There is a new series on BBC2 on Tuesday nights at 8pm called "Back in Time for Tea", It looks at what ordinary people ate for tea over the decades from 1918 onwards.
I found it really interesting, especially as I recognised some of the foods from parts of my own childhood spent in Lancashire rather than Yorkshire, so did MrShoestring ! We could certainly recognise some of the living conditions from visiting our grandparents, outside lavatories, anyone else remember those ? Or tripe ? Or dripping ?
I also thought that it was good that it showed that women were working a full shift outside the home and running the household. Even when there was no work available or there was a strike on, it was the women who took on extra work, like doing other people's washing, to make ends meet. My grandparents went away to work as domestic servants during the Great Depression, just like the two daughters in the programmes are shown doing.
It made me realise that although people can have a hard time cooking up frugal meals for their families now, I still think we are a lot better off ! I'm not going to be serving tripe any time soon or wiping slices of bread with a single slice of bacon so everyone gets a taste !
I remember tripe though the thought and reminder of the smell still makes me shudder. My father ate it until he died in his late eighties. I had to serve it!!
ReplyDeleteDripping was entirely different. One of the Boxing Day treats at home was turkey dripping, separated into a thick layer of jelly topped by fat, on toast for breakfast.
Wonderful. I've never managed to reproduce the same taste partly because we don't sprinkle salt over the top in the same way.
Like you I found it a really interesting programme and I’m looking forward to next week's episode when my childhood years will be covered. Sue
I suspect those must be my childhood years too ! I wonder what they will cook ?!
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