70s food

[ladyofastolat]

We watched a programme last night in which a family were "sent back in time" to 1950, and made to cook and eat as a British family in 1950 would. Year by year, they moved through the decade, getting newfangled products at the appropriate times. It was a bit gimmicky, but I found it rather interesting. Next week, they're moving into the 60s, and

Comments

[steepholm]

I had chicken-in-a-basket for the first time the first time I ever went into a pub - when I was old enough to enter but not to drink. It was a real wicker basket, lined with greaseproof paper, iirc, and filled with quarter of a roast chicken and some chips.

I thought it was fab.

[ladyofastolat]

It does sound like a strange thing for everyone to get so excited about. But I guess it's no different from a habit I've seen in many local pubs with Pretensions: serving chips in buckets (and charging twice as much for them, since ChipsInBuckets! are clearly SO much more exciting than chips on mere plates.)

[lizarfau]

I loved chicken-in-a-basket! My parents used to drive me to or pick me up from uni at the start/end of term (early 80s) and we sometimes had a pub lunch on the way. I always chose chicken-in-a-basket.

I loved Arctic Rolls as well.

Did the program cover drinks too? In the 70s, they had those Party 7 packs of beer - a can that contained seven pints. Why seven, I wonder? They were a staple at family parties in the 70s.

[ladyofastolat]

It didn't do much on drinks, apart from a few cocktails in the party they had (based around "inviting the boss to dinner") to celebrate reaching the end of the decade. It's based around a family with 3 children (10 to 18 or so) so the emphasis is on family meals.

[leesa_perrie]

Oh, now I want to know what the mousse things were, because I have a vague feeling I ate them too!! Not so much the Angels Delight - but we were still eating arctic rolls well into the nineties. In fact, I think my mum still buys them occasionally!

Not sure what junket is, so maybe we didn't have that. I know my parents weren't quick to go for new things. You won't find yoghurt at my parents' house, or pizza, or anything that involves pasta or rice, even now, let alone back then. Not sure if they're okay with quiche or not, but I suspect my mum would not be big on it. She's a bit traditional in her tastes! (Dad's more adventurous - when he gets the chance!)

And this reminds me that I was going to watch that show. Thank goodness for iPlayer! :D

[ladyofastolat]

Junket's a sort of rennet-based... thing, a bit hard to describe, given that I've not eaten it since about 1978! IIRC, it came in little tablets, and you just added... something. Milk? I imagine it can be made in a posher way, too, but I'm sure we just had it in tablet form. I'm suddenly curious to know if it's still sold. (Not that I'm in particular rush to eat it again.)

[leesa_perrie]

Doesn't ring any bells with me... so I decided to look it up! And no, don't think I've had this. Though it sounds like it might be nice... or it might not be!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junket_%28dessert%29

Presumably the person writing the above was not aware of the tablet form of the dessert.

Oh look, there's something on sale here that might be it: http://www.junketdesserts.com/alljunketproducts.aspx

[helflaed]

Yes, you can still get rennet. Usually in liquid form.

I tried junket once but found it a bit bland somehow.

[kalimac]

I can testify both from personal memory, and from looking them up on Google's Ngram, that fajitas and nachos, now both ubiquitous in Mexican restaurants (at least in the US), were basically unknown before about 1980.

[ladyofastolat]

In my personal experience, they were pretty much unknown until the mid or even late 90s. And they're still unknown to some. Last year, we went out for dinner with my parents, and I ordered fajitas, and it was clear that it was something they'd never heard of. "How are you supposed to eat it?" my Mum asked, when it came.

[learnsslowly]

Rennet is occasionally asked for by examination boards for Biology practical - 7 years ago we could still buy it quite economically in local supermarkets in the UK, but we haven't been able to in my area for the last few years.
Slightly overawed when I started secondary school in 1978 and my new friend asked if I would be OK eating quiche. I had no idea what it was, but say yes to be polite, reporting back to my family that it was "like a flan but didn't taste of much." It was my first encounter with Earl Grey tea, too.
In the 70's salad was lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes, and sometimes grated raw carrot, sliced cold hard boiled eggs, sliced beetroot and cress or mustard and cress. Never cold rice or pasta.
I think it's years since I've seen a radish in a salad and I seldom see cress.

cold rice

[bunn]

In the 70's my mother regularly used to make 'rice salad' - a cold rice dish with tuna, tomato, cucumber and salad cream. It was such a family staple that I was amazed in the late 80's to discover that there were people who didn't eat it.

Re: cold rice

[ladyofastolat]

We used to have "rice salad" which was just cold rice, chopped apple, raisins and tomato. I can't remember when this was, though; possibly not until the mid 80s. And when I visited home while away at university, I was often sent back with an old Vitalite tub* of pasta salad.

* So ubiqitious and useful were these re-used Vitalite tubs that I used to worry about what on earth I would use to store food in when I was big and grown-up, given that I hated the stuff and planned to only ever buy Lurpak butter for as long as I should live.

Re: cold rice

[bunn]

We moved to Devon when I was 12, and I can definitely remember eating rice salad in Swansea, so it would have to be at least very early 80's. But I don't remember the discovery of rice salad, in the way I remember the Arrival of Quiche, the First Mango or the Discovery of Duvets.

My memory is that Rice Salad Was Always Eaten, which seems like it ought to push it back to around 1975-ish at least.

[lindahoyland]

Thanks for bringing back a lot of memories. I recall when yoghurt first came out and remember Smash?

[ladyofastolat]

I don't think we ever had Smash, although I remember the adverts. I don't remember yogurt coming out, but I don't think I can remember eating them when I was small (I remember those mousse things instead) but do remember eating them as a teenager.

[lizarfau]

For mash gets smash!

I never had that, but I had an aunt who used to make it in the washing machine. (No idea why.)

I remember yoghurt coming out too.