Upper class twits use cholesterol to horrify a child of the '80s

Are you ready for another Woman's Day Collector's Cook Book? This time, we have Traditional English Foods from February of 1965.

The booklet is peppered with illustrations meant to allow readers to imagine themselves as upper-class British twits, like this cover image of a large dining room full of people being served by a servant in a jacket. The thing that really struck me about the collection, though, was that it was clearly put together before the great fat and cholesterol panic that I grew up during. (Remember cantaloupes being labeled as cholesterol-free? 🙄)

There's potted shrimp, for instance.

If 1980s people weren't already panicking from all the cholesterol in a half-cup of shrimp, the quarter-cup of butter would send them right over the edge.

If that's note quite enough cholesterol, there's also the pie that nestles both bacon and eggs in a double-crust pastry.

The pastry was probably made with suet or lard for good measure!

And speaking of suet, dessert was likely to entail quite a bit of it...

...regardless of whether you were having spotted dog or a roly poly.

And "to clean the palate of the sweet taste" after dessert, the booklet also offers meal-ending savories like this marrow toast, just in case the meal didn't contain quite enough animal fat.

At least there are plenty of calming pictures to look at in case the recipes produce any residual panic from having lived through the low-fat, low-cholesterol era.

Well.... Having to attend a party? With other actual adults? In fancy dress? Maybe not so calming...

Out on a river? With a bottle of wine precariously balanced where it would be easy to knock out of the boat? Which I would then likely tip over as I lunged for the quickly-disappearing wine bottle? Maybe not so calming...

Solitarily watching a cat creep across the rooftops, indifferent to the group of people loitering around their car below? Okay, that's more my speed. Now I'm going to leave 1960s British-American recipes behind and have myself a salad.