UK Kitchens

[tomturbomatic]

I admit, up front, that my only point of reference is what I see in the kitchens on Keeping Up Appearances, Doc Martin and As Time Goes By and I know that two of them are older series, but I can't get over the undercounter refrigerators. Are they typical? The kitchens are nicely equipped with dishwashers and an undercounter laundry appliance, but how do you keep enough food on hand for several meals with such a tiny refrigerator? Even what I had thought was a dishwasher in Doc Martin's kitchen turned out to be his fridge.

I am not trying to put down or make fun of the kitchens, but I thought that with our large contingent of appliance specialists from all over the wrold, this would be the place to have my question answered.

Thank you.

 

[ricky5050]

Hi Tom

It's probably down to history,

Most older working class older houses were never built with kitchens as we know them now, the back room usually had a large coal fired range which all cooking was done on and the only source of hot water, food was prepared on a table in front of it , a smaller room off this room was usually known as the scullery where cold water and a sink was found and often a pantry ( a cooler room for presihables ) over time the scullery became a kitchen with oven sink fridge etc and the older kitchen became a dining room or living area, this led to smaller appliances being popular.

These small fridges initially had a top freezer section, which held little but those of us who remember them will know it was usually ice cream ice lollies, peas as frozen food in the 50s 60 s was a new phenomenon. Even today theses little units are not much smaller than the traditional fridge freezer that most homes have , simply one stood on top of the other. They hold a surprising amount and I know several families who use this size fridge. The other thing is that what we keep in a fridge may be less, originally milk was delivered daily on the doorstep so you only needed 1-2 pints, now we buy 2-4ltrs in plastic cartons from supermarkets, wines and beers have increased so fridges grew to hold those.

I know my friends in Australia put everything in the fridge not only because of the ave temperature but to stop ants flys etc finding them, vegetables etc were often stored in racks under the sink over here.

Another thing that has happened is that often people will have what seems small to you, fridge and freezers in their kitchen with a larger freezer or spare fridge in a garage.

Plus lastly the rise of ready meals and eating out means fridges only keep food for a day or two rather than a weeks worth.

The rise of the American fridge freezers with side by side doors has happened over the last few years more out of staus than perhaps need, retailers over here have signs explaining to customer to check whether they will fit or even be able to be carried through the door easily as many a delivery driver must have got stuck with one trying to fit it in our smaller homes!

I posted a pretty standard fridge freezer that most home would use in the uk. They only take up the same foot print as a dishwasher but are taller. Some even taller still and hold a surprising amount, but quite often the same size as an invidual fridge shown on Doc Martin

Richard

 

[petek]

I stayed with my great aunt Mary in Manchester (Withington) back in 72 and she had one of those compact fridges along with the gas stove with the overhead grill. Her kitchen at the back wasn't tiny but it didn't have much in the way of fitted cupboards and countertops but room enough for a kitchen table. Along one was was a big coal fireplace with a hot water tank built in behind the wall (unseen).Off the back of the kitchen was what we would call a small mud room I guess where she kept some of the food as well. There were no grocery stores at that time over there, not like here anyways, and you just walked up the street to the green grocer, butcher etc. One of the most memorable times of my life. Here's a pic of her and my uncle Tom standing out front. She had a nice little front garden and one in the back as well.. I google streetviewed it and boy does it look awful now. It's the house on the right. Actually it was quite large inside, 3 floors incl the finished attic and a small cellar. My mom was from Manchester and granma owned a green grocer, grandad sold vegetables for a horsecart early on when mom was growing up. There house was no where near as nice as Aunt Mary's. more of a working class slum actually in Moss Side. Even my dad who came from Newcastle from a family that had little, his mum owned a green grocer as well, was shocked when he saw where my mothers family actually lived.

 

[petek]

Same house today. Not so pretty on the outside

 

[fido]

Some people who have the built in fridge with a cabinet door attached have an extra fridge in a utility room somewhere. I think there are various factors though that make a difference between USA and UK lifestyles. For one thing, a lot of UK fridges don't contain any beer. A lot of people either don't drink beer, don't chill it but serve it at room temperature or only drink it in pubs / clubs, not at home. Food is more expensive so we are less wasteful, we don't tend to buy more fresh food than we know we will need before the next shopping trip. In some cases we actually eat less, there seems to me more obesity in USA than in most countries.
When I was a kid we had quite a small fridge with just a tiny freezer bit for making ice cubes. In those days people didn't tend to keep vegetables, jams, pickles, mustard, sauces, bread etc. in the fridge. It mostly just held milk, butter, cheese, cooked and raw meat, fish, margarine, lard, yoghurt and anything else from the shop chiller cabinets.

 

[logixx]

Though not in the UK, we had a second freezer in the basement.

 

[davey7]

Edina's Fridge

That looks like Edina Monsoon's fridge (and my parents have something very similar in the States). Margo Leadbetter on "The Good Life" had a four foot high fridge (and claimed a dishwasher) in the mid-70's, but they were upper middle class.

There is a huge variety across Europe - in Sweden the standard in single-family houses since the 70's has been a fridge-only the size of the one above paired with a freezer the same size. Swedes are more likely to "take home" big portions of meat from a hunter or shop for bargains (as well as living further from grocery stores for a "daily shop").

 

[gorenje]

I think one of the factors can be the cultural factor and the lifestyle factor.
Here in Europe we are used to go often to the supermarket, not just onec a week.
I also have a small undercounter refrigirator with no freezer compartment and it's enough for me.

I have the supermarket just across the street and I don't eat frozen food. So the fresh food I buy should be eaten in a few days and then I have room for other fresh food.

Ingemar

 

[gorenje]

Inside the frige

.

 

[launderess]

Daily Shopping

Exactly,

Many European housewives and others keep to the old ways; that is daily or every other visit to the market for fresh produce, meats, baked goods, etc.... thus the need for large fridges is reduced.

Americans used to be the same until post WWII and the advent of supermarkets and more importantly driving everywhere. Many of us growing up remember local butchers, bakers, small grocery stores or whatever that our mothers would pop into once or twice a week.

Personally like the European way better. Nothing is better to my mind's eye than going to market early in the AM with one's basket or shopping bag and seeing all the fresh produce and so forth. Then it is off to the butcher's for whatever that will make up dinner.

The BBC/PBS series "1900 House" showed a modern British family going back in time to live. Their temporary home was a Victorian home built around the 1900's that was stripped of it's mod cons and put back the way it looked then. Lots of British loved the show because they either remembered such kitchens themselves or from older relative's homes.

 

[launderess]

Cold vs Hot

Many of my British friends cannot understand why Americans have to have most everything they drink aside from say tea or coffee, cold. They complain when cocktails are served over ice and like Charles in Brideshead Revisted insist on say a Scotch and soda being served "warm" without an ice cube in sight.

Cold beer, lager or ale? They'd rather die first! *LOL*

 

[liamy1]

UK vs US

Agree with a previous poster, it has only been over the last 20 years or so that we have got the supermarkets and superstores over here.

In previous years, we were happy to go shopping once every few days or so.

We are definitely becoming more "Americanized" over here now.

I have an undercounter Fridge and Freezer, my kitchen is similar to what you see in Keeping Up Apperances (mines a bit bigger though )

However, I also have a Fridge-Freezer (like the one pictured up thread) in the Garage for excess, but that's not often, honestly, I find myself throwing food out constantly even just using the undercounter fridge and freezers - I just cannot eat it all in time.

Cost of living here in the UK is way, way higher than in the US. So we do only tend to buy what we know we will eat.

I still get it wrong though :/

Also I am English and certainly won't drink warm beer - in the winter just being in the Garage is like a fridge and in summer it goes in the fridge in the garage.

 

[launderess]

It is also important to remember

That while the USA was going through it's postwar (WWII) *Boom*, much of Europe was still suffering the aftermath of that event. Rationing and or food shortages went on for many years while Americans were building homes and moving to the suburbs.

Remember reading something during one of my French classes in college about meat still going rotten in parts of France during the 1950's for lack of refrigeration.

 

[norgeway]

It all goes back...

I think, to how and where you grew up, I grew up drinking everything cold with ice, including milk and orange juice, so I still put ice in everything, aside from an occasional cup of spiced tea or hot chocolate, I drink nothing hot, and we always keep ice cream on hand.My Mother grew up in the depression years without electricity, so her habits were different from mine.

 

[launderess]

Back to OP's Origiinal Query

When you think about it how much does one really need to keep in the fridge?

Veggies are best fresh and in season. Tinned versions were around in the UK and elsewhere in Europe for ages as well. True methods were sometimes dubious and unsafe, but things did improve.

Meats, fish and so forth really do not profit from being held for long periods in the freezer, IMHO. So what does that leave you with? Mainly dairy and leftovers.

It could be argued that our massive fridges have contributed to the gluttony and or poor eating habits that cause Americans to have some of the poorest health of Western nations.

Americans eat far to much meat and dairy, often several helpings per day.

Don't get me wrong, you can find supermarkets with most if not all the same offerings all over Britain, even at Harrods. But no one needs to lay in supplies for the duration. *LOL*

On Sunday's one may push the boat out for a joint and two veggies. What is not eaten that day will be lunch or dinner the next. Which brings us to another English tradition, pies.

From steak and kidney to shepherd's that mainstay of English cooking serves two purposes. Pies allow one to clear out the fridge of leftovers, they often will keep well and best of all are portable.

 

[launderess]

Ice in milk! *LOL*

Had a cousin who did that. Another would put ice in his OJ. My mother would not stand for such nonsense in her house! *LOL* Cannot abide ice in soft drinks because it waters things down.

Other things? Don't like cold pies(sweet potato, coconut custard, apple, etc..)so will put slices into the microwave for a bit to take the edge off.

 

[launderess]

Edina's Kitchen

Always felt for someone so absorbed with status Ed's kitchen was rather low key. But then again the only person who seem to used it for anything remotely resembling it's use was Saffron. Cannot remember even if Ed's had a washer and dryer. Oddly she had a range top (cooker), but also a full range off to the other side of kitchen. Why one has no idea.

Understand why Ed's kitchen was in the basement as likely that was the original location, but seems a damned bother. Still was a lovely house for Shepherd's Bush, or was it Holland Park? *LOL*

 

[davey7]

Space is also part of it...

British houses, particularly middle-class, are quite a bit smaller and older than American equivalents (I think the UK has the oldest housing stock as a whole in the world) and their big middle-class building boom was from the mid-19th C to the start of WWII. Equipment sizes and standards were more similar to American then than after the war when the divergence really started.

The "fitted" kitchen also arrived late in Britain, despite being closer to the countries doing scientific studies on kitchens and efficient layouts, etc.

This might be a good place to ask the older members what a California or American Kitchen meant in a 60's context (can't remember which it was, from Agatha Christie, term used by estate agent) - brand or specific type of kitchen?

 

[davey7]

THE RICH HEARTLAND OF HOLLAND PARK

20' reception, 1.5 million, darling, sweetie, darling, sweetie darling!

Yeah, she had the recess for cooking and the gas hob for lighting her fags in the island. I think she had a washer under the counter and then in one of her remodels they added a utility room with crazy boiler piping (to the left of the later battery of champers fridges).

I wonder if, overanalyzing this now, the dining room had been downstairs as well, though her house looks like a semi, so I would have assumed two receptions upstairs at least.

Margo's kitchen is my favorite UK TV kitchen - polished teak or rosewood, track lights, etc.