Thriftlady's wartime experiment

Errata

GarethM wrote: »

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).

The problem with snoek and us Brits is that the Ministry of Food was trying to encourage us to believe it was an excellent replacement for the fish that was no longer availble that we'd been used to - cod, plaice, skate. It wasn't amenable to being cooked in the traditional way we'd been used to cooking fish, and although tasty as a delicacy, a lump of it dished up every Friday after workers had done a hard manual shift in a factory, a bike ride to and from work, and ARP duty felt like a punishment not a treat. And of course we weren't used to our fish being 'gamey'.
The Min of Food couldn't shift the stuff no matter what they tried and I believe it was sold off as dog food after the war. A nation that had accepted horse meat (vive la France) as an alternative to beef found that snoek was a sacrifice it wasn't prepared to make.
I lived in S Africa for a while some years ago, and although I enjoyed biltong I wouldn't want to eat it every Friday as part of me dinner.

thriftlady_2

Bexstars wrote: »

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

Spam and barley pot
Fry an onion, add some garlic if you want. Add a cup of barley and some chopped carrots. Stir about for a bit, then add diced :spam: ,. Pour on enough liquid to cover -I used chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 mins until the barley is soft and chewy. Add peas a few mins before serving. Season with a dash of soy sauce.


Thanks for all the fritter advice guys :T


Am a bit knackered today -had a houseful of 6 kids after school. I couldn't face scrubbing spuds and chopping carrots, so we had sausage bolognese instead of sausage and mash. Not very authentic -macaroni was around in the war, but I'm not sure about spaghetti. The sauce was hm from the freezer.

The kids had sweets for pudding too tired to make a proper pud.

The children are keen to carry on with the rationing even though I promised to retain the sweet ration after the war They're enjoying the more traditional style meals we've been having. So onwards and upwards:)

Errata

In my Sainsburys today young ladies were offering tasters of Spam Toasties !
Don't they know there isn't a war on

Don't remember any other spag than Heinz tinned until a long time after the war. I think spag bol etc became fashionable during the 60's, don't remember seeing it around in caffs in London before then.

Hardup_Hester

Fantastic thread Thriftlady, so interesting

daisyroots_2

Saw my Uncle today, and asked him how his parents got on with my Dad "They liked him, everybody liked him, nice chap. I first met him when he came down for the weekend, when they got engaged" That would probably be soon after this letter, and it looks as if they've just agreed to get married.

"It was a lovely Easter, wasn't it my darling? In spite of the wind and the cold and you sleeping so far away and the Awfully Serious Talks and Big Decisions Not Lightly to Be Made, it was wonderfully happy for us. How you manage to be so lovable for days on end beats me. (at this point I stopped for nearly half an hour and just remembered all the things you said and did - the way you suddenly announced that you were going to save, on the tram to Wavertree, and the way you said goodnight (It was so terribly windy and dark and unknown going back that I don't think I'd have done it if I hadn't had you to remember and look forward to) - the way you re-tied my tie in the pub at Birkenhead, and turned the glass round for me to turn back again, and the way you looked waiting for the tram that wasn't going to take us to Parkgate, and the way you confessed about your teeth. Darling, I don't know how I stopped kissing you out loud at that moment. There was a big fat parson watching us and he helped. Who said they can't ration love? Kisses were damn near on points - there are far too many people in Liverpool."

Errata

Sometimes this can be a weird thread ! I rode on the Wavertree trams to my Auntie Daisy's !

GarethM_2

Errata wrote: »

The problem with snoek and us Brits is that the Ministry of Food was trying to encourage us to believe it was an excellent replacement for the fish that was no longer availble that we'd been used to - cod, plaice, skate. It wasn't amenable to being cooked in the traditional way we'd been used to cooking fish, and although tasty as a delicacy, a lump of it dished up every Friday after workers had done a hard manual shift in a factory, a bike ride to and from work, and ARP duty felt like a punishment not a treat. And of course we weren't used to our fish being 'gamey'.
The Min of Food couldn't shift the stuff no matter what they tried and I believe it was sold off as dog food after the war. A nation that had accepted horse meat (vive la France) as an alternative to beef found that snoek was a sacrifice it wasn't prepared to make.
I lived in S Africa for a while some years ago, and although I enjoyed biltong I wouldn't want to eat it every Friday as part of me dinner.

Biltong .. hmmm ... you really bring back my homesickness :P Although of course biltong (dried meat to those not in the know ... don't knock it before you try it) isn't what anyone I knew would eat for dinner (except for those oddball exceptions you get whose equivalent in Britian would be to eat Pease Pudding for pudding for example).

While on the war effort, it says something for a little country at the Southern Tip of "darkest Africa" to never have had to experience rationing. Although there were many brave men who did have to fight in the war. Not to mention the rest of our colourful history.

Maybe I should dig up a recipe for Pap and Derms for this thread. Now THERES a dish I think the Brits might balk at. Hell, even I don't like it

nicki_2

I wish there were still trams running here in Wavertree - would probably be much more pleasant than the stinking buses :rolleyes:

Topher

thriftlady wrote: »

That's my bookcase!
T:D

Topher

Mum and Gran always advised me that different Livers had different flavours, Lamb's being the finest, and pig's being quite strong.
I do a version of a long lost Celia Norman (Microwave cookbook) Liver ragout, for which I cut lamb's liver into thin strips (This lets me disguise any tell tale holes, and discard any disgusting bits). The total cooking time for this shouldn't exceed 15 ( -20) mins or it becomes rubbery. Some brown sauce in the gravy works wonders as does a bit of dry sherry.


Thanks so much for this thread Thriftlady, I keep coming back to it for more updates.
T