Not rising to the occasion

Day one in the 1942 kitchen.

I hadn't done the shopping yet so this morning's breakfast was porridge. Perfectly satisfactory to my modern eyes but my 1940s self would definitely have considered it inadequate. Oh well, she will have to put up with it for today.

As I had a day off from paid work today I used the time to play housewife, plan the weeks menu, do the shopping and get a start on the cooking. I made some soup for later in the week (beetroot and celery, it tastes pretty good and is a glorious pink) and tried to make a loaf of bread. Now, I have made many loaves of bread in the past, and made all the national loaves last time round without any problem. But this one isn't rising. It's just sitting there looking heavy and very, very wholemeal. Maybe the yeast has died.

More successfully, I slow roasted some beef for tomorrow's lunch. As we will both be at work we would probably be eating at British restaurants or work canteens. I found a menu for a British restaurant, with information on their meat allowance, so we will be following that for lunches on work days. Some of the beef will be served as a straightforward "meat and two veg" tomorrow and some will be rissoles later in the week. Luckily we both have microwaves at work so the complete meals are boxed up ready to take in and zap at lunchtime.

Having done that I made a steamed vegetable pudding for this evening, using grated potato to replace half the suet in the pastry (suet isn't rationed in 1942 but probably difficult to get hold of) I filled it with potatoes, carrots, celery and gravy and served it with cabbage and fried liver. I thought long and hard about the liver. I know RAF man isn't fond of it, but it was unrationed and eaten a lot in the war. It turned up at least once if not twice a week on the British restaurant menus alone. If we are aiming to experience a wartime diet then it has to be the wartime diet, not just the parts we like the sound of. I decided we couldn't avoid liver altogether, so I served it on the side (that way it could be left!) and got it out of the way early in the week.

Of course, a main meal must have at least two courses and "something with custard" seems to have been the done thing. As apples and blackberries are both in season I made a crumble, but with oats as the topping to save the fat ration that would have been needed for a traditional crumble. It turned out surprisingly well, not a bad way to end the day at all.