Actually many types of seaweed were harvested and used as food in many parts of Britain. Used in soups, breads, puddings. My love of dulse was introduced to me through my Scottish grandmother and I have been eating it since the 1950's. I eat it instead of potato chips when I want something salty to eat. High in iron and iodine

haha no elbows on the table. Reminds me of my Dad if we ever did that and I sat next to him. He would stir his hot tea with his spoon and then if he saw us sitting with an elbow on the table he would reach over with the hot spoon and put it on our arm when we weren't looking. Ouch My soon to be sister in law turned around and hit my Dad when he did that to her hahahaha it was so funny

We lived in Scotland in 1961... not far from the 50's... and I am racking my brain to remember what we ate. We lived in a Hotel for 2 months on the "American Plan" (3 meals and tea). I do remember canned grapefruit sections, served in sherbet dishes for desert... remembering too, how "our" waiter served us with his napkin over his arm. DS took those two things to heart and insisted that we have sherbet dishes and grapefruit at home that way.... and he learned to set the table with all that silverware (I had to buy little grapefruit spoons, very cheap at "Woolies" in town. We lived in a village). Ten years later, we returned... same Hotel, same Waiter "Bill", our own 'table' with the jar of peanut butter on it... and DS (then 15) really felt at home.

Americans forget -- or never knew -- that rationing continued for a long time after the war in Britain. There simply was not enough food or labor to produce it.

My mother used to send 'Care Packages' to my aunt and uncle when my uncle was hired by a woolen mill in Dewsbury, Yorkshire after the war. My aunt said that once in a while the firm's partners and senior staff would make a foray into Scotland, where good food was available -- if you had the money. (Black Market?)

You're right, chisue, some rationing continued into the mid-fifties following WW2. Also, the UK has historically not been a country where prosperity was ever widely distributed across their archaic and still present class structure. Many in the working class have always struggled to get by with meager means. Even today.

With that backdrop, my own observation (consistent with jasdip's perceptive comments) was that the UK used the Channel to isolate itself from better food practices widely followed on the Continent. Once the UK joined what was then the EEC in the 1970s, there was a flood of migration to and from the UK. Those who worked and experienced Continental life came back and demanded higher standards and broader choices. EEC requirements for food handling and preparation also improved quality.

In the 1970s-90s timeframe, the common recommendation I received was to avoid the "local food" and find an ethnic restaurant. A list of the disgusting "favorites" and practices I've encountered is too long to post. The Brits are more worldly these days but many of past practices still linger.

I can't imagine what snidely is referring to... unless it is Haggis. lol We lived in Scotland for 3 years 61-65 with NO commissary and a PX that was really a "ships store" (for sailors and marines, males only then) having spent the 3 previous years in Germany (again a very small port on the North Sea) with an Army commissary available. I have a hard time remembering what we ate, but I do remember that "local Scottish" food was basic and ok. Their dairy products, and bakery products... we had a butcher, all in the very small village... it was fresh and wonderful (after eating whatever passed for eggs in the army food service in Germany... it came from US via boat, only powdered dry milk, old butter, chancy eggs and only canned fruit and veggie.) I don't believe that in 1960, folks in the US were so used to salads and fresh vegs like we are now. World-wide civilization has raised its standards to include more 'greener and fresher' eating. I do remember missing "cottage Cheese so much that my neighbor and I learned to make our own. Didn't quite taste the same, As for cooking in 'fats', most Americans didn't have anything other than 'bacon fat' or lard and they rendered it themselves. 'CRISCO' AND Margarine, I believe were inventions during WWII, to take the place of bacon fat and lard that was used in abundance in the war effort.I think the Gov't used it in some form to waterproof stuff.

In Germany and Japan, our US Forces were cautioned not to eat fresh "local" produce because those countries used "night soil" as a fertilizer.... local cows had tuburculocus,(sorry lost here) those were never an issue in Scotland.

Haggis..... well, some of those ingredients are used in dishes in this country today. Not that I like them or eat them, but IF one is going to eat animals.... one should be prepared to eat all of it... maybe.Scots prepare the best turnips ever.... tatties and neeps, fish and chips, bangers and beans, beef and barley soups. To die for Salmon, for that special occasion.

English fare was still more bland than we ate in the US when my mother and I visited in 1955. One of my Brit friends maintains that his family had the same meals on the same days every week, starting with a roast on Sunday that became hash a few nights later -- kind of like an old camp song about "Monday, washday; Tuesday, ironing..."

Dewesbury was a mill town. My aunt did her marketing almost every day, stopping at each purveyor in turn: Baker, Butcher, Greengrocer, Dairy, etc. with a wicker basket on her arm. Everything seemed twenty years behind the US with its' IGA's and A&P's. Little refrigerators with (maybe) a two-ice-tray freezer.

Speaking of ice...do Brits really drink as much alcohol as we see in the movies -- stories set in the past and today? We know about the sweet, hot tea handed 'round at every dramatic point, but there seems to also be an LOT of whiskey.

OK, here's a quick sampling:

Haggis is most certainly on the list, but I know it's the Scots' fault.

Jellied eels

Pies and pasties - steak and kidney and all the stuff made with offal. Pub food.

Similarly, black pudding and black sausage

Overcooked joints (roasts) served with overcooked and greasy vegetables. Actually, a lot of what they do is overcooked and greasy.

Nice people, just go for the India/Pakistani or Italian restaurants.

And yes, they drink WAY too much. It's an unfortunate part of their culture.

(edit for link and the following last comment0

I forgot to mention - baked beans on toast for breakfast (carbs anyone?)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

This post was edited by snidely on Mon, Feb 3, 14 at 23:41

With a diet like that, I'd rather drink, too.

far cry from the days of henry the 8th and feasting on whole joints of meat, lol...

BBC Radio's The Food Programme is one of my favourite podcasts that I listen to every week. I have even gone back and listened to previous years. The podcast about banana's is very interesting. This podcast talks about British food, and the history and cultural diversity of it. Very interesting. You can listen online or on your mobile device, phone or iPod. It is free.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Food Programme

Wow, that was some pie like I have never seen. I think the point I would like to make is that people throughout the rise of civilization have learned to eat the food that was available where they were. Until the mid-century refrigeration was not available. During WWII I grew up in SF ....no refrigerator in my life. we had an "ice box" and an 'ice man' who delivered. My family had recently left the farm in Ohio..(German heritage).. and their foods were those that were kept in a root cellar, or grown and home canned and meat grown and processed on the farm.... pigs and very little beef
It was pretty close to a self-sustaining lifestyle.

That is what I witnessed in MY overseas adventures. When a Scottish housewife of limited means fixes a kidney pie and makes it edible....using what is available, that is admirable. My grandmother's menu was pretty basic using a good amount of corn (because they grew it), green vegetables because she grew and canned them or stored them in a root cellar.And dried corn...ugh.Beans are a PROTEIN... used when eggs and meat are unavailable. Carbs??? when people used to live in sparingly heated stone houses.... carbs and fat kept them warm.....did not make fat people. Eskimos that lived in igloos and below freezing temps, chewed on and survived their climate by eating blubber.... mainstay of their life.What's that about!

As for Alcohol.... Blokes do have their beers and scotch. They take the bite out of the very cold climate and add merriment to every occasion.. Yes, we knew some that overindulged.... sometimes we did too.

BTW, the first thing we noticed when we arrived in our little village was that they were 20 years behind the times. No doubt about it.... we had 2 hours of TV in mornings, and a few in the evenings ....2 channels BBC1 and Grampian. Loved it.

I know the OP posted the first post somewhat in jest. Much of it is true. UK cooking was (probably is) bland.... I did have pasta, Their 'fast food was Fish & Chips..(Oh how we loved them....grease sand all.....in the newspapers and part of the fun). Sometimes they made their "pasties " with 'mince" which is ground beef (really good BTW). Different regions had their own 'pastie" style and flavor.

So, that was Nanny's brief history lesson on the Villages around the Cairngormes. It was a special time to turn back the clock and live in times past. Now, they have North Sea Oil, Texans in boots and cowboy hats on the streets of Aberdeen, old mansions renovated and updated and super markets and a hurrier lifestyle than in 1960. Memories

My parents grew up during the Great Depression and WW2, so they were very used to rationing. My Grandmother ran a "boarding house" so she cooked big meals for her tenants. She used ration coupons. My parents got married in June 1946, just after the end of "The War". Meat was still hard to find. My Grandmother drove around Buffalo NY visiting butcher shops and buying hams for their wedding reception.