Welcome to our new section devoted to Wartime Recipes. We have seperated this section out of the Historical Recipes in response to the ever increasing demand for recipes connected to wartime.
We hope you find someting of interest. If you have any wartime recipes, from any period, that you would like to share with visitors you can quickly and easily add yours to this site.
Cream was rationed during the war and was not generally available, unless you had space for your own cow! Several ingenious recipes exist for “Cream Substitues”.
1/4 Pint of Milk
1 Dessertspoon of Cornflour
1/2 Teaspoon Castor Sugar
1 oz Margarine
Flavouring: Vanilla Essence, Banana Essence etc.
Method:
Make a stiff Cornflour paste with Milk, then boil for 3 minutes and allow to get cool. Cream Margarine and Sugar, gradually add Cornflour mixture and flavouring.
For a richer looking cream use a yellow flavouring such as banana.
We have added the information, published by the Ministry of Food, about wartime meals for children. In these days of austerity perhaps they may provide some new ideas for school lunch boxes?
To find the information click on the Menu above - Wartime Recipes – Childrens Food.
This recipe was taken from “Food Facts from the Kitchen Front” a book of Wartime Recipes and Hints. The book had a foreward by Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food.
Rabbit Dumplings
Ingredients:
2-3 fleshy joints cooked rabbit
Also the broth in which they were cooked
Scraps of bacon if possible
8 oz self raising flour
2 oz chopped suet
water to mix
Method:
Remove the meat from the joint and chop finely.
Sieve the flour into a basin, add a pinch of salt and the finely chopped suet, the the prepared meat with finely chopped bacon if available.Mix with a little water to make a stiff pasteand form into small dumplings with floured fingers. Boil these in the broth in which the rabbit was cooked, keeping the lid on the pan. Serve broth and dumplings together.
During World War II with rationing in effect, prime meat products such as beef weren’t always readily available whereas rabbit was off-ration and was *ahem* fair game for cooks. In light of the times, one advertisement in Gourmet magazine quipped: “Although it isn’t our usual habit / This year we’re eating the Easter Rabbit.”
Rabbit Stew
Ingredients:
Method:
Put the rabbit to soak in cold water with the vinegar for 30 minutes
Remove and dry well. Omit this section if using prepared rabbit.
Mix the flour with the salt and pepper and coat the rabbit joints
Heat the dripping and add the bacon rinds. Then add the rabbit joints and cook steadily for about 10 minutes or until golden brown in colour and remove from the pan.
Add the bacon, onions and carrots and cook for 5 minutes then return the rabbit to the pan. Add the water or stock and the grated apple and stir as the liquid comes to the boil and thickens slightly. Add the herbs and bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Quickly put dish into a very slow oven for 4-5 hours.
Serve with seasonal vegetables.
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
2 oz margarine
2 oz sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 oz cocoa powder
vanilla essence
6 oz crisp breadcrumbs
(To make the breadcrumbs, bake some stale pieces of
bread in the oven until crispy. Let the bread cool, and then
place it between two pieces of greaseproof paper, or a plastic bag, and
crush with a rolling pin.)
Method:
Put the margarine, sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan.
Heat gently until the margarine has melted, then remove
from heat. Stir in the cocoa powder, a few drops of vanilla
essence and the crisp breadcrumbs and mix well. Grease
a seven inch cake tin with margarine paper, then pour in
the mixture. Allow to stand for 4—5 hours, then turn out
carefully, nowadays is best done by leaving in a refrigerator for several hours.
For the icing, mix together 2 teaspoons of melted
margarine, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon
golden syrup and a few drops of vanilla essence or leave out the cocoa and use “hundreds and thousands”.
Wartime Cookery
Mash 2 medium-sized cooked cold parsnips with a tablespoon of cocoa. Add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. Warm ½ pint of milk and sweeten with sugar or a sweetener. Add the milk to the parsnip mixture and mix together. Bake for 30 minutes at 190C, 375F, gas mark 5. Serves 4.”
Ingredients: ½ oz of dripping or fat
2 oz leek or onion, peeled and chopped
2 oz bacon, chopped
1 pint vegetable stock, made by dissolving a vegetable stock cube in boiling water
6 oz macaroni
Salt and pepper
Method: Melt the dripping in a pan and fry the leek and bacon until lightly browned. Add the stock, bring to the boil, and add the macaroni and seasoning. Cook for 20 minutes or until the macaroni is tender and the water is absorbed. Garnish with watercress. Serves 4.