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What People Eat (From Mr NANA, Provincial High School of Kaya)

It used to be said that a man could eat well in Britain if he was prepared to have three breakfasts a day. The traditional British breakfast calls to mind porridge, cold cereals, bacon, eggs, kidneys and sausages, kippers, toast and marmalade, washed down by countless cups of tea. In 1958, a cooked course was commonly eaten at breakfast. Our research highlights1 the marked changes that have occurred over the past 14 years. The consumption of food that involves time and effort (for example, porridge, fried egg and bacon), has declined dramatically. Foods that need little preparation have held their own2 – bread and toast, ready-to-eat cereals, and boiled eggs. In 1958, one in two adults had a cooked course at breakfast ; in 1972 the figure was 28 per cent. This less substantial breakfast continued to be helped down mainly with tea. But the 72 per cent of adults having tea at breakfast is a decline from 88 per cent in 1958. And coffee has more than tripled, to 17 per cent. The British, however, are inveterate snack- eaters.
On the average weekday, in 46 per cent of homes a mid-morning snack of taken; and this leaves out of account between-meal snacks at the place of work. Coffee’s popularity is greatest as a between-meal beverage. Less than half the home consumption of coffee takes place at the main mealtimes.
Nearly three quarters of the occasions on which tea is drunk are with main meals.

The British breakfast reasserts itself” on Sundays. Indeed, the whole pattern of eating4 on Sundays is more traditional. Eggs, bacon and sausages are much more widely eaten at Sunday breakfast than on weekdays. Sunday breakfast is a “shared” meal, with members of the family more likely to be sitting down together than during the week. The Sunday midday meal is the most ritualised meal ritualised meal of the week. “Roast” remains de rigueur, though the roast beef and lamb of the late 1950s has, to some extent, been replaced by chicken. One in four people has Yorkshire pudding5, one in two has gravy6.
Most people have a dessert, and this is often pies or steamed7 or baked puddings, many of which are home-made.

Sunday is anything but a day of rest for many housewives. A lot of baking still goes on then : 20 per cent of housewives bake cakes, and a further 20 per cent make pies or puddings for dessert. Cake is eaten with the Sunday evening meal by 42 per cent of adults. We asked a women’s weekly magazine editor to predict the ratio of bought cake to home-made. “About three to one, I should guess”, she said. In practice, it turns out that at weekends home-made cakes are more commonly eaten than the factory-made variety ; across the week as a whole, home -made cake and bought cake run level.

Michael Bird and Pam Mills, New Society, 21 December 1972.