Things to do with Dried Bananas.

There is a problem with bananas. Their shelf-life is perilously short, and there are only so many banana cakes, banana pancakes, banana puddings etc. that even the most enthusiastic banana-lover can consume in a week. The preservation of bananas therefore requires a concept shift towards banana products that have intrinsically good keeping qualities. I have previously written about some of the energetic efforts on the part of banana growers to popularise products such as ‘banana figs’ and banana flour (here, and here) but there is another method that provides some interesting and tasty opportunities. 

My story starts with one of the snippets in the Cook’s Scrap Book section of The Chicago Herald Cooking School: A Professional Cook's Book for Household Use (1883), by Jessup Whitehead.

London is eating dried bananas and declares they are delicious. They come from Jamaica, where the method has been patented. Fruit prepared twelve months ago retains its flavour to a remarkable degree. The banana is cut in half lengthwise and subjected to slow drying, which prevents fermentation and decay. It is thought that these dried bananas are to open up a new and important industry. They can be made into wine, eaten as they are, or cooked. – Ex.

    Dried bananas are common at the street venders’ fruit stands in Chicago.

This paragraph is not credited or dated, but the impression it gives that dried bananas were something of a novelty in 1883, as the following piece shows. From the American Institute Farmers’ Club, on April 20, 1852:-

The Secretary read the following translations and papers prepared by himself;

IMPORTATION OF DRIED BANANAS INTO ENGLAND.

[Revue Horticole, Paris, March, 1852.]

An interesting fact occurred at the late World's Fair of London, that is, dried bananas from Mexico—the observations of the distinguished botanist Lindley on the subject. In 1834 Colquhoun, of the Royal artillery, communicated to the Society of Arts of London many specimens of bananas gathered on the warm plains of Mexico, called Tierra Caliente, and dried for keeping. The cities of Jalisco and Mechoacan do quite a business in it. They gather the fruit when perfectly ripe and expose it to the sun on bamboo riddles. When they begin to wrinkle they peal [sic] them, and then, in a few days, the banana is dry. During the operation the bananas become covered with a sugary effervescence like the figs of the South when dried in the same way. The bananas are then baled or boxed up, either in their own leaves or something else. They are pressed into packages of about an hundred pounds weight. Thus prepared they are in the same condition as figs, dates, raisins of commerce. On account of their sugary character they keep a considerable length of time.

The specimen deposited in the Crystal Palace was a portion of that which was presented by Colonel Colquhoun in 1834, at which time the fruit was two years old. On examination by members of the Society of Arts, it was found to be of a proper consistence, neither too soft nor too dry, and a very agreeable peculiar taste, something between that of date and fig without any trace of acidity. They have no seeds and so become entire for consumption without any deduction. It was deposited in a Magazine of Woolwich, where it remained until taken out for the exhibition in the Crystal Palace; it is, therefore, now nineteen years old—an interesting circumstance testing its great durability. This old fruit was subject to the examination of the Horticultural Society of London, of the Society of Arts, Naturalists, and of merchants, and pronounced to be in the same state as in 1834, except being dryer. No acid—the same taste—no insect had touched them.

What dried fruit have we, says Dr. Lindley, that can compare with this! Our raisins, figs, and dates would be completely lost in so long a time as nineteen years; if not destroyed by time, they certainly would be by insects.

This remarkable fact raises, says Dr. Lindley, the very important question of extensive commerce in dried bananas. British Guiana, Jamaica, &c., can produce unlimited quantities. The amount of dried figs and raisins imported Into England in 1850, was nearly four millions pounds of figs, and nearly twenty-eight millions pounds of raisins. This shows how great may be the quantity of bananas.

No plant that is cultivated yields per acre any alimentary substance in such great quantity as banana. The potato is by no means equal to it. We will quote the learned men (savans) who have lived in or visited equatorial America—men whose knowledge and veracity are incontestable. "In New Grenada, savs Mr. Humboldt, "they raise about forty to fifty tons per acre. It is at any rate a very large crop, and can be grown in quantities equal to any named, and its remarkable durability vastly increases its commercial value, keeping good many years.

So – nineteen years old and still edible! It is not noted how the dried bananas were stored, but given the alternative methods of the time, it is also most surprising that they had not been attacked by insects or other notorious pantry predators.

The problem generated by the rapid perishability of the banana in an era before technological advances in such things as climate controlled storage and transport was accelerated in the face of a banana glut. As I mentioned in my previous posts on banana flour, for these reasons there was a great deal of interest in banana products in Queensland in the late nineteenth century by protagonists in the burgeoning banana industry. In The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld) of 30 May 1891, there was the following piece of correspondence:

“We have received a sample of dried bananas prepared by Messrs. Reynolds and Co. Eden Valley, Daintree River. … Indeed they remind one somewhat of dried figs, and are said to be excellent, whether used without preparation as dessert, stewed like prunes, or cut to the size of raisins and and used in puddings.”

The same newspaper, in its edition of 4 July, 1891 included a wonderful feature on how to use dried bananas – which was no doubt particularly welcomed by housewives in the Far North faced with a backyard glut and the ability to dry their own bananas!

RECIPES FOR USING DRIED BANANAS.

(From the Queen of 23rd May.)

Bananas are now to be had as a dried fruit, not as an expensive luxury, but at a price considerably less than the fresh fruit. They have also an excellent flavour, for it should be remembered that foreign fruit purchased at home can never have the same rich taste as fruits fully ripened under a tropical sun; for all foreign fruit (bananas particularly), when gathered abroad for transportation, are picked unripe and green to outlive the voyage. These dried bananas make delicious puddings, panckes, fritters, and compotes, prepared in the following manner:—

Pudding (Baked). — Cut ½ lb. of dried bananas into thin slices, then place them in a stewpan that will just hold them with only enough water to cover them; add a little powdered cinnamon, ginger, and a small piece of lemon peel; stew over a slow fire till quite soft (about thirty minutes), then sweeten with fine white sugar and pass all through a hair sieve; add to it the yolks of four eggs and the white of one, 2oz. of fresh butter, the juice of one lemon, and beat all well together; line the inside of a pie dish with good puff paste, put in the mixture, and bake half an hour.

Pudding (Boiled) (Queensland recipe).— Take8oz. of dried bananas out in small pieces, 6oz. of fine breadcrumbs, 4oz. caster sugar, 4oz. of beef suet chopped fine, two eggs, and half a pint of milk; mix these ingredients, and beat them with a wooden spoon for ten minutes. Boil in a mould or basin for four hours, and serve plain or with sweet sauce.

Pancakes.—Cut sufficient dried bananas into small pieces, stew them with a little white wine, grated lemon peel and sugar to taste, and spread the mixture smoothly over pancakes; roll them up, and serve with sifted sugar.

Compote.—Prepare a thin syrup with half a pint of water and 6oz. of sugar, flavoured slightly with lemon, and stew the dried banana gently in this for about thirty minutes; remove the bananas when sufficiently done and lay them in a glass dish; strain and reduce the syrup, and then pour it over the bananas, which may be served either hot or cold. If the latter, garnish with a little stiff red currant jelly, laid on the bananas.

Cream.—Take ½ lb. of dried bananas, slice them in thin pieces, and then gently stew in a pint of good cream, with a little ginger; when tolerably thick, strain, add sugar to taste, and flavour with rosewater.

Things to do with Dried Apples.

I have not given enough attention to dried food over the years of this blog. I am not sure why that is,but I hope to remedy the deficiency in part today. Drying is, of course, one of the oldest methods of food preservation, but other than as an ingredient for pastries and cakes, or as a snack, it is not show up often on our culinary radar these days, as most of us have easy access to fresh fruit all year round.

There are several ways in which to dry apples:-

Dried Apples and Pears.

The apples and pears which arrive here in a dried state from France, are thus prepared. The fruit is put into boiling water, in which it is left until it becomes soft. It is then taken out and carefully peeled, the stalk being left on. To prevent any loss of juice, it is placed on a strainer, under which is a dish. When peeled it is put into an oven heated to the ordinary temperature for bread, and left there 24 hours. When taken out and cold, the fruit is pressed flat between the hands; and after being plunged in its own juice, which has been set apart for that purpose, it is packed in boxes and exported.

The Portfolio of Entertaining & Instructive Varieties in History, Literature,

Fine Arts, etc.(London, 1825)

Dried Apples.

These are dried by taking some fruit proper for the purpose, paring and coring it, and cutting all up into thin slices, which are threaded upon a string, and hung in dry airy places, where they soon get perfectly dry, and are used for sauces, &c„ by dressing them in syrup.

How to Cook Potatoes, Apples, Eggs and Fish: Four Hundred Different Ways (New York, 1869)

Dried Apples à l’Anglaise.

Put them into a very slack oven, three or four days successively; as they become soft, gently flatten them by keeping a slight weight over them when they are out of the oven. The heat may be rather increased towards the last.

How to cook apples: shown in a hundred different ways of dressing that fruit (1865)

Dried Apples.

Are of two or more kinds, the home-made or sundried generally the cheaper, but by many preferred, and the light-colored, nearly white evaporated, which are in some places treated with sulphur fumes and dried in a current or cold blast of air upon sieves moving upwards in a darkened shaft, whence they emerge almost ready for packing; these apples, with careful cooking, can be restored very nearly to the appearance of the fresh fruit.

The Steward’s Handbook, and Guide to Party Catering (Chicago, 1903)

And there are a lot of ways to use dried apples:-

Dried Apples.

Dried apples, when they have been made of good fruit and carefully prepared, are very nice—really much richer, when gently stewed till perfectly tender, than the fresh fruit. They make good won with sago and tapioca, as well as with bread, lemon, and Zante currants.

For stewed sauce, a fine variety can be obtained by putting with them quinces, green grapes, and rhubarb, either canned or fresh, and lemon pulp; and some use prune, raisins, and other fruits,

both domestic and foreign. Sweet dried apples, usually so hard to dispose of, go off briskly when stewed with cranberries, rhubarb, and other sour articles, when nice dried apples can be had.

What to Eat, and how to Cook it: With Rules for Preserving, Canning and Drying

Fruits and Vegetables (1870)

Dried Apple Pie.

Cut out all imperfections from tart dried apples, (a sharp pair, of 1 scissors is best for this purpose) then rinse them in cold water, put them in a vessel and put water over three inches more than to cover them; let them stand one night, then put them over a gentle fire with the water in which they were soaked, cover them and let them stew gently; boil a lemon in, water until a straw will pierce the skin; cut it in thin slices, or smaller, and put it to the apples with the juice from it; add half a pound of clean brown sugar for each quart of apples, let them stew until they  are soft, then turn them into dishes to become cool .

Rub the pie dishes over with a small bit of sponge, dipped in butter, line them with pie-paste, put in the stewed apple half an inch thick, thinning it towards the edge; roll an upper crust ,rather thin, out three or four small slits each side of the middle and put it over the pie; trim them neatly with a sharp knife, and bake in a quick oven for three-quarters of an hour.

American Lady's System of Cookery (1860)

Anyone for Welsh Eggs?

Yesterday’s post was about the availability of dried egg in Britain during World War II, and I was tempted to give you the Ministry of Food’s recipe for “Welsh Eggs” (which used dried eggs of course) as the finale to the story. I decided on reflection however to hold it over until today so that I could explore the concept further, as I presumed the recipe was a variation of the theme of Welsh Rabbit. As most of you know, Welsh Rabbit is one of my favourite topics (see previous posts here and here) and I hoped to add something to my appreciation of the dish.  As it turns out, the recipe is a variation on the theme of scrambled eggs -  the Welsh connection being the inclusion of leeks.

Welsh Eggs.

A new supper dish that tastes as good as it looks.

Here’s a new egg dish, made with dried eggs, that you’ll find a delightful change. It’s made with “hard boiled” eggs – that is, dried eggs reconstituted and steamed in greased egg-cups or moulds for 15 minutes.

For Welsh Eggs you need: 1 oz. margarine (or dripping); 3 level tablespoons plain flour; ½ pint milk (or milk and water); 2 level tablespoons coarsely chopped leek or spring onion;  1 level teaspoon salt; ½ level  teaspoon pepper; 4 dried eggs, hard-boiled and chopped; 4 pieces toast.

Melt the margarine and stir in the flour to absorb the fat. Then add the milk gradually and bring to the boil, add the leek or onion, and seasoning, and stir until cooked – about five minutes. Finally, add the chopped egg and serve on hot toast. (Sufficient for four.)

One of the main secrets of success, when using dried eggs for scrambled eggs and omelettes, is to be very careful about reconstituting. Measure the dried eggs exactly – one level tablespoon to two of water, and be sure to get out all the lumps before you start. Season generously. A pinch of dry mustard (added before reconstituting) is a good addition to scrambled eggs; it brings out the real egg flavour.

Dried eggs are shell eggs with only water and shell taken away. You need never go short of delicious egg dishes with a packet of dried eggs in the house.

Ministry of Food’s Food Facts leaflet, as published in

The Times [London, England] 24 May 1945

I did find a couple of other recipes also called Welsh Eggs in other sources. The first one below does have an element of Welsh Rabbit about it in that it contains cheese. The second recipe has a creamy scrambled egg with cheese, so has the best of both concepts perhaps.

Welsh Eggs

Two or more eggs, butter, seasoning, a few slices of cheese.

Well butter some scallop shells and line each with some very thin slices of cheese. Break an egg carefully into each, and put a few more shreds of cheese on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake in a moderate oven for a few minutes, until the egg is lightly set, and the cheese is lightly browned. Serve immediately.

Worker (Brisbane, Qld) 31 May 1938

Welsh Shirred Eggs.

Place in a skillet 3 tablespoons butter, and when melted add ½ cup cream and 4 well-beaten eggs, seasoning with salt, pepper, and a little grated onion. Stir as for the scrambled eggs while cooking, and when just ready to serve add ½ cup grated cheese, and as soon as the cheese is melted, serve.

Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW) 16 July 1922

Dried Egg off the Ration!

The London Times of this day (June 24) in 1942 gave up considerable space to an important announcement about a development in the wartime food supply:

Home News

DRIED EGGS ON SALE TODAY

--

19,000,000 TINS AS A FIRST INSTALMENT

--

VALUABLE NEW FOOD

Nineteen million tins, each containing 12 dried eggs, will be on sale at grocers’ shops and dairies today at 1s.9d. a tin. Within the next three weeks another 15,000,000 tins will reach retailers, and after that a further distribution will ensure that sufficient have been sent out to provide a tin for each registered consumer of eggs within a space of five weeks.

In other words, the Ministry of Food will be placing on the market before the end of July the equivalent of 540,000,000 eggs.

Actually , it Is doing far more, for caterers are receiving the generous allowance of 1lb. of dried egg (or nearly 40 eggs) for each 100 meals served, and other large supplies are going to bakers. The Minister yesterday emphasized that this new product was not an egg substitute but entirely egg, with all its nutritive value, minus only water and shell, which was profiles the transport over thousands of miles of water.

Before the war 55 per cent of our eggs came from the Continent of Europe; this new dried egg will more than compensate for that loss. It occupies only one sixth of the shipping space needed for eggs in shell, and refrigerated shipping is not needed. The dried egg, which will supersede imports of eggs in shell except from Eire, will come from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Argentina.

The Ministry of Food of course stepped up its production of advice on the use of dried eggs over the ensuing months. The following recipe appeared in The Times of 21 August, 1942:

Savoury Bake.

Cooking time: ½ hour.

Ingredients: 4 slices of stale bread, 4 tablespoons grated cheese, 2 tablespoonfuls milk, 1 dried egg (1 level tablespoonful dried egg, 2 tablespoonfuls water), 1 tablespoonful chopped onion or shallot or 1 teaspoonful mixed herbs, salt, pepper, 1 ½ level tablespoonfuls fat.

Quantity: 4 helpings.

Method: Soak bread in water until soft, squeeze out water and beat bread with a fork until smooth. Add grated cheese, onion or herbs, egg, milk, pepper, salt. Beat mixture well. Heat fat in baking tin. Spread in the mixture, bake in a moderate oven for half an hour.

If you don’t want to use the oven, melt the fat in a pan, drop large spoonfuls of the mixture in and fry both sides until golden brown. Serve at once with a green vegetable.

To make a Marjoram Pudding (1737)

 I am going to start today at my usual end-point – the recipe for the day.

To make a Marjoram Pudding.

Take the Curd of a Quart of Milk finely broken, a good Handful or more of sweet Marjoram chopped as small as Dust, and mingle with the Curd 5 Eggs, but 3 Whites, beaten with Rose-water, some Nutmeg and Sugar, and half a Pint of Cream; beat all these well together, and put in 3 Quarters of a Pound of melted Butter; put a thin Sheet of Paste at the Bottom of your Dish; then pour in your Pudding, and with a Spur cut out little slips of Paste the breadth of your little Finger, and lay them all over cross and cross in large Diamonds; put some small bits of Butter on the Top, and bake it. This is old fashioned.

The complete family-piece: and, country gentleman, and farmer's best guide

(London, 1737)

Firstly, I have to say that I don’t remember coming across any other recipes in which marjoram is named in the title and is the sole flavouring ingredient – which is reason enough for it to catch my eye in the first place. Secondly, I love the final sentence – even more so because it is italicized!

Let us briefly revise marjoram. According to the OED it is “any of various plants of the genus Origanum (family Lamiaceae (Labiatae)), comprising aromatic herbs and low shrubs whose leaves are much used in cooking; esp. O. vulgare (also wild marjoram, common marjoram), native on chalk and limestone in northern Europe, the less pungent O. majorana (also sweet marjoram, knotted marjoram), and the shrub O. onites (also pot marjoram). Also: the fresh or dried leaves of any of these plants, esp. those of O. majorana. The leaves of O. vulgare are usually known in cookery as oregano.”  It is attested in English from 1393, but of course must have been known and used well before this – likely for centuries before.

Mrs. Beeton has relatively few words to say on marjoram in her Book of Household Management, published in 1861, although she does include it in quite a number of recipes. Specifically, she says:

MARJORAM.--Although there are several species of marjoram, that which is known as the sweet or knotted marjoram, is the one usually preferred in cookery. It is a native of Portugal, and     when its leaves are used as a seasoning herb, they have an agreeable aromatic flavour. The winter sweet marjoram used for the same purposes, is a native of Greece, and the pot-marjoram is another variety brought from Sicily. All of them are favourite ingredients in soups, stuffings, &c.

As well as its appearance in various soups, stuffings, etc. the manual does include marjoram in this rather pleasant-sounding dried herb mix:

Herb Powder for Flavouring, when Fresh Herbs are not obtainable.

INGREDIENTS.-1 oz. of dried lemon-thyme, 1 oz. of dried winter savory, 1 oz. of dried sweet marjoram and basil, 2 oz. of dried parsley, 1 oz. of dried lemon-peel.

Mode. Prepare and dry the herbs by recipe No. 445; pick the leaves from the stalks, pound them, and sift them through a hair-sieve; mix in the above proportions, and keep in glass bottles, carefully excluding the air. This, we think, a far better method of keeping herbs, as the flavour and fragrance do not evaporate so much as when they are merely put in paper bags. Preparing them in this way, you have them ready for use at a moment's notice.

Mint, sage, parsley, &c., dried, pounded, and each put into separate

bottles, will be found very useful in winter.

Please do let me know if you find any other recipes which feature marjoram!

Delicious, with Dried Eggs.

With fresh eggs in short supply for much of the war, the Ministry of Food in Britain in WW II worked hard to “sell” the idea and the reality of dried eggs to the general public. The Ministry’s weekly Food Facts and Dried Egg leaflets assured housewives that the product was ‘made from top- quality new laid eggs, with only the shell and water taken away’, was ‘easy to get, easy to cook, and easy on the purse’, and that ‘the main secret in using dried eggs is to be very careful about the reconstituting …’

The Ministry was still telling the dried egg tale for years after the war ended. Rationing of many goods remained in force in Britain until July 1954, and food shortages were at times worse afterwards than they had been during the war itself. In 1948, as Easter approached, the Ministry’s regular Food Facts leaflet contained a recipe for “An Easter Treat for the Family” - a chocolate cake made with dried egg (no need to reconstitute when used in baking).

Delicious, Easy to Make Chocolate Cake.

If you are planning to use some of your sugar and fats for Easter Baking, whey not a chocolate cake? This one is delicious. You’ll find the recipe, which is kitchen-tested, is not too hard on the rations. The cake is excellent even withoug the icing.

Chocolate Cake.

2 oz. margarine; 3 oz. sugar; 2 level dessersps. Syrup, 3 level tablesps. dried egg, dry; 6 tablesps. water; vanilla essence; 6 oz. plain flour; 1 level teasp baking powder; 2 level tablesps. cocoa; ¼ level teasp. salt; 1 level teasp. bicarbonate of soda; about ¼ pint milk and water.
Cream margarine, sugar, and syrup. Beat in egg, then water and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients (except soda), add to mixture alternately with milk in which soda is dissolved, to make a soft consistency. Spread evenly in well-greased 8 inch sandwich tin, and bake in a moderate oven for 25-30 minutes.

Chocolate Cream Icing.

1 ½ oz. sugar, 1 ½ oz. margarine, 1 teasp vanilla essence; 2 level tablesp soya flour; 1 level tablesp cocoa; 1 tablesp hot water.
Cream sugar and margarine well, add essence, and cream again. Add soya four, cocoa, and hot water gradually. Beat again until smooth and light in colour. Spread over cake and finish by marking in circles with prongs of a fork.

Quotation for the Day.

Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.
Denis Diderot (1713-1784)

Dried Egg Cakes: Five from One Basic Recipe (1946)

World War II ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, but the necessity of assisting the reconstruction of Europe meant that food rationing in Britain did not end until July 4, 1954. For the entire fourteen years of the rationing period, the Ministry of Food churned out regular advice to housewives over the radio and via newspaper articles and leaflets, to help them manage the shortages. One of the most hated intermittent substitutes for the real thing was the dreaded dried egg. In July 1946 the Ministry was still suggesting ways in which they could be used, as the following recipes from one of their regular leaflets shows:

5 different cakes from one simple recipe!

2 ½ oz. margarine; 3 oz. sugar; 2 dried eggs, dry; 4 tablespoons water; 2 level tablespoons household milk (dry); ½ lb. flour; 4 level teaspoons baking powder; water to mix (just under half a pint); flavouring.

Cream fat and sugar, adding dried eggs, dry. Beat in water gradually. Sieve milk, flour, and baking powder together and add to creamed mixture. Mix to a soft dropping consistency with the water, and put into a greased tin and bake in a moderate oven for 1 -1 ½ hours. (This makes a good plain cake.) Vanilla, lemon, or any other flavouring could be added.)

The advantage of a basic cake recipe like this is that once you’ve got the knack of making it, you can use the same recipe for almost any kind of cake.

You can make little cakes and tart fillings, a jam sandwich, a fruit cake or a chocolate cake, merely be varying the recipe slightly.

Notice that you add the dried eggs dry to the creamed fat and sugar. And you add the household milk dry to the other dry ingredients. This is far easier than reconstituting the eggs and milk before you begin. It’s easier even than using the shell eggs – and every bit as good!

With this recipe it’s very little trouble to make a delicious cake for tea. And your family will certainly think it’s a first-rate idea.

Variations.

FRUIT CAKE.

Ass 2 level teasp. mixed spice to the dry ingredients before they are sieved, and add 2 to 4 oz. dried fruit to the creamed mixture with the dry ingredients. Baking time as recipe.

CHOCOLATE CAKES.

Add  1 level tablesp. syrup to the creamed mixture and 3 level tablesp. cocoa to the dry ingredients. This mixture requires less water – about a quarter-pint. (Makes about 18 small cakes.) Bake in patty-pans about 15 to 20 minutes.

MARMALADE SANDWICH.

Add 2 level teasp. marmalade and ½ teasp. almond essence to creamed mixture. Bake in sandwich tins in moderate oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Spread with marmalade when cold.

GINGER CAKE.

Add 3 level teasps. ginger and 1 level teasp. bicarb of soda to the dry ingredients, and 1 level tablesp. syrup to creamed mixture. Pour into flat tin and bake 15-20 mins in a hot oven.

Packed Lunches for a Whole Week, from 1943.

I have some simple, useful advice for you today, to help with one of the tedious chores of the week – what to put in the packed lunches for the family. The suggestions may appear a little un-exciting at first glance, but they are from a very challenging time, food-wise, and are testament to human ingenuity, I think. From the British Wartime Ministry of Food’s Food Facts leaflet number 160, produced in July 1943, may I share the following ideas with you?

Packed Lunches for a Whole Week.

Six suggestions for a packed meal that are tasty, nourishing, and full of variety.

Are you stumped to know what to put in the packed lunches your family take off to work? It is a problem.

You don’t want to give them the same old thing every day – and it’s not good for them, either. People do best on variety, and they need a balance of body-building and energy-giving good, including plenty of protective food, especially greenstuff.

Follow these suggestions. They’ll take a load off your mind for a whole week, and they’ll make sure the lunches you put up contain proper nourishment.

MONDAY.

Sandwiches filled with a mixture of cold mashed potato, grated cheese, chutney, and chopped fresh parsley.

Lettuce

Jam turnover.

TUESDAY

Turnover filled with mixture of chopped cooked beans, melted cheese, and chopped parsley; tomato

Raw cabbage salad in a screw-top jar

Chocolate Pin Wheels.

WEDNESDAY

Potato scones filled with scrambled dried eggs, cooked mixed vegetables, and chopped parsley

Watercress

Prune dumplings

THURSDAY

Rissoles made with cooked meat, cooked beans, and mashed potato

Raw spinach and lettuce

Fruit turnovers

FRIDAY

Soup

Sandwiches filled with scrambled dried eggs, mashed potato, and chopped fried bacon

Radishes or tomatoes

Lettuce

SATURDAY

Turnover filled with sausage meat, cooked dried peas, herbs, chopped parsley, and chopped leek or onion

Raw cabbage salad in a screw-top jar

Oatmeal scones and jam

The leaflet added that “Recipes for any of the above may be had from the Ministry of Food, Portman Square, London, W1.” I have, however, been unable to find a recipe for the Chocolate Pin Wheels given in the Tuesday menu. Instead, I give you the instructions for using dried egg to make an omelette, from a Food Facts leaflet of July 1942 – it might be a good alternative to the scrambled dried egg sandwich filling.

Spanish Omelette

Time: Preparation 15 minutes. Cooking 10 minutes. Ingredients: 2 eggs (2 level tablespoons of dried egg mixed with 4 tablespoonfuls of water), 8 oz. shredded mixed vegetables, 1 ½ oz. margarine or dripping, 2 tablespoonfuls water,  a pinch of salt and pepper, a little chopped spring onion or parsley. Quantity: 2 helpings. Method: Beat the eggs. Heat the fat in a frying pan and fry the vegetables and spring onion until tender. Add the eggs, water, and seasoning, stir until the eggs are set, form into a roll, and serve immediately.

Pieces of Pumpkin.

I read somewhere that 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins are grown and sold every year in the USA, and that most of these are used around Halloween. Assuming that this figure is ball-park correct, that is an awful lot of pumpkin.

What do you do with all of the pumpkin innards that are removed in the making of all of those scary candle-lit heads? Whatever the poundage of pumpkins used in Halloween sculpture - and I am sure it is large - there must be an awful lot of pumpkin flesh dotting kitchen landscapes at this time of year. My mission in the next couple of days is to help you find uses for these chunks, slivers, and shavings of this wonderful vegetable which is actually a fruit.

If you really cannot deal with all of this vegetable flesh right now, you could dry some of it for future use. The New Hydropathic Cook Book (1854) tells us that dried and pulverised pumpkin was a small industry for the Shakers, who “sell the article as pumpkin powder, which is very convenient for making pies expeditiously.”  

On second thoughts, you are probably too busy making scary costumes and stocking up on candy to be bothered drying pumpkin flesh right now, but in case you are still interested this is how the method was described in the Janesville Gazette of October 19, 1878:

‘Pumpkins may be put up in the old fashioned mode of cutting them into rings, paring, and drying upon poles; or they may be cut up into small pieces and dried on plates In the sun and oven. A better way, however, is to pare, stew and strain them, just as if for pies; then spread the pulp on earthen dishes, and dry quickly in the hot sun or a partially heated oven. If dried slowly, there is danger of souring. Store in a dry room. Kept in this manner they retain much of the freshness and flavor of newly gathered fruit. The dried pulp should be soaked in milk a few hours before using. In making pies they are greatly improved by stirring the pumpkin in

scalding milk, especially if eggs be not used; but without eggs they fall far short of the true "pumpkin pie."’

If you are really, really keen, you could make your own yeast with your leftover pumpkin pieces – fresh or dried. An article from the St. James's Chronicle, or British Evening Post of January 20, 1795 tells you how (and reminds us that the yeast can also be used to make beer):

To make Pumpkin Yeast.  

Cut the Pumpkin in slices, and with a handful of Hops, boil it in a small quantity of water, till it is soft enough to pass through a Cullender. When strained, put it in an earthen or Stone Jar, with a sufficient quantity, of good Yeast to ferment it. It will be fit for use in a day or two, and will keep a month or six weeks.

The Pumkins may be sliced and dried, in order to make it the year round. From experience it is found to be quite equal to the best Brewers Yeast, for the purpose of making Bread, or in family beer.’

Now you have some pumpkin yeast, you could use it instead of the recommended potato yeast, to make pumpkin-bread from the following recipe.

Pumpkin Bread.

Stew and strain the pumpkin, stiffen it with a little Indian-meal, and then add as much more wheaten flour, with the necessary quantity of potato-yeast; bake two hours. This is an excellent and wholesome bread.

The New Hydropathic Cook Book (1854) 

And then you can spread your bread with this delightful-sounding conserve:

Pumpkin Marmalade.

Peel and seed 8lb pumpkin. Cut into small strips, put into a preserving pan and add the grated rinds, and juice of two oranges and one lemon and 71b. sugar. Bruise 3oz, root ginger and tie up in a mus- lin bag. Add to the other ingredients and leave'tor 24 hours. Cook till tender und transparent looking. Put into pots, and tie down.

The Canberra Times, 12 February 1931

Quotation for the Day.

A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween.

Erma Bombeck