General Chat

Whenever I have a slice of bread I hear my mother say: "If you have margarine, then no jam", or "Jam and no margarine". This was of course in the war, and one had to be careful. Even now I have this guilty feeling about putting both on my bread. Anyone else have the same feelings? Sylvia

hi sylvia, some years back i was going through my dads belongings,after he had passed on,and i came across the infamous ration books,and it really makes you humble,and appreciate what we have today. if you want a sandwich,you need butter/marge as a base,otherwise it will taste dry,then add what you want,dont feel guilty,youve earned the right. bryan.

I know my mother, brought up during the 1930s depression, said that they rarely had jam or butter - or even marg. They made do with dripping, and if they had butter they never ruined it by putting jam on as well. Nowadays her larder is full with butter and low-fat spread and marg and various jams, jellies and marmalades.

The trouble is today although we're allowed to eat it, we're not allowed to eat it for health reasons. We can never win. Oh yes, I remember those ration books too well. Sylvia

Hi, I prefer butter on my bread (as I was told by an ageing nurse, it is a natural product and to be preferred over chemical products), especially if I fancy a jam sandwich. No one tells me what food to eat for my health, I eat whatever I fancy, my mothers favourite was rare roast beef, as she said "the blood should follow the knife", (not for me though) and she died when she was 90 - just think of all the unhealthy food she had eaten in 90 years! I remember during the war, a favourite was "Bread and Scrape", but then of course the scrape was the dripping out of the bottom of the meat pan. A bit of what you fancy does you good, John. P.S. Don't buy Kellogs "Lite Bites", they are full of sugar in fact sugar is second in the list of ingredients - even the curry flavour is sweet yeccccccccccccch!

Hello Sylvia, When I was small, when we asked my granny what was for tea, she'd sometime reply "bread & pull it". She grew up on Tyneside, and I think it was a reference to making things eke out during the Depression. My dad would also sometimes get shirty, if he thought we were spreading too much marge or butter onto our bread, and make us scrape it off and use it again on another slice. When i was at uni in York, my landlady & husband used to feed me the Yorkshire way on Sundays. Started with an enormous Yorkshire pud plus gravy, filled the plate, then seconds if we were still hungry. Then eventually roast beef and all the trimmings, followed by thick fruit pie and custard. Yummee! Think the pud course was also a way of making the beef last during the depression. Another place where I stayed had folks from Staffordshire, similar approach, big lee dishes as starters, meat later if you could manage. Gosh, that makes me feel hungry! lol! Philip

Even leek dishes! lol! Philip

When I was an apprentice, (mid fifties,) my Mate(electrician) when we went to a cafe' for our tea break, Always had "two o' drippin toast" sprinkled liberally with salt.

I had almost forgotten dripping, until believe it or not my boss where I worked (a Scotsman) brought in with him one day dripping sandwiches. We used to do the Times crossword every lunch hour, with him munching dripping sandwiches. Those were the days!

Di, you know what they say.. a littile of what you fancy does you good. The key word is little. nothing need be totally excluded from your diet (IMHO), just eaten in moderation - the bad (ie nice !) things just get kept for occasional treats :)

"A little bit of what you fancy", but the problem is what happens when you fancy too much? Sylvia

will power ? lol

Haven't seen bread and lard mentioned yet!! This was during the war and the lard was tasty, nothing like we have today;done the same way as dripping with salt added. West Bridgeford is a suburb of Nottingham with lots of expensive housing. Those who didn't live there would call it 'bread and lard island' meaning that the people only ate bread and lard in order for them to afford their expensive houses. On a discussion a couple of days ago on our local radio about oils, it was said that only olive oil should be used for frying as heating other types of oil e.g. sunflower and vegetable oils produce toxins. Happy frying!!! Norah

Just cannot imagine having lard on my bread. We cannot buy it here anyway, but I do have a packet which somebody bought me back from England for making pastry - Delia Smith says lard for pastry - anyone disagree? Sylvia

Hi Sylvia, If you want a real treat get yourself a pork joint, roast it on a wire stand over a cleen meatpan, then when the juices have cooled in the pan spread it liberally on some bread and sprinkle with salt, most lard used to be made from pork and it was white in appearance. In this country, on TV an experiment was carried out and a family were asked to live on wartime rations for a month. It took them some time to convert to the new food regime. The outcome was that the young schoolboy of the family lost weight and was more active, and the mother didn't want the food that had been taken away at the start of the trial. She said that she wanted to carry on with their new diet. I can't remember where I read it but, Sunflower oil is supposed to be healthier than Olive oil. I do my full English in either vegetable or sunflower oil every morning. I can't abear olives or its oil! Regards - John.

I just have one or the other, not for guilt reasons (I am only 35) but just because I prefer it that way. When I was little, we used to go to my Nannie's for dinner and tea. The treat after tea was tinned fruit or trifle, with a slice or two of bread and butter, till this day I can't eat tinned fruit without wanting a peice of bread and butter - I think it was to make you feel fuller (back to rationing again) Rebecca

Margarine is made by adding hydrogen atoms to the fat molecules to make them more saturated, raising the melting point of the fat so it remains a solid at room temperature, i.e., the margarine won't run all over the table. This process, called "hydrogenation," requires the presence of a metal catalyst and temperatures of about 500°F (260°C) for the reaction to take place. It causes about half of the cis- bonds to flip over into a trans- configuration. Hydrogenation became popular because this type of oil doesn't spoil or become rancid as readily as regular oil and therefore has a longer shelf life. You can leave a cube of margarine sitting out for years and moulds, insects or rodents will not touch it. Margarine is a non-food! It would appear that only humans are foolish enough to eat it! Because the fats in margarine are partially hydrogenated (i.e., not fully saturated), the manufacturers can claim it is "polyunsaturated" and market it to us as a healthy food. Another 'side-effect' of hydrogenation is that a residue of toxic metals, usually nickel and aluminum, is left behind in the finished product. These metals are used as catalysts in the reaction, but they accumulate in our cells and nervous system where they poison enzyme systems and alter cellular functions, endangering health and causing a wide variety of problems. These toxic metals are difficult to eliminate without special detoxification techniques, and our 'toxic load' increases steadily with small exposures over time. Since they are increasingly found in our air, food and water, the cumulative doses can add up to dangerous levels over time. Since trans- fats don't occur in nature, our bodies don't know how to deal with them effectively and they act as poisons to crucial cellular reactions. The body tries to use them as it would the cis- form, and they wind up in cell membranes and other places they shouldn't be. Copied from : http://drcranton.*com/nutrition/margarin.htm

Thank you for that - I don't think I'll fancy any margerine ever again!!! Rebecca

It's the same as having bread and butter with fish and ships. For me either bread or potatoes, but not both. Sylvia