Was just browsing some “Ministry of Food” leaflets and came across these three simple recipes/ideas that I’m going to try this week. I’m not sure about mashed potato and cocoa powder but I’ll give most things a go once!
Just thought I’d share!
C xxxx
The 1940's Experiment 
You know, my grandma had a wartime recipe for faux marzipan – made from mashed potatoes and sugar.
Like you said, give it a try! And if you do, let me know how you like it.
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They sound good to me. Hope you enjoy.
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Toasted oats- very nice, I do them in my cast iron frying pan.
Can’t say that I fancy chocolate mash either!
Good luck with that.
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I like the toasted oatmeal idea.
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Thanks for these recipes, Carolyn. The swede cakes sound delicious but I’ll await your further info re the sweet potato chocolate spread. (Must admit it doesn’t sound very appetising!) Pat.
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You can be the guinea pig on that sweet potato mash…let us know!
Concocting recipes for the Ministry of Food must’ve been an interesting and challenging job.
The parsnip or swede recipe looks similar to what I call “fritters” but doesn’t have a batter coating and probably used less oil. Much healthier!
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I’ve tried the sweet potato and it was surprisingly good! I was shocked, ha ha. I have a wonderful black bean brownie recipe that is ration friendly (although not from war time) as well that is delicious.
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Hi Carolyn. It’s been a while, I’ve been busy. The recipe for choc spread should be fine. I have made choc coconut roughs made with mashed potato. I’ve even used instant mash (sorry) . Definately give it a go.
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I love the idea of a mock chocolate spread made with spuds!
A lot of these wartime mock recipes were certainly inventive, that’s for sure.
My (long-departed) Gran once mentioned having a memory of making mock Mango Chutney, made using carrots and apples (sometime at the end of the 1940s I think, as she only came to the UK in 1947). Apparently, it went quite well with spam sandwiches.
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Your Gran’s chutney sounds similar to Branston pickle. 🙂
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Brought up with a potato fudge recipe …….
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Gawwwd, looks like I’ll have to have mashed potato chocolate spread sandwiches for lunch one day this week then!!! hahaha I can’t help thinking of Mrs Cropley in the Vicar of Dibley with her strange food fare! C xxxx
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I would be busy making Seville orange marmalade this time of year. I have a few remaining jars carefully stored away.
The few fresh oranges available were allocated to children, on their ration books.
I expect the orange peel was saved by careful housewives and simmered with precious sugar to make candied peel for cakes.
We have some of our apple harvest stored the garage still, and I simmer orange peel, and apple peelings and cores in water until they are really soft, then strain them through a sieve, and then through a jelly bag, and then boil the liquid with a pound of sugar to a pint of the liquid until it reaches setting point, and some on a cold saucer will wrinkle when it is pushed. I pot it into sterilised, hot half pound jars and put the lid on firmly and leave it to set and cool.
That makes Wartime apple and orange clear marmalade. A ghost of the real marmalade flavour, but very pleasant.
In early Autumn I shall make rosehip and apple jelly, and elderberry and apple jelly with foraged fruits.
It is worth saving the sugar ration. We gave up having sugar in tea and coffee or on our porridge.
There was some coffee, not rationed, but expensive and hard to find. Roasted dandelion root, barley, and roasted hazelnuts, and chicory were use as coffee substitutes.
There are herb teas, mint, chamomile, lemon balm, linden flowers, and others.
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“The few fresh oranges available were allocated to children, on their ration books.”
Strange. I thought it was orange concentrate that was allocated to youngsters.
Everything I’ve read says that oranges, as rare as hens teeth as they were during the war, went to the Greengrocers, on a first come first served basis. Usually restricted to their regular customers, they were limited to a couple per person. I was reading just such an account on the BBC WW2 People’s War website only a few days ago.
I also know that they were sometimes publicly auctioned for the local Spitfire Fund etc. Indeed, Dad’s Army did a Christmas Special using just such a story-line.
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C- my 88-y-o father just started talking about being a very young child and being sent to the bakery with USA ration “coupons” and what he ate as a child..It is the first time he ever discussed this ad I told him about you, and your weight loss/food things (which he also has), and whoa! He has so many stories. We are going to watch “1940s House” with him, and I am looking for other recommendations to jog his memory!
Another really cool thing is that he told me how GreatGramma made farmer cheese!
He was so tight about his childhood, but there was so much loss. Consider yourself and your journey touching me and my dad
Love you so much
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What a lovely story to hear about your father’s experiences as a young child. I bet you’ll really enjoy watching the 1940s House together, I thought that series was so well done! Wishing you and your father all the best and sending love back to you, C xxxx
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Is it strange that Postum is no longer on ths shelves?
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Postum???
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Postum (US: /ˈpoʊstəm/) is a powdered roasted grain beverage popular as a coffee substitute. The caffeine-free beverage was created by Post Cereal Company founder C. W. Post in 1895 and marketed as a healthier alternative to coffee.[2]: 93 Post was a student of John Harvey Kellogg, who believed that caffeine was unhealthy. Post Cereal Company eventually acquired General Foods, then merged to Kraft Foods Inc. in 1990. Eliza’s Quest Foods now owns the trademark rights and secret recipe of Postum.
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Just to say- I think only children should get chocolate mashed potato spread on their toast.
I learned this from watching 1940s House, where the Gran/Nan—what did that cheeky older brother say at the end about his grandmother? Granny’s dull! That was the gist. Something about how Gran was more fun with a beer in her. Ha!
Austerity underscorrd the mother and daughter a resilient attitude. The series was very much about the home front, with women and children at the fore.
I especially loved the conversation about the pecking order with who-gets-what to eat.
So happy to find all the links here.
It all reminds of my wartime family and how much women did the steps forward and back.
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