Thriftlady's wartime experiment

thriftlady_2 · 23 June 2007 at 1:35PM

thriftmonster wrote: »

Thriftlady - re the wine: beer wasn't rationed in the war for morale purposes as far as I know - so maybe the wine could count as beer.

Also you have to use rations on packups, but weren't school dinners introduced in the war - so the children wouldn't have to use rations on lunch? Does anyone know about this?

Good news about the wine:beer: but I think I'll try and save it for the weekend next week which is our rule really. It'll do us good and save money of course.

I think you are right about school dinners, but I remember the family on the TV series The 1940s House used their rations for the boy's pack-ups and I'm having fun doing them on rations. Next week I might make curried corned beef balls for their lunches and bacon turnovers.

I've made a Syrup Loaf -I doubled it because my loaf tins are 2 lb-ers, it needed another 15 mins in the oven and a bit of foil over the top towards the end of cooking. Looks good. I'll let them have a bit this afternoon, a bit tomorrow and hope there is some left for pack-ups on Monday.

Triker · 23 June 2007 at 2:20PM

Hi I was looking for a replacement butter idea for you, thought maybe apple butter and I came across this, if you click the link and look under 'rationing' it shows a picture of a weekly ration.....this really brought it home to me just how inventive people had to be.

There's a few recipes there as well.

http://www.homesweethomefront.co.uk/templates/hshf_frameset_tem.htm

I notice that there was 'special margarine' as well as 'national butter' on the picture so I wondered if you could add the margarine into the equation if you haven't done so already.:D

ZIZA · 23 June 2007 at 2:30PM

Great thread!

I have a copy of the Wartime Kitchen & Garden (it was also a TV series some years back.
Makes very interesting reading telling the story behind all the staple foods.
One really interesting fact is just how much food we imported before the war.I had imagined that most was home grown or produced but not so.

Try and get hold of a copy if you can as it also gives some recipes and ideas and its full of many peoples personal experiences on the "home front"

When I was a child in the fifties I can remember my Mum saving butter wrappers to use for linning cake tins.

ZIZA · 23 June 2007 at 2:46PM

A quick question.

You were allowed 1shilling and 2pennies (approx 6p) per week to spend on meat does anybody know how much that would be today with inflation?

Thanks

thriftlady_2 · 23 June 2007 at 3:27PM

Triker, thanks for that interesting link. It doesn't look much does it ? I'm actually taking my marge ration as butter (see my first post), I know this is cheating but from a fat and calorie point of view there is not much difference and butter is a natural food which I like

We've had 30 oz which is almost 2 lbs. Sounds like plenty doesn't it ? but with using it for baking and cooking as well as spreading it soon goes. I don't think we will run out completely, but next week I shall bake things with less fat, possibly fruit breads and the like.

ZIZA I already have The Wartime Kitchen and Garden. It is a good read and the method for the rissoles I made on Tuesday was from that book.

No idea how much 1 shilling and 2d is worth now. I've taken my meat rations from an magazine article which said an adult ration would buy you the equivalent of 2 chops or 12 oz mince/stewing meat. So I'm allowing my family 3 and a half lbs.

I had trouble finding out if children got less meat or not. The green ration book holders got half an adult ration but I'm fairly certain they were the under fives. My youngest is 7.

My pork pie is in the oven smelling nice and my jelly is chilling. I usually make rhubarb jelly in February-March when it young and pink. The jelly comes out a beautiful sunset colour. The rhubarb is old and coarse now and when cooked is Khaki -very appropriate to wartime :rotfl: I added a bit of pink colouring to the finished jelly

I've also made some chocolate spread for the kid's toast tomorrow (Sunday treat) it's not bad and would make a good filling for a cake.

Chocolate Spread
Blend 1 oz cocoa, 1 and a half tbsp sugar and 1 dessert spoon of flour with 4 fl oz milk. Bring slowly to the boil and cook till thickened stirring all the time. allow to cool before use.

edit: Two Mustang planes have just flown over our house. They were American fighter planes used in the war (I think -OH is out so I can't check), They've added an authentic sound effect to my wartime experience.

Gingham_Ribbon · 23 June 2007 at 3:32PM

Thriftlady, thanks for the chocolate spread recipe. I'm going to try that one.

thriftlady_2 · 23 June 2007 at 3:49PM

Can report that the Syrup Loaf is very good. Not oversweet and a very good texture for lunchboxes -ie not crumbly and very easy to cut thinly with a breadknife. Definitely a keeper -will add ginger next time.

Syrup Loaf

Grease a 1 lb loaf tin (I had a 2 lb tin so I doubled the recipe)

Sift together
4 oz self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarb
pinch of salt

Melt
2 tbsp golden syrup with ¼ pint of milk
Pour over the flour and beat really well (or you will get little lumps of flour in your cake)

Pour into the tin, bake for 30 mins at 180c -if you are doubling bake for 45 mins or until a skewer come out clean.

It's from Marguerite Patten again -We'll Eat Again

Sarahsaver · 23 June 2007 at 4:08PM

Milksop \Milk"sop`\, n. A piece of bread sopped in milk; figuratively, an effeminate or weak-minded person. --Shak.
To wed a milksop or a coward ape. --Chaucer.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

You were right about the shakespeare thing. Seems like it must be one of those things which has so many regional variations.

Have to ask mum what else she remembers. I know she used to get sent to the bakers and buy a bag of 'broken cakes' because they were cheap.
Dad was 20 years older than mum and recalled eating rabbit for christmas dinner one year. It had been his 'pet rabbit' He was taught to hunt at an early age. Thriftlady are you shooting or trapping or fishing?;)

ivyleaf · 23 June 2007 at 4:09PM

Errata wrote: »

Local name for this was Pobs. It was also fed to babies with no teeth!
I'm desparately trying to remember if this stuff gets a mention somewhere in Shakespeare. Have I disremembered, or is a bell ringing with anyone else?

I'm not sure if it's mentioned in Shakespeare or not, but a "milksop" was an old expression for what we'd now call a "wimp"!

Edited as just seen Sarahsaver's post. It's obviously an even older expression than I thought!

thriftlady_2 · 23 June 2007 at 4:32PM

Sarahsaver wrote: »

Thriftlady are you shooting or trapping or fishing?;)

No, I wouldn't know where to begin, but ds1 (aged nearly 12) would love to have a go at bagging a bunny or a pigeon. We are having pigeon tomorrow but not caught by me

There aren't half a lot of them in my garden though.....

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Thriftlady's wartime experiment

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