Food and drink from the past.

Oh yuck. I hated blancmange too. I was sick when given it at birthday parties.

I did like that tinned fruit salad though.

Rice pudding, I still make that sometimes. With nutmeg and cream and a nice brown top.

I loved stovies the way that my mother used to make them. I hated rice, custard and anything sweet and do to this day with the exception of bread pudding but I would eat it with milk rather than custard. I loved my mother's home made soups, no tins of soup in those days if my memory serves me right.

No bought vegetables, everything home grown. We lived about 2 miles from the local town, no car and about 3 buses a day. A baker used to visit with his horse and cart and that bread was so fresh. I remember a fishmonger also with his more upmarket van. No corner shops in those days.

When we had a car, a treat for me was a white pudding and chips from the Italian fish and chip shop 2 miles away. I am not sure if white puddings are sold in Scotland now- few folk have heard of them in London.

I still like Marmite toast, pilchards or sardines, Spam,custard, steamed puds,
Rice pudding, buttery mashed potato.
never have any liver now though, or kidneys, yuk.never have cabbage now either or rhubarb.Or blancmange.

Crumpets, toasted in front of the fire, then spread with butter.

I was born in1940 and don't remember much of things in our house being like the programme. My father worked on radar during the war and it was too far away to possibly come home at lunchtime so he took sandwiches to work and we had something cold then and all ate together when he came home from work. My mother was a good cook and as my father kept chickens we always had fresh eggs - rarely had need for the egg powder. During the summer my mother gave eggs away to people but also preserved some in water glass for during the winter when the hens stopped laying. They had a tang to them so they were only used in cooking. My mother swapped tea coupons for fat/ butter/ margarine ones with a neighbour in the next road. She had adult sons who could never have too much tea and mum needed the ingredients for baking. We had fruit trees and she made jam but also preserved it in Kilner jars which she sterilised in the oven. So we had fruit most days and with a steamed or sponge pudding from time to time. When the pears ripened in September people came from all around with baskets and we just filled them up for them. The worst thing I can remember eating was parsnips! but also being told they gave you curly hair which I so wanted!!
My mother always had a good store cupboard as she bought things such as dried fruit and brown sugar if she ever saw it and she had those sweet shop glass jars my father bought from the newsagent to store it in. She made jellies as she could buy gelatine and she coloured and flavoured it - I only realised in retrospect how lucky we had been as she was such a good cook and manager.
We also had a Bendix automatic washing machine in 1948 - cost £82-10 shillings. My fathe spent almost all his savings on it as my mother was ill after the birth of my sister in 1945 and needed all the assistance she could get. At the time it did not heat the water and also had to sit on a concrete block my father built under the kitchen floor and the machine was bolted to it. No fridge for some years though - we had a tiled shelf in the larder.

Bez, you had a lucky childhood with regards to eating. my Mother was not a good cook, and didn't have much spare time either as she had a full time job outside the home, but I remember Surprise peas,mash and fried sausages as something wonderful!

In the 50's I remember there was always a rabbit or pheasant hanging in the outhouse and we had fresh salmon and sea fish, all caught by dad or his friends.We had a large allotment so all fresh vegetables. Mum worked full time but she would do a big bake every week,egg custards,cakes, scones,coconut castles,egg and bacon tart, cheese and onion pie.She was a wonderful baker. Boiled all the vegetables to death but great baking!!
I do remember Vesta packet curries. A big crowd of us used to go camping at the weekends and we often had a big pan of mixed Vesta...probably was vile but as a tipsy teenager it was great.

Bez My mum had a Bendix automatic washing machine and used it for years and years. They built things to last in those days. Not that it had any influence or connection with what we ate which was varied and certainly included herbs, spices and other flavourings, though perhaps dominated by meat and two veg, and often quite experimental.

I've never even heard of the national loaf. I do remember 'wonderloaf' though. My mum was a great cook and made lovely pastry (as I do!!!!) I remember her making date slices and sausage rolls. Her first foray into curry was just adding curry powder to mince. My dad loved suet puddings - savoury or sweet - but I loathed them! I also remember that roast chicken was an absolute treat and that the cheapest roast at the time was shoulder of lamb. How things have changed with chicken now being cheap and lamb expensive.

There is one type of pudding you will never see today, in the 50`s my uncle , gran and aunt lived together , and my uncle worked on a farm, and he used to bring the curd and whey from the milk , its was put in a earthen type container, and with its yellow colour was nice to eat as a sweet.
Also recall Sundays joint lasting the week, roast on Sunday, cold on Monday with bubble & squeak, Tuesdays a cottage pie or similar, and a stew with remainder of the meat.
its always been Fish & Chips on a Friday.
Mick

I had heard of "The National Loaf" probably from Womens hour.

It was a wartime wholemeal product produced due to the difficulties of trying to import enough wheat from North America as the shipping convoys sending any supplies across the Atlantic were being heavily attacked by German submarines etc. It was designed not to waste any food stuff at all but not much liked. Our national food supplies were very dependant on these imports.

thehomefronthousewife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/recipe-5-national-loaf.html

As for long forgotten food stuffs "Frizzets." small patties made of gram flour (chickpeas.) with seasoning in them.
My mum could bake but not at all good at tasty main meals. So some of her concotions for main meals were best forgotten.

Chicken? That was for Christmas! As for the National Loaf, the whitest it got was a sort of pale grey colour.

My mother was a good but what she cooked was very plain. I had a friend at school whose mother made the most delicious (proper) lemon meringue pie. The first time I saw one I was amazed and when I tasted it I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! When I described it to my mother and suggested that she might make one, you'd have thought I'd suggested a pact with the devil! My father once told me about the hot curries he had eaten when abroad with the Army and I looked up a recipe of sorts in a cookery book in the library. Of course I didn't have any of the ingredients at home (never heard of most of them) so I just put in everything I thought looked like it might provide a bit of heat - HP sauce, pepper, mustard, horseradish, Branson pickle, and tomato ketchup for a bit of colour - and presented it to my father. He tasted it manfully and his face was a picture. "We're not quite there yet, chicken!" he said after a large glass of water. I'm very good at curries now - I wish he were here to try them.

Oh Charleygirl, a white pudding supper, they still sell them, now i am going to have XPat cravings for ages,,,,,,,,,

In "Back in time for Dinner", I couldn't understand why the mother fed cold leftovers to the family at teatime. My mother would never have done such a thing. In the show, there was beef dripping ing the larder. Why didn't she make a fry-up for tea? It would have been much tastier for the children.

My grandad lived with us and cooked a fabulous rabbit stew with pearl barley.

I also remember doorstep white bread and butter with winkles, picked out of the shell with a pin, for Sunday tea.

There was always dripping in the fridge!!

To save on fuel, hildajennj. I was told about that by an older friend, years ago. Her husband wouldn't let her light the stove in the evening. He had his hot meal at home at lunchtime, the children had theirs at school, so tea was a very light uncooked meal for many. Lighting it just to heat up leftovers was considered wasteful.

If we hadn't had an aga, my father would have made my mother do the same.

@Pittcity - You had a fridge? There's posh... We had a marble slab in the pantry.

It was Pork dripping on the TV programme whereas we always had beef dripping - lovely on bread with salt sprinkled on it! Reading through these posts I was reminded of lemon meringue - friends were due for a simple lunch today so I went Franglaise and we had tartiflette followed by lemon meringue - so long since I had made it I was worried I would miss out a vital ingredient but it tasted fine.
I did a google and found a site for - the Stork book - the art of home. Cooking - but could not manage to get any of the recipes to come up - did a bit of a check on another site!

How did they manage to have such a large bowl of dripping from their meagre meat ration?

You could buy the fat separately. It wasn't rationed.

ahh, dubonnet! that takes me back!

my Dad did the allotment and my mum did the cooking/preserving/jam making/salting. us girls were all shown how to bake -my sister was a dab hand at pastry and cakes. never had a bought cake in the house.

we had a Spong, minced cooked meat tastes so much better than meat minced raw then cooked. why is that?

oh, and dripping!!! I tried to explain to my sons when they were young about dripping, and the gorgeous bit at the bottom of the enamel bowl in the larder. Their faces were a picture