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.

My maternal grandmother (born in the early 1920s) didn’t eat anything she considered “foreign” such as pasta or rice! Everything was homemade though. She bought my mum a Vesta curry once as a ‘treat’. 🤣
She died in her late 70s of cancer. She smoked for many years though, as was more common back then.

Born 1905
Breakfast- one slice of toast with marmalade
11’s- cubes of strong cheddar and a sherry to wash down the Aspirin she took every day in case she had a headache later.
12:30 -cooked meal so faggots, mash and peas or similar
6pm- a slice of Gala pie or a sandwich and a cake.
Died of stomach cancer!

Little Red Riding Hood

My DM would leave left over Sunday roast chickens or the Christmas turkey uncovered on a plate in the pantry. They went away one summer and I forgot about the left over roast chicken for a few days. Still, the birds had a field day once I’d hauled the manky carcass into the garden.

@PassTheCordialCordelia “car dependency, lack of activity” This is a really big factor of modern life compared to previous generations.
My grandfathers and dad all walked or cycled to work and did manual jobs, my grandmothers were both at home but active, walking for shopping, housework, keeping kids entertained.
I take a train to the office or work at home, at a desk all day. There’s a significant difference in activity levels.

One, I don't know. I didn't see her often. The other: lots of tinned food, cheap cuts of meat, white bread, salad, loads of cakes bought from M&S.

A proper breakfast most days. We’d have ham shank and cabbage with new potatos, curry with what ever left over meat was there from the Sunday roast, lots of home baked goods - my nan never done the cooking tbh, it was all on my grandad and he was a lovely cook. My maternal nan was head cook in a school canteen and was a fabulous cook, she was a bit more upmarket and made things like beef wellington, salmon en croute etc. But both sides bought most things fresh daily from local butchers and fruit and veg shops.

My grannie was born in 1912 and they were farmers.

Lunch in cooler weather was always a stew (beef, lamb, oxtail, mince) or a pie: rabbit, chicken and ham, meat (beef), some times slices of boiled ham. Always with potatoes and veg and often dumplings - there was a marvellous steamed ham and suet pudding with parsley sauce. This was also given to the men and lunch was usually for 8-10.

In warmer weather, meat, cheese, pork pies (huge - I remember the gelatine going in, brawn (made in the old copper in the scullery), pressed tongue (I have never been able to eat it), always boiled potatoes but I don't really remember much salad but there were often pickled beets, pickled onions and tomatoes.

Puddings were fruit pies, rice puddings, custard, blancmange, sometimes a steamed pudding.

One of the wives was paid as a cook.

They ate more lightly in the evenings. Fish, parsley sauce, chops, sometimes some left over meat pie. Or more grossly- stuffed, baked hearts for example. There was always ice cream and fresh fruit, jelly and condensed milk. An awful lot of pastry was made - I used to help.

There were also plenty of sweets and lots of tinned fruit.

Not much in the cakes and biscuit line as grannie wasn't a cook and certainly wasn't a Baker. To be honest some of the evening meals were pretty tasteless - I recall being given white fish in white sauce with mash and cauliflower and pork chops, tinned spaghetti and chips.

Ox cheek and lambs tongues boiled up for the dogs. I cannot get my head around ox cheek being a tasty delicacy. Lambs tongues stewing were enough to put you off food for a fortnight.

I recall there was often a chicken in the kitchen but it was quickly shooed out.

I don't remember much of my Granny's food.
Whenever we stayed over there was always toast and jam and a cup of tea (from the Teasmaid!) for breakfast. Apart from that I remember her banana bread, and the vast platters of food in the front room at New Year

I remember my mum saying they would have a meal and granny would have a slice of bread and butter saying she'd eaten earlier. She only realised when she was older that there wasn't enough for everyone to eat. This was the 1920/30s. I could cry for my poor granny.

I remember going to a butchers near Meltham to buy a whole tongue, I still love it to this day 🙃

She was tight with her food though. My grandad went away to war and came back fatter 😂

Granny was a big eater and she did eat some processed food. Porridge with treacle for breakfast, or Fruit N Fibre with milk. Sandwiches for lunch. A home cooked dinner of meat, potatoes and veg, followed by homemade pudding with custard or blancmange. She always had a snack before bed as well.

Dripping sandwiches

Full roast dinner two types of meat three different veg and mash potatoes with gravy

Milky tea made with bulls blood milk (sterilised milk)

Marble cake with buttercream icing

When they used to work in the fields they were allowed to eat free food and my grandad would go scrumping for apples occasionally and pick blackberry's

My grannies were both born pre-WW1. Very plain eating, stews, casseroles, lots of veg grown in the garden. Both were expert bakers. Breakfast was always porridge or toast - never cereal. Cooked meal at lunchtime, lighter meal early evening. Copious use of butter and lard.

Cabbage pie

I remember we used to stay at my nans, and she would do us a bowl of cereal for brekkie, followed by a full fry up. Then lunch was always a sandwich, with a bag of crisps and dinner was a traditional meat and two veg meal followed by a solid helping of apple pie and custard etc.

No-one got down until plates were empty.

But then, as she got old she suddenly started to do this thing where she hardly ate. So just enough cereal to cover the bottom of a bowl, one slice of toast with a barely there spread of jam, and a dinner barely big enough to fill a side plate.

Always telling us she wasn't really hungry, but put a big plate of food in front of her and she would scoff it like her life depended on it.

It was like she became a competitive under-eater.

One just appeared to drink wine, the other wine and coffee.

Oh god I have just remembered homemade quiche!

My dad had me later in life so he grew up in rural Ireland in the 1930/40s - my Gran made everything from scratch - they experienced no rationing during the war as they could grow most things - they even grew a version of sugar cane!

I think eggs, gammon, cabbage, potatoes, butter, cheese soda bread , apple tart & pints of tea has it covered

I don’t think my Dad would have had a single preservative until he was 25!

I only knew one of my four grandparents, and she lived quite far. On the few occasions i met her she ate really small portions.

My other gp-s died before or just after I was born. My mum would often say something like they (and she when she was a child) ate ‘brown bread and raw onion’ because there wasn’t anything else… They grew lots of food but I guess, some years there wasn’t enough to go around.

Yes, boiled, eaten on their own, using fingers!

My grandma in her 80s and 90s became a fan of a banana sandwich - real butter light sprinkling caster sugar. Not health food

A cup of tea every 30mins

Also forgot “a nice bit of finny addick”. Finnan haddock bright yellow dyed from the fishmonger, served on Friday with boiled potatoes, green beans and buttered bread to mop up the delicious toxic yellow juice

Sunday, Roast, 2veg, potatoes (usually boiled or new in summer) and gravy
monday, sliced cold meat from the roast, mash and veg in winter, salad in summer
tuesday, stew, with the remains of the roast, lots of root veg and boiled potatoes or sometimes a Shepard’s pie, had her own mincer and would mince the cooked roast meat. Her Shepards pie was lovely with lots of gravy.
wednesday, chops, veg, potato and gravy
thursday, sausages or liver and bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, baked beans and bread
friday, usually vegetarian as firmly convinced you shouldn’t eat meat every day. Made a cheese and potato pie , or a cauliflower pie, which also had quite a bit of cheese, served with veg or salad in the summer
saturday, sometimes fish and chips, sometimes a cheese or egg salad and bread

most weeks very similar, lots of veggies, generally boiled. Cooked from scratch and ate her main meal at 12:30pm. Used a traditional (and excellent quality) butcher and baker, good greengrocer too. Had toast for breakfast with slices of butter on top, absolutely loads of butter. Ate tea at about 6pm, bread and jam, plain cake. Tinned salmon sandwiches for Sunday tea regularly. cheese scones were another teatime treat. Tinned fruit (peaches, pears or fruit salad) was another weekend tea time treat.

was a good cook, her food was very tasty, just limited in range

zero snacks, not many puddings, enjoyed fruit seasonally. Zero rice, pasta, spices (apart from in cakes!) Salad was lettuce, cucumber, tomato and spring onions.

drank tea at all mealtimes, for elevenses, mid afternoon and in the evening. Never drank water, and rarely anything but tea. Liked milk stout if out.