One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 100 ......... breakfast on Beech Road

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

Breakfast in 1958

Of course we will never know what Joe and Mary Ann had for breakfast.

And in the half century they lived here, it may well have changed, from those heavy traditional English breakfasts, varied or accompanied by porridge to the new breakfast cereals which began to make their appearance in the 1930s.

Two world wars which brought food shortages and rationing will also have determined what they ate.

Growing up in the 1950s our breakfast diet was very much those new cereals, from Sugar Puffs, and Cornflakes to a bewildering selection of alternatives, partly chosen because of the free toys which were contained in the box.

Granddad always ate porridge which he made the night before while dad, if he ate the stuff always insisted on eating it with salt.

More often than not Dad just had toast, left to go cold and then eaten with butter and perhaps ginger marmalade.

Breakfast with a toy; circa1957

And I have followed my father.  In his case it may have been influenced by the years he spent abroad eating “Continental breakfasts” in hotels from France to Italy.

I never asked him what he made of the idea of having cake on the breakfast menus and I must confess I found it a surprise the first time I encountered it but then the step from jam and toast to cake is just one sweet thing next.

Advice in 1947

Rosa and Simone and the Italian side of the family often skip breakfast entirely making do with a large cup of milky coffee into which they will dunk the bread from yesterday.

This “zuppa di latte”** has never attracted me and I am looked after by Rosa with toast made on a special griddle and butter which is bought in only when we stay.

Although if we do go out for breakfast I am always tempted by the big breakfast bomboloni,  filled with custard, or apricot jam.

The good breakfast

Joe and Mary Ann I doubt ever ate breakfast out unless they were on holiday, nor do I think she would have relied on those Ministry of Food Information sheets issued during and just after the war, which gave advice on how to make interesting meals from rationed food.

The 1947 leaflet offered up a choice of breakfast meals with a fish theme, including Frilled Fish, Herring Roe Savoury, Hard Roe, Grilled Pilchards on Toast and Grilled Pilchards on Fried Bread.

None of which appeal to me, but then I have always been a jam, cake and custard donuts chap.

That said I rather like the idea of the leaflet on Hedgerow Harvests which combines all the fun of a walk in the countryside with the idea that the food is free.

But that as they say is for another time.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*The story of a house,   https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

**“zuppa di latte”, milky soup