Thinking about when I was at school and how I wasn’t able to learn German as I wanted, led me to other thoughts, and one such thought was about school dinners which I generally liked. I have my mother-in-law’s school kitchen cookery book – she was in charge of the kitchen at a junior school in Surrey in the 1950’s and 60’s. We never had this, but it is such a typical school dinner, and although I’m not sure I would enjoy it now, I am sure I would have welcomed it after a morning of Maths or galloping round the hockey pitch on a freezing cold day!
Streamed roly poly
(enough for 100 portions!)
- suet pastry (8 lbs flour, 4 lbs suet, baking powder, salt, water)
- 16 lbs minced beef or 16 lbs minced raw bacon (or a combination weighing 16 lbs)
- 2 lbs minced onion
- sage
- mix the meat, seasoning, onion and sage
- divide the pastry into 12 and roll each out into an oblong
- spread the meat over the pastry, damp the edges and roll up
- steam for 2½ hours
I guess after that which no doubt would be served with carrots, cabbage and potatoes or some such, even us hungry girls would want something lighter, maybe this:
Swedish Fruit Charlotte
- 20 lbs cooking apples, peeled and cored, or 20 lbs gooseberries, topped and tailed
- 4-6 lbs sugar
- 4 tins evaporated milk, refrigerated over night
- 3 pts lemon jelly, made up and cooled till almost set
- 16 oz cornflakes
- ½ lb margarine
- 1 lb demerara sugar
- stew the fruit with or without a little water and the sugar, allow to cool
- beat the jelly and the milk very well and pour over the fruit, allow to set
- melt the margarine and demerara, add the cornflakes and spread over the cream
This sounds dreadfully sweet, a quarter of the weight of the fruit in sugar? Then another pound of sugar on top? In the actual recipe the jelly is sweetened too!
Lois Elsden 