High Tea

[mick2me 3,033]

Babs's mention, elswhere here, of 'High Tea' prompted me to look up exactly what High Tea was?

To me it was something posh folks had, but it is originally totally opposite.

What is High Tea?

High Tea Vs. Afternoon Tea

I never used the word being strictly in the lower classes, but did anybody else have this term in general use?

[Commo 1,292]

High Tea still pretty common in Scotland hotels and pub "eateries" and served usually between 4.00pm and 6.00pm. Quite often Fish and chips on the menu. The term was never used by us (me and my family) in Nottingham, but the indigenous population in Yorkshire tend to call the evening meal "tea" even though it is a cooked meal which we posh lot in Notts would call dinner. Wouldn't we?

Growing up as a kid in Notts, dinner was eaten in the middle of the day, a cooked meal, and tea was afternoon/early evening being a sarnie and a cuppa. It was only as we got older that the mid day meal became lunch, probably because it was "snap" at work, and we started eating "dinner" in the evening.

[Roosta 2]

High tea to me in 1950s Nottingham meant tea eaten round the fire, usually on a Sunday evening and consisted of something like sardines on toast or toast and dripping (the proper stuff with the meat jelly at the bottom) followed by cake.Seemed like a real treat compared to everyday tea.

[darkazana 1,736]

We, in Watnall, had dinner at 12-12.30 and tea at 6...after The Magic Roundabout or Hector's House! Dinner was cooked main meal, tea was usually something like scrambled egg on toast, or potted dog (not horse!!) with bread and butter, and always some cake afterwards. PS Its still "Dinner" at most schools even now.

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

We had dinner at 12-12.30 and tea at 6... Dinner was cooked main meal, tea was usually something like scrambled egg on toast, or potted dog (not horse!!) with bread and butter, and always some cake afterwards.

Exactly the same at Clifton in the 60s and 70s. The exception was that my dad had his "dinner" in the evening when he came home from work because he'd had his "lunch" at midday whilst at work.

High Tea and Afternoon Tea were both things we heard about which posh people did; we just had Tea. No adjectives to qualify it.

And when we visited my grandparents (in Radford or Lenton) they operated to the same timetable as well.

Its still "Dinner" at most schools even now.

Exactly. It's always been School Dinners served up by School Dinner Ladies.

[StephenFord 866]

When I was a lad in Long Eaton, dinner was the midday meal. Lots of kids went home from school for dinner (the midday break at Long Eaton Grammar School was 12.35 - 2.00). This was a proper cooked dinner - Monday being left-overs from Sunday's joint, and Tuesday often being rissoles made from the minced left-overs from Monday's left-overs if you get my drift. Pudding might be apple pie, rice, sago (frogspawn - ugh!) semolina (also not a favourite), bread pudding, bread and jam pudding, chocolate sponge etc. Then it was off back to school. My dad got home from Nottingham where he worked for the railway at about quarter to six, and while we had tea, he had warmed up dinner. Our tea was bread and butter (not marge!) often with jam, but sometimes a bit of meat or sardines or whatever, followed by home made cakes - jam tarts, congress tarts, Yorkshire jam-cake etc. (we got through quite a lot of jam!) and of course a cup or two of tea. Dinner was also accompanied by a cup of tea - we didn't seem to do coffee much. And of course we knew nothing of tea-bags. It was all loose tea, and poured through the strainer, but still leaving enough leaves in the bottom of the cup to tell your fortune, if you were of a superstitious turn of mind. So you never drained the cup to the bottom, or you got a mouth full of tea-leaves.

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

On the subject of tea........when I was young, in the days before teabags, my mum had one of these to dispense loose tea into the pot.

As a kid at the time, I never really understood how it worked, and I've never seen one anywhere else since.

[ChrisB 150]

On the subject of tea........when I was young, in the days before teabags, my mum had one of these to dispense loose tea into the pot.

As a kid at the time, I never really understood how it worked, and I've never seen one anywhere else since.

I don't think that type of spoon was for putting loose tea into the pot, you would have a small caddy spoon for that.

This type of spoon was for mashing loose tea in a cup or mug, before teabags were widely available.

You would put a small amount of tea in, clamp it shut, then pour your water in - and hopefully it mashed!

[piggy and babs 544]

as far as high tea at school was concerned we had to make a selection of cakes and scones to put on cake stand including a fruit cake that you could slice and butter . a choice of four sandwiches cut small into four triangles we got extra points cause we cut ours with different shaped pastry cutters. and three mini savoury dishes you had two hours to prepear this plus one hour to serve if you used your head you could cheat a bit by prepearing certain things the night before things like boiling the eggs grating the cheese saved time on the day. then you had to clean up after every thing had to be put away by 4pmwhen school finished one of the cookery teachers ussualy joined in as well and marked you as well but you never found out how you had done untill you got you school reports.

[Braddy 160]

Hi tea, low tea, afternoon tea, just a storm in a tea cup

[systema 13]

Stephen - can you remember what Yorkshire Jam Cake was like?

Born and bred in Yorkshire I have never heard of it and after a Google search is seems that lots of Yorkshire folk haven't either.

Someone (non Yorkie) referred to it as pastry with jam in the middle which was the way everyone used up the left over pastry bits but never heard of Yorkshire Jam Cake.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

I don't think that type of spoon was for putting loose tea into the pot, you would have a small caddy spoon for that.

This type of spoon was for mashing loose tea in a cup or mug, before teabags were widely available.

You would put a small amount of tea in, clamp it shut, then pour your water in - and hopefully it mashed!

I've still got one of those! My wife sometimes uses it for making a cup of herbal tea.

[piggy and babs 544]

yorkshire jam cake in our house and i am sure in many more was a piece of yorksire pudding with jam on to keep you going till dinner was ready thats why my mum always made two lots of yorkshire puddings one before dinner and one with dinner.

[piggy and babs 544]

good job i had put my crash helmet on hey

[systema 13]

In our house in Yorkshire we had pudding 3 ways.

My parents always had it first with onion gravy - I always ate it with my dinner which I got told off about many times - with jam as afters.

When I married my Notts husband he was converted to pud with gravy first and later my son always ate it like that, I was the only one who was "wrong".

[darkazana 1,736]

We used to have Yorkshire pud with jam if there was any left after Sunday dinner.....my husband thinks I have very strange tastes because of this and making savoury pancakes or luxurious pancakes with fruit, icecream and cream instead of just lemon/orange juice and sugar! :-)

[StephenFord 866]

Stephen - can you remember what Yorkshire Jam Cake was like?

Born and bred in Yorkshire I have never heard of it and after a Google search is seems that lots of Yorkshire folk haven't either.

Someone (non Yorkie) referred to it as pastry with jam in the middle which was the way everyone used up the left over pastry bits but never heard of Yorkshire Jam Cake.

Hello Systema. My mum always just referred to it as jam cake. It was only later when I described it for some reason to a lovely old couple from Barnsley, that I was firmly told that this was YORKSHIRE jam cake! (Almost on the lines of "how dare they make OUR jam cake in Notts?")

Essentially it was a rather shortbread-like mixture, divided into two parts. One was rolled out and used to line a rectangular baking tray. Then you spread a good layer of jam on top, leaving about 3/4 inch clear all round the edge. Then the other half of the mixture was rolled out and laid over the top and sealed round the edges, then baked. Cut into squares it was a real treat. Knowing my mum, it might have been in the Be-ro cookery book.

[piggy and babs 544]

my mum made that too but carnt remember if she ever called it yorkshire jam cake .my mum was a good cook and her pies cakes and pastrys never lasted long in our house her pastry was lovely and very realy have i come across a cook who makes as nice pastry as she did but she always had cold hands even in the summer she always used a milk bottle to roll her pastry out even when we brought her rolling pins she never used them, she never had a set of scales did every thing by guess work and always used lard and marge for her pastry.

[ChrisB 150]

The way Stephen has described that sounds exactly like one my mum used to make, except she used to call it Lancashire Courting Cake.

[StephenFord 866]

Oh dear, what have I started now? Lancashire courting cake - Yorkshire jam cake, it could be the wars of the roses all over again - and all started by a Nottingham bloke! How crazy is that?

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

I don't think that type of spoon was for putting loose tea into the pot, you would have a small caddy spoon for that.

This type of spoon was for mashing loose tea in a cup or mug, before teabags were widely available.

You would put a small amount of tea in, clamp it shut, then pour your water in - and hopefully it mashed!

I'm sure you're right. It was just that as a kid at the time, I never understood what was going on with it, and I was just baffled as I watched the thing being used.

[systema 13]

Yes you have

Another google and found Lancashire Courting cake - sounds more like what you had - a cross between a sponge and a shortbread.

Given by a bride to be to prove she could bake.

[mick2me 3,033]

How about 'Bread & Butter Pudding'?

How to make perfect bread and butter pudding

Traditional British Recipes: Easy Bread and Butter Pudding Recipe

[darkazana 1,736]

With or without crusts? You can also use brioche for a richer pudding, and I have a divine chocolate recipe. You can also use sponge cake (a bit like the pannetone I suppose) This is then called cabinet pudding, or if served cold Diplomat pudding...both yummy with cream or custard. Used to make it for the residents of the home where I worked. They loved all versions.

[StephenFord 866]

Have you noticed how simple recipes that our mums knocked up from left-overs without a thought and at very little cost suddenly become expensive gourmet items on the internet or TV. Brandy in bread and butter pudding indeed! It reminds you of Mrs Beeton - no, not "First catch your hare..." but "Take six eggs..." OK - so this recipe needs an egg. (Wartime recipes would tell you whether to use one or two teaspoons of dried egg powder !)

About 10 years ago I was taken out for dinner in a very smart restaurant in Spandau, Germany and the dessert menu included something I didn't understand. (I think the German was something like Moelnpiele - but not sure). One of my hosts explained that it was a recipe used just after the war when there was hardly any food to be had and folk were literally dying of starvation. It turned out to be, in effect, bread pudding. Very nice too - probably nicer than the versions they were eating in 1946 - and it had a price tag commensurate with a very smart restaurant !