How devilish!

I quite frequently mention the National Mark Calendar of Cooking, a useful little cookery book published in 1936. The National Mark was part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries which promoted home-grown and home-produced foods. each month in the little book there are recipes using what is in season.

Here is a recipe for devilled potatoes, I suppose how devilish they are depends on the amount of cayenne pepper you use!

Devilled potatoes

small waxy potatoes peeled and boiled
2 egg yolks, beaten
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vinegar
salt
cayenne pepper
1 tsp made mustard

put tall the ingredients except the eggs and vinegar into a deep frying pan, mix very well then add the vinegar
cook for three or four minutes then add the whole potatoes
stir in the egg yolks and stir until the mixture thickens

…and here is another recipe for July:

Stuffed vegetable marrow

1 large marrow (peeled if the skin is tough)
2 tbsp chopped cooked beef
2 tbsp chopped ham
2 tbsp chopped parsley
4 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 beaten egg
white or cheese sauce
powdered mace
pinch of lemon thyme
1 tbsp tomato ketchup (catchup in the recipe)
salt and pepper

with a small marrow, scoop out the seeds from either end, with a large marrow, cut in half length-ways and scoop out the seeds
mix all the other ingredients except the white or cheese sauce together with as much of the egg as you need to bind
with a big marrow, put the two halves together, tie the vegetable in a muslin and steam until it is tender
place on a serving dish and coat with the sauce

I love the fact that lemon thyme is specified – many people seem to think British kitchens before Elizabeth David were a culinary desert… actually, they weren’t!