The National Mark was a government initiative brought in ninety years ago to try and raise the standards and promote home-grown quality foods. I great little cookery booklet was produced, with beautifully written recipes and comments by the food writer Ambrose heath, and the Good Housekeeping Institute director Mrs D.D. Cottington Taylor.
The booklet is divided into months with the seasonal produce listed with complimentary recipes. Fruits and vegetables for October include apples and pears, artichokes, beetroot, the first Brussels sprouts. chicory, endive, horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes and swedes. There is a balanced list of recipes:
- celery soup
- omelette Parmentier
- a new hot pot
- roast duck with orange sa;ad
- pilaff of chicken
- curried vegetables
- Eve’s pudding
- chaudfroid of pears
- apple fritters
- Rose’s onion savoury
- cheese artichokes
- Madeleines
The recipes are all very practical, with an eye to economy as well as flavour. For example, omelette Parmentier is just eggs, butter, potatoes and parsley; ‘a new hot pot’ is a cheap cut of beef, two sausages, carrots, turnip, onion, leeks, potatoes, stock and dripping – very hearty and very warming on a cold October evening after a hard day’s work and probably no central heating! Duck, cooked only in butter mixed with chopped mint, is served not with orange sauce but with an orange salad, simply presented on lettuce, and consisting simply of skinless, pithless orange segments with French dressing (recipe supplied on page 36! – 2/3 olive oil, 1/3 vinegar, salt and pepper)
Here is the National Mark recipe for the very traditional Eve’s pudding:
- 1 lb apples, peeled, cored, sliced(or other fruit)
- 3 oz sugar
- 1 lemon
- small knob of butter
- 4 oz flour
- 2 oz sugar
- 2 oz butter
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp baking powder
- a little milk
- lightly cook the apples with the 3 oz sugar, knob of butter, lemon zest and juice (other fruits such as raspberries will not need cooking)
- cream butter and sugar
- fold in flour and baking powder alternatively with the beaten egg, adding the milk if necessary
- place apples in a baking dish and top with mixture
- bake in a moderate oven, 180°C, 350°F, gas mark 4, 45 mins – 1 hour, making sure the sponge top is thoroughly cooked
Lois Elsden 