Fifties Food

[Angela Woodford]

Midget, you have been an Inspiration!

At Christmas I was presented with my late mother's Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium, published in 1952.

Here are all the recipes for the cakes she had always baked and stored in numerous tins - rock buns, jam buns, jam tarts, scones; the rice puddings and steamed puddings; the illustrations of joints of meat generously marbled with layers of fat -

Aha! Every grown-up believed that Fat Was Good For You. If I left the fat on roast beef, I was reproached. "Dripping" was carefully collected and stored in a bowl. You could spread it on white bread plus lots of salt! My mother insisted on gold top milk in her strong stewed tea. The globules of cream would rise to the surface - yuck! "It's where the Goodness is!" she would wail.

It seems extraordinary that we would then take for granted the mid-week joint (a rather dodgy expression to use today.) But the real occasional luxury was chicken with Paxo Sage and Onion Stuffing. Chicken! Delicious. It was a strength challenge to pull the wishbone! (When I did this with my own children, the wishbone had as less oomph than a Q-tip.)

Here in the Compendium is the trusty recipe for rissoles. All the left- overs from the Sunday joint were minced in a grey mincing gadget which clamped onto the side of the kitchen enamel table. And here are recipes for flour thickened "curry" containing diced apples, curry powder, sultana and dessicated coconut. Liver was ox liver, cooked for hours in a thick flour sauce.

Soup was Heinz Tomato, Chicken or Oxtail. Cream was by Nestles - in tins! But what we called "cream", to serve with tinned fruit was Carnation evaporated milk pronounced "ee-vap", which seemed a sophisticated luxury! An occasional convenience food was a Fray Bentos meat pie in a tin, and a syrup steamed pudding which boiled in a tin.

I still confess a love of tinned salmon! But there were pilchards in tomato sauce and sardines to have on toast. Spaghetti, which nobody associated with Italy at all also was served on toast - the sauce was bright orange! Then it became spaghetti hoops, and Alphabetti Spaghetti! Baked beans, of course.

We didn't have a fridge until the end of the 50's, but we did have a wonderful pantry. Milk was stored in a bucket of cold water in there, meat under a mesh dome.

Then there was salad. When I think of 50's salad, I remember a standard Webbs Wonder lettuce, Moneymaker tomatoes and cuumber cut into twee waterlily shapes, hmm, OK, but with beetroot blending with the Heinz salad cream into a strange swirly pink. This then overwhemed the slice of veal-and-ham pie for which we'd queued in Sainsbury's - Midget, we're back to the theme that you introduced in "Favourite Meal at CH"!

Around the corner though were the first Eden Vale Yoghurts, and Vesta Beef Curry and Chow Mein! Thrilling.

Love

Munch

[englishangel]

Here in the Compendium is the trusty recipe for rissoles. All the left- overs from the Sunday joint were minced in a grey mincing gadget which clamped onto the side of the kitchen enamel table. And here are recipes for flour thickened "curry" containing diced apples, curry powder, sultana and dessicated coconut. Liver was ox liver, cooked for hours in a thick flour sauce.

I have one of these, I use it for Shepherds pie with the remains of the lamb joint, cottage pie with the remains of the beef joint and make homemade burgers with proper steak. It weighs a ton and is a pig to wash.

[Euterpe13]

Here in the Compendium is the trusty recipe for rissoles. All the left- overs from the Sunday joint were minced in a grey mincing gadget which clamped onto the side of the kitchen enamel table. And here are recipes for flour thickened "curry" containing diced apples, curry powder, sultana and dessicated coconut. Liver was ox liver, cooked for hours in a thick flour sauce.

I have one of these, I use it for Shepherds pie with the remains of the lamb joint, cottage pie with the remains of the beef joint and make homemade burgers with proper steak. It weighs a ton and is a pig to wash.

I also have one, which I use to mince beef or lamb for my mother ( she has trouble chewing) - as you say, weighs a ton and can give you blisters if you have to mince enough meat .... but is the only way to produce juicy beefburgers !

[Richard Ruck]

Here in the Compendium is the trusty recipe for rissoles. All the left- overs from the Sunday joint were minced in a grey mincing gadget which clamped onto the side of the kitchen enamel table. And here are recipes for flour thickened "curry" containing diced apples, curry powder, sultana and dessicated coconut. Liver was ox liver, cooked for hours in a thick flour sauce.

I have one of these, I use it for Shepherds pie with the remains of the lamb joint, cottage pie with the remains of the beef joint and make homemade burgers with proper steak. It weighs a ton and is a pig to wash.

I also have one, which I use to mince beef or lamb for my mother ( she has trouble chewing) - as you say, weighs a ton and can give you blisters if you have to mince enough meat .... but is the only way to produce juicy beefburgers !

Likewise - a huge metal Czech device. The brand name is 'Porkert'.

I use it for terrines etc., and it's perfect for a steak tartare with it (if you like that sort of thing, which I do).

The next step will be learning to make sausages.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Midget, you have been an Inspiration!

As have you, Munch



Here in the Compendium is the trusty recipe for rissoles. All the left- overs from the Sunday joint were minced in a grey mincing gadget which clamped onto the side of the kitchen enamel table.


I remember Nan and Mum having one of these, and being allowed to turn the handle, watching the worms of meat emerging from the mincing ring.


And here are recipes for flour thickened "curry" containing diced apples, curry powder, sultana and dessicated coconut.

I think Mum may have included a can of baked beans in one of her curries. Along with the sultanas, of course .


Liver was ox liver, cooked for hours in a thick flour sauce.

OMG Even lamb's liver was disgusting to me - the texture, and the presence of large blood vessels. Aaarrrggghhhhh. I went on an exchange to France the summer after I left CH. One day, to my horror, liver was on the lunch menu. Now, being the well brought up young lady that I was, how was I to explain that there was no way I was able to eat this stuff? What if I offended Maman? What would my Maman say?????????
Well, Maman proudly announced that she had cooked my liver for longer than anyone else's, as she well knew that we philistines in England didn't like to see blood leaking from our food as we cut into it. Oh, phew, maybe I would be able to manage some of it.
But no! I cut into the piece of blackened organ to find that beneath the very thin veneer of charcoal lay a raw, bleeding mass.


Soup was Heinz Tomato,
YUM!
Chicken
Edible (just)
or Oxtail.
YUK!
Cream was by Nestles - in tins! But what we called "cream", to serve with tinned fruit was Carnation evaporated milk pronounced "ee-vap", which seemed a sophisticated luxury!

I was invited to Juliane's home once (maybe after the entrance exam), and was delighted when her (dutch) mother served us coffee with evap. Woo hoo

An occasional convenience food was a Fray Bentos meat pie in a tin, and a syrup steamed pudding which boiled in a tin.

Still available for purchase in Coles Supermarkets in South Australia. Alongside Creamed Rice, but a 99% fat free version - puke.

I still confess a love of tinned salmon!


Aaarrgghhhhhh - the bones, the bones.


But there were pilchards in tomato sauce and sardines to have on toast. Spaghetti, which nobody associated with Italy at all also was served on toast - the sauce was bright orange!


There is an amusing scene in one of the Barry McKenzie films, where Bazza comments on the novelty of his English hostess serving spaghetti that didn't come out of a tin Or maybe it's the other way round Haven't watched the film in ages.


Then it became spaghetti hoops, and Alphabetti Spaghetti! Baked beans, of course.


Then there was salad. When I think of 50's salad, I remember a standard Webbs Wonder lettuce, Moneymaker tomatoes and cuumber cut into twee waterlily shapes, hmm, OK, but with beetroot blending with the Heinz salad cream into a strange swirly pink.

Grandad grew tomatoes and cucumbers in his little greenhouse. Nan would buy raw beetroot at the market and boil them in an aluminium saucepan. Love the taste of beetroot, but, oh the nauseating smell of it cooking

Munch! When are you going to write a book???????????????????????????

Love

Caroline

[englishangel]

I have one of these, I use it for Shepherds pie with the remains of the lamb joint, cottage pie with the remains of the beef joint and make homemade burgers with proper steak. It weighs a ton and is a pig to wash.

I also have one, which I use to mince beef or lamb for my mother ( she has trouble chewing) - as you say, weighs a ton and can give you blisters if you have to mince enough meat .... but is the only way to produce juicy beefburgers !

Likewise - a huge metal Czech device. The brand name is 'Porkert'.

I use it for terrines etc., and it's perfect for a steak tartare with it (if you like that sort of thing, which I do).

The next step will be learning to make sausages.

So is mine, just couldn't remember the name.

[Angela Woodford]

This is interesting!

Everybody remembers that mincer! Indeed, it's still in use in your kitchens. If I ever see one, I shall get it, taking on board that you say it makes wonderful ******* and steak tartare. So thank you girls!

I'm also remembering that it was the done thing to crook a little finger when sipping from a teacup, whilst holding the saucer beneath. Little cakes and Victoria Sandwiches were preferably presented on cake stands, which seem to be back in fashion! Beneath these cakes were those lacy paper mats called doylies. I wonder where that name comes from?

Caroline - I once worked with a dietician who emphasised the high calcium content of the bones in tinned fish! 50's children who crunched up the bones must be strong and upright...

I feel for you and your French liver ordeal. Oh dear!

Sweets! There was Cadbury's Chocolate Cream bar, Dairy Milk of course, Mars, Crunchie and Bourneville. A Fry's Five Boys Bar had a child on each square going from desolate to sublimely happy. I think I recall Picnic bars as well.

Napkins were serviettes, the salt and pepper came as a little novelty set called the cruet.

The rule of the day was that you shouldn't eat between meals for fear of "ruining your appetite". I think this was no bad thing, as the ever-enlarging British population now grazes non-stop all day long. I don't remember many very overweight people in those days.

It was Maltesers who countered this rule with "the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite", closely followed by Milky Way with it's totally non-filling whipped filling. My parents were not convinced.

Love

Munch

[midget]

Yum Yum! I still have a fondness for evap., but I never could stand tinned cream- it had a horrid metallic taste. Of course curry had chopped apple and sultanas in-"every one knew that!".
For a normal working class woman, my mother was quite adventurous about food, and during the immediate post-war austerity period, we frequently enjoyed whale or reindeer meat, each cooked for ever in a casserole.

[jhopgood]

we frequently enjoyed whale or reindeer meat, each cooked for ever in a casserole.

Nothing wrong with reindeer meat, which I had at my sons wedding in Tarendo, Sweden. Dried reindeer meat is very like biltong.

[Angela Woodford]

For a normal working class woman, my mother was quite adventurous about food, and during the immediate post-war austerity period, we frequently enjoyed whale or reindeer meat, each cooked for ever in a casserole.

That really is adventurous! Wow! Never mentioned in the Good Housekeeping Compendium!

There was another excitement, probably about 1958.

A Pakistani family moved in next door. I was fascinated. I had never seen such gorgeous clothes. The ladies wore vivid silky saris, their wrists were laden with glittering bangles, and in the chill of the British spring, their shoes were little jewelled sandals.

But every evening the most appetising cooking aromas would drift over the garden fence. Heavenly spicy food... how I longed to taste something like that when we were eating rissoles again.

(Expecting my third baby, I was sick all day long. The food that would stay down , however, was Indian lime pickle, eaten straight from the jar with a spoon.)

Nowadays, I believe Chicken Tikka Masala - a British invention - is the nation's favourite food. But back in the late 50's, Indian cooking seemed wonderfully exotic.

Munch

[sejintenej]

Yum Yum! I still have a fondness for evap., but I never could stand tinned cream- it had a horrid metallic taste. Of course curry had chopped apple and sultanas in-"every one knew that!".

Punch a hole in the top of a tin of evap, put in a bain marie for an hour or 90 minutes and you get that famous Argentinian dish called in Brazil "Suco da Leite" or milk juice. So sweet you need to eat it with hard cheese.
Yum!

[midget]

Yum Yum! I still have a fondness for evap., but I never could stand tinned cream- it had a horrid metallic taste. Of course curry had chopped apple and sultanas in-"every one knew that!".

Punch a hole in the top of a tin of evap, put in a bain marie for an hour or 90 minutes and you get that famous Argentinian dish called in Brazil "Suco da Leite" or milk juice. So sweet you need to eat it with hard cheese.
Yum!

Most unkind of you- I've been trying to control my sweet tooth for years and there you go with a recipe like that!

[Angela Woodford]

Punch a hole in the top of a tin of evap, put in a bain marie for an hour or 90 minutes and you get that famous Argentinian dish called in Brazil "Suco da Leite" or milk juice. So sweet you need to eat it with hard cheese.
Yum!

With cheese! OK, I'm out to the corner shop now where I know they have ee-vap. I'm going to try this. It sounds irresistible. Sod healthy eating for the rest of the day then...

Munch

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Punch a hole in the top of a tin of evap, put in a bain marie for an hour or 90 minutes and you get that famous Argentinian dish called in Brazil "Suco da Leite" or milk juice. So sweet you need to eat it with hard cheese.
Yum!

With cheese! OK, I'm out to the corner shop now where I know they have ee-vap. I'm going to try this. It sounds irresistible. Sod healthy eating for the rest of the day then...

Munch

Oh dear. I can sense a migraine resulting from this little indulgence.

Keep me posted?

Love

Caroline

[Angela Woodford]

Ooh, it was wonderful. Sticky, sweet, caramelised ee-vap, I tried it on a digestive biscuit, having also run to the local deli for a small piece of really good cheddar.

I was reminded of a Norwegian variety I tried years ago while sharing a house with a girl who knew all about cheese. It was called gjetost - I've probably spelled that incorrectly!

Caroline, I love to think of your grandmother boiling beetroot in an aluminium saucepan! A very 50's memory. And your grandfather growing vegetables in a greenhouse. It reminds me of the gardening personality of the time, Percy Thrower, who would mow lawns in a shirt and tie, whilst smoking a pipe.

It's not food, but I used to adore having new shoes at the Clarks shoe shop, Streatham Hill, because they had an X-ray machine. You put your feet in the aperture at the bottom to see if the new shoes were constricting your toes. My feet must be hopelessly irradiated, but it was so exciting to see the bones of your feet glowing in spooky green!

Love

Munch