Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

THIRZAH

Another book I would recommend is "Nella Last's War ". She was a housewife in Barrow and wrote a diary for Mass Observation. It was filmed as "Housewife 49" but the book is much better. There's another called "Nella Last's Peace" which covers the period after the war when rationing was actually stricter than during the war.


She really did know how to stretch her rations.

DigForVictory

The vicar's wife taught me that if I needed to keep something cold, to "shove it in the border". She'd have a bottle of milk & a tupperware box of butter buried alongside the pansies or whatever, and if it looked like all was getting too warm, she watered the whole border. (Evaporation is wonderful!)

My grandfather had strict rules for champagne at picnics - he was of the store underground for 24 hours before the reveal & a quick wipe down before serving. (Not given to wild impulses, but remarkable gestures...)

When that amazing hot summer startled us all (70 something), at home, the milk went straight into the sink in the garden & was covered with earth. On holiday, we had the remaining trickle of a stream, and so trowelled out a bucket sized hole in the streambed & had running water cooling things.

Stock! The surely-obvious next step after almost any meal with bones? (Not tried kipper stock...) A godfather makes glorious soups, based on the roasts etc that precede.

Primrose

Yes, I've loved those books too. I felt very sorry for her. She worked so hard at maintaining a well run home on wartime/austerity rations, and with such a grumpy miserable husband too.

She was a lady with a lot of talents , restricted by the rules of gender discrimination at the time , as my own mother was. We can only look back on that generation and be grateful how far gender equality has advanced since then. I want to scream with anger for her when she vents some of her frustrations at the social & employment limitations of the time which were imposed on her, both by her husband and society as a whole, even with regard to her how her own Post Office book income could be appropriated. .

Young people don't believe me now when I tell them that even in 1966 when I got married, my bank forced me to get my husband's approval signature on a credit card application form before they would give me one, and the Inland Revenue would not write me a refund cheque for my salary , payable to me, rather than to my husband, unless they received a written letter from him signifying his agreement.

So those times weren't just about physical austerity. From a female point of view they were also very much about emotional austerity too!

I still recall the look of absolute shock and horror on our Vicar's face when we had that usual couples "pre-wedding chat" about the format of our wedding service and I told him that I would promise to "love and to cherish" but certainly not "obey".

mardatha

I love the idea of real Victorian kitchen home made stock, I bet it tasted better than oxo or bisto.

maryb

When we got married we opened a new joint account for bills. Same surname obvs. My initial is M his is R Guess who got named first on the account? And they wouldn't change it!!!

buildersdaughter

mardatha wrote: »

I love the idea of real Victorian kitchen home made stock, I bet it tasted better than oxo or bisto.

Not difficult (though unsure about 'real' Victorians!).
I have a 'stock drawer' in my freezer, but a bag or box would work just as well. Into it go suitable veg: I am a bit of a purist so stick to onion peelings, carrot peelings , tough outer leaves of celery, and parsley stalks (I think other veg adds an odd taste, but that's personal) Bones go in, raw or cooked, but not if they have been on anyone's plate; skin, say from chicken, or gristle from other meat. Definitely chicken carcasses, and sometimes I ask the butcher for beef bones. Pork & bacon rind can go in.
When there's about enough to half fill my big saucepan, in it all goes, with a tablespoon of peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves.Cover with water and boil for a few hours until it has all collapsed. Strain, then boil again and reduce as much as you like for ease of storage.
Some folk let it get cool in between boilings to skim off the fat. You can freeze it in convenient portions, and boil up when needed. You'll have a bit of trial and error whilst you get used to the strength, but really, if it is weak, boil to evaporate, if strong, dilute.
It will keep a few days in the fridge, but as long as you have boiled it well (5 mins+) then you can re-freeze.
I actually bottle my stock - I have a steam oven that makes bottling easy, and a small freezer, but I know for most folk that doesn't work.

CapricornLass

Saving the butter and marg wrappings to grease the baking tins. Leart from my mum who learnt from her mum. It was years before I found out that this was one of the things that was promoted during the war, and I still do it.


I've also still got my nan's spong mincer, although unfortunately only the coarse attachment. We used to use it for making venison mince.

Maid_of_Kent

Slightly off-topic. My mother recalled the winter of 1947 which was really bad. Meeting a neighbour with a young baby wrapped up in the pram. Neighbour was pushing the pram to the shops to try and get warm. Her house was freezing cold. You couldn't get coal which was on ration.
No central heating in those days.
I recall mother having a metal dish containing fat - any little bit of fat from the meat or sausages would be added to the dish and then used for frying - often chips - shallow fried in a frying pan and constantly turned.
Breakfast would often be leftovers from last night's dinner. Fried up mashed potato and veg - bubble and squeak. You can buy that frozen nowadays.

Blue_Doggy

Another book you might find interesting is “Can Any Mother Help Me?” by Jenna Bailey. It covers 1935-1990, and is taken from the Mass Observation Archive collection of letters/private magazine of a group of women who formed a correspondence club for friendship, mutual support and help.

Well worth reading if you haven’t already.

Regarding women and finance/restrictions, in the mid-1970s I went to hire a TV from Radio Rentals (remember them?), but they wouldn’t rent one to me, an independent woman with a secure and decently-paid job, without a male guarantor!

Owain_Moneysaver

Maid_of_Kent wrote: »

Slightly off-topic. My mother recalled the winter of 1947 which was really bad. Meeting a neighbour with a young baby wrapped up in the pram. Neighbour was pushing the pram to the shops to try and get warm. Her house was freezing cold. You couldn't get coal which was on ration.
No central heating in those days.

In Northern parts they'd put the ferrets in with the baby to keep the baby warm.

Maid_of_Kent wrote: »

Breakfast would often be leftovers from last night's dinner. Fried up mashed potato and veg - bubble and squeak. You can buy that frozen nowadays.

You can buy jam sandwiches nowadays.

In America they have frozen ones.