Mary Berry and Judith Chalmers tell you how to stock your freezer! 1976.

[Redheadedstepchild]

Just thought I would let you all know:

(Run time 6m39s)

So many useful tips!

You just have to watch it. I can't explain.

Judith Chalmers. I knew her before she was brown
IYKYK

"Smoked mackerel. I'm finding people are loving it and wanting it all the time!" This is what is known as foreshadowing.

Love this. It’s all so very practical and frugal. Pretty much how my mum still operates today 😊 The big coloured sacks for the chest freezer have inspired me - mine desperately needs some organisation. Also love Mary’s shirt!

Can't buy crumpets in the summer!

@Needtosoundoffandbreathe I think Victoria and Julie were taking off Mary and Judith in this sketch as Joan and Marjorie:

Love it!

"I've got a chest."
"I'm more upright."

That's amazing. I wouldn't recognise Mary Berry's appearance or her voice. Usually I can recognise people from their voice. She's fantastically modest and nice isn't she?

Fab thread OP. Crumpets were only for Winter?!? Why?

“a Spanish bowl” 😆

The fruit cake and coughing episode.

Thinking about it, yes, crumpets were only sold in the winter! I think they went mouldy in the summer.

The classic quote from this one being:
Judith, "You could have just bought the tins of pineapple where they're already chopped up."
"I am trying to be economical!" replied Mary.

Call be psychic, but I don't think they really got on.

*me

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WD0g9dS3jlx0kYWQEsjP-8f9sIVd301&si=yyQgiSZ3_f-3NKXc

Hope this works. I've found the whole original 1970's playlist of Judith and Mary on Thames TV.

I read this as Matt Berry and got really confused.

What bad posture Mary has though. That was a surprise. I wonder if she found something like yoga or pilates later in life.

She contracted polio when she was thirteen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Berry

Which left her with a few physical challenges.

Mary clearly channelling Elmer the Patchwork Elephant

I bet they talk about getting more than one meal from a chicken and making stock from the carcass because its an idea as old as the hills and not a MN thing that's much derided on here.

OMG. Wasn't TV riveting in those days?

That was brilliant. The freezer was total chaos! ‘And here I have a trotter’ - just loose in a bag with a pepper, a greasy chunk of concentrated stock (‘that’s moulded’)!

A lot of people would still have had open fires and you wouldn't have wanted to light the fire just to toast your crumpets in the middle of summer 🙂

Thanks OP, I love those old cooking and household management tips and that was a lot gentler and less gorgon-like than some of Fanny Craddock's 'how to manage your kitchen' videos 😁

I was 21 in 1976 and I don't think the majority of people were toasting crumpets in front of the fire. I remember making toast that way when I was a child in the early 60s at my grandma's and it was a huge novelty then. I have no recollection of whether crumpets were available all year round, I can't have missed them in the summer if they weren't.

I was so relieved when they finally closed the freezer!

I was 10, we knew a couple of people with coal fires but they also had cookers with grills.