To think that the wife in Back In Time For Dinner is a terrible cook

[derxa]

I can barely watch her hamfisted attempts at cooking. She can't even use a tin opener. Her pathetic attempts spoil a really interesting social experiment.

I wasn't saying by the ay that she kept kosher at all. I certainly don't and neither did my parents, but as a pp said, I just don't eat pork out of habit it doesn't appeal to me and isn't really on my radar because my mother never cooked it. When she was cooking the bacon, she made a comment about how she wouldn't normally eat that kind of thing because she was Jewish. Thats why I think its relevant.

Probably in the same way that there are certain cultural foods I know how to cook. Non-jews might be able to guess at and have a good go, but they wouldn't be really at all familiar with it.

There were lots of things she could have done, I can't expect she was that happy serving cold liver and cold veg either.

I don't see why some are taking it so seriously that a woman on her third day in a backwards kitchen couldn't turn out something lovely.

That wasn't a backwards kitchen!

Well it wasn't a step forward was it???!

It was obviously backwards compared to what she's used to. The historian said its like indoor camping.

There were no appliances, none of the modern helps and she didn't even have a fridge. It was a backward step, as it was meant to be, being from 65 years ago.

I've enjoyed watching this series. I missed the first episode so I don''the know about the tin opener incident. I think the family are likeable and they seem to have thrown themselves into the experiment with enthusiasm. Some of the comments made by the children have been quite perceptive. The mother might not be the best cook but she certainly seems to have made an effort. My maternal grandmother always cooked home made meals, baked, made preserves etc but she wasn't particularly talented. My mum is a good cook but she has never enjoyed it so my dad has taken over that role in retirement. So this mum may reflect the reality for some women.

We didn't have a fridge till the 70's

Re. loneliness - surely, in the 50s and 60s, there would have been more women in her neighbourhood who weren't working either, and they would all have been company for eachother? They would have met other women at the shops doing the daily food shopping, for example.

I think her loneliness is exacerbated by the fact that there aren't any other women living the same way alongside her. Even if there are other SAHMs in her street, they aren't going to be living the same way - they'll be nipping out for coffee, or meeting friends, etc. They will be using the technology, shops and foods that make cooking and housework so much easier - she really is alone in this experience, so is bound to be feeling more lonely than women did when everyone was in the same boat.

It did make the point, though, that she was spending a huge amount of time just to keep the house clear and the meals ready - I think they said 11 hours of the day for the 1950s one. So I thought part of the reason it was so hard on her was that she just didn't have much time to go and see the neighbours. I do remember my granny (who worked after she was married so may be a bit biased, not sure) being slightly disapproving about women meeting up for coffee during the day - she had it down as a lazy modern habit!

Thinking about it my, very elderly, MIL had a tiny repertoire of cooking. Heavily salted, over cooked vegetables accompanied by potatoes and meat was pretty much it. Her utensils were sparse, a couple of rubbish knives, one half pint measuring jug. So I think my MIL would have struggled with a lot of the cooking this mum has done even though she actually lived as an adult through each of the eras portrayed.

To clarify my comment on tin openers, I thought we had moved onto talking about 'modern' butterfly tin openers, that are a basic kitchen item today and were featured in the 1970s episode, where again Mrs Back in Time was shown not being able to use it.

I missed the comment about her being Jewish so obviously forgive her for not having previously cooked gammon, but they could have instead shown her frying beef steak, fish, lamb chops or whatever.

A reasonable standard of basic cookery is a vital life skill for everyone and I think these days people are little too quick to boast about not being able to cook or choosing not to as if it is a demonstration of how liberated they are or how they spend their time doing more important and interesting things.

I agree with you about cooking being a life skill.

But, I do wonder if they picked the worst bits? I might struggle with an unfamiliar tin opener. I'm just a bit cack handed, and there's not much I can do about it except laugh at myself. And she did seem able to do that.

Jeanne that's exactly the feeling I got from my grandmothers- it wasn't done to meet for a coffee etc - maybe a WI or mothers Union meeting once a week was allowable, but I really got the feeling that anything else wasn't acceptable- and maybe with hand-washing everything there wasn't time anyway. Certainly the mass-observation diary entries from housewives that I have read also support this view. It sounds very isolating to me. Interesting as the mother in the TV prog commented that she had more time to spare in the '70s setting, once the fridge arrived. So maybe those awful adverts of the day suggesting the labour-saving devices would change a woman's life were actually accurate?!

Enjoying the show but find the family rather pathetic and it certainly doesn't reflect the experience of how my mum would have grown up. Yes life was tough in those days but this is quite a biased and negative portrayal. And come on, cooking some chips and gammon was considered a fairly quick meal and is hardly slaving over the stove.

@JeanneDeMontbaston sorry I know this thread was a while ago but I was looking through and did want to clarify! I read the article of Brandon's that you are referring to and he did not say that he wanted to 'ban Shakespeare'. He said that it should be taken off the GCSE syllabus because many 14 and 15 year olds do not appreciate or understand it.

derxa not getting what London has to do with it?

I think you are right about women bumping into each other whilst getting the shopping. When my Mum first got married she would go out everyday to buy fresh food, as she didn't have a fridge. She told me that on the day it became known that she was expecting her first child that the shopping took an extra hour, because so many people spoke to her to congratulate her. I think that is really nice.