Fiftees Food Nostalgia

For those old enough to remember what eating was like in the UK in the 1950’s (and I do!)….

• Pasta had not been invented.
• Curry was an unknown entity.
• Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet
• Spices came from the Middle East where we believed that they were used for embalming
• Herbs were used to make rather dodgy medicine.
• A takeaway was a mathematical problem.
• A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.
• Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.
• The only vegetables known to us were spuds, peas, carrots and cabbage, anything else was regarded as being a bit suspicious.
• All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.
• Condiments consisted of salt, pepper, vinegar and brown sauce if we were lucky.
• Soft drinks were called pop.
• Coke was something that we mixed with coal to make it last longer.
• 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.
• A microwave was something out of a science fiction movie.
• Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
• Oil was for lubricating your bike not for cooking, fat was for cooking
• Bread and jam was a treat.
• Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves, not bags.
• The tea cosy was the forerunner of all the energy saving devices that we hear so much about today.
• Tea had only one colour, black. Green tea was not British.
• Coffee was only drunk when we had no tea….. and then it was Camp, and came in a bottle.
• Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
• Figs and dates appeared every Christmas, but no one ever ate them.
• Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town.
• Salad cream was a dressing for salads, mayonnaise did not exist
• Hors d’oeuvre was a spelling mistake.
• Soup was a main meal.
• The menu consisted of what we were given, and was set in stone.
• Only Heinz made beans, there were no others.
• Leftovers went in the dog, never in the bin.
• Special food for dogs and cats was unheard of.
• Sauce was either brown or red.
• Fish was only eaten on Fridays.
• Fish and chips was always wrapped in old newspapers, and definitely tasted better that way.
• Frozen food was called ice cream.
• Nothing ever went off in the fridge because we never had one.
• Ice cream only came in one flavour, vanilla.
• None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.
• Jelly and blancmange was strictly party food.
• Healthy food had to have the ability to stick to your ribs.
• Indian restaurants were only found in India.
• Cheese only came in a hard lump.
• A bun was a small cake that your Mum made in the oven.
• Eating out was called a picnic.
• Cooking outside was called camping.
• Eggs only came fried or boiled.
• Hot cross buns were only eaten at Easter time.
• Pancakes were only eaten on Shrove Tuesday – and on that day it was compulsory.
• Cornflakes had just arrived from America but it was obvious that they would never catch on.
• We bought milk and cream at the same time in the same bottle.
• Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold.
• Prunes were purely medicinal.
• Surprisingly muesli was readily available in those days, it was called cattle feed.
• Turkeys were definitely seasonal.
• Pineapples came in chunks in a tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one.
• We didn’t eat Croissants in those days because we couldn’t pronounce them, we couldn’t spell them and we didn’t know what they were.
• Garlic was used to ward off vampires, but never used to flavour bread.
• Water came out of the tap, if someone had suggested bottling it and charging treble for it they would have become a laughing stock.
• Food hygiene was only about washing your hands before meals.
• Campylobacter, Salmonella, E.coli, Listeria, and Botulism were all called “food poisoning.”

However, the one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties …. ELBOWS!!!