what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

eating in the UK in the 50's

Pasta had not been invented.
Curry was a surname.
Olive oil was kept in the medicine cabinet.
Spices came from the Middle East where they were used for embalming.
Herbs were used to make rather dodgy medicine.
A takeaway was a mathematical problem.
A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.
Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.
The only vegetables known to us were spuds, peas, carrots and cabbage.
All crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not.
Condiments consisted of salt, pepper, vinegar and brown sauce if we were lucky.
Soft drinks were called pop.
Coke was something that we put on the fire.
A Chinese chippy was a foreign carpenter.
Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner.
A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.
A Pizza Hut was an Italian shed.
A microwave was something out of a science fiction movie.
Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking
Bread and jam was a treat.
Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.
Coffee was Camp, and came in a bottle.
Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
Figs and dates appeared every Christmas, but no one ever ate them.
Coconuts only appeared when the fair came to town.
Jellied eels were peculiar to Londoners.
Salad cream was a dressing for salads, mayonnaise did not exist
Hors d'oeuvre was a spelling mistake.
The starter was our main meal. Soup was a main meal.
Only Heinz made beans.
Leftovers went in the dog.
Special food for dogs and cats was unheard of.
Fish was only eaten on Fridays.
Fish didn't have fingers in those days.
Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.
Ready meals only came from the fish and chip shop.
For the best taste, fish and chips had to be eaten out of old newspapers.
Frozen food was called ice cream.
Nothing ever went off in the fridge because we never had one.
Ice cream only came in one colour and one flavour.
None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.
Jelly and blancmange was only eaten at parties.
If we said that we were on a diet, we simply got less.
Healthy food consisted of anything edible.
People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.
Indian restaurants were only found in India .
Brunch was not a meal.
If we had eaten bacon lettuce and tomato in the same sandwich we would have been certified.
A bun was a small cake back then.
The word" Barbie" was not associated with anything to do with food.
Eating outside was a picnic.
Cooking outside was called camping.
Seaweed was not a recognized food.
Pancakes were only eaten on Pancake Tuesday
"Kebab" was not even a word never mind a food.
Hot dogs were a type of sausage that only the Americans ate.
Cornflakes had arrived from America but it was obvious they would never catch on.
The phrase "boil in the bag" would have been beyond comprehension.
The idea of "oven chips" would not have made any sense at all to us.
The world had not heard of Pot Noodles, Instant Mash and Pop Tarts.
Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold.
Lettuce and tomatoes in winter were only found abroad.
Prunes were medicinal.
Surprisingly, muesli was readily available in those days - it was called "cattle feed".
Turkeys were definitely seasonal.
Pineapples came in chunks in a tin; we had only ever seen a picture of a real one.
We never heard of a Croissant, and we certainly couldn't pronounce.
We thought that Baguettes were a problem the French needed to deal with.
Garlic was used to ward off vampires, but never used to flavour food.
Water came out of the tap - if someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it they would have become a laughing stock.
Food hygiene was all about washing your hands before meals.
Campylobacter, Salmonella, E.coli, Listeria, and Botulism were all called "food poisoning".

The one thing that we never ever had on our table in the fifties: elbows

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

did I miss anything?

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Kit-e-Kat cat food in cans was around

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Did your nan email that to you?

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

I had an uncle who used to cook with garlic.

Oxo crisps;)

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

way before my time..id be lucky to remember what the 80s were like..in fact i would probably have difficulty remembering what last week was like...sorry what was the question again?

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Apparently..the question was "what it was like in the UK in the fifties"

Lets not forget Racism was at its peak i.e. blatant discrimination in the form of violence, name calling, job hirings, signs et al

That is not to say it's still not there today, it's just subtle that's all. Some of those people back then have had kids and grand kids, and some of them have found themselves moving to other countries round the world as.......you guessed it "immigrants"

Funny that innit (not the racism part of course). I have heard people trying to justify their immigrant status as saying....."yeah but I came in the 60s, 70s blah blah) as opposed to someone that arrived 5yrs ago. We are all bloody immigrants periods :D

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

In Defence of English Cooking.......

http://orwell.ru/library/articles/cooking/english/e_dec

We have heard a good deal of talk in recent years about the desirability of attracting foreign tourists to this country. It is well known that England’s two worst faults, from a foreign visitor’s point of view, are the gloom of our Sundays and the difficulty of buying a drink.

Both of these are due of fanatical minorities who will need a lot of quelling, including extensive legislation. But there is one point on which public opinion could bring about a rapid change for the better: I mean cooking.

It is commonly said, even by the English themselves, that English cooking is the worst in the world. It is supposed to be not merely incompetent, but also imitative, and I even read quite recently, in a book by a French writer, the remark: ‘The best English cooking is, of course, simply French cooking.’

Now that is simply not true, as anyone who has lived long abroad will know, there is a whole host of delicacies which it is quite impossible to obtain outside the English-speaking countries. No doubt the list could be added to, but here are some of the things that I myself have sought for in foreign countries and failed to find.

First of all, kippers, Yorkshire pudding, Devonshire cream, muffins and crumpets. Then a list of puddings that would be interminable if I gave it in full: I will pick out for special mention Christmas pudding, treacle tart and apple dumplings. Then an almost equally long list of cakes: for instance, dark plum cake (such as you used to get at Buzzard’s before the war), short-bread and saffron buns. Also innumerable kinds of biscuit, which exist, of course, elsewhere, but are generally admitted to be better and crisper in England.

Then there are the various ways of cooking potatoes that are peculiar to our own country. Where else do you see potatoes roasted under the joint, which is far and away the best way of cooking them? Or the delicious potato cakes that you get in the north of England? And it is far better to cook new potatoes in the English way — that is, boiled with mint and then served with a little melted butter or margarine — than to fry them as is done in most countries.

Then there are the various sauces peculiar to England. For instance, bread sauce, horse-radish sauce, mint sauce and apple sauce; not to mention redcurrant jelly, which is excellent with mutton as well as with hare, and various kinds of sweet pickle, which we seem to have in greater profusion than most countries.

What else? Outside these islands I have never seen a haggis, except one that came out of a tin, nor Dublin prawns, nor Oxford marmalade, nor several other kinds of jam (marrow jam and bramble jelly, for instance), nor sausages of quite the same kind as ours.

Then there are the English cheeses. There are not many of them but I fancy Stilton is the best cheese of its type in the world, with Wensleydale not far behind. English apples are also outstandingly good, particularly the Cox’s Orange Pippin.

And finally, I would like to put in a word for English bread. All the bread is good, from the enormous Jewish loaves flavoured with caraway seeds to the Russian rye bread which is the colour of black treacle. Still, if there is anything quite as good as the soft part of the crust from an English cottage loaf (how soon shall we be seeing cottage loaves again?) I do not know of it.

No doubt some of the things I have named above could be obtained in continental Europe, just as it is possible in London to obtain vodka or bird’s nest soup. But they are all native to our shores, and over huge areas they are literally unheard of.

South of, say, Brussels, I do not imagine that you would succeed in getting hold of a suet pudding. In French there is not even a word that exactly translates ‘suet’. The French, also, never use mint in cookery and do not use black currants except as a basis of a drink.

It will be seen that we have no cause to be ashamed of our cookery, so far as originality goes or so far as the ingredients go. And yet it must be admitted that there is a serious snag from the foreign visitor’s point of view. This is, that you practically don’t find good English cooking outside a private house. If you want, say, a good, rich slice of Yorkshire pudding you are more likely to get it in the poorest English home than in a restaurant, which is where the visitor necessarily eats most of his meals.

It is a fact that restaurants which are distinctively English and which also sell good food are very hard to find. Pubs, as a rule, sell no food at all, other than potato crisps and tasteless sandwiches. The expensive restaurants and hotels almost all imitate French cookery and write their menus in French, while if you want a good cheap meal you gravitate naturally towards a Greek, Italian or Chinese restaurant. We are not likely to succeed in attracting tourists while England is thought of as a country of bad food and unintelligible by-laws. At present one cannot do much about it, but sooner or later rationing will come to an end, and then will be the moment for our national cookery to revive. It is not a law of nature that every restaurant in England should be either foreign or bad, and the first step towards an improvement will be a less long-suffering attitude in the British public itself.

1945

THE END

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Indeed. Stuff like that always gets left off these lists.

Also women got paid less than men for doing the same work and had to laugh off getting groped.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Building sites were legitimate playgrounds.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Having never been there, but having been exposed to television since the '50s I assume some of it was like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and some of it was like Wee Geordie.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Golliwogs were acceptable toys, as were Robinsons Golliwog badges
Jubblies were an ice lolly in a triangular cardboard container and only available in Orange flavour
Children's tv consisted of 'Watch with mother' and 'Twizzle'
You could buy a bar of chocolate for 1d
You started school at 4 and left at the end of term before you were 15
Farthing chews
Girdles

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

:thumbup:

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

We bought vimto jubblies in our sweet shop, they were 6d, never got 6d to spend that often.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

6d a week pocket money would buy a 4d packet of Oxo crisps and a 22d oacket of peanuts. Combine the two and it was heaven..

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Weekly income 6 pence weekly expenditure 5 pence, result happiness. Weekly income 6 pence weekly expenditure 26 pence, result misery.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Anyone remember Maxade?
Sachet of powder/crystals with fruit flavours.

I can never find them on the net but I know they existed.

I was buying them in the early 60s with mojos, fruit salads, blackjacks etc so they may have been out 50s.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Penny Everlasting bars, they looked and lasted like latex rubber, penny bags of Smiths crisps in greaseproof bags (the broken bits), licorice root that you could chomp on for ever.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Ah, but 2d really. Damn keyboard Dickens, keyboard

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

if she were still around that would make her 123 years old, a candidate for the guiness book of world's records
:)

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Well an aunt or uncle who has just retired? :)

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Siouxie!!! That word Jublie together with the word triangular shape....shed however many years faster than a course of Botox!

I had 6d a week pocket money....it was beyond riches, and involved 'Jackie' the mag, and lots of other things with change to spare:thumbup:

My son has never been that happy, nor so content with his lot and he doesn't care...that's good isn't it:huh:

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

not at all

I am now the older generation

just turned 70!

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

I loved my golliwog.

I was also partial to sherbert dabs when I could get my hands on one.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

:thumbsup:, so much of this can describe my childhood in the 70's.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

When I was very young I got 3d a week (a threepenny bit), I used to buy a 1d bar of cadbury's chocolate for my dog (we didn't know it was poisonous in those days); a 2d bar of chocolate for myself or sometimes I would get farthing chews and save the rest.

I remember Jackie, Bunty and Beano!

I had a golliwog too, lol.

Remember flying saucers?

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Post office (National Savings) stamps?
http://rememberwhen.gazettelive.co.uk/nss%20495.jpg

My pocket money used to rise 3d every birthday. We were all boys so we had Buster and Smash and, of course the Beano and Dandy.

Who doesn't :)

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

I've no idea whether or where you lived in the UK in the 1950s, But I lived (as a child) in Newcastle then.

There was no racism that I can remember. In fact there were very few people originating from other countries at all in my recollection.

There was one Italian who, as a prisoner of war had been assigned to work on a local farm but as far as i recall that was it.

There was, even in the 1950s, a Scot or two, and IIRC a person from London.

Were you perhaps thinking of Alabama?

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

I left England in 1953 and returned in 1960

gone for 7 years

I noticed the influx of blacks from the west indies who had arrived during that time period and i do remember the resentment by some of the locals and sure enough there were cases of racism

I noticed how Harrow Middlesex had changed in that period with quite a few families from India and West Pakistan having settled there

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

The takeaway food got a lot better. :thumbup:

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

actually the influx of immigrants did wonders for the local cuisine which I recall was rather bland

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

That is because nobody went to flippin Newcastle...why on earth would you want to go there at the time?

I lived in London mate (the center of the universe), as you well know of course ;)

There was no Racism? Am sure there was no BNP either was there?

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

How often would a box of Quality Street (or other choccies) be enjoyed in the 50's/60's?

It seems that now, chocolate assortments are promoted from November and regularly put out or enjoyed, although I thought in the past they were more of a special treat? There just seems to be so much chocolate available and eaten on a regular basis in modern Britain (guilty as charged, BTW!).

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

In my family in the 50's, we only got a box of Roses to share at Christmas (together with chocolate coins, a satsuma and a sugar mouse in our stockings). My Mum would get a box of Black Magic for Mothers Day.

:)

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

That honestly seems so much better than than the over consumption we have now.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

The culprit? Valentines day...gym subscriptions go up this time of the year, but by February, people start to drop off (not the weight) like flies from the gym, and by Spring /Summer...more stuffing of the face, with lesser exercise/activities

The commercials for Valentines, are one-sided as you know....."get her this and that" "for the one that means the world to you.....buy her this"

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Well, no. The BNP was first formed in 1960.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

Officially....doesn't mean there wasn't an underground unit

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

That reminds me of a story my mum told me. She came from the north of Scotland. A trusty German POW was allowed out to do farming work. He never went home after the war and became a pillar of local society.

Re: what it was like in the UK in the fifties
 

^ Ah...you're talking about Wolfgang Puck :D