• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Cookery lessons at school.

G G Jean

Brummy Wench.
Can anyone remember the first thing they prepared or cooked at school?. My first lesson was a fresh fruit salad in a more than sweet juice. The first thing I cooked was a cottage pie and my meat had turned a funny colour and my teacher got me to soak it in boling water first. Wonder we didn't get food poisoning. Mind you it tasted lovely and all went down the hatch [not the bin] very well. I remember my basket with a gingham tea towel over it. TTFN. Jean.
 
Didn't do cookery at school bab,but some of the girls from Burlington St.school used to pass the shop where I was the butchers boy,so on their way home they would give me a cake that they had baked,can't remember what they tasted like,but I wonder if they are now baking for their grandsons...hope so.
 
i think my first dish was an apple pie. we had to make our cookery apron in sewing lessons. it took me ages to make mine. you could choose red or blue gingham. i made the red one and you had to embroider your name on the bib front. did you make one jean?
 
Chris I will put a photo on later when I've ironed it. I think most people did the cottage pie thing then apple pie or apple crumble. I hated those electric ovens though. Jean.
 
the first thing we ever made was how to make a proper cup of tea and how it should be served, then the following week how to boil cabbage exciting stuff.
 
Maur Pete's dad gave me a lesson in tea making step by step and none of these tea bags. Pete makes the tea in our house as he was taught the propper way as pop used to say. Jean.
 
Were you girls ever taught to peel the humble spud ?.
My reason for asking is, my daughter's, when they had cookery lessons,used to have a long list of exotic herbs and spices,they needed, but they were never taught how to do the basics.
Hope you don't mind me joining this girly thread.
 
this thread has taken me back a bit...in cookery the first thing we made was fruit salad...progressing onto apple crumble....this lesson along with needlework and pottery were all taken at burlington st school which was used by lozells girls where i attended....pottery lessons were always great fun as the clay would always spin off the wheel and fly off everywhere...lol....

lyn


 
This the very apron I made and wore for my first cookery lesson. I am trying to remember my teachers name. It will come to me when I am not thinking. Jean.
 
wow jean..how lovely that you have kept it...i think my cookery teacher was miss or mrs orton...think she was scottish...

lyn
 
Patty will remember ours I think. As I have said it will come to me [I hope]. Think I have her signature on the folder holding my leaving cert. Jean.
 
that looks really good jean, wish i had kept mine now. we had to make it with the bib up front as well. yours looks very useful with those pockets.

we also had to learn ironing! had to take our fathers shirts in to school to practise on. while we were in classes for knitting, sewing, ironing and cooking the boys were doing science, woodwork and metalwork!! dont think that would be allowed these days.
 
Chris our twins won a cake making contest once at senior school and Steve did O level cookery. He only took it because he fancied Debbie Snookes and spent a lot of time in the larder cupbourd so I was informed later. He did get a B. Maybe a bit more time out of the cupbourd he may have got an A. Jean.
 
Jean one was Mrs Shipley, there were 2 of them, I remember getting into trouble because I said one sounded like a steam iron, she must have had asma(dont know how to spell it) and I didn't know at that time, wasn't I terrible?
 
Oh Pat you mean Mis Sirley don't you. She was lovely and we played her up something rotton. She taught needlework with Mrs Sherris. Jean.,
 
Sorry thought you were on about the needlework teachers with showing your apron, I knew it began with an S. Jean I am sure mine had a bib on and I didn't have those big pockets, did we have a choice of 2 do you think
 
Pat I put the apron on this thread because we made them for our cookery lessons. I might put my nighty on another. Still have that too. Jean.
 
First lesson was a big flop..sandwiches but we had to cut up a small crusty loaf.. Me I cut mine in half thinking it would be easier to hold..big mistake.. but sandwiches ok.. Every one use to have a wicker basked to take your ingredient in and bring them home again
 
I went to Selly Park Sec Mod in 59,the 1st year we had to make our caps and aprons in needle work class the second year we started cookery.I use to bicycle my way to school,roads where much quieter then especially if you road over the recreation grounds with the parky chasing you. any way the day came when we made rice pudding ,home time came and balancing my cookery basket on my handlebars off I went home ,up a ruddy great hill only to find at the top of the hill I left a long trail of lovely rice pud on the tarmac,our Mom nearly killed me.
 
My first lesson was toast and tea. 2nd was bananas and jelly, 3rd was stew as it was then called (now casserole) which slopped all over the edges in my basket onto my legs on the number 8 bus going home.
 
Can anyone remember the first thing they prepared or cooked at school?. My first lesson was a fresh fruit salad in a more than sweet juice. The first thing I cooked was a cottage pie and my meat had turned a funny colour and my teacher got me to soak it in boling water first. Wonder we didn't get food poisoning. Mind you it tasted lovely and all went down the hatch [not the bin] very well. I remember my basket with a gingham tea towel over it. TTFN. Jean.

Morning Nage,
Thought it was high time I had a look in the Forum so have just caught up with this thread. As you know I am not from these parts but it must have been a national curriculum in schools when we were young. Where I went to school we were taken to another school by coach (well an old bus really) for the boys to do woodwork and the girls cookery. I remember they all had to have an apron in school uniform green with a basket covered with a green gingham tea towel. On the way back us boys were always keen to find out what the girls had been cooking and scrounge some to eat. Often we could guess because the bus stunk of whatever it was. I did quite well because the girl I thought I would marry (but never did) used to see me alright until she copped out for giving away food that her mum had paid for the ingredients to. Happy days.
Mike
 
Can't remember my first meal I cooked at school - maybe 'rock cakes'!!!. I had to make Welsh Rarebit and eat it at the lunch time break [still here]. Aprons we made were in blue gingham and we also had to wear a sort of head band. My pillow cases are still ironed the same way I was taught all those years ago. Miriam
 
i remember making pineapple upside down cake and baked stuffed apples, my mom and dad got a bit sick of them after a while because i kept making them at home. kelly
 
I can remember making Shrewsbury biscuits they had orange peel in them. I decided to make some at home with lemon peel my Dad loved them. This is one happy memory for me!
 
What exotic things you started off with - we had a wicker basket with a plastic cover with elastic round it to hold it on the basket and our first cookery - sorry, Domestic Science - lesson was to make Angel Delight - I had never had this before, Dad had been diagnosed as a diabetic, so sweet things were a no-no. Ayway, carefully took in all the stuff, measured everything out under the watchful eye of Mrs Baker (no joke) our teacher, and mine would not thicken up at any price. At the end of the lesson after the whole class had had a go at whisking it, it was still runny so into the freezer it went and came out 4 hours later - still runny, so I had to carry it home in my basket, slopping everywhere and it was chocolate flavour..................................
Needless to say haven't tried it since, though hubby used to do his owm butterscotch one lol!
Sue
 
My first cookery lesson was all about hygiene .how to wash up properly polish furniture etc .then we moved on to how to set a tea tray .pretty embroidered tray cloth .proper tea not tea bags .then i think it was a snack lunch progressing to savory mince cottage pie apple pie etc....our annual exam was to complete a 3 course lunch .starter main and pudding ....thing was it was never enough to feed 8 people so my dad usually ended up eating it ..then of course we had to clean ovens .i still hate that job !!!!!!!!!!!!1 good times though .
 
Back
Top