To ask what did your granny eat?

[PassTheCordialCordelia]

I hear a lot of noise concerning how we ought to eat how our grandparent's/great grandparents did, or something of that description. We know that modern, ultra processed foods are crap, unhealthy and usually very cheap, although many foods from long ago were pretty awful too!

So just in a lighthearted frame of mind - what did yours scoff down on?

Mine were fond of home baking, scones, biscuits, etc. Most meals cooked from scratch, although grandmother was a full time housewife, with a space to grow some fruit/veg. I think the large supermarket chains were still extremely tiny when my GP's were alive, so I have no idea if they might have enjoyed more processed stuff if they had lived to see it.

Pigs trotters, tripe (I kid you not). Absolutely minging.

Tripe still going strong at our local market! Not in my kitchen tho!

Meat and two veg with gravy, followed by a pudding with custard (Birds or proper egg custard) - treacle tart, cherry pie, bread and butter pudding.

Bread fresh from the bakers, fresh eggs, lots of cups of tea.

Well she’d have shuddered at the expression “scoff down” but she ate three good meals & no snacks. A typical day might have been porridge for breakfast, pork chop with potatoes, veg & gravy at 1pm and a sandwich or two crumpets at 6pm.

She always ate her main meal at 1pm and if we were on holiday or out for the day & unable to do that she would still only want a very light tea. She would very occasionally have the smallest slice of cake or one biscuit but if we had, for example, a cream tea on holiday in Devon she wouldn’t also have her sandwich in the evening.

Jersey / Gold top milk.

They ate pretty much the same as me (salads, curries, meat two veg) but never snacked, I don't think they really ate breakfast either.

I know two of my great-grandmothers cooked everything from scratch and their diets were very meat heavy !

And proper home cooked chips fried up in a mix of lard and dripping from the Sunday roast (to be saved and reused).

Tinned salmon sandwiches on Nimble bread
Roast chicken
Home made chips
Salad with a hard boiled egg

My gran had an account with the local butcher, and shopped for veg, bread etc every other day if I remember and everything else came from the grocers. Milk came from the dairy next door daily. I don't remember her ever going to a supermarket.

The only takeaway was a rare treat of fish and chips. The nearest they got to Indian food was Sharwoods curry powder in their coronation chicken or kedgeree and I don't think they ever graced the Chinese.

They did live very rurally though.

Lardy cake!

Oh yes, and milk from the milkman with cream on the top.

Meat and potatoes and veg.
Rabbit stew
Cheese and potato pie.
Fish and potatoes and veg.
Game like pheasant in a stew.
Homemade pies.

Lots of home grown veg.
Apples from trees in the garden.

Always a pudding after main meal, pie and custard, cake and cream, tinned fruit, angel delight.

My grandparents ate home cooked, traditional food. Fresh veg (only apples, oranges, berries and bananas for fruit). All pastry etc was made from scratch.
No dementia or cancer. They lived long and active lives.

Mine cooked everything from scratch, with lard & salt of course. She died of heart disease at 72

I also recall a larder with garibaldi biscuits.

Occasionally grilled sausage.

Always always LOVELY buttered toast. Never brown bread.

My Nan was also very fond of tripe. And cod’s roe. And a lot of faggots, chips and peas too. A proper Brummie gal.

I would consider their diet a bit samey. But the principles are very worthy.

The only particular thing I remember my grandmother consuming was gin martinis.

Boil in the bag fish with boiled potatoes and boiled veg. Jelly and ice cream. Tongue sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

In her later years , I think Grandma lived on M & S trifle ( washed down with a whisky Mac )

Gold top. Big plug of cream at the top.

My parents (born in the 20s / 30s) were brought up on sterilised milk for cups of tea, so that’s what we had.

egg nog!

Anything boiled. Cabbage. Potatoes. All washed down with Guinness, after all it was good for you. Didn't do her any harm, lived to be 84 with no ill health and I doubt she drank a glass of water in her life.

Proper breakfast - eggs or porridge with toast, butter, home made jam
Main meal at lunch time - homemade meat pie with potatoes and veg, or gammon with salad and boiled spuds, roast dinner on a Sunday, cold roast with salad and chips on a Monday, mince and tatties. Usually with a pudding.
Tea was sandwiches or soup or bacon and eggs or beans on toast.
Couple of digestive biscuits with a cuppa during the day.
Ovaltine and a square of chocolate before bed.
Sunday tea was lovely - trifle, scones (cheese and fruit), HM cake, tinned fruit and 'vap.

However, I have some of her dinner plates and they are literally half the size of mine 😬, and pudding bowls are the size of a teacup.

What she grew or could trade for. She was a smallhold farmer with 3 fields, 2 cows and seasonal pigs, chickens/turkeys and sometimes lamb. My mother was a champion hand milker as a teen
She loved a fish supper and would have delighted in a microwave ready meals. She died in 1984 and loved the modern appliances of the day.