Wednesday, April 01, 2009

The Housewives Monthly Calendar 1936: The Cook's Guide: April

1. Give rhubarb fool - equal quantity of stewed sieved rhubarb and cream or custard - for dinner.

2. Buttered boiled spring greens, turnip-tops or hearting and sprouting broccoli, go well with grilled or fried steak or chops.

3. Why not a prawn and new potato mayonnaise for lunch or supper?

4. Start breakfast with orange juice or tinned figs.

5. Soak salt fish in cold water, and boil rice, ready to make kedjeree, for to-morrow's breakfast.

6. A South African granadilla or two added to your fruit salad is a great improvement.

7. If you want a bird for dinner, why not a casserole of pigeons, well browned before placing in casserole? But don't forget to add some tinned or bottled peas just before serving.

8. Pickle some herring for to-morrow's lunch or supper, and either make or buy potato salad to go with them.

9. Stuffed roast shoulder of English or Canterbury lamb sounds good to me for dinner, but put mint in the stuffing instead of making it into sauce.

10. Make a salmon loaf with egg sauce the principal course at lunch, and give it mashed potatoes for company.

11. Fried rabbit, browned in bacon fat, then cooked with a little stock, in a covered pan, might appeal to you for dinner. Serve with a green vegetable.

12. If you do not like tripe and onions, try Tripe a la Nicoise—cooked in equal quantity of stock and white wine with plenty of sliced carrots and onions and well seasoned.

13. How would you like a slice of fried or grilled gammon and a slice of fried pineapple (tinned) for breakfast?

14. If you serve a shrimp omelet for lunch, give it an endive salad for company.

15. I think it's time we had a mixed grill, with mushroom sauce or grilled tomatoes, and latticed potatoes.

16. Try a crown roast of pork for dinner, with apple and onion sauce flavoured with sherry.

17. Turn the remainder of pork into a mayonnaise for lunch, but give it a little minced pimento for seasoning, if you can.

18. Let's start dinner with a grapefruit cocktail.

19. Make cream cheese, moistened with cream, seasoned and mixed with a little chopped pimento and walnuts, the filling for brown bread sandwiches for tea.

20. If you are calling on the poulterer, take a look at the guinea-fowls. Cooked on a bed of sliced onion and bacon, after flouring and seasoning, in a casserole, with or without mushrooms and chipolata sausages, they are delicious. But give them half a glass of stock and wine before serving.

21. I want grilled herrings and mustard sauce for lunch.

22. What about curried prawns and boiled rice for breakfast?

23. You must have a roast of beef (I insist on Scotch!) with horseradish sauce, and a green pea pudding in place of Yorkshire.

24. If tired of biscuits and cheese, have a Welsh rarebit or cheese soufflé for dinner.

25. Make some lemon and orange marmalade, as long as lemons and oranges are cheap.

26. Devilled eggs and lettuce salad make a good luncheon dish, if followed by a substantial sweet.

27. Should you want a small bird for two, try a hazel-hen and roast and serve like a partridge.

28. A fish pie, made of sea bream, which is so inexpensive, may appeal for lunch.

29. I would like ham and cress rolls and an orange layer cake for tea, but you can also
have hot tea-cakes or cinnamon toast if you want.

30. Say "Good-bye" to April with chicken pie made from boiled fowl, neatly cut up, and moistened white sauce, and flaky pastry, followed by gooseberry fool. You can start with smoked salmon or Scotch broth, if you please.

(The Housewives' Monthly Calendar by Elizabeth Craig, 1936 Chapman & Hall, London)

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