Topic: Eating in the fifties.

[lillian]

I certainly remember Sainsbury's that''s where we bought the jellied veal.  You had to queue up at each counter separately.  One for cheese, one for cooked meats, one for eggs and there were several more it took ages.   It was basically a deli but we certainly did not call it that.

Jellied veil my favorite as a kid. Not seen any for sale in years.

[louise stella]

Oh, yes, I remember Mum always reheated Dad's evening meal on a plate, over a saucepan, covered with an enamel plate.  Microwave ovens - what on earth are they?
I remember  in the 50s going into  J Sainsburys in St Albans High St, a small single shop unit, and queueing one side to be served eg butter, then going to the other side for cereal, etc.  What a lot of time we now save by going to the supermarket and only queueing once LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember Sainsburys having marble counters, tiled walls and sawdust on the floor. The assistants wore aprons and hand patted their butter. You could buy a single egg if you wanted ;D

Oh, yes, I remember Mum always reheated Dad's evening meal on a plate, over a saucepan, covered with an enamel plate.  Microwave ovens - what on earth are they?
I remember  in the 50s going into  J Sainsburys in St Albans High St, a small single shop unit, and queueing one side to be served eg butter,

I remember Sainsburys having marble counters, tiled walls and sawdust on the floor. The assistants wore aprons and hand patted their butter. You could buy a single egg if you wanted ;D

When I left School I applied to go in the Civil Service, but had to wait till the following year to join (they took in yearly recruits in those days).  So I got a job in a shop to earn money.  It was called Underwoods, and was a chemist in Putney high street!  It was in fact an old SAinsburys and I could remember it being a SAinsburys.  In the cellar all the  old fittings were still there and in the stockroom and out the back we still had all the floor tiles with "Sainsburys" written on them in mosaic tiles!

We also had a local shop where I lived in Wimbledon called the "Maypole" and it was a smaller version of Sainsburys - you queued up and were served by one of two assistants, (you always tried to get the lady who would give you a few extra broken biscuits).  They would walk around the back of the counter getting everything you asked for and this could take ages a there were some big families near us!  They got to know what your orders were and if you got it wrong would say "your mum doesn't have that - she has this" and so on!  I remember going in their when decimalisation came in and the chaos it caused.  All the mums were convinced they had been short changed!

[Aden Roller]

I certainly remember Sainsbury's that''s where we bought the jellied veal.  You had to queue up at each counter separately.  One for cheese, one for cooked meats, one for eggs and there were several more it took ages.   It was basically a deli but we certainly did not call it that.

Jellied veil my favorite as a kid. Not seen any for sale in years.

I simply wouldn't eat it - seemed unfair to the animal I thought when I was a kid.

[queenbee]

I think it was late 40's I was only little and my dad had got hold of some Ox cheek, I think mum made it into a stew or something, she wasn't the best cook but did make glorious cakes. When I came to eat it there was a sort of green honeycomb bit which was very tough. I think she should have cut this off. I couldn't eat it and was sick. My dad tried to make me and I had to sit at the table for ages, I won in the end but 60 odd years later I can still vividly remember. We had a dog at the time and I used to go with my dad to buy his food from a local horse meat shop called Bill Phipps (I hope it was for the dog) as we also picked up lites which were boiled and stunk the house out. I was so scared of the shop because of the carcases hanging on hooks dripping blood. they always threatened to give me to Bill Phipps if I was naughty. They were really very good parents and I suppose in such times of shortage This meat was protein.   

[Aden Roller]

I think it was late 40's I was only little and my dad had got hold of some Ox cheek, I think mum made it into a stew or something, she wasn't the best cook but did make glorious cakes. When I came to eat it there was a sort of green honeycomb bit which was very tough. I think she should have cut this off. I couldn't eat it and was sick. My dad tried to make me and I had to sit at the table for ages, I won in the end but 60 odd years later I can still vividly remember. We had a dog at the time and I used to go with my dad to buy his food from a local horse meat shop called Bill Phipps (I hope it was for the dog) as we also picked up lites which were boiled and stunk the house out. I was so scared of the shop because of the carcases hanging on hooks dripping blood. they always threatened to give me to Bill Phipps if I was naughty. They were really very good parents and I suppose in such times of shortage This meat was protein.   

During the war years horse meat was pretty common and not for pet food....or so I'm told. I did have a ration book but only just as rationing continued into the early 50s.

"Lights" were / are the lungs of game or other livestock - not that commonly eaten unlike tripe which was a pretty wide spread dish when served / cooked with onions. (Yuck). I remember my father bringing home plastic bags full of it in the 60s for the dog and insisting my mother cook some for him. (Both Londoners)

A more modern recipe: Lights with Soured Cream. Lovely  ::)

Personally I like ox heart but many people don't.

[lillian]

I certainly remember Sainsbury's that''s where we bought the jellied veal.  You had to queue up at each counter separately.  One for cheese, one for cooked meats, one for eggs and there were several more it took ages.   It was basically a deli but we certainly did not call it that.

Jellied veil my favorite as a kid. Not seen any for sale in years.

I simply wouldn't eat it - seemed unfair to the animal I thought when I was a kid.

When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s I don't remember anything about animal welfare. Most people I knew worried about putting for on the table and not were it came from.

[Aden Roller]

I certainly remember Sainsbury's that''s where we bought the jellied veal.  You had to queue up at each counter separately.  One for cheese, one for cooked meats, one for eggs and there were several more it took ages.   It was basically a deli but we certainly did not call it that.

Jellied veil my favorite as a kid. Not seen any for sale in years.

I simply wouldn't eat it - seemed unfair to the animal I thought when I was a kid.

When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s I don't remember anything about animal welfare. Most people I knew worried about putting for on the table and not were it came from.

I guess my thinking of the animal started when "Snowy" vanished - I was about 5. "Snowy" was a Sussex White hen that I regarded as a pet but found upside down hanging from the garage rafters. I went off chicken for a while too.  ::)

Remember tongue? Yuck - wouldn't eat that either - won't now because of its texture.

[Ninnyscrops.]

I can't remember the early Sainsbury shops, I do remember the David Greig shop on Acre Lane where we used to watch the man carving the crumbed ham from the bone on a white porcelain stand. Cheese wrapped in greaseproof paper and if they'd cut a bit too heavy for Mum, another was cut with the wire until she was happy.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but did they have a thistle motif on their tiles?

Ninny

[Poppy Mole]

My sister worked for David Greig when she left school & was asked to help out at various "posh do's" because of her skill at carving ham, & I think you are right about the thistle motif Ninny.

[Aden Roller]

My sister worked for David Greig when she left school & was asked to help out at various "posh do's" because of her skill at carving ham, & I think you are right about the thistle motif Ninny.

Well remembered!! I hadn't a clue but here is the proof: David Greig's thistle

[Jeannine]

I don;t know that but they sold the ham bones when they got to a certain point and there was loads of ham left on them, we were real chuffed if we got one  as they were very cheap
XX Jeannine

[Ninnyscrops.]

Yes, Jeannine, we had those too. Mum used to take it all off and make something similar to a corned beef hash with it. Too expensive to make in this day and age, if you can even find an end of a carved ham!

The link shows tiles in our local town I walk past them every time I visit as they are on the walkway from the car park. It makes no reference to David Greig, I wonder if they could have been the site of an old shop?

http://www.hiddenhorsham.co.uk/33/33.htm

Ninny

[ACE]

The reference to horsemeat as made me remember the time I was home on leave and staying at my parents. I came home late one night after a lock in down the pub and feeling a bit peckish spied a pan of stewing steak on the cooker. Filled a dish grabbed a few slices of bread and tucked in.

The next day at dinner time there was only egg and chips on the table, so I asked where the stewing steak was. Evidently it was a load of horse meat from the knackers yard for the dogs and as it had a bit of a pong about it mother cooked it up the night before for the dogs breakfast.

Didn't do me any harm and as I remember quite tasty. I suppose it was the equivalent of the elephants leg that you get in the kebab house nowadays when you are staggering home from the pub and the munchies hit you. You would not touch it with a barge pole when you are sober.

[budgiebreeder]

I am surprised no one has mentioned sugar bread,slice of bread and marge with a tiny sprinkling of sugar
alernative to drip bread( mucky fat).we also used to pinch cocoa  powder and mix it with sugar lol eat it in the choir when no one was looking..we thought.Must have had a sweet tooth even then cos we used to pinch sugar and make a cornet out of it(only a tiny bit else u got noticed)and dip rhubarb in it from someones garden.Oh we must have been quite naughty on thinking about it cos we raided orchards every summer .It was quite a ritual oh my ! raiding allotments 4 peas was much more fun than eating them  from yr own patch  .catching trout in the streams and cooking them on an old piece of tin plate in the woods with a pewit egg ......tut tut what a naughty girl i must have been

[Aden Roller]

I am surprised no one has mentioned sugar bread,slice of bread and marge with a tiny sprinkling of sugar

I'd forgotten all about sugar on bread - often had that for tea and occasionally just banana dipped in sugar.

[budgiebreeder]

Oh i forgot to mention that you can still buy Jellied Veal in Dewsbury  market if you live up Norf ;)