Maybe this recipe was cut out of the newspaper and stuck inside a favourite cookery book when it was difficult to get real butter; would it really be worth doing all this to make margarine into butter? What would it taste like? Not remotely like the real thing.
It takes ¼ gill of milk – a gill is a quarter of a pint, so this would be a tiny amount of milk… There is no date on the cutting, and no clue in the name of the reader, merely Mrs. B, from Hollinwood. There are two Hollinwoods, one in Shropshire, and the other near Oldham, which I am guessing is where Mrs. B. lived; the friend who gave me this book with the cutting in comes from Oldham. Maybe the cutting is from the Oldham Chronicle, or the Manchester Evening News.
An interesting recipe… (text missing)… Mrs B., of Hollinwood… (text missing)… how to make margarine into butter. Many people are using this recipe and the results are good.
This makes 1lb of butter
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- ¼ gill of milk
- one fresh egg
- pinch of salt
- ½ lb margarine, cut into small pieces
- put the cornflour in a cup and mix to a paste with a drop of milk
- whisk the egg
- bring the rest of the milk to the boil and add the cornflour,, salt and egg
- thoroughly mix with a whisk
- pour all the mixture over the margarine and whisk again
- allow to cool in a basin
Lois Elsden 