Food, glorious food! Hot sausage and mustard
While we’re in the mood, cold jelly and custard
Pease pudding and saveloys, what next is the question?
Rich gentlemen have it boys – in-di-gestion!– Food Glorious Food from the muscial oliver by Lionel Bart, 1968
You didn’t need to be staving hungry like the boys Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist to appreciate British food in the 1960s. But it could help to be. To call the food offensively awful would mistakenly credit it with enough substance to conjure any emotion. The local cuisine has come some way since the mid-century, when the country led the world in ways of serving mince and the BBC was able to trick viewers with a TV report on continentals (as European were then known) harvesting pasta from spaghetti trees.
San Francisco’s Determined Productions was in 1969 keen to show Americans what they were not missing in the book British Grub‘. Illustrated by John Astrup and Eric Hill and compiled by Britain Murphy, the book has recipes for Tea, Jam roly-poly, jellied eels, Scotch eggs, toad in the hole and more. And it’s not all bad – indeed, Devonshire Cream Tea is sublime and custard is food of the gods.
Via: Peculiar Manicule
Would you like to support Flashbak?
Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.
