How Did We Manage Without A Fridge??

[Plain Talker]

As others have said:- cold-slabs in the pantry/ cellar, and buying-in fresh produce most days, (seeing as we had decent corner shops back then, and we weren't overrun by supermarket chains!)

 

Milk was delivered daily, you'd buy a few rashers of bacon, or sausages, or chops:- enough for the meal as needed, not a mega-pack.

 

My parents didn't get a fridge till 1973, and we didn't get a freezer till 1975.

 

My fridge broke down for the umpteenth time earlier this year. I had to go back to the "old-days" by buying single pints, daily, and standing my milk in a bowl of cold water, with a teacloth draped over it, so the water would evaporate, and keep the milk cool.

 

I have to say I was so thankful when the manufacturers admitted it was a manufacturing fault on that particular line of fridges, and that I'd been unfortunate enough to purchase one of the flawed ones. They replaced the faulty fridge with a new one. I was so grateful

[RickyO]

We just shopped more regularily. I can remember as a kid going to the back door of the corner shop after hours for items we had run out of.

[poppins]

We use to put the trifle in the bath tub of cold water to set, took ages, we also shopped every day, can't remember ever having salad stuff in the house , we only had fruit in a bowl when someone was sick, rhubarb from the garden was the closest thing we had to eating healthy, otherwise it was chips with everything, chip pan never got put away

[mym8scallmeh]

My dad told me he remembers his mum wrapping apples in newspaper and storing them in the cupboard under the stairs and they always had lovely apples for pies and crumbles during the winter. He also remember her burying potatoes in a large tin box with air holes in it and they would last them for ages as well. Milk was kept in a huge jug with saucer covering it in a bucket of cold water in the outside loo lol dread to think what health and safety would say now lol

[Joanl]

Chicken for xmas, seems strange now that it used to be such a luxury.

 

Exactly! I never had a turkey until I married. I remember going with my dad to get our first fridge as a wedding anniversary present for my mom though. I started work in 57, so it was sometime after that and I bought a chicken to go in it, out of my own wages......

One thing that has always puzzled me......I always remember whenever dad bought anything like that, he would always ask the assistant, "any discount for cash?".......I remember always feeling embarrassed by it at the time, but later I got to think why? what was the alternative to cash.....credit cards didn't exist then did they so how else would he have paid.

[scousemouse]

My family used to go to Grans for Christmas lunch, seem to recall we had goose, and she made puddings with silver threepenny pieces in!! 'elf and safety would have a fit about these days!!!

[hillsbro]

.... and in those days, not only did we not have fridges, there were also no "best before" dates on any food items we bought. It's enough to give a dedicated 'elf 'n' safety enthusiast nightmares..

[Ms Macbeth]

If we were having ice cream for our pudding at dinner (mid day meal then ) I'd run to the shop after the main course and buy a block. Mum would be opening the tinned peaches. That was considered a real treat on a hot day. (1950s)

[911wasalie]

My father kept chickens in the back of the house in Millmount Rd. and had an allotment at Meadow Head. One day my mum told me to go out and bring in a chicken for Sunday dinner so I grabbed the biggest and chopped off its head with an axe and it did run around headless. We couldn't afford to be squeamish in those days but all the food was organic, no factory muck then.

 

I was 11 years old and had a Saturday job at a butchers on Chesterfield Rd. and one of my tasks was to make the sausages. One Saturday the butcher had left a tin of tomatoes by the machine so I emptied into the meat and stirred it in, the butcher went crazy when he saw these paculiar coloured sausages appear. But there were long queues for them so the butcher gave me a raise to a shilling.

[cookingfat50]

i remember very well the days before fridges. we had a marble shelf in the pantry which being marble was always cold it was a wide shelf and in the corner of the shelf was a meat safe made with a fine mesh covering the front so no flys could get at it and for milk, butter, and cheese the cellar head was the prefered place as there was always cold air coming up from the cellar