You may have heard that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and if my father’s gift-buying habits in the 1970s are anything to go by, it would seem he agreed with that statement. My parents married in 1976. A few months before their nuptials, my late father Michael gave my mother Mary two cookbooks for her birthday, both instructing wives and mothers how to feed their families.
Optimistic, right? I’ve been asked to cook like it’s the 1970s and see how it compares to today. Naturally, my mother’s old cookbooks immediately come to mind. Though I grew up in the 1990s, those recipes remained part of my childhood, shaping the dinners and cakes I remember fondly.
Mam arrives at my home with two well-thumbed books by Marguerite Patten, a cook who rose to fame in Britain during the Second World War and became one of the first ‘celebrity chefs’ for her practical advice. I have more source material than I know what to do with. I enjoy cooking from scratch, so this is a fun experiment, but I am conscious that, for the average cook 50 years ago, it was a labour-intensive task with few to no shortcuts.
Also, little consideration was given to sugar and fat quantities. Both came under the ‘food is fuel’ label. Often, convenience wins out when I’m cooking, with frozen ingredients, ready meals, and the odd takeaway supplementing my diet on busy days, particularly during workdays.
And, of course, I’ve chosen a busy workday to put these recipes and lifestyle t.