How about toasting crumpets at an open fire with a long metal toasting fork and roasting hands at the same time! But then the pleasure of smothering them with dripping! Would we do that now in this fat conscious world?? My mother loved a 'delicacy' called chittlings or chitterlings - literally pig's intestines - which, thankfully, no one else in the family developed a taste for, so that was her treat to herself. Lucky her! Ah memories
Chitterlings - they were yummy! I still have food fancies from yesteryear. For example, if I have a lamb shank (pre-cooked, sold with a divine rosemary sauce, and microwaved for 5 minutes ), then I have to suck the marrow fat out the bones.
Similarly, I cook a chicken most weeks, portion it, and freeze the cooked portions, then I only have to defrost a portion at night for the next day. But when I've sliced away most of the meat, I then tie a tea towel round my neck, and have a lovely half hour, sucking the meat from the carcass.
I like all the bits of whatsit that hide in the cavities, and every so often, I throw a piece of chicken to Billy, who patiently waits for this largesse. Then, when I think I've got every morsel of meat from the bones, I suck them all over again - just in case. If they include the giblets, I boil these, and give the heart, lungs and liver to Billy, but I adore the neck. And the turkey neck is divine.
The only way to eat crumpets, is to smother them with butter, so that as you bite into them, the butter trickles down your chin. And my Mum too had special days for special jobs. I think most Mums did. And if we had beef on a Sunday, then it was served cold for Monday, and minced for Shepherds Pie on Tuesday, but Monday's "tea" for me, when I came home from school, was doorstep bread, spread with dripping and jelly from the beef, and sprinkled with salt. Heaven.