(UK)

Today, however, we are surrounded by choice. Not only do we get to choose when we eat our
food, but we are also provided with a vast selection of food choices. Takeaways, fast-food and
ready meals have changed the way that meals are prepared and eaten. Why bother spending
hours cooking up a shepherds pie with yesterdays leftover beef and preparing vegetables when
you can head to the supermarket and buy everything ready-made? Whilst convenience is a huge
selling point, this shift has changed our eating habits on a global scale.

Eating Habits in 1950s

Food was still pretty limited.

Very few homes owned a refrigerator and a freezer was virtually unheard of, so people shopped
daily from local produce and this trait became an iconic role of the wife's' daily routine

Meat was expensive. Turkey or chicken was only eaten as a treat for Christmas if a family had
the connections to a farm or raised poultry themselves.

1950s dinners were made up of mince, mainly the skin, fat and gristle, with either boiled
potatoes or boiled vegetables. These meals werent appetizing or made with fancy spices as
many spices and herbs other than salt, pepper and curry powder, were still used for medicinal
purposes. Pudding was a little more appetizing, and nearly always served with custard, referred
to as stodge.

Before the 1960s wine was only drunk by the upper classes, everyone else drank beer, stout,
pale ale and port and lemon. Now Blue Nun, Chianti and Mateus Rose were the wines of choice.

Pre-dinner drinks were often accompanied by cubes of tinned pineapple and cheddar cheese on
sticks, stuck into a melon or grapefruit to look like a hedgehog

Vegetables and Fruits

 Food was seasonal (no tomatoes in winter for example); there were no supermarkets, no frozen
food or freezers to store it in and the only takeaway was from the fish and chip shop.

The only vegetables known to Common people were spuds, peas, carrots and cabbage. Coconuts
only appeared when the fair came to town.

There were no salad dressings as we know them today.

Famous dishes in 1950s

some of the dishes that would have been popular in the 1950s, from SPAM fritters to avocados,
salmon sandwiches, dripping sandwiches, corned beef hash, liver, fruit salad, Coronation
Chicken and jelly and custard.

Coronation Chicken:

Coronation chicken is flavoured with curry and herbs and spices. It is called Coronation
Chicken because it was invented on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on 2 June 1953.
Coronation chicken is served cold and was invented by florist Constance Spry and chef
Rosemary Hume.
The dish was made from cold chicken cut into small pieces and mixed with a curry-
flavoured mayonnaise and sliced or diced apricots.

Difference between foods

Meat and two veg was the staple diet for most families in the 1950s and 1960s. The average
family rarely if ever ate out. potato crisps (three flavours only potato, plain or salted until
Golden Wonder launched cheese and onion in 1962), a pickled egg to go on top, and perhaps a
pasty or some cockles, winkles and whelks from the seafood man on a Friday, Saturday or
Sunday evening.

The strict mealtime routine of our grandparents allowed 3-square-meals-a-day and no more.
Snacking was almost unheard of and there were limited pre-packaged goods available to grab
and go throughout the day. The modern world is much different. Restaurants, supermarkets and
other places selling food are open 24/7, meaning that food is available whenever we want it.
The fast-paced lives that people lead today mean that we pick up packets of crisps, biscuits and
 other snacks without hesitation. With food available whenever and wherever, our waistlines just
cannot keep up with the number of calories consumed. Maybe its time to take a leaf out of our
grandparents book and return to the days of the strict routine?

Main Points of UK Food in the 1950s

All crisps were plain; the only choice was whether to put the salt on or not.

Rice was a milk pudding, and never, ever part of our dinner.

Bread and jam was a treat.

Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.

Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.

Only Heinz made beans.

Fish was only eaten on Fridays.

Ice cream only came in one colour and one flavour.

Garlic was not never used to flavour food.

Pasta had not been invented.

A takeaway was a mathematical problem.

A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.

The starter was main meal. Soup was a main meal.

Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.

Nothing ever went off in the fridge because common people never had one.

Eating outside was a picnic.

Seaweed was not a recognised food.

 Lettuce and tomatoes in winter were only found abroad.

Food hygiene was all about washing your hands before meals.

The 1960s also saw a dramatic rise in the number and spread of Indian restaurants in Britain,
especially in London and the South East. During rationing it had been very difficult if not near
impossible, to obtain the spices required for Indian cooking but with the rise in immigration from
the Indian subcontinent and the end of rationing, this was no longer a problem and the
restaurants flourished.

Chances are your grandparents had a much stricter routine than you do now. Fifty to eighty
years ago it was typical for a family to have their meals at the same time every day (breakfast at
7am, lunch at 12pm and dinner at 5pm) so your body was accustomed to knowing when to
expect food. This sort of discipline helped to keep waistlines slim and food waste to a minimum.
In the modern day, however, a lot of people have lost this disciplined approach to meals and no
longer stick to the 3-square-meal-a-day rule. Skipping breakfast, snacking and several cups of
coffee a day are notions that our grandparents would never have considered.

he weekly routine didnt end there either its likely that your grandparents also had a strict rota
when it came to what they ate on which day of the week. It was often the case that the family ate
a roast dinner on Sunday, followed by leftover cold meat on a Monday, then any further leftovers
made into a pie or other dish for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Most families also
followed the routine of having fish and chips on a Friday. The weekly food rota was very much
always the same, using up all leftovers and serving them with fresh vegetables every night.
Whilst people often didnt have a huge variety of choice, it was true that people always ate
freshly prepared meals and vegetables on a regular basis.

n our grandparents day, learning how to cook was the only way to be sure of a good meal on
the table, and it was usually done by the woman of the house. These days, cooking has become
almost a hobby rather than a necessity,

Furthermore, food allergies and intolerances are much more common now than they ever have
been. This is often attributed to processed, un-natural and chemical-filled foods none of which
were present back in our grandparents days.

The healthier 1950s diet was around 55% carbs - mainly from vegetables, cereal and bread -
foods which are digested slowly and keep blood sugar levels stable. Today, carbs make up just
45% of our diet, while a whopping 40% of our diet today is fat, compared with just 32% in the
50s. We also munch our way through twice as much sugar.

Steal Their Shape: Not only is growing and eating your own veg great for your figure, it's also a
good way to save money. You don't need a big garden to do it either - a balcony or a windowsill
is big enough to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots and spinach. As an added bonus,
while gardening you'll burn off extra calories without noticing.

(6) They boozed less Today it's not unusual to polish off half a bottle of wine just with dinner,
but in the 50s alcohol was considered an expensive treat. Wine drinking at home was rare, and
pub licensing hours were restricted. The occasional tipple of gin or sherry was acceptable, but
drinking didn't have the strong social connotations it has today. Booze-free nights out were the
norm as people made the most of the surge in American-style coffee bars and cinemas.

Fish and chips

 Fish and chips

Fish (cod, haddock, huss, plaice) deep fried in flour batter with chips (fried potatoes) dressed in
malt vinegar. This is England's traditional take-away food or as US would say "to go". Fish and
chips are not normally home cooked but bought at a fish and chip shop ("chippie" ) to eat on
premises or as a "take away"

Yorkshire Pudding

This dish is not usually eaten as a dessert like other puddings but instead as part of the main
course or at a starter.

Yorkshire pudding, made from flour, eggs and milk, is a sort of batter baked in the oven and
usually moistened with gravy.

The traditional way to eat a Yorkshire pudding is to have a large, flat one filled with gravy and
vegetables as a starter of the meal. Then when the meal is over, any unused puddings should be
served with jam or ice-cream as a dessert.

English breakfast text taken from and copyright of projcetbritain.com

Eggs, bacon, sausages, fried bread, mushrooms, baked beans

Lardy cake

Lardy cake, also known as lardy bread, lardy Johns, dough cake and fourses cake is a traditional
rich spiced form of bread found in several southern counties of England, each claiming to
provide the original recipe. It remains a popular weekend tea cake in some of the southern
counties of England, including Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Dorset. It is
unrecorded in the south east counties of Essex and Kent.

Description

The main ingredients are freshly rendered lard, flour, sugar, spices, currants and raisins.[1] Lardy
cake can be eaten at any time of day as a snack, but is most commonly consumed in the
afternoon with tea or coffee. Lardy cakes are very rich and sweet and eaten traditionally for
special occasions, high days and holidays and harvest festivals.
Stargazy pie

Stargazy pie (sometimes called starrey gazey pie or other variants) is a Cornish dish made of
baked pilchards (or sardines), along with eggs and potatoes, covered with a pastry crust.
Although there are a few variations with different fish being used, the unique feature of stargazy
pie is fish heads (and sometimes tails) protruding through the crust, so that they appear to be
gazing skyward. This allows the oils released during cooking to flow back into the pie.
Chicken tikka masala

Chicken tikka masala is a dish of chunks of roasted marinated chicken (chicken tikka) in a spiced
curry sauce. The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. There are multiple claims to its
place of origin, including the Punjab region of South Asia and Glasgow in Scotland. It is among
the United Kingdom's most popular dishes, leading a government minister, Robin Cook, to claim
in 2001 that it was "a true British national dish".
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Eton Mess

This traditional pudding composed of fresh, sugar-coated strawberries, crumbled meringues and
whipped cream, may not sound appealing but this is one mess you'll want to get into. Named
after the esteemed Eton College (a British boarding school), where it is served during an annual
cricket game, the simple dessert relies on well-whipped cream and plump, juicy berries. Nigella
adds fresh pomegranate juice to encourage the fresh strawberries to ooze their summery juices.

Berry Trifle

Tyler's take on the classic trifle layers blueberries, strawberries and raspberries with store-
bought pound cake and a quick lemon cream ready for guests in little more than 30 minutes.