I’m just glancing at my mother-in-law’s School Meals Service Recipe Book ( she was head cook in schools in Surrey in the 1950’s/60’s, and I came across a recipe in the Supplementary Recipes-Pastry section which includes two ingredients I really love but which may not be/have been universally popular:
Rhubarb and Date Slices
- 1 lb flour mixed with 4 oz dried milk
- 12 oz margarine (or butter)
- 4 oz dried fruit
- ¼ oz bicarbonate of soda
- 4 oz sugar
- 2 eggs
- rhubarb (cut into small pieces and stewed in a little water)
- 1 lb dates (stoned)
- water to mix
- make pastry by rubbing fat into the flour/dried milk, and sugar, oatmeal and bicarb, pulling together with beaten eggs and a little water
- line the tart tin with half the pastry
- mix rhubarb and dates and spread on the pastry
- crumble the rest of the pastry over the top to cover the fruit
- bake slowly until well-cooked and brown on top
- cut into slices
The instructions are very basic, no doubt assuming that the school cooks would know how to cook! There is no added sugar, the dates adding sweetness, and no additional flavourings. No doubt dietitians these days would throw up their hands in horror at the amount of fat, but in those days most children walked to school and everywhere else and would in general be more active, there were very few homes with central heating, and school heating was erratic, and for some children – as now, this would be the only hot meal of the day.
My featured image is of my old junior school, sadly pulled down by vandals (i.e. the town council sold it to developers) Milton Road Junior and Infant School Cambridge
Lois Elsden 