Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

buildersdaughter · 10 October 2019 at 5:52PM

Thank you LizzieM. I grew up just after WW2, so was familiar with the stories, and rationing. We knew ourselves to be extremely lucky, and there was a constant (gentle) reminder to be grateful.
Later, as a community nurse, I saw so much poverty (as industries closed etc) that I was reminded of those war-time stories. There is a lot of 'hidden 'poverty and I salute all of those parents and grandparents doing their best to make a good life for their children on very little.

AndyCF · 10 October 2019 at 8:07PM

buildersdaughter wrote: »

There is a lot of 'hidden 'poverty and I salute all of those parents and grandparents doing their best to make a good life for their children on very little.

I concur completely with this.

I was raised by grandparents however they always did "what they could" , its only really later in life you get almost a "second realisation" of it all, I mean you appreciated it at the time but it is only much later you actually can put two and two together and see the 'real' story/factors. Difficult to explain.

RebeccaAnn · 10 October 2019 at 10:39PM

This isn't a wartime recipe and may not be any use to anyone but I shall add it and hope no one minds.

I make a mock tuna mayo from chickpeas as I managed to buy lots of tins at 4 for a pound. You could use dried chickpeas and pre soak.

Drain and rinse 1 can of chickpeas, cover with water and then bring to the boil ( apparently you can make this without heating but I find them too hard). Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 mins. Drain then rinse in cold water until cooled. Fully drain, mash leaving some larger pieces. Add mayo until a tuna mayo consistency. Add finely chopped pickled gherkin, wholegrain mustard, salt and pepper to taste.

Nargleblast · 11 October 2019 at 8:35AM

That sounds interesting, RebeccaAnn, I shall note it for when my vegan daughter visits (using vegan mayonnaise of course).

unrecordings · 11 October 2019 at 8:42AM

Nargleblast wrote: »

That sounds interesting, RebeccaAnn, I shall note it for when my vegan daughter visits (using vegan mayonnaise of course).

You can get vegan tuna now from a good few supermarkets - Loma Linda is the brand I think - Mrs Un got some earlier in the week, in rather cat confusing blue pouches

Owain_Moneysaver · 11 October 2019 at 9:01AM

RebeccaAnn wrote: »

I make a mock tuna mayo from chickpeas

Or as we call it in the 21st century, hummus.

Eenymeeny · 11 October 2019 at 9:23AM

My mother used to make something she called 'mock crab' for sandwiches. Boiled egg chopped up with tomatoes. I presume that it was the resulting colour that earned it it's name. It certainly didn't taste of crab! Curried eggs were a treat reserved for parties. Yolks of hard boiled eggs mixed with a pinch of curry powder and salad cream then piped back into the whites as a rosette. A sprig of parsley from the garden added that extra touch!

Things like French toast, pancakes, dumplings were used as fillers. A cup of hot oxo and a slice of bread were a comforting supper before we ventured upstairs clutching our hot water bottles

Primrose · 11 October 2019 at 11:30AM

I had a step back in time today on discovering my last batch of mini cucumbers in the fridge salad drawer which I decided to pickle in dill vinegar to avoid wasting them.

I hunted for my old Marguerite pattern pickles & chutneys paperback book, one of a whole series i bought when first married in 1966 (price 2/6d) !

The pages are brown with age, falling away from the binding and even the sellotape I used to stick them back in, along with other typed recipes I tried is brown with age and disintegrating .

But does anybody remember the copying paper we used before modern photocopiers were invented? I have some brown (with age I suspect) "greaseproof type" copying paper stuck into the book with all kinds of hints on pickling which is now totally unreadable as all the print on the paper has faded. And i thought I had recorded the information for posterity....or my lifetime use at least!

Anybody seeing the state of this book would throw it straight into the bin but for me it represents a wide range of preserving exercises over the years. Marguerite Pattern was pretty reliable. My own failures have been annotated with handwritten scribbles and there have been a few of them too!

I!ve never yet managed to store long term my oven dried herbed tomatoes in oil. Despite all the hygiene precautions they've still always ended up going mouldy!!

Justamum · 11 October 2019 at 9:52PM

unrecordings wrote: »

You can get vegan tuna now from a good few supermarkets - Loma Linda is the brand I think - Mrs Un got some earlier in the week, in rather cat confusing blue pouches

Just to warn anyone tempted to buy it - it's revolting and nothing like tuna.

unrecordings · 11 October 2019 at 10:11PM

Justamum wrote: »

Just to warn anyone tempted to buy it - it's revolting and nothing like tuna.

Although to counter that, it's not necessarily about the taste of actual tuna per se, it's about a generic taste & texture similar to that of a nice bit of tuna. From an omnivore's perspective - if you like tuna, just eat tuna.
When Mrs Un & myself first got together (some 20 odd years ago) I researched and pretty much spent a day making some mock duck Buddhist style - which is more or less a very very very complicated dumpling. I ended up with something about the size of a small chipolata and she refused to eat it because it looked like slugs :rotfl:

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Wartime recipes, substitutions and other related austerity hints

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