Garlic

I was thinking again today about how cross  I get when people cast aspersions on English cooking; there are all sorts of reasons why cooking in the 1950’s in some parts of England wasn’t good… the war was one of the chief reasons. I hear people mentioning the fact – so-called fact, that until various French chefs or French influenced chefs brought cuisine to England, English food was bland, overcooked and uninteresting. What an insult to my grandparents and the grandparents of millions of other people who live on these islands. Why were, and are, allotments so popular? Because people without garden and on a limited income wanted good food, fresh food, seasonal food; people kept hens on their allotments, not just to save money but because they wanted delicious new eggs to eat and bake with! My uncle’s family who were not farmers, even kept a pig which they fattened and had slaughtered because they wanted decent meat. My grandfather and his friends went shooting and fishing, not for the sport (although they enjoyed what they did) but because they wanted the birds and game and fish they caught; any extra my grandfather had, he got my dad to take to a local convent for the nuns (he wasn’t Catholic, just a generous man.)

I was thinking about this as I was using some garlic; my grandma was using garlic in the 1920’s it wasn’t just a new post-war flavour!