More thanks to your mom! Tell her I really appreciate learning what working-class life was like, because books tend to be from the POV of the upper or upper-middle classes.
I've seen mentions of "sardines on toast", but I was visualizing whole sardines straight from the tin, the way my mother (born 1925) ate them. But she was from north-central Wisconsin, where you didn't need a license to fish at that time, freshwater fish were extremely plentiful, and they weren't scared of bones, they just picked them out.
Did your Mum's family eat herring, pickled or otherwise? I've seen references to servant/working class people in London eating herring for dinner almost daily, but I don't know what form that herring would take.
Kippers in a box--that would be a wooden box packed with smoked fish? Enough for more than one family?
the fat was put into a bowl and left outside to keep cool -- this is when we recognize that Britain doesn't have raccoons or opossums. Even in the parts of the US that aren't too warm to do this, this would be just *begging* to have wild animals come to visit. And raccoon paws can get into *anything*.
I don't know why dripping (and beef fat generally) isn't traditionally used in American cooking--I've never seen it in a grocery store, while lard is always available (though not widely used, except by some pastry cooks and by many Latin Americans, it's often in the "Mexican" section or labelled in Spanish).
no subject
I've seen mentions of "sardines on toast", but I was visualizing whole sardines straight from the tin, the way my mother (born 1925) ate them. But she was from north-central Wisconsin, where you didn't need a license to fish at that time, freshwater fish were extremely plentiful, and they weren't scared of bones, they just picked them out.
Did your Mum's family eat herring, pickled or otherwise? I've seen references to servant/working class people in London eating herring for dinner almost daily, but I don't know what form that herring would take.
Kippers in a box--that would be a wooden box packed with smoked fish? Enough for more than one family?
the fat was put into a bowl and left outside to keep cool
-- this is when we recognize that Britain doesn't have raccoons or opossums. Even in the parts of the US that aren't too warm to do this, this would be just *begging* to have wild animals come to visit. And raccoon paws can get into *anything*.
I don't know why dripping (and beef fat generally) isn't traditionally used in American cooking--I've never seen it in a grocery store, while lard is always available (though not widely used, except by some pastry cooks and by many Latin Americans, it's often in the "Mexican" section or labelled in Spanish).