I'm curious to know what an average family might have had for their main meal 130 years ago?Any ideas please?
noonesgirl,
Dec 4, 9:51am
Check out Google. Interesting info there
kaiser2,
Dec 4, 10:04am
Didn't find an answer through google.
kuaka,
Dec 4, 10:41am
very ordinary "basic" food - steak and kidney pie or pudding, stews, maybe a roast on Sunday.No pasta, very unlikely it would have included rice (except for a milk pudding) basic meat, potato and veg.Tripe and onion, liver and bacon, that type of thing.
nfh1,
Dec 4, 10:50am
This site may give you some ideas of what food was around.
My Greatgrandparents had a shop (early 1900's??) and I believe made icecream from a custard base.
I'd think a the main meal might be something like Irish stew or mutton chops (hogget on a good day).There would be a pudding which would probably be stodgy,as would the whole meal.A pile of bread and butter might accompany the meal.Every meal had potatoes.If it you had a roast there might be roast and mashed potatoes.
Fish on Fridays if you were Roman Catholic and some other people liked it too.My mother used to roll fillets of flounder or sole and secure with a toothpick.These were put between two enamel plates (these were quit deep) and steam it.It was served with parsley sauce (white sauce with lots of finely chopped parsley), but might just have a white sauce.
A lighter meal might be soup.Made with barley and pulses (soup mix).My mother would mince the veges (carrots, swede, onion) and use a soup bone.
In summer a pressed tongue might be accompanied by a lettuce salad.Our salads in the 1950's were always shredded letuce with sliced hard boiled eggs and sliced tomatoes in a bowl with highlander dressingon the side.Serve this with steamed jersey bennie potatoes.
tixy,
Dec 4, 6:40pm
I am intrigued too!My house was built in 1879 and it was really interesting looking at the pictures of what the kitchens looked like - and to read of what they would have eaten ( I see Coca Cola was invented about then - I can't picture Mrs Applegarth, the teacher who lived here, coming inside after beating the rugs and cracking open a coke!)
nfh1,
Dec 4, 8:26pm
I am very curious to know why you were curious!
vintagekitty,
Dec 4, 9:21pm
This may be of interest, as it has a kitchen that is amazing, even though it was built at the turn of the century.http://www.olveston.co.nz/.I live in a very old house and am interested in the life of the original owners. I often wonder what they did and how they lived in our house, also what they would think of us and how we live. That we dont have servants, we do our own cooking, we have all the modern appliances. That if it is really hot, I wear a bikini and shorts!, instead of a gown and summer hat., all sorts of things really.
vintagekitty,
Dec 4, 9:24pm
if you click on the link start tour it gives options of viewing the rooms. What I find interesting is alot of the appliances, and kitchen storage, tools etc is what ive bought to use in my renovated house. I love the copper sinks.
noonesgirl,
Dec 4, 9:49pm
Mrs Owens Cook Book Chili (1880)Recipes »Soups, Stews and Chili»Chili
Main Ingredient: Chile peppeChilisBeanOnionOreganoGar- lic IngredientsLean beef; cut in small dice Oil Onions 1 Clove garlic; chopped fine 1 tb Flour 2 tb Espagnole 1 ts Ground oregano 1 ts Ground cumin 1 ts Ground coriander Dried whole peppers Cooked beans .Preparation This may be the earliest printed recipe for chili con carne and it is surprisingly authentic, save for the suspect addition of "espagnole", white sauce seasoned with hame, carrot, onion, celery, and clove. The words are Mrs. Owens own. This might be called the national dish of Mexico. Literally, it means pepper with meat and when prepared to suit the taste of the average Mexican, is not misnamed. Take lean beef and cut in small dice, put to cook with a little oil. When well braised, add some onions, a clove of garlic chopped fine and one tablespoon flour. Mix and cover with water or stock and two tablespoons espagnole, 1 teaspoon each of ground oregano, camino, and coriander. The latter can be purchased at any drug store. Take dried whole peppers and remove the seeds, cover with water and put to boil and when thoroughly cooked pass through a fine strainer. Add sufficient puree to the stew to make it good and hot, and salt to taste. To be served with a border of Mexican beans (frijoles), well cooked in salted water. Frijoles or Mexican brown beans. Boil beans in an earthen vessel until soft (four to eight hours). Mash and put them into a frying pan of very hot lard and fry until comparatively dry and light brown. Sometimes chopped onions are put into the lard before the beans are added and sometimes pods of red pepper or grated cheese.
nik12,
Dec 4, 11:12pm
Thanks for sharing that link.. bought back lots of memories.My favourite treat growing up in Dunedin was a trip to Olveston. It's interesting that is says the table is set for an 'important dinner party'.. it certainly was and I think it's sad that they don't say it was at that dinner that the Plunket Society was formed!
uli,
Dec 5, 12:18am
Depends - where in the world? NZ? Africa? Europe? China? Or where else?
vintagekitty,
Dec 5, 2:25am
You are so welcome, I love it as well. Amazing family and I could imagine the dinner parties of that day.
buzzy110,
Dec 5, 2:36am
Mmm - I would not have thought the meal would have been stodgy and as for the availability of bread back in 1880, well I think that they didn't eat nearly as much of it as one would think, simply because cooking was done using a wood burning stove and bread was homemade, using a sour dough starter, rather than freely available, pre-sliced, in plastic bags, one car journey away from a supermarket.
From memory, my mother said bread was baked once a week and when it ran out that was it and that was still only about 1930's.
Sugar, also was not that common, and flour was still predominantly stoneground so stodgy dessert every day? I think not. More likely that they had cheese and some sort of fruit or dairy based creation for dessert, if they even had dessert on a regular basis. Once again I tend to think dessert was more a Sunday treat or special occasion thing.
olwen,
Dec 5, 4:21am
I'd very much doubt that cheese was eaten on a regular basis, but could be wrong.I do know that my grandmother was keen on oatcakes as a girl so maybe something of that sort.But I think flour mills were pretty common.Laurenson's bakery in Dunedin was established in 1891.BTW to me sliced bread is a new-fangled invention.I grew up on a daily quarter white and quarter brown (half loaves) that we sliced with a bread knife.It came from the corner shop and we picked it up at lunchtime on our way home for lunch.In some families the bread didn't make it home.
I forgot to mention that in many families bread was eaten with drippings.(We made soap from the drippings -- too valuable to eat)
vintagekitty,
Dec 5, 4:31am
Bread was baked daily, as larger homes had two ovens, one being a dedicated bread baking oven. I know in Dunedin, we had Laurensons, as Olwen mentioned, but there were several others as well. In the 1880's shops were popping up in most towns with the arrival of traders from England, Dunedin being the most densly populated first city, had hundreds of shops before 1900.
kay141,
Dec 5, 4:39am
I did too. Grew up in Dunedin as well.
Buzzy I think you will find, certainly down south, very few families baked their own bread in the 1930s. Bakeries were well established. Potato bread was made but not often. Being of good scots descent, it was oatcakes andscones of varying types including girdle scones. These were just flour, raising and water. Cooked on a cast iron plate with a handle. Delicious with butter and golden syrup. Always called a girdle in my recollection but I think griddle might have been the original name. My mother also had something called fried scones but never made them as far as I can remember.
kaiser2,
Dec 5, 7:49pm
haha I get curious about a lot of things!I live in Reefton,a town that treasures its past.And when I walk past Wilsons Hotel, built over 130yrs ago and the last surviving miners hotel,or any of the other old buildings in town,I become curious about how people lived in those days.So that is how this thread came to be...
kaiser2,
Dec 5, 7:50pm
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread, you have all been most helpful.
addington261,
Dec 6, 3:50am
Sometimes when I am cooking at home I wonder what my grandmother would think I was doing , flitting from the microwave to the steamer , the deep fryer etc.Cooking has changed so much in a couple of generations.
rainrain1,
Dec 6, 4:21am
Enjoyed looking through Olveston, thanks vintagekitty.I don't suppooooooose (tongue in cheek) you have any more pics of your restorations ?
jessie981,
Dec 6, 4:58am
I've always thought they'd cook their meat by boiling e.g boiled mutton
duckmoon,
Oct 1, 11:54am
what was the TV programme where they used the diet of different periods in English history for a week... It might have some ideas on their website.... Does any one remember the name of the TV programme
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