Thriftlady's wartime experiment

DanceInThe_Dark

Thanks for the mentions of Camp coffee, I've always wondered about it...
Had to laugh about the comment about it tasting awful. My mum (when she was small) made her Dad a cup of coffee with the gravy instead of the camp coffee once and her Dad never even noticed so I guessed it must have tasted "peculiar".

What an interesting store cupboard list. Plenty of variety in there.

BTW I heard that before the war you were encouraged to put your pets to sleep to save food. Must have been horrible.

Errata

Fascinating thread ! Don't forget the food that was available on the black market. Dogs ate kitchen scraps and leftovers bulked out with broken up dog biscuit stuff ( can't remember what it was called ). Don't know what cats ate, we didn't have any.
My single aunts war work was munitions and mending submarine nets sat on a cold, wet dock wrapped in layers of sacks! Not sure how long the shifts were, 8 hours?, but they both had to bike to and from work so they were out of the house for quite a long time and often their night's sleep was broken by an air raid.
If I never see a rabbit again it will be too soon, and peaches still frighten the life out of me - all that fur ! Camp coffee is still on sale at Sainsburys and you certainly know you've had a cup of coffee.
Wedding cakes were often fancy three tiers, but made out of cardboard with a sponge cake hidden inside.
I know that parents nowadays sometimes buy clothes for their children from charity shops, but today's kids wouldn't put up with what kids wore during the war. Girls dresses made out of womens frocks, girls skirts and boys short trousers made out of unpicked adults coats, trousers and skirts.
And I've never forgiven Hitler for bombing the house and making the ceiling fall in on me! Or forgiven my mother for sending me to school in boys laceup hobnail boots in the winter!
What else? Oh yes, you can keep your carrot cake recipes to yourselves, it was more of a punishment than a treat

thriftmonster

Have to say my dog still eats kitchen scraps bulked out with mixer biscuit (or bread, pasta rice) we do have some complete for emergencies - but the dog gets so huffy - much prefers HM food - and I should add we're complimented each year by the vet (don't go more often then that). I am always reassured by by my mother & nana (when she was alive) telling me that their dogs were fine - and were pedigrees not a mongrel like we have. I had heard that thing too about the pets - glad my nana ignored it (ps ddog has had bean enchiladas tonight - jolly glad he sleeps downstairs!!!!!!!)

eryn_kathleen

Isn't camp coffee made from chickory? Chickory is a fairly common wildflower (some even call it a weed) in North America. It's definitely not a great coffee replacement, but it can be quite nice mixed in with real coffee.

You can grow chicory and get pretty flowers:
http://earthnotes.tripod.com/chickory.htm
http://www.weaversites.com/AshevilleNatural/chickory.html

And make your own chicory "coffee" from the roots:
http://eyewitnessnewstv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6613805
http://www.cookperfect.com/cdumonde2000.htm

I also wanted to say that I'm really enjoying this thread! It's completely fascinating - keep at it!

pavlovs_dog

just wanted to say thanks to thriftlady for an inspiring and thought-provoking thread. i wish you all the best with the experiement :T

Mermaid

Thanks Thriftlady for starting this thread, it's something I've thought about doing as an experiment, but not had the time to do. Please could you post the Duke pudding recipe? I think I made it a long time ago, but can't find the recipe in any of my books or on Google.

The carrot cookies sound nice and I might give that a go tonight if I'm using the oven (I try to bake only if I'm using the oven for something else).

I agree that Marguerite Pattern is a national treasure. I've got several of her books and I find that they are so down to earth and full of common sense. I've heard her on Woman's Hour on radio 4 a few times and I wish I'd had her for a granny!

thriftlady_2

Morning all:)
How lovely that so many people seem interested in this project.

Duke Pudding for Mermaid

This is such a good thrifty recipe-you're bound to have the ingredients to hand.

Take 2 cups of stale bread (crusts or crumbs will do) and soak in water for a few mins. Squeeze out as much water as possible and beat the bread with a fork to get rid of lumpy bits.

Add 2 tbsp of butter or marge or other fat (melted is best unless it is very soft) and beat that into the bread.

Add 2 tbsp sugar, 3 tbsp of any dried fruit, a small cup of grated carrot, 1 tsp mixed spice and mix well.

Mix 1 tsp bicarb with a little milk or water. Blend that into the mixture. Put it all in a greased pie plate or tin (something fairly shallow) and bake at 180c for 30 mins.

Variation

replace the mixed spice with 1 tbsp cocoa.


Tody's Menu

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs for me and boys, baked beans for dd, toast and orange juice, apples if they want them

Lunch -I'm going to visit my mum so I don't know what I'm having-a sandwich probably.

kids- ham and tomato sandwiches (I think the 8 oz packet of ham is going to last well, not sure it would have been so thinly cut in the war though).
carrot cookies -these went down very well and I only ate one and strawberries.

Tea -macaroni cheese with a couple of rashers of bacon, some peas and leeks in.
Stewed rhubarb and custard -not sure how this will go down, I'll have to stew the rhubarb very carefully in order to make it appetising, but I think the kids will eat anything with custard. OH won't eat rhubarb or custard and I'm not keen on custard, I prefer cream, but there wasn't any in the war:(

snack for kids -bread and jam

Penelope_Penguin

Congratulations, thriftlady, on being in Martin's weekly e-mail.

Penny. x

thriftlady_2

Gosh, how exciting :j !

Chipps

I am really enjoying this thread, too. I have a number of wartime cookery books which I have used recipes from. They are great when money is short! Not sure I would like having to live under rationing, but given the circumstances at the time it did mean that everyone had fair shares as far as possible.
The other books I have are ones that belonged to my FIL. They date from after the war, about 1948 or so, and were published by the Daily Mirror, based on a cookery cartoon strip called Patsy's Reflections, about a bride who didn't know how to cook, and included all kinds of recipes and tips. They are very interesting from a social history point of view, but also some good recipes too. Although for practical reasons I haven't tried the ones for whalemeat!!!!

My mum was 2 when the war started, so didn't really miss anything like bananas or sweets, as she didn't remember them. For her, war was normal life. She stayed in London, as grandad worked for the gas board & was an ARP warden, and my nan refused to leave home or allow my mum to be evacuated. They have some wonderful stories of those days when you didn't know what was going to happen next. Like the day my mum and her friend were on the way to school & the air raid warning went & they were half way to school so didn't know whether to run back to where nan was standing watching, or forward to where the teacher was standing watching! They decided to run forward & got in just in time, but nan, although unhurt, was spun around in the road by the force of the blast.
Exciting times, but I think I prefer to manage without that sort of excitement!