to buy potatoes, at least they would last a few days.