Bob Dinn’s donation of recipe books
We were delighted to receive a donation of cookery booklets from our friend Bob Dinn. These date from before the Second World War, through the time of rationing afterwards, and into the 1960s. They are all clearly aimed at the housewife and for the most part are from a time when food was scarce and some ingenuity was necessary to put meals on the table. They all have something to promote, such as flour or margarine, and some mention nutritional content, introducing the idea of calories. Some of the recipes are for meals still cooked now, but ‘dripping cake’ and ‘pig’s trotters and dumplings’ are surely the resort of the very discerning few now. A few of the booklets anticipate the easing of rationing restrictions. For example, Stork Margarine’s 1950 booklet invites you to use Stork ‘when it becomes available’. Bob also pointed out to us that the English Country Cheese Council full-colour flyer, while illustrating and describing English cheeses, was probably issued at the point in the 1950s when appetites could once again be whetted. We are assuming most of these booklets were available for free, probably on a ‘help-yourself’ basis from a showroom, but some cost as much as sixpence. The publisher Eden Fisher of London, for example, published a 6d recipe book based on bread (there is even a section ‘Some uses for stale bread’). We think this booklet dates back to the 1940s, and all of its recipes used sliced bread or breadcrumbs, and there are some colour illustrations too.
Taking a sample of the booklets in turn:
Pharmaceutical manufacturer C.L. Bencard published ‘Dispensing the Christmas Drinks’ with recipes for the likes of Buttered Rum and Cock o’ the North (whisky, honey and cream). Only on the inside back cover do they promote their ‘Paynocil’ aspirin, which while ‘not designed specifically for hangovers’ will fix many other ills.
The flour company McDougall’s published the McDougall’s Cookery book (6d, probably 1950s) ‘for the inexperienced housewife’; while an earlier booklet of theirs ‘What to give them? Now more than ever… me for McDougall’s’ (6d, about 1942) gave advice on cooking meals using just one cooker ring.
Nestle’s ‘Ideal Milk cookery book’ (free?, 1950s) makes suggestions for the use of evaporated milk (mostly puddings, but some pies too). Alfred Bird’s (the custard powder people) published ‘Successful Recipes’ (free?, 1960s?).
The icing company Tala published ‘How to decorate a cake: let Anne Anson show you’ (no price given, c1955) which shares some very fancy icing recipes and ideas. The author was Anne Anson (if she existed) and she was otherwise the resident contact for advice at the Tala works.
The National Milk Publicity Council (latterly, Dairy Council) published ‘Milk Recipes’ (1d, 1920s/30s?) with 157 recipes (including ‘Invalid Custard’). Possibly the oldest booklet in this batch, it is from a time when nobody had a fridge, and thus goes into some detail how best to store milk.
The Ministry of Food published the wartime booklet ‘The Kitchen Front’ (6d, 1942), 122 recipes for a time of privation. The recipes had been broadcast by the BBC and the spin-off booklet featured a cover with artwork by the Punch illustrator ‘Fougasse’ (Cyril Kenneth Bird, 1887-1965). Recipes included ‘National Roly-Poly’ and ‘Roast Calf’s Head’.
Finally, Ekcomatic were makers of pressure cookers in the post-war period and they published a 56-page booklet (free, 1950s?) with recipes for, and assistance with using, their range of pressure cookers. These were clearly aimed at the better-off consumer able to afford such a luxury.
