How It Used To Be.

[Caran]

For those who are old enough to remember - enjoy.
For the rest - it's a history lesson...!!
> ---------------------------------------------------

EATING IN THE UK IN THE FIFTIES
· Pasta had not been invented.
· Curry was a surname.
· A takeaway was a mathematical problem.
· A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.
· Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.
· All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.
· A Chinese chippy was a foreign carpenter.
· Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner.
· A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.
· Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
· Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking.
· Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.
· Coffee was Camp, and came in a bottle.
· Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
· Only Heinz made beans.
· Fish didn't have fingers in those days.
· Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.
· None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.
· Healthy food consisted of anything edible.
· People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.
· Indian restaurants were only found in India..
· Cooking outside was called camping.
· Seaweed was not a recognised food.
· "Kebab" was not even a word never mind a food.
· Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold.
· Prunes were medicinal.
· Surprisingly, muesli was readily available, it was called cattle feed.
· Pineapples came in chunks in a tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one.
· Water came out of the tap, if someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it they would have become a laughing stock.
· The one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties .. was elbows!

[emmie]

and tv had one channel, those who could afford one that is.

[emmie]

very good, and yes i do remember it well

[ladybirder]

Me too. Right about the elbows as well.

[Caran]

There was nothing per packed. Bacon was sliced on the slicer and you were asked what number you wanted it cut on. Sugar was weighed out in blue bags.
Butter and lard cut from a large block. Life was so simple then.

[Caran]

Pre not per^^^

[askyourgran]

I remember them all, and no elbows. In some places milk was steralised but not the cat!

[grasscarp]

We had a Bakelite telephone - one of very few in our village so sometimes people came to our house to use our phone. My father used to charge accumulaters to power some peoples radios. My mother used to send us out searching for bottles to take back to the shop to get back the deposit. Yes - in those days glass bottles had a refundable deposit on them!
Caran - as for food - I still have my ration book somewhere!

[Buenchico]

>>>Pasta had not been invented

Oh yes it had - but admittedly in just one form!
http://www.tias.com/stores/mspackratz/pictures/r3489a.jpg
;-)

[askyourgran]

I remember going to the local pub one night and there were three ladies (shades of Ena Sharples, Minnie and Martha) sitting there with their stout when a man walked in "I saw you yesterday Norman" said 'Ena', "Did you, where did you see me?" said Norman. "You were coming outa the cheese in Lipton's window", replied Ena. Nowadays I suppose Ena would have been fined for discrimination or something.

[Caran]

When did that come out Chris, I don't remember it when I was a child in the early fifties.

[boxtops]

You bought cheese in the grocer's, there was a large slab on the counter and the grocer cut off a wedge with a wire when you wanted to buy some.

[hc4361]

A healthy dinner (at lunch time, not tea time) for a child was a cheese sandwich, a glass of full fat milk and an apple. The bread would be thick white and buttered.

Every cooked meal came with potatoes. Roast, mashed or chipped but they had to be there.

[Buenchico]

>>>Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time

Not in our house, particularly bananas. 'Bananas and custard' was a regular dessert in our house, 'cos it was cheap. However there was one thing that was never, ever seen in our house except on Christmas Day (because it was so expensive) and that was chicken!

[Buenchico]

>>>When did that come out Chris

I know that I had Heinz Spaghetti on toast for lunch quite often as a child. I was born in 1953.

[Baldric]

Just how far back are you going?

"Kebab" was not even a word never mind a food.

According to Sevan Nişanyan, an etymologist of Turkish language, the word kebab is derived from the Arabic word "kabab" meaning "fry". The word was first mentioned in a Turkish script of Kyssa-i Yusuf in 1377, which is the oldest known source where kebab is mentioned as a food.
;o)

[boxtops]

You're right, chris. We used to have a roast dinner on Sundays, it rotated each week between beef, lamb, pork and a chicken. Chicken once a month was quite a treat.

[Caran]

I'm a 42er. So it would be mid to late fifties you had it then?

[Zacs-Master]

We used to live in hole in t road......

[Baldric]

The term 'Fish Fingers' is first referenced in a recipe given in a British popular magazine in 1900.

[Buenchico]

Baldric:
The statements in Caran's post need to be read with "for most people living in Britain at that time" imagined on the end of each one.