"Please sir, may I have more?"

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Yet, we can learn a lot of lessons from the Victorians, says Peter Higginbotham, author of The Workhouse Cookbook. "If you follow this book you could produce very filling and reasonably appetising food using simple recipes and basic ingredients," he says. "If you can get over the mental obstacle of 'Oh God, it's the workhouse cookbook', here is a book that has a lot to offer in terms of making a good range of dishes economically without compromising totally on taste."

The renewed interest in workhouse cooking is a part of a wider trend for people to cut back on their food bills to cope with the effects of the credit crunch. Just last week, Delia Smith reissued her 1970s bestseller Frugal Food, claiming its recipes for dishes such as kipper quiche and kidney-stuffed onions are "more relevant than ever" in the current economic climate. Her book has a "pauper's puddings" section, including stodgy desserts such as spotted dick, as well as her own Cheap Charter on how to save money when cooking.

eta: Workhouse Recipe

Sea Pie

Ingredients: 5oz raw meat free from bone (beef stickings or similar quality). ¼oz dripping. Pepper, salt. 5oz carrots, onions and turnips. ¼oz flour. Water.

For crust: 2oz flour. Salt. ¾oz suet. Cold water.

Method: Melt the dripping in the pan, when hot put in the onion sliced; fry golden brown, sprinkle in the flour, add water, and boil. Add meat cut into pieces, also vegetables cut into small dice. Simmer or steam for half an hour. Make crust of flour, chopped suet, salt and water. Roll out to pan size. Put carefully over the meat, and simmer or steam gently up to 2 hours.

[ 30 September 2008: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

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You will need the following ingredients: oats; water.

The following equipment is essential: a big pot; a big spoon; the Holy Bible.

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Potato Soup

Ingredients

1kg potatoes

3 onions

6 cups of half milk and water

Chives or parsley

Rashers (streaky)

Salt and pepper

1 cup light cream.

Cooking

Chop all above into chunks, except milk and cream.

Put chunks and milk into a large pot, cover and simmer gently until it goes to a pulp.

Put pulp in a blender and puree, add cream.

Reheat; place parsley or chives on top. Fried crispy bacon is added to the top on serving.

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Originally posted by ElizaQ:
Mmm Bagkitty you are so correct. I buy leeks when they in season and thus cheaper, chop them up and freeze them, just so I can have them in my winter potato soup. They go mushy but that doesn't matter. It's the taste that matters.

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"Yet, we can learn a lot of lessons from the Victorians, says Peter Higginbotham, author of The Workhouse Cookbook. "If you follow this book you could produce very filling and reasonably appetising food using simple recipes and basic ingredients".

So, do we have more favourite recipes that follow this advice? I suspect some of our "comfort food" recipes probably fit into this category, but would mac 'n cheese be one of these? I wonder if Higginbotham is talking about using the very basics.

ETA: I think BK's recipe for curried leek/cucumber balls could be an excellent example of using the basics - could you post the full recipe?

[ 30 September 2008: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

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Originally posted by bagkitty:

I have a great recipe for curried leek/cucumber balls (you grate both the leeks and the cucumbers, form them into balls or patties and fry them before cooking them in a curry)... it sounds a little strange first time around, but really tastes good. If you like I can send it to you.

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Originally posted by Boom Boom:
I love potato soup, but usually I add a handful of fresh caught scallop in addition to bacon. Then it almost becomes chowder - and delicious!

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Cucumber/Leek vegetable balls in curry sauce -- serves 6

CURRY BASE

Ingredients

4 medium onions
2 medium tomatoes
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 and 1/2 cups boiling water

Method

• Heat oil in pan (have a lidded pot to transfer into)
• Finely chop tomatoes and onions and add both to hot oil, stir frequently (mod-high heat) about 5-7 minutes
• transfer to lidded pot, reduce heat, stir in the spices and then add the water, cover and allow to simmer while preparing the vegetable balls
  

VEGETABLES BALLS

Ingredients

2 small field cucumbers
2 average sized leeks
1 anaheim pepper (or sweet banana pepper)
Canola oil for deep frying
1/2 cup besan (or chickpea flour, regular flour if you must)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp fenugreek (Methi)
1/4 tsp asafoetida (Hing)

3/4 tsp garam masala

Method

• grate the cucumbers (using the medium grooves on your grater, do not use vegetable mandolin, you want shreds not slices
• Squeeze the water from the grated cucumber, discard water
• grate or medium chop the leeks
• roughly chop the pepper
• mash the cucumbers, leeks and pepper together in a small bowl, when thoroughly mixed together, add all the spices except the garam masala and mix again
• a) for full immersion deep frying form the vegetable/spice mixture into balls (roughly egg sized) OR b) for frying in a pan, form into small patties
• coat balls or patties in besan (the cucumbers should still be moist enough to make the besan stick), then transfer to deep fryer, cook until light brown, don't overload the fryer, do multiple batches
• add the garam masala to the curry base
• after draining from frying, spoon the cooked vegetables balls into the curry base, gently folding them in till they are covered,
• cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes
• serve over rice
  

The heat factor is pretty mild, if you like things hotter, add 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper to the spices for the vegetable balls. The asafoetida (called Hing in some South Asian markets) in the vegetable balls is a nice touch, but not vital (sometimes hard to find).

[ 30 September 2008: Message edited by: bagkitty ]

There's a passage from Dr. Kay-Shuttleworth's examination of life among the cotton operatives in 1830s Lancashire that might help us in our quest for the perfect "hard times" recipe.

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The population employed in the cotton factories rises at five o'clock in the morning, works in the mills from six till eight o'clock, and returns home for half and hour or forty minutes for breakfast. This meal generally consists of tea or coffee, with a little bread. Oatmeal porridge is sometimes, but of late rarely used, and chiefly by the men; but the stimulus of tea is preferred, and especially by the women. The tea is almost always of a bad, and sometimes of a deleterious quality; the infusion is weak, and little or no milk is added.

The operatives return to the mills and workshops until twelve o'clock, when an hour is allowed for dinner. Amongst those who obtain the lower rates of wages this meal generally consists of boiled potatoes. The mess of potatoes is put into one large dish; melted lard and butter are poured upon them, and a few pieces of fried fat bacon are sometimes mingled with them, and but seldom a little meat.

Those who obtain better wages, or families whose aggregate income is larger, add the greater proportion of animal food to this meal, at least three times in the week; but the quantity consumed by the labouring population is not great. The family sits round the table, and each rapidly appropriates his portion on a plate, or they all plunge their spoons into the dish, and with an animal eagerness satisfy the cravings of their appetite.

At the expiration of the hour, they are all again employed in the workshops or mills, where they continue until seven o'clock or a later hour, when they generally again indulge in the use of tea, often mingled with spirits accompanied by a little bread. Oatmeal or potatoes are however taken by some a second time in the evening.

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[ 30 September 2008: Message edited by: al-Qa'bong ]

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Originally posted by al-Qa'bong:
Hmmmm. My guess is that Bagkitty and Eliza will be the first to starve to death when the Newest World Order comes about.

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Also the soil here is generally not suitable for gardening without major improvements (there is enough clay in my yard to open a pottery) and my yard is in an exposed position (top of a hill, open to the prevailing winds). I have essentially given up on truck gardening... I have some drought tolerant perennials that do very well, although apparently they would be considered invasive weeds in other provinces.