Wartime recipes

I've been enjoying reading a little book of recipes printed during the war by the cornflour producer Braown and Polson. It begins with two pages of general hints for economy, which drive home the fact that nothing was to be wasted. (Even things most of us would throw onto the compost heap could be used: the book suggests using the outside leaves of lettuce in soup, and also says 'Apple parings can be used to make a good summer drink for children'.)

The book then gives recipes for a variety of dishes, most of which have water and cornflour as their main ingredients! Quite a few recipes include offal (my mother says that this was not rationed, but not always available - the butcher could use his discretion about who he made it available to.) - this includes 'Mock Goose', which if you can get over the name doesn't sound too bad - it's layers of sliced potatoes and apple with sliced liver and sage in between, and is baked in the oven having had stock poured over (this is where the water and cornflour come in!)

Probably the three most unpleasant ideas are:
Beetroot jellies ('serve with cold meat or salad')
Salmon and spaghetti pie (which has cornflakes sprinkled on the top)
Cornflour porridge (Imagine white sauce made with too much cornflour and served with jam on the top)

What comes over is the necessity to waste nothing, including fuel, and the fact that the population was having to get used to living in a new way so anything which brought novelty or variety was gratefully received.

I've got a couple of reprinted wartime cookbooks too (Margeurite Patten involved in them I think). Raised eyebrows at a few recipes too! Carrot Curry Nella Last (in her diaries published as Nella Last's War) was SO inventive and could make a tasty meal out of nothing!

I can also recommend, in a similar vein, the Hovel in the Hills cookbook. I have a photocopied version which a friend kindly did for me, and they lived very hand-to-mouth, so there was nothing wasted there either.

interesting - I loved watching the Wartime Kitchen Garden and found the recipes fascinating, sometimes disgusting, but always interesting

I too have several wartime recipe books. I also still use some of the recipes my Mum used, though they are a bit altered now.

Funnily enough some of the recipes in some Wieght Watchers books are adaptions from wartime ones, & turn up quite often. Margeurite Patten has to be one of the best of the wartime & post war cooks IMO.

I remember having Mock Goose at school, except it was called Poor Man's Goose. Often with Mock Congress Tart for pudding, although quite what that was escapes me now - probably substituted papier mache for coconut.

The thing I most miss from all our stuff claimed by the flood was my Depression Era Cook Book

Love that sort of thing, must have a look at the library for some wartime cookbooks. Close as we are to the bone right now some new good tasteing ideas wouldnt go astray

Mums Clam Wiffle recipe comes from one and we loved it as kids

What is a clam wiffle? (I know that sounds like a joke, 'How do you make a swiss roll' etc, but anyway....)

Dandelion wrote:What is a clam wiffle? (I know that sounds like a joke, 'How do you make a swiss roll' etc, but anyway....)

I will post it tomorrow, its really pretty good.

I think really the main aim of Wartime cooking was to pad out with unrationed food ie potato & other veg, though not onion as that was worth its weight in gold.

Porrage oats were a favourite, as they take on the flavour of the gravy or stew.

Dandelion wrote:What is a clam wiffle?

I could answer that, but out of respect for GB's mum,shall not.

Beetroot jelly sounds alright actually. We often use powdered beetroot as a food colouring and it makes great choc cakes.

Do you use powdered beetroot in choc cake, or fresh? I could see it having the same function as carrot in rich fruit pudding or cake. And where do you buy powdered beetroot? (Still not convinced about the jellies, though!)

Go on then Billy, can you give us your beatroot choco cake recipe?

Just remembered another book lost in storage, my mums (from grama) war time meat booklet. Talk about ways to make a little meat go a long way

And I cant remember ANY of it because at the time I read it, meat shortage wasnt a problem

I use fresh betroot, have seen powdered betroot somewhere but it's too expensive to me, considering that fresh beetroots are close to be the cheapest vegs, at least here.

If you have a dehydratoe powdered beetroot is easy to make...dry, then grind.

Lol, sorry to go against the flow, but I don't see why one should use the time and possibly energy (unless the dehydratator is solar energy powered) to dehydrate and powder something that comes well even fresh with less use of time and energy. Yes powder can be stored...beets too though!

But sometimes dried powder is just that bit easier, especially if you want to add a bit of natural colour to somethig...

and not everyone has room/inclination/knowledge to store beets.

I dehydrate all sorts of stuff when I want to make up a full load in my Excalibur. Yes it is powered by elec BUT either from Good Energy ( 100 % renewable supply) or from our own Pv array so no fossil fuel waste there.

Compostwoman wrote:But sometimes dried powder is just that bit easier, especially if you want to add a bit of natural colour to somethig...

Yes, on this I second you. Apologize, I didn't think of that at all at first!

Yep, a pinch of dried beet powder is much easier to add to icing for a cake, than going outside, digging in a clamp, getting out a beet and cooking and grating a bit...

:biglick:

I agree with your general premise, though and wouldn't dehydrate stuff which I could store in other, non fuel using ways...

But I have found dehydrating toms, peppers, courgettes saves so much space and therefore energy in the freezers....which I can then use for stuff which NEEDS freezing, to keep. Like meat.

In the early 1950s my Mum made something she called goulash. Not the type you make now, but it would have been a wartime recipe.

I never ate it, but it was made with cabbage & bacon. I would also think there was some onion in it. Can anyone help me with this. My Brother is not at all well, & being well into 70s has a hankering for it. & I would love to give him the recipe

polgara wrote:In the early 1950s my Mum made something she called goulash. Not the type you make now, but it would have been a wartime recipe.

I never ate it, but it was made with cabbage & bacon. I would also think there was some onion in it. Can anyone help me with this. My Brother is not at all well, & being well into 70s has a hankering for it. & I would love to give him the recipe

Oh dear Pol, I have no idea! Can you try to recreate it just simmering cabbage, bacon and onion in some water or chicken stock and see what you get?

No mater what, that combo will be nice.

We make a boiled dinner in my house. It has cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots and either good sausage, corned beef or a bacon joint.

The different meats give such a different flavor that its a completely different dinner each time.

The sausage goes in to cook with the veg. right at the end so it only cooks for fifteen min or so but the bacon and corned beef get cooked tender first, taken out of hte water and the veg cooked in it and then the meat goes back in at the end to heat through.

Mmmmmmmmm boiled dinnnnnnnner

Me, I wouldn`t touch it with a barge pole & I have no idea what it used to taste like. Cabbage is not good for me.

GB wrote:

We make a boiled dinner in my house. It has cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots and either good sausage, corned beef or a bacon joint.

The different meats give such a different flavor that its a completely different dinner each time.

The sausage goes in to cook with the veg. right at the end so it only cooks for fifteen min or so but the bacon and corned beef get cooked tender first, taken out of hte water and the veg cooked in it and then the meat goes back in at the end to heat through.

Mmmmmmmmm boiled dinnnnnnnner

When I was a penniless student I used to survive on a boiled dinner which was basically a small onion fried, then cubed potatoes, potatoes and perhaps celery added with thinnish gravy covering it. You could cook sausages in it, or just eat with bread if it was near the end of term and the money was short. It made a change to baked beans!!

http://www.recipespastandpresent.org.uk/wartime/

Just found this elsewhere, looks interesting. In the making by the look of it,

I've emailed the link to my school email address so I can pass it on the history department - I know they'll be very interested