Now, always wanting a challenge, yesterday I decided to try again and make some homemade orange curd, and to make it just that bit more interesting, the recipe dated back to 1947, and came from a Ministry of Food leaflet.
These leaflets were issued regularly and covered everything from how best to make rationed food go further, to suggestions on where to forage for free surplus food in the hedgerows, and advice on cooking a range of foods, along with plenty of recipes.
Despite the end of the war two years earlier, there were still food shortages and war time rationing continued, and at times became more stringent.
So, having been given a collection of these leaflets I do from time to time dip into them to reflect on life in post war Britain 70 or so years ago.
And that brings me back to my orange curd, which is something we buy occasionally, spread on toast and even use to make tarts.
What made me curious about the Ministry of Food recipe were the ingredients, which included dried eggs which were common during the war, and clearly lingered on in to 1947, and the quantity of sugar, which was 4oz, when the weekly ration for a person was 4oz.
All of which just left me with recreating that 72 years old mix of oranges, sugar, eggs, and margarine.
And the result?……………. I think the jury is out.
It is perhaps too sweet, and the after taste of orange is all too powerful, but it is my bit of rescue archaeology, even if we are talking about a moment still within the lifetime of many of my friends.
Location; 1947 & 2019
Pictures; my 1947 orange curd from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Ministry of Food Cookery Calendar, December- January, 1946-47
Despite the end of the war two years earlier, there were still food shortages and war time rationing continued, and at times became more stringent.
So, having been given a collection of these leaflets I do from time to time dip into them to reflect on life in post war Britain 70 or so years ago.
And that brings me back to my orange curd, which is something we buy occasionally, spread on toast and even use to make tarts.
What made me curious about the Ministry of Food recipe were the ingredients, which included dried eggs which were common during the war, and clearly lingered on in to 1947, and the quantity of sugar, which was 4oz, when the weekly ration for a person was 4oz.
And the result?……………. I think the jury is out.
It is perhaps too sweet, and the after taste of orange is all too powerful, but it is my bit of rescue archaeology, even if we are talking about a moment still within the lifetime of many of my friends.
Location; 1947 & 2019
Pictures; my 1947 orange curd from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Ministry of Food Cookery Calendar, December- January, 1946-47
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