The housewife has had her first trial of National Mark and is beginning to taste some of the joys of her new adventure.
If she is wise, she will start to experiment a little, and learn perhaps that to buy (and properly deal with) a boiling fowl is not as extravagant as it may sound.
She will find, too that the rather dull days of late winter can be enlivened by the summer sunshine stored in National Mark tins, and that a dish of green peas or some delicious summer fruit will evoke memories, possibly of those very gardens and orchards where they were grown.
Healthy appetites will need more nourishment in this inclement weather, and consideration of the cheaper cuts of National Mark beef will teach her how to save and serve good food as well.
A breath of spring comes with the first appearance of those slim pink sticks of rhubarb, and she can count on a good supply of apples for dessert or cooking.
A good time to pore over a cookery book with one’s toes to the fire and half an eye on the clock.
WARTIME RECIPE'S:-
STUFFED LAMB OR MUTTON
YOU WILL NEED
2lb Breast of Lamb or Mutton
Potato and Watercress stuffing
To bone the breast, take a sharp knife, and score round the bones and work the flesh away from them, lifting them away cleanly.
Trim off surplus fat, and spread the boned breasts with the stuffing, roll up and tie firmly.
Put in a baking pan with a teacupful of water, and roast very slowly for 1 ¼ hours, basting every 20 minutes.
Potatoes or other vegetables can be baked round the meat.
FOR THE STUFFING
1 lb hot potatoes
1 oz margarine or dripping 2 tablespoonful milk
1 bunch of watercress (well washed and chopped
Mix well together beat in enough hot milk to bind (about 2 tablespoonfuls) and the stuffing is ready.
STUFFED POT ROAST
YOU WILL NEED
For the Stuffing
½ lb stewing steak (if you can get hold of any)
4oz breadcrumbs
1 teaspoonful mixed herbs
2 tablespoonful parsley
Water or milk to mix
½ to 1oz suet or fat
Salt and pepper
VEGETABLES
1lb potatoes
1lb carrots
½ lb turnip
A little onion or leek, if you can get hold of them
Make the stuffing and roll up the steak with the stuffing inside.
Tie with a bit of string, and then fry the carrots and turnips lightly in a little hot fat.
Make the vegetables, into a firm base for the meat to rest on, and place the meat on the vegetables, and cover with slice potatoes and simmer slowly for two hours or longer, with about 2 inches of water or stock in the saucepan
TO SERVE
Lay the vegetables onto a dish and put the meat on top, having removed the string.
Pour the gravy over the meat and serve very hot.
PRUNE AND COCONUT BARS
YOU WILL NEED
3oz self- raising flour
1oz margarine
4oz sugar
1 egg
5oz prunes, weighed after stoning
2oz desiccated coconut
A little milk to mix
Brush a baking tin or Swiss roll tin with melted margarine and line with greaseproof paper.
Mix together the melted margarine, Sugar, beaten egg, milk, flour, dates, (stoned and chopped) and walnuts.
Stir well, spread the mixture in the tin and bake for 15 minutes in a moderate oven mark 4.
Cool for 5 minutes then cut into fingers and if available dredge with castor Sugar.
Very nice to eat.
MINISTRY EXPERTS CONSIDER THAT A WEEK'S SUPPLY OF IRON RATION, IS ESSENTIAL..... RATIONS SHOULD INCLUDE TEA.... SUGAR..... TINNED MEAT..... CONDENSED MILK..... AND CHEESE.
We can say what we like of Lord Woolton.
Or at least we can say what we dare.
But England must sit up and listen.
When Woolton is heard on the air.
Our portions may be microscopic.
But they grow every moment more dear.
And Woolton dictates on a topic.
That touches us near.
Some Ministers willing and blameless.
And busy as beavers no doubt
Yet strike us as perfectly aimless.
When they tell what the war is about.
But Woolton looms ever beside us.
Controlling each bite and each sup.
And we count on his broadcasts to guide us.
That something is up.
Some Lords in the throes of digestion.
Enlarge at regrettable length.
On the rather incongruous question
Of winning, through misery strength.
But from Wooltons more fruitful endeavour
On the value of foods which however, we cannot obtain.
His Orders are full and explicit
His rules for iron rations are sound
Though half of them, being illicit
We’d have to be fined were they found.
But, say what we will of Lord Woolton
If we cannot quite say what we like
We tighten our belts when Lord Woolton gets hold of the mike.
The following Recipe's have been sent in by Sue Oliver
Rosehip Syrup recipe
The directions given by the Ministry of Food during the war for 2 pounds (900gm) of hips.
Method
1.Boil 3 pints (1.7 liters) of boiling water.
2. Mince hips in a course mincer and put immediately into the boiling water.
3. Bring to boil and then place aside for 15 minutes.
4. Pour into a flannel, linen jelly bag or clean pair of tights and allow to drip until the bulk of the liquid has come through.
5. Return the residue to the saucepan, add 1 ½ pints (852ml) of boiling water, stir and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
6. Pour back into the jelly bag and allow to drip.
7. To make sure all the sharp hairs are removed put back the first half cupful of liquid and allow to drip through again.
8. Put the mixed juice into a clean saucepan and boil down until the juice measures about 11/2 pints (852ml), then add 1 ¼ (560gm) of sugar and boil for a further 5 minutes.
9. Pour into hot sterile bottles and seal at once.
Rosehip sweets
1 cup rosehips
1/3 cup sugar
40 ml water
1.Wash and deseed rosehips, cut in half and wash again to remove all the seeds and sharp hairs
2.Cover a sheet of greaseproof paper with a layer of sugar.
3.Dissolve the sugar in the water in a small pan.
4.Add the hips
5.Heat gently over a gentle heat, spooning the mixture over the hips and shaking the pan gently.
6.Cook until the hips are close to burning – this should take 5 – 10 mins.
7.Remove individually as quickly as possible and place on the sugared paper.
8.Sprinkle more sugar over the hips whilst they are still hot and roll them around to make sure they are completely covered.
That in an experiment carried out by the Medical Research Council on behalf of the Government, school boys who had one pint of milk a day showed an average annual increase in weight of over 3 lbs.
And an average annual increase in height of over ¾ of an inch compared with those who did not have the extra milk.
That in an experiment carried out by the Scottish Board of Health.
School children receiving additional milk made similar gains in weight and in height in comparison with those who did not have milk.
And That in another experiment in Scotland, 10,000 children who received milk showed that the addition of milk to the diet of school children caused a very definite increase in the rate of growth both in weight and height.
You cannot have better evidence of the value of milk than this.
MOTHERS! ARE YOU GIVING YOUR CHILDREN THE CHANCE OF GROWING HEALTHY AND STRONG BY ALLOWING THEM MILK EVERY DAY?????
