The the milk jug, the tea pot and dripping pot and the butter dish

Its very strange how things go out of fashion.  I always remember that as a child there were always four items that were in constant use.  The first was the milk jug or jugs that were kept (if you did not have a fridge and many people did not then) the milk in your cold pantry  on the cold slab(most houses had pantries then).  The milk jugs were usually topped off with a little cover to stop any unnecessaries getting into them.  I remember the ones we had were white a very tall one and a smaller one.  Sadly the large jugs went out of common usage once more people obtained refrigerators to keep their foodstuffs cold.  They used to be ideal for popping the bottle of milk into especially if the milk had been outside in the cold snow and the milk had developed top hats of ice bursting through the foil lid and sticking up proud of the milk bottle.

Secondly, the teapot was on the go on and off all day.  Most were strategically covered in a tea cosy to extract as much tea as one could out of the tea leaves whilst still warm (tea leaves were the only thing back then - no tea bags they are a modern thing) and most people had a brown ceramic tea pot.  Since the arrival of the tea bag however most people tend to dunk their tea bags in their mugs or cups.  I must say that I prefer proper tea leaves and a proper tea pot.  I have a large pot for when I have visitors and a smaller one for my own use as well as tea leaves.  However OH prefers the tea bags - personally by choice I would not give them house room.  I prefer the traditional way.  Its strange how things stay with you.  It was always a bit of a ceremony preparing the tea.

Thirdly, the dripping pot. Long stoneware columns that were used to store any dripping or fat from cooking. Mum and Nan always had these from when they cooked large joints of meat and any fat left over used to be strained into the dripping pots.  Pork dripping was never rendered down but just used as and often spread on bread or used as the starter for making fresh gravy.  Something that I still do however mum used to strain the fat from beef or lamb and the white creamy fat would be used to grease the frying pan or do the roasties in.  Nowadays people would go ughh but its the way things used to be done and it does produce a good result especially with pork dripping or goose and duck fat which most people buy in jars off the shelf these days. 

Finally, the butter dish.  The butter dish was in constant use with its cover.  I only remember ours ever being plain glass to keep the butter nice and cold and to keep any flies or insects off.  It used to be a constant visitor to the tea table but less so these days when everything tends to be pre-prepared and just placed on the table.

I have always used a butter dish and at one stage had two on the go one for butter the other for a spread; but I do not use a spread now.  Both were glass and relatively inexpensive and I have had them for years that is until they got broken one after the other.  So on my way I went looking for a suitable butter dish and I have been unable to find a plain glass one like the ones I broke at all and so have ended up with this one which I am not sure about either. Its not glass but it looks cheerful enough but I would prefer a glass one, although I will use it until I am able to source another one if at all.

So can you remember using the above or is it something that you have never come across.  If anyone does know of a good source of a glass butter dish do tell and share as glass is my material of choice.  Otherwise I will have to keep my eye open in the charity shop but so far I have not seen one there either.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

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