Summer Pudding - 1960's (Robert Carrier Cookery Card)

Another amazingly easy recipe from the hayday of the Beatles...

This recipe is in anticipation that we might actually have a summer.  My mum always makes this recipe, and although the whole 'bread-as-pudding' concept is not one I can quite get my head around it is always enjoyable with lashings of custard.

Roast Pigeons - 1930's

You have to hand it to our previous generation, they really knew how to live off the land.  This recipe is probably a lot older than the 1930's but as it is from a cookbook of that period it is being cataloged as such.  The assumption made here is that the cook knows how to pluck and gut a pigeon, if you're not entirely au-fais with it then buy one from a butcher.

This recipe is a challange as it requires the pigeon to be continually basted in butter.

3 pigeons
3 slices of fat bacon
3 oz. butter
Pepper and Salt
3 slices of buttered sauce
Garnish of fried parsley

1. Singe and draw three pigeons.  Put about three-quarters of an ounce of butter inside each pigeon and season them with pepper and salt.
2. Truss them for roasting with a slice of fat bacon tied over the breast of each.
3. Toast the slice of bread, butter them, and stand one pigeon on each.  Roast them, in front of a brisk fire or in a gas oven, for 20 minutes, basting them continually with butter.
4. When pigeons are cooked, remove the strings and the bacon, or, if liked, the bacon can be left on the breasts.  Place the pigeons and toasts on a hot dish and garnish with bunches of fried parsley.

Marguerite Patten's Mushroom Fingers - 1970's

This is essentially Mushroom on Toast.  So, Fungi Bruschetta for the posh amongst us.

8 oz. mushroom
Third of a pint of milk
1 oz flour
1 oz butter
Seasoning
Dash of Worcester Sauce
Little parsley chopped
4 slices of buttered toast

1. Wash and chop mushroom caps and stalks coarsely.
2. Simmer in the milk until tender.
3. Blend flour and butter together and work into mushroom mixture gradually.
4. Cook gently for some little time until smooth.
5. Season well, add sauce and parsley.
6. Spread on toast and divide into fingers.