1920s Food: Top Dishes, Restaurants And Eating Trends

Plain cooking, careful shopping and a range that stayed lit all day.

Below: the dishes people actually ate in the 1920s, what was new at the time, what the kitchen had in it, and honest notes on cooking any of it now.

Useful for a themed party menu, a reminiscence session or working out what to cook for someone's milestone birthday.

Years covered in the 1920s

• 1920 - The first Remembrance at the Cenotaph and a country still counting its losses. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1920
• 1921 - A miners' lockout, mass unemployment and the first British Legion poppy appeal. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1921
• 1922 - The BBC's first broadcast, the Austin Seven and Tutankhamun's tomb. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1922
• 1923 - The White Horse Final at Wembley and the first Radio Times. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1923
• 1924 - The first Labour government, the Empire Exhibition and the Chariots of Fire Olympics. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1924
• 1925 - The Charleston, the return to the gold standard and a summer of dance halls. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1925
• 1926 - The General Strike, the birth of Elizabeth II and Baird's public television demonstration. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1926
• 1927 - The BBC became a corporation, talking pictures arrived and the FA Cup went to Wales. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1927
• 1928 - Votes for all women, penicillin discovered and the Thames flood. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1928
• 1929 - Britain's first talkie, a second Labour government and the Wall Street Crash. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1929
• That is every 1920s year we have written up so far: 1920 to 1929.

Classic 1920s dishes

• Mutton stew and dumplings, cooked slowly on the range.
• Steak and kidney pudding, suet crust, steamed for hours.
• Bread and butter pudding, made from bread that was going hard.
• Toad in the hole and boiled bacon with pease pudding.
• Seed cake, rock buns and scones for visitors.
• Jellies and blancmange as the treat at a party.

Food trends of the 1920s

• Custard powder, Bovril and gravy browning in most cupboards.
• Tinned salmon as a Sunday-tea luxury.
• Cocktails and canapes for the small number of people who had them.
• Cookery columns in women's magazines start telling people what to make.

What the kitchen looked like (1920-1929)

• A coal range or gas cooker, a larder rather than a fridge.
• Nothing wasted - dripping kept, bones boiled, stale bread used.
• Milk delivered daily because it would not keep.
• Shopping done most days at the butcher, baker and grocer separately.

Eating out in the 1920s: restaurants, cafes and takeaways

• Lyons' Corner Houses and teashops, with the waitresses known as Nippies.
• Fish and chip shops at their peak - around 35,000 of them across Britain.
• Pie and mash shops with liquor and jellied eels in London.
• Coffee taverns, temperance hotels and station refreshment rooms.
• Hotel dining rooms for anyone with money: the Savoy, the Ritz and the grand hotels.
• Works canteens starting to feed factory shifts a hot dinner.

Cooking these now: honest notes

• Suet puddings work in a slow cooker if you do not fancy watching a pan for three hours.
• Halve the sugar in old cake recipes - they were written for palates used to less of everything else.
• Mutton is hard to buy; hogget or a cheap lamb shoulder is the nearest thing.

How to use this

• Themed party: pick three dishes, not ten - one thing to pick at, one main, one pudding everyone remembers.
• Put era music on while you cook and the theme does half the work.
• Reminiscence session: food smells prompt more conversation than photographs do.
• Milestone birthday: cook what they ate at eighteen, not what was around when they were born.

Shop prints and posters

How to write it so it lands

• Write the menu on a card and put it on the table - it makes a themed meal feel deliberate.
• Cook one dish nobody has had for thirty years; that is the one people talk about.
• Check for allergies before you build a menu around pastry, nuts or shellfish.

Where to shop next

• Look back to 1920
• Look back to 1921
• Look back to 1922
• Look back to 1923
• Look back to 1924
• Look back to 1925
• Look back to 1926
• Look back to 1927
• Look back to 1928
• Look back to 1929
• 1920s calendar: year by year
• 1920s trivia: fun facts
• 1920s music: albums, artists and songs
• 1920s fashion: clothes, hair and accessories
• 1920s books, films and TV
• The 1920s: the whole decade
• Victorian and vintage parlour games
• Village fete and church hall games
• Card games your nan taught you
• Traditional British party games
• Decade history: key events, politics and culture by era
• Decade books: best novels, authors and reading trends
• Decade recipes: dishes and food trends by era
• Music by decade: albums, artists and songs
• Decade fashion: clothes, hair and accessories by era
• Decade guides: books, films and TV by era
• Decade calendar: every year from 1920
• Decade trivia: fun facts by era
• Nostalgia gift shop
• Retro party supplies
• Guess the year quiz
• Milestone birthday cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What food was popular in the 1920s?

Mutton stew and dumplings, cooked slowly on the range. The full list above covers the dishes that turned up week in, week out, not just the special-occasion ones.

What were the big food trends of the 1920s?

Custard powder, Bovril and gravy browning in most cupboards. The rest are listed above, including what was arriving in the shops for the first time.

Where did people eat out in the 1920s?

Lyons' Corner Houses and teashops, with the waitresses known as Nippies. The eating out section above lists the restaurants, cafes and takeaways of the decade.

Can I cook 1920s recipes today?

Yes, with small adjustments. Old recipes assume more time and different kit, so the honest notes section above tells you what to change - mostly seasoning, cooking times and which ingredients are hard to buy now.

Do you sell food or recipe books?

No. We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This page is free to read, print and copy for a party or a care-home session.