Food and drink from the past.

Mashed potatoes, porridge and custard are still my comfort foods.

My dad could and did cook. He certainly wasn't shy of the kitchen. Some of my earliest memories were of him washing pots.

I was 7 in 1950, the fourth of five children but my Mum was an excellent cook and we never had such unappetising meals as shown in the programme. The Mother hadn't a clue about cooking and at the same age as those two daughters, both my sisters and I could make a dinner, a sponge cake etc. We often had pilchards (I still like them) either on toast or with a salad grown in the garden.

I agree Elegran, the producers have manipulated the progression and it does not reflect what it was really like.

I got the impression that whoever wrote/produced it had a neat progression in mind from horrible/boring meals to delicious/exciting ones and the programmes are going to follow this. She clearly had to make whatever was prescribed, to the recipes chosen for her, instead of going with what she had available and her own imagination.

Her husband usually does the cooking - so why was he not involved in the process? My father was involved in the kitchen, though not as head chef. He peeled vegetables and washed dishes and ws helpful, he didn't sit in state to be waited on. That was a myth put about by writers, not the reality of ordinary family life. And if she had daughters in their teens, she would have been cooking for eighteen years or so, much of the time under wartime rationing restrictions, so she would be adept at stretching food and making meals palatable.

Yes I watched the programme but don't remember it being quite so austere in the kitchen, my father's presence certainly wasn't banned. It was his job to carve the Sunday roast and mine to stir the white sauce for the cauliflower. My mother cooked tripe and onions, and stuffed hearts, meals that many people would baulk at these days, myself included. She made the best ever steak and kidney pie, melt in your mouth pastry. I have never tasted pastry that comes anywhere near as wonderful as hers, and she had a part time job to contend with as well as the home to manage. My father, my brother and myself, all helped with the chores. It was a good grounding for us children for the future.

One of my favourite puddings was lemon meringue pie, which is rarely seen these days.

I love steamed syrup pudding but would only ever have a spoonful of someone else's now. My brother a retired chef regularly tells me about the lovely things he makes that we used to have as children like steak and kidney pudding and rice pudding- he thinks healthy eating is all rubbish but I don't. I would never eat those things now- he still eats Wagon Wheels too.

Does anyone else remember Jubblies? I used to love those and its only juice and water.

I don't think I eat any of the meals I used to have as a child now I think they were trying to fatten us all up after the war. the worst thing I ever had to eat as a child was boiled beef and carrots with pease pudding. YUK!!

Watching "Back in Time for Dinner" the other night (it was the 50s) brought back lots of memories; pilchards for example, (and one of those tin openers that I could never work, with a sort of claw thing on the end.)

I do like ginger beer too. And I love a steamed pudding, with custard - would never cook it now, but am always tempted if it's on the menu anywhere, especially One that my grandmother made, with golden syrup at the bottom.

Whenever I'm in Ireland I have a small bottle of Club Orange and a packet of Tayto crisps, it takes me straight back to my childhood.

I never drink fizzy orange or buy crisps at any other time