Woolton Pie

Day two in the 1942 kitchen and I'm feeling like a good 40s housewife. As per government recommendations I managed to feed my family potatoes at every meal (although I'm not sure if it was the required 1lb of potatoes per day!) including a hot breakfast.

I have to say I'm glad I'm not really living in the 40s. Being expected to get up early enough to light a range, stoke the boiler etc, and cook a hot breakfast before everyone went off to work and school must have been a bit of a chore! I prepared our breakfast the night before, popping the potato in the bake while I cooked our evening meal (got to save fuel you know) and assembling it before I went to bed. So at least it only needed to be put in the oven this morning. And what was this wonderful dish? A cheese savoury, listed in one of the ministry of food leaflets as a good breakfast food. Basically mashed potato, with a few slices of tomato on top and covered in grated cheese. I added a rasher of bacon chopped up but I don't think I'd bother with that next time, it didn't make enough difference to be worth it when the bacon could be used in something else. A few chives might be nice though. Mashed potato for breakfast seemed like an odd idea but it did make a good dish, warm and filling and it made good use of the cheese (1/3 of our ration). RAF man thought it would be better as a lunch or supper, perhaps with some salad, and he has a point. But if you were used to a cooked breakfast this would make a good alternative when you couldn't get many eggs or a lot of bacon.

Lunch today was straight out of the British Restaurant suggested menus. Beef served with potatoes, veg and brown gravy. I decided that we wouldn't be splashing out on a three course meal every day and it seemed more realistic to just have the main course. Portions were not huge, meat worth about 1d per person. Here it is, pictured on a side plate.

And so to the evening meal, that famous dish "Woolton Pie", named after Lord Woolton, the minister for food. We didn't try it in week one so I thought we probably should at some point. It was pretty good too, as it should be really since it was created by the chef at the Savoy. Followed by a syrup pudding (egg, fat and sugar - what a treat!) with the obligatory custard.

Oh, and the second batch of bread rose!