Thriftlady's wartime experiment

djtonyb

was having a chat with Mum last night extoling the virtues of the site and in particular this thread.

I told her about me posting about uncle Manus and the orange and she informed me dad did something similar with a banana.

Again Pop had been given one by a Ships Master. He handed it to Dad and told him to eat it - Dad did skin and all :eek:

redmandarin

thriftmonster wrote: »

Thriftlady - when I make batter I just use SR flour and soda water - no eggs. And I'm sure you would have had soda water - in one of those old fashioned soda siphons - my Gran always had one on the sideboard.

I wonder if your gran used to get it from the Co-op? It's likely that she did, as there were loads of Co-ops around then, but sadly nowadays, many have gone. I once assumed (wrongly) that so many local grocers were forced to close because Americans had the invented self-service shopping (supermarkets) - until I discovered to my surprise, that the Co-op had invented them, so they shot themselves (and other small businesses) in the foot, really!

When I was a kid, my local Co-op (which is still there!) used to sell real soda siphons. You were charged 50p deposit and when it was empty, you just took it back and exchanged it for a full one! They stopped doing them in the early 1980's, I think. Shame really, because I always wanted one. I thought they were so glamorous, as they always had them in posh nightclubs in old movies!

recovering_spendaholic

I found a recipe for nougat which would be quite easy and cheap to make but I am not sure how authentic it would be - I rang my Auntie in Winchester (she's 96, still sharp as a tack) and asked her if you could get liquid glucose in the war,and she said you could get it in the chemists because they used it to make up linctuses and stuff.

You need: 8oz caster sugar, 5fl oz liquid glucose, 3oz honey or golden syrup, 2tbs hot water, pinch salt, 1 egg white and 2oz butter. You just put the caster sugar, glucose, honey and water into a pan and heat VERY SLOWLY until it is bubbling. Don't put a spoon near it just swirl. It is important to keep the heat very low as you don't want it to colour too much. Bubble it for about 5 minutes (try dropping a little bit into some cold water and if it forms a soft ball it is ready). Beat the egg white until really stiff with the salt and then drizzle in the sugar mixture till it is all incorporated. Then beat in the butter (I used margarine) and pour into a lined swiss roll tin or similar - you do need the greasproof liner though. If you want you can chuck in some glace cherries or nuts. When cool slice it up and you have chewy nougat.

[Deleted User]

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Hi
My mum and dad were both born during the war and this thread has reminded me of the frugality of my maternal grandmother who would wash plastic bags and peg them on the line and made eveything herself including icecream in the days before ice cream machines.
A couple of months ago DD made a wartime veg pasty with potato pastry ,at school, she enjoyed it.

I have always re-used plastic bags by washing them out and pegging them on the line it was one of my eldest DD's jobs when she was young .
I also remember making Ice-cream, the first time I had a fridge with a small freezer compartment in the top, back in 1964. If I remember I had to keep taking it out and whipping it every couple of hours .It was a lot of work for a small box of ice cream but in those days there were few supermarkets with big boxes of ice-cream like today plus of course I lived on Mersea Island off the coast of Essex in those days, and was 9 miles from Colchester and the big shops. Very rural as well, we had a chemical toilet at the bottom of the garden and spiders the size of dinner plates :eek: as it was out on the marshes. I once got my poor husband out of bed as I was convinced that someone was clearing their throat in our back garden at three in the morning .He said don't be daft it's a cow ,now I know I was a town girl ,but I thought he was winding me up.But he was right it was a cow in the firld next to our garden. He was a country born lad and I came from the city. But he was very patient with me, and eventually when we came back to London to live I had more or less lost my immediate fear of spiders I still am not keen on them but I no longer scream the place down when I see one :rotfl:

Bexstars

thrifty lady the spam and barley pot looks lovely! Would you mind posting the recipie?

GarethM_2

Errata wrote: »

Anything would be better than snoek !

Sea fish was hard to come by during the war so the gov came up with a smart wheeze of bringing snoek from South Africa and blasting us with propaganda about how wonderful and good for us it was. We still wouldn't eat it and I believe the vast stocks left on the governments hands after the war were used for dog food. Unsure how many dogs could stomach it either. It is truly the most disgusting taste known to man.
Snoek is still considered a delicacy in South Africa but I have no idea why. Might be like frogs legs - no accounting for taste :eek:

Erm .. actually snoek (me being a South African and all) is really lovely :P

I know this post is a bit back and haven't gotten to the end yet (my fiance and I are going through it together) but just had to comment.

Snoek is actually served in restaurants in South Africa as a rather expensive fish dish. It is actually very tasty. But like anything else, it is disgusting cooked badly.... (I wonder what on earth the Brits were doing to such a fine fish to make it taste so bad....)

The best way to cook snoek? Melt some butter, get some lemon juice in and some finely chopped parsley and fry up the fish in that. It doesn't need long to cook, is HIGHLY nutritous and really tasty. It is a kind of "gamey" taste if you can get that in a fish lol ... but I have tasted, love and will still eat snoek (mouth is drooling thinking of it actually).

sandy2_2

thriftmonster wrote: »

when I make batter I just use SR flour and soda water - no eggs.

can you use ordinary fizzy water instead?

moanymoany

thriftlady wrote: »

Or, I might try Spam fritters if anyone can tell me how to make them without deep frying or eggs


This is a Bero recipe. Take plain flour and make a thick batter with water.

I make this and put sliced potaotes and onion rings in it, when they are fried they are lovely and crisp. They can be fried in fairly shallow fat and turned regularly.

The book says that it works well with fish and tripe, so I reckon you would be ok with :spam:


Thriftlady, this is a wondeful thread. Some of the posts are funny, some moving and all lovely to read. I think that they would make a book as what you are doing is a fabulous social experiment. Very much along the lines of 'The 40's House' but more accessible to the rest of us. Think about it, I bet Martin would help as it is a tribute to him, after all he is the one that brought us all together in the first place. :T :T :T :T

thriftmonster

sandy2 wrote: »

can you use ordinary fizzy water instead?

Never tried it but it should work - the raising agent in the flour and the fizz give a nice light batter as long as you use it asap - but it's only the work of minutes to make it - so I expect the fizz in the water would be the same! You just mix the four to the texture of thick paint and off you go.....

Peem

sandy2 wrote: »

can you use ordinary fizzy water instead?

Yes you can. I use fizzy water all the time for batter, it makes it lovely and light. (Or you can use beer of course, if it's appropriate, like for fish)