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.

I remember home brewing too, lots of glass containers and tubes in the kitchen cupboards!

Primary school (with awful dinners) had family service with older pupils being "mum and dad" and dishing out the food to younger pupils - a lot of room for abusing that system! Secondary was self-service with much better food, if your year group was last that week there would only be chips and a roll left with a few minutes to eat it!

Yes, for this to go in classics.

Reading these posts has made me realise that I had a really privileged upbringing foodwise.

Living in the London area, having a parent who wasn't English and that parent being an excellent Cordon Bleu qialified cook meant that we ate a lot of foods and dishes in the 1960s that weren't widely available to most other parts of the country even in the 1970s.

My mum made the most amazing cakes from German recipes. We would eat dishes such as chicken provencal, chicken in caper sauce, roast lamb studded with garlic, shepherd's pie made with said lamb minced up, the most amazing creamed potatoes made with potatoes put through a mouli legumes, home made pizza with olives and anchovies on, blueberry pie, fish and chips every Saturday linchtime. Pasta was frequently on the menu.

We also ate less nice dishes such as a stew made with lambs hearts, spinach Florentine, her version of summer pudding, chilli con carne made with corned beef.

Talking of tomatoes, my mother had really 'green fingers' and we used to have a greenhouse full of them! She used to make a lovely simple tomato salad, which involved slicing them and laying the slices in a dish, drizzling over olive oil, seasoning and then chopped up chives from the garden. Wonderfully fresh, zingy salad!

@RampantIvy

Reading these posts has made me realise that I had a really privileged upbringing foodwise.

Living in the London area, having a parent who wasn't English and that parent being an excellent Cordon Bleu qialified cook meant that we ate a lot of foods and dishes in the 1960s that weren't widely available to most other parts of the country even in the 1970s.

My mum made the most amazing cakes from German recipes. We would eat dishes such as chicken provencal, chicken in caper sauce, roast lamb studded with garlic, shepherd's pie made with said lamb minced up, the most amazing creamed potatoes made with potatoes put through a mouli legumes, home made pizza with olives and anchovies on, blueberry pie, fish and chips every Saturday linchtime. Pasta was frequently on the menu.

We also ate less nice dishes such as a stew made with lambs hearts, spinach Florentine, her version of summer pudding, chilli con carne made with corned beef.

God that sounds good. Nothing like it in our house. My parents were completely indifferent to food and my mother still is.

One of my teachers invited me to her house for a revision session not long before my A levels in 1979. Afterwards we went into the kitchen and she said we were going to have globe artichokes followed by lasagne. 'Do you like garlic?' she asked. I answered truthfully that I didn't know as we never had it at home, but I always enjoyed Italian food when we ate out, so I was sure I would. And I did. Never had globe artichokes before either, but I'd probably read about them in cookery books.

I first tasted hummus in London in early 1980. I loved it. It may well have been possible to get it in Leeds in the 70s, but I don't think I'd even heard of it before I moved south.

@dysongirl

I definitely think this should go in Classics!
It really has triggered some heart-warming memories!

@sueelleker
Frozen cream sticks were fab! I definitely think they should still be a thing.
I also loved sterilised cream in a can. A lot of people don't like the taste of it, but I love it. I think it is still made - I should treat myself!!!

Houmous I discovered properly while back packing around the Greek Islands in about 1982, although I think I knew what it was, so I guess I must have had it before. However, what was on the English menus as yoghurt with garlic seemed horrific to me & I don't think I tried it. Of course it was tsatsiki which I love.

I am pretty sure you could always get fresh asparagus in season. The asparagus farms were certainly there. It was expensive though. We grew it and I think we started the first crowns in the seventies.

@MagicSummer

Talking of tomatoes, my mother had really 'green fingers' and we used to have a greenhouse full of them! She used to make a lovely simple tomato salad, which involved slicing them and laying the slices in a dish, drizzling over olive oil, seasoning and then chopped up chives from the garden. Wonderfully fresh, zingy salad!

Are you my sister? My mum did exactly the same.

@Cookerhood

I remember the frozen chocolates. Brought out proudly at a dinner party. Poosibly from Bejam.

I think they were called Secrets. I still make wine, mostly from fruit juices.

We also drank tea from quite young, I remember it in plastic kids' mugs. It was very weak, milky and sweet. We also had a very weak coffee, which was called "milk and a dash" ie hot milk with a dash of coffee.

My parents made a green tomato chutney each year, with tomatoes from the greenhouse and also a plum jam. I remember not liking the skins on either!

Yes to the greenhouse full of tomatoes. Actually I think that's how we first had courgettes too which seemed very sophisticated - Mum made ratatouille with them and I remember her lying & telling Dad there was no garlic in it otherwise he wouldn't have eaten it.

@Cookerhood

Houmous I discovered properly while back packing around the Greek Islands in about 1982, although I think I knew what it was, so I guess I must have had it before. However, what was on the English menus as yoghurt with garlic seemed horrific to me & I don't think I tried it. Of course it was tsatsiki which I love.

yes around about 1983/4 my mum started making her own for parties

The smell of greenhouse tomatoes in the summer is so reminiscent of my childhood. I still love sliced summer tomatoes with coarse salt and a little vinegar (balsamic these days rather than malt!) and some fresh bread.
My Mum also used to make thinly sliced cucumber and onion pickled in malt vinegar when we had salad or a buffet. I do a similar thing now with light pickling vinegar and it is actually delish!
I was also remembering, reading this thread, how much my Dad loved a Bird's trifle

The smell of greenhouse tomatoes ❤️ I buy tomato diffusers from the White Company which come out in summer, they are fantastic.

Butteredtoast my dad used to make "Indian onion salad", finely sliced onion, sometimes with cucumber, mint from the garden with malt vinegar. If you use lemon juice, it is pretty much like the stuff you get with poppadoms. Also, fresh tomatoes from the greenhouse with a little salt and sugar (!) and oregano or marjoram from the garden too.

My granny (born 1915) used to give me lettuce with brown sugar and vinegar as a treat after school in the 1970s. It was surprisingly yummy.

My granny used to make roast beef and yorkshire pudding followed by lemon pudding and then take hours to eat it with her false teeth.

Mumsnet said they agree this should be in classics too!

@RampantIvy - isn't that funny? No, I don't have a sister. I always thought this was a salad my mother had made up by herself too!

I have diaries from 1971 and 1972 when I used to write down what we had for dinner. I will try to find them tomorrow and hopefully add to the memories!

There was a lot of English food that my father's family made that my mother, being French and having grown up also in Vienna, used to loathe.

When my granny served things like toad in the hole or queen of puddings we would watch my mother's set in a resting bitch face.

On the plus side, chocolate cake to us was sacher torte or opéra. So I was always a bit bemused to be served dry, bland 'chocolate cake' made with cocoa powder at other children's houses.

@MagicSummer

Do find them!

I found my mum's 'dinner party diaries' going back to 1968.

She wrote down every guest, exactly what she made, how much all the ingredients cost & what she wore.

My mother was italian so we ate well: seafood, soups, italian style roasts, veal cutlets,, liver, lots of vegetable dishes and a salad with every meal. Pasta meals were rare and there were no desserts, just fruit. 0000However, she did like to investigate english food, so sometimes I had spam (ok), tongue or meat paste (yeuch) sandwiches for school! My mother used to take us out for afternoon tea for an occasional treat - a selection of tiny sandwiches and cakes.

@TatianaBis - how wonderful to find those diaries! I absolutely love Sachertorte - must find a recipe!

My mother also had dinner parties quite regularly - they were such a serious affair! She used to make things such as cheese souffle for a starter or the ubiquitous avocado with prawns and then something like a boeuf bourguignon or roast pheasant or lamb crown. I sometimes made the puds - my specialities were Black Forest Gateau (I still have a wonderful recipe for that), Pavlova or a baked cheesecake! I was a teenager and my other job was to make the coffee for after dinner! We had a lady who came in to make the salad and do the washing up afterwards.