Celery Soup (Economical)

From Beeton's Cookery - all the recipes without Isabella's waffle about the history of barley (yawn).

2 pts water
1 pt milk
2 oz lean bacon or ham
1 oz butter
1 1/2 tbsp flour
1 large head of celery
2 onions
salt and pepper

Cut the ham into dice, slice the onions and celery. Melt the butter in a pan, fry the vegetables without browning, put in the bacon and water and simmer for 30 or 40 minutes, or until the clery is tender. Strain, rub through a fine sieve, return to the saucepan, add the milk and bring to the boil. Mix the flour with a little milk, stir and cook for 5 or 6 minutes, season to taste and serve.

Average cost: 6d to 8d. Sufficient for 6 persons.

You could always NOT sieve it. And NOT add so much flour. Try adding a teaspoon of cornflour or rice flour instead. And some ginger, sugar and lemon juice would pep it up a bit.

Cheese and Potato bake

From the Walberton Quick and Easy Cookbook

2lbs potatoes
6oz grated Cheddar cheese
1 egg
knob of butter and a little milk
small onion diced
1 large tomato sliced
6 rashers streaky bacon

Peel and boil potatoes. Fry the onion until soft. Grill the bacon and then cut into pieces. When potatoes have boiled, drain them and mash adding the knob of butter and a little milk. Add the egg, 40z cheese, onion and stir well. Turn mixture into casserole, arrange the bacon pieces and slices of tomato on top and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake in oven for 30-40 mins at 200C or Gas Mk 6. Serve with peas or other favourite vegetable.

Austerity Party Food

From Marguerite Patten's Post-War Kitchen

Fork and Finger Savouries

Spread slices of bread with butter or margarine. Cut off the crusts, and cut into fours. Top each with a slice of hard-boiled egg, a slice of beetroot and a pinch of parsley. (Toast might work better.)

Roll out pastry and cut into small squares. When baked, top with grated cheese mixed with mayonnaise, and a lattice of celery strips.

Cut celery into three-inch lengths. Mix mashed potato, grated cheese and tinned chopped tomatoes. Fill the celery "baskets" with the pink mixture. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. (And eat with care.)

Smoked Haddock with Egg and Cream Sauce

from Delia Smith's original How to Cheat at Cooking.

1.5 lb filleted smoked haddock
1/2 pint milk
1 bay leaf
2oz butter
1/2 packet white sauce mix
2tbsp double cream
1 hard-boiled egg
1 tbsp chives

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Divide the haddock into 4 and lay in a baking tin. Pour the milk over and throw in a bay leaf. Put a few flecks of butter here and there. Bake for 20-25 mins. Make up the white sauce mix using the liquid the fish was cooked in, then add the cream, chopped hard-boiled egg and chives. Serve the fish with the sauce poured over.

You could make your own white sauce, using cream. The bay leaf is optional (funny how we used to add them to everything.)

Devilled Eggs

A wartime recipe for Halloween, from Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall's Ministry of Food: Thrifty Wartime Ways to Feed Your Family Today

12 small eggs
3 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tsps curry powder
strips of red pepper, gherkins or anchovies

Boil eggs for 9 mins. Plunge into cold water. Remove the shells, cut the eggs in half lengthways and put the yolks in a bowl. Mash with a fork and beat in the mayonnaise and curry powder. Spoon the yolk mixture back into the egg halves. Garnish with the strips of red pepper, gherkin or anchovies.

Everything a Woman Ought to Know

Is a book by Florence Jack - it's main title is The Woman's Book of Household Management.

Here are some of her handy tips:

Ventilation is essential to avoid the dangers of Vitiated Air!

Electric light as an illuminant has many advantages. It is cleanly, hygienic and convenient.

In the new Boudoir Grate, an almost perfect imitation of a homely log fire is achieved.

Brown Lincrusta is much used for dining-room dadoes.

Wood panelling painted white is often used in drawing-room decoration.

To paper a library in pale shades of blue or green would be to go against every law of what is fitting and proper.

The ugly gilt-edged mirror which formed the conventional chimney-piece decoration of the time of our grandmother is now mercifully buried in oblivion. Artistic wooden chimney-pieces and overmantels combined now form part of the decorative equipment of most tastefully furnished houses.

There are still some middle class people who keep their drawing room as a show room... but such rooms always wear an air of stiffness which is often reflected in the manner of the mistress...

Grand pianos give an air of "finish" to a drawing room which is achieved by no other means.

Chairs of one period must not be mixed up with tables of another, and a bureau of still another epoch.

The wooden bedsteads now on the market are artistic in every way and free from that ugliness which characterised those of Victorian days. during the Victorian era art in furniture went through a marked decadence. The furniture of this recent period is marked by its stiffness, ungainliness, and general air of discomfort. It may safely be said that connoisseurs of the future will not readily advocate a revival of the Victorian style. (Some bold types went against the tide of public opinion and bought Victoriana in the 30s, about 20 years after the date of this book, but it didn't really catch on until the 70s.)

John Major's Bacon Risotto

From Redcliffe Recipes.

2 oz butter
1 large onion, chopped
4 oz sliced mushrooms
6 oz long grain rice
1-1 1/2 pints stock
6 oz cooked bacon/ham
4 oz cooked peas
7 oz can sweetcorn with peppers
Pepper

Melt butter in large frying pan, add onion and cook gently for 5 mins. Add mushrooms, stir round and cook for a few seconds. Stir in rice and one pint of stock. Cover and cook gently for 20-25 mins until rice is cooked. If necessary, add extra stock. Cube the bacon and add to the rice with the remaining ingredients. Season with pepper. Cook for further five minutes to heat through. A few sultanas may be added.