And now at last to business.
Mrs Evelyn Wallace recommends that the foods in season should be used, they being the most appetising and nourishing. No doubt the words "carbon footprint" would have been as foreign to her as ancient hieroglyphics, but nowadays the local and seasonal qualities of food are moving urgently to centre stage. If you care about such things, scan these suggested menus for food-miles!
SUNDAY
Breakfast: Fried eggs on toasted muffins, honey, bread and butter, coffee.
Dinner: Rabbit pie, baked potatoes, cabbage, orange pudding.
Supper: Cheese straws, scones, tea, Christmas cake.
MONDAY
Breakfast: Grilled rashers with grilled tomatoes, toast, marmalade, cocoa.
Dinner: Cauliflower cheese, beetroot with white cause, mashed potatoes, waffles.
Supper: Apple dumplings, coffee biscuits.
TUESDAY
Breakfast: Fried bacon with apple fromage, marmalade, toast, coffee.
Dinner: Stuffed pork steak, baked potatoes, apple sauce, parsnips, lemon pie.
Supper: Chipped potatoes with fried eggs, tea.
WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: Baked herrings, bread and butter, lemon honey, coffee.
Dinner: White stew of rabbit, creamed potatoes, carrots and turnips, steamed ginger pudding.
Supper: Welsh rarebit (sic), bananas, coffee and biscuits.
THURSDAY
Breakfast: Kidney and bacon, toast, lemon cheese, tea.
Dinner: Rabbit soup, savoury pork chops, apple sauce, cauliflower, pancakes.
Supper: Potato cakes, bread and butter, cheese and biscuits, cocoa.
FRIDAY
Breakfast: Kedgeree with smoked haddock, breakfast scones, coffee, honey.
Dinner: Savoury omelette, potatoes, butter beans, mince pies.
Supper: Cheese and tomato rolls, coffee, cakes.
SATURDAY
Breakfast: Grapefruit, Scotch eggs, bread and butter, honey and coffee.
Dinner: Raised pork pie, or beefsteak pie, baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts.
Supper: Tomatoes in pastry, chocolate roll, tea.
I have scanned these menus with fascinated interest: Note that the only imported ingredients are coffee and tea, oranges, lemons, grapefruits (which are all in season), bananas, and, mysteriously, tomatoes which appear no less than three times.
In January? In 1935?
I don't know if huge shiploads of tomatoes were brought to Dublin from distant colonies, or what. I must find out. Maybe they were tinned! Even today, with polytunnels and hydroponics and air freight, a January tomato is a sorry thing in the Northern hemisphere. Even now, expensive.
I do think that this was a very expensive, not to say pretentious, line-up: in keeping with the whole magazine, perhaps! But note, however, that no meat was to be served for main meals on Monday or Friday.
She gives recipes, too: though, sadly, none for the apple fromage.
But more of this anon.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Seventy four years ago: suggested menus
I have in my possession a copy (well, a photocopy) of Model Housekeeping, dated January 1935, retailing then for the pricey sum of 3d. It proudly advertises itself as Ireland's National Women's Magazine. It was in fact the Irish version of Good Housekeeping - not a silly rag by any means.
The cover picture shows a well-dressed model - in a pajama suit, very 1930s - chatting to a parrot of similar colouring. The lady holds a cigarette languidly, elegantly.
Turning to the first page, we see an ad for Ovaltine, with the unexpected caption "Happy the baby that is breast-fed." Picture of smiling mother and laughing baby. " OVALTINE Enables Mothers to Breast-feed their Babies".
Contents page follows, including this month's free pattern, a Charming Blouse.
The whole thing is a hoot from beginning to end. I was particularly intrigued with several articles advertising new homes in Dublin's newest suburb, Mount Merrion. The air is mentioned as being very healthy, horse riding is among the amenities and the star of the piece is the All-Electric House (illustrated): it had electric fires, a drying-room, a fridge! - very futuristic - and even an Electric CLOCK!
Now, all this is good for a laugh, if you're young enough, or nostalgia if you're not. Yet there is a more serious lesson to be learnt within these elderly pages.
I was about to embark on the fascinating Suggested Menus for a Week, but instead must go and attend to my own modern family dinner...hasta la vista!
The cover picture shows a well-dressed model - in a pajama suit, very 1930s - chatting to a parrot of similar colouring. The lady holds a cigarette languidly, elegantly.
Turning to the first page, we see an ad for Ovaltine, with the unexpected caption "Happy the baby that is breast-fed." Picture of smiling mother and laughing baby. " OVALTINE Enables Mothers to Breast-feed their Babies".
Contents page follows, including this month's free pattern, a Charming Blouse.
The whole thing is a hoot from beginning to end. I was particularly intrigued with several articles advertising new homes in Dublin's newest suburb, Mount Merrion. The air is mentioned as being very healthy, horse riding is among the amenities and the star of the piece is the All-Electric House (illustrated): it had electric fires, a drying-room, a fridge! - very futuristic - and even an Electric CLOCK!
Now, all this is good for a laugh, if you're young enough, or nostalgia if you're not. Yet there is a more serious lesson to be learnt within these elderly pages.
I was about to embark on the fascinating Suggested Menus for a Week, but instead must go and attend to my own modern family dinner...hasta la vista!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Hi folks!
New Year's Day seems a suitable moment to commence. And let us begin with Janus, after whom this month is named.
He was the Roman god of entrances, depicted with two faces (carved on many doorways,) one looking in, the other out. Or one looking back, the other forward. So you see he is very suited to name the month.
So, looking back, some seventy years ago almost to the day an Irish women's magazine published suggestions for weekly menus in its cookery column. The dishes listed for the first week of January are well worth a ponder in these very different times. I have not the article before me now, but I seem to recall that the only imported ingredients were tea, coffee, oranges, lemons, spices and possibly bananas. Everything else would have been locally grown and in season.
Await a more detailed look at this fascinating culinary snippet in a later post.
Looking forward, I propose, mainly, to rejoice in food! As I have always done, indeed. And no doubt my own agenda will become apparent. That is, um, several strands. One, good judgement in food is about 90% tastebuds, and maybe 10% context. There's also about 10% memory in there: I know this doesn't add up to 100 but food preferences are irrational and fiercely intractable.
I have excellent faith in my own tastebuds, and love to put them to the test, and learn.
I do know a lot about food, just as an amateur,you understand. No catering college or commercial kitchens in my life story, just a lifetime of family cooking, often on a short budget, always energised by contact with the national cuisines of other countries. I have a large collection of cookery books which I read for pleasure rather than practice!
Enough of this rambling...until next time. Bye!
He was the Roman god of entrances, depicted with two faces (carved on many doorways,) one looking in, the other out. Or one looking back, the other forward. So you see he is very suited to name the month.
So, looking back, some seventy years ago almost to the day an Irish women's magazine published suggestions for weekly menus in its cookery column. The dishes listed for the first week of January are well worth a ponder in these very different times. I have not the article before me now, but I seem to recall that the only imported ingredients were tea, coffee, oranges, lemons, spices and possibly bananas. Everything else would have been locally grown and in season.
Await a more detailed look at this fascinating culinary snippet in a later post.
Looking forward, I propose, mainly, to rejoice in food! As I have always done, indeed. And no doubt my own agenda will become apparent. That is, um, several strands. One, good judgement in food is about 90% tastebuds, and maybe 10% context. There's also about 10% memory in there: I know this doesn't add up to 100 but food preferences are irrational and fiercely intractable.
I have excellent faith in my own tastebuds, and love to put them to the test, and learn.
I do know a lot about food, just as an amateur,you understand. No catering college or commercial kitchens in my life story, just a lifetime of family cooking, often on a short budget, always energised by contact with the national cuisines of other countries. I have a large collection of cookery books which I read for pleasure rather than practice!
Enough of this rambling...until next time. Bye!
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