Tag Archives: 1950s

POTTED BEEF and POTTED HAM

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When I found this ‘Meat to press, pot and roll’ article Mum had kept from the Herald Sun in 1993 it reminded me that buried at the back of one of my kitchen cupboards is an old meat press of hers. She used it make it make various potted and pressed meats, which I confess I thought were the same thing until I read this definition.

Mum mainly made pressed meats, usually tongue or beef. The article has this recipe for Potted Beef and Potted Ham and also one for Pressed Tongue. I never liked Pressed Tongue and I have never wanted to make it and doubt that anyone else does either these days so I’ve left it out, but the Beef and Ham recipes sound good. The article also shows alternatives to using a meat press. I’ve used the bowl, plate and brick method and it works really well, guess that’s why Mum’s press is still at the back of the cupboard.

SMOKED COD AND CORN CASSEROLE

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With Easter just around the corner I thought this old smoked cod and corn casserole might be interesting to make. Fish has become an expensive product to buy, but smoked cod is one of the more affordable types. I quite like it as it holds it’s shape and works well with potatoes and in this case crushed potato chips.

Metric conversion: 1lb = 500g, 10oz = 315g, 2oz = 60g

PASSIONFRUIT BUTTER

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Every time I eat passionfruit it reminds me of when I was young. Growing up our back fence was covered in a passionfruit vine. In spring the vine was covered in beautiful flowers and in summer luscious fruit. My brothers and I used to pick them, eat them and then to hide our sin, throw the skins as far as we could onto the garage roof – not something our father was very happy about. Luckily there was still heaps for Mum to pick and to use to top sponges with, put in fruit salad and to make this passionfruit butter. Note: 8oz = 250g, 4oz = 125g

CINNAMON SCROLLS

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I’m not exactly sure when this recipe was published in the Herald Sun. You can see by the condition of the print that it is quite old and of course the ingredients being in Imperial measurements is the other giveaway. Cinnamon Scrolls are usually made with a yeast dough and that seems like a lot of trouble and a long wait to me. This recipe is a lot easier and quicker and that has to be a pretty big plus.

FLOWING CHOCOLATE CARAMELS

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This is an old 1950s (or thereabouts) recipe for chocolate covered caramel balls.  With the schools shutting down for an extended time it could be a project for the kids.  Obviously, they’ll need supervision with cooking the tin of condensed milk, but the rolling out of the balls could be a fun and messy job for them.

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

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As far as I can work out this recipe came from the bottom of a new Willow 8″ round cake tin, probably back in the 50s.   Between my own cake tins and those I inherited from Mum I haven’t bought a new cake tin for years so I have no idea if they still come with a recipe, but if they do I hope it’s a bit more accurate than this one, as they’ve left out the quantity of tinned pineapple to use.  A 440g can should work, baked in a 20cm cake tin and at 180o.

ROLLED PICKLED PORK

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After finding the recipe for the Pumped Leg of Lamb I was reminded of another cold meat specialty of Mum’s – Pickled Pork.  Like the lamb you don’t see pickled pork ready made any more and you’ll have to ask the butcher to prepare it for you.  It’s treated the same way as the lamb and corned beef, pumped with brine and basically you cook it the same way.  If you want to modernize it you could cook it in a slow cooker.

pickled-pork

 

LEG OF LAMB – PUMPED

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Hunting through Mum’s recipes I found this Pumped Leg of Lamb recipe and it’s brought back lots of memories.  Ham when I was a kid only came in cans and even then only on special occasions.  On the other hand lamb was readily available and cheap and Mum always made it to have as cold meat a Christmas time.  When cooked it had a vague ham look, taste and texture.  This recipe was printed in the Herald Sun in, I think, the 70s, I don’t have Mum’s original recipe, but I’m sure it didn’t have red wine, orange juice and honey in it, Mum’s was a much plainer version.

Pumped Leg of Lamb is similar to corned beef. You can’t buy it off the shelf these days, but I’m sure a butcher would be prepare it for you, like corned beef the  lamb is pumped with brine and you cook it the same was as corned beef.  Not sure if you want to try it out, but it does bring back lots of memories to me of cold meat and salads on hot Australian summer days.

pumped-leg-of-lamb

 

BETTY KING’S FILLINGS FOR PASTRY SHELLS

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I’ve just found this wonderful leaflet entitled “Fillings for Take-Home Pastry Shells” 8 Tested Recipes from Betty King. I think it’s probably from the the late 1950s, it’s definitely from before metrics started in 1966.   On checking I’ve found out that unlike Margaret Fulton, the 1970s cooking queen, Betty King did not exist.  She was just an entity created as a marketing tool….an attempt to fool all of the people all of the time….so nothing’s changed there.  But tastes have changed since then so I’m not sure you’d want to actually make any of the fillings.

Betty King Pastry Shells Fillings