Thriftlady's wartime experiment

Pink. · 21 May 2008 at 12:27PM

Hi Austin,

As this already being discussed in Thriftlady's wartime thread I've added your thread to it to keep all the replies together.

Pink

Edit: ooops, sorry Penny cross posted with you.

Austin_Allegro · 21 May 2008 at 12:33PM

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi Austin,

As this already being discussed in Thriftlady's wartime thread I've added your thread to it to keep all the replies together.

Pink

Edit: ooops, sorry Penny cross posted with you.

Thanks, couldn't believe I was the only one to be posting about it!

I thought the 'Wheaties' - mock cereal made from stale bread cooked in the oven - sounded good and I'm definitely going to try that to cut muesli with.

I always think the WW2 diet sounded good for frugal people, and I think we can learn a lot from it. With our knowledge of foreign cooking (which people didn't really have then) we can do even better nowadays. The Mediterranean countries have always been able to make a feast out of simple ingredients with the addition of garlic, onions, tomatoes etc.

Sarahsaver · 21 May 2008 at 12:36PM

i thought it was interesting but i do agree he was a bit gross. I do not even think the food looked that bland!
Reminded me of reading a book nanna had with all sorts of 'mock' recipes.
i suppose they have to be silly these days, unfortunately, to get people to watch.
They could have presented it in the style of a newsreel from the wartime like a public information film.
problem is these days people moan because they cannto afford a mobile phone so the whole concept is indeed really alien. I am grateful for being the child of a ww2 veteran (dad was 55 when i was born in 1970) so i know a lot about it and he made sure i knew how to forage for food and be thrifty, as well as handy in the garden!

Austin_Allegro · 21 May 2008 at 12:46PM

jauntmoneyneeded wrote: »

Hello all, this is the first time I have replied to a thread. I am a technophobe can't even find threads I was looking at yesterday!!Hope this works, I made this recipe years ago when it was in the Womans Own 50th birthday magazine in 1982. Yes I still have the mag sad aren't I??

1+1/2 lb root vegetables, diced
4 spring onions chopped
1/2 pint cheese sauce
2 tablespoons parsley chopped
salt and pepper
6oz wholewheat flour
1+1/2ozs lard
1+1/2ozs marg
1/2 teaspoon sage

Cook and drain vegetables, mix with onions,sauce parsley and seasoning.
Pour into a deep pie plate. Heat oven to Mark 6, 400deg F, 200deg C.
Seive flour and pinch of salt, rub in lard and marg,add sage and enough cold water to make a dough, knead until smooth. Roll out until just larger than the dish.Dampen edge of dish put a strip of pastry round edge, moisten cover with lid make a cross slit in cente fold open bake for about 30mins.
Scrummy.
Trying to get to grips with all these debts.

cc1 0% ends aug £2045:eek:
cc2 5.9% £1967:eek:
cc3 0% ends july £559:eek:
overpaid child tax credit £270 :mad:

LOL I recognise this magazine - my mother had a shopping bag which had the 1982 cover on one side and the 1932 first cover on the other. I recall there was a 'free skein of wool for every reader' in the first issue!

Rage_in_Eden · 21 May 2008 at 12:48PM

arkonite_babe wrote: »

I missed that, any ideas if it will be repeated or can I watch it online??

I'm pretty sure that it's being repeated on either Sat or Sun on BBC2 - I remember thinking it solved the dilema of what to tape and what to watch last night (Fergie, CSI or Wartime :think: ). Also I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this but both my Dad and his Brother were vegetarians during the war and my Brother said that he used to be given some of their nut ration as a special treat for school....... no comments about nuts running in my family thank you!!!

I think living "on ration" is a really good idea and funnily enough the other week in the pub I mentioned it to DH - he actually said he'd be able to manage on the milk ration. Now this I will have to see :rotfl: I do cook a lot from my Marguerite Patten books though - Woolfson Pie? Delicious :drool:

Sarahsaver · 21 May 2008 at 1:02PM

Would the prog be on bbc iPlayer maybe?

Scarlett25 · 21 May 2008 at 1:56PM

I just checked - it's on BBC iPlayer for anyone who missed the prog.

Seakay · 21 May 2008 at 4:37PM

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

Just noticed this is being discussed on another thread....anyway, I appreciate some found it a bit flippant, but you have to realise for most people WW2 is ancient history and as odd to them as the middle ages. The concept of any kind of rules or boundaries with regards to food or indeed any aspect of our lives really is utterly alien to some people today, (and Ms Perkins touched on this) so to appeal to the broadest audience the programme had to make a bit of a joke about it. If they'd showed people surviving perfectly easily on wartime rations with varied, interesting meals it wouldn't have made 'good tellie'.
Sadly, for most people, 'the past is a foreign country' and its ways are to be laughed and gawped at rather than studied for genuine inspiration. That said, I thought the programme struck a reasonable balance between education and entertainment.

But surely MORE accuracy is required if the audience is going to be told things for the first time? And isn't not spitting out food one boundary that still exists?
I watched a bit of the previous programme because I am interested in social history and the history of food, and I was not at all impressed. Most of the dishes were from the correct period, but they were served in the wrong context, or with the wrong things, or eated in the wrong way.
If you want history presented in an interesting way than I would say that you would be better off with one of the programmes which Clarissa Dickson Wright made for BBC 4 and which sometimes come up on BBC 2

Paulie'sGirl · 24 May 2008 at 8:08PM

Hey,

Did anyone else see this on BBC Two this evening?

Giles Coren and Sue Perkins did a week on WWII rations, looking into the history of it and the common dishes (and how much champers Churchill drank LOL)

It was fascinating, and reminded me of the thread on here about the rationing. Will check back on the Beeb's website tomorrow to see if I can watch it again.

Tuesday they have another one on the restoration, doubt that'll be as thrifty LOL!!!

PGxx

zarazara · 24 May 2008 at 8:14PM

yes me! i'de hve enjoyed it more if it had been a bit more serious thoughi wanted more recipes. Woolton Pie sounds nice.

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Thriftlady's wartime experiment

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