January food - 1935

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.