Why was a glass of orange juice a starter?

[NutellaEllaElla]

I learned this recently. Is it true? What don't I know that might help me understand this?

It got your digestive juices flowing ready for the main! Portion sizes are way bigger these days and to have a meal for a starter would have been confusing!
In a posh place, you would have a starter of juice or soup, flush course, main course, dessert, cheese and biscuits.

Or sliced with the pieces offset to make a melon boat. A slice of orange on a cocktail stick and a cherry to make the sail. 😊

Very popular when I was younger - it was usually the long life stuff from a carton at room temperature. I remember tasting freshly squeezed, ice cold juice and having my mind blown at how good it tasted compared to what I was used to.

The other old time restaurant thing that has always puzzled me is when menus referred to "minerals" meaning coke, lemonade etc - you used to see it a lot in fish and chip restaurants.

Got this served at a family dinner recently.

They don't drink so I had assumed it was to go with the meal & set it to the side then clocked there was no starter cutlery.

Everyone sat round awkwardly drinking the small glass of juice when I know my DH could have downed it in a mouthful

I suppose it's like an aperitif but sat round the dinner table having it in a more formal setting & it's just how things have evolved over time!

My Grandparents took in summer guests and provided evening meal.

Dessert in the 1940/50s was tinned fruit and ice cream.

My Gran took the order and then sent my Dad down to the dairy at the end of the road to buy "x scoops of ice cream". Prehome freezers!

Definitely a thing in the 80's.
There was a place my parents used to take us for Sundayunch, and it hac orange,or grapefruit juice, or soup or prawn cocktail for starter, then the roast, and dessert was from the trolley.
I loved the dessert trolley.

"The other old time restaurant thing that has always puzzled me is when menus referred to "minerals" meaning coke, lemonade etc - you used to see it a lot in fish and chip restaurants."

YY! Usually in the type of cafe that had half net curtains on brass poles!

Food has got far too fussy and I say that as a right foodie.

Yes orange juice or as others have already said, other juices, half a grapefruit, slice of melon (no parma ham in them days)

I didnt know of anyone who had fresh juice, it was such a treat.

No wonder we're all fat these days, me included.

And yes to the black forest gateau, there simply isnt anything similar around these days.

Yes this was a thing. I like to visit my local pub, not been redecorated since the seventies, cash only and bans mobiles on the premises. You can buy local ale or local cider and for food they sell “cheese and bread”: a chunk of cheddar, wedge of white bread, butter, a single pickled onion and branston style pickle. Those are your choices and they’re always rammed.

This was a thing in Bernie Inns, and black forest gateau

still is in all the hospitals I’ve been in.

This was still a thing at my university halls dining room in 1994!

Egg mayonnaise. A hard boiled egg cut in half top to bottom. Placed yolk side down on a plate with a dollop of mayonnaise on top, a sprinkling of paprika and a sprig of parsley to garnish.

I’ve never heard if this! But my nana used to boil eggs, take out the yolks, and mix them with keens curry powder and mayo, then pipe the mixture back into the egg white hole! Then a single pea on top as a garnish. 💕

edit @TroysMammy yes, a version of that!

Pate shaped into a leaf with pattern drawn in with a knife as a starter.... Made hundreds of them as an apprentice chef.

A devilled egg! Very popular at cocktail parties.

Devilled eggs, @W0tnow I still make those occasionally! Mix the yolks with curry powder, a bit of mango chutney and mayo. Re-fill the whites and sprinkle with a bit of cayenne pepper

I worked in a supermarket in the 80s when I was at school and the introduction of card packaging revolutionised fruit juice drinking and made it readily available. Before that orange juice was usually either freshly squeezed which was expensive, made from frozen concentrate from a can or powdered (some oldies like me will remember Kelloggs Rise and Shine). That's why a glass of juice before a meal was considered a big treat.

... and Birds Apeel!

1981. 7 of us would share a carton of orange Just Juice as a starter at tea time at home.

What used to make me smile was any menu that said..' Prawn cocktail..soup..or orange juice if liked '

The thought makes me want to wear blue eyeshadow and dress in low slung denim flares and a halter neck 💕

Mostly wasn’t freshly squeezed - it was Britvic in little bottles, often proudly announced as Britvic Orange or Pineapple. Often chosen as a ‘slimming ‘ starter, or if you were planning on something large for a main and didn’t want to fill up on soup, prawn cocktail, pate and toast, chilled melon with port or the bizarre grilled grapefruit. I did feel a bit silly sipping away from a small wine glass alongside my mother whilst my father tucked in to actual food.

Orange juice was a small helping squeezed at home when you were ill, from frozen packs as a summer treat (Birds Eye Florida Orange !) or some stuff from a can that always tasted metallic.

We always had actual oranges freely available in the house but orange juice wasn’t a casual drink.

It's on our hospital menu. When I was pregnant with dds I would go to the main kitchens and ask for as many cartons as they could give me and I'd get as many patients as possible to take one. Spare cartons were gratefully drunk by me and other staff. I love their asparagus soup too but sadly it's been absent from the menu the last few times I've had the misfortune to be a patient there. It should never be a choice of soup or juice. I want both!

But no fag between courses!