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Jam

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#1: Jam Author: white_hart, Location: Oxford

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:00 pm
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It's always seemed a little odd to me in the Swiss books how surprised everyone seemed to be at having jam for breakfast. Was this really unheard of in Britain in the Fifties and Sixties? When I was growing up and reading the books (late Seventies and Eighties) jam and marmalade were pretty much interchangeable. I even persuaded my mother to buy black cherry jam because that was what they had at the CS!

#2: Author: Catrin, Location: Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:37 pm
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I'd thought that Britain in the 50s and 60s would still be into full English breakfasts - egg, bacon, sausage - and jam doesn't go very well with that. Although jam in porridge is pretty good.

#3: Author: Lottie, Location: Humphrey's Corner

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 3:05 pm
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I think jam would have been served at tea time, and marmalade would have been normal for breakfast. That's what I was brought up to (in the late fifties and sixties), because that's what my parents had always had in previous years.

#4: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:08 pm
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Was it specifically the jam that surprised people, or was it that they just had coffee and rolls instead of the full English they'd be used to?

That said, it was always toast and marmalade, not jam, for breakfast when I was growing up - on its own or as the final course, if you were having the full English.

#5: Author: Maeve, Location: Romania

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:31 pm
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They were surprised that it was just coffee and rolls, but for Althea at least, the jam itself was surprising. It's 6am and she and Len have just reached Basle:

Quote:

“Ten minutes for here,” Len said. “Then we’ll scram for the refreshment rooms and have hot rolls, jam and coffee.”
“Jam!” Althea gasped. “At this time of day!”

#6: Author: Lexi, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:47 pm
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I was always more surprised by the coffee. I know it was milky coffee but I still wouldn't have thought it was entirely appropriate to be pouring caffeine down schoolgirl's necks.

#7: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:09 pm
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We always had marmalade for breakfast and jam for tea, too. As for the coffee, I always imagined it would be very weak, as it's supposed to be milky. I'd not have liked it at all, even though I'd prefer jam over marmalade any day.

#8: Author: dorian, Location: Dublin

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:57 pm
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I always had the impression that it was the black cherry jam that was so unusual. But that may be because I never came across black cherry jam as a child - jam was made from strawberries or raspberries, mostly. Or plums, if we had a good crop and needed to use it up. Or blackberries if we went blackberry-picking.

#9: Author: Róisín, Location: Gaillimh

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:02 am
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I think they always expected (the new girls) bacon and eggs for breakfast. I'm not sure what they expected to drink with it though. Tea?

#10: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:06 am
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Róisín wrote:

Tea?

Yes please. Very Happy

#11: Author: Caty, Location: New Zealand

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:48 am
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My Mother was always made a fried breakfast in the 1950s - despite the fact that she got motion sick on the bus every morning. (And homesick, but that's not related to the food!)

#12: Author: Clare, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:29 am
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Maeve wrote:

They were surprised that it was just coffee and rolls, but for Althea at least, the jam itself was surprising. It's 6am and she and Len have just reached Basle:

Quote:

“Ten minutes for here,” Len said. “Then we’ll scram for the refreshment rooms and have hot rolls, jam and coffee.”
“Jam!” Althea gasped. “At this time of day!”

I thought that was more because it was so early. I know from travelling myself the last thing I want after a night of broken sleep is something that is so sweet because I'll end up with a headache.

#13: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:15 pm
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I suppose even if one didn't have the full fried breakfast every day, one would have something like porridge or a boiled egg, or kedgeree, which is a bit more substantial than rolls and jam. It would be a suprise if you weren't used to travelling.

#14: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:20 pm
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Given the appallingly early hour they had breakfast, I think I'd want something a bit more substantial than rolls and milky coffee to see me through to lunchtime. What did they get at Break? Milk and biscuits, or was it just milk?

#15: Author: KB, Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 12:24 am
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I wonder if it didn't also have to do with food rationing. The rationing of sugar in Britain didn't end until September 1953, which would not be too far from the end of the series, so perhaps girls were surprised to see foods with such a high concentration of sugar being had at a normal meal like breakfast rather than being left for more special occasions. It might not occur to them (and it's always - at least as far as I can recall - the English girls who are surprised) that rationing might be different or non-existent in other countries and thus jam could be had more often.

#16: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:52 am
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Personally, the though of eggs and porridge at 7 in the morning makes me want to gag (literally - oatmeal first thing in the morning makes me choke). Bacon I could eat, but probably shouldn't on a daily basis.

I've rarely hungry after getting up and need to wake up a bit before I eat. Coffee, rolls and jam strikes me as a perfectly reasonable breakfast.

#17: Author: Mel, Location: UP NORTH

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 1:50 pm
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I think it is merely EBD telling her readers how different and wonderful it is abroad - cherry jam! Remember she made one trip abroad in the 1920s.

#18: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 4:59 pm
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That and the "feather beds of whipped cream" in Switzerland and "nectar like coffee" that the French mistresses produced.

#19: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:30 pm
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There's that bit in 'Oberland' where the 'new' girls are disappointed to find that there is no bacon, eggs or fish for breakfast, just the rolls, jam and coffee. Nell Wilson explains that they get a breaktime meal of chocolate and cakes, a three-course lunch and another lot of coffee and cakes before they have a good supper.

And they did get something cooked on Sundays, boiled or scrambled eggs.

#20: Author: Caroline, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:33 pm
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I have to say, I always thought it was as simple as EBD pointing up the differences between the English Breakfast and the Continental Breakfast, which would have been a great novelty to the CS girls (and her readership) of the day, many of whom would never have travelled abroad.

And yes, I agree with the marmalade for breakfast / jam for tea thing, too.

I'm not sure about the rationing point. Althea was written in 1968 or so - surely, most of her teen readership at that point probably wouldn't even remember most rationing and I can't see EBD referring back to it. It was past and gone and probably something people didn't want to be reminded of particuarly.

#21: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:16 pm
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I think rationing finally ended in 1954, so girls reading Althea in 1968 wouldn't remember it. But in the early Swiss books - Barbara was published in 1954 - I think the gorgeous pastries and coffee with featherbeds of whipped cream are intended to point up the differences between rationed Britain and unrationed Switzerland, and make the location seem even more exotic. In 1954 girls in their mid teens and younger wouldn't know anything but rationing.

And even after rationing ended, British food was pretty bland and unadventurous for a long time, largely I think because there was a whole generation of women who'd grown up with rationing and had never had the opportunity to learn to cook properly or to experiment. So those Swiss dishes such as fondue would seem pretty exciting to a 1950s schoolgirl.

#22: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:46 pm
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Caroline wrote:

I'm not sure about the rationing point. Althea was written in 1968 or so - surely, most of her teen readership at that point probably wouldn't even remember most rationing and I can't see EBD referring back to it. It was past and gone and probably something people didn't want to be reminded of particuarly.

When I first met Andy's parents in the early eighties they were still quite influenced by the effects of rationing - never throwing away any food ever, picking lots of blackberries because they were free and available etc. I think for a lot of people it became such a way of life that they found it hard to adjust back again.

Even now my mother in her eighties will eat out of date food rather than "waste it" by throwing it away. And she isn't particularly constrained by money or difficulties with shopping, it's purely a "mustn't waste" thing. Likewise she will happily buy new clothes (lots of new clothes) but often saves them "for best" because you can only wear clothes every day when they are past their best and need wearing out fully (shades of Joey in Jo to the Rescue). I am slowly getting somewhere with persuading her to offload stuff she doesn't want anymore but feels she has to wear out to the charity shops.

#23: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:51 pm
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Well I'd rather eat slightly out of date food than waste it, and not just because I am a skint student (or too lazy to go out and buy more, either!). It's the principle of the thing... (And possibly having Yorkshire parents Wink

)

#24: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:53 pm
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Rosie wrote:

Well I'd rather eat slightly out of date food than waste it, and not just because I am a skint student (or too lazy to go out and buy more, either!). It's the principle of the thing... (And possibly having Yorkshire parents Wink

)

My mum got quite upset when I poured fermenting apple juice away - it was well out of date and should have been kept in a fridge. Apparently it "tasted rather queer, but I've only another couple of glasses left of it so it'll be ok" Rolling Eyes

#25: Author: white_hart, Location: Oxford

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:22 pm
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As long as things smell OK, taste OK and don't have visible mould on them I don't worry about the use-by dates! And I often end up scraping the mould off jam and eating the rest, because there are only two of us and it takes forever to get through a jar of jam!

#26: Author: Róisín, Location: Gaillimh

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:05 pm
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I don't think you are supposed to do that, especially with jam! I used to live with two students who were doing enviromental science, specialising in fungi, and the mould that lives on jam and sugary things is apparently one of the most poisonous, plus the roots of the spores (or whatever is the right terminology) go all the way down the jar, no matter how much of the visible stuff you scrape off.

*has a mould-phobia* Sad

#27: Author: white_hart, Location: Oxford

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:52 pm
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I've been doing it since I was a child, and I'm not dead yet! I do take off quite a bit - a teaspoonful or so below the mould - but I was always told it was perfectly OK to do that!

#28: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:45 pm
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Dawn wrote:

When my grandma passed away and we had to clear out her larder, we just could not believe how much stuff she had in there - I think she stockpiled things because she always had it at the back of her mind that maybe one day rationing might be introduced again. I suppose it was very hard to get out of that way of thinking.

Actually Laughing

, I have just had a cup of tea using milk with a "best before" date of Feb 4th because it still tastes reasonably OK and I don't like throwing stuff out either!

#29: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:35 pm
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Shocked

Maybe it's because I'm a child of affluent Celtic Tiger Ireland, but I don't think like that at all... I am even squeamish about using food if the best before date is today. And there is no way I would touch something that was out of date. The thought makes me feel ill...

#30: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 6:54 pm
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If you keep jam in the fridge once it's been opened, it doesn't tend to go mouldy so quickly.

When I first married, my husband had never actually realised that you could put things on toast other than butter, marmalade or Marmite - for him, anything else (jam, cottage cheese, pâté and so on) went on bread, or more probably bread and butter.

I grew up in the 1950s eating a cooked breakfast each morning, and one was served most mornings when I was at boarding-school, too. Although once a week we had home-made muesli, then called Swiss breakfast (and very good it was, too), and on another morning we had what was called "Debs' breakfast", which was basically just toast and fruit. The rest of the time we had cereal, then something cooked, then toast to fill up on!

My mother stopped cooking breakfast once we had all left home, I think.

Even now, I occasionally cook eggs, bacon tomatoes and mushrooms on a slice of toast, and very good they are too, but I wouldn't have any extra toast or cereal with that little lot!

#31: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:07 am
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I have a really hard time fathoming the concept of jam and marmalade as things so different that only one comes with breakfast. Possibly I'm not defining them correctly?

Jam: Fruit pulp and sugar boiled together and gelled with pectin. Also you guys put what I'd call jelly in the jam category -- a translucent jam with no fruit pieces, blackberry seeds, etc.

Marmalade: Jam with citrus peel in it. Often marmalade is citrus flavored, but not always; for example, my grandmother made peach marmalade as well as orange marmalade.

The various "preserves" are functionally interchangeable for me. The "jelly" in "toast and jelly," "peanut butter and jelly sandwich," or "jelly-filled Danish" is as likely to refer to jam or marmalade as to a clear jelly. The only ones associated primarily with a dinner/supper main course are cranberry jelly and mint jelly. (Yes, I know the mint in mint jelly is from leaves rather than a fruit, but mint jelly is really apple jelly flavored with mint leaves.)

#32: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:30 am
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They look like the correct definitions of jam to me, Kathy! Marmalade is generally orange-flavoured afaik. But even with those definitions, to me they're very distinct and seperate - to the point that I love jam and hate marmalade.

#33: Author: JustJen, Location: at a baseball game

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:24 am
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Quote:

My grandfather was the same way and to certain extent so is my mom.
My mom has an impressive store of food at home and she always buys sweets for my kids because she didn't have when she was growing upduring and after the war.

#34: Author: Róisín, Location: Gaillimh

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:40 pm
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Hmm. I think this:

Jam is made with soft, already-sweet fruit ie berries, and is set with the pectin in lemon juice that is added to it.

Marmalade is made with very acidic citrus fruit that needs a lot of sugar to make it palatable, so the fundamental difference between marmalade and jam is the ratio of sugar. Fruit here is lime, lemon, orange (especially seville, as it is a bitter orange).

Jelly to me means a seedless fruit flavoured substance that is *so* gelled that it cannot be, say, spread on toast, or spread anywhere for that matter. It is generally eaten in a bowl with icecream, and needs the dessert spoon as a tool to cut it and lift it, if you know what I mean. It's harder than jam, and impossible to spread out - if you tried it would just break up in small pieces. It's also blander than jam and wouldn't flavour a piece of toast enough to justify using it there.

Fruit that is *not* citrus and *not* soft&sweet already, but that is still made into preserves, are made into 'sauces'. So if I put apples, or mint, or peaches, through the same process as strawberries, it would make apple sauce, mint sauce etc. Same with cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner. I think it's the sugar ratio again that defines the difference, and the fact that here, at least, these 'jams' are not *set* to the same extent as the soft berry preserves are, they are kept in a *relatively* liquidy format.

#35: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:05 pm
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Róisín wrote:

Jam is made with soft, already-sweet fruit ie berries, and is set with the pectin in lemon juice that is added to it.

That's interesting. We usually add apple juice for pectin if the fruit doesn't have enough on its own -- though you can also go to the store and buy pectin as a powder. The more ripe the fruit is, the less pectin it has naturally, since the "softening" of fruit during ripening is due to breakdown of the pectin that glues its cells together.

Róisín wrote:

Jelly to me means a seedless fruit flavoured substance that is *so* gelled that it cannot be, say, spread on toast, or spread anywhere for that matter. It is generally eaten in a bowl with icecream, and needs the dessert spoon as a tool to cut it and lift it, if you know what I mean. It's harder than jam, and impossible to spread out - if you tried it would just break up in small pieces. It's also blander than jam and wouldn't flavour a piece of toast enough to justify using it there.

I'm pretty sure this is the stuff Americans call jello. It is gelled with gelatin rather than pectin. In fact, since Jello is a brand name really, other manufacturers have to say "gelatin dessert" or something like that.

Róisín wrote:

Fruit that is *not* citrus and *not* soft&sweet already, but that is still made into preserves, are made into 'sauces'. So if I put apples, or mint, or peaches, through the same process as strawberries, it would make apple sauce, mint sauce etc. Same with cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner. I think it's the sugar ratio again that defines the difference, and the fact that here, at least, these 'jams' are not *set* to the same extent as the soft berry preserves are, they are kept in a *relatively* liquidy format.

For me apple jelly and apple sauce, and cranberry jelly and cranberry sauce, are quite different from each other.
applesauce: http://www.answers.com/topic/applesauce
apple jelly:
http://www.applebarncidermill.com/res/prod/lg_jellies_apple.jpg
apple butter:
http://www.hormel.com/kitchen/glossary.asp?id=37655

Cranberry jelly definitely holds its shape, which, given my usual habits, is the shape of the can it comes in. Cranberry sauce is more liquid, and usually has visible cranberries in it. I prefer the jelly, both to eat and for its translucent beauty.
ETA: I just looked at a can of cranberry jelly and noticed that it says "jellied cranberry sauce." What do they know?

No idea about mint sauce, except as a threat for plot bunnies on here. Mint jelly isn't liquid, though no harder to spread than strawberry jam.

#36: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:20 pm
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Kate wrote:

They look like the correct definitions of jam to me, Kathy! Marmalade is generally orange-flavoured afaik. But even with those definitions, to me they're very distinct and seperate - to the point that I love jam and hate marmalade.

And that sums up my feelings, too, Kate.
Marmalade seems to be mainly orange, but I do remember my family raving about Robertson's lime marmalade and buying a jar each Christmas for breakfast.
We'd eat mint sauce with lamb; it's made by adding vinegar to some minty stuff that you get in a jar from the shop! My mother made mint jelly and again we'd eat it with lamb. It had a lovely texture, but melted when it got on the hot food.

#37: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:56 pm
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Yes, that sort of jelly (not the Chivers kind), although it can be spread on bread, seems most often to be eaten with lamb or game. Especially redcurrant or quince jelly.

I think marmalade is different because, while most fruit you precook in little or no water, marmalade requires far more water and a far longer pre-cooking (I usually do mine in the pressure cooker). Then you have to cut up the peel, and boil up the seeds & pith to produce enough pectin. Plus it's far tarter than jam - at least, mine is (because I like it that way!).

#38: Author: Hannah-Lou, Location: Glasgow

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:18 pm
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I wonder if the difference is that jam is generally made with fruits that we grow here, whereas marmalade is made with "foreign" fruits, so when it was imported we imported the name with it. I never thought there was a fundamental difference between jam and marmalade, and in France as far as I know it's all confiture. Apple, mint and cranberry sauces are so called, I suppose, because they're used as sauces for meat, rather than fulfilling any normal jam/marmalade functions.

#39: Author: Woofter, Location: Location? What's a location?

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:20 pm
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Mia wrote:

. . . or kedgeree . . .

Kedgeree? For breakfast?

#40: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:29 pm
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I've never had kedgeree, but I thought it was only ever eaten at breakfast! Like cereal, she says, ignoring the times she's had that for lunch/supper...

#41: Author: Woofter, Location: Location? What's a location?

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:42 pm
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Are we thinking of the same thing, kedgeree to me is rice with smoked fish and raisins etc through it, and sometimes coloured very yellow. I've only ever eaten for tea (or dinner if thats what you want to call that meal!)

#42: Author: Karry, Location: Stoke on Trent

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:15 pm
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kedgeree is curry flavoured rice and fish dish that came into British cuisine as a breakfast dish

Quote:

khichdi in Hindi

according to the ultimate reference Wikipedia! As the fish is usually smoked (kippers normally) I have never tried it - i hate anything smoked_ but it was most popular in Victorian times

#43: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:26 pm
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It's often made with smoked haddock, and properly smoked haddock is yellow.

#44: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 7:59 pm
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Remember Nicola, in (I think) The Attic Term having kedgeree for breakfast, and it was new to her - "a matter of smoked fish, eggs and rice" (which accurately describes it).

We've always had it for supper (must make it again soon!), but it is traditionally a breakfast dish.

But then, I shouldn't have cared for either kidneys or brains ("Pigs' thinkers, Davey?") at breakfast-time, much though I might have liked them at other times of day. Brains, I am not sure how prepared, were still being eaten in the 1950s, and very delicious they were too. Like sweetbreads, which I also adore.

#45: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:37 pm
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They eat brains and so on here. I've not tried them, but you can get them in sandwiches from one of the fast food places here.

#46: Author: Lisa A., Location: North Yorkshire

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:27 pm
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Thinking again about the CS diet, does anyone else think there is a horrific amount of sweet stuff? I don't eat a lot of sugary things (taste rather than being good - I make up for it with fatty and salty things) and just couldn't face the amount of cake, jam and cream they have to get through. Where are their five portions of fruit and vegetables?

#47: Author: Lolly, Location: Melbourne

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:34 pm
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Jennie wrote:

It's often made with smoked haddock, and properly smoked haddock is yellow.

...only when its had tartrazine added to it!!!! in its natural state it is quite a subdued brownish colour

#48: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:51 pm
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If there's tartrazine in it, it's golden fillets, (ugh) not finnan haddie.

#49: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:54 pm
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Lisa A. wrote:

Where are their five portions of fruit and vegetables?

Well, that's a relatively new idea.

At the time the CS was written, it wasn't possible to get fruit and veg out of season as it is now. Hence the jam making and fruit bottling that we hear of Matey, Karen and Anna doing. And we do read of them eating stewed fruit quite often.

But for much of the year, there wouldn't be anything available, and in the English years, they'd probably be limited to what they could grow themselves.

Besides, EBD probably wanted the food to sound attractive to her readers, and cream cakes with honey and nuts are much more appealing than cabbage and carrots.

#50: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:42 pm
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I don't think they had cream cakes every day, which is why they are mentioned when they do have them!

Don't forget, back in the 1950s, and even 1960s, no meal was complete without a "pud" of some description - and very often, at a boarding-school, this would be a steamed or baked sponge pudding of some kind, with sauce or custard. Whether they did this at the Chalet School, I don't know - but they would have had some kind of sweet course as a matter of course (if that makes sense!). Possibly, for their lighter meal, this would have been fruit.

#51: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:21 pm
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karen was supposed to be an ace at making fluffy, creamy puds. I thnk EBD relied an awful lot on the curative power of milk.

How did we get onto this from jam?

#52: Author: Lexi, Location: Liverpool

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:53 pm
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Haha, she must have liked her dairy products!

I'm just rereading the early books and apparently the treatment to prevent Robin from getting TB involves going to bed early and "any amount of milk" Laughing

#53: Author: Alex, Location: Cambs, UK

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:24 pm
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Please someone write a drabble about how Robin dropped down dead from a heart attack at 40 because of all the full fat milk.

#54: Author: Hannah-Lou, Location: Glasgow

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:21 pm
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Lexi wrote:

I'm just rereading the early books and apparently the treatment to prevent Robin from getting TB involves going to bed early and "any amount of milk" Laughing

...and yet ironically I believe one of the ways of getting TB is by drinking infected milk! Might not have been that common though.

#55: Author: Lulie, Location: Middlesbrough

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:12 pm
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Alex wrote:

Please someone write a drabble about how Robin dropped down dead from a heart attack at 40 because of all the full fat milk.

Milk actually isn't that fattening, "full fat" milk is actually 96% fat free!

Having said that, I still prefer the taste of semi-skimmed Very Happy

#56: Author: Rosie, Location: Land of Three-Quarters Sky

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:59 pm
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Nooooo, whole milk is the bestest! Although I had a glassful when I went home at Christmas and it tasted awfully odd - I'd got used to the weird stuff they have out here! France, country of eternal milk...

#57: Author: Joan the Dwarf, Location: Er, where am I?

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:55 pm
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French milk should only be drunk when diluted with copious quantities of coffee. Even the "fresh" stuff you can now get in Paris tastes just that little bit odd...

#58: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:02 pm
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Hannah-Lou wrote:

...and yet ironically I believe one of the ways of getting TB is by drinking infected milk! Might not have been that common though.

It was very common - certainly as common as cancer is today. The realisation that milk was a carrier, and the consequent introduction of both pasteurisation and tuberculin-testing of all dairy herds (which, as far as I know, is still carried out today), caused the eradication of that particular form of transmission.

Even when I was growing up, milk was considered to be good for growing children - and some people still think it is! Certainly the majority of us in the west have the genetic mutation that enables us to digest lactose after infancy, which is unknown in China and Japan.

#59: Author: JayB, Location: SE England

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:15 pm
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Mrs Redboots wrote:

Even when I was growing up, milk was considered to be good for growing children

Hence the free school milk for every primary school child which went on until the 1970s.

(Generations of milk-hating children have cause to be grateful to Margaret Thatcher.)

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