Back to 1950s cuisine to cope with COL

[Bleachedjeans]

I started a similar thread a while ago and I wonder if the responses are the same. I now make Sunday roasts with chicken followed by a meal of leftover chicken , veg etc on Monday. Homemade meat pie, egg and chips, stews, salads made with basics: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber. Cut down massively on ‘fancy’ veg, herbs, spices. I’m really missing steak, asparagus etc. even my favourite ratatouille seems expensive these days and not the budget meal it used to be. I’m a keen cook but I’m now cooking like my grandma!
Still trying to maintain standards: no UPF, crappy pizzas, nuggets.
Anyone else?
Not really AIBU but I like AIBU 😊

Egg and chips is food of the gods to be fair.
j’ve been eating a fry up quite a lot recently - couple of sausages and baked beans as well.

Before your recent epiphany did you used to throw away the leftover chicken from your Sunday roasts?

I can't believe that some people would do this, rather than make a meal with the leftovers.

I'd never do without chilli and garlic to save money, as they can make a meal of cheap ingredients delicious.

Asparagus is vile at this time of year anyway so you're not missing much! One of the main things about eating 1950s style is to make the most of what's in season surely?

I often go straight to the till and get a couple of the Lidl £1.50 veg boxes first when I do the weekly shop. Then look at what I've got and write a quick meal plan and shopping list there and then before going round the whole shop. Last week we had caponata because there were aubergines and peppers in one box!

Some do, and post on here saying they do.

Goodness, I don't know. Each to their own, but I am not wasting anything that I could get an extra meal out of, it is not free.🐔

Sunday roast is pretty spenny though, even if you use the leftovers for another meal. I'd rather buy spices and "fancy" veg - whatever it is.
I try to grow as much of the food as my tiny garden allows. Peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, spinach, beets, peas, cavalo Nero, garlic...

Herbs and spices aren't "fancy". They're expensive if you buy them in those mimsy little pots in the supermarket, but if you go in the world foods section or in the ethnic shops, spices are cheap and often, so are big bunches of herbs. You really don't have to eat like it's the 1950s to save money.

I can’t imagine having any meat left over for the next day from a normal sized chicken!

You can grow a lot of your own herbs. I have bay bush too. Just bought last year. Most other stuff in pots. Shop own brand spice, cheaper than named brands. I chop and freeze a lot in the summer for winter. I still have frozen peppers that we grew in the summer.

Why would you eschew herbs and spices? Do you think such ingredients weren’t used in the 1950s?!

I bought a load of cheap pots in b and m and got some compost and I’ve planted out some of the herbs that you can get in supermarkets in pots.

basil dies each year so I have to rebuy each spring but the rosemary, sage, camomile, mint, parsley and oregano are still going great two years on and it’s fresh out of the garden as well.

1950s? This is literally normal cooking for me! Along with growing my own.

Except we have wonderful sourdough pizzas and bread. And I make my own chicken nuggets when we fancy them. To me, 1950s cooking is meat and two veg, no reason not to be able to do that these days. It's just common sense to use up leftovers.

Excuse me but I don't understand how this is "back to the 1950s." It doesn't sound that unusual to me. If we have a roast or chicken on Sunday we have always made use of the leftovers. Who doesn't? And we just had a homemade steak pie this evening, I used shin of beef. It needs a long, slow cook in the oven to make the pie filling but it was delicious. I didn't realise I had stepped in to a time machine.

Anyway, can I add liver to your list? That's pretty economical I think and can be tasty if you cook it nicely.

As far as I know they weren't used widely, no. My former MIL always waxed lyrical about going to France on honeymoon in the early 60s and that was when they discovered the joys of garlic and herbs. Before then, it was mostly salt and pepper. And they were both from pretty affluent families.

Asparagus is expensive and not great at this time of year.
Have you tried eating seasonally, or going veggie, even just on week days?

Batch cooking is the way forward for me. I always make enough for 3 meals, freeze and reheat. Saves on cooking times, prep and money buying in bulk. There's always a choice of different meals ready to go.
I buy yellow sticker food and cook it freeze that too. Saves a fortune.

Yeah I don't get it either. Yes I do cook a lot more Asian/Mex food than my mother did in the 80s, but would definitely be using leftover meat, making my own pies etc. You must have been spending a fortune

That all sounds lovely, and I bet that all those vegetables taste really good, as well.

You only need to buy herbs and spices once in a while and have them available all the time. I wouldn't buy fresh herbs but I do grow and freeze my own.
As a child of the 1950s I think the diet was repetitive and boring but undoubtedly cheaper. We were never hungry despite being poor.
It's also true that a Sunday roast did three meals, once as a roast, once cold and a third time in a pie. Same every week. I still do three meals from a roast but they are a bit more interesting and have more spices.

Perhaps she just wasn’t a very good cook?

Herbs and spices have been used in the UK for hundreds of years, if not forever. Lots even grow here.

I wasn’t around in the 1950s but my mother remembers my grandmother cooking with things like mint, sage, rosemary and basil.

I was brought up on 1950s style cooking, although I’m not sure the cheap cuts of meat then are that cheap anymore. Meat and two veg plus a pudding, because my dad liked a pudding.

Neck of lamb stew
Rolled breast of lamb (home made stuffing)
Liver and onions
Steak and kidney pie
Egg and chips (a Friday night tea)
Shepherds / cottage pie
Fish fingers with white parsley sauce

Weekend would usually be a roast on Saturday, cold meat and veg on Sunday and leftovers on Monday. We had a hand mincer for the leftovers - made the best minced meat for pies. Rarely had chicken as mum would get half a pig or lamb or a load of beef joints from the butcher for the freezer.

Puddings were treacle tart, lemon meringue pie, queen of puddings, bread and butter pudding. Lashings of birds custard. And Angel Delight 😬

I'd rather starve than not buy herbs and spices.

You don't need to do away withflavours to eat cheaply.
Dried herbs and spices are cheap and just as good as fresh in sauces, stews and casseroles.
Seasonal fresh veg is pretty cheap too, frozen meat and veg can be much cheaper than fresh.
Boiling the chicken carcass will give you stock that can be frozen for gravy or used in soups and risottos, same with beef, pork and lamb bones.
A dash of Worcester sauce can round out a dish too, a bottle of shops own brand is about £1 and can last years as long as its properly sealed in a dark cupboard.