A dinner for six in February

We’re having roast pork for dinner, with roast potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, gravy and maybe apple sauce if I can buy some apples… oh and gravy. Looking at Modern Practical Cookery and the suggestions for a February menu is crown roast of lamb. In those days lamb and mutton were cheap, these days they are too expensive to have on anything other than a special occasion. Maybe the roast crown of lamb was a special occasion  as it appears in the little dinner menu for the month.

As usual, as well as the main course there is a starter, a dessert and a savoury – and suggestions for a table decoration:

Anemones – crimson, purple and every shade of mauve, arranged loosely in a cut-glass bowl.
N.B. – these flowers look lovely used in conjunction with vivid Chinese table-mats.

The menu:

Halibut and cheese sauce
crown roast of lamb
potatoes, turnip tops
Peach cream
Prune toast

It seems strange to me to serve fish and cheese; halibut is such a lovely fish I would want to serve it as simply as possible! Peach cream is made from tinned peaches – all they could find in the days before supermarkets and all year round availability of everything. Prune toasts would not appeal to everyone, prunes, almonds, cream cheese and streaky bacon… I can’t imagine anyone apart from me even trying them in our family!

No pictures of anemones to share, so an early primrose instead – they would look charming on a 1920’s dinner table with the right bowl and table mat!