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.

Wikipedia was my source for curds and whey being the same as junket, so could obviously be wrong!

MereDintofPandiculation our garden in the 70s was quite long, nearly half was the vegetable patch. There were also apple trees, raspberry and strawberry bushes, a greenhouse and a herb garden, separate from the main vegetable patch. The rest was grass with a small flowerbed and we had a swing. Come the 80s, my mum was working full time, we had holidays in the summer, when a lot would be harvested, so the vegetable patch was no longer viable. Also, we had an extension built and a patio in the middle - so the garden was significantly smaller.

My mum loved Delia and did many of her recipes. She did lots of dinner parties with fancy chicken dishes, and beautiful desserts. Mum would roast a chicken but make a creamy sauce with the juices rather than gravy. White cabbage and broccoli in a white sauce, ratatouille before it was popular. Brisket of beef on a bed of vegetables with red wine and herbs. Kidney Tobago. Dark chocolate paper case fillings with Sherry soaked sponge, fruit and whipped cream.
Her only disaster was adding curry powder to cooked mince, serving it on a bed of rice proudly announcing it was beef curry! God how I miss her

We lived in a newbuild house with a small back garden and a minuscule front garden. We didn't grow veg or fruit, and neither (as far as I can recall) did any of our neighbours. The back garden had a lawn with a washing line and to the side there was a border where my parents planted shrubs, annuals, bulbs etc.

Our garden now (Victorian terraced house) is also small and if we grew fruit/veg there we'd have no space for anything much else.

Ooohh Rognons Turbigo, I often used to make that as a romantic little supper dish, served with buttered tagliatelle (if I could get it) or rice. It could all be prepped ahead, so it was quick to cook, and inexpensive!
I must dig out my recipe!

My parents lived in a small 1913 semi. The half near the house was lawn with a swing and a path down the middle, along which ran the clothes line. The bottom half was given over to potatoes, carrots, cauliflowers, lettuce and radish in the summer. Gooseberry, currant,strawberries and raspberries at the bottom. I used to sit on the wall and lean into next door and eat their peas. The other side had a Bramley apple tree which is still going strong and it was huge when I was a child.

I remember parsley as curly, never flat leaf.

Yes, definitely curly parsley and curly kale too! My mum always got us to drink the "green water" from cooking any greens, as it had all the goodness in it. Ahead of her time.

@baggies I made Delias white sauce from one of the vintage shows. It was really good and she has good tips.
I was imagining that lots of people would be sitting there before the show pen and paper ready to take notes.

@EBearhug

Not forgetting a rabbit shaped jelly Sat on "grass", which was dessicated coconut with green food colouring.

We still have a rabbit jelly mold. Occasionally, for a laugh when the kids visit, we will make a pink blancmange rabbit on chopped up lime jelly.

[quote ambereeree]@baggies I made Delias white sauce from one of the vintage shows. It was really good and she has good tips.
I was imagining that lots of people would be sitting there before the show pen and paper ready to take notes.[/quote]
I've still got a few recipes I copied down in the Ceefax/Teletext days.

My GM was a great cook and made a joint of beef last for days for a large family. Roast on Sunday (yorkshire pud and home made gravy, lots of veg). Cold with jacket potatoes and home made chutney Monday. Rissoles Tuesday. Shepherd's pie Wednesday. Thursday cauliflower cheese or liver and bacon, Friday fish, Saturday toad in the hole. Managed on a fair shoe string. Mind you I've never seen a sharper knife or a thinner slice of beef. It was the large amount of veg that helped it out.

My mother was cooking with garlic and spices in the early Sixties helped by living abroad with Lebanese, Italian and French friends. But I have her diary from a £25 holiday in Europe in the Fifties where she asks the maitre d to put a cover over the cheese because she couldn't stand the smell.

Dad bought himself some Camembert one Christmas, and Mum banished it to the garden shed!

We had a big rabbit jelly mould, and six little ones. Needed quite a big platter to have them all on a single "field".

I don't know what happened to them but I might have bought my own rabbit mould at one point. Also have a giant Haribo gummibaer mould. I don't often make jelly, though.

We still have a rabbit jelly mold.
So do we! Obviously, I loved the strawberry rabbit best. I've really enjoyed this thread!

Yep I remember making and eating milk jelly. I also made it in the eighties, my kids loved it.

@crosstalk I felt very thrifty this week as I made a roast chicken last for 4 days.

Roast on Sunday
Satay rice salad on Monday
Taco Tuesday
Ramen last night.

Lots of veggies and pulses to eke it out though xx

I too roasted chicken at the weekend. I'm wondering which soup to make from the stock.

My mother used to make junket with Little Miss Muffet junket powder. It had a rather slimy texture. I tried it with my elder son; I spooned it in, he spat it out. I tried again, he spat it out again. I gave up.

Just remembered I had a packet of jelly in the cupboard so in celebration of this thread I have made it. Cherry flavour. Pretty sure cherry flavour wasn’t an option in my childhood. Raspberry, strawberry, orange and lime was about it I think. Possibly black currant. Next to the jelly packet was a small tin of mandarin oranges which I can’t remember buying, might have been a COVID desperation purchase, I was going to go full retro and float them in the jelly but decided cherry and mandarin wasn’t a good mix.

@eddiemairswife

My mother used to make junket with Little Miss Muffet junket powder. It had a rather slimy texture. I tried it with my elder son; I spooned it in, he spat it out. I tried again, he spat it out again. I gave up.

We used Little Miss Muffet liquid rennet, you had to be careful not to jolt the dish or it would separate. Tasteless stuff but it had a nice smell which I still remember.

I have a Marguerite Patten cookbook from the 1960s, where she talks about exotic ingredients such as red peppers and aubergines. For a 90s child, raised in the Far East, her style of cooking was so different to what I ate at home.

I still use it for basics, and they work perfectly every time. She does have a curious fondness for aspic though...

Was it this one Green? Lots of aspic! I made a few things from here as a teenager. I remember using green peppers in one recipe and couldn’t believe how vile they were. I love them now.

That cookbook looks familiar! My parents very much liked Elizabeth David and wine found its way into quite a few recipes (something I do too). My parents grew things like peppers, I think they had been used to much more choice in London than the suburbs!

Classics! Thanks, MNHQ.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Classics! Thanks, MNHQ.

Seconded