# Eating in the UK in the Fifties



## Andy HB (Mar 4, 2016)

* 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!*


----------



## Lynn Davies (Mar 4, 2016)

so true


----------



## SB2015 (Mar 4, 2016)

Memories.  Thanks Andy.

And the salt for the crisps came in a little twist of blue paper.


----------



## Robin (Mar 4, 2016)

SB2015 said:


> Memories.  Thanks Andy.
> 
> And the salt for the crisps came in a little twist of blue paper.


Ooh, I remember the blue twists, wouldn't be allowed now, choking hazard!


----------



## Sally71 (Mar 4, 2016)

LOL - I wasn't around in the 50s or 60s but can remember quite a lot of that!

I remember when bottled water first started appearing in the shops and thought it very odd, why would you want to PAY for water when it just came out of the tap?!
(And most people weren't on water meters in those days either, you just paid water rates, a fixed amount)


----------



## Northerner (Mar 5, 2016)

Robin said:


> Ooh, I remember the blue twists, wouldn't be allowed now, choking hazard!


Don't they still do 'salt 'n' shake' crisps, with the little blue packet? Not a twist, but sealed.  Or am I *that* old?


----------



## Andy HB (Mar 5, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Don't they still do 'salt 'n' shake' crisps, with the little blue packet? Not a twist, but sealed.  Or am I *that* old?



Just checked, I was surprised, but they still do sell them in Tesco (Walkers Salt and Shake crisps, 6x24g at £1.50). Waaaaaay to expensive!!

Also, a little niggle about the list. I think seaweed has been eaten in this country for centuries (granted that it was probably a niche local 'delicacy').


----------



## pottersusan (Mar 5, 2016)

Ah, those were the days.


----------



## Redkite (Mar 5, 2016)

And....not that I date from that era personally....there were no ready meals, so people prepared their meals from fresh ingredients every time.  Lots of fresh veggies grown in gardens/allotments following on from the "dig for victory" message in the war.  And no out-of-season fruit and veg imported into the country at huge cost to the environment.


----------



## Northerner (Mar 5, 2016)

I think that the earliest 'ready meals' I remember (not that they were that 'ready', as you needed to mess about rehydrating etc.) were the Vesta curries and Chow Mein   No fridges in my childhood, just one neighbour a few streets away


----------



## Robin (Mar 5, 2016)

Northerner said:


> I think that the earliest 'ready meals' I remember (not that they were that 'ready', as you needed to mess about rehydrating etc.) were the Vesta curries and Chow Mein   No fridges in my childhood, just one neighbour a few streets away


All sorts of things came in packets, though we never had them. Surprise peas, for example. ( the subject of many a rude joke from the boys in my class) with the slogan 'take the taste of fresh peas from your larder'
We had real fresh peas from the garden. Sometimes every day for what seemed like months if there was a glut, getting more and more bullet like as the season progressed. Thank heavens for the invention of freezers.


----------



## pottersusan (Mar 5, 2016)

Northerner said:


> I think that the earliest 'ready meals' I remember (not that they were that 'ready', as you needed to mess about rehydrating etc.) were the Vesta curries and Chow Mein   No fridges in my childhood, just one neighbour a few streets away


I used to love Vesta curries - sooo exotic!
My dad bought my mum a gas fridge (he was a gasman) when I was born in the 50s. I still don't understand how gas can cool despite my dad's best efforts!


----------



## Austin Mini (Mar 5, 2016)

Bread and dripping, Pigeon pie, fresh water river fish, mushrooms from the cow field, Ice cream was cold custard, licking the bowl out, salt on everything, sandwiches before bed time, Grannys home made chocolate cake, fried breakfast every day, full fat milk, eating marzipan just for the hell of it. Yes those were the days alright!


----------



## Northerner (Mar 5, 2016)

pottersusan said:


> I used to love Vesta curries - sooo exotic!
> My dad bought my mum a gas fridge (he was a gasman) when I was born in the 50s. I still don't understand how gas can cool despite my dad's best efforts!


We had a gas fridge as well! Got it in the early '70s  My Mum worked for the Gas Board  Had a little exhaust pipe sticking out of the top.


----------



## zuludog (Mar 5, 2016)

Definition of middle class - Plants in the house, furniture in the garden

that would presumably include eating in the garden


----------



## pottersusan (Mar 5, 2016)

Northerner said:


> We had a gas fridge as well! Got it in the early '70s  My Mum worked for the Gas Board  Had a little exhaust pipe sticking out of the top.


So did my dad. We kept on getting a new cooker every few months on 'home test'. My poor mum never quite knew what was going to come out of the oven. Of course this was in the days of coal gas - long before natural gas - when you could actually gas yourself!


----------



## SB2015 (Mar 5, 2016)

We had a larder with marble shelves, and mesh in the window to keep everything cool.

There was also the 'jolly pot' into which appropriate leftovers went and were boiled up each day.  It was the 'soup' available when we got home from school, or a bowl of cereal with full fat milk (we had 12 pints a day for 7 of us!)


----------



## Northerner (Mar 5, 2016)

pottersusan said:


> So did my dad. We kept on getting a new cooker every few months on 'home test'. My poor mum never quite knew what was going to come out of the oven. Of course this was in the days of coal gas - long before natural gas - when you could actually gas yourself!


Yes, I remember they had to give natural gas a special smell when they changed to it so you'd know if there was a leak!


----------



## Carolg (Mar 6, 2016)

Those were the days-i'm starbing got you a jam piece, .you wandered for miles and appeared home when you were hungry. Not sure if frsy bentos steak and kidney pies wrre a delicacy in the 5o's or not till 60's
Home made soup was the norm n heinz tomato was a treat in winter


----------



## AlisonM (Mar 6, 2016)

SB2015 said:


> We had a larder with marble shelves, and mesh in the window to keep everything cool.
> 
> There was also the 'jolly pot' into which appropriate leftovers went and were boiled up each day.  It was the 'soup' available when we got home from school, or a bowl of cereal with full fat milk (we had 12 pints a day for 7 of us!)


Oh yes, same here. Roast on Sunday, cold cuts Monday, Soup and sarnies Weds (Brownies followed by choir practice), mince and tatties Thursday, fish on Friday (leftover mince for me being allergic to fish) and bangers & mash on Saturday. All with whatever veg was ready in the garden. Bread making on Monday and Friday, laundry on Saturday and Wednesday. 

We had a Frigidaire that dad bought and had shipped just before we left the US in 1963, all the new neighbours came to look at it. It had an icebox and the rents had a drinks party because everyone wanted to try ice cubes in their gin. We got our first washing machine around then too, it had an open top and a detachable mangle on the side. You had to tip it over to get the last of the water out and it lived in the old outhouse. We didn't get a TV till 1967 because dad was convinced it would ruin our brains (he may have been right given the standard of most programmes these days).

I must have had an unusual childhood with dad in the RAF, I met pineapples in Cyprus when I was a toddler, our landlord grew them. I met curry in India when we lived there, and yoghurt too, and oranges and bananas. Vesta curry came as a really horrible surprise when they showed up in the 70s, we tried them once and went back to our own.


----------



## Carolg (Mar 6, 2016)

A lot of that sounds about right. We had a single tub washing machine, a boiiler and a wringer. We had a b/w tv in the late 50's i think cause i remember watchng andy pandy when i wad really wee.


----------



## Carolg (Mar 6, 2016)

zuludog said:


> Definition of middle class - Plants in the house, furniture in the garden
> 
> that would presumably include eating in the garden


Working class was the jam piece and the poke of sugar to dip the raw rhubarb in-or would that and the cold step to sit on be classed as outdoor dining ??? Lol


----------



## SB2015 (Mar 6, 2016)

We had a washing 'machine' which was a big tub with a wurly thing in the middle that made a lot of noise.
Everything, including my white school shirt (no blouses as these were handed down from three older brothers), cam out a shade of grey.  I was very excited when I went to secondary school and had a blue blouse. Min even hand washed my own to make sure that they did not change colour.


----------



## trophywench (Mar 7, 2016)

Mom & Dad had a telly in 1953, they treated themselves to watch the Coronation, however no fridge till 1967 ! - when we also got a bathroom and therefore also an inside loo.

Surprise peas were actually very nice - not petit pois - these were teeny weeny pois!  LOL  And of course, you could have them in midwinter with your fish.  Brown bread was actually a once a week TREAT - a Hovis.  Small one of course.  I haven't even seen a cottage loaf for years and years - used to love them cos we were given slices of the top, the smaller slices - and it was lovely cos it was crustier than the bottom!

And my mom said that POOR people - with no palate for the finer things in life - had 'Camp' coffee - we had Nescafe in tins, which she considered far superior.  POOR people according to my mama included everyone who lived in either a Council house or a back to back 'slum' without even a yard of their own, let alone a garden.

Same as only 'common' children were able to have hula hoops ......

Posh?  Us? in a rented Victorian terraced house with an outside loo?

I had a LOT still to learn as I grew up !


----------



## trophywench (Mar 7, 2016)

Oh and I forgot!

Pasta of course grew on trees - David Dimbleby did a News film one day where they showed it growing in orchards on the foothills of the Alps in Italy when I was about 8???  Aired one day in Spring, ISTR !


----------



## Northerner (Mar 7, 2016)

We had an outside loo - brrrr!!!  And squares of newspaper... We actually moved inrto a council house when I was 6 because the house had a bathroom. Mum and Dad sold our house - an 1850 2-bedroomed end terrace - for £900  Last offered for sale in 2013 at £135,000!


----------



## pottersusan (Mar 7, 2016)

The days before central heating, frost on the inside of the windows, no fitted carpet, playing outside for hours with not an adult in sight...


----------



## Northerner (Mar 7, 2016)

pottersusan said:


> The days before central heating, frost on the inside of the windows, no fitted carpet, playing outside for hours with not an adult in sight...


Ah yes!  I remember a man coming round to demonstrate a vacuum cleaner when I was about 7 - he tipped a load of dust and much on the (non-fitted) carpet - much to Mum's consternation! - then proceeded to clean it up! We were amazed!  Before that it was a long-handled brush  I didn't live anywhere with central heating until 1989!


----------



## pottersusan (Mar 7, 2016)

Northerner said:


> Ah yes!  I remember a man coming round to demonstrate a vacuum cleaner when I was about 7 - he tipped a load of dust and much on the (non-fitted) carpet - much to Mum's consternation! - then proceeded to clean it up! We were amazed!  Before that it was a long-handled brush  I didn't live anywhere with central heating until 1989!


I feel privileged! We moved to a house with central heating about 1970, but went backwards to ice on the windows when I got my own flat
I remember having a 'toy' Hoover just like my my mum's... it was actually a mini carpet sweeper - I think my mum have had a good laugh at my expense


----------



## robert@fm (Mar 9, 2016)

Unfortunately this list contains at least two common errors:

1) It repeats the very common error of confusing sashimi (raw fish) with sushi (vinegared rice). Sushi need not contain any type of fish; a very popular type is _kappamaki_ (cucumber roll).

2) Of course there were Indian restaurants in Britain in the fifties -- the 1850s, the days of the British Raj.  British Chinese restaurants are probably just as long established.


----------



## AlisonM (Mar 9, 2016)

trophywench said:


> Oh and I forgot!
> 
> Pasta of course grew on trees - David Dimbleby did a News film one day where they showed it growing in orchards on the foothills of the Alps in Italy when I was about 8???  Aired one day in Spring, ISTR !


I remember reading about that one a few years ago. LOL

@robert@fm, we had our first Chinese restaurant open here in the early 70s, 73 I think. The first Indian restaurant opened in 1976. But you're right, both kinds were in London and other port cities from the early days of the East India Company.


----------



## SB2015 (Mar 10, 2016)

We had a gas fire with white bars that heated up to red and hot.  I used to sneak a bit of bread and do toast in front of it.  Once you had got warm in front of the fire there was no way you wanted to move to anywhere else in the house.


----------



## AlisonM (Mar 11, 2016)

Oh yes, I remember those, I nearly toasted myself once!


----------



## HOBIE (Mar 12, 2016)

Very good


----------

