What’s this book? (Food & History)

I'm sure that the tastiness of your diet depended a lot on where you lived.
Even in the 60s, when I went to London, I was aware of how miserable a lot of the 'fresh' food seemed. People seemed to have mostly tinned fruit & veg - and I was astonished at how many made their tea with condensed milk!
Strangely, by the 70s, as supermarkets became established, it then felt as if the countryside was lagging behind.
Now, it feel more even.

It certainly did used to depend on where you lived. One of my favourite books is "A star called Henry" by Roddy Doyle. It's about a young boy who gets involved in the Easter Risings of 1916 and runs away to the country. He had never been out of Dublin before and found a bolthole in a farmhouse where the people were friendly to the cause. He was given a simple meal of cabbage and bacon or similar and was amazed at how tasty it was.

I would have recommended the Dorothy Hartley, but everyone got in before me!

Loads of copies of ‘Swindled’, both new and used, for sale on Abe Books.

I seem to remember Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall doing something like this a few years ago.

Vegetables boiled to extinction, anybody?
With a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to keep cabbage or sprouts green.

I'm sure I read years ago that we can absorb more Vit A from carrots if they're well cooked.
But don't quote me.

I remember James Herriott wrote in one of his books that a grateful farmer's wife offered him a good meal of bacon after he'd been to treat their animals.
She put a plate of thick white fat in front of him.
(It turned my stomach to type that!)

MaizieD

^not sure how to do links)^

Copy the page's address from the address bar and post it into your message. Gnet automatically publishes it as a clickable link . It's easy.

Thanks - I’ll give that a go next time

Lizzie I’m in the same boat as you. And I’m still not sure how to do it.
I’ve only just learnt how to post images from the net.
I had to have a tutorial on here (thanks Lucca and Callistemon)
The other day my phone (brand new, all singing etc) wouldn’t send texts.
The advice was to turn it off and on again; but I didn’t know how to turn the blessed thing off

That swindled book is from eBay uk but available on eBay au for $12.41, we have to pay postage of $19 here but should be cheaper internally for you.

I have a second edition of this book! No one else I know has ever heard of it ?

Two of my favourite books are Roundabout a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves which documents the results of a study on working class lives done by the Fabian Women's Group in 1913, and Tuppenny Rice and Treacle by Doris E Coates which discusses cottage housekeeping between 1900 and 1920

Ooh that second one sounds lovely Amberone ♥️
I’m quite into the new cottagecore thing.
(It suits my ‘lifestyle’ - scruffy, tiny house; field and cows at the bottom of the garden)

www.amazon.co.uk/Scoff-History-Food-Class-Britain/dp/178649647X?tag=gransnetforum-21

Ooh, learned something new today! Thanks, MaizieD

FannyCornforth

Ooh that second one sounds lovely Amberone ♥️
I’m quite into the new cottagecore thing.
(It suits my ‘lifestyle’ - scruffy, tiny house; field and cows at the bottom of the garden)

It's a lovely little book FC based on historical papers from the author's family.

It will teach you not only how to remove stains from your silks and kid gloves but how to make Derbyshire Sheep's Head Pie, bottle your fruit, make your own medicines from the garden and how to kill cockroaches ???

It does have some lovely recipes from Cumberland and Derbyshire though.

I live in Derbyshire Amber!
But I’m vegetarian (well, pescatarian really ) so I will have to improvise around the Sheep’s head ?

Hi Fanny
I was quite late back from London and went back to bed this morning for an hour! My partial replacement knee was playing up so I couldn’t sleep. Anyway, someone mentioned Dorothy Hartley’s ‘Food in England’, which I bought second hand off Amazon. ‘How to be a Victorian’ by Ruth Goodman is worth a read as is ‘Georgian London’ by Lucy Inglis. I think someone mentioned ‘Scoff - A History of Food and Class in Britain’ by Pen Vogler. There are some interesting chapters on food in Simon Schama’s ‘Wordy’. I have a copy of the ‘Constance Spry Cookery Book’ by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume. That had some excellent essays on things ranging from Train Food to Cocktail Parties.

Daft question....... would the Dorothy Hartley book be of any interest to a vegetarian, please?

Yes, I think it would, but although it contains quite a lot of recipes, it is much more about the kind of food being eaten in England.
There are a lot of traditional English dishes that don't contain meat. There are a lot of recipes for preserving, which some of us remember as being so important.
I wouldn't however, buy it for recipes, but for interest. She describes the making of almond milk and nut butter.

Yes, because it is the history of how diet has evolved in the UK over centuries, and , although it does have recipes in it, it is not really meant to be a recipe book, so if, as a vegetarian, you are looking for recipes, do not waste your time. If you are intersted in the history of agriculture and how our diet evolved, then it is of interest to everybody.

Another interesting book, I am hoping, should be ^The Domestic Revolution - How the introduction of coal into our homes changed everything by Ruth Goodman. I have it on order from Postscript www.psbooks.co.uk/Domestic-Revolution

Two of my favourite books are Roundabout a Pound a Week by Maud Pember Reeves which documents the results of a study on working class lives done by the Fabian Women's Group in 1913,

Round About a Pound a Week is an absolute eye opener. Not particularly food related, but a graphic account of how the 'respectable working classes' managed on very poor wages. That would be many of our great grandparents (or even grandparents), I think.

Very good if you're interested in social history as well as food.

That was my maternal grandparents, in particular, living in Bermondsey on a dockers wages, although my grandfather later became a private decective, not sure the money was much better, but the status was!

Would have been very close M0nica, the study was on working class people in Lambeth. Not the very poor, but people bringing home a regular wage and bringing up a family.

Reay Tannahill wrote a History of Food which I enjoyed reading .... in the late 1970s I think. I see it is still available.

Thank you Ladyleftfieldlover
I’ve just finished watching Ruth Goodman’s TV series The Victorian Farm and I’ve been listening to the audio book of How to be a Victorian
Ruth comes across as such a lovely person - I can understand why her ancestors got their surname. She seems so genuine, unlike some (cough - ^Lucy Wordsley^)

Monica I’ve been looking at The Domestic Revolution this morning. I’m looking forward to it too.

Thank you to everyone for all of your interesting suggestions

Monica that’s fascinating about your grandfather!
Do you remember what he wore?

Apologies if that’s a ridiculous question!

Maggie Black has written many books on food history , still in print, recipies included.