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?

Orange juice is the traditional Christmas dinner starter at my parents in law. They're in their 80s,neither from particularly wealthy backgrounds and remember rationing well.

I remember frozen orange juice concentrate in the 70s. It wa a birthday treat! Orange juice was definitely expensive enough to be a treat. Portions were loads smaller (I've just inherited my GP's 1950's crockery and its tiny!) acs

Portion sizes were smaller then, and people ate out less often.

Yeah I think you’re right. Once when my mum was quite unwell, my dad ordered a pint of orange juice from the milkman for her - we children weren’t allowed any of it! That was the only time I remember us having fresh orange juice in the house until I was ann older teenager and we had more money (and perhaps prices were lower).

If you went somewhere REALLY posh they dipped the rim of the glass in sugar

Posted too soon

.... and a glass of juice or unusual fruit was just enough to warm up your mind and stomach for a nice meal, and you didn't want to be too full to enjoy your steak!

Content think some people appreciate how recently you've easily been able to get all sorts of fruit from around the world, year round. My dad swore he didn't see a fresh orange until 1950 (he'd have been 17) and I remember going to Harrods' food hall in the late 80s to get some strawberries for my friend's 16th in December. (I grew up in London, we didn't need to go too far out of our way to go to Harrods, not that we did much).

In the hospital I work at its still a small orange juice or soup for your starter before your evening meal.

Can you still get doily's? tempted to try them with the DC's 😂

Not in the quantities you'd have had in the 1970s.

I remember breakfast at B&B in Blackpool in the early 60s. I must have been 9 or 10. Back then orange juice came from a tin. I ordered a glass of orange juice form the menu and a small glass was delivered.

That was it. That was the whole breakfast. It was an entire opinion in itself.

Here's a Berni Inn menu from the 1970s.

Most starters nowadays are probably bigger than the main courses back in the 70s and 80s.

😱😂Whaaaaaat?!

Don't forget the Biba makeup and the Charlie Blue perfume

As a 1970s teenager this is reallyy taking me back ...

We used to get it as a dessert option once a week for school lunches in the 80s.

It definitely wasn't freshly squeezed anywhere I went to !

Sometimes they would ring the changes and offer grapefruit or tomato juice!

Agree with the poster who said that starters are now mini meals - I've stopped having them now as I can never manage my main course .

I'm struggling to read it but is that mushrooms as a main course option on its own? That was a spectacularly crap vegetarian option. Not that there was such a thing in the 1970's. I went to many a wedding in the 80's/90's where the veggie option was the dinner without the meat.

i worked in a sorta "bus tours"x3 per night hotel in 90s. Starter every night= soup or "froot jooce" am scottish- and didnt know i sounded like that-ha

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
interesting to see how prices increases seem quite inconsistent.
puddings now would perhaps be 10 x the price e.g. £7 for cheesecake rather than 70p
Main courses however - scampi was then 4.50. I paid about 14 for similar in a London pub this week. So ‘only’ 3 x the price

I adore starters. I've still got a lot of time for a well-made prawn cocktail. It can be a beautiful thing.

Little Chef did a special offer in the 80s for children, where a child could have a starter or pudding plus main course for something like £2 if you collected enough vouchers, possibly from porridge oats.

We almost never ate out, but that was one my parents thought was worth it, and we ate there a few times with us children eating (and parents having a sandwich in the car later). We would have the orange juice starter as the drink. I remember looking very appealingly at the server once and telling her I was really thirsty and she brought me a large glass of orange juice. I'm not sure what was better, the delight of the huge glass or the looks from my siblings. 🤣 Yes, I was made to share, but it was worth it.

Knickerbocker glory !

As a child of the 70's fruit juice was not considered an everyday item in our house. Christmas day starter would be a small (tiny) glass of orange or grapefruit juice. Definitely not freshly squeezed.
We weren't brassic but my DM was definitely of the frugal housewife variety.

I think the half a grapefruit could also be served up grilled with caramelised Demerara sugar on top, plus a cherry of course.

With all this talk there'll be a rush on for grapefruits at Tesco's 😆 I never think to buy them, but I'm quite tempted now.

Cherries on everything, like gammon steak with pineapple🤣

Ooh you've got me thinking now, remember that toast, is it Melba? When you get a normal slice of white bread and slice it again so it's so thin it curls and crisps up nice for pâté😋with a sprig of curly parsley of course, cos I'm posh...

It was such a treat to have a glass of orange juice! Slabs of neopolitan ice cream on a Sunday where we fought to have the chocolate flavour. This thread has made me realise how much we eat now vs. the 70's both in terms of variety and quantity.

Classic starters on the rare occasion we ate out as 70s kids were definitely Scotch broth or orange juice.
If we went somewhere really posh we might have prawn cocktail in little stainless Steel dishes.