Tea with your grandparents

My grandmother grew up in the days of formal visits and afternoon tea and held those views until the end of her life.

We always dressed in our best to visit grandma (whom we called nana). There were strict rules. You were not allowed cakes until you had eaten your sandwiches. You sat up straight in your chair, chewed your food properly and did not speak with your mouth full. Children were "seen and not heard" in the presence of adults and did not speak unless addressed.

I can remember my grandmother gave me a box of jewellery or a tin of buttons to play with and I would quietly amuse myself while the adults talked. This probably explains why I grew to love antiques.

When I grew older she taught me to play whist and cannasta. She was not a huggy huggy kissy kissy type of person. You gave her a peck on the cheek and that was it. However she always listened when I had a problem and never failed to ask how I had done in school. She would offer her advice although it was not always what I wanted to hear at the time.

Later I realised she was a very wise woman who knew how to keep her distance from the family squabbles.

Maternal g/mother… tinned pink salmon with vinegar. Slabs of cake, usually fruit or Maderia.

Paternal g/mother… very thin slices of bread and butter which she sliced holding the loaf under her arm with jam. She didn’t make blancmange. but made a set dessert using cornflour .

My Grandparents lived abroad and some had passed away before I was born. My MiL used to always do Sunday tea. Sandwiches, usually cheese & tomato or egg sometimes Peck chopped ham and homemade cakes, at least 3 sweet things, teisen lap, ( fruit cake) Manchester tart, and a crumble all my favourites now. It was never anything fancy but my daughter still remembers the lovely teas she used to do. During November she would make her Christmas puddings and we all stirred and made a wish.

I remember my Nanna used to make oat cakes (she lived in the Peak District) - those, served with syrup. were divine.

She also used to give me and my sister portions of butter mixed with sugar and said it was good for coughs and colds!!

JackyB, I made Barm Brack* for the first time early on during the first lockdown when eggs and flour were scarce - used up some out of date GF flour and leftover Christmas dried fruit - it only needs one egg.
It turned out amazingly well!
*Recipe was in a 1970 recipe book with a pic of a very young Mary Berry at the front.

Oh, cherry pie. My great-auntie was, IMO, the world's best pastry maker and her cherry pie, or blackberry pie, or whatever pies, were just the best.

We used to go to my Grandmas for tea on a Sunday. She used to make Pilchard fishcakes with bread and butter for about 15 of is. They were delicious. It was often followed by jelly and carnation milk. Or as she had lots of gooseberry bushes in her garden occasionally gooseberry crumble.

My grandmother's were both quite old, and my parents were quite old when they had us. We never had tea with them.

I do remember my paternal grandmother fishing dumplings out of the stew and giving them to us with butter and sugar, and in the summer, rolling up lettuce leaves sprinkled with sugar for us to snack on while lunch was cooking.

I have an old copy of "Family Circle" from the eighties with all sorts of recipes for an English tea, including cucumber sandwiches, barm Brack and other cakes, bread, scones etc. I love reading those recipes and sometimes I make the cakes.

Yes - not a regular thing since she didn’t live close by. Always several things my mother never bought, or we only had for e.g. birthdays. Dairylea Triangles*, Penguin biscuits or Wagon Wheels, and always orange jelly with mandarin oranges in.

After she died I took the glass orange-jelly dish, it wasn’t very beautiful but such sentimental associations. I was very upset when dh broke it.
I often wish I’d ever told her how much I loved those teas, but never did - she died in her late 80s just 6 months after dh I got hitched - I was 25.

*We never had those! As a result I still have the occasional urge for them - now and then buy a pack and scoff the lot within 24 hours,

I only remember one Nan. Lemon curd sandwiches and fish paste sandwiches on Mother's Pride were always produced. Fondant fancies were a tea time treat too.

We visited my paternal Grandma nearly every Sunday. She was a widow and my favourite granny. We always had a boiled egg plus soldiers. Tinned peaches and evaporated milk with bread and butter and ‘sawdust cake’. I think it was Madeira.

I remember having the sliced cucumber in vinegar Grandmadinosaur
We usually had ham sandwiches made with white bread & Lurpak butter and ‘best’ ham from the butchers. My grandma was a great baker and made delicious maids of honours, egg custards and jam & lemon curd tarts but she would often treat us to a fresh cream sponge cake purchased from the local Birds bakery, it had chocolate and pistachios on the top and was full of light whipped cream, we used to absolutely love a slice of that. They still make them & I can’t resist buying one occasionally for old times sake.
We never had crisps at Grandmas, I don’t think she ever brought or ate them.

Only remember my maternal grandma - we used to call her “blind Nana” - for obvious reasons she never cooked for us but we shared dinner that my mum or my aunt had cooked for her

My gran, who was minute - about 6 stone - used to eat for England. What I remember most were her roast dinners - heaped plates with delicious roast potatoes and all the trimmings!

My granny had high tea, complete with the tiered cake stand, with a variety of cakes and maybe scones, long before they became retro trendy. Hard boiled eggs. A salad (lettuce leaves, sliced tomatoes), triangle sandwiches and a pot of tea.

Never knew any of my GP’s, so never had tea with them.

Last remaining one died when I was 3, no memories at all .

I had similar to you Blossoming but grandma also served cucumber and sliced onion in vinegar. Had Jelly too with the tinned fruit and Carnation milk.

Tinned salmon, Hovis and Lurpak followed by mandarin orange segments with Carnation milk.

How lovely that you remember your Grandmothers with such affection.
My maternal grandmother died when I was five, 90 years ago now and paternal lived her younger D who had 2 children one 2 months younger than me and one a couple of years younger.
They were the only GC she seemed to care about as she practically brought them up.
I think my aunt was pretty feckless although I did become quite close to her in her later years.
I don’t think I ever had tea with either.

My nana made what was called a miner's breakfast ie beef stew with butter beans. My papa was a miner and regardless of the time of day, this is what he ate after a shift.

Kippers!
My DGM’s husband was a miner and worked shifts, so every third week, I’d go to her after school for tea and we’d have kippers with brown bread and butter for one tea - always served on a cloth covered card table, in front of a (free) coal fire in Winter. The fishmonger was in the middle of Durham, so I had to take a letter into school to ask for shopping permission to go in to buy a pair of Kippers on my way home.