Austerity picnic food - Picnics Part 2!

[Kishtu]

I know we have had a couple of threads looking at picnic food and indeed they have been helpful, but they're not quite what I need for this one...

For a re-enactment later this year I plan to attend with the Small and the Hairy Bloke, he will be in uniform and I will be a civilian mum... bit of a role reversal there from our everyday lives but there ya go....
Anyway, since with good luck and a following wind it should be hotter than the proverbial hobs of the hot place, picnics seem to be the order of the day.

Since we are part of a living history display - ummm actually we are the living history display :eeek: - I'm looking for ideas for a real CC41 picnic. So smoked salmon, sparkling champagne, and cream cakes are probably not on the agenda
It's funny how much of what we'd normally take to a picnic is based quite heavily around meat and cheese!

 

[fortworthgal]

Sounds interesting!

Off the top of my head... "National loaf" type bread, fish paste or cheese for sandwiches, mock fried sausages, carrot cookies or carrot fudge.

 

[Methuselah]

I like foraging for stuff, we have these in our cupboards:

• bramble jelly, rosehip jelly, hawthorn jelly, plum jam, cherry jam, greengage jam, raspberry jam - all good for butties or scones. I know sugar was rationed, but these make good use of it!
• foraged salad leaves - dandelion/ramson etc
• pickled eggs - eggs bought free range from a farmer

Also, depending on the time of year:

• Elder flower cordial
• Apples,pears plums etc also grow wild
• Grow your own veg - radishes, new potatoes

Lastly, a key part of any good picnic is - Lashings of ginger beer!

 

[Shangas]

Spam sandwiches made with national loaf?

Fish and chips? (Which I believe, was unrationed during the war, although the fish was probably replaced with something far less palatable...probably Snoek).

Potato salad? (Veggies were unrationed during the war, but you were expected to grow your own).

Carrot cake and/or Apple Crumble (both of them invented during the War as a response to the lack of sugar, and flour, respectively)...with or without cream.

 

[Methuselah]

Interesting, I've never really thought about the origins of carrot cake before!

Here's it's ancestor, 'carrot pudding' from 1699:

Pudding of Carrot. Pare off ſome of the Cruſt of Manchet-Bread, and grate of half as much of the reſt as there is of the Root, which muſt alſo be grated: Then take half a Pint of freſh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of freſh Butter, ſix new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) maſh and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of Sugar; and a little Salt; ſome grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Diſh or Pan, butter'd, to keep the Ingredients from ſticking and burning; ſet it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and ſo have you a Compoſition for any Root-Pudding.

(http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15517/15517-h/15517-h.htm)

I daresay the food ministry re-popularised quite a lot of medieval peasant food during the war.

 

[Methuselah]

Ooh, just found this from 1914:
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/coldfusion/display.cfm?ID=neig&PageNum=226
Not really a ration-friendly recipe though.

Here's a recipe card courtesy of East Sussex council:
http://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/7B2CDE76-8BAF-4F60-8F7C-45D1626629D5/0/HomeFrontrecipes79.pdf

Wartime loaf:
http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/return-to-the-1940s-wartime-loaf/

 

[Shangas]

Oh here's another one I just thought of.

What WWII picnic would be complete without m'lord Woolton's Pie?

 

[mrtman]

Fried Chicken?

 

[John in Covina]

Here in the US chicken was usually inexpensive and was standard picnic fair.

 

[Shangas]

According to what I've learnt, poultry was rationed during the War, in the United States as well as in the UK.

 

[John in Covina]

but a lot more people were raising their own back then.