“Shall we do some baking Granny?”

This morning I had my granddaughter round to visit. She’s 3 years old and loves life to the full. We decided to do some baking. We donned our pinnys and washed our hands.

I’ve got tremendous happy memories of baking with both my mother and my grandmother and so decided that I would get my mum’s old cookbook out and have a look through to find a recipe from my childhood.

We ended up with some choc chip cookies known as “ polka dot cookies” from a piece of paper cut out from an advert for the polka dots chocolate chips. As you can see in the photograph the cookbook is extremely old. My mother has written her name inside her the front cover, first her maiden name and her address she lived at as a teenager, then under that she put her married name change from Walsh to Flather and the address that was my first childhood home.

The recipes are just wonderful: some of them are handwritten on to the actual paper of the book, with the name of her friend who gave it her, next to the recipe. You can’t beat Sepha’s “Modge ” or Sheila Wilkinson’s “Macaroni cheese,” both of which I still make today!

Many are carefully stuck on with sellotape, some of the “stuck on” recipes are in my Grandmother’s writing, one or two in my childish scrawl. She also cut loads and loads out of magazines, Family Circle being a favourite. Recipes were cut off the back of cereal boxes: Grape nuts, (my mother loved to sprinkle grape nuts on top of any other cereal) we could make a cool Christmas chocolate cake or malted savoury pie (both with said Grape nuts) that both look absolutely disgusting! Can’t remember eating those delights as a child. If you are unsure what Grape-Nuts are, they are still available today, in small boxes, can best be described as mouse droppings in appearance and probably in taste as well. A copy of “Good cooking with your mixer” presented by Ideal Home is tucked in the back of the recipe book.

Reading through the book I still remember the pages, they transport me back to my childhood with their tell tale splodges of baking dropping and marking the recipes. It is just lovely to reminisce, each recipe either I remember as a child – my mother cooking it and enjoying them as a child. I feel very very honoured to have this piece of living history at my fingertips.

My mother obviously got her passion for cooking and baking from her mother, I remember tidying out her recipe books when she passed away, I recall she had about 80 books!! My mother added to her collection with many of them and after her death, they came to me and I couldn’t get rid of them either. Once my granddaughter had gone home with her bag of chocolate polka cookies, I headed upstairs to root out my grandmother’s books, curious to see what was in them. What a lovely couple of hours of perusing her books had to share some with you.

I have three editions of the Bero cookbook, the oldest one being the 6th edition which is apparently ” used and recommended by many thousands of practical home-cooked throughout the north of England” I don’t know what happened to the South of England but they seem to have got left out! Interesting to see how the recipes have generally stayed to same.

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Another old book is from 1942 hot the Holloway press London book called “Making the most of it” by Ambrose Heath who’s a famous cookery expert and broadcaster. The first recipe that jumped out at me was brussel sprout soup with forcemeat balls, followed by cabbage soup with meat dumplings. Moving on a bit through the book we’ve got herrings mackerel sprats to fried Jerusalem artichoke fritters. followed by the date, butterscotch and tapioca pudding sounds delicious!!

Another book by Ambrose Heath is called “Good food in wartime” and my grandmother have a look it cost 3/6 and it was from printed by Faber and Faber of London 1942. Tucked inside I found a cutting from the newspaper from January 12th 1945 “Potato try – out” Dehydrated potatoes are being eaten by unsuspecting but uncomplaining members of the public and some Sheffield cafes. Please read on in the photo.

There’s another newspaper cutting in the book about how to have more fat for cooking by taking it off the surplus fat of the cooked or uncooked meats and render it down and then you can use that in your Madeira cake to stretch of sugar ration. There is no year with this but dated January the 7th to February the 3rd of the 3rd week of the rationing. Inside the book, there are lots of interesting recipes: mussels potted sprats, stuffed herrings ( good if you can spare an egg for that one), baked mutton cutlets, fried tripe……. lovely.
Interestingly, I’ve got a got another book entitled “Cox’s Manual of Gelatine cookery” it’s from Edinburgh in 1936, which is where my grandmother came from. At the top of the cover is written “this book belongs to Nana” (my great grandmother)

Such delights as game jelly, jellied mayonnaise of lobster or salmon, Boston cream, chartreuse of bananas can be found inside.

Another book is entitled “The Sheffield Royal Hospital centenary fund – Women’s Appeal – a collection of recipes and household hints.” This is compiled by the Sheffield industrial welfare workers association and printed by the Shepherd Telegraph.

It’s got a little hole in the top left hand corner, it looks if it’s been held on by a piece of string hung somewhere useful in the kitchen for reference. We could try stuffed heart, souffle au parmesan, salmon macaroni pie, mock hare soup, or boiling milk cake.

Another book called “The recipes of the 1940’s” by Irene Veal (suitable name) Amusingly, my grandmother has written on the opening page,

Bob was my grandfather! This was first published in 1944, it seems to be a collection of different Ministries and other services such as the Bank of England, the BBC the hospitals giving lots of different ideas about how to cope with wartime rationing.

My grandmother’s final book is called ” Good eating – suggestions for wartime dishes” which cost 2 shillings (10p) and it’s a new selection of Daily Telegraph readers tested recipes, war – time housekeeping, once again my grandmother has signed it.

Here are a couple of snippets of important knowledge:

‘A little cheese can do much in catering. As ingredient in hot vegetable and other savory dishes, it adds interest and nutritive value. There is also the bowl of grated cheese which, contain soup, salad or savoury to complete meal. Homemade oatcakes or potato cakes are a good accompaniment. Put bowl of grated cheese on the table for another simple meal – hot potato steamed or roasted in their jackets. this addition and plenty of pepper turns jacket potatoes into appetising savoury.’

There’s a chapter on canned food, powdered milk and eggs. ‘The ready-to-hand store food which gives the Housewife a sense of security against unexpected calls on catering have extended their already wide range to include dried eggs and milk as well as canned fare. The store cupboard with these highly important additions can always provide a quick meal for family or unexpected guest.

Especially appreciated nowadays are the fuel – serving virtues of canned meat, fish and vegetables. Simple additions and little or no cooking turn them to satisfying,. appetising dishes,

If canned meat, fish and fruit are said to encourage “the housewife who cooks with the tin opener” dried eggs and milk, by rousing her interest in new methods, have helped to raise cookery standards.’

So back to my granddaughter, I just hope I can instill the love of baking to her, it will have to skip a generation as my 3 sons have shown no interest in baking (plenty of interest in the eating of it though!) Would love to be able to pass the books down to her, rather than just being discarded.

By the way according to the recipe, the chocolate polka cookies should have made 50 cookies, somehow we only made about 20, maybe we were too generous with the spoonfuls, or maybe she ate more of the mixture than I thought!!!

Next time I think we will make Sheila Hall’s ginger biscuits…