More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Recipes, Cooking tips and maybe some 'Home Made' secrets !
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Richard
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More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by Richard »

A little research tells me that in the year I was born, 1948, only 2% of the population in the UK had a Fridge.
In 1959, only 13% of the population had one.

Now, knowing the odd one or two of Members may possibly go back that far :-D how many remember the days before a Fridge and how our Parents went about business.

Personally I recall our Walk In Larder, about 5 feet x 3 feet with a metal ventilator on the outside wall.
To the right there was a shelf which would have metal plates with mesh covers for meat, butter and fish etc. plus a metal bowl filled with water to put the milk in.

The smell of raw meat (but fresh) still lingers !

I'm sure that others like myself had a Grocer, Fishmonger and Butcher who would drive along your road on set times and days a week, give a beep on his hooter and you'd go out to buy your necessities.
The Milkman would deliver daily.
Then of course, many Villages had 'the butcher, the baker and the candle stick maker' so once a week shopping wasn't so prominent.

My second question would be, could we be ultra frugal and do without a Fridge where we live?
I reckon in this day and age, maybe the Freezer is more important than a Fridge?

Be interesting to read your comments.

Richard )t' )t'

PS. The Village where I lived from birth until about aged 10 is here
http://www.downthelane.net/growing-up-50s-60s/going-shopping-1950s.php and shows all the shops which once were.
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lancashire lass
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Re: More memories...The Larder

Post by lancashire lass »

I was too young to remember a larder but like you say, the groceries were bought much more regularly from local shops - food apt to go off quickly was probably bought on the day. I do remember left over stews tasted better the day after.

When I was buying my new fridge freezer (2016), I opted for one with a bigger fridge as the ones in the past were always crammed full of fresh produce from the allotment. I already had a small under bench freezer and also a chest freezer (now emptied & switched off - more to save money on electric bills as it was under-used)

Richard wrote:I'm sure that others like myself had a Grocer, Fishmonger and Butcher who would drive along your road on set times and days a week


I only remember the rag & bone man with his horse & car LOL. To be fair, our house was behind the street with all the shops so not far to go
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Re: More memories...The Larder

Post by wildlifemad »

I am too young to remember life without a fridge but I do remember the Veg van coming round before I was school age. I think it was a Thursday he came, we lived in a cul-de-sac & I can remember all the women going out to the van & they would still be there talking an hour after the van had gone!!! My Mum was from Yorkshire so certainly knew how to talk & I obviously have her genes!!!
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Meanqueen
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Re: More memories...The Larder

Post by Meanqueen »

Our larder was called a pantry, it was in a corner of the kitchen by the back door. I remember we had a bucket of cold water in there with our bottles of milk in it. I also remember having to wait by the door every morning, with my brother and sis, while mum poured some brown gungy stuff from a bottle and deposited it in our open mouths, shuddering at the vile taste of it.

My granny lived in a very old cottage in the country, she had a fantastic larder. She did lots of baking, unlike my own mother who was not very good at that. I used to sneak in and steal a lemon curd tart and move the others around on the plate, hoping that she wouldn't notice one missing.

The first time I had a fridge was when I left home and had a flat share, in about 1969.

Ilona
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Spreckly
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Re: More memories...The Larder

Post by Spreckly »

Yes, we called ours the pantry as well. It was fairly big, and went under the staircase. We had a metal grill at the window and a meat safe. The shelves were wooden, and all our everyday crockery and cutlery, plus tins and packets were kept on them.

My Mother put eggs in waterglass in galvanised buckets, and these lived under the stairs. We had an old fashioned egg crock, I have similar, which OH made for me when we had the girls.

There was just so much room in the place, enough for three people at least to stand there.

In my very first home, we had a larger place, I expect it was the old dairy, as the house had been a farmhouse at some time.

When OH and I married, our larder was a smallish affair, but most useful, and the house we now live in had the original larder taken out at some point.

My parents married in 1937, and bought their first fridge when they retired in 1970'ish, it was small and they had no freezer. My Father from habit put the unused gravy and apple sauce in a kitchen cupboard!

Interesting thread, Richard.
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Re: More memories...The Larder

Post by HedgeHugger »

Some council houses built in the sixties had a stone shelf in the pantry, with a vent in the wall, that's about as far as my memory goes. (I was a late '60's baby after all :) ).
To live without a fridge these days would be awkward but probably doable, so long as you had daily access to a shop. Wouldn't fancy milk out all day in summer. Even if it was in the shade.
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Re: More memories...The Larder

Post by wendy »

Yes born in 1944 we had a pantry. Step in rather than walk in. I can remember standing on a stool as a child and playing shops in there.
No fridge for an awful long time and even then it was a gas one. But it lasted my parents years and I think when they got a new one, it went into a museum )grin2(
Before the fridge the milk went in a bucket of cold water if it wasn't too hot. But in the summer a hole in the garden was where it was put. I the winter, the cream had come well over the top in the frosty weather. Some days the blue tits got there before us and pecked the lid off.
Milk and bread were delivered by guys, with a horse and cart type thing.
We used to have a 'pig bin' in the road by a lamp post. For the dustmen's pigs and all the household waste, from all the houses, went in there to feed them. The times the bread guy's horse knocked that bin over was unbelievable. Everyone out they sweeping it up and putting it back {rofwl}
Lovely childhood.
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Richard
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by Richard »

I think I got confused with Larder, so I've changed title of thread!!

Fabulous comments and memories.

Richard
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HedgeHugger
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by HedgeHugger »

I always assumed larder was a posh word for pantry :P

There probably is a difference, but not that I know.

Actually I just gave it a quick google.... A larder is a room and a pantry is a cupboard type thing. So there ya go... :)
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Richard
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by Richard »

I was quite posh once :-D :-D :-D

Richard )t'
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by wendy »

HedgeHugger wrote:I always assumed larder was a posh word for pantry :P

There probably is a difference, but not that I know.

Actually I just gave it a quick google.... A larder is a room and a pantry is a cupboard type thing. So there ya go... :)



Yes ours was more like a larger cupboard.
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by albertajune »

I live on a mobile home park and we bought our present home in the year 2001. When renovating it I wanted room for a larder. Roy built me a lovely walk in larder which houses all my dry, bottled and tinned goods as well as a large spice and herb rack on the wall. I love it having everything in one huge cupboard. I do of course have a large fridge freezer which has it's own alcove. For me it is perfect and is almost a copy of the one that my grandmother had.
I am now a widow and live with my memories.
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by Grannyof4 »

I always thought larder was a posh word for pantry. I remember my Mum had a "meat safe". It was a small wired cupboard on legs and that was where you put fresh stuff to keep flies off. I loved the programme on TV where they took a family and put them through the various years back then.
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by KathJ »

I vaguely remember the veg man now someone mentioned it.
Meanqueen, I think the brown gunky stuff was probably some sort of malt extract, we used to get a dose of that whenever we went to my nans.
I can't really remember having a pantry/larder when I was a child but I was born late 60's. However, in my old house I had an under stairs cupboard which I used as a pantry and was great. In our new house we've moved the kitchen to a different room which has a walk in cupboard housing the washing machine but that's moving so I can use it as a pantry. Can't wait to start using it for all my tins/packets etc. I'll get loads of stuff in as it's quite big and frees up space in the kitchen.
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Re: More memories...The Larder (Pantry)

Post by Freeranger »

I remember my Auntie having one in her post-war council house, which also had a rayburn, a huge garden and a scullery - they knew what they were doing then. The pantry always had a really distinctive smell, which I think was a combination of sliced bread and tea. it was always called the pantry, though it was the size of a lav, and they had loose leaf tea in a cannister with an optic - auntie said it mashed a better brew. We're doing up our house at the moment, and I'm putting in a cold larder/pantry/cupboard so I can keep things like veg, cheese etc at its proper temperature, and also have space for jam-straining and pickles. It'll make another room a bit small, but I think it's worth it - should be cheaper to run, too.
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