Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

PipneyJane

ampersand wrote: »

I'm a kiwi, over 70, with an academic/broadcasting hinterland.
Much prized in NZ still are copies of the Aunt Daisy cookbook, containing so much of what you refer to, Primrose.
'Aunt Daisy', Mrs Barbara Basham, broadcast on national radio daily, starting with a bouncing 'Good MOR-ning, GOOD MOR-ning everybody....'
The book was a tribute, via her daughter, and includes much haybox cookery, pukeko stew recipe, frugal household cleansers, survival recipes/techniques, extraordinary preserves, imaginative alternative recipes, everything useful in a recently colonial, newly post-War country(again), Maori hangi method+bush foods.....so much.
https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1201317
The other great staple is any and every Edmonds cookbook, still coming out most years.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonds_Cookery_Book
#
All editions are worthwhile and are cherished elements of NZ heritage-)

Thanks for the recommendations. There is a Kindle version of the Edmonds Cookery Book available from Amazon but to get a hardcopy, I think we're going to need the name of a good New Zealand-based book shop that does mail order. Can you recommend one?

I can't find anything from Aunt Daisy. Pity.

- Pip (If only we'd had this conversation a year ago. I was in both Auckland and Wellington in November last year.)

Brambling

twopenny wrote: »

Rice pudding - 2 tbs rice, 2tbs castor sugar, 1pt whole milk, knob of butter on top. Cook in bottom of gas cooker while cooking meal or on very low heat. You can use short cut macarroni instead of rice.

Totally delicious! And so quick.
Bread & Butter pudding - butter bread, fill dish, scatter with raisins and sulatanas, beat 1 egg in whole milk and pour over. Again easy.

Bread pudding I just wished I hadn't lost my mums' recipe. As well as Queen of Puddings which used breadcrumbs and was a occasional treat if we were given eggs

This time of year the jam pan seemed always to be on the go either with jam or jelly and the house would stink of vinegar for chutneys especially green tomato and enough jam and chutneys were made for the year and to give away as gifts.

D&DD

Just found a free download for Aunt Daisys Cookery Book on Archive.org hope that helps can't do links sorry!! *tech challenged*
I get a lot of older books from here they have lots of different formats including for kindles

euronorris

D&DD wrote: »

Just found a free download for Aunt Daisys Cookery Book on Archive.org hope that helps can't do links sorry!! *tech challenged*
I get a lot of older books from here they have lots of different formats including for kindles

Hopefully this works:


https://ia800704.us.archive.org/11/items/AuntDaisysCookeryBook1953/AuntDaisy%27sCookeryBook%201953.pdf

D&DD

Thanks EN I am useless at that sort of thing!


I have a few civil war books and turn of the century ones both in print and digital stuff. I love historical cookery books more than current ones as they mostly use normal ingredients!


I have a few by Mrs Fry (printed and very delicate!) an old Mrs Beeton circa 1900 an Elizabeth Craig circa 1936 as well as a few others including the very apt Invalid Cookery lol...

pamsdish

euronorris wrote: »

Hopefully this works:


https://ia800704.us.archive.org/11/items/AuntDaisysCookeryBook1953/AuntDaisy%27sCookeryBook%201953.pdf

It does thanks

Blue_Doggy

twopenny wrote: »

Also using a gas oven you can put the meat in the top, veg in the middle and pudding at the bottom. All cooks with no attention...

The book with whole meals in an oven was a 1920's one and it has Morroccan and other dishes you wouldn't expect...

These days its not just the high fat, it's the multiple carbs in a meal ie rice and chips, pasta and garlic bread and constant eating. In the past it was a portion of each, protein, carb, veg.

And of course cooking everything together in the oven saves fuel (energy).

People in the early part of the last century were more aware of the wider world than is often believed. Fathers, brothers and sons came back from the First World War, both men and women worked on the transatlantic and other liners, family members were in the navies, both Royal and Merchant. There was also cinema and later radio. Pen-friends were a big thing, and there were letters home from family and friends living or working in the Empire.

As well as the extra calories from double helpings of carbs as you say, and putting butter on the vegetables, there’s also the adding of cheese to mashed potatoes in pies etc, which was not done in “the olden days”, and which greatly increases the calories and the fat content of the dish.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Bread pudding is easy (must be, as Himself makes it since I showed him).

Stale bread in a jug/bowl. Chuck very strong brewed black tea over some dried fruit and let it soak. Chuck another cuppa over the bread until it can be smooshed into a thick gloop. Add a handful of sugar (any type), a very good spoonful of Allspice/Cinnamon/Nutmeg/Cloves/whatever you've got in the way of Christmas (or Pumpkin if you're American) spice and mix everything together with an egg.

Dollop the mix into a well greased, preferably enamel, tin and bake on low until set, chuck some more sugar over the top as it comes out of the oven and let it cool down before cutting into slabs.


If you want an orangey taste to it, a big dollop of bitter marmalade works, and you can always use Chai rather than Yorkshire.

Primrose

This was just how my mum made bread kidding when I w as a kid and it was devoured hungrily as soon as we came home from school.

However for tea today we had something we haven't had for ages -hot toasted crumpets oozing with butter and topped with still-perfect four year old home made Victorian plum jam. A delicious treat!

Well_Preserved

You've just prompted me to look again at my copies of 'We'll eat again' by Marguerite Patten, and the Wartime Farm book based on the TV series. They've been deserted on the shelf for ages.

My memories of my grandmother's cooking, she a survivor of both world wars, are mainly her dripping jar in the pantry - I don't think she ever owned a fridge - and Yorkshire pudding served AS a pudding. I think she called it Drop Pudding, wi5h fruit like a few raspberries dropped in when it was risen but still soft in the middle, and sprinkled with sugar, even syrup if feeling extravagant, before serving. It filled us up, was cheap, and eked out a small quantity of fruit. It was one large pudding made in a big tin. I'm feeling all nostalgic now!