Life in the 1950s

[Primrose]

Did anybody watch last night's BBC2 peogramme about life and food in the 1950s? It,s worth a watch on iPlayer for anybody who wants to dig up some old memories about what life was like the and how much things have changed. I couldn't help laughing how today' s modern housewife was presented with a 1950,s tin opener and had absolutely no idea how to use it to open a can of pilchards.
And I wonder how many people still eat dripping on toast?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, i didn't see it, but i am a big fan of dripping, either on toast or bread and butter.

[Pa Snip]

One noticeable difference though is that due to modern day trends we no longer seem to get anything like the volume of dripping off of meat that we used to.

Whilst I used to enjoy the occasional piece of bread & beef dripping I can't say as I miss it that much.

Primrose, I always enjoy a look back so will seek that out on iplayer, thanks

[robo]

Where i lived as a kid it was sauce or sugar butties for dinner most days, i dont remember having dripping then again it is hard to get dripping off spam

[Primrose]

A younger friend of mine positively "yucked" at the thought of eating dripping on toast. I can think of few things tastier than duck dripping which has a divine flavour, especially if you're first at the dripping bowl and can steal the lion's share of all that delicious brown jelly.

But Pa snip, you are correct that there seems to be less dripping from roasts these days. I suppose animals are bred to produce less fat because that is that the consumer seems to want.

[peter]

Mum used to put foil in the grill pan and collect the bacon fat into a bowl, kept in the fridge for frying other stuff. Same if we had beef roast, the fat was kept for frying. Dad often got at the jelly underneath before it was revealed by a frying requirement.

[Elaine]

I didn't see it either and might take a look...I was watching Stargazing Live...they had Buzz Aldrin guesting...fascinating stuff.

My Mam always had a big basin of beef dripping and we enjoyed bread or toast and dripping. I would get a good telling off, if I was a bit liberal with the lovely brown jelly.
When Mam bought her beef from the butcher, she often asked for some suet to render down too. Today's beef certainly doesn't produce much dripping, yet I've found that pork does.

As for the bacon fat...always fried I might add...it used to go on our plates as what we referred to as "dip" and was mopped up with nice fresh bread.

I'm nearly 62 now but remember those days clearly..we didn't have much and my Mam managed on a pittance.

[Pa Snip]

Ahh different types of dripping, how lucky you all were..........

When we lived in't cardboard box on grass verge in't middle of road............................

[robo]

I think we where your next door neighbours

[Primrose]

I can recall that during this time all bacon was served with the rind on, cut on a bacon slicing machine on the counter and you could tell the grocer how thinly or thickly you would like your slices cut.

Yes, bacon was generally fried during those austerity years to render down any surplus fat to keep for other cooking as the fat ration was miniscule. My mum would cut off the rinds and fry them until crisp for my brother and I to enjoy as "Crispy Worms". I think it was about the closest we got to savoury crisps in those days, apart from the very occasional packet of Smiths Crisps which was sold containing a little blue bag of salt which was invariably always damp and rarely sprinkled !

[peter]

Eee, Pa Snip, shoe box?
Luxury!
We lived in rolled up newspaper in a septic tank.

Elaine i was a late child to older parents, mum was 42 when she had me, my sister was fourteen years older than me. You aarrived a tad over a decade before me.

I think all who lived through WW2 developed recycling attitudes that make today's green brigade look like tories at a communist party meeting.

[Geoff]

The saddest thing about the programme was the incompetence of the cook - if she had tried to survive the 50s I think Darwinianism would have got her. At 68 I should remember what I ate as I started school but the only thing that comes to mind is Food Office Orange Juice.

[Motherwoman]

I was born mid-fifties so don't remember directly but my mum's (and grandmothers) attitude to food has stayed with me. You don't waste any was the 'biggie'. If there was a Sunday roast then it was still going to Wednesday in one form or another and closely followed by something like a cheese and onion pie. Mum was budgeting in ha'pennies by the end of the week. My father worked in a building that backed onto the sea and he used to hang a line over the back of the balustrade to see what he could catch...conger eel was interesting! No snacks in between meals and crisps were a holiday treat.

I'm horrified at the food waste depicted in some of the TV programs, have the younger generations lost the plot? And whose fault is it if they have?

MW

[PLUMPUDDING]

I was born in 1948 so remember the 50s very well but didn't see the programme - will have to watch it.

I remember going to the corner shop with the ration book when I was very small, but we never seemed to go without. Dad grew lots of veg and we had hens and a few pigs.

I loved fresh white bread with a nice crust spread with beef dripping with plenty of the jelly and a sprinkle of salt as a Monday tea time treat.

One big difference between then and now is that you were never given a choice at meal times. You were given whatever your mother had decided to have that day (usually the same thing on that day of each week) and you ate it all up. It wouldn't have occurred to me to say that I didn't like anything or to leave anything. She was a good cook though and would vary things occasionally. Also we always ate at the table together.

[robo]

I also was born in 1948 what a good year, as a kid i used to stop for school diners we had a large bowl on one of the tables to scrape your unwanted food in or that was the idea we had a headmistress who used to stand at the side of the bowl and refused to let anyone use it every thing on your plate had to be consumed, we also had dark brown fish on fridays even today after spending most of my leasure time sea fishing i still cant think of what type of fish it could have been it was really nasty bit like the headmistress