The way we ate in April 1947

Food and the way we prepare it is one of those instant clues to how we live.

So the rise of the “all in one TV dinner” and Vesta Curries which came in a bag and were just dropped into boiling water take me back to the 1960s.

And so here we are again with the Ministry of Food’s ABC of Cooking issued in the immediate post war period when food was still rationed.

The sheets offer a guide to healthy eating, offer suggestions on how to make food stretch and were also aimed at introducing some people to the idea of cooking at home.

For many the war had meant service in the armed forces or long hours in factories and reliance on canteen food, eaten communally and away from the family.

Now it was different and not only did the ABC offer ideas for a balanced diet but provided a range of recopies which made the best of what there was and reinforced the idea of seasonal eating.

These particular sheets date from March and April 1947.  Some like Cottage soup, sausages and beans along with fish flan and steak and potato pie will be familiar enough, but there are hints of the shortages which could still be encountered.  So there is a reliance on powdered eggs rather than fresh and mashed potato instead of pastry as a stopping for the savoury dishes.

Likewise of the three puddings on offer, one was for the simple raisin crisps which added self raising flour a tablespoon of dried egg, an ounce of sugar and margarine with a few raisins or sultanas.  These were mixed together to make a dough and having been rolled out were cut into 2 inch rounds and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes and produced 24 biscuits.

Even the more filling rhubarb sponge relied on dried egg and rhubarb which was in abundance in March and April.

It is a world that we have by and large left somewhere in the early 1960s, when making good with what you had was superseded by an avalanche of both variety and quantity.

So much so, that even raisin crisps have been transformed with richer ingredients and the addition of buttermilk and honey.  And even the name has been hijacked to include a whole range of fruit and raisin puddings which have moved from the humble biscuit to sumptuous rich dishes with rolled oats or traditional crumble toppings.

All of which however does take me back to the war and the years directly afterwards because that crumble topping was itself a means to save fat by substituting the crumble for pastry.

So a history lesson in a 66 year old recipe.

That said this brave new world of 1947 has still surprised me  with its ARTICHOKES IN CHEESE BATTER.

But perhaps I shouldn't be because artichokes are in season in the spring and so there would have plenty in the shops.

They are not something that I like, even when served the Neapolitan way with good olive oil.  I fear they would have been even less so offered to me in this recipe.

Pictures; from the March April sheet of the ABC of Cooking, Ministry of Food, courtesy of Vince Piggott, whose mother collected them.