Food folklore

[AllieDeCorbeau]

Hello,
I am wondering if anybody has any food folklore to share? Or any related to sewing, spinning wool, weaving, etc...
i'm doing research for a fiction book. It takes place in Britain before the start of World War II. I know there was some folklore about never giving your husband a perfectly knitted sweater lest he run of in it.

so I'm looking for this kind of stuff but around food. Even if you have one that you don't think was widespread, I would love to hear it.

thank you in advance

Only eat pork if there is an R in the month

Eat like a king at breakfast, a Prince at lunch and a pauper at dinner

When I peel the sprouts for Christmas Dinner it is essential to cut a cross in the stalk to let Satan out .
Doesn't matter what these new fangled TV chefs say .

I was told eating raw potato or pastry would give you worms. (Who would eat raw potato or pastry?)

If you spill salt you have to throw it with your right hand over your left should into the eye of the devil or he ill stalk you. (I still do this and told DS1 why when he was young and have noticed he does it too as an adult.)

(I still do this and told DS1 why when he was young and have noticed he does it too as an adult.)
There will be so much in the book that is from 'old times' even before you get to 'folklore'. DD copies me in shaking the milk but never understood why she did it - I had to explain about cream separating (i.e. rising to the top and therefore needing to be shaken back in) before the invention of homogenisation.

OP, please do not make the mistake of serving your treacle tart with ice cream!

I am listening to an audiobook about Shakespeare and just now heard that eating meat on a Friday was no longer a hanging offence when King Henry VIII broke with Rome, but eating meat during Lent could see you in prison for 3 months ! Luckily you gave that a swerve !

Anybody taking the last sandwich or piece of cake had to turn it over three times in my (Welsh) cousins’ house.
I never asked why but I presume it was a “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” thing to make sure the plate got filled again!

In Victorian times there were other “charms” to put in the Christmas pudding, not just a silver sixpence.

The Christmas pudding was always made the day after bonfire night and left to mature.
Is this a regional, Lincolnshire thing? Most others do (or did) Stir Up Sunday

When my sister and I were little, I asked my mum one Good Friday when we were tucking into a meat meal, why some people wouldn't eat meat on Good Friday. She said "Oh, they say the meat turns into Jesus's flesh if you eat it." Needless to say, sister and I refused to finish that meal!

What a wonderful project! I don't know many, cutting the cross in soda bread lets the fairies out (really cooks it evenly). The salt thing is in many cultures, salt must have been important historically.

I didn't grow up in the UK but as a child if we would twist an apple stem for example 4 times before it detached, then the name of our future husband would start with D (fourth letter of the alphabet).

If your book has a French character, whoever mixes the green salad and has a lettuce leaf fall out of the bowl will be married soon, same if you lose a bread cube in fondue. Similarly, whoever finishes a bottle of champagne and kisses the bottom of the empty bottle will be married before the end of the year.

We were told raw potato would make us very ill, especially the green bits (verge of death).

The salt thing is in many cultures, salt must have been important historically.
It was important because of its preservative powers (long before fridges and canning were invented!) but difficult to obtain, therefore it was very expensive. One of our word for wages - salary - comes from the Roman word for salt.

We had turnips at Hallowe'en in the north west too. Soul cakes were the traditional food on All Hallows, you can download a recipe here; https://www.lymmhic.co.uk/soulcaking There was a soul caking song too

There was a man nearby me who charmed warts.

My family farm (sadly long gone) had a fairy thorn on it and everyone was warned never to touch it due to the dire consequences that might befall the family.

I live near a holy well where the water has supposed healing properties. There is a bush to tie pieces of material after you've used the water.

My DS is very annoyed about the only fish on Friday thing finishing in schools it was his favourite dinner every week 😂

OMG we had that one too! Welsh and Cornish parents.

I had the one about not washing hair during my ‘time’! Also, with no explanation. And my grandmother was Nigerian, so whatever it is, it’s clearly cross-cultural. 🤣

Loving this thread.

My mother told the story of a girl she worked with.

She HAD to wash her hair or have a bath, but it was her 'time of the month' so she had a bath but wore her wellies so her feet didn't get wet.

@NormaJoan The Tudors took things seriously.

Put your feet in a washing up bowl full of hot water and a teaspoon mustard powder.
Will warm you right up

If I felt sick as a child, we used to have bicarb and soda diluted in a bit of water. It made you vomit straight away to feel better. Not sure if only my family did this?!?

The usual 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away'

And it probably did!

There is quite a bit of food-related information in the book A Field Guide to the Little People (by Nancy Arrowsmith, Heinz Edelm). A couple of examples from the book below.

”The best reward for a Brownie who has helped with the housework is a bowl of cream and a hot-cake smeared with honey. In Scotland, the Brownie’s craving for sweets is so well known that an especially delectable tidbit is known as ‘a piece wad please a Brownie.’ Brownies also accept simpler offerings of beer and brown bread if these are left quietly in their favourite corner.”

”Cakes that aren’t marked with a cross before baking often get tiny pockmarks on them when they set out to cool. Somerset people say that the holes are made by the Vairies who dance on them with high-heeled shoes.”

As a child, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents in Sussex, where there is a legend about, if you run around a local hill backwards 7 times, the devil will appear and give you a bowl of soup. My db and I may have tried this more than once....

This thread prompted me to look it up - it's on wiki so it must be true!

Local legend has it that Chanctonbury Ring was created by the Devill^ and that he can be summoned by running around the clump of trees seven times anti-clockwise. When he appears he will offer the summoner a bowl of soupp^ in exchange for their soul. Frank R. Williams, writing in the Sussex Notes and Queries in 1944, argues that the story derives from ancient pagan worship which would include a ritual dance ceremony followed by a sacrificial feast. The association with Chanctonbury derives from an earlier pagan site on the land.[16] The story is widely known orally with variations (such as the Devil offering porridge or milk instead of soup) but may be of relatively recent origins, with its first known appearance in print dating to Arthur Beckett's 1909 book The Spirit of the Downs.[9]

There the Italian tradition, popularised by ^Its a Wonderful Life* where you give salt, bread and wine as housewarming gifts:
Bread so you never go hungry
Wine so you never go thirsty
Salt so that life never looses its taste

Love this! 🤣🤣🤣

Ahhh , I've seen the phrase When you sup with the Devil you need a long spoon (OK , I;ve seen this phrase in Jilly Cooper books)
The soup explains it

The hair washing thing when you’ve got your period, could it be because you washed your hair in the bath (before showers), so it was the same water you’d sat in, and you would only wash your hair once a week (if that). Best to wait until a few days later in that situation.