Food trends In Great Britain 1940-present

[Anna N]

 I found this an interesting survey of what foods are in and out in Britain.  The decline of offal versus the rise of pizza is not especially surprising but some of the observations did give me pause. 

 

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[blue_dolphin]

This 1974 figure surprises me:  "According to the survey, just 15% of households owned a freezer in 1974. By 2000 that figure stood at 94%."

I recall the '60s era freezers of my early childhood in the US were of the tiny "ice cube compartment" variety but think it was pretty standard to have one by then.  

 

But how interesting to have so much historical information from these surveys to analyze!  I keep thinking of different queries I'd like to run on these data.

 

[Tere]

I don't remember us having a freezer when I was little. Not as a separate item, anyway. We had the icebox in the fridge. I'm trying to remember if we had one at all before I was 15 in the late 80s. If it existed it lurked in the garage but I am not sure it did. I basically remember the icebox being used for ice cream and frozen peas and that was pretty much that.

 

The pasta thing surprises me, I don't remember a time we didn't eat pasta at home. Just macaroni and spaghetti, both dried, but it was definitely a thing for Mum. She was a good and inventive cook, though, often on a very strict budget! I rarely throw anything out because of her and my grandmother.

[blue_dolphin]

1 hour ago, Tere said:

I don't remember us having a freezer when I was little. Not as a separate item, anyway.

 

If by "freezer" they are referring to a free-standing unit, then I'm surprised by the 2000 figure of 94% ownership and if they include the icebox in the fridge, I'm surprised that only 15% had them in 1974.  One way or the other, that stat surprises me.

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

I'm surprised that only 15% had them in 1974.  One way or the other, that stat surprises me.

 

Not a surprise to me. When I left home to go to university in London, we didn't even have a fridge at home, never mind a freezer..That was in the early 1970s. When I got back later a fridge had turned up. A freezer was much longer coming.

[Deryn]

Jamie Oliver would probably be very sad to learn (though I suspect he already knows) that the foods consumed in Britain today are very little, if any, better in terms of nutrition than they were in post-war Britain. Moving from full fat to skim milk products is not any improvement. Much as I personally am not a (beef) liver fan, I suspect it is better for people than pizza. Pasta (though I love it) is not really a step up from Indian foods (not mentioned and apparently a dying cuisine in Britain but many Indian dishes tend to be much more vegetable based than the kinds of Italian pasta dinners that I expect many Brits consume these days - i.e. spaghetti, as pictured). Purchasing whole wheat bread is little better in most cases than buying white (with all the additives and so little real nutrition and fiber left in most commercially produced bread these days). Baking one's own at home would be a much better trend. 'Chips', both fresh and frozen (I suspect more frozen than fresh these days in most households) remain the mainstay of the British diet - and the only vegetable mentioned. I believe most salmon available in Britain is farmed, not wild - replacing wild cod and haddock - too bad - though I guess it might be a plus if they don't batter and deep fry their salmon.

 

Thanks for posting the article, Anna. I don't think it was particularly good (not really specific enough for my taste but then it covers a long time period) but it did reveal some interesting things - not that most surprised me. I know there are many people who try to cook often at home and eat fresh, often organic, foods in the UK (Tere is an example, as I think my daughter in Scotland is as well) - this article I think really doesn't speak to most of those however. Those who live in rural, agriculturally rich areas I am sure don't run as much to the pub (also disappearing) as they might have in yesteryear - which for them is probably a good thing since they probably tend to cook at home more than those in cities.

 

I don't think any of my Welsh relatives (some now living in or near London, and in Northumberland) have ever had a (separate) freezer, and I am not sure they even had a fridge when I visited Wales as a child in the late 50s - though I know they all do now. It was summer and I know I was never offered ice, ice cream or a popsicle at any rate. We kids were given room temperature orange squash and I don't think even the grown ups had cold drinks except maybe if someone brought some beer from the pub. By contrast, though fridges in Canada were smallish by today's standards, and we waited years till we got a black and white tv, I think we always had a fridge with a freezer compartment - but not a separate freezer till the mid-60s.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[Tere]

I think Indian subcontinent food (or rather for most people the British version that very little resembles home cooking from that area) is still very popular, but it's not cooked at home very often from scratch unless you have that cultural heritage. Popping a curry made from a jar of sauce on the table more so, but often it's a takeout. I started learning in part because I have one decent takeout place 12 miles away from me and that's pretty much that. Less effort to learn to cook it yourself!

 

I buy semi skimmed because I drink very little milk on its own anyway and find the taste of full milk too creamy. I also buy filtered because I get through so little so it keeps longer. Given I only use it in tea that's not really an issue. I'm not a fan of plastic bread but most of the in store bakery offerings at the supermarkets are pretty decent. If I ate much bread, which I don't, I'd probably bake it. But for half a loaf a week it's a bit harder to get motivated.

 

As everywhere there are different food cultures based on social class, access to fresh fruits and vegetables (either because your budget allows it or because you grow your own) and skill set when dealing with it. Families with a non cooking culture might live off oven chips and ready meals, but most of my friends are interested in food and cook themselves. And I think there is more interest in food in general, certainly since coming back from Japan 5 years ago.

[Anna N]

 Grew up in Britain in the 40s and 50s.  Offal was a huge part of our diet.  Liver, kidneys, tripe, black pudding (blood sausage) etc.   Do not ever remember pasta in any form.  No fridges or freezers or even iceboxes.  Food that needed to be kept cold was kept in the cellar in a cabinet with a screened door at my grandma's house  and in the scullery at the pub where I lived. Vegetables and meat were largely cooked until one wonders if there was any goodness left in them. Yet I have fond memories of my grandma's stew cooked in the hearth-side oven.   Do not believe garlic ever made an appearance and I only recall mint and parsley as the herbs of choice.  Bread was baked at home weekly. 

Edited February 19, 2016 by Anna N (log)

[liuzhou]

14 hours ago, Anna N said:

Grew up in Britain in the 40s and 50s.  Offal was a huge part of our diet.  Liver, kidneys, tripe, black pudding (blood sausage) etc.   Do not ever remember pasta in any form.

 

I was about twenty years old before I discovered that spaghetti didn't always come from a can. The fact that the great BBC spaghetti hoax of 1957 fooled most people shows the level of ignorance we lived in. It all changed in the seventies or eighties when cheap travel became available.

Edited February 20, 2016 by liuzhou
typo (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My first visit to Britain was in the late 1960's.  My cultural informant, a dear professor at Oxford, advised me to avoid British restaurants at all costs, and stick with Chinese or Indian cuisine.

 

Though I managed to down steak and kidney pie accompanied with enough alcohol.  And, bless her, she did introduce me to the haggis, as well as to the art of pub crawling.

 

 

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

I was about twenty years old before I discovered that spaghetti didn't always come from a can. The fact that the great BBC spaghetti hoax of 1957 fooled most people shows the level of ignorance we lived in. It all changed in the seventies or eighties when cheap travel became available.

I obviously misremembered about pasta as my older brother taught me how to properly slurp canned spaghetti. Canned spaghetti on toast was a regular item at the homes of my older siblings but never at Gran's house.