Cold Lamb Cutlets in Jelly - from Recipes Rare From Everywhere pre-1940

COLD LAMB CUTLETS IN JELLY

Put a neck of lamb (well trimmed) in a stewpan or earth. earthenware pot with only just enough water to cover, with 1 onion, 4 cloves, I blade of mace. Stew very gently with the above (if possible) for an hour, trimmings to be stewed with it. When done, lift out the meat, let the stock cool, take off the fat, add a pinch of soaked gelatine and a. dessertspoonful of flour. Let them boil in the stock, stirring all the while to keep it smooth. Lay this mixture all over each outlet separately, and let it get cool and firm. Dish up with frills round, a pile of cold vegetables-cut into shape-er with lettuce and tomatoes, etc.

Mrs. d’A nson.

Cream of Potato Soup - 1960's (Marguerite Patten Recipe Card)

Potatos are a large portion of the British diet.  Yet essentially they are a really boring vegetable, tasteless and a pain to prepare.  Why do we like them so much? Because they accompany most dishes without obliterating the flavour, they make are softly spoken and don't offend anyone.  Which makes me realise that when they become the main focus of a meal, you have to make sure you put plenty of zing in to it.

Luckily for us, there are lots of cool potato recipes that do just this.  In this recipe, onions and seasoning provide the backbone of the flavour.

Kofta Curry - 1980's

Here is a classic from the darker period of culinary creation, yet surprisingly nice as a concept.

225g mincd lamb
1 small onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon of garam masala
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 beaten egg
oil for frying
1 283g of curry sauce
a few mint leaves roughly chopped to garnish

1. Mix the meat, onion, garlic, spices and salt and pepper.
2. Add the beaten egg and mix well.
3. Shape in to 8 to 10 meatballs and fry in hot oil in a shallow pan on all sides until evenly browned.
4. Drain well, and then in a large saucepan, heat the curry sauce and add the meatballs, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Serve garnished with chopped mince.

Mushroom Soup - 1930's

Don't eat these mushrooms, buy them from a shop.

Its cold outside, the perfect soup weather.  Mushrooms have an earthy savory flavour that is perfect in a soup, and added with onion and scattered with some lovely crispy croutons, you're on to a satisfying vintage recipe your grandmother would have loved, assuming she liked mushrooms.
We now have pre-made croutons available to us, so a quick fix is available.  But in my opinion you cannot beat home made croutons.

2 pints of white stock
1lb mushrooms
2 eggs
1 Spanish onion
1 dessertspoonful of flour
A little milk
A little cream
salt and pepper
Croutons of fried bread.

1. Wash the mushrooms and chop them up.   Chop up the onion finely then bring the stock to the boil.
2. Add the mushroom and onion then boil for half an hour.
3. Pass all through a tammy or a fine hair sieve.  Add a dessertspoonful of flour mixed into a smooth paste with a little milk and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Boil up again, and just before serving remove teh soup from the fire and add the yolks of two eggs beaten up in a little cream.  Do not let the soup boil after adding the eggs, just enough to thicken the soup.
Serve with croutons.

Classic Barbecued Hamburgers - 1960's

Continuing the sixties theme, with this little summer number I thought I would try and lighten the mood a bit given the weather outside.  This is one of those two tier recipes with the beef and the sauce being made separately.  However, I reckon a BBQ shop-bought marinade would suffice if you're short of time.  This is a really basic burger recipe which can be added to or modified.

In The Good Housewives Encyclopedia there is a little post-amble for the nervous readers who might not have experienced Hamburgers before, which I have to include here.

"The Genuine American hamburger has at least two or three garnishes, so don't be afraid to experiment"

If you enjoy making burgers then take a look at this, prepare to drool! http://www.cheeseburgersociety.com/. You'll need Flash installed to take advantage of it.

The Burgers

1lb. ground beef
1 tablespoon Worcester Sauce
1 onion, finely chopped.
1 teaspoon salt.
Pepper
Barbecue Sauce or butter for basting.

1. Combine all of the ingredients and shape into ovals (this helps the patties cook evenly).  Remember to use lean beef if you want the healthy option.
2.To keep them tender, handle as little as possible.
3. Baste with the barbecue sauce while grilling, should take between 10 and 15 minutes under a moderately hot grill.

Barbecue Sauce

2 onions, chopped fine.
2 tablespoons of vinegar
1 tablespoon of Worcester Sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of chilli powder
half a pint of tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons of water
4 tablespoons of oil

Cook onions in the oil until tender and golden.
Add all other ingredients, stir well and cook gently for 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve BBQ burgers with lots of garnishes as the book says, use soft white rolls.

Stewed Pheasants and Rice - 1930's

This is one of the older recipes that I have posted on here, so bits of it might not make perfect sense.   recipe assumes that you know how to gut and skin Pheasants too, you're welcome to cheat by getting a couple from the roadside or even a butcher who specialises in Game.

2 Pheasants
4 oz lean Ham (diced)
2 Onions
2 oz Butter
A bunch of Herbs
Pepper and Sale
Flour
Rice.



1. Singe and draw two young pheasants, then cut them into neat joints.
2. Put the giblets on to boil with an onion, a bunch of herbs (bouquet?) pepper and salt and sufficient water to cover.
3.  Bring all to the boil then skim and boil gently.
4.  Melt the butter in a stew pan and put the pieces of pheasant, the other onion (sliced), the ham (diced) and a little pepper and salt.
5. Cover tightly and draw the pan to where its contents will cook gently in their own juices. (roughly translated let it simmer).
6. Turn the pieces two or three times during the cooking which should last 45 minutes.
7. Take the pieces up, put them in a soup plate, cover with a basin and stand the plate over a saucepan of boiling water to keep hot whilst making the gravy.

At this point it might be worth starting to cook the rice.

8. Sift one large tablespoonful of flour into the pan in which the pheasants were cooked and stir it well.  Then strain a pint of gravy made from the giblets into it.
9.  Bring all to the boil for 5 minutes then strain.  Rinse out the stewpan and put the pices of pheasant in to it with the sauce and boil up again.
10,  Prepare a nice circle of rice on the dishes you are to serve them on to (or put the Microwave Rice on) and place the pheasant in the centre with sauce over the top.

Fish in Dark Beer

Another dinner party favourite from the fifties.  This dish ripe for modification and some experimentation, try choosing different types of beer and vinegar to use.

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3 lbs of Fish (carp, pike or bass)
1 tablespoon of vinegar
2 chopped onions
4 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
5 whole peppers
2 ground cloves
1 teaspoon of Worcester Sauce
1 pint of Dark Beer (locally produced craft beer/real ale/stout maybe?)

1. Prepare the fish by cleaning it and scaling cutting it in to three inch slices.

2. Brown the onion in the butter, adding the flour and cook for three minutes.

3.  Add the beer and all other ingredients except the vinegar.

4.  Boil the sauce to the thickness of single cream.

5. Add the fish slices to the sauce, and continue boiling until the fish is well done.

6.  Finally add the vinegar and continue boiling for another two minutes.  Pour the sauce through a strainer and serve separately.

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Chicken Mischief

This recipe would work great with a pre-roasted chicken you get from the supermarket.

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1 roasting chicken
2 tomatoes
2 tablespoons of oil
2 level tablespoons of honey
quarter pint of stock
1 level tablespoon of cornflour
4 oz. dripping
2 onions
2 tablespoons of pickle
3 tablespoons soya sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons water

1. Melt the dripping, joint the chicken and fry gently until well cooked and golden brown.

2. Skin and chop the tomatoes and onions.

3. Heat oil and fry tomatoes, onion and pickle for 5 minutes.

4. Add stock, soy sauce, honey and vinegar and bring to the boil.

5. Simmer for 10 minutes.  Blend cornflour with the water and add to the sauce.

6. Bring to the boil stirring.  Serve the chicken and pour sauce around.

Alternatively serve sauce and chicken separately using your fingers to eat chicken and dip with sauce.

Cheese and Orange Salad

Here is a recipe in two parts.  First part is for the salad, second part is the dressing.  As its a French dressing you could get away with a shop bought alternative.  This would be perfect for a sixties themed party.

8 oz. cubed cheddar cheese
2 oranges
2 medium sized onions
4 half inch slices of bread
fat for frying
watercress

French Dressing

6 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of orange juice
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
grated rind of 1 orange
salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

1. Place cheese in a mixing bowl.  Remove rind and pith from oranges and separate orange segments.  Peel onions and slice thinly, separate into rings.

2. Cut bread in to half inch cubes, heat fat to smoking point (really really hot) and fry until golden brown, then drain well.

3. Wash watercress if needed.  Make dressing by mixing all ingredients together.

4. Toss all ingredients in dressing separately and arrange in circles overlapping towards the centre.

*Editors Note*
This is quite a straightforward recipe, but without pointing out the obvious you would need to toss togehter the fried bread, watercress, cheese, onions and oranges depending on the style of salad you desire.  Tossing the salad might not work, laying it out in some sort of order and presentation might work better.  Please feedback if you try this recipe.

Aberdeen Sausage

This will serve 8 to 10 people.  It is great for cold meat and sandwiches.

1 lb. lean steak or steak mince
8 oz. bacon
1 small onion
4 oz. rolled oats
1 tablespoon or Worcester Sauce
1 egg
1 level teaspoon of salt
Quarter level teaspoon pepper
Some dried breadcrumbs

1. Mince steak, bacon and onion together until very fine.  Add the oats, Worcester sauce, beaten egg and seasoning and mix well.

2.  Shape in to a long thick sausage and wrap carefully in aluminium foil, sealing the ends well.

3.  Either bake on a tray or in a baking tin in a slow oven for 2 hours, or boil or even steam.

4. Put the dried bread crumbs ready on a piece of greaseproof paper.  Remove the foil carefully and roll the sausage in the crumbs to coat thickly.

5.  Leave until cold and store in cool place.  Slice thinly and serve.

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Braised Beef With Prunes and Wine

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This will serve between two and four people.

2 lb, piece of lean beef (either a flank, rib or chunk)
1 large piece of bacon rind or lean scraps of bacon
1 oz. fat
8 oz. onions
8 oz. carrots
8 oz. prunes, cooked
half a level teaspoon of salt
quarter a level teaspoon of pepper
half a pint of red wine
8 oz. noodles
Grated parmesan cheese

1. Chop the onion and carrots.  Wash the bacon rind.

2. Melt the fat in a deep saucepan or enamelled cast iron casserole.  Fry the meat in it until golden brown all over.

3.  Remove the meat and put the bacon rind in the bottom covering it with the vegetables.

4.  Add the seasoning  and wine, returning the meat.

5. Cover and cook gently in a slow oven for 2.5 to 3 hours or until the meat is tender.

6. Just before dishing up time, boil the noodles in salted water; drain and arrange round the edge of the platter.

7. Carve the meat and arrange slices in the middles of the noodles and put the vegetables, prunes and sauce around it.  Sprinkle noodles with cheese and serve with peas, green beans or spinach.

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Shrimps In Beer

This is a classic fifties seafood starter

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.

4 Cups of beer
3 shallots
2 onions sliced
5 tbsp. butter
2 pounds of raw shrimps
a Sprig parsley in a bouquet
Bayleaf
Celery
5 tablespoons flour
1. Cook the beer with the onions, shallots, bayleaf, parsley and celery for about 15 minutes.

2. Add peeled shrimps to the broth and cook for another 15 minutes then season with salt and pepper.

3.  Remove the Parsley bouquet and bind sauce with the butter and flour which have been creamed together.

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Stelk (A Traditional Irish Recipe)

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For this traditional Irish side dish, adapted from Farmhouse Fare you need:

2 dozen of the later spring onions. (Those which are too coarse to use otherwise, are best for this dish but normal ones are acceptable).
Potatoes
Milk

You can use chives for this dish as an alternative.

1. Chop the onions into small lengths and simmer in milk until tender.

2. Boil or steam a good dish of potatoes. (1 lb possibly?)

3.  When cooked, mash them with a little milk and strain the onions and add these to the potatoes mixing well.  Serve very hot.

4. Add a large piece fresh butter (Clover or organic butter possibly?) to each plate that the Stelk is to be served on.

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Lamb With Rice

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1 Breast of Lamb
2 oz. Butter
1 Onion
8 oz. Rice
1 oz. Raisins
2 Beef Extract Cubes (OXO or Knorr will do)
2 Pints of water
8 oz. Tomatoes
salt and pepper

1. Cut the lamb into pieces and trim off excess fat.

2. Melt 1 oz. butter in a saucepan.

3. Chop the onion and cook with the meat in the butter for a few minutes.

4. Cover with water, bring to the boil and crumble in the beef extract cubes.

5. Reduce the heat and allow the meat to cook until tender which should be for about 1 hour.

6. In another pan, melt 1 oz. of butter and cook the rice for a few minutes

7. Add raisins, chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook gently for 15 minutes.

8. Strain over the stock from the meat.

9. Strain off any liquid and serve.

This recipe is worded in the book quite confusingly and I have tried to re-word it accurately.  If you have any idea what they mean, or have any success with this dish please contact me and I will amend this recipe.

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