Food and drink from the past.

I remember those blue band sticks. In the USA they talk about "sticks of butter". It was probably an attempt to make us seem more American and modern.

We had Blue Band margarine, it came in 4oz sticks all neatly packaged in a box. Grandma always had Empire butter, from the Co-op - of course.
Bread was Champion thin sliced for mum and a cob from the Co-op bread man for grandma.
He came on a horse and cart, the bucket and shovel was always handy ready to collect anything the horse might drop to put on the roses.

Stork was disgusting, but not sure about 'fishy'.

KiteKat's still going, but surely all tinned catfood stinks of whatever the label claims the flavour is?

I don't think Stork was ever made from fish oil. Hasn't it always been the same as it is today?

Stork is 90 years old and was introduced in 1920. We had it on bread in the 50s and Mum used it in baking too. Don't remember it tasting fishy though. Our cat was fed on kit e kat and that did stink of fish!

Remember when Stork came on the market in the 50s? And the advert: 'Can you tell Stork from Butter?' to which the answer was allegedly 'No'.

My mother made cakes with Stork margarine and pastry with half margarine and half lard. Stork was made from fish oil and tasted fishy. Do people remember Kit e Kat cat food in the 50s? That stank of fish too.

Back in the eighties,when DH was serving in Europe with the Army, he had to go down to the Black Forest region to visit some American Forces units. He stayed in a small local hotel and on a couple of nights was served with a bowl of pork dripping and bread to eat while waiting for his meal to be prepared. He said it was delicious! I always liked beef dripping as a child, from what seemed at that time like enormous joints of meat. There was always plenty for supper and to rehash during the week. Couldn't afford anything like as large now.

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

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?

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

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

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!

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

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

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.

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!!

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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'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.

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.