Proper old style! Living on WW2 rations

monnagran

bouicca21 wrote: »

Mrs LW, a bean spread sounds good. The butter/marge ration is the one thing I find difficult. I think it's in The Railway Children that the mum tells the children they can have butter on their bread or jam but not both, and I'm beginning to think I need the same rule.

bouicca, I can give you a good recipe for 'extender' if you like. You won't actually like it but it will make eating jam on bread without the addition of butter seem very attractive in comparison.

bouicca21

monnagran, if (post 10) you still shudder at the memory of extender 60 plus years on, I think I'll pass!

monnagran

bouicca21 wrote: »

monnagran, if (post 10) you still shudder at the memory of extender 60 plus years on, I think I'll pass!

You are a wise woman.

caronc

Enjoying this thread.
If not wanting to go down the "extender" route why not make your own "spreadable butter", there are lots of recipes online but I find a block of soft (not melted) salted butter whisked very thoroughly with 1/2 a cup of sunflower or veg oil works well. It does initially look very runny but firms up nicely in the fridge and still tastes like butter.

Wizard_of_Id

There was a series on the BBC a few years ago, I cant remember exactly what it was called but it did include a list of wartime recipies titled 'On the Kitchen Front' that it put out on the website which I then copied.

For your pleasure

On the Kitchen Front - Wartime Recipes

Crunchies

4 oz margarine, lard or dripping
2 oz sugar
2 oz golden syrup
5 oz plain flour
4 oz medium oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
vanilla flavouring

Cream together the fat, sugar and syrup. Add the flour,
oatmeal, baking powder and a few drops of vanilla
flavouring. Knead the mixture until it binds. Roll the dough
out on a floured surface to about quarter of an inch thick.
Cut into rounds or fingers. Place on a greased baking tray
and bake in a moderate oven (gas regulo 4) for about 20
minutes, or until golden brown. Makes about 20 crunchies.
They keep well stored in an air-tight tin.

Uncooked Chocolate Cake

2 oz margarine
2 oz sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 oz cocoa powder
vanilla essence
6 oz crisp breadcrumbs

To make the breadcrumbs, bake some stale pieces of
bread in the oven until crispy. Let the bread cool, and then
place it between two pieces of greaseproof paper and
crush with a rolling pin.

Put the margarine, sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan.
Heat gently until the margarine has melted, then remove
from heat. Stir in the cocoa powder, a few drops of vanilla
essence and the crisp breadcrumbs and mix well. Grease
a seven inch cake tin with margarine paper, then pour in
the mixture. Allow to stand for 4—5 hours, then turn out
carefully.

For the icing, mix together 2 teaspoons of melted
margarine, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon
golden syrup and a few drops of vanilla essence.

Eggless Christmas Cake

4 oz carrot, finely grated
2 tablespoons golden syrup
3 oz sugar
4 oz margarine
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
vanilla essence
almond essence
4—6 oz dried fruit
12 oz self raising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 small teacup milk, slightly warmed

Cook the grated carrot and syrup over a low heat for a
few minutes. Cream the sugar and margarine until light and
fluffy. Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the carrot and syrup
mixture, then beat it into the sugar and margarine mixture,
treating it as if it were an egg. Add a half a teaspoon each of
vanilla and almond essence, and stir in with the dried fruit.
Fold in the flour and cinnamon, and add the warmed milk
to. make a moist dough. Put the mixture into a greased cake
tin. Smooth the top, and make a deep hole in the centre
with a spoon, to stop the cake from rising too much during
cooking. Put into a hot oven (gas regulo 7) then turn down
to a very low heat (gas regulo 2) and bake for 3 hours

Date & Nut Loaf

6 oz stoneless dates
2 oz margarine
7 oz self raising flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 fl oz boiling water
1 tablespoon golden syrup or 2 oz sugar
1 egg
pinch of salt
2 oz shelled walnuts

Grease and flour a cake tin. Chop the dates and mix them
with the golden syrup or sugar, melted margarine and boiling
water. Leave to cool, then add the beaten egg. Sift flour, salt and
bicarbonate of soda together. Stir into the date mixture, add
the walnuts, roughly chopped, and mix well. Put into prepared
tin at bake for 50 mins in a moderate oven (gas regulo 4).

Trench Cake

6 oz margarine
6 oz brown sugar
4 oz mixed dried fruit
12 oz flour
11/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
nearly 10 fl oz milk

Cream the margarine and sugar. Warm the milk and pour
on to the soda. Add the prepared fruit, the milk and the
flour to the margarine mixture. Mix well. Bake in a seven
inch cake tin in a moderate oven for about 2 hours.

Beehive Cake

8 oz self raising flour
3 tablespoons honey
2 oz candied peel
3 oz margarine
1 large egg, beaten in 5 fl oz milk
pinch of salt

Grease and flour cake tin. Sieve flour and salt into a basin and
rub in the margarine. Add the chopped peel, stir in the egg
and milk, add the honey and beat well. Put into the prepared
tin and bake in a moderate oven (gas regulo 4) for one hour.

Eggless, Fatless Walnut Cake

4 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 good cup milk
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 good pinch salt

Mix flour, sugar and chopped walnuts together. Add salt
and baking powder, and then the milk. It should be slightly
wetter than an ordinary cake mixture. Pour into a greased
cake tin and leave to rise for 10 minutes. Bake in a slow
oven until risen and brown

Siege Cake

4 oz dripping or lard
2 oz moist sugar
6 oz golden syrup
1½ teacupsful buttermilk*
lemon flavouring
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
12 oz flour

* If buttermilk is not available use ordinary milk, 1 level
teaspoon cream of tartar and half a teaspoon bicarbonate
of soda.
Grease a cake tin measuring about 7 inches in diameter.
Beat fat, sugar and golden syrup until the consistency of
whipped cream, gradually work in the buttermilk. Sift the
flour with the bicarbonate of soda, and work it lightly into
the mixture. Add the lemon flavouring. Bake in a moderate
oven for about one and a quarter hours.

Rolled Oat Macaroons

4 oz self raising flour
2 oz sugar
3 oz margarine
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon almond essence
4 oz rolled oats
milk to mix

Cream margarine, sugar,, almond essence and golden
syrup. Sift the flour and add to the creamed ingredients
with the rolled oats. Mix thoroughly then add just enough
milk to bind the mixture together. Roll into small balls and
place on greased baking tray, leaving plenty of room for
spreading. Bake in a moderately hot oven (gas regulo 5) for
15 —20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Whisked Sponge Slab

3 oz self-raising flour
4 oz sugar (use caster if possible)
3 reconstituted dried or fresh eggs

Line a swiss roll tin, about 12 x 8 inches with well greased
margarine or greaseproof paper. Sift the flour, and leave
on a plate whilst whisking the eggs; this will help lighten
the sponge. Put eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk
hard until mixture thickens. Fold in flour, then pour into
tin and bake for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch in a
moderately hot oven (gas regulo 5)

Crumbed Sponge

As above, but replace the flour with 3 oz fine crisp crumbs,
and add one small teaspoon of baking powder into the
whisked egg and sugar before adding the crumbs. Flavour
with a few drops of almond essence.

Ginger Honey Buns

8 oz self raising flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 oz sugar
2 oz margarine
7 ‘/2 fl oz hot water
2 tablespoons clear honey
2 oz sultanas or other dried fruit
1 fresh or reconstituted dried egg
a little milk, or milk and water

Grease 2 baking trays. Sift flour with ginger. Rub in the
margarine, add the sugar, honey, dried fruit and egg. Mix
well, gradually adding enough milk to make a sticky dough
that stands up in peaks. Put spoonfuls on baking trays and
bake for 15 —20 minutes in a hot oven (gas regulo 6) until
firm and golden.

Carrot Buns

8 oz self-raising flour
3 oz margarine or cooking fat
3 oz sugar
4 tablespoons finely grated raw carrot
2 tablespoons sultanas or chopped dates
1 reconstituted dried or fresh egg
a little milk or water

Grease 2 baking trays. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Rub
in the margarine or cooking fat.
Add the sugar, carrot, sultanas and egg. Mix well, then add
sufficient milk or water to make a
sticky consistency. Diviçle mixture into 12 small heaps on
baking tray and bake in a hot oven
(gas regulo 7) for 12— 15 minutes until firm and golden.

Sardine Pancakes

Make some thin pancakes with a slightly salted batter. Roll
each around some mashed sardines, and cut into slices
about one and a half inches wide.

Sausages En Surprise

Grill some sausages, skin them, and let them get cold. Beat
an egg into some mashed potato. Cut the sausages in half
and wrap in potato mixture. When cold and set, egg and
breadcrumb them and fry until golden

Suggestions For Sandwich Fillings

Nasturtium leaves
Sardine with dandelion leaves
Marmite and celery
Grated raw carrot

monnagran

caronc wrote: »

Enjoying this thread.
If not wanting to go down the "extender" route why not make your own "spreadable butter", there are lots of recipes online but I find a block of soft (not melted) salted butter whisked very thoroughly with 1/2 a cup of sunflower or veg oil works well. It does initially look very runny but firms up nicely in the fridge and still tastes like butter.

Ah, caronc, you are much too young to know this but the only oil known about in the 40s was olive oil that you bought in teeny weeny bottles in the chemist, for earache.

Sunflowers only produced flowers and seeds, as far as we knew, and rapeseed was completely unheard of. We'd have probably thought it was something quite rude.

Owain_Moneysaver

monnagran wrote: »

Ah, caronc, you are much too young to know this but the only oil known about in the 40s was olive oil that you bought in teeny weeny bottles in the chemist, for earache.

Or cod liver oil.

ancientofdays

Oh help, cod liver oil, the bane of my childhood. What with that daily horror and the dreaded malt extract, I'm quite surprised that I didn't spend most of the time vomiting.

Looking up Lord Woolton Pie led me on to some blogs about wartime food plus recipes. Quite a lot of things are identical or at least very similar to things that I will eat quite happily. But mostly when cooking for myself, my OH and DS like large quantities of meat, which I don't. I tend to use a lot less meat than my husband does when cooking and that is not wildly popular. How miserable they would have been in wartime!

caronc

monnagran wrote: »

Ah, caronc, you are much too young to know this but the only oil known about in the 40s was olive oil that you bought in teeny weeny bottles in the chemist, for earache.

Sunflowers only produced flowers and seeds, as far as we knew, and rapeseed was completely unheard of. We'd have probably thought it was something quite rude.

NIce you think I'm just a young thing.:D Olive oil only came from the chemist hen I was growing up in the 70s too.:)
I was more thinking of the principle of stretching the butter rather than it being an actual wartime recipe as the OP had mentioned adopting a 21st century take on the receipes etc.

bouicca21

Stretching the butter with oil must be what those spreadable butters are. However in terms of rations, it won't work because the oil would have to come from the cooking fat allowance!

I think the lesson for me is that I just eat too much butter and that I need to learn healthier habits. I thought the worst part of the diet would be the lack of meat but cooking tasty meatless dishes has been no problem. Whether to blow the best part of the egg and butter ration to assuage my sudden lust for lemon drizzle cake is a whole other matter. Coffee and cake at a local cafe might be the answer.

PS Caronc, I do hope you are feeling better.