Reminiscing about food.
ani_mama was talking, on her journal, about memories of childhood favourite meals that were cheap and low effort. I was going to simply comment but, as I said, I realised it brought back so many memories that I thought it better to do it as a post.
My childhood was certainly not spent in abject poverty - but money was definitely tight. We came home to the island when I was almost 7, and for the next 4 years our household was my parents, my small sister, my older cousin Richard, and my maternal grandparents. Our income was my grandfather's pension and my father's earnings, which dropped when he left his job as a manager for NAAFI, to stay on the island as my grandmother was already crippled with arthritis, and instead worked behind the deli counter in the local co-op. This was supplemented by The Family Allowance - nothing for me as the first-born, and 8/= (40p!!) a week for my sister.
Mum was at home, and cooked a lot, Granny did a little in the first couple of years. Our main meal was eaten about 12.30 each day. The week started on Sunday with a roast - often mutton as it was cheap, sometimes belly of lamb, or pork belly, as both were also cheap, but cooked crisply they were tasty. With the roast there would always be mashed potatoes, and carrot and turnip also mashed together. Then another veg each week, peas, or cabbage usually. Sometimes there were roast potatoes, and gravy or course. Then rice pudding. Now and again Mum would get stewing beef and make a big hotpot, or suet crust pie instead - still with mashed potatoes and carrot and turnip :).
Richard, my sister and I all came home from school for our mid-day dinner each day.
Monday was washing day, and dinner was left overs from Sunday.
Then during the rest of the weekdays we usually had fish at least once - usually dabs, the small plaice too small to sell, that were given to the old fellows who helped unload the fishing boats; they knew Mum or Granny would buy them from them. These were simply dipped in seasoned flour and fried in a big cast iron frying pan. We ate them with bread and butter. Sometimes, if there was any meat left on Tuesday Mum would mince it, add it to more mashed potato, and make rissoles - they came with bread and butter too.
Occasionally I remember chops with some sort of vegetables - and potatoes. But most weeks there would be a day when we had beef mince cooked with onions in it, and thickened with cornflour, served with mash and vegetables of some sort. (Left over mince might also turn up as rissoles!). And another regular was sausages and onions -not fried as you might expect, but the inevitable potatoes in the water at the bottom of a steamer, then a thick layer of sliced onions in the steamer part with pork sausages put on top of them and cooked that way. Some weeks there might be lamb chops. There would be big pots of broth in the winter (thick soup full of vegetables and barley).
If Richard went crabbing we sometimes had dressed crab with salad, if he went fishing off the pier we might have mackerel. If he helped out on the Niels John (a local fishing boat) in his summer holidays we would have herring; fried in oatmeal, or potted in vinegar and pickling spice. Everything came with bread and butter in my memory! Left over fish would turn up as fish cakes.
Then on Saturday, Richard and I were sent to the local bakers and we bought a large, family sized, pork pie, and Cornish pasties. These were our main meal on Saturday, hot from the oven, with tomato sauce/ketchup. If the housekeeping money stretched to it we were allowed to buy small cakes, too. My favourites were pineapple tarts or mushrooms. Pineapple tarts were a pastry case with chopped pineapple in it, then a dollop of buttercream, all covered in bright yellow icing. Mushrooms were a similar pastry case that had been baked with chocolate sponge in it, then it was piped with chocolate buttercream to look like the gills of the mushroom, and a marzipan stalk was set in the top.
Our evening meal was sometimes a boiled egg each, or mashed banana with bread and butter, but often sandwiches - left over Sunday roast again, boiled ham, local cheese, jam, or a favourite of mine - cheese and strawberry jam in the same sandwich. The local cheese was a crumbly white, a bit like a Lancashire or a Wensleydale, and it worked really well.
On Sundays we used to have tinned pears with evaporated milk, bread and butter, and home-made cake of some sort.
But ani_mama mentioned sugar sandwiches and Granny used to give us those sometimes as a treat - white bread and butter sprinkled with white sugar :)
There was something of a watershed when I was 11. Granny died, so Mum no longer had to stay home to care for her. Dad's health deteriorated so he could no longer work full time, and my paternal grandmother died soon after, at which point my paternal grandfather came to live with us. By the time I was 13 Richard had gone back NE England to live with his parents, having worked for a year at a farm on the island and finding a job on one in Northumberland. (He had spent the intervening years with us after his mother developed chronic health problems and his father was away from home as a long-distance lorry driver.)
Mum got a part-time job in the local bakers, 1pm-6pm 6 days a week. So she made something for Dad and the grandfathers to have for their midday meal before she went out, and my sister and I began school dinners. They are a subject for a whole other post.
But it meant we ate the equivalent of high tea when we got home (in the working class British sense of a secondary hot meal, eaten in the late afternoon, nothing at all to do with afternoon tea's sandwiches and cakes!). I usually got this ready for my sister and I, then we did homework whilst Mum made something for Dad and the grandfathers when she got in.
Honestly I can remember making toast most tea-times. We had beans on toast, or toast with scrambled eggs, poached eggs on toast, tinned spaghetti on toast, even tinned Green Giant Mexicorn on toast. And making Welsh Rarebit - very thick cheese sauce put onto toast and then put under the grill until the top bubbled and browned.
Looking back, we always had plenty of yesterday's bread to make toast, this was because Mum would get the 'end of the day' bread to bring home the evening before. But I'm not sure that ever occurred to us.
Sadly there weren't usually pineapple tarts or mushroom cakes left over. I learnt how to make them though, and the pies and pasties, as I used to help in the bakehouse in my school holidays!
By the time I was 16 the grandfathers were both dead, only Mum, Dad, my sister and I at home. Dad could no longer work, and Mum went back to full time work as a cook in the local hospital. This meant her day beginning at 6.30am, but she finishes at 3.30pm and so she was there when we got home from school most days.
There was still a good few 'things on toast' though, because it was cheap and warming. But despite cooking five days a week at work, she would make us curry, or risotto, some days when we weren't at school - this was seen as very exotic! And spaghetti bolognaise made at home rather than from a tin!
I think I simply absorbed how to cook as I went along - we were expected to help in the kitchen to prepare meals, learning how to peel potatoes (and carrots and turnips!), how to chop onion, to make the meat gravy, or a cheese sauce. We learnt to bake, too - especially Richard and I although my sister was never interested in baking. And I still like things on toast :)
My childhood was certainly not spent in abject poverty - but money was definitely tight. We came home to the island when I was almost 7, and for the next 4 years our household was my parents, my small sister, my older cousin Richard, and my maternal grandparents. Our income was my grandfather's pension and my father's earnings, which dropped when he left his job as a manager for NAAFI, to stay on the island as my grandmother was already crippled with arthritis, and instead worked behind the deli counter in the local co-op. This was supplemented by The Family Allowance - nothing for me as the first-born, and 8/= (40p!!) a week for my sister.
Mum was at home, and cooked a lot, Granny did a little in the first couple of years. Our main meal was eaten about 12.30 each day. The week started on Sunday with a roast - often mutton as it was cheap, sometimes belly of lamb, or pork belly, as both were also cheap, but cooked crisply they were tasty. With the roast there would always be mashed potatoes, and carrot and turnip also mashed together. Then another veg each week, peas, or cabbage usually. Sometimes there were roast potatoes, and gravy or course. Then rice pudding. Now and again Mum would get stewing beef and make a big hotpot, or suet crust pie instead - still with mashed potatoes and carrot and turnip :).
Richard, my sister and I all came home from school for our mid-day dinner each day.
Monday was washing day, and dinner was left overs from Sunday.
Then during the rest of the weekdays we usually had fish at least once - usually dabs, the small plaice too small to sell, that were given to the old fellows who helped unload the fishing boats; they knew Mum or Granny would buy them from them. These were simply dipped in seasoned flour and fried in a big cast iron frying pan. We ate them with bread and butter. Sometimes, if there was any meat left on Tuesday Mum would mince it, add it to more mashed potato, and make rissoles - they came with bread and butter too.
Occasionally I remember chops with some sort of vegetables - and potatoes. But most weeks there would be a day when we had beef mince cooked with onions in it, and thickened with cornflour, served with mash and vegetables of some sort. (Left over mince might also turn up as rissoles!). And another regular was sausages and onions -not fried as you might expect, but the inevitable potatoes in the water at the bottom of a steamer, then a thick layer of sliced onions in the steamer part with pork sausages put on top of them and cooked that way. Some weeks there might be lamb chops. There would be big pots of broth in the winter (thick soup full of vegetables and barley).
If Richard went crabbing we sometimes had dressed crab with salad, if he went fishing off the pier we might have mackerel. If he helped out on the Niels John (a local fishing boat) in his summer holidays we would have herring; fried in oatmeal, or potted in vinegar and pickling spice. Everything came with bread and butter in my memory! Left over fish would turn up as fish cakes.
Then on Saturday, Richard and I were sent to the local bakers and we bought a large, family sized, pork pie, and Cornish pasties. These were our main meal on Saturday, hot from the oven, with tomato sauce/ketchup. If the housekeeping money stretched to it we were allowed to buy small cakes, too. My favourites were pineapple tarts or mushrooms. Pineapple tarts were a pastry case with chopped pineapple in it, then a dollop of buttercream, all covered in bright yellow icing. Mushrooms were a similar pastry case that had been baked with chocolate sponge in it, then it was piped with chocolate buttercream to look like the gills of the mushroom, and a marzipan stalk was set in the top.
Our evening meal was sometimes a boiled egg each, or mashed banana with bread and butter, but often sandwiches - left over Sunday roast again, boiled ham, local cheese, jam, or a favourite of mine - cheese and strawberry jam in the same sandwich. The local cheese was a crumbly white, a bit like a Lancashire or a Wensleydale, and it worked really well.
On Sundays we used to have tinned pears with evaporated milk, bread and butter, and home-made cake of some sort.
But ani_mama mentioned sugar sandwiches and Granny used to give us those sometimes as a treat - white bread and butter sprinkled with white sugar :)
There was something of a watershed when I was 11. Granny died, so Mum no longer had to stay home to care for her. Dad's health deteriorated so he could no longer work full time, and my paternal grandmother died soon after, at which point my paternal grandfather came to live with us. By the time I was 13 Richard had gone back NE England to live with his parents, having worked for a year at a farm on the island and finding a job on one in Northumberland. (He had spent the intervening years with us after his mother developed chronic health problems and his father was away from home as a long-distance lorry driver.)
Mum got a part-time job in the local bakers, 1pm-6pm 6 days a week. So she made something for Dad and the grandfathers to have for their midday meal before she went out, and my sister and I began school dinners. They are a subject for a whole other post.
But it meant we ate the equivalent of high tea when we got home (in the working class British sense of a secondary hot meal, eaten in the late afternoon, nothing at all to do with afternoon tea's sandwiches and cakes!). I usually got this ready for my sister and I, then we did homework whilst Mum made something for Dad and the grandfathers when she got in.
Honestly I can remember making toast most tea-times. We had beans on toast, or toast with scrambled eggs, poached eggs on toast, tinned spaghetti on toast, even tinned Green Giant Mexicorn on toast. And making Welsh Rarebit - very thick cheese sauce put onto toast and then put under the grill until the top bubbled and browned.
Looking back, we always had plenty of yesterday's bread to make toast, this was because Mum would get the 'end of the day' bread to bring home the evening before. But I'm not sure that ever occurred to us.
Sadly there weren't usually pineapple tarts or mushroom cakes left over. I learnt how to make them though, and the pies and pasties, as I used to help in the bakehouse in my school holidays!
By the time I was 16 the grandfathers were both dead, only Mum, Dad, my sister and I at home. Dad could no longer work, and Mum went back to full time work as a cook in the local hospital. This meant her day beginning at 6.30am, but she finishes at 3.30pm and so she was there when we got home from school most days.
There was still a good few 'things on toast' though, because it was cheap and warming. But despite cooking five days a week at work, she would make us curry, or risotto, some days when we weren't at school - this was seen as very exotic! And spaghetti bolognaise made at home rather than from a tin!
I think I simply absorbed how to cook as I went along - we were expected to help in the kitchen to prepare meals, learning how to peel potatoes (and carrots and turnips!), how to chop onion, to make the meat gravy, or a cheese sauce. We learnt to bake, too - especially Richard and I although my sister was never interested in baking. And I still like things on toast :)