This challenge is throwing up all sorts of memories for me.
Although I was born in 1960 and a few years after rationing in the UK had ended completely, meat had only come off the ration as late as 1954 and sweets the year before that, times were still hard for lots of folks my parents included.
We lived in the downstairs of my Nana's house paying her rent for the three rooms of the semi-detached house in Old Trafford, Manchester that she had bought in 1958 just before my parents married. What would have been the front room was my parents bedroom, the 'dining room' was mine and my brothers shared bedroom and the kitchen was everything else ... a table and chairs, two armchairs, the television on it's 1960's spindly legs and once the fitted cupboards in the alcove of the kitchen were ripped out in the mid-sixties, a 'modern' 1960s Kitchen Cabinet was stood in the alcove beside the fireplace. We had a little pantry room off it which held the large Belfast sink, the old 1950's gas cooker, and from the mid-sixties onwards our gas refrigerator lived under the draining board.
Hot water came from a new fangled instant hot water boiler and the supplies and vegetables were stored in the shopping bags we brought them home from the shops in under the stairs, which was open to the 'pantry' as we called this little much filled room.
Anyway all those memories came to mind when I made myself a 'bacon butty' (bacon sandwich for all you non-UK-ians out there). After buttering one of my slices of bread with my spread I had a brainwave, why not dip the other slice in the small amount of fat left in the pan after cooked my smoky flavoured vegan Quorn slices, it would make my butter ration go further. Half bacon butty, half dip butty.
Dip butties are so called because after my Dad had had his bacon butty I used to pester my mum to lay or dip a slice of bread in the fat which after a couple of minutes it would be lifted out topped with a dry slice and enjoyed by me.
All the delicious flavour of the old fashioned bacon and none of that awful chewiness that I hated as a child. I have never enjoyed meat and being told to clear my plate as a child only set in place even more intense hatred of certain foods, most of which I have since gotten over ... but never the meat side.
So Dip Butties were born, and my gosh they were a treat!!
And they have now been resurrected during this Year of Modern Rationing.
And yes even though the 'bacon' wasn't real ... the flavour was 😃
Sue xx
We had dip bread! And it was jolly good. So good that I still have it when I cook bacon today.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was just tasty in my memory, but it was just as good in real life ;-)
DeleteOh my gosh, so many memories. Yes we used to dip the bread in the fat too, sometimes we left it in longer to make fried bread. I also remember "dripping" butties which was the fat left in the pan from the Sunday roast that had set. It was spread on the bread like butter, ugh! The thought of it makes me gag now. Jo in Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have to admit to leaving my bread in the fat just long enough to get a crispy topping ... about two minutes and a flip away from fried bread :-)
DeleteI remember my dad making me dip bread. So good. I made it for my husband and kids they also loved it. Just think of the cholesterol we consumed. Jean
ReplyDeleteI guess we worked it all off in a healthy way, and because diets were pretty varied we all survived ... just about ;-)
DeleteWith so much of modern bacon being injected with water/brine, it is more difficult to do but sounds great.
ReplyDeleteThe sort of bacon Alan eats in Wales is from a local butcher that now supplies a lot of the supermarkets, and is one of the few that doesn't leach white fatty water into the pan. You just couldn't make a dip butty with that flabby white foamy fat in the pan could you, it would be so unappetising.
DeleteBread and dripping...not the jelly bit...the fat for me please...the jelly bits for a stew or casserole are good though. x
ReplyDeleteMy ex-husband was brought up on a diet of bread, dripping and sugar butties, no wonder he has hardly any of his own teeth left!!
DeleteI'm convinced that being made to clear my plate was the root of my lifelong struggle with weight. I was the opposite with my three children, none of whom have a weight problem. Loving this latest challenge, Sue. I made Woolton pie yesterday, inspired by your previous post and I've ordered a copy of Marguerite Patten's book which you've also mentioned.
ReplyDeleteIt was just the 'done thing' back in the fifties and sixties that we children were forced to clear our plates 'think about the starving children in Africa' was the oft repeated phrase. It's left me with an aversion to green beans and my brother with an aversion to most vegetables and a morbid fear of peas!!#
DeleteLike you I completely switched this around with my boys, and although I would insist they try everything on at least three different meals once they had decided they didn't like something they were never made to have it again. Now they both eat everything available and have no aversions or 'fears'.
Mmmm - fried bread done in the bacon fat - this brings back delicious memories for me from the days when real proper fat came off the bacon and fort of all the eggs and then the bread was fried in the flavoursome fat. Fried only on one side. I dearly loved it.
ReplyDeleteToast and dripping too with salt sprinkled over the top. Aaaahhhh, lovely! I have to admit I loved the jelly too although it had to go ON the dripping, not on the toast because it made the toast soggy.
Happy memories.
xx
xx
Haha ... it seems I have brought a lot of memories back for a lot of people with this post. I bet some quality bacon will be on your next shopping list!!
DeleteWe had "dripping" which I wasn't a fan of. Loved fried bread although I haven't had that for years:(
ReplyDeleteI need to make a proper piece of fried bread next, fried until it's crispy. :-)
DeleteI have used bacon drippings for frying potatoes and other veggies, never sandwiches though. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It's not the healthiest of meals, but it is tasty.
DeleteOne of my favorite memories is my Aunt Peg making me fried bread whenever I arrived on an early overnight flight from the US thoroughly exhausted and hungry. That taste never replicated anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteFried bread with a runny-ish fried egg on top was always one of my favourites.
DeleteI still have dip butties now.
ReplyDeleteSo do I from now on ;-)
Delete