The BBC have run a couple of interesting series, “Back in Time for Dinner”, in which a family had to sample the food that a typical family would have eaten through the years from 1900 to the end of that century. Not to be outdone…
Dave Mundy
During the war I used to go to the grocers with Mum and get the weekly shop, I always loved the moment when she asked for x slices of bacon. The grocer got the huge lump of pig and put it on his carving machine, a 2 foot rotating disc, and sliced off as many slices as needed.
A few years ago, Lidl, had just the same for sale but in quarter size, ie. a 6 inch cutting disc, but the pleasure is just the same!
Graeme Wall
“Please don’t let children sit on the bacon slicer, we are getting a little behind with our orders”!
Nick Ware
In 1946 we moved into a rambling vicarage in a village near Guildford.
The village shop had one of those bacon slicers, as I imagine most did since nothing came pre-packed. It probably looked like a two foot disc to a four-year-old as I was then, but I think it was more like one foot!
I used to like the loose biscuits in glass topped tins, displayed all along the front of the counter, and the friendly shopkeeper who used to say, “…help yourself to a free broken biscuit if you can find one”. Not very good from a hygiene point of view, as we grubby kids rummaged around among them, but somehow we survived!
The only electric thing in our kitchen was the solitary light bulb. What I did like a lot though, was the gas “copper”. Amazingly, thinking about it now, the village was on mains gas.
Mrs B was the village “lady wot does” who came every Monday to clean and do the washing. Always, first thing she did was light the copper to start the washing bubbling away. Without fail, she sploshed a bucket of cold water into the copper, and turned on the gas. Only then would she start hunting around for a box of matches to light it. The loud “BOOM!” when she found and struck a match was a thrilling and window-rattling sound. On a really good day, the coke-burning boiler right next to it did the deed for her before she found the matches! I can still hear that sound today!
That inefficient boiler was the only water-heating device in the house – no radiators. And much of the time my poor old Dad couldn’t afford to buy coke for it anyway.
We had to be hardy in those days.
Dave Plowman
No lady “what does” when I were a lad.
But do remember my Mum doing the washing, and it was an all day job, and long into the evening too with the ironing. Sometimes over-ran into Tuesday. And that was with a very basic washing machine. A mangle in the garden shed, and then everything hung outside to dry.
And I remember her wanting a twin tub. Father saying the old machine still worked OK – as if he knew anything about it. She got her wish – and still had it long after automatic ones were around.
When the question is asked ‘what machine has changed the world most?’, for a housewife a decent washing machine must be high up the list.
Tony Nuttall
.My latest bit of “Kitchen Equipment” is a shelf, that also tells the time, for my VT TEA Mug.
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Roger Bunce
Favourite kitchen equipment?
Nutcrackers!
No sniggering please. As my fingers get older and more arthritic, as my opposable thumbs no longer oppose strongly enough, I use nutcrackers. For anything that needs extra grip or additional leverage, I reach for the the most readily available second-order lever. For opening jars and bottles, for holding things together while the glue sets and, today, putting enough pressure on my Grandson’s construction kit, to make the plastic pieces click into place. Pliers are all well and good, but they don’t live in the kitchen, and they don’t open wide enough to grip some of the things that need gripping. Nutcrackers are a much neglected universal tool.
And at Christmas, you can open walnuts with them! (but nothing works on Brazils.)
Colin Hazelwood
Have you tried popping your nuts in the freezer?
About an hour should do the trick. Then you can crack them open very easily.
It’s best to leave them for about 5 mins before eating but they soon come up to room temperature. Certainly works with Brazils – not sure about Macadamias.
Dave Mundy
Kenneth More confessed that he had to dangle his nuts in ice-cold water when he and his wife were trying for a baby, I don’t think he tried the freezer!
Pat Heigham
When I was small, at Christmas my Dad would extract the kernel from a Brazil nut, cut it in half, and sharpen the tip to a point, stand it on the flat bit – and light it!
There’s enough natural oil in the nut to sustain a small flame for a while (and the charred bit tastes quite nice!).
Try it on your grandchildren!
