Thriftlady's wartime experiment

thriftlady_2

Well, I've just got my pigeon ragout (casserole really) in the oven. I've made a lovely looking and jammy-smelling rhubarb and strawberry cobbler. Going to make some Bird's custard later for the kids to have with it.

I've managed to free up half a cupboard simply because I've got much less food in store. It's quite liberating to be free from my usual vast variety of food choices. I'm really enjoying using what I've got instead of continually restocking with things I don't really need.

I've decided to cycle up to Tesco tomorrow for my rations (cheese, ham, butter ) and oats and one or two non-food items. My bike is one of these Looks the part I think you'll agree (I don't look the part btw). I felt I ought not to rely on my car too much considering the average wartime housewife wouldn't have done. I shall then drive to the farmshop for fruit, veg and milk

Errata

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Just listening to Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4. They're recreated a WW2 garden at Sparsholt Colledge in Hampshire. They say that people would plant veg on top of their Anderson Shelter, to maximise their growing area.

They have a tobacco bed - leaves could be cured and then swapped with neighbours.

It's repeated on Wednesday at 3pm, and is available on *Listen Again* for 7 days.

Penny. x

Easy for the well-to-do, not so easy for the poor beggars who lived in terraced houses with yards, back to backs, or tenements in the cities.

sandy2_2

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Just listening to Gardeners' Question Time on Radio 4. They're recreated a WW2 garden at Sparsholt Colledge in Hampshire. They say that people would plant veg on top of their Anderson Shelter, to maximise their growing area.

They have a tobacco bed - leaves could be cured and then swapped with neighbours. Penny. x

My great uncle Tom used to grow his own tobacco in his front garden and dry the leaves in the shed. What would HM Customs think of that now I wonder? Can´t remember great Aunt Flo´rolling cigars on her thighs tho´

thriftlady_2

My kids were in heaven

Topher

Hi Thriftlady.
Don't you find when you serve dinners & puddings, you want less to eat, even if the portions are kept small?
Anyway. Found the Stuffed Cabbage recipe. It's in "We'll Eat Again" by her Majesty Marguerite Patten, Page 47.
Main thing I forgot was chopped onion, these were apparently scarce during parts of the war. Sometimes they were given as raffle or auction prizes.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this thread, thanks. Love the idea of the cobbler. Have you tried a crumble using breadcrumbs? If you have such a recipe I'd be grateful to have the quantities.

Stuffed Cabbage;
1 medium cabbage, 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
8 oz sausage meat, pinch of mixed herbs
1 onion, grated, 1 tsp Worcester Sauce
Salt & Pepper.
Topher

Topher

W.I. Wartime Mintoes Recipe

2 level tablespoons of Sugar,
2 level tablespoons of Golden Syrup,
1 teaspoon of Peppermint essence,
5 Tablespoons of Powdered Milk.

Put Sugar and Golden Syrup together in a pan, and bring to the boil over a gentle heat, stirring all the time.
Once bubbling continue to boil, still stirring until all sugar is dissolved. About 5 mins on gentle heat.
Remove from heat, and stir in the peppermint and the 5 tablespoons of dried milk.
Roll into pencil strips on a surface dusted with icing sugar. (The mix should be stiffening, but just pliable.)
Snip the strips with scissors. ( You can alternate the position of the strip 90° clockwise then anti clockwise between snips for a suitable “humbug”/satins effect)
Store with a dusting of icing sugar to avoid sweets sticking.
Note If, as I found, 5 tbsps milk powder isn’t enough, and you add extra, add extra mint as well or the sweets taste too milky. The W.I. Member who gave me this recipe assured me that powdered baby milk comes closer in flavour to that of wartime dried milk, but I haven’t tried it in this recipe)

sproggi

That looks too good to be from rations!!

Just been round my parents and made the mistake of asking them what they remembered of rationing, dad can talk the hind legs off a donkey and spent an hour and half trying to get away:rolleyes:

Anyway, this is an abbriviated version:

Apples were available all year round because, when they were in season, they were sorted through so no bruises and then wrapped in brown paper and stored in the rafters (so no fear of a revolt in your house:D ).

You could preserve fruit from your garden if you could get the sugar.

People swapped coupons with family and neighbours.

Everybody tried to grow as much as possible in the way of fruit and veg in the garden and in pots. No flowers in garden.

People mixed coal dust with a little cement and used flower pots to set it in to make coal lumps.

Bird seed for canaries and budgies was very hard to get and many people lost their birds (I secretly think they ended up as very small pidgeons;) ).

People used to wet old bread and put it in the oven for a short while to 'renew' it, nan used to damp up a teatowel, wrap it around the bread and then put it in the oven.

Eggs were stored in galvanised buckets with lids in a jelly like substance called Islinglas, this stopped the air getting to them and meant that they kept for months.
Along with the whale meat you would sometimes get horse meat:eek:

Pork was the cheapest and most available meat. Pig buckets were kept outside the houses for any edible scraps, these were collected each week.

There was probably more, but I got mindblasted:rolleyes:

Sproggi
Sproggi

sproggi

Oh yes, a bit more!

Voucher for powdered milk and very concentrated orange juice for babies and children.

Coffee made from chicory, acorns or dandilion roots.

Nettle jelly.

Grandad buying a bit of leather off of the market to repair shoes.

Sproggi

recovering_spendaholic

During the War my Aunties had a restaurant in Winchester and, although now in their 90's they love to talk about the food they cooked then. They used to make turkey or chicken pot pie alot - it was basically just leftover chicken or turkey carcasses stewed for a few hours. The meat was then carefully tweezered off the bones and the stock reduced. Then you make a white sauce with stock to which you add some milk powder, and chuck in the chicken and chopped up boiled potatoes, carrots and a few peas ( they had a big veg garden at the back of their house and so grew all the veg for the restaurant) and lots of salt and pepper. You put the chicken mixture in a casserole dish and top it with a short crust pastry and bake it. I had this alot as a child in the 60's and make it now and the kids like it. My Aunties also told me that they would boil parsnips and then sweeten them and have them with custard - apparantly they were a substitute for bananas.

catznine

Hi Thriftlady! I am glad you liked the syrup loaf recipe recipe! what a great idea to add ginger, would offset the syrupy flavour nicely!

Here is a recipe for honey apples:-

From the Stork Wartime cookery Book
Honey Apples
(serves 2)

2 cooking apples
1 tbspn honey
rind of 1/2 orange
2 marshmallows
1 oz stork margarine/butter

Wipe the apples in a clean cloth and core them. Fill the inside of each with honey and a little grated orange rind. Put a dab of stork margarine/butter on top of each. Bake until soft in a moderate oven gas mark 4. Ten minutes before serving put a marshmallow on top of each apple and let it melt in the oven. Serve with thick stork cream.