Childhood Food

[Baitrunner]

Charles - LoS - happy days. I was always amazed as a kid at all the cockle shells there.

Later in life I actually took my fishing out to "shell island" to see what it was all about and that was even more amazing. I now know where all the dead shells go 

[Vaughan]

My father's Christmas prunes.

In the new year he would put a large jar of prunes, about 2 litres, into a cupboard in the side-board, from which he served drinks for the many guests and customers who were invited aboard the gunboat in Thorpe.

Every time he got to the bottom of a whisky, gin or brandy bottle, which was reasonably often, he would pour the last drops into this jar of prunes. By the time Christmas came round, with the cocktail parties that my parents would hold for their friends in Thorpe, these prunes had reached the volatility of primed hand grenades. I am sure if I had tossed one onto the quay it would have exploded!

[grendel]

did he put them in the Christmas cake or pudding?

we used to make various wild plum drinks - with a cheap bottle of brandy - the alcahol was bottled off, and the fruit went into the christmas cake.

[Vaughan]

4 minutes ago, grendel said:

did he put them in the Christmas cake or pudding?

No, they were too good for that. They were handed round at cocktail parties and eaten, on a stick!

One has to remember that guests on the gunboat had to be collected from the river green when they arrived, and that was my job as a boy, in our electric launch. Getting them back again afterwards was rather more of a problem. In all the years of assisting rather "jolly" Christmas guests in and out of the boat (including the vicar) I only ever dropped one of them in the river. He was a big man and I just couldn't keep him upright when he missed his footing.

This was Bob Simpson, who lived up South Avenue and was the production director of the Norvic Shoe Company. About 2 years later he became my boss, when I applied for a job on leaving school.

[Timbo]

I have to stop speed reading posts...as this

24 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

My father's Christmas prunes.

In the new year he would put a large jar of prunes, about 2 litres, into a cupboard in the side-board, from which he served drinks for the many guests and customers who were invited aboard the gunboat in Thorpe.

Every time he got to the bottom of a whisky, gin or brandy bottle, which was reasonably often, he would pour the last drops into this jar of prunes. By the time Christmas came round, with the cocktail parties that my parents would hold for their friends in Thorpe, these prunes had reached the volatility of primed hand grenades. I am sure if I had tossed one onto the quay it would have exploded!

became this

26 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

My father's Christmas prunes...

my parents would hold for their friends... prunes ... primed hand grenades.

I am sure if I had tossed one onto the quay it would have exploded!

And I've been laughing for the last twenty minutes. Sorry Vaughan but I just couldn't resist.

[Mowjo]

I wasn't a war baby but there was still some rationing when I was born, Like Iain if you didn't eat it you got the next day, or if it was meat and veg that all went in the stew pot on the range to top it up, and I swear that stew on the go on our range for years just being topped up, Sunday roast was best because all the leftovers got made into Bubble and squeak on Monday apart from some lamb for dads sandwiches, Sunday tea was always scrambled eggs on crumpets, a pint of winkles, (no guess's who used to stick the little shell covers all over their face and pretend to have the lurgy) and dads treat was 1/2 pint of shrimps, I don't think prawnse invented then, some people don't believe me when I tell them that the butcher used to throw in a couple of breast of lamb free with the sunday joint, and that sheeps hearts and liver were almost given away by the butcher, now they are luxury meats and cost a fortune, was my favorite dinner stuffed sheeps hearts, Judi nearly throws up when I mention them, but she came from a posh area and had an inside loo, mine was outside and loo paper was cut up squares of newspaper, my pocket money job cutting them up, but if you were posh you had Izal, papercuts on the hand have nothing on papercuts to the bum,  Sunday roast was usually all prepared then taken across the road to the bakers to cook while mum and dad were in the pub next door, can't really call them the good old days, life was a struggle in the working class area I lived in, but I honestly enjoyed every minute of it, it taught me you can survive anything,,

 

[ranworthbreeze]

Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold,

Pease pudding in the pot, nine days old .

Some like it hot, some like it cold,

Some like it in the pot, nine days old.

My uncle who lived in Scotland until the early 70's emigrated to New Zealand, always had a craving for mushy peas or pease pudding, he always managed to find some during his visits back to the UK.

Regards

Alan

[Timbo]

I was a child of the 60's but like most folks we "dint have two 'a penth' to scratch are ar...bum with" as the saying went in Donny. In some ways we were very lucky as every one in the family was a gardener. We had three allotments, my Uncle grew nothing but potatoes. My Dad grew cabbage, carrots, celery etc. My Granddad grew salad crops, blackcurrants, blackberries, gooseberries, strawberries had an apple tree and kept chickens, my other grandfather had a large greenhouse stuffed with tomatoes. All of the produce was split between the families. 

As a kid I grew up eating raw veg straight out of the garden. Carrots, green beans, peas...ooh broad beans and even potatoes. I still do eat most veg raw...one for the pot and one for me...one for the pot. I will still go and peel myself a potato and eat in raw. Like Mojo stew featured a lot. There were two types of stew. 'Round stew' cooked in a large saucepan on top of the range (yes we had a large range in the 'parlour' right up until 1974 and a 'copper' in the kitchen for hot water), and a 'flat stew' that was cooked in the oven. Sunday was chicken provided by Granddad and on a Wednesday I would be sent down to the local butcher for 2lb of 'pigs fry' which was a bit of belly pork, bacon, liver and several other nameless yet hairy bits of a pig. Mince seemed to feature a lot...big thick 'slabs' of mince and onion inside a large Yorkshire pud'n. Bread and dripping with salt and pepper. Prawns 'on an ashtray' from Donny market were a rare treat. 'Finny 'Addock' or Finnon or smoked haddock with bread and butter was also a rare treat. On the odd occasion we were really flush Mum would prepare a large pan of mushrooms in gravy, once again with fresh homemade bread.

When chest freezers became available we all clubbed together as a family and bought three of them, one each. We then started going to the butcher and ordering half a cow, pig and sheep and a whole lamb and butchering them at home and sharing between the families. A bit bloody hunter gather when I think about it now.

1977 we moved out of Doncaster into a small village to a house with about an acre of land. All of this went under cultivation and we had a wide variety of fruit trees from apples through pears to plums and cherries. We also kept chickens, ducks and geese.

I've always had a large appetite...'hasn't are Tim finished eating yet' was something I heard said quite often. Only just started putting weight on at 50 yrs old. As a kid if I uttered the words 'I'm hungry' Mum would come straight back with 'I'm angry' which would be swiftly followed by instructions to 'B****r off down the garden and find yourself something to eat'!To this day I cannot abide pre prepared food with one exception. Tinned potatoes. Joy of joys I love tinned potatoes. I am a firm believer that the Aunt Bessie woman needs to stop peddling her tripe! I can remember Mum bringing home a 'Vesta meal' shared between all of us (two adults and two kids) once. I can also remember asking her if it was a sample as I was still hungry.

Edited to add I am a 'pickle fiend' due to the glass sweetie jars we used to have stocked floor to ceiling in the pantry filled with pickled cabbage, onions, mixed pickle, and homemade piccalilli the essential accompaniment to a meal of pigs fry! 

[grendel]

in our house we had roast on sunday, cold meat on Monday, rissoles on Tuesdays, wednesdays the bones were boiled up for a stew, the rest of the week may have included mince on a good week, the sunday roasts were anything that was cheapest at the butchers - but never chicken. maybe a pig knuckle on a lean week, but it was always stretched to at least wednesday.

One time my mum was ill and dad cooked - he called it curry, and as kids we didnt know better. It contained a tin of mixed veg, a tin of minced beef, and a tin of rice pudding - no spices whatsoever. we can still remember it, and still remind my Dad of that time. we were wishing my mother well to get back up and into the kitchen after that.

once my Dad was working in Ireland, and was bringing back long strings of tablets, a little bigger than extra strong mints, one of these would be added to a glass of water to make a glass of fizzy pop, in various colours and flavours - this was the nearest we got to fizzy drinks, other than very rarely when we stopped at a pub on a walk and were treated to a glass of lemonade

[BroadScot]

After all these delcious foods, Gaviscon was not avaiable then ! Codliver oil was the order of the day ! See how lucky you are Grace being a spring chicken ! 

Iain

[LizG]

Where do I start. My father wrote a poem about my food lack of preferences.  "The problem with  my imagination" is I think the first line, I didn't and still don't like a lot of foods..........

Things i detested and still can't eat

Irish Stew with capers (can't eat capers)

Rice pudding

Burnt fish on Fridays with huge bones, served with grey cabbage and caterpillars (if you were lucky)

Broad beans (boy threw up during dinner whilst eating BB)

Liver (suffering from tonsillitis and spent 3 weeks ill after eating, not touched since)

Many other food stuffs unless calorific which is a different matter#

Liz and WR

[grendel]

There are a number of foods that as a child I was forced to eat, and never liked, things like cabbage, spinach and other greens, all full of vitamin K. well since having had some small blood clots and now on warfarin, it would seem I was right not to eat them, as all they did was make my blood clot better. I used to have the ability to stop bleeding almost instantly, I now realise this was not a good thing. in fact the very worst thing I can possibly eat (other than cranberry juice) is spinach or dark kale, so I can now walk up to my Mum and safely say, I told you greens were bad for me.... 

[Mowjo]

17 hours ago, BroadScot said:

After all these delcious foods, Gaviscon was not avaiable then ! Codliver oil was the order of the day ! See how lucky you are Grace being a spring chicken ! 

Iain

Iain! you forgot Milk of magnesia and Andwews liver salts, there was another one like Andwews I can't remember, just remembered it Alka Seltza,,,

And on my list I forgot to Add Pigs Trotters, love to see the kids faces now if you stuck one of those on a plate in front of them,,

[grendel]

lots of good stock in a pigs trotter, makes soup stretch a lot more days.

[SteveO]

My

Quote

My dad tells me that, when he was a lad in Halifax in the 1930's, he and his brothers were given raw pork sausages to chew on if they were hungry.  Given the tapeworm eggs, salmonella and other nasties that must have been mixed in with the minced pork, fat, sawdust and breadcrumbs, it is surprising that no-one seemed to come to any harm from this local "delicacy"

Steve

 

 

[ranworthbreeze]

I am surprised that no one has mentioned sweets.

So hear goes I will start it off, who can remember the boiled sweets that were in the shape of fishes that came in two different lengths (4 and 6 inches long) you sucked the smaller one until it would sit sideways in your mouth. 

These used to be a treat from the local market.

Regards

Alan