War Times recipes
When baking a dessertspoonful of vinegar added to a gill of milk will serve the purpose of two eggs. It is impossible to make a lighter cake than one made with vinegar. When eggs and milk are requires in the recipes, dried milk or eggs are substituted.
Instead of using eggs in the making of a milk pudding, add a dessertspoonful of custard powder, also a dessertspoonful of syrup to sweeten in the place of sugar.
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Mayonnaise, white sauce made from thinned milk, with a little mustard and vinegar added.
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Imitation cream, 1lb powdered milk, 8oz of margarine, mixed together with sufficient golden syrup to sweeten it.
A substitute for cream can be made by beating together the white of an egg and a mashed banana.
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Christmas cake without eggs
10 oz flour, 4 oz, margarine, 4 oz of brown or castor sugar, 8 oz currants, 8 oz sultanas, 4 oz raisins, pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon of golden syrup, half teaspoon of mixed spice, 3 level teaspoons of baking powder, 1 dessertspoon of vinegar, half pint of milk, peel of an orange.
Clean and prepare fruit, sift flour, salt, baking powder and spice together, and rub in margarine. Grater orange peel very finely. Add all dry ingredients and mix well, bind with syrup and milk, mixed together and slightly warmed., stir in the vinegar. Turn into a greased and lined cake tin [7inch] and bake in moderately slow oven [regulo 3] for three and a half to four hours.
Economical Christmas cake
4oz margarine, 3 oz sugar, 2 tablespoons syrup, 4 to 6 oz fruit, 12 oz self raising flour, 4 oz, finely grated carrot, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, half a teaspoon of almond essence, half a teaspoon of vanilla essence, 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.
Cook the grated carrot with the syrup over a low heat for a few minutes. Cream the sugar and margarine till light and fluffy. Stir the bicarbonate of soda into the carrot and sugar mixture, then beat it into the fat and sugar, using it as if it were an egg. When well mixed stir in flavouring and fruit. Lastly fold in the cinnamon, add a small teacupful of slightly warm milk to make a moist dough. Put the mixture into a greased cake tin, smooth the top and make a deep hole in the centre. Put it into a hot oven at first then turn the heat very low and bake for 3 hours.
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Mock almond paste
2 oz margarine, 2 oz sugar, 1 teaspoon almond essence, 8 oz cake crumbs.
Beat the margarine and sugar together, until light and creamy. Ass essence, beat again. Mix in crumbs and knead well together. Roll into shape, for cake topping, or make sweets by wrapping around prunes of dates.
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Christmas pudding
3 oz flour, 3 oz suet or margarine, 3 oz breadcrumbs, 3 oz sultanas, 3 oz currants, one apple [peeled cored and chopped], 1 grated carrot, 1 grated potato, one dessertspoon of treacle, half teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon allspice, half teaspoon baking powder, milk.
Mix all ingredients together, add treacle and milk, and lastly one tablespoonful of vinegar [this takes the place of egg]. Put into well greased basin, cover with greased paper and tie down, steam for 7 hours.
Mock Christmas pudding
3 tablespoons of sago, one cup each of milk, raisins, sultanas, a little chopped peel, one and a half cups of bread crumbs, one tablespoon of melted margarine, one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, a pinch of salt, a pinch of spice.
Soak the sago in the milk overnight. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Dissolve the soda in the margarine and add to the mixture. Steam in a greased basin for 4 hours.
Quick Christmas pudding
Instead of taking full jam ration, purchase 1lb jar of mincemeat and mix thoroughly with 1lb of self raising flour. Put into greased basin and steam in the usual way.
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Brandy sauce
1 oz of margarine, half pint of milk, a little grated lemon rind, 1 oz of flour, 1 dessertspoonful of sugar, a tablespoon of brandy.
Melt the margarine, add the flour and stir well. Cook over the fire or stove for a minute stirring all the time. Remove from heat and add the milk by slow degrees, return to heat and stir until sauce boils. Add the sugar, lemon and brandy and it is ready to serve. If you have stirred it properly it will not need straining.
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Mince pies.
Wartime mincemeat
Half a pound of minced apple, 4 oz dried fruit, dates, prunes. 4 oz, finely grated carrot, 1 oz suet or melted margarine. Teaspoon of mixed spice and lemon substitute. 1 dessertspoon black treacle or syrup and gravy browning, pinch of salt. Mix all ingredients together.
A good alternative to mincemeat are Christmas fruit pies.
Warm 1 teaspoon of marmalade or jam in saucepan over tiny heat. Add quarter pound of shopped prunes, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teacup of breadcrumbs or stale cake crumbs, half teaspoon mixed spice. Stir together until crumbs are moist. Remove from heat add 1 large chopped apple, make up into small pies or flans
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Chocolate pudding
1 oz cocoa, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 4 oz of breadcrumbs, 1 pint of milk, quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, few drops of vanilla essence.
Mix cocoa with warm milk, add the rest of the milk, boiling, and the sugar. Pour over the breadcrumbs and leave to soak until cold. Add the cinnamon and vanilla and pour into a pie dish, greased with margarine. Bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour. Serve hot with custard.
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Fruit surprise
1 lb of any fruit, 1 pint of custard, 3 tablespoons of sugar. Stew fruit till soft rub through a sieve, stir half the custard, pour into glasses and top the rest of the custard with a little jam.
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Apple and ginger scones
A large apple, 4 oz flour, 2 oz margarine, 1 teaspoon ground ginger , half teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, 1 cup milk, 2 0z sultanas, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 2 oz sugar.
Rub fat into flour, add sugar and cream of tartar. Peel core and grate the apple add to the flour, the ginger and sultanas, dissolve bicarbonate of soda in milk, stir in the flour mix into soft dough. Turn out on floured board roll half inch thick, cut into shapes. Put on greased baking tray and bake for 25 minutes in fairly hot oven.
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Oatmeal soup
2 oz of coarse oatmeal, 2 pints of water [or meat boilings] 1 tablespoon of margarine or dripping, 3 large onions, half a pint of milk, salt and pepper to taste and three sticks of celery.
Put the water or meat boilings into a saucepan, bring to the boil and sprinkle in the oatmeal, stirring well at the same time. Simmer for half an hour, stirring occasionally. Chop the onions and cut the celery into pieces, add these and the margarine to the oatmeal and continue cooking slowly with the lid on for an hour longer. Season to taste and add the milk last of all.
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Rabbit and sausages , a good substitute for the turkey
Cut a rabbit into neat joints, keep the head out. Dip each piece into flour and put into greased baking tin. Cover with an apple and onion both sliced, pour over a little gravy, and bake until the rabbit is well cooked and brown. While it is doing boil some chestnuts, shell and pound them and season with salt and pepper and bind with half an egg. Make into little balls and fry brown also fry some sausages. Dish up the rabbit, make a nice brown gravy and pour over, arrange chestnut balls and sausages around. Mock goose, using salt fish Wash fish place in a pan with sufficient water to cover, bring slowly to boiling and simmer for 3 minutes, pour off water. Remove skin and bone and cut into convenient sized pieces. Mix on tablespoon of flour with pepper and a tablespoon of sage. Slice a couple of onions or leeks finely, peel and slice 4 to 6 potatoes. Sip the cod in the seasoned flour and arrange in layers in a dish with the onions and potatoes, leaving a layer of potatoes on top. Ass a cup of milk, dot with margarine or dripping and bake in a moderate oven for an hour.
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Cheese and potato cake
1 lb of mashed potato, 4 oz of grated cheese, 1 oz of margarine, pepper and salt, milk if needed.
Heat the potato, beat with a fork to lighten it. Add cheese and margarine warmed, and seasoning. Beat the mixture and add sufficient milk to make it the consistency of thick porridge. Spread one inch thick on greased baking tray and mark into squares with a knife. Bake in quick oven till brown and crisp.
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Home made sweets
Truffles
Put 1 tablespoon of syrup in a basin with 1 dessertspoon of cocoa, a few drops of coffee essence and like quantity of vanilla essence. Add sufficient soya flour to make a stiff mixture. Now mix half a teaspoon each of cocoa, sugar and soya in a cup. Form the first mixture into balls and toss into the cocoa mixture, allow to set. A little rum essence added to the mixture will make the truffles more Christmassy.
Stuffed dates
Slit the dates lengthways, remove stone keep the dates whole. Stuff with the mixture as follows :- melt 2 oz margarine, in 2 tablespoons of water in which you have added 2 small teaspoons of almond essence. Into this stir 3 oz of sugar and 4oz of soya flour, beat till smooth and then turn on to a board and knead in another ounce of castor sugar.
Turkish delights
1lb of sugar, 2 gills of water, 1 oz of gelatine, a few drops of lemon essence, the juice of an orange, the thinly peeled skin of two oranges.
Put the gelatine with a gill of water into a saucepan and dissolve over a gentle heat. Put the sugar with a gill of water into a large saucepan and stir carefully till dissolved. When this is done and the syrup is boiling add the gelatine and thinly peeled rinds. Boil steadily for 20 minutes, stirring gently all the time. Add the lemon essence and the strained orange juice and stand the saucepan at the side of the fire for 15 minutes. Skim and strain into a flat tin rinsed out with cold water. Allow to set for 24 hours then cut into squares. Roll in equal quantities of corn flour and sieved icing sugar mixed.