# How Big A Deal Was Roast Beef In the 50s **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 16, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509 "2009-12-16T19:20:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/21 "2009-12-17T03:45:16Z")
The roast beef on Sunday was good but I really looked forward to the roast beef hash my mother made from the leftovers for Monday night’s dinner. She would bake it so the top was crispy and it was served with buttered toast. Scoop a blob on the toast and take a big bite. It was the ultimate comfort food. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/22 "2009-12-17T04:40:49Z")
Damn. That sounds so good. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/23 "2009-12-17T04:41:43Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > The roast beef on Sunday was good but I really looked forward to the roast beef hash my mother made from the leftovers for Monday night’s dinner. She would bake it so the top was crispy and it was served with buttered toast. Scoop a blob on the toast and take a big bite. It was the ultimate comfort food. This is why Monday was traditionally when houswives did the laundry (laundry being an all day affair). They could rely on leftovers from Sunday dinner to make Monday’s supper. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/24 "2009-12-17T06:31:05Z")
The above comments about meat portion sizes brings in why Yorkshire pudding was and is an English staple - an egg, a cup or so of flour, similar quantity of milk, and you have a recipe for an oven-baked batter pudding that’s a much cheaper fill-up than roast beef. Sometimes it was served by itself as a starter and the protocol was “Whoever has the most pudding can have the most meat”. After a large wedge of that, with gravy, you wouldn’t have room for more than a couple of slices of meat. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/25 "2009-12-17T06:36:37Z")
When I was a young kid we had roast beef a lot. This was in the middle 1960s, but nobody ever mentioned it being expensive–it was just another item in the weekly cycle. I don’t think affording whatever food we wanted was a problem for my family, but our intake of all red meats plummeted drastically as a result of the First Cholesterol Panic of 1968. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/26 "2009-12-17T07:09:50Z")
Heck, when I was growing up in a blue-collar family in the 80s, roast beef was still a big deal! > [@tdn](#): > > Back in maybe the late 80s a Chinese woman told me that pork was the cheapest meat in China and chicken was considered a luxury. A couple of years ago I brought that up to my Chinese office mate, and she had never heard of such a thing. As far as I know, right now pork pretty much is the cheapest meat and is by far the most widely consumed meat. Most dishes will somehow involve pork. Chicken isn’t exactly a luxury, but it’s not an everyday thing. In Cameroon, chicken was a huge luxury. When you have to kill, gut and pluck the thing yourself, a yummy chicken dinner often doesn’t seem worth it- especially when that same chicken could be giving you yummy easy-to-cook and easy-to-sell eggs every day. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/27 "2009-12-17T19:28:36Z")
Hmmm…now I’m jonesing for my mom’s pot roast – with the carrots and potatos cooked in the pot in with it. Damn. (She makes a DAMNED good roast) ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/28 "2009-12-17T19:35:02Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I was watching “Father Knows Best” a few days ago and Bud asks his friend over to dinner, he clinches the deal by saying “My mother is fixing roast beef,” which seems to impress his friend, a girl. > > Today I noticed on “Leave It To Beaver,” Wally did a similar thing when he asked a girl to supper. He emphasized “We’re having roast beef?” > > I also seem to recall Lucy of “I Love Lucy,” also got Ethel to stay to dinner by saying something along the lines of not letting herself being did out of a roast beef dinner. > > So my question is, how big of a deal was it to serve roast beef in the 50s? > > Or was it just something that was easy for the sake of the plot? What’s the mystery here? You wanna impress a gal, you put your beef on the table. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/29 "2009-12-17T20:53:26Z")
I’m making a roast this Saturday, you’ve talked me into it. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/30 "2009-12-17T21:00:48Z")
**BMalion** , how about a semi-colon with that beef? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/31 "2009-12-18T14:05:55Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > **BMalion** , how about a semi-colon with that beef? > 😉 I’m not making Haggis! ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/32 "2009-12-18T15:33:19Z")
When I married my ex-wife I about had to divorce her one month into the marriage (instead of five years later). She threw a pot roast in the crock pot with potatos and all sorts of veggies. You know when you cook a pot roast in the crock pot how it make’s that awesome savory broth? Yeah, she pours that down the sink when the roast is done!! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/33 "2009-12-18T15:51:23Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > All the above is true, but remember that chicken also was considered something special. People would make “city chicken” out of pork and veal because they couldn’t afford chicken. Herbert Hoover promised a “chicken in every pot,” which was the epitome of Depression-era optimism. Pre-depression. Hoover used the slogan in 1928, during the 20s boom, and it came to haunt him after the stock market crashed. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/34 "2009-12-18T16:26:27Z")
How much more expensive was chicken and beef compared to pork in the olden days? Twice as much? Thrice? Joe ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/35 "2009-12-18T16:36:35Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > When I married my ex-wife I about had to divorce her one month into the marriage (instead of five years later). > > She threw a pot roast in the crock pot with potatos and all sorts of veggies. You know when you cook a pot roast in the crock pot how it make’s that awesome savory broth? > > Yeah, she pours that down the sink when the roast is done!! :smack: Yeah, you shoulda divorced her right then and there. There’s just no excuse for that. Right now I am Crocking some beef neck bones, with veggie trimmings and a splash of wine. I’m doing this specifically to make broth. My daughter makes an awesome pot roast, she very carefully browns the beef before roasting it. She moved to another state a few years back, and my husband and I miss having her around for her own sake, but also because she’s a fine cook. I was born in 1957, and so my memories of specific dinners start in the 60s. We had a lot of ground beef in various ways, and roasts were definitely special occasion meals. Usually we had pot roast, rather than a real roast. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/36 "2009-12-18T18:59:12Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > The above comments about meat portion sizes brings in why Yorkshire pudding was and is an English staple - an egg, a cup or so of flour, similar quantity of milk, and you have a recipe for an oven-baked batter pudding that’s a much cheaper fill-up than roast beef. Sometimes it was served by itself as a starter and the protocol was “Whoever has the most pudding can have the most meat”. After a large wedge of that, with gravy, you wouldn’t have room for more than a couple of slices of meat. 🙂 If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/37 "2009-12-18T20:10:39Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > When I was a young kid we had roast beef a lot. This was in the middle 1960s, but nobody ever mentioned it being expensive–it was just another item in the weekly cycle. Same here - a nice rump roast. Pot roast was also in the rotation. And roast chicken. I think a lot had to do simply with mom being home and cooking a full meal every day, even if it required an hour or more cooking time. One of the few foods my kids ALL agree on is beef. I remember one time we bought a small rump roast and cooked it up. The kids were SHOCKED - and in carnivorous heaven. Not sure why we didn’t do that more often. As I recall it wasn’t all that expensive. ---
**Author:** ![A.Selene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ec8ea/32.png) [@A.Selene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Selene)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/38 "2009-12-18T20:43:58Z")
Somewhat related tangent: My great-grandfather was a butcher. Consequently, my grandfather ate a lot of meat growing up (in the 20’s and 30’s), but those meat meals were almost entirely sausage or pork. They were not very wealthy. For Christmas dinner, the family would eat steak and fries. This was their most expensive meal on their most important day. We still eat steak and (homemade! it’s got to be homemade) fries every Christmas dinner. Not because it’s expensive and we couldn’t afford to eat it other days of the year, but because it’s damn good and we like it. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/39 "2009-12-18T23:41:04Z")
back in the 60s, the sunday dinner rotation was: Whole roasted chicken glazed ham, bone in not one of those ones that pops out of a tin whole roasted waterfowl [goose or duck] perfectly done London Broil [I absolutely adore it when you get the beautiful rare inside with that rim of perfectly cooked edge, cut on the bias and served fanned out] Grandmother’s cook would spend the morning making the dinner, and we would eat about an hour after everybody got home from church at 1 pm. It was a lot more casual when my grandparents were wintering down in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509/40 "2009-12-19T00:18:29Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?! 😃 Ha, you beat me to it! 🙂 Now I’m second-guessing myself–I always thought “pudding” in that context meant “dessert” (which kind of makes sense) but maybe it meant Yorkshire pudding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-a-deal-was-roast-beef-in-the-50s/521509.md?page=3)