These are Brits favourite family meals – by decade

Fish fingers, Sunday roast and roast chicken are some of the top family meals which have remained popular over the last 50 years, it has emerged.

A study exploring how family food trends have changed over the decades found our palettes still crave many of the same flavours we enjoyed decades ago.

Other family meals which have stood the test of time include fish and chips, shepherd’s pie and jacket potato.

And modern parents reckon a third of the meals they feed their kids are the same or similar to the ones their parents gave them when they were children.

Food Historian Monica Askay, acting as spokesperson for cooking appliance brand, Belling, which commissioned the study, said: “Food is and has always been subject to fashion.

”Our food choices are influenced by so many things including social factors, the availability of ingredients, foreign travel, immigration, celebrity chefs, advances in technology, changing health advice, and food scares.

“Food of the 1960s was still much influenced by the 14-year period of rationing during and following WW2.

“The preferred style of eating was very much ‘meat and two veg’ – traditional British dishes.

“Over the decades our tastes have become much more cosmopolitan, and we have also reduced our meat consumption.

“The research shows that despite the large range of dishes and available ingredients we do tend to stick to a fairly small number of favourite dishes, and that many of these have remained preferred throughout the decades.”

The study also found our favourite modern family meal is Spaghetti Bolognese, rising from relative obscurity in the 60s to become a family staple.

Spag bol – which is currently the most popular choice with families in 2018 – couldn’t crack the top 20 meals back in the 1960s, according to the survey.

Though by the 1980s the meal had become the fifth most popular family dinnertime dish.

Pizza has also experienced a meteoric rise over the last 50 years.

While rarely invited to the dinner table in the 60s, pizza became the tenth most popular family meal of choice in the 80s, and became the top dinner staple throughout the 1990s, according to the survey.

Monica explained the appeal of Italian foods: “The rise in popularity of Italian dishes is interesting and quite complicated as it is due to a number of factors.

“Over the years, there has been migration to the UK from Italy and this led to the many influences on our food.

“This has included ice cream and ice cream parlours, 1950s coffee bars and the opening of restaurants like Spaghetti House and trattorias.

“This, alongside rising numbers of British people holidaying abroad and dietary advice stating a third of your meal should be carbohydrate and citing pasta as a great source of this added to its popularity.

“In later years, the increased availability of pasta in shops and supermarkets, rise of Italian ready meals, and popularity of celebrity chefs who are passionate about the cuisine have helped cement Italian meals as some of the nation’s favourites.

“Pizza has many American influences and was helped to fame by the opening of chain pizza restaurants across the UK.”

The Sunday roast, which was consistently the most popular family meal throughout the 60s and 70s, has steadily been replaced by other alternatives since the 90s, and now sits in sixth place in the rankings.

Seventy five per cent of modern parents still believe it is important for their family to eat dinner together each evening, and the average family will manage to get together for a meal four times a week.

Fifty five per cent of those surveyed consider family mealtimes the highlight of their day.

And three in 10 think their kids prefer classic meals which have stood the test of time over more modern, trendier cuisine.

Two thirds of parents think there is more pressure on them to feed their kids healthy, balanced meals than there was on their own parents decades ago.

Though almost a third of parents believe their kids are less interested in eating healthy food than they were when they were children themselves, according to the OnePoll study.

A spokesperson for 106-year-old cooking appliance maker, Belling, said: “We commissioned this research to find out how much things like trends and new diets had impacted on family favourite foods.

“But whilst fashion, music and culture has shifted in the last 50 years, we still crave the tastes of our childhoods.”

“Belling has been at the heart of the family home for over 100 years, so whilst we know that there are some consistent family favourites which have really stood the test of time, it has been interesting to see dishes which we now consider synonymous with family mealtimes rising from relative obscurity, like everyone’s favourite Spag Bol, to take the top spot in our chart.”

1. Spaghetti Bolognese
2. Pizza
3. Roast chicken
4. Fish fingers
5. Fish and chips
6. Sunday roast
7. Pasta and sauces
8. Jacket potato
9. Beans on toast
10. Scrambled egg
11. Cheese toastie
12. Lasagne
13. Pasta bake
14. Shepherd’s Pie
15. Meatballs
16. Cottage pie
17. Homemade curry
18. Omelette
19. Roast beef
20. Stir fry

1. Pizza
2. Spaghetti Bolognese
3. Pasta and sauces
4. Sunday roast
5. Jacket potato
6. Roast chicken
7. Lasagne
8. Fish fingers
9. Beans on toast
10. Shepherd’s Pie
11. Fish and chips
12. Scrambled egg
13. Pasta bake
14. Cottage pie
15. Cheese toastie
16. Boiled egg and soldiers
17. Homemade curry
18. Roast beef
19. Omelette
20. Macaroni cheese

1. Fish fingers
2. Sunday roast
3. Roast chicken
4. Beans on toast
5. Spaghetti Bolognese
6. Fish and chips
7. Shepherd’s Pie
8. Jacket potato
9. Cottage pie
10. Pizza
11. Boiled egg and soldiers
12. Lasagne
13. Roast beef
14. Beef stew
15. Scrambled egg
16. Cheese toastie
17. Pasta and sauces
18. Pie and chips/mash
19. Chicken casserole
20. Omelette

1. Sunday roast
2. Fish fingers
3. Roast chicken
4. Beans on toast
5. Shepherd’s Pie
6. Roast beef
7. Boiled egg and soldiers
8. Fish and chips
9. Cottage pie
10. Jacket Potato
11. Scrambled egg
12. Pork chops and vegetables
13. Spaghetti Bolognese
14. Roast pork
15. Beef stew
16. Pie and chips/mash
17. Omelette
18. Cheese toastie
19. Roast lamb
20. Chicken casserole

1. Sunday roast
2. Fish fingers
3. Roast chicken
4. Beans on toast
5. Roast beef
6. Shepherd’s Pie
7. Boiled egg and soldiers
8. Fish and chips
9. Scrambled egg
10. Beef stew
11. Cottage pie
12. Roast pork
13. Pie and chips/mash
14. Pork chops and vegetables
15. Roast lamb
16. Steak and kidney pie
17. Jacket potato
18. Chicken casserole
19. Omelette
20. Cheese toastie



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