Old fashioned things which are great

[ODFOx]

The spam thread reminded me that I have had a craving for a salad with hard boiled egg and ham, possibly potato salad or warm new potatoes with butter and salad cream.It isn't chopped up or involving chickpeas and reminds me of cricket teas in the 70s, but it is what I fancy so I might make it for all of us tomorrow.
What else is dated but really 'hits the spot'? I'll throw in a 'Cornishish' pasty made with corned beef instead of real meat.
Anyone?

My Nan used to make me tuna and cucumber sandwiches with the tuna mixed with malt vinegar 😅

Sounds odd but tasted amazing

Bullet bras
Pineapple upside-down cake
Liver and onions
Solid wood staircase w banister
Grandfather clocks!
Old doors and latches
Church bells
Baked apples with ice cream
Sardines on toast
Fried bread
Bread and butter pudding
80s shoulder pads
Fireplaces
Live bands
Music that isn't overtly sexual or violent
Milk floats
Eton mess
Evaporated Milk
Condensed Milk
Golden treacle
Steamed puddings
Coronation chicken sandwich
Petticoats and kirtles
Fruit jelly with UHT cream
Horse and cart
Shawls and headscarves
Sherry trifle
Nightcaps
Bakewell tarts
Wall tapestries
Oil lamps
Colorful interiors
Calm(er) board games like Yahtzee, Chess
Luxury velvet house coats for men
Apple crumble
Tea cakes
Fridge cake, tiffin
Beautiful windows
Boat trips
Real butter
Back seam tights
Lamb shanks
Beautiful brooches
Hair turbans, tam o' shanters and snoods
Laundrettes
Night gowns
Music boxes
Ballet
Homemade elderflower cordial
Dead man's arm
Heavy long beautifully patterned curtains
Keeping vases of flowers
Worry dolls
The tooth fairy
Garden fairies
Brass beds
High ceilings
Vaulted ceilings
Church ran cafés

@sashh I have Bovril on toast for breakfast most days and always have done-as does my Dad. I've passed it on to dh. But I've never met anyone else that uses it as a spread!

Tea in my house was sausage egg and chips, fish fingers and chips, pie and chips, back to sausage egg and chips again, then maybe steak and chips with tea gravy if dad had any extra in his pay that week.

There are no better teas than this.

Oh, and on Saturday it was crisps and cornflakes for tea, and on a Sunday we had a choice of several chocolate biscuits and maybe banana on a plate with Carnation milk.

I would go back to these days in a heartbeat. And sit beside the warm air heating duct in my jarmas.

An impressively comprehensive list! 😃

Glad a horse and cart gets a look in. It’s a dying skill.

@ConfusedGin you can still get teamaids. They are white swish looking now.Dh is getting me one for Valentine's Day I hope 🤞

LightDrizzle · Today 00:43

A proper ham sandwich with thick white bread, butter, and the thinnest scraping of English mustard. No mayo, pickles, salad or slop. I boil and roast the hams myself with a honey glaze. So cheap and easy.

What hams do you buy @LightDrizzle ? I would love to do my own but never know which is the best diy one

The Fast Show.

IT'S BRILLIANT!!!

@PlumsNDates that's an impressive list! I still have /use a few things on there including an old brass bed, doors with latches and I hear the village church bells every Sunday.

Carnation and Condensed milk, I also still use and buy. You've just reminded me about Tip Top which was a tinned artifical tasting milk that I adored in the 70s.

Also, chips in Newspaper. I'd get my Mam to make real chips at home, wrap them in newspaper for me, then eat them outside. We rarely went to an actual chippy.

The classic Egg Banjo! Hold in one hand to eat, use other hand to wipe yolk from chest 😁

Food wise - I’d do anything for them to bring back toast toppers. They got me through uni.

bar soap - particularly carbolic soap. Never feel as clean as I do after using it.

my nan used to cook these little suet puddings in a red tin when I was younger - they were delicious! Always with boiled potatoes and peas

That pork pie loaf thingy with hard boiled egg in the middle

OMG we also had the warm air heating ducts on our old house.

My favourite dinners were fish fingers and chips, corned beef and chips, and lentil soup with plastic white bread, which I would roll into balls that, once submerged for a while, bore a striking resemblance to dumplings!

Also, runny mince, and runny mince pies. The mince was totally different then and broke down more easily. It was likely runny because extra gravy was added to it to make it go further (both at school and home)

Gammon steaks with pineapple, home cooked chips in lard and peas. Yum!

Bar soap (I wish they hadn't changed the formula on Pears- it used to smell of resin and herbs).
Hot water bottles.
Letters from friends.
Printed out photos.
Boxes of pansies off the market, enough to go all along the garden path.
Library books.

Hot oxo in a cup.

@soupfiend

I 100% agree about a decent cup of tea. It's beauty lies in it's simplicity. The water must be boiling hot for starters - nothing worse than a tepid cup of tea.

I loved Pears soap before they changed the recipe and my skin used to feel so good after a shower, though maybe it was because I was a lot younger then and less wrinkly. Currently like Lidl basic white soap as I don't seem to be allergic to it, but nothing has been as good as old time Pears.
I go to the library regularly, much prefer a physical book to a Kindle.
I stock up on hot water bottles each winter. They are a fraction of the price at Home Bargains and B & M stores compared to somewhere like Boots. However I have started getting my photos printed with Boots online again as the colour quality is much better than Photobox who I used for years.
My addition to this thread is bicarbonate of soda. It's great for mixing with water into solutions for small cuts, mild infected areas or mouthwash.

@beguilingeyes
Lardy cake is really easy to make, I very occasionally do it.
You just need a big lump of bread dough (I use a packet bread mix for ease), must be plain white bread though.
Make up dough, let it prove and then roll out into a rectangle.
Dot with small pieces of lard and scatter with plenty of white granulated sugar and dried currants and sultanas.
Fold dough three times, give a quarter turn, roll out again and fold into three again. This gives you the layers.
Plop into a greased (with lard!) small roasting dish, needs to fit snugly. Leave to stand until it's puffed up a bit.
Bake at around 180 until it looks done. Scatter top with granulated sugar.
Leave in baking dish and cut up when cold.

I expect there are recipes online with exact quantities etc but, like so many of these treats of yesteryear, everybody's will be a bit different

I ordered some from Huffkins at Christmas, bit pricey but very big and lovely. They freeze well and you can warm them through in the oven.

Seed cake.

There's been whole threads on here devoted to tinned potatoes and how useful they are. I'm not fussed, but people roast them etc.

https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes/tinned-potato-and-pancetta-dauphinoise

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/christmas/christmas-recipes/a34797018/quick-crispy-roast-potatoes/

Liver and bacon with lots of mashed potatoes and oniony gravy. And then even more gravy with white bread to mop it up. Suddenly I'm a child again...

Carroway seed cake (damn though, they got stuck in your teeth)

Proper butterfly cakes. Delicate sweet treat made with real buttercream. These days it's all massive cupcakes with 2 inches of revolting topping made from hydrogenised vegetable fat instead of butter.

Fish finger sandwich - 3 fish fingers, white bread, real butter, tomato sauce.
I don't care if tartare sauce is meant to go with fish, I don't want that, mayo, lettuce or fancy bread.

Christmas Day breakfasts being simple. Ours was always thickly cut white bread toast with real butter. Possibly jam if we were lucky, and chocolate from a selection box.

I miss my nans roasts. Everything was cooked in lard, and the meat was always some cheap joint that requires slow roasting. There was very little meat but loads of gravy so we'd mop it up with bread.

Aside from food, my list is
Mending things. I love the satisfaction of mending torn clothes or a broken clock etc but people tend to think I'm bonkers for not throwing it away.

Dressing smartly

Knitting/crocheting/cross stitching/embroidery/quilting. Making something for someone or for your own home (although I know this is having a bit a resurgence at the moment).

Enjoying the moment (without taking a photo/using your phone etc). I know it's about 'saving memories' but I think it takes something away from a lot of experiences.