What's for dinner? by Janie Hampton

'Simple but appetising' minced meat pie. Woman's Own, 1964

When Mary Gallati wrote her Hostess Dinner Book in 1953, she thought her recipes were the height of modern cooking. Reading it nearly 70 years later, it has become social history. Mary Gallati was the daughter of Italian restaurateur Mario Gallati, who co-founded 'The Ivy' restaurant in London in 1917. Thirty years later he opened the equally famous ‘Le Caprice’ restaurant behind The Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly.

July by Raymond E Meylan

In 1953, food rationing in Britain had another year to go, making fourteen years of miserable meals. The restrictions on the sale and purchase of all types of food, including bread, meat and eggs became even stronger after the end of the Second World War. People were fed up with dried eggs, tinned Spam, limited fruit, and the expense of using the black market. They were ready for something new, and Mary was ready to show them how to entertain. She wanted to share her cooking skills with post-war Britons. Her recipes were designed to fit the seasons, so she offered roast woodcock and ‘fried éperlans’ (smelts, a small fish) in March; and ‘kid au romain’ and shrimp cocktail in April. Lobsters and ‘potatoes parisienne’ feature in May, as do copious eggs and butter in preparation for when rationing was over.

April by Raymond E Meylan

However, tastes and ingredients were not as culturally diverse as they are now. Even Gallati with her Italian background, only used garlic sparingly. Avocadoes were a rare treat reserved for dinner parties, not for every-day sandwiches. Other ingredients were available. Not many recipe books now would include gulls eggs, smoked eel or 'cannelloni stuffed with calves' brains'. Duck aux cerises froides (duck with cold cherries) involved crushing the cherry stones to retrieve the tiny nuts. Aspic appears often, an ingredient my mother used  50 years ago for parties. With aspic and jelly moulds, she could make one chicken and tin of peas feed 20 people. I remember being surprised by old men saying with glee, ‘Mmmm, aspic! I haven’t had that since the nursery!’ Egg en gelée is poached eggs in aspic. To achieve that special 1950s look, you could mix aspic with mayonnaise (homemade, obviously) before piping it artistically onto your fish. Remember ‘Russian salad’? Tiny cubes of carrots and turnips with peas, mixed into mayonnaise, served in tomatoes with their insides scooped out, and a touch more aspic. Don’t forget the sprig of parsley!

The days of tiny supermarket trolleys, trendy baskets
and kitten heels!  Photo by Tesco Stories, 1963.

Gallati also suggested which drinks to serve, including cocktails. In January, one could drink ‘Peter Pan’, made from equal parts of gin, French vermouth, orange juice and peach bitter. Shaken not stirred, as is August’s ‘Highland Cooler’ of whisky, bitters and lemon. Whereas July’s Pimms no.1 demanded No Shaking.

February by Raymond E Meylan

The illustrations by Raymond E. Meylan still look modern – stark black and white ink drawings adorn the start of each month’s recipes. They remind me of 1950s tiles or Heal’s fabric, and would work well as tapestry designs. Meylan also designed logos for chemical companies in the 1960s, when abstract corporate logos were all the rage.

March by Raymond E Meylan

I love the mixture of French and English to give the recipes continental class, such as ‘carrots vichy’ and ‘crayfish a la russe’. ‘Moussaka á l’algerienne’ brought together Greece, France and North Africa. At my very first dinner party, cooked on my 13th birthday for six school friends, the menu I wrote by hand stated ‘Saucissons en toade dans une hole.’ Maybe Mary Gallati’s French was as bad as mine, and she just didn’t know the word for carrot or crayfish? Like Gallati, I also tried the latest pudding – Baked Alaska. Only I had never seen one, just heard about it. So the cake underneath was soggy, the meringue  chewy, and the ice cream completely melted. My friends claimed to be delighted by the glacé cherries sprinkled all over it.

'Three Course Dinner cooked in a pressure cooker'.
Why does it look so unappetizing? Maybe because it's served on school plates.
Woman's Own Cook Book, 1964.

If only I had used the Woman’s Own Cook Book of 1964 which has handy tips on ‘The etiquette of dining’, such as how to cut a grapefruit, and where to place the glacé cherry. I didn’t know that ‘the chief male guest sits on the hostesses right, and the chief woman guest on the host’s right.’ Woman’s Own usefully pointed out that if there were eight people round the table, the sexes couldn't alternate and ‘adaptations are made at the host’s end.’ How confused the hostess of the 1960s would be by same sex couples, and non-binary people. The ‘chief duties of the host are pouring out wine and carving.’ Thank goodness nowadays, we can pour our own wine, and carving meat is a rare occurrence at a dinner party.

An exciting dinner party in 1964.
Which side of the hostess will the chief guest sit? 

How do these colour photos make the food look clean but cold and dull? 
Woman’s Own Cook Book, 1964.  

The chapter about children’s food insisted that they needed bland, tasteless, preferably steamed, mush – what we used to call ’Nursery food.’ Oat or barley ‘Jelly’ was recommended to build up weak children, and raw beef juice ( i.e. watered down blood) for delicate and anaemic babies. Colour, experimentation and taste were not encouraged.

'All-on-a-level kitchen', Woman's Own 1964.
I've often dreamed of a tidy kitchen like this,
and to wear kitten heels for cooking. 

My favourite chapter, one that clearly demonstrates how things have changed, was ‘Routine for Putting on Weight’. ‘Plenty of rest and exercise, a good diet of fattening foods and no worries – those are the essentials.’ The underweight reader was encouraged to stay in bed after breakfast; eat plenty of cake and ice cream; avoid green vegetables, salads, vinegar and egg white; and drink more cocktails. That’s a diet to aspire to!

Here are some recipes from Mary Gallati’s Hostess Dinner Book:
August: Sweetbreads Maréchale Place 2 large sweetbreads (lamb’s pancreas) in water and boil. Cool and remove fat and sinew. Cut into slices, roll in breadcrumbs and shallow-fry. Garnish with points of asparagus. Pour melted butter over . [Note to reader: à la maréchale is a French phrase for cooking food à l'anglaise ("English-style"), i.e. coated with bread crumbs and fried.] 

December: Smoked Eel. Cut into 3 inch sections. Garnish with quartered lettuce and tomato. Pass round horseradish sauce separately. Horseradish sauce: 4 tablespoons fresh grated horse-radish. ½ teaspoon salt. 1 ½ tablespoons vinegar. ½ cup cream. Cayenne pepper. Mix, add cream beaten stiff.

May by Raymond E Meylan

 www.janiehampton.co.uk

The Etiquette of Apples

by Deborah Swift

Jeanne Illenye - The Fateful Temptation

I have been lucky enough to be given a huge plastic bag full of apples from my friend's orchard, and have been busy cooking up stewed apples and freezing them, so I can enjoy them through the winter. Whilst looking up different recipes I cam across snippets of applelore, which I hope will give you a taste of apples and of Autumn.

The Latin malus means both “apple” and “evil,” which, according to some historians, is probably why the apple gained a reputation as the Forbidden Fruit, when most scholars agree the original fruit was probably a pomegranate, though Michelangelo’s Temptation and Fall on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel features forbidden figs. By the 17th century, the apple being the commonest fruit in Europe, the fruit responsible for man's Fall from Grace was widely believed to be the apple.

Victorian Costermonger

The first evidence of deliberate cultivation dates from the period of the Roman invasion of Britain, but by the 9th century records show that cider making was already well established, and the Norman French brought with them a number of new varieties of apple, including the Costard. This apple is no longer grown, but its existence is preserved in the word costermonger -- a seller of Costard apples.

In North America nearly everyone has heard of 'Johnny Appleseed'. During the late 18th Century he planted orchards right from Pennsylvania in the east through to Indiana in the west. According to legend, the indigenous population regarded him as a medicine man, because of his combination of enthusaism for nature and his religious devotion, which involved distributing tracts along with the seeds.

When eating apples at the table or in company, a range of 'apple etiquettes' became common. In Georgian times, coring the apple was done with a silver apple corer. When they first appeared in the 1680’s they were a long silver cylinder, with a scallop shaped cutting blade. Some rare examples have a hollow compartment at one end in which sugar, cinnamon and other spices to add flavour would have been kept. Gentlemen carried these, as it was fashionable for the genmtleman to assist the lady, and peel and core the fruit for her. Some had a handle that unscrewed, so the device could be stored in a pocket more easily. Apple corers in this form were popular until about 1820.

Gentleman's Silver Apple corer from 1690

Fruit was widely used as a dessert and special cutlery was used in the Victorian era to eat it. When fresh fruit was served, a small plate accompanied by a fruit knife and fork were exchanged for the dessert plate.

Above is a Victorian mother of pearl handled pocket fruit knife and fork, each with its own little leather carrying case.

There is a knack to peeling the fruit elegantly in polite company. Holding the fruit by the fork, the apple is stood straight up and peeled from top to bottom without being touched by the hands. When the entire fruit has been peeled, it should be carefully sliced into small morsels and eaten one piece at a time. I should think many people found their apple shooting unexpectedly across the table!

For more information on how to eat fruit correctly with or without cutlery, (including bananas and all sorts of other fruit) I recommend you go here. Of course I can't imagine many of us will feel the need for such extreme etiquette, but it is fascinating!

Still Life -  Balthazar Van Ast .17th Century

Happy Autumn everyone.

Find my books at www.deborahswift.com

or follow me on @swiftstory

More 'apple' links:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/food/the-plate/2014/07/22/history-of-apples/

http://www.witheridge-historical-archive.com/apples.htm

The Book of Etiquette Sheena Wilkinson

Another in my occasional series about odd little books from the past.

my 1962 edition 

I grew up in a Belfast council estate but I knew how to address a letter to royalty and what a Dowager was. I knew how to leave a calling card and that fashionable dinners were now served à la Russe. Should I ever be obliged to do so, I knew exactly how to organise the work of a household with three, two, or – heaven forfend, only one servant. I knew that any inconsiderate behaviour was ill-bred.

I bought it in a jumble sale, or a ‘wee sale’ as they were always called. I loved a wee sale. Once I had combed the room for Chalet School and Enid Blyton books I used to hang round until the end and buy – or have foisted on me – all sorts of unfortunate one-eyed, tailless, germ-ridden soft toys for whom I felt sorry. My mother must have been quite relieved to see me come home with a clean, if well-thumbed paperback, though she must have wondered at my liking something so old-fashioned.

The funny thing was, it wasn’t that old. The Book of Etiquette was originally published in 1926, in which year – that of the General Strike – it must have seemed almost as alien and a great deal less charming to many working people (not that they’d have been likely to read it) as it did to me in 1970s Belfast. My copy was not a 1920s original, nor an ironic reissue of the sort now popular but a cheap paperback reprint in the Cedar Special library, dated 1962. It’s hard to believe that in the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the first hits of The Beatles and Bob Dylan, people were still paying 7/6 to find out the Carriage rules at Court or, in the sad event of not having a carriage, How to behave in an omnibus.

This may not have been my day-to-day world, but it was one I recognised from my reading. When Harriet Vane marries Lord Peter and is addressed by as Lady Peter by a person of modest background, I thought, aha! That character has read her Book of Etiquette. 

an older edition 

When I was a teacher, my pupils used to be puzzled at Mrs Birling’s disapproval of her husband’s praising of the dinner in An Inspector Calls: surely he is only being polite! But no – As a general rule no comments should be made…on the food or the wine… Mr Birling is revealing a sad lack of breeding -- or reading. 

another older edition

The Book of Etiquette has stayed with me through several house-moves and spring clear-outs, when other old friends have been abandoned. Now that I write historical fiction I tell myself it’s useful research, even though so far my characters have been much too lower-middle-class to worry about shooting etiquette or when to wear decorations with their evening dress.

Apparently The Book of Etiquette is so comprehensive a guide that it was used as research for the film Gosford Park. And actually, anyone today would benefit from reading the sections on how to behave at the theatre – in complete silence during the performance and on no account to rustle your programme. What my grandmother would have called the relics of oul' decency. 

"Do not gurgle" - by Katherine Langrish

This little book was printed in 1918.

It begins: "It is a sign of the times that there is a very large demand for a handy little manual which will present in an easily comprehended and concise form a summary of those points which constitute a claim to the possession of good manners. With the spread of education the old-fashioned lines which so sharply divide the classes are fast vanishing. And now that there is so little distinction in clothes, all that tends to make or mar is to be seen in manners and heard in speech."

So how would we fare if we were spirited back to 1918? Would we 'pass' as 'gentlefolk' or be shunned as hopelessly out of our depth in good society? I fear the latter, and I suspect that many a BBC television adaptation gets these things wrong, too. For example:

 
With ladies, a gentleman never offers to shake hands. It is the privilege of the lady on all occasions to make the first move. This is an invariable rule. 

The lady must always extend her hand first, and if she does not, the gentleman must not attempt to shake hands with her. 

Always remember the claims to courtesy due to the fair sex and to your elders. If in any doubt, always err on the wrong side. Cross a room to open a door for a lady rather than allow her to open it for herself. Never sit in the presence of a lady who remains standing. Rise always when a lady leaves the room. 

And:

After an introduction, the gentleman on a future occasion must always await the lady's signal of acknowledgement. He must not presume upon the fact of a prior introduction to begin an acquaintanceship. 

One thing that strikes me about this little pamphlet is that it is relentlessly addressed to the male reader. Perhaps to those 'temporary gentlemen' (horrid phrase!), the working or middle class men who had been raised to officer status during the war. Was there another pamphlet for women? Or was it simply that women were less socially mobile and therefore less in need of this kind of advice?

Reading it, I am struck by what seems now the extreme and complicated formality of social rules at the time. Need to know when to raise your hat? The pamphlet explains. You must raise your hat to any lady of your acquaintance, chance-met in public - but only if she has bowed or nodded to you first. If, however, you need to perform some slight service for a lady whom you do not know, (for instance, to pick up an item she has dropped), you should lift your hat first. Ordinarily you don't lift your hat to a male friend, but if you have a lady with you he will lift his hat to her, and you must return the salute. However, you may raise your hat to a man who is senior to you 'in years or station', and he should raise his hat in response.

All this had to become a reflex - an instinctive, spontaneous response.  Or else you were out of your depth, struggling, and patently no gentleman...

I've never quite understood (neither does this pamphlet explain) why 'for afternoon calls morning dress is worn - frock coat or morning coat and silk hat.' But I'm relieved to discover that the author encourages 'sympathy and understanding in dealing with servants', urging us to remember that ' they are of the same material as yourself, with the same desires and needs, emotions and thoughts, which differ in degree only, and not in kind. It should be your place to set them an example... Ask kindly, if firmly, for what you want done.'

Hmmm...

I think most 21st century time travellers would be rapidly found out. How about this for a culinary problem?

DESSERT - This is sometimes a difficult proceeding. To peel an orange, apple or pear with a fruit knife and fork requires some practice. If you feel doubtful about it, take some other fruit. ... Bananas should be peeled with the dessert knife and fork and eaten with the fork, which should be used to divide the fruit into small pieces. 

And it might be difficult to accustom oneself to this:

SERVICE - Remember that the servants are there to wait. Do not ask a fellow guest to pass something if a servant is at hand. Do not lean over the table to reach for anything; ask a servant to pass it. 

Some of the advice is priceless (and timeless), though:

EATING - Eat quietly and deliberately. All haste is vulgar; in eating it is particularly so. Make no noise in masticating your food, and keep the mouth closed during the process. ...In taking soup do not gurgle or make throat noises. 

And as for drinking:

Do not elevate the glass as though trying to stand it on your nose. 

Lastly, oh History Girls, bear in mind these strictures on instilling virtues in children:

MANLINESS - Teach your boys to be honest in all things; never do a mean or dirty action; to be straightforward and truthful in all their dealings; to be open, fearless and courteous on all occasions, and especially to their sisters. 

MODESTY - Teach your girls to be as good as your boys (as fearless, as open and as courteous), only from them a little more fineness and more reserve is expected - a tribute to their delicate and finer nature.