Wartime food (and other recipes)

I think perhaps this one is for the ladies of the older generation. I have entered this topic in this thread because it was most likely at this time when POWDERED EGG was introduced. Does anyone remember powdered egg. It was on the shelves in little tins and according to my Mum I loved it. Don't know what the chickens thought about it though !!

Have you been watching "Wartime Farm" on BBC2. There was lots on there about food from that era, including powdered egg.

My dad got really fed up of baked beans in the war. He refused to eat them for the rest of his life!

Powdered egg. I loved it and would buy it now if I could get it. As for the other eggs, the ones in shells, they were hard to get but when we did get them it was common to find a few rotten ones. It was my job to take them back to the shop for replacement. Mum would test them by floating them in water, the floaters went back to the shop. I remember the whale steaks, unrationed meat but I wasn't too fond of that. I think we also ate horse meat. My uncle in Preston was a horse slaughterer and I recall him taking dead horses to London. He would occasionally stop to pick me up for the ride.

Hello Powdered egg was still available until quite recently from Coventry market & might still be, but is still available from food wholesalers. There was a scare a couple of years ago with regards to infection from overseas producers. The catering industry uses it.

I believe fish & chips were the only hot food not subject to rationing during the war?

My father kept a few ducks in the back garden in Tile Hill but they use to go walkabout. He worked at the Standard, Banner Lane, and when he came home he used to ask me to count the ducks. I am sure they got less and less from what I can remember. I will never eat a duck egg ever.

You are correct Dutchman. Plenty of fish and chips so no one went hungry. A large portion of chips wrapped in newspaper cost three pence and I believe cod to go with it was seven or eight pence. So you could get a good meal for about a bob (shilling). We were told that potatoes were very healthy food and I still remember the Mr Spud adverts .... Les

You could do a hundred things with a spud according to my mum. Just goes to show how spoilt we are today. Back then it was either fish paste or meat paste for tea, oh, or a jam buttie/butty (whichever) and I know mushy peas was a favourite (as mentioned on the forum before). If you saw a line of housewives you could guess there were bananas at the front of it. When mum ran the shop coffee was kept under the counter only for the regular customers and it came in small tins. That's it from me. Goodnight all, catch up tomorrow.

I remember having a lot of junket during the war, seemed to fade out of the menu afterwards.

The Polish Air Force stationed stationed at Bramcote were issued with Christmas Puddings one year. Many of the airmen didn't particularly like this unknown food, and I have heard that many of these puddings found their way to households in Nuneaton and Coventry.

Was that the kind of tin with tinfoil inside the top which you had to stab a hole in to get at the contents and then when you inserted a spoon the rough edges of the tinfoil catapulted cofee all over the table?

My stepmother came from Preston so if it is a local dish up there I really don't know. Bannok or perhaps Bannock I'm not sure. It's an almost instant form of bread. If you want my advice don't bother. Bannock is simple. Basically it is just a pan fried bread dough. Lots of leeway in this recipe. Use your imagination with it. It can't be hurt! LOL (unless you try and add chocolate chips, etc.!) Flour Baking Powder Water Salt Lard or fat As to how much of each? I haven't a clue but below is a rough guess. 3 cups of flour tsp baking powder pinch of salt enough water to mix into a paste like dough Lard fry it in. Use a lot. 1/4" in bottom of fry pan and add more later if needed. Les Put it in the pan of hot grease and cook away! You can put it in as one piece, or shape it into "buns".

Wartime recipes It's a shame as my daughter-in-law had the recipe books for the war, now gone she threw them away I recall rocket cakes being in there, also my mum said they used to mix marg with butter to make it go further. Not sure if this was wartime, but my mum said they used to weigh the butter then pat it into a shape, my nan her mum after patting it into shape would tell the shopkeeper now weigh it again, as it loses weight when patting. When I use to take her shopping she would never buy anything with egg in it, she would read the ingredients to see if it had egg in, I now know why. I'll see if I can find any on the net.

With the notable exception of the Co-op, grocers in those days had a reputation for adulterating food with other substances in order to maximise profits. For example, flour would be mixed with chalk, milk would be diluted with water.