'salads' your nan used to make...

[trashcanjunkie]

Mine used to do this for my grandad once a week - it would consist of a boiled egg, halved, a massive spring onion or two, some pickled beetroot maybe.... (not entirely sure....) and two slices of corn beef with salad cream on the side.....

DH says his lot also used to have 'salads' like these - he reckons it's 1970's northern thing....

I wish I could remember all of the elements... Did anyone else's family eat these? I bet there are variations on the theme

@dementedma

Salad with MASHED POTATO???🤢

Yes, this. I mean, what the hell?

Our salads growing up were much the same as everyone else's, though it was always sliced cooked ham (not MN naice ham). Though for a brief period in the late 70s we flirted with the exotic by having a blob of cream cheese on the side, which we tried to eat unadulterated as a dip for spring onions.

I also agree with @MuckyPlucky. Whilst I remember these types of salad from my 80s childhood, my salads these days consist of:

Lettuce (I prefer 'old fashioned' round lettuces as they seem to have more flavour than iceberg/little gem etc, but any lettuce will do)

Cucumber
Tomatoes
Spring onion
Beetroot (either from a jar gasp or fresh, roasted beetroot)
Coleslaw
Celery
Radish, if it's in our veg box
Sometimes red pepper
Sometimes sweetcorn

Hard boiled eggs, cheese, ham, pork pie etc also feature (not necessarily all at once). I'm also partial to salad creme

I guess the difference these days is that usually the raw salad items will be chopped up and mixed up, rather than separately on the plate, but even then it's whether I can be bothered, and if not, separately it is.

Can anyone direct me to a modern salad?

1980's northern Nana's salad. Chicken sliced with lots of salt, lettuce, cucumber, tomato & sliced onion in vinegar & a tablespoon of Hellman's (Nana used to measure it out for us!). Followed by a slice of Neapolitan ice cream.
Love this thread, lovely memories.

This is Pek

[quote MuckyPlucky]@DoctorYang

Exactly. You, me, @Lemonylemony et al. We’re normal people who eat normal food. Of course, we can’t be as frightfully pleased with ourselves as the terribly modern Mumsnetters on here who wouldn’t be seen dead eating a sliced tomato. FFS[/quote]
I'm honestly quite bemused that it's seen as so retro and working class! Though we have brown bread and butter, not white

My nanny did iceberg lettuce, Cucumber, halved beef tomatoes, halved boiled eggs, salad cream and beetroot on the side. Copious bread and vitalite (vom). If we were really lucky we would have furry Vienetta for pudding.

Mum used to stand looking at the plates (always salad at Sunday teatime!) and recite "lettuce, tomato, hard boiled egg, cold meat and cheese..." six times- just in case she missed anything on anyone's plate!

If we were very lucky there was a jar of pickled sliced beetroot and one of mixed pickles - oh the joy of pickled cauliflower, I loved it. And because it was Sunday there was real butter- not margarine. Pure luxury !!

My dad used to have tomatoes quartered with salad cream and sugar sprinkled on the top. We also used to have a thing mum called Russian salad,which was a bag of frozen cubed veg cooked and mixed with salad cream. My dad still eats salad cream in preference to mayo.

Can someone enlighten me to what a salad is now, in these super modern times?

Did anyone else have tinned “chopped ham and pork” on their salads? It was very similar to Spam.

Also yes to slices of cucumber with the skin peeled off sitting in vinegar

And a boiled egg

I still make these.
Slice cucumber and leave in malt vinegar for about 15 minutes.
Butter good white bread generously.
Drain the cucumber, arrange on the bread and add a little salt. Sounds horrible but tastes gorgeous.

Ooh I had forgotten how delicious salad cream is. With chips and salad of grated cheese, lettuce and cucumber. Optional pickled beetroot or tomatoes..

Iceburg lettuce, cucumber, boiled egg, beef tomato, boiled potato and lashings of salad cream. Unaffectionately know as the Penge salad in my house.

Yes we had similar but with a weird tinned chopped ham from a tin ( not spam) and chips. Salads were dead healthy

We have a side salad several times a week.

Salad leaves, toms, cu, pepper, dressing, sometimes with a bit of red onion, black olives and feta thrown in, sometimes a bit of avocado.

A yummy summer salad is: shredded cos, chopped coriander, chopped mint, cucumber, yellow pepper, tossed in an olive oil and lemon dressing.

Cherry toms, mozzarella pearls and black olives with a few basil leaves.

Cous cous with juice of cpl of lemons, cooled, chopped cucumber, chopped mint, feta.

Still like grated carrot and a few sultanas with a good dressing

Must look up some old cookery books with recipes for endive and orange and red cabbage slaw.

El Posho Salads today are baby spinach, Watercress, quinoa, lentils, seaweed, roast vegetables, dressings made of lemon juice and tahini (definitely not salad cream) pine nuts and goats cheese. That kind of stuff.

My mum's idea of a salad was somewhat predictable and consisted of a selection of the following:

One tomato - halved,
Several lettuce leaves,
Radishes,
Pickled beetroot,
Cucumber
Sticks of celery in a tall glass
Bread and butter
Spring onions
Tinned potato salad

And one of the following:

Ham
Sardines
Hard boiled egg
Brown shrimps (still with heads, legs etc)
Pork pie
Roll-mop herring
A slice of corned beef

Tinned salmon was a treat thing then too.

I walked past greggs, today, and noticed that they had their cheese savoury stotties back in.

My lot used to have cold baked beans, spring onions, cottage cheese, coleslaw, salty lettuce, beetroot, cucumber and often a slice of bread. Nothing salady about it in today’s style, more like a cold dinner.

Boiled ham, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, salad cream - that was it.
Weirdly I vaguely remember sugar on the lettuce ...

I remember cold baked beans featuring in a nan salad too in the 70s. Weird!