The Invention of Red Currant Jelly.

Let us agree that recipes are never “invented” at a single point in time by a single individual. Dishes evolve over time by adaptation of existing recipes. The following article, from the Times [London, England] of 20 August 1937 is a marvelous example of international culinary, historical, and journalistic silliness on the subject of invention of recipes. I am sure it will particularly amuse my food history friends.

"Inventor of Red Currant Jelly."

FRENCH CLAIM DISPUTED.

Who invented red currant jelly? On Sunday Frenchmen will pay tribute to the memory of Perrin Lamothe, as inventor, by unveiling an obelisk in his honour at Velaines-en-Barrois. English chefs laugh at the idea that the most typical of all English preserves should be attributed to a Frenchman, who, they say, undoubtedly got the idea from England.

Lamothe is said to have made his discovery in 1364, but Mr. Alfred Willes, chef at Simpson’s Restaurant, in the Strand, where scores of red currant jelly are served weekly with the saddle o’mutton, recalled yesterday an old rhyme, the origin of which is lost in antiquity. It would seem to prove that red currant jelly was known in England nearly a century before Lamothe’s time. At a great and noble feast in the thirteenth century, when Edward I is said to have knighted his son on the eve of his Scottish expedition, two royal swans were served as the principal item. According to the old rhyme, when serving the swan –

To a gravy of beef good and strong I opine

You’ll be right if you add half a pint of port wine,

Then serve the whole up with some red currant jelly.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY RECIPE.

This sauce was always used with Norwich cygnets until a century ago. One of the earliest recipes for red currant jelly goes back to the sixteenth century, and it was English. Scottish people a few years ago were indignant when an attempt was made to prove that haggis had its origins in France, and now it appears to be the turn of the English to suffer from the culinary assertions of France. All chefs are agreed that la cuisine française is the basis of all good cooking, but most of them are willing to give to England the credit for red currant jelly.

I am unable to find anything at all on Perrin Lamothe, but no doubt this is due to my inability to read medieval French. Perhaps one of you out there can add some information?

There is a famous preserve called Bar-le-duc jelly or Lorraine jelly which is claimed to be the one ‘invented’ by M.Lamothe. It is indeed made from white or red currants, and has been prepared in the area for centuries. The invention claim appears to date from a single mention of a ‘confiture’ in a legal document from the region dated 1344 (the jar of confiture was apparently a gift to a judge) but the specific fruit is not mentioned. Untruth in Advertising clearly has a long history.

The topic of currants needs further attention, I feel, but in the meanwhile, please enjoy the following take on English Cumberland sauce, which as we all know, requires redcurrant jelly as an ingredient.

Gelée Cumberland.

Take a very thinly peeled rind of an orange, a small piece of lemon peel, two tablespoonfuls of redcurrant jelly, a gill of clear soup [stock] and a teaspoonful of Worcestershire Sauce. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil slowly, then strain through a bit of muslin into a small glass bowl and let it set. Serve with cold meats or ham. One chef adds a pinch of ground ginger for those who like it highly seasoned.

Times [London, England] 7 Feb. 1938; In an article called ‘When there is Stock.’

Mock Soups and Sauces.

You never know what you will find, when you search, do you? In my hunt for vegetables to fake with vegetables for yesterday’s post, naturally some other interesting things turned up which, equally naturally, I want to share with you.

The following mock soups and sauces may sit perfectly on your menu alongside your mock vegetables.

To Make Mock Caper Sauce.

Boil some parsley, chop it not very fine, put it in some melted butter with a tablespoonful of vinegar. Give it one boil up.

Practical and economical cookery with a series of bills of fare (1858)

by Ann Smith.

Mock Parsley Sauce

If you cannot get any parsley, you may easily communicate the flavour of it to your sauce, by tying up half a drachm of parsley seed in a piece of clean muslin, and boiling it for ten minutes in five tablespoonsful of water; use this water to melt your butter with; this will impose on the Palate; to cheat the Eye, parboil a little spinage, and chop it fine, and stir it into melted butter.

Apicius redivivus. The Cooks Oracle ... Second edition; (1818)

by William Kitchiner.

Mock horseradish

4 tablespoonfuls grated swedes, 1 ½ teaspoonfuls mustard, 1 ½ tablespoonfuls vinegar.

The Ministry Of Food: Food Facts Leaflet.

Times (London, England) 20 Apr. 1942:

Mock Tomata Sauce.

Roast any quantity of sharp-tasted apples in an oven, and when sufficiently done, let them be pulped in the usual manner. Put the pulp into a marble mortar, with as much turmeric as will give it the exact colour of tomata sauce, and as much Chili vinegar as will give it the same acid that the tomata has. When uniformly mixed, give a gentle boil in a tinned sauce-pan, having previously shred into each quart, a quarter of an ounce of garlic, an ounce of shalot, a tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper, and a little salt. When cold, take out the garlic and shalot, and put the sauce into stone bottles. This sauce should be of the consistence of a thick syrup, which may be regulated by the Chili vinegar.

Culina Famulatrix Medicinæ (1810) by A. Hunter.

Bread Sauce.

A mock bread sauce may be made with maize semolina.

Ingredients. – One gill breadcrumb, half a pint of milk, one small onion, two cloves, salt, pepper.

Method. – Put the milk on to boil, with the onion peeled, in which have been stuck two cloves. When the milk is boiling add the breadcrumbs and stand the pan over very gentle heat till the bread has absorbed the ilk and become thick. Take out the onion and cloves, add the seasoning, reheat and serve. If too thick add a little more milk.

The Eat-Less-Meat Book: War Ration Cookery; Peel, Dorothy Constance (Bayliff) "Mrs. C. S. Peel" (London, 1918.)

Mock Pea-Soup for ten persons.

Make a batter of three table-spoonfuls of flour, four eggs, some sweet cream, and a little salt; pour this batter through a colander with large holes in it, into boiling lard, as soon as these drops (which are called peas) are baked to a light brown, take them out with a ladle, and let the lard drain off upon slices of bread; then let them boil for a few minutes in brown soup-stock.

The United States Cook Book: A Complete Manual for Ladies, Housekeepers and Cooks ... with Particular Reference to the Climate and Productions of the United States; transl. from the German. (1865)

How to Fake Vegetables with Vegetables.

One of my favourite themes, as many of you know, is that of ‘mock’ food. Mock food has a long and illustrious history over many centuries, and I have included numerous examples here in almost ten years of blogging. There are many reasons why cooks may choose to mimic a particular dish. Nostalgia may be the impetus, if a favourite dish or ingredient is not available for reasons of (for example) migration, famine, or war. Economic reasons may apply too, if a preferred ingredient is unaffordable. Cultural and religious reasons can either dictate or forbid a specific dish, and hence the desire for an acceptable alternative – such as providing ‘mock’ animal products during the Christian period of Lent, for example.

There are also interesting issues of transparency and intent in the mock food debate. Is the dish a temporary trick, intended to amuse, impress, or induce horror in the guests when the truth is ultimately revealed, or is the intent a deliberate deceit on the part of the perpetrator for some sort of slightly sinister motive?

I can understand one or more of these justifications being applicable in many examples of mock food, but I am hard pressed to understand what is behind some of the following examples. Why not just serve bean shoots openly as bean shoots, rather than pretend they are spinach, for example?

Mock Spinach.

Pick young, green bean tips, boil or steam with a sprig of mint, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon sugar (if liked). Serve with butter, salt and pepper, as spinach. This method matures and strengthens the main bean crop.

Examiner (Launceston, Tas.) 6 December 1947

Onions are available cheaply everywhere, and they store easily, so their lack is not likely to be a common occurrence - and even if they are unavailable, in what dish are fried onions so absolutely essential that one would need or want to ‘mock’ them? And would anyone really be fooled?

Mock Fried Onions.

½ medium-sized cabbage, sliced.

1 tbsp. margarine

2 tbsps. vinegar.

Parboil cabbage. Strain. Add margarine and vinegar. Place in pan, cove and fry till brown and tender.

Freeport Journal Standard of January 27, 1955

Substituting low-status turnips for elegant and slightly mysterious artichokes seems like a strange subterfuge to me. The economic argument might be appropriate, I guess, but would it fool anyone?  

                                                  

Mock Artichokes.

Pare a solid white turnip, cut it into slices a quarter of an inch thick, and with a round cutter, cut from each slice a “cake” about an inch and a half in diameter. Cook in boiling unsalted water until perfectly transparent. Arrange them on a small platter, one slice overlapping the other; put at the end of the platter a well-made egg sauce.

Mrs. Rorer’s Diet for the Sick (1914)

My final example for the day is for mock olives. Would anyone be fooled, do you think? Or impressed, if you chose to tell? Why not proudly put out your home-preserved pickled green plums, instead?

Mock Olives.

¼ peck of green plums                   1 ounce of white mustard-seed

2 quarts of cider vinegar                 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of salt

Add the mustard and salt to the vinegar, pour into a porcelain-lined kettle, and bring quickly to boiling-point, pour it while boiling over the green plums, and stand away over-night. In the morning, drain off the vinegar, and make it again boiling hot and pour it over the plums. When cold, put into bottles and cork tightly.

Canning and Preserving (1887) Sarah Tyson Rorer

Things to do with Broad Beans.

Broad beans (Vicia faba, also called fava beans, horse beans, field beans) are one of the most ancient plants cultivated by humans. For millennia, across Europe, North Africa, and the Mediterranean region, various cultivars were a staple food for the poor as well as an important fodder crop for farm animals.

In olden times, the beans were commonly dried and used in potages and, when ground t meal, to eke out other forms of flour to make bread. 

Beans of all types have a great affinity for bacon and ham, and broad beans are no exception. One of the most enduring and popular ways to serve broad beans is in a mix with diced bacon – a dish sometimes known as ‘Blanks and Prizes.’ The name is explained in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century (1855) by James Orchard Halliwell:

BLANKS-AND-PRIZES. Beans with boiled bacon chopped up and mixed together; the vegetable being termed a blank, and the meat a prize. Salop.

There are of course many ways of preparing broad beans for the table, and these are nicely summarized in The Art of Preparing Vegetables for the Table, by Sutton & Sons (London, 1888):

Broad Beans.

As a rule Broad Beans are admirably served with bacon on most tables, but it is a common fault that they are too old and require the digestion of an ostrich to do justice to them. In any case it is a great point to serve Beans with Parsley butter, for the harmony of flavours is then complete; without good butter containing plenty of Parsley, boiled Beans are but a coarse dish.

But the cookery of Broad Beans is not yet disposed of. We will begin with some nice young Beans quite fresh gathered, green, tender and handsome. Probably it will not occur to many to cook them in the pods, but it may be done with advantage, and if served with a smothering of well-made Parsley butter, the dish will be pronounced excellent.

Full-grown Beans must be shelled and have about twenty minutes hard boiling. They should never be boiled with the bacon for a good table, but there is nothing so suitable to eat with them as bacon or ham.

Old Beans should be well cooked, and being strained off should be thrown on to a clean cloth and have the skins removed. They are then to be put into a stewpan with some white sauce and an abundance of Parsley chopped fine and stirred round occasionally until they have become thoroughly hotted. Or, if time permit, mash them with a fork, dust them with flour, throw in a liberal quantity of minced Parsley and a lump of butter, and moisten with sufficient stock to keep them from burning: stir them about until they are well hotted, allowing time for. the flour to thicken, and then serve.

I have a selection of other ideas for broad beans for you too, from a variety of sources:

Broad Bean Salad.

Take a dish of cold Boiled beans, remove the skins, and place in a salad bowl with

some thin slices of lean, ham or tongue. If you have some lettuce, add it to the beans and ham. Sprinkle a little chopped parsley over all, then add the dressing, which should be made thus: Beat a raw egg, add to it a little dry mustard, pepper, and (gradually) three large tablespoonfuls of salad oil. Work all thoroughly together, add a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar, and another of common vinegar.

The Clarence River Advocate (NSW) 1 March 1907

Beans and Tomatoes.

Put 1 pint of cooked broad beans into a greased casserole, and cover with sliced tomatoes, and a teaspoonful of finely chopped spring onions. Season and pour over ½ a pint of white sauce to which the yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley have been added. Cook in a moderate oven or over low heat, with the lid on the casserole, for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve in the casserole.

The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld) 24 July 1929

A Channel Islands Recipe.

In the Channel Islands the dried beans are the foundation of a very favourite dish. The soaked beans are placed in a large earthenware jar, with a fitting lid, called a bean pot, and a piece of bacon or salt pork is put in the middle of them. Seasonings are added and enough stock to moisten, and the beans are cooked a very long time in a slow oven. Very often the cottage folk take their jars of beans to the bake-house to be cooked.

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA) 19 September 1929

Broad Bean Soup.

Boil about two pounds of beans till tender, then remove all the skin carefully, or they will spoil the colour of the soup. Warm the beans in a little stock, and then pass through a fine sieve, and return to the saucepan. If required, add more stock to thin the soup to the desired consistency, and season it with pepper and salt and a little chopped onion, Boil, stirring meanwhile, and serve with a dusting of parsley strewn over the tureen.

The stock used in this recipe should be well flavoured with the usual soup vegetables, and be carefully freed from fat.

The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld.) 16 May 1898

Working Class Dining Rooms, Glasgow 1863.

The increasing industrialization of Victorian Britain required a large workforce – and the workers needed to be fed. Working class folk usually had little or no cooking facilities, so buying prepared food from street vendors was the norm. In the second half of the nineteenth century, there was a move to provide better quality dinners to those who kept the mills, factories, and shipyards in operation. A short piece in Lloyds Weekly Newspaper of April 12, 1863 described the new system in Glasgow, Scotland

WORKING-CLASS DINING-ROOMS.

The following interesting letter on this important subject has been addressed to the editor of the Times:-

I visited last week the new dining rooms for the working-classes at Glasgow; and I will, if you please, describe in a few words what I saw and ate there. I am anxious to do this, because I perceive that a praiseworthy attempt is about to be made in London to follow the example which has been set in Glasgow; and I think that I shall be able to show that the bill of fare issued on Saturday by “The London Association for the Establishment of Dining and Refreshment Rooms for the Working Classes” lacks one main element – viz., simplicity – which has assured to the Glasgovians the success they so well deserve.

There are in Glasgow about eight or ten sets of these new dining-rooms, which will all, in a few days, be supplied from one central cooking establishment; the kitchens which now supply them being mere makeshifts.

….. on each table stands a large decanter of fair spring water and some tumblers. No beer, wine, or spirits are sold or consumed on the premises.

Every ration of everything sold, save meat, costs one penny. A ration of meat costs three halfpence; lemonade, ginger-beer, and soda water are sold at a penny a bottle. The first floor is chiefly devoted to the sale and consumption of tea, coffee, bread and butter, and cold meat and eggs; on the upper floor, broth, soup, cold meat, hot collop, potatoes, rice and plum pudding are sold.

For fourpence halfpenny I got a pint basin of pea soup, a plate of hot minced collops, a plate of potatoes, and eight ounces of bread; my companion, Mr. Stirling, of Keir, got, for the same sum, a pint basin of broth, a plate of cold beef, a plate of potatoes, and a slice of plum pudding. The quantity of meat was small, but the ensemble of the dinner was certainly sufficient to satisfy one not endowed with an exorbitant appetite; and as each article of which our dinner was composed was distinctly priced, a voracious consumer can readily, by paying a penny or three halfpence more, adapt his supplies to the extraordinary requirements of his stomach.

After we had thus dined, we called, in passing through the lower room, for a cup of coffee and a slice of bread and butter, and were each supplied, on paying 2d., with a large breakfast-cupful of coffee and milk, and four ounces of bread buttered.

The remarkable feature of our entertainment was that every article was of the very best quality. Better broth, soup, potatoes, and meat are not to be had in any club in London than at these Glasgow dining-rooms; at no railway station that I have ever stopped at in Great Britain are such coffee, milk, and bread and butter ever sold at all.

The provisions are all contracted for, at the best prices; the thick end of the ribs and beefsteaks being the only meat received in the establishment. This meat, cut from the ribs, rolled and dishes, is sold cold in slices; the bones and trimmings going to make the soup and broth, in which the rolled beef is also boiled; while the beef-steaks minced and stewed become “hot collops,” and mixed with potatoes or rice constitute a very savory mess.

After six p.m. whatever soup or broth remains is sold at half-price; and if any should remain after 8 p.m. it is given away; so that none is left at night to disgust, by staleness, the customers of the morrow. But the soup and broth are so good and so popular, that it generally turns out that the day’s supply is consumed before six o’clock, and that nothing remains to be sold at half-price or to be given away.

Several decades later (in 1890) an American perspective on the efforts to feed the workers was published. Luckily for us, Cookery for Working-Men's Wives: Report by United States Consul Underwood, Glasgow included some recipes which fit our theme:

Collops.

Put a little dripping into a saucepan, let it get quite hot, then put in your minced-meat, and keep turning it for ten minutes or so with a fork (if liked, when the dripping is hot, before putting in the meat, add an onion chopped fine and a teaspoonful of flour). When all is a nice brown, add as much boiling water as will cover the meat; close the lid and stew very gently for one hour. Pepper and salt to taste.

New Notions for Restaurants: 1901.

The temperance movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth century in America and Britain resulted in the opening of many alcohol-free dining establishments – and a surprising number of regular publications. One of the latter, which served the former, was a British newspaper called The Temperance Caterer. The paper was ‘The official organ of the National Temperance Caterer’s Association: Representing Temperance Hotels, Coffee Taverns, Clubs, etc. and sole organ of the Temperance Catering Trade’ and both were established in 1876.

The Temperance Caterer published items of interest from around the world, and the edition of March 15, 1901 included the following story:

NEW NOTIONS FOR RESTAURANTS.

Warner’s “Nonesuch” Lunch Rooms, Atlanta, Ga., have in operation a combined bill of fare and check that has many good points.

This bill of fare (a la carte) is printed in quantities on thin slips of paper 9½ x 4 inches in size. Instead of the guest giving his order verbally or writing it on an order check, he ticks off with a pencil the articles he desires. After being used for the filling of the order, this bill of fare is checked with a blue pencil in the service room and is returned to the customer with the total inscribed – finally becoming the cashier’s ticket. It has the advantage of securing the accuracy of an order in the customer’s handwriting, without putting the customer to the trouble of doing the writing.

No waitress has any special station. A boy distributes bill of fare order slips, marking them to correspond with the number of each table. As a customer takes a seat, any waitress or the boy gives him a glass of water, a napkin, and one of the slips. When the customer has checked of what he desires, any waitress near, or passing, picks up the slip and takes it out to the service room. There the order is filled, the slip checked, and the dishes put on a tray. Directly it is ready a bill is rung and the first waitress disengaged delivers it, being guided of course by the number on the slip.

This system keeps all the waitresses uniformly busy, and thus, it is claimed, tends to increase the average amount of work done by each. It further insures absolutely uniform service to every customer – it being merely a matter of chance as to who hands in or delivers an order, there is no possibility of any waitress favoring one customer at the expense of others or the house.

I have several recipes for you today from the chapter on Temperance Drinks in How to Mix Drinks: Or, The Bon-vivant's Companion, Containing ... Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States, Together with the Most Popular British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish Recipes (1862) by Jerry Thomas.

Ginger Lemonade.

Boil twelve pounds and a half of lump-sugar for twenty minutes in ten gallons of water; clear it with the whites of six eggs. Bruise half a pound of common ginger, boil with the liquor, and then pour it upon ten lemons pared. When quite cold, put it in a cask, with two tablespoonfuls of yeast, the lemons sliced, and half an ounce of isinglass. Bang up the cask the next day; it will be ready in two weeks.

Imperial Drink for Families.

Two ounces of cream of tartar, the juice and peel of two or three lemons, and half a pound of coarse sugar. Put these into a gallon pitcher, and pour on boiling water. When cool, it will be fit for use.

Raspberry, Strawberry, Currant, or Orange Effervescing Draughts.

Take one quart of the juice of either of the above fruits,' filter it, and boil it into a syrup, with one pound of powdered loaf-sugar. To this add one ounce and a half of tartaric acid. When cold put it into a bottle, and keep it well corked. When required for use, fill a half-pint tumbler three parts full of water, and add two tablespoonfuls of the syrup. Then stir in briskly a small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, and a very delicious drink will be formed. The color may be improved by adding a very small portion of cochineal to the syrup at the time of boiling.

Drink for the Dog Days.

A bottle of soda-water poured into a large goblet, in which a lemon ice has been placed, forms a deliciously cool and refreshing drink; but should be taken with some care, and positively avoided whilst you are very hot.

Novel Recipes: 1902-40.

As restaurateurs, home cooks, and food bloggers work increasingly frenetically to find that elusive new insight or new spin on their topic of choice, I thought it might be interesting to see what constituted a new idea in food over the last century or so. I have made today’s selection from Australian newspapers and magazines. In all of the examples, the column header proclaimed that these were ‘novel recipes.’

Queen Tomato Sauce.

Simmer over a slow fire 6 whole tomatoes, 2 turnips, 2 apples, 2 onions and 2 small carrots, for 25 minutes. Let cool, then strain through a fine sieve. Add 2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar, 2 of Chili vinegar. Mix the ingredients well together and keep in a cool place. This is very fine.

Leader (Melbourne, Vic) 15 November 1902.

A Biscuit Custard.

Place a layer of sweet biscuits in a buttered pie dish. Sprinkle plenty of currants on the layer. Nearly fill the dish with stewed apples; sprinkle again with currants freely. Beat an egg with a quarter pint of milk, and pour over apples. Place some small Ratafia biscuits on the top, and sprinkle with some grated nutmeg. Bake in a moderate oven.

Leader (Melbourne, Vic.) 23 June 1906.

Broiled Oranges on Toast.

Peel oranges, cut in one-half-inch slices and remove seeds. Brush over with melted butter, place in a buttered broiler, and broil over a clear fire five minutes, turning frequently. Remove to circular pieces of sauted bread or sponge cake and sprinkle with grated sweet chocolate. Serve with whipped cream.

Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA) Saturday 30 May 1914

(In a feature on Novel Recipes for Oranges.)

Apple Soup.

For this unusual, but delicious soup you will need,

2lb. apples.               

2in. stick cinnamon.

5 pints of water.      

Sugar.                        

Half lemon.

2 tablespoons fine sago.

Pare, core and slice apples and put them into a lined saucepan with a small quantity of the water. Add the cinnamon and the thinly-peeled rind of half a lemon and stew slowly until reduced to a pulp. Then rub the apple through a fine sieve, adding the rest of the water (which may be boiling). Return the puree to a clean saucepan, bring to the boil, sweeten to taste and sprinkle in the fine sago. Cook until this is quite clear, then add the lemon juice and some white wine if desired.

The West Australian (Perth, WA) 18 September 1936

(In a feature on Novel Recipes for Apples.)

Tangerine and Marshmallow Cake.

Take 2 eggs, their weight in sugar and flour, the rind and juice of 1 tangerine; whisk the eggs, sugar, grated rind and juice for a quarter of an hour over a pan of hot water. Lightly stir in the flour and a pinch of salt. Grease and flour two sandwich tins, half fill each with the mixture and bake until pale gold in colour in a quick oven. For the icing you will need 2oz. sugar, a tablespoon of water, 8 chopped marshmallows, 1 white of egg. Boil the sugar and water until they thicken to a syrup, add the marshmallows, and as soon as they are melted pour this on to the well-whisked white of egg. Spread a layer of this between the two cakes and pour the rest over the cake top. This cake looks especially good decorated with a few slices of glace orange. This is really a tangerine cake with a marshmallow filling and icing.

Examiner (Launceston, Tas.) 10 December 1937

Ginger Jelly.

Prepare a lemon jelly square according to instructions, but instead of adding hot water, boil up a pint of ginger beer and use this.

The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.) 15 January 1938

Maori Wishes.

Two dessertspoons butter, 1 heaped cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ cup chopped walnuts, 1 cup dates 1 egg, 1 dessertspoon cocoa, juice of 1 lemon.

Beat butter and sugar to cream, add egg, then flour and cocoa, lastly chopped dates, nuts, and lemon juice. Put in teaspoonfuls on a floured tray, and bake 10 minutes. When cooked put together with the following filling: ¼ lb. icing sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, a little cocoa, and vanilla essence.

Mrs. P. Holmes, Adelaide.

Australian Women’s Weekly of Saturday 7 December, 1940.

Cocktail Biscuit Savory.

One tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tomato, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 banana, and wafer biscuits.

Whip butter and sugar together, bruise the banana and tomato, after peeling, and add to butter with the lemon juice. Beat all together smoothly. Pile on the biscuits in fancy shapes, and decorate with gherkin, olive, or chilli.

Mrs. D. Coulter, W.A.

Australian Women’s Weekly of Saturday 7 December, 1940.

Coffee: Real, Mock, and as an Ingredient.

I have written several posts in the past on coffee-substitutes, and at one time also began an archive of recipes using coffee (the real thing) as an ingredient. I am going to add to both today, starting with an item that could just as easily fit into my occasional ‘Extreme Kitchen DIY’ series.

A local newspaper (the Tweed Daily ) from the magnificent coastal end of the border between the states of Queensland and New South Wales, gave the following advice in its issue of 19 June 1942

SOME MORE COFFEE SUBSTITUTE RECIPES

Now that tea is rationed and pure coffee is becoming hard to obtain, methods of making substitute coffee are being looked for by every house-wife. Mrs. Mary Farrelly, whose work in connection - with wheat and its benefit to health was well known throughout Western Australia during the last war, when tea increased in price, has given here her recipes for making coffee from wheat, which were used by a great number of people with success.

WHEAT COFFEE: 1 teaspoon salt, 2lb. finest bran, 2 cups finest ground, wholemeal flour, ½ cup thin treacle, 5 cup boiling water. Put treacle in tin over the fire to thin it, add water (hot to the treacle). Mix bran and wholemeal flour together, then add treacle and water. Mix all well together, place in thin layers in baking dishes. Bake dark brown, stirring well. Do not burn, otherwise coffee will be bitter. Dry well, then put in covered tins and keep. To make the coffee allow 1 teaspoonful for each cup and 1 extra tablespoon, or in the ratio of 7 tablespoons for 6 cups. Pour 6 cups of boiling water on to the 7 tablespoons of coffee, boil for ¼ hour, strain. When bottled will keep about 3 days. Heat coffee and milk separately.

Another Recipe: Put 3lb. of clean whole wheat into a baking dish, damp well, and add 2 to 3 tablespoons of dark brown sugar and a level dessert spoon of common salt. Mix together well. Bake in oven until almost black on the outside. Stir occasionally. Grind very fine in a small hand wheat-mill, then keep in an airtight tin. Put a large teaspoonful in a cup (more if strong coffee is needed), pour, a little boiling water over, and mix thoroughly. Then add milk and water until the cup is full.

WHEAT WATER: Take 2 ½ tablespoons of fine ground 100 per cent whole wheat flour, a pinch of salt, and one quart cold water. Boil 25 minutes, then strain through a gravy strainer into a basin. Half fill a glass with wheat-water and fill up with milk. Wheat water is a good nerve builder. Half a pint should be taken daily. It may be taken hot or cold.

No matter how bad my nerves, I don’t think I could ever drink Wheat Water, but perhaps it might appeal to others!

As for real coffee as an ingredient in cooking and baking, I like the following ideas from

Coffee Cookery (New York, c.1940), by Helmut Ripperger.

Baked Steak

Take a steak about two to two and one half inches thick, and brown it quickly in butter in a heavy frying pan. Place it in a baking dish adding, chili sauce, A1 sauce, mushrooms, button onions, salt, pepper, and a generous dashing of paprika.

This should bake in a moderate oven for about two hours, basting the meat from time to time. Fifteen minutes before the steak is done, add a cup of very strong coffee to the sauce in the pan, and baste more frequently until done.

Mrs. Joseph Martinson's recipe.

English Coffee Sweet

Beat a quarter of a pound of butter and three ounces of sugar to a cream and add one half a cup of strong black coffee and mix well. Split a sponge cake in half and pour the mixture over it. Put the two halves together and weigh them down with a heavy plate. Cover with whipped cream and chopped salted almonds. You will meet up with this under a number of names, but it is truly an English recipe.