In case you can't read the name, it is called "Economical Cookery" and was published in 1937. It helpfully includes suggested menus for three meals a day, for every single day of the year, with Sunday's menu costed out. Just look at the amount of food each day includes - three big meals a day!
7s in old money is 35p now. For a 6lb (almost 3kg) duck!
I don't just use this book for wondering at the mind-boggling menus and prices though - it is packed with great and practical recipes for soups, stews, jams, pickles, cakes and bakes. There's a great chapter on making the most of leftovers, and many recipes that I turn to time and time again. But I won't be following their advice to cook Brussels sprouts for 45-50 minutes!!! (There's also a recipe for Brussels sprout sauce which requires you to pass the sprouts through a sieve. Well, if you'd boiled them for 50 minutes I'm sure that's all they would be fit for).
My mum told me when I was a boy she used to spend about a third of the family income on food even with those low prices,and we ate healthily and very well indeed, the percentage spend now for families is a lot less than that, less quality too in my opinion
ReplyDelete