Cooking in the 1970s

[ambereeree]

I've been watching Delia Smith cookery shows from the 1970s and some things really stood out so if you were an adult then please enlighten me.
Delia introduces dried beans and lentils as a food of the future because meat is expensive and scarce and we'll all be eating more plant based substitutes. Of course we all know now meat is cheap and not great quality but people eat loads. What was it like in the 1970s?
Also most of her dishes are European-did you cook Indian/Chinese food in the 1970s?
I was born at the end of the 70s and am not ethnically English so always had non English food. I remember my mum making Indian savoury snacks and taking them into an mainly white English primary school and the teachers all excitedly gathering to have a taste of spicy foods.

After the UK joined the EEC, tins of butter cookies from Denmark started to appear (their production was subsidised in order to use up some of the European butter mountain) and the fancy tins had pictures of Nyhavn or Amalienborg in Copenhagen or timbered houses in Jutland on the lid.

We had a tin from Granny every Christmas.

We had the Cookery Year. It came to us in the '80s one Christmas, with had a hamper from one of the fertiliser or seed companies. My sister now has it. I have an '80s edition of the Dairy Book of Family Cookery, which was produced for the Milk Marketing Board's 50th anniversary. It's got some good puds and cakes.

@Spasiba

One of my favourite memories was sucking the string that had been tied around the roast joint. The string had absorbed the cooking juices and tasted lovely.

Me too :)

My Mum made chili con carne using condensed tomato soup. It was here go to to feed us all when camping etc.

One day probably late 60s we were crossing the border from the US to Canada after a camping trip. Mum had chili in the trunk, in a big electric fry pan. The customs agent wanted to look in the trunk. My youngest sister, about 4, called out, "is that man going to take our supper?" Fortunately he let us through as they do confiscate food often.

Maybe it was the tomato soup...

Bubble and squeak, corned beef hash, pilchards in tomato sauce on toast, tinned chopped tomatoes on toast, curried beans on toast, garlic mushrooms in sauce on toast - the garlic was either garlic salt or dried garlic powder, liver and onions, steak and kidney pies

Rhubarb or gooseberry fool, tapioca, treacle tart with custard.

I am feeling very nostalgic for my childhood now!

I had my first chinese meal in a restaurant when I moved to the city for college. 1972. ..... oh, except for vesta chow mein.

This thread brings back lots of memories.

In the 70's we lived in a rural farming community, very vanilla so absolutely no 'foreign' food whatsoever but meat was plentiful. Meals were meat and two veg, roast on a Sunday, bangers and mash, toad in the hole etc. Pudding after the roast on Sunday and Mum often made more dinner than we needed so we could have bubble and squeek in the evening.

We had little money but grew our own veg and we had a massive freezer in which to keep meet and the veg. Mum would prepare the veg then freeze them in portion sizes and get a bag out when needed.

Fresh fish was only eaten when my Grandad had caught plenty of trout and gave us some. Apart from that fish was only eaten as fish paste but I think we only had that in the 80's.

Didn't have an evening meal weekdays as 'you had a hot dinner at school'. It was always bread and jam I remember complaining to my Mum as other kids told me they had 'chips for tea', I got told off for complaining. School dinners were not that great and portion sizes tiny. I remember the dinner lady using an ice cream scoop to put the mashed potato on your plate. They served baked beans but they didn't taste anything like the beans from a tin. There was always pudding but usually cheap like semolina or tapioca with a tiny dollop of red sweet liquid in the middle. I hated the days they served liver, it was grey and bitter but you ate it as a) you'd be hungry otherwise and b) you'd be told off for being wasteful and ungrateful.

Ken Home and Madhur Jeffrey didn't start on TV until the 80's but I loved Ken's show. I was utterly fascinated by Chinese food.

We never ate anything like pasta in the 70's. Sweets were from a sweet shop where you'd go in and buy your favourites by the quarter. I remember the chocolate buttons with sprinkles on them and the chocolate covered brasil nuts that were my favourite but the most expensive.

We never ate out apart from takeaway fish and chips which was a huge treat (as Mum would say 'but I can make it cheaper at home' and I'd tell her it 'didn't taste the same') and a 99 when at the seaside.

Lots of cakes but no eating between meals as it would 'ruin your appetite'. There was always plenty of veg but fresh fruit was rare. Fruit came in tins, like tinned peaches in syrup. The cream at the top of a pint of milk was was treat. I remember excitedly removing the silver top and drinking it straight from the bottle.

My Mum was an excellent cook, her meat pie had no equal.

I had my first Chinese meal with a posh school friends parents when I was about 11 in the 70s. I was blown away by the chopsticks, the decor, and the food. Spare ribs were like the tastiest thing I’d ever eaten.

I went through a phase when I was 7 to about 9 of only eating v little, ,really quite disordered eating probably due to a trauma, and looking back my parents were quite worried I’d slip back to that.

So when I came home raving about the Chinese, that was it, my mum was all for learning how to do it. Then my big sister went to university and discovered curry. Omg.

@MaryIsA

I had my first Chinese meal with a posh school friends parents when I was about 11 in the 70s. I was blown away by the chopsticks, the decor, and the food. Spare ribs were like the tastiest thing I’d ever eaten.

I went through a phase when I was 7 to about 9 of only eating v little, ,really quite disordered eating probably due to a trauma, and looking back my parents were quite worried I’d slip back to that.

So when I came home raving about the Chinese, that was it, my mum was all for learning how to do it. Then my big sister went to university and discovered curry. Omg.

Your post has made me feel so warm inside thinking of your mum's response.

Spam fritters - but many worked that off walking to school, I must have 2-3 miles each way with awful briefcase which banged against my legs - strap bags weren't kooool.

Broken biscuits and Cadbury's mis-shaped chocolates could both be bought in Woolworths. And the joy if you found a bit of pink wafer or chocolate biscuit!

And the joy if you found a bit of pink wafer or chocolate biscuit!

And the art of dunking a biscuit into your tea just enough so it went soggy but not enough for it to break off in your mug.

It's amazing how many memories this thread is prompting, little things I've never even thought of.

Like only having one slice of meat with a roast and my parents saying eat the meat at least. As a pp said in more likely to say eat your veg to the kids. I feel a bit ashamed of how much meat dh and I eat with a roast, we occasionally have left overs from large cuts and will make a curry but often just eat most of a chicken in one day

My parents weren't poor but I guess they had to watch their money as only one wage and it was probably inherited from their parents who were all from poorer backgrounds. Only had one dgf (paternal) and he grew all his own fruit and veg as a hangover from the war. I did a life history project on one of my maternal great aunts and she told me all about being one of 9 in poverty. Despite all the family working in hard physical jobs, the men got the meat, women and young kids just had gravy and suet pudding/potatoes and veg they'd grown in their cottage garden.

The Cookery Year book is interesting in that it concentrates on the things that are in season. No year-round strawberries and mangoes in the 70s!

I live in France now and there is still very much a seasonal feel to what is available - especially in the markets obviously.

Took me a while to get used to the fact that you see stalls groaning with beautiful asparagus for 2 weeks, and then you have to wait another year for them to come round again.

Just to add that I'm pretty sure we never had asparagus in the 70s

Who remembers dripping on toast for tea on Sunday nights? Dripping from the Sunday roast. A delight my children have never experienced!

@SparkysMagicPiano

Just to add that I'm pretty sure we never had asparagus in the 70s

We used to have it twice a year on a Friday, two weeks running, bought from someone who grew it and sold it on a market stall together with their homemade minced beef pies - so that's how we ate it, mince pie & asparagus. Delicious!

I am from Oz but I seem to think our sunday night teas were usually tinned creamed corn on buttered toast.

Still a go to comfort food for me.

Then when my parents (both exceptional cooks) got more adventurous usually pumpkin soup with cheese croutons.

But we had a spell when i was quite young when money was hard to come by and we had lamb mince and peas on toast every day for dinner for it seemed like months. I still cannot tolerate it 40 years
later.

and for a little while mid-70s we lived with my Grandparents (Father's side), My GM was an amazing baker. I recall her making Genoa cake and cannoli and home made cassata. This was very rural Australia and we did not have Italian ancestry.

My other grandmother on the other hand was not a good cook. I recall (not in a good way) her brawn! She did not have a refrigerator and only a meat safe and I recall the brawn going green around the edges and her just scraping that off. She also did a good sideline in brains. My mother's favourite comfort food was crumbed lambs brain white bread sandwiches with butter.

Dripping on toast - sooooo gorgeous!!! I think beef joints must have had more fat in those days.

And yes to seasonal fruit & veg. It was a joyous day to find new potatoes accompanying the chops/stew/pie for tea, and when pudding was strawberries you knew summer had arrived!

Just to add that I'm pretty sure we never had asparagus in the 70s

We did, because we had a big bed of it - Dad was very fond of it. I don't think I had bought asparagus until the '90s, though.

Just to add that I'm pretty sure we never had asparagus in the 70s

We did, elderly neighbour had a big garden and would give us some. But all fresh fruit and veg were seasonal, so at this time of year, unless you had a freezer, the only veg available was cabbage, greens, & purple sprouting. (spuds, carrots, swedes & onions would keep over winter)

Just to add that I'm pretty sure we never had asparagus in the 70s

We did too - loved the stuff from April to June fresh. The rest of the year we had tinned, which was not so nice! I remember my mother making asparagus and cream cheese wrapped in brown bread as canapes for her cocktail parties! They were lovely then, but I tried to make them a few years ago and it tasted horrible!

If we did have asparagus, it would have come in a tin or jar. I love asparagus, but have a real fondness for the taste and texture of the tinned/jarred stuff too!

We definitely had asparagus.

We had packed lunches at my primary school. My mum used to do things like cottage cheese with fresh peach halves, grilled asparagus & little lemon cheesecake puddings that she would store in the freezer.

Other children tended to have white packet bread sandwiches with slice of processed ham or cheddar cheese, a packet of crisps eg Frazzles or KP Skips, and a chocolate bar.

They thought my food was weird, I thought theirs was vile.

I didn’t have asparagus until I was much older! Maybe in my late 20s. I wasn’t something we would have ever had.

Born in the 60s - first tried pasta in 1975, chilli in 1984, first restaurant curry 1985, first Chinese food 1973. We had lots of chops, stews, mince, shepherds pie ( still a favourite), smoked fish in milk, with roast chicken occasionally on a Sunday. Roast lamb was an Easter treat. Desert with most meals - jelly, tinned cream, angel delight, tinned sponge, custard, sweet corn flour, semolina, farola, stewed fruit. Most meals cooked from scratch with the exception being findus crispy pancakes and fray bentos pies. My mum baked lots - jam buns, coffee and walnut cake ( made with camp coffee) , lemon drizzle cake, chocolate cake, Dundee cake, cherry and almond cake and tray bakes galore. Yum yum. My mum became more adventurous in the 80s and also made spag Bol and curry. School packed lunches were a bit grim but I did like sandwich pickle and Sardines in tomato sauce.