Wednesday, January 21, 2026

21 Foods British Families Ate to SURVIVE 1970s Winters


Fray Bentos pies, loved those

Canned corn beef hash, have a can of that in the cupboard....

Spam fritters, haven't had that in years.........

Findus pancakes, I had forgotten about them..........

Instant potatoes, I remember them, and the advert........

Vesta curries.......don't remember those, but remember the name.

Liver and onions, still a firm favourite for me, with plenty of mashed potatoes.....

Cauliflower with cheese sauce, we often have this for supper by itself, and yes I add mustard to my cheese sauce.

Toad in the hole, haven't had this in a while.

Lancashire hotpot, haven't had that in years........

Mince and tatties, yum!

Bread and dripping, never remember having it.

Fish finger sandwiches.............my mother always tells me if she had to pick her last meal on earth it would be a fish finger sandwich.........

Bubble and squeak, loved it........

Semolina with jam always loved it.  Loved rose hip syrup also with it.  I now have a craving for that......

Angel Delight..........it was a treat...

Artic Roll..........I think you can still get those, always enjoyed that........

Tinned pears with evaporated milk, we also had tinned peaches........don't have them now because of the sugar in the juices

Beef stew and dumplings, I remember those as well

Margarine on toast.........had that........

Tripe and onions, don't remember having that at all........

From that list, the way I cook is very influenced from the 1970's.  I also remember when the electric/hydro went out as well.   


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the UK one can buy tinned fruit in juice rather than syrup. Perhaps you could too.

Nelliegrace said...

The beginning of heavily advertised, Ultra Processed Food and ready meals by which the manufacturers have ruined our health to increase their profits.

I made vegetables au gratin to use up a leek, some cauliflower and broccoli and the last of the blue-veined cheese yesterday.

We have a Scottish haggis for Burn’s Night, to have with swede and potato mash and greens. I shall freeze half of the haggis.

Maggie said...

We had beef stew and dumplings recently and also still have liver and onions.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Many of these I recognize and a few we still eat regularly, even though we aren't Brits. Cauliflower with cheese sauce is often on the winter menu here. We used to eat beef stew with dumplings but the price of beef has gotten too high so we rarely buy it.

jj said...

I love cauliflower with cheese sauce. I wonder how many of these can still be done healthily and also budget friendly

My Piece of Earth said...

Liver and onions, bread and dripping. bubble and squeak are the only things i remember from the 50's.

Meanqueen said...

We had most of those. Mum gave us tripe once. I was nearly sick trying to eat it. I gave up. We had the vesta meals, chow mien mostly.

Jeanie said...

I think I've only heard of one or two of these!

Dreaming said...

I look back at my life in the 70's....and feel ignorant as I have no recall of hardships faced by folks in Britain. I enjoyed the video and explanations of some meals that I may have heard of, but didn't know much about.

Jackie said...

I usually by any tinned fruit in water or juice at our Co-op here in Saskatchewan.

God bless.

Belinda said...

Sounds good and filling,

Lowcarb team member said...

I do enjoy liver and onions, have mine with mashed swede :)

All the best Jan

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