A rediscovered World War II-era recipe book written by Aberdeenshire school teachers is about to get a contemporary twist.
Lindsay Jackson, whose great-grandmother used the recipes during the war, plans to repurpose the simple, home-cooked dishes for her barbeque meats restaurant business.
She uncovered the book during a clear-out at her mum’s and was struck by how its war-time ethos of using local produce matched her own views on sustainability.
“The number one thing for me when I read it was, wow, this is exactly the same as what we are doing,” says Lindsay, who co-owns Smoke and Soul, a former street food firm that now operates out of premises in Aberdeen and Edinburgh and owns an industrial smokery in Bridge of Don.
Recipes for War-Time Cookery
Annie Donald and Ella Fletcher, two home economics teachers at Peterhead Academy, published the recipe book in 1940.
Inside the book, called Recipes for War-Time Cookery, are instructions for pigeon pie, salted fish, marrow sandwiches, stuffed heart and peach and turnip jam among many others.
Some of the entries shine a light on the privations of the time. A liver, potato and onions recipe is described as “Poor Man’s Goose”, while another entry is called Wartime Stew.
However, all of the ingredients in the recipes are designed to be home-grown.
In a forward for the book, John Orr, the then-director of the Rowett Institute of Nutrition that is today part of Aberdeen University, called on locals to grow more potatoes and other vegetables at their allotments.
He wrote that it will help the Ministry of Food in its “terribly difficult task” of feeding the nation.
“… the kind of food we produce in our own country is, on the whole, of greater nutritive value than the food we import,” he added.
War-time recipes to combat poor health
And in a sign that concern over processed food dates back farther than we might think, Orr also exhorts his readers to ward off malnutrition by using homemade produce.
“Housewives have relied too much on the grocer’s van and too little on their own gardens,” he wrote.
Eighty-two-years on, Orr’s sentiment still chimes with Lindsay.
“This idea of doing a lot of stuff from scratch is what we try to do ourselves,” she says.
“And if we’re not doing it from scratch ourselves, we’re choosing companies that are the least processed as possible.”
A spirit of collaboration
Lindsay is now working with other Aberdeenshire food businesses to release collaborative dishes inspired by the recipe book.
Her company, Smoke and Soul, this month teamed up with Aberdeen’s Big Manny’s Pizza.
But in the spirit of war-time unity enshrined in the recipe book, Lindsay is keen to expand her alliances further.
She has already discussed repurposing a jam recipe with Alice Lane, owner of Inverurie firm From Bakery Lane.
And Lindsay’s partner and lead chef at Smoke and Soul, Corey Milne, believes a full three-course war-time menu could be pulled together.
“There are things in the book such as stuffed skirt (a kind of steak) that still gets made today,” Corey says.
“A lot of old people still buy that and make it.”
Lindsay adds: “The best way to do it is to get inspiration from the book and work with other companies to bring these things back to life, eighty years later.”
Meanwhile, Lindsay is happy that the rediscovery of the recipe book connected her to her great-grandmother.
“It’s nice to have something from her that has been passed down through the generations.”