The Good Old Days
I’ll be the judge of that!
There are two schools of thought from our older generation regarding days gone by. Half of them hated life pre and post war (I would imagine life during war wasn’t so great either) and the other seemingly loved it.
My father would routinely tell my brother and I that we didn’t know we were born, it was a common saying in the Collins household, a bit like ‘Good Morning’ or ‘turn that down’. Looking back I do feel a pang of both guilt and sympathy, he must have sat there looking at us swilling cans of beer thinking ‘I was on a troop ship bound for the Suez at their age’
I thought about my father tonight as I was doing some research for a post on long forgotten recipes using leftover food. He would (still does) tell us about his army rations and how everything he ate had sand in it. Some of my earliest recollections about food are my father’s tales of dried beef in a mess tin with the dessert stuck on top of it ‘and you were bloody grateful’
If nothing else this would put the misery that was sago pudding (frog spawn) at school meals into some kind of perspective. Anyway, I came across a section in one particular book called ‘Cooking in War-Time’ which deals with rations, conserving gas and electricity, cooking with hay, one pot etc and one recipe in particular stood out:
Note: Spellings and measurements as written.
Bully Omelet
1oz cornflour 3/4 teacupful of milk 2 dried eggs 1/4 teaspoon made mustard 1/2 oz margarine pepper and salt 2 tablespoons bully beef
Mix cornflour to a smooth paste with a little of the milk. Stir in remainder of milk, and the dried eggs which have been soaked for some hours. Season, and add lastly the bully beef, finely chopped.
Melt margerine in a frying-pan and, when hot pour in mixture. Stir lightly for a few seconds, then shake pan gently over fire till mixture is brown underneath. Brown under grill. Double over, and serve on a hot plate.
So there you have it, a dried egg and cornflour omelette with diced bully beef. God, I feel hungry now.
If these were the good days I shudder to think what the bad ones must have been like.
Miles
I believe there is a general rule that society thinks the best times were 20 years ago !
When you get to late 30s and onwards there’s probably much in it.
I think we could all do well to take the best from the ‘good old days’ add them to modern times and get the best of both worlds.
We all look back with rose tinited glasses, I wonder how good the good times we remember actually were.
I also think there is a tendency to condense things in the memory. Certain high points we really enjoyed become not a great few days but a great year or decade !
A thought provoking post
Rod
January 31, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
Miles,
Here goes lunch today… roughly 2 pints chicken stock (and folks if you are not making that carcass into stock, why not?), 1 large potato, 2 large leeks, 1 carrot, 1 onion or banana shallot which ever you prefer….. put stock and veg chopped into equal size 1 inch chunks, into a large saucepan. Bring to boil and simmer for between 15/20 mins. Blend until smooth, check seasoning. While it’s cooking cut some bread into small cubes and drizzle in some olive oil, not too much, stir and cook on a baking tray at about 180c for 8/10 mins or until golden and crisp…. I added a crushed garlic before cooking.
Queen of Puddings, an oldie but goodie…. enough for 3/4 people. 4 oz bread crumbs soaked in 1 pint milk which has been brought to the boil. Add 1 oz caster sugar and half an oz butter… set aside to cool for 15mins. Beat two egg yolks and add to mixture, stir and put a buttered dish in the oven 180c for about 30mins or until set and lightly golden. When it comes out heat a little raspberry jam and spread over the top then whisk 2 egg whites until stiff then add 1 oz caster sugar…. spread over pudding and pop back into the oven for about 15mins. Wait for the pudding to cool slightly as the jam makes it very hot…. eat just as it is.
Not expensive to make and the soup would have fed 5/6 people so lots left over for me tomorrow. Pudding always comes out well, such an easy recipe that most people seem to like. That original chicken has gone a long way!
Cid
January 31, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
Rod,
You make some very good points, maybe things were better in the sense that it was easier because we didn’t have the pressures of life as we know them today. That said I don’t miss trying to borrow a fiver off you to go to the pub every wednesday
Miles
January 31, 2008 @ 7:55 pm
Cid,
What an inspiring comment, there is nothing wrong with that for a lunch menu. Whichever way you cut it though you can either be bothered to make the effort or you can’t. You do make the effort and reap the rewards which come with it.
Well done and thanks for sharing the recipes.
Miles
January 31, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
Miles,
Another thought provoking post. I believe that ‘good old days’ refer to selected rememberances. It may be an interesting exercise to analyse what it was that made us remember them. If it is certain food/meals then, were others not so good? A cup of tea (however good) tastes fantasic when you are in desperate need for one or when you have not had one in a long time. You may thus remember it as the best tea ever. Moments of stress were eased with a cup of tea. When really hungry, most foods will taste good and are appreciated. Whilst I pass on your Omelete recipe above, folks then knew no different and it must have tasted good to them. I suppose that we can only distinguish good meals from awful ones, when we get to taste the better ones. We are more than fortunate now.
Cid, thank you for the queen of puddings recipe. I shall try it in due course. As to soups, well, you are a girl after my own heart
January 31, 2008 @ 8:39 pm
Elsie,
What you write reminds me of something Rick Stein once said about drinking a fabulous wine whilst on holiday then bringing some back home and wondering what the fuss was about. A time and a place springs to mind.
Miles
January 31, 2008 @ 9:10 pm
Miles
That said I don’t miss trying to borrow a fiver off you to go to the pub every wednesday
I don’t miss that either
February 1, 2008 @ 9:14 am