The Wartime Kitchen and Garden

This cookbook is in relation to a BBC show. The show recounts how Britain's wartime home played a part in the success of the Homefront. Ruth Mott and Harry Dodson along with several men and women share their experiences in wartime cookery and gardening. 

When reading through the 15 chapters some topics include Wartime shopping, Wartime gardening, kitchen economy and wild produce and herbs. With people wanting healthier food on a budget this cookbook may be relevant with today's kitchen and with today's home cook. Daily life has become more fast paced, more wired and with food prices increasing, cooking on a budget can no longer sit on the back burner. The home cook is thinking more creatively. And I find any cookbook dealing with a tumultuous and difficult time in world history carries over to the next centuries. Those that lived through the First World War and the Second World War have never forgotten and have passed that down throughout generations and many generations to come.  

The few cookbooks I have on the subject of wartime cookery mostly reflect the Second World War. My husband and I were talking about it and thought it had to do with many factors, population, the means at how food was readily available, and transportation. By the start of the Second World War the UK imported 20 tons of food per year. The population was at a staggering 50 million. And it was not unusual for the the enemy to attack shipping that was bound for Britain. Therefore restricting British industries and ultimately starving the nation into submission. Rationing was introduced by the British government at several times during the 20th century and most notably during and after the war. It was the Ministry of Food  that began a system of rationing.

The cooking staples were meat, fish, eggs, margarine, butter and cooking fats, milk, cheese, sugar, bread and oatmeal. Those staples still run supreme with today's pantry. In the Ministry of Food's leaflet of January 1944 they tell you how to use left-over toast as follows: "If there is a slice of cold toast left, use it to thicken soup. When the soup is quite hot, put in the slice of toast and boil up together. If there are a small unbroken pieces of toast left after boiling, beat with a fork and blend with the rest of the ingredients."  And from the Cookery under Rations (1941) suggestions for sandwich fillings are as follows: "Sardine and watercress, Marmite and chopped celery or shredded lettuce, Salad cream and any cold chopped vegetables, Cold potato, salad cream and chopped parsley, Grated raw carrot and grated raw beetroot, Mustard and cress, Lettuce and spring onions, Cucumber and lettuce, Chopped apple and celery, Purée of butter or haricot beans flavoured with anchovy essence, curry powder, meat or vegetable or any other flavourings liked."

Cheese Frizzles
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2 tablespoons medium or coarse oatmeal
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons grated cheese 
1 tablespoon baking powder
salt and pepper
water to mix  

Put the dry ingredients into a basin. Mix well with enough water to make a fairly stiff batter. Heat a little fat in a fry-pan and, when smoking, drop spoonfuls of batter. Fry until golden-brown, then turn and cook the other side. 

- This recipe was from Joan Pickering, Sudbury, Suffolk. 


Wartime Chocolate Pudding
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2 oz margarine
1 oz sugar
1 cup carrot, grated
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped tablespoon cocoa
pinch of salt
1/2 pint milk
a little vanilla essence

Cream the margarine and sugar together and stir in the grated carrot, syrup and the rest of the dry ingredients. Add milk and a few drops of vanilla essence to mix to a fairly stiff consistency. Put into a greased basin and steam for 2 hours.


Plum Chutney
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5 lbs plums
2 lbs sugar
3 oz salt
1 oz ground ginger
1 oz ground cinnamon
1 oz ground allspice
1 oz mustard seed, bruised
1 quart vinegar

Stone the plums and cut into quarters. Add all the other ingredients to the vinegar and bring to a boil, then put in the plums and simmer till tender. If the mixture is still too thin, continue to simmer gently until the desired consistency is obtained. 


Hope everyone is having a good week so far. It is only Thursday and it has been quite a busy one for myself. - JW