Back in Time for Dinner

I did wear a long hair piece like the ones in the programme, in the mid to late 60's, for going out.There were wig boutiques!

We only had Vesta curries, chow mien etc about 1970 to 73.

We had corned beef hash, and we loved it!If anyone knows the best way to make it, post it on the food thread?
greyduster ........ I have been trying to think of that tinned cream you mentioned, we loved that too, was it Nestles?We also loved instant whip but only the butterscotch flavour. never had dream topping or angel delight though.We didn't have a fridge in our parents home either, just a larder with stone shelves.
true that the 60's were a very exciting time to be young, I loved it.

Vesta curries - I used to pick out the raisins. Angel Delight came in loads of flavours mint choc, banana, butterscotch- it separated if left too long, ended up with a watery layer at the bottom.
Bernie Inns with liqueur coffees, scampi or chicken-in-a-basket was thought the height of sophistication
Always turkey at Christmas, lamb at Easter, fish on Fridays, no pudding unless you cleared your plate.
Mum was a good cook, dad wouldn't countenance 'mucked up' food so never had curries or spaghetti let alone a takeaway other than occasional fish and chips.
Every Saturday was a trip to nearest big town shopping followed by fish, chips, peas and bread and butter with a cup of tea -5 of us ate for £3.2s.6d!

My Scottish friend said that it was always steak pie on New Year's Eve (presumably to soak up all the alcohol!)

We had a capon at Christmas as far as I can recall.

There was sherry and brandy in the cupboard but I remember saying that we ought to have wine on Christmas Day so I treated the family to a bottle of Barsac (must have been about 1963) to go with Christmas dinner.
I remember that it was very sweet.
I don't know that DF was very impressed!

In my first job, if I had friends in for a meal in my bedsit, I seem to remember 'cooking' a Vesta curry with some extra curry powder (oh dear!). I suppose those were a kind of precursor of Pot Noodles! Chicken was indeed a treat for special occasions. I can't remember when turkey became available for Christmas. My mum baked a steak pie at Christmas and/or New Year.

Really interesting posts! Glad it's not just me being picky! Totally agree that the mother in the programme is at a distinct disadvantage in that she doesn't normally cook for her family anyway so has little or no knowledge of basic cooking to help her improvise with the ingredients she was given. Even my sons would have done a better job of it than she did!! Found it hard to feel sorry for her I'm afraid. Agree also that the programme makers should really have interviewed a few of us older ladies who actually ate the food our mothers prepared in the 50's and 60's. My memories are of good home cooking - stews, roasts, steak and kidney pudding, shepherd's pie and always apple pie and custard on Sunday, an all time favourite of my father. Ooh treacle sponge pudding, spotted dick, jam roly poly, tinned peaches - all with loads of custard. Feeling hungry now.....
My mother also worked throughout those years - part time, various jobs that fitted in with 4 children and a working husband. She would have gone stir crazy otherwise........

gristly?

Deedaa I remember being table head at junior school and everyone leaving the fat and gristle (and the meat was very fatty and gristyly!)
The headmistress stalked round, inspected the leftovers I had scraped onto one plate and told me that if I allowed anyone to leave any food at all, she would make me eat all the leftovers in future. That would have been mid-1950s.

My DM rarely went in to school but I remember that time she did, and I was not made to eat everyone's leftovers!

I typed a post then it disappeared and appeared as a 'search'

Is it me or my pc?

I think I said: yes, DM made lovely beef stews with dumplings. How did I stay so skinny - and there were lots of lovely puddings as well.

Quick, post before it turns into a search for dumplings .......

No Motorways in my childhood, in fact I didn't even know anyone with a car. I don't like corned beef as we seemed to have it nearly every day at school during the war years. At home lots of lovely stews, not a lot of meat but loads of vegs, lentils and pearl barley and of course dumplings.

I think one problem with the programme is that the wife apparently doesn't do much cooking anyway, so coping with different foods is even more difficult for her.

We seemed to have a lot of roast dinners on Sundays in the 50's. I remember my mother getting very cross because I wouldn't eat any of the fat or gristle, which she assured me were very good for me! The meat would be served cold on Monday with mashed potato and pickles, and turned into shepherd's pie or rissoles on Tuesday. Does any body still make rissoles?

Life was much more exciting in the 60's! I loved Vesta's spaghetti Bolognese and Beef Curry and the crispy noodles with the Chow Mein were really thrilling Libby used to sell tins of what they called Spanish Rice, it was cooked in a tomato sauce with red and green peppers. I loved it and used to put a fried egg on top of it - I think there is a Mexican dish which is rather similar (no chilli in the Libby's rice of course) It must have been about this time that Green Giant sweetcorn appeared in the shops. My father knew about sweetcorn, having spent part of the war in the USA. He also knew about hot dogs so we used to have frankfurters in rolls as a weekend treat - sometimes with a glass of Coca Cola!

I used to make Angel Delight for the DGC. It was a way of getting milk into them (but I wouldn't serve it now).

Greyduster I remember the synthetic 'cream' (goodness knows what it was made of) which the bakery used in the 'cream' cakes. DM used to send me over there with a large glass jam jar which they would fill with this white stuff and that would go on top of the trifle for special occasions!

I liked Instant Whip - the forerunner of Angel Delight. I loved the butterscotch flavour - and for a sophisticated treat we stirred in some desiccated coconut. Mmmmm....

We did a 70s themed party for DDs 40th birthday. Mostly BBQ but a cold buffet table as well. Angel Delight was the biggest hit of the day, things on sticks not so much. Health and safety issues amongst those attending with younger children.
At the end of the programme there was a brief mention about the advent of the supermarkets and the subsequent demise of corner shops. How their arrival had made shopping easier and more adventurous for the housewives of the day, which of course it did in many cases.
They forgot to say that the corner shops kept the working poor fed back then. When the money ran out on a Tuesday or Wednesday the corner shop became their pantry, everything on 'tick' until the following Friday. Sometimes even 1/- for the gas. It wasn't ideal but at least children were rarely hungry.
The Food Banks of their day? Maybe.

I recall that Once made, Angel Delight had to be eaten with two hours or it disintegrated.

I can't imagine what ingredient caused that! I should think it would taste over sweet now.
x

Nostalgia drove me to try Angel Delight last year. It was revolting! I wouldn't risk Dream Topping!

I remember, because we had no fridge I the fifties, my mother used to buy "fresh" cream in a tin to put on tinned fruit for Sunday tea. It was very thick and tasted faintly metallic, but we loved it. I gave my kids both Dream Topping and Angel Delight in the seventies and early eighties and they ate bucketloads of it, but when I thought recently that GS might like to try it, I changed my mind rapidly after reading the ingredients! Makes you wonder how our own children grew up to be such healthy adults!

In the 50s, I remember winning an ice cream cake/extravaganza at the cinema (Saturday morning pictures) and having it delivered. It was packed in dry ice. My mum unpacked it, put it in the fridge (I can't remember the make, but it was cream with a red top) and then put the dry ice in the sink and ran water over it to wash it away. I have no recollection of how the cake tasted, but I do remember the clouds of fog rolling out of the kitchen and through our flat. As for the 60's, who remembers Dream Topping and Angel Delight. I enjoyed it until I read the list of ingredients and that made me ditch packet food and go back to cooking from basic ingredients as I had been taught at school.

A bit like being expected to react with joy at the prospect of sitting on the back door step chewing a pig's trotter.

We knew how to live in those days

Eejit

I remember corned beef hash, we still have it now, with pickled beetroot. Gorgeous.

Every week Dad used to make a broth from a ham hock and veg. It was nice the first time we had it, but not the 99th weekend on the run.

Maywalk that bone broth is becoming fashionable again now - the paleo diet!

I wonder how many would have coped with the rationing that we had to make do with went in the 40s. I can remember my mother buying twopennorth of bones to make bone broth.
We had to make do with meagre meals but we got through AND there were NOT so many obese folk about then.
This is a page from my WW2 website showing what we had each week.
www.memorylanehf.oddquine.co.uk/food.htm

I got married in 1949 and we were still on rations then.