Off Topic: World War One Made British Eats Bad

[selewis]

If I might comment , as an Englishman with an interest in historic food.....
As far back as we have good information , the 17c, food in Britain was as rich and varied as any in Europe.

But how well you ate depended on income. As with most things , it's all a matter of money and education....

Food for the rich in country houses in the 19C ( the 19c lasting until 1918 for the sake of argument ) was largely French in inspiration, expensive and elaborate , and as good as any anywhere.
Since the the late 1700s the grandest houses employed French chefs , following the lead of royals like the Prince Regent. But it also drew on a long tradition of elaborate English dishes from earlier centuries , especially in roasts and dessert dishes.
The meals in a house like Downton Abbey required a small army to prepare them , only affordable because of the vast income differential between the gentry and the staff they employed. The ingredients themselves were also expensive, and involved whole platoons of gardeners preparing vegetables and exotic fruit in special greenhouses .The table presentation was also very time-consuming , and in the end it all depended on money.
Rents and agricutural incomes fell after the War ,and working wages gradually rose , leading to the gradual decline of that level of eating . But the wealthy always ate well .
After the Great War there were better job opportunities than being "in service ", which led to the decline of the numbers of staff in such big houses.

The bad reputation of British food really comes from the sort of thing that 80% of the population , the industrial and rural poor , were forced to eat .
Our " Peasantry " left the land for industrial jobs in the late 1700s, and with them went their plain country food culture , to be replaced by poverty food.

People nowadays forget just how poor the average agricultural or industrial workers really were in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Most families were lucky to see any meat at all , and then only once a week. Many lived mostly lived on potatoes or bread and dripping. It was better in the country , since they could grow their own vegetables , but the average farm worker still had very low wages, and never quite had the ingenuity and resources in ingredients of his French counterpart, who owned his own land .

This led to the sad situation where folks, particularly in towns where the bulk of the population lived , had little experience of good eating at all : they didn't expect it , and by and large didn't get it ( apart from specialities like Fish & Chips ,apparently first produced in Jewish areas of London in about 1850 ).

As this food culture slowly improved with rising wages in the course of the 20th century , there were few in the vast bulk of society who had much experience of what good food might be.
The austerity of the Twenties and Thirties and the shortages of WW2 only exacerbated this situation , to reach a real nadir in the Fifties, when eating in Britain , especially in Restaurants , was a kind of Purgatory.
You could pay through the nose in a pretentious up-market restaurant or Hotel and still eat rubbish , prepared by people who knew no better .
Even the arrival of chain eateries serving early burgers and " fast food " ( an idea largely imported from America ) only made things worse, because the standards were very low, and the food apparently made from industrial slurry served by ignorant and indifferent staff .
This garbage eating still lingers in benighted corners .......

I'm delighted to tell you that since the Eighties we have been on the up and up.
Nowadays we have become completely obsessed with food , and you can eat as well here as in France.... almost !

Thanks, Tony. Very interesting.

[Pat Holscher]

If I might comment , as an Englishman with an interest in historic food.....
As far back as we have good information , the 17c, food in Britain was as rich and varied as any in Europe.

But how well you ate depended on income. As with most things , it's all a matter of money and education....

Food for the rich in country houses in the 19C ( the 19c lasting until 1918 for the sake of argument ) was largely French in inspiration, expensive and elaborate , and as good as any anywhere.
Since the the late 1700s the grandest houses employed French chefs , following the lead of royals like the Prince Regent. But it also drew on a long tradition of elaborate English dishes from earlier centuries , especially in roasts and dessert dishes.
The meals in a house like Downton Abbey required a small army to prepare them , only affordable because of the vast income differential between the gentry and the staff they employed. The ingredients themselves were also expensive, and involved whole platoons of gardeners preparing vegetables and exotic fruit in special greenhouses .The table presentation was also very time-consuming , and in the end it all depended on money.
Rents and agricutural incomes fell after the War ,and working wages gradually rose , leading to the gradual decline of that level of eating . But the wealthy always ate well .
After the Great War there were better job opportunities than being "in service ", which led to the decline of the numbers of staff in such big houses.

The bad reputation of British food really comes from the sort of thing that 80% of the population , the industrial and rural poor , were forced to eat .
Our " Peasantry " left the land for industrial jobs in the late 1700s, and with them went their plain country food culture , to be replaced by poverty food.

People nowadays forget just how poor the average agricultural or industrial workers really were in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Most families were lucky to see any meat at all , and then only once a week. Many lived mostly lived on potatoes or bread and dripping. It was better in the country , since they could grow their own vegetables , but the average farm worker still had very low wages, and never quite had the ingenuity and resources in ingredients of his French counterpart, who owned his own land .

This led to the sad situation where folks, particularly in towns where the bulk of the population lived , had little experience of good eating at all : they didn't expect it , and by and large didn't get it ( apart from specialities like Fish & Chips ,apparently first produced in Jewish areas of London in about 1850 ).

As this food culture slowly improved with rising wages in the course of the 20th century , there were few in the vast bulk of society who had much experience of what good food might be.
The austerity of the Twenties and Thirties and the shortages of WW2 only exacerbated this situation , to reach a real nadir in the Fifties, when eating in Britain , especially in Restaurants , was a kind of Purgatory.
You could pay through the nose in a pretentious up-market restaurant or Hotel and still eat rubbish , prepared by people who knew no better .
Even the arrival of chain eateries serving early burgers and " fast food " ( an idea largely imported from America ) only made things worse, because the standards were very low, and the food apparently made from industrial slurry served by ignorant and indifferent staff .
This garbage eating still lingers in benighted corners .......

I'm delighted to tell you that since the Eighties we have been on the up and up.
Nowadays we have become completely obsessed with food , and you can eat as well here as in France.... almost !

Thanks, Tony. Very interesting.

I agree. Great entry.

[Jim Bewley]

Well done and a good read.

Jim

[Rik]

Most interesting thing about food and the Great War i've heard was that over 50% of all freight from England to the continent was forage for the horses.

They shipped more food for the horses than troops, ammo, horses, cars etc added together.