What did people actually eat in the past?

[BuffaloCauliflower]

Inspired by the finding of some crockery that belonged to my Granny (born 1917) and
conversations with my DM about feeding families, I’ve been wondering a lot about how and what people ate in the past on just normal days, not fancy dinner party stuff. My Granny was an older mum, 43 when she had my DM in 1960, and DM remembers mostly simple meat and two veg type dishes. Cottage pie, casseroles, roast dinners. What was a quick easy dinner, did such a thing exist before 1970?! Egg and chips? Memories of childhood reading conjures up bread and dripp

If you were around in the 50s/60s in the U.K., what did normal family meals look like? Or even earlier maybe, pre war. What sort of things were normal prior

Growing up in the 60s, I remember:
Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, peas.
Liver and onions, mashed potatoes, runner beans.
Fish pie.
Curry made with mince, Sharwoods curry powder, finely chopped onions, raisins, and grated apple, served on a bed of rice.
Chicken curry, made the same way
Steak and kidney pie.
Shepherd's pie made with mince.
Sardines on toast.
Scrambled eggs on toast.
Toasted cheese made with cheese and tomato chutney.
Baked ham.
Salads consisting of leaves of lettuce, sliced hard boiled egg, sliced ham or pieces of roast chicken, halved tomatoes, maybe a few gherkins, and salad cream.
Tossed green salad with French dressing.
Sausage rolls.
Stew - Irish stew, beef atew; all stew with steamed sliced potatoes on top.
Breakfast for dinner - bacon, eggs, sausages, scones.

For lunch we had bananas, sandwiches, yogurt, brown bread and butter, tomato soup or chicken noodles soup with soldiers, boiled eggs and soldiers. We also had rhubarb straight from the garden dipped in sugar.

Breakfast was cereal, though I liked fish finger sandwiches. In summer we took bowls out to the back garden and picked raspberries, then ate them with sugar and cream.

I remember a lot of tinned fruit, tinned pears eaten with carnation milk poured over it usually served on Sunday or when we had visitors.

On the fruit thing and not getting exotic fruit we were not allowed a lot of soft fruit. I thought it must be really expensive but it was actually because my mum was boycotting South Africa.

I make a wide variety of food but I still do some of the old fashioned recipes like steak and kidney pudding.

My Mum was one of six from a poor family. She literally lived on bread and jam every day and had main meals at school. Sunday was a treat- they had whatever they could shoot or trap with veggies to make a roast. Sometimes they're be a pudding if they could forage enough fruit. Then crumpets for tea. Once you started work and we're contributing money, you were allowed daily veggies and the odd fry up.

Try reading "A History of English Food" by Clarissa Dickson Wright for some interesting insights.
I grew up in a provincial English city, where milk was delivered daily along with weekly deliveries from the butcher and greengrocer. There were also shopping trips to the baker and fishmonger.
Food was cooked from scratch and was seasonal, but not at all boring. We had things like curries and spaghetti bolognese - even in the 1960s!
At one point there was a vegetable plot in our garden, I remember home-grown potatoes and raspberries, but our parents gave this up as they became more immersed in their careers.
There was never any snacking. If you were hungry between meals you could have a piece of fruit.
We also had an apple tree in the garden, so at this time of year there were crumbles, pies and stewed apples.
I live in Europe now, but still stick to the fresh food, freshly prepared philosophy, which is fairly easy given all the local markets around.

God this food sounds awful to the modern sensibilities!!

I don’t remember the obesity in the 60s, being as common as now? My father, despite the fact he wanted a cooked pudding after dinner every day, cycled to work and back - probably 10 miles? He was fit until he retired!

Most children I knew were thin; women were a bit plumper - looking back a 14 - 16 maximum mostly? Housework was much more physical than now. We didn’t have a fridge until DB was born, so DM must have gone food shopping every day? Some couples went ball room dancing, where they might go to the gym today? Smoking was everywhere - some women smoked just to keep slim. Taking Valium also seemed normal among married women with children?

My older, by ten years sister was married in 1960. I remember her ’signature’ dish was macaroni cheese made from scratch, not the tinned stuff. I made the mistake of eating some of the macaroni before she’d added the cheese and sauce, it tasted of nothing, bland, tasteless. It was better when she’d finished the dish but I preferred cheese on toast. She must have got the recipe from Woman’s Weekly as it wasn’t a dish our mother ever cooked. In fact pasta never crossed our doorstep.

In the 60s ...

Roast on Sunday
Cold meat on Monday
Something from the leftovers on Tuesday (cottage/shepherds' pie/chicken casserole)
Chops and boiled veg, meat pie/pudding, beef stew, cutlets, and other cuts of meat with boiled veg and maybe fried potatoes the other days. I remember loathing braised steak and anything with liver or kidneys. Spam fritters also featured, sometimes with pineapple.