General Chat

There's no sell by date on the can Wend..........so it's "Sunny Side Up" for me the morrow!!

;-)

AnnC
I loved the taste of omelettes made with dried egg powder.
I was wondering if this powder is still available. Never seen any for years.

GP

Well if you were in with the Yanks you did Ann. ;-)

saw lots of Yanks but I was far too young - we had them camped the length of our road - had to pass them going to and from school every day - they were extremely kind to us

Nobody starved thanks to these guys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT40JDv8u3Y

GP
POWDERED WHOLE $19;99
LARGE TIN
http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/index.aspx#.UTEUpjBQCl4

Thanks for the information DIZZI. I was wondering if there were any suppliers in this country ?

GP

My OH says that nothing ever went to waste - it was all precious. Quite a lot had to be queued for because of the shortages.


His mum was skilled at cooking every bit of meat known to man......sheep's brains, pig's head, trotters, giblets, rabbits...you name it - she cooked it bless her.


We had relations in Canada and they used to send food parcels over.


We can learn a lot from the mothers of those days - we don't know how lucky we are sometimes......

i have a lovely old war time cook book
even tells you how to make soap and polish

as well as the things like brains lites tripe pigs cheeks poachers pie and cow pie :-D

My mum used to buy rabbit from the Fish and Game shop .............. wasn't rationed


She also used to buy horse meat from a butcher in town who sold only that, and would make stew out of it.

I also remember her buying tripe, and other parts, and making delicious meals out of them


People kept chickens, so got eggs from them, as well as meat when the chickens were killed.

you learned how to stretch meat to make it last ................... for example, mashed potatoes were mixed in with the minced meat for shepherds pie, as well as forming the top of the pie.


You also learnt that you had to eat everything, or you went very hungry!

Mum used to buy a dozen day old chicks at Easter time and rear them in a chicken coup in the back garden. About 7 would survive and we would get eggs from them and the Christmas dinner for us and her brother,s family next door. Dad had the awful task of killing 4 of em for Xmas he would hang them on a nail outside the back door to let them drip !! We had an outside lavvy by so when you went out the door to round to it you gave the wall a wide birth in case you made contact with em

Remember those years well!!
My mum would get our ration of meat in say,brisket on the bone.Cut the fat off,render it down,roll up the meat and pot roast and use the bones to make a big soup or stew and it would feed us for a few days.

Of course we had to eat our veg in those days so most people had a plot to grow carrots,potatoes peas etc and fruit was only what was in season.
Didn't feel deprived because we didn't know any better....and to this day I can improvise....
Have been known to add porridge oats to shepherds pie and nobody could tell!
We were healthy ..no fast food except the occasional fish and chips!

Bread was mostly home made,used to get fresh yeast from the grocers and mum always had bread in the oven and gave some away to neighbours.
I gave up sugar in tea as I thought it was helping and never ever had it since!

We managed as Im sure a lot of us oldies could manage now!

One way to stretch the meat ration if you managed to get a piece to roast was to not eat it hot.

You can slice it much thinner when it is cold than when it is hot. So it goes further.


Mum used to buy the meat ration on Friday, cook it on either Friday evening or Saturday evening, and then we would have it cold on Sunday.

She then used to snitch little bits of the harder outer bits of the pork or beef every time she went into the kitchen when it was cooling down. She once said that those were the bits she loved and that she missed not having by eating it cold.

The thing was that she continued this habit of not eating roasts hot up until she died in 1961!


I quite honestly had never had a hot roast (other than roast chicken at Christmas) until I went to university at the age of 19.


I think Mum and Dad learned the habit during the Depression days of the 30s as well as on the restricted rations of the war.

Dad was one of the lucky ones .... he was never out of work during the Depression, but I guess the threat was always there, so people tried to live as cheaply as possible "just in case".

You are right Sylvia about the meat being cut when cold.The brisket my mum pot roasted used to be put in a basin with a saucer and weight on top and pressed.
The first slice off when it was turned out was delicious as there was jelly from the meat juices.
The rendered fat would roast the spuds.


Anyone remember junket?.....had this a lot during the war.

It's no wonder the older generation thinks the young ones such a wasteful lot. They managed very well on what little they had. No choice. Anyone read the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

I can fully understand why in war time people dug up big patches of garden to grow veg so they could fill up on potatoes and cabbage etc.
My dad was a lucky one though he didn't think so at the time - at age 11 evacuated out of London to a dairy farm in Bucks., he had plenty of food and milk to help him grow strong and healthy. He wouldn't have had that good a diet in London.

oh ........ so did I


and I still don't like it!!


but one had to eat it then ................ "it's good for you" :-)

Karen .Yes I have read the Guernsey book.
My d.i.l's mother and father were locals and they lived on potato peelings,,,much worse than us under occupation.
Some of the recipes are amazing from that era.
Bit different in Guernsey now!...was there in Nov and house prices are horrendous and cost of living is worse than UK.

Bread went on ration after the war. I can remember that sweets were on ration until about 1951/2.

Mum had a small cupboard stocked with tins (no blk market she would not have condoned that when her OH and five BIL were in Merc hant Navy).

We had porridge for breakfast. Always a cooked dinner and sometimes a cooked tea. She baked and cooked, I can recall the pigman calling for swill. Also she used the potato peelings to damp down the fire.

Strangely enough OH only asked me last week what a hay box was. I was able to enlighten him.

We were all healthier in those days. No fizzy drinks, thirsty - drink water. No fast foods except fish and chips (never went on ration) and of course limited sweets.

As for starving children in India - I was fed up hearing about them!

I had an Uncle who kept Pigs ,used to take peeings down to him (After keeping some for the Chickens) bringing back Pork etc,then swap it for things that were under the counter.Did,nt do too bad,Its amazing what went on during the war,most people grew their own veg,not many went too short.**M**.

When sweets came off the ration the response was so overwhelming they couldn't keep up with the demand, They went back on ration so the manufactures could up their production and get the sweets in the shops.

I remember at aged 16 c 1953 being so glad to get sweets that every sat after being paid on Friday I would spend a shilling of my wages and scoff the lot. Greedy moo