Frugal Friday--Dr. Carrot and Carroty George

I'm going to do an overview of food rationing and other austerity measures during the Second World War in Great Britain, but for today, I'm going to jump right in with carrots.

According to the aptly named World Carrot Museum, carrots played a very important role in the kitchen during World War 2. They were widely available and therefore often used as a substitute for other foods and used in some popular "mock" recipes of the day. Speaking of mock recipes, did any of you ever make the "Mock Apple Pie" on the Ritz Crackers box? I've been meaning to for years.

The Ministry of Food promoted the use of carrots by claiming that they would help people see better during blackouts and by creating a character named "Dr. Carrot," who espoused the health value and lovely taste of carrots in pamphlets and on posters. I'm not sure what medical school he went to, but he does have a doctor's bag and a top hat, so he must know what he's talking about.

The chef of the Savoy hotel devised a recipe to encourage people to eat more carrots and other vegetables. It was called Woolton Pie, after Lord Woolton, Minister of Food during the war. It looks very basic and not so interesting and I don't know what swedes are (turnips, maybe?), but apparently, Lord Woolton was so charming that he managed to be well-liked even as he urged Britons to forgo their favorite foods, like if George Clooney told me to give up chocolate...

The Official Woolton Pie Recipe as reported in The Times 26 April 1941:

INGREDIENTS

Take 1Ib each of diced potatoes, cauliflower, swedes and carrots;
Three or Four spring onions;
One teaspoonful of vegetable extract and
One teaspoonful of oatmeal.

METHOD

Cook all together for ten minutes with just enough water to cover.
Stir occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking.
Allow to cool; put into a pie dish, sprinkle with chopped parsley and cover with a crust of potatoes or wholemeal pastry.
Bake in a moderate oven until the pastry is nicely brown and serve hot with brown gravy.

Sweet treats were scarce in those days, so someone's resourceful mum came up with "Carrot Fudge." Personally, this recipe frightens me a bit, although I might make it and test it on the kids. Try it, if you dare:

Carrot Fudge (Recipe from Colleen Moulding's "Frugal Recipes from Wartime Britain").

You will need:
4 tablespoons of finely grated carrot
1 gelatine leaf
orange essence or squash
a saucepan and a flat dish

Put the carrots in a pan and cook them gently in just enough water to keep them covered, for ten minutes. Add a little orange essence, or orange squash to flavour the carrot. Melt a leaf of gelatine and add it to the mixture. Cook the mixture again for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Spoon it into a flat dish and leave it to set in a cool place for several hours. When the "fudge" feels firm, cut it into chunks and get eating!

Walt Disney even got into the act, creating a cartoon carrot family to persuade Britons to eat more carrots: Carroty George, Clara Carrot, Pop Carrot were reproduced on a poster, recipe booklet, flyers and the images were used extensively in a newspaper campaign.

Carroty George's motto was "I'll tell you what to do with me." If only it were Carroty George Clooney, I'd be sold...

Here is one of Carroty George's recipes:

Carroty George's Hot Pot:

Wash and coarsely grate 6 carrots and 6 potatoes; mix with 2 tablespoons packet sage and onion. Make seasoning of 2 teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon pepper, and, if possible, brown sugar. Put half the vegetables in a stewpot, cover with half the seasoning, add rest of vegetables and rest of seasoning. No water required, cover stewpot and bake very slowly for 2 hours. You’ll have a dish very much out of the ordinary, for 3 or 4.

Takeaway 21st century advice: Eat more carrots. They're healthy and cheap. I'm still not sold on Carrot Fudge, though.

Check back tonight for the Giveaway winner!!

Comments

[Mike Bradley]

I've just found your website while looking up Woolton Pie on the web. I've forgotten the name for swedes in the US, but they are, basically, a type of turnip with yellow flesh. (Do you call them something like rapa?) A recipe like this should not be taken as a blueprint to be rigidly followed - it's more of a basis on which to make your own variations, according to what vegetables happen to be available and whatever herbs and spices you care to add, and possibly with a piped potato topping with grated cheese. Adding a cheese sauce might add a zing: that would have made heavy inroads on the family cheese ration in wartime!

[Lynne]

I have had a renewed interest in carrots ever since I started getting an organic vegetable box, and I get carrots every single week. I'm still not so excited about them but I have to eat them to use them up!

[The City Sage]

Hi Alexis,
Thanks for stopping by my blog and for commenting! And for leading me to your blog---I'm really enjoying exploring your posts!

And I just adore your frugal friday concept---I'm fascinated by world war II history and I think it's a terrific idea to approach our current economic situation with the same courage and aplomb as that generation did their own shortages. Plus the great posters you've found are making me smile :)

Have a great weekend!

xoxo
Anne @ The City Sage

[maya]

did that comment make me sound crazy?

i think i might be today.

[maya]

love this post. hopefully it won't come to this (though it may well soon enough at my house, if only for a few months). i don't like cooked carrots and none of this sounds appetizing to me (except maybe the carrot george clooney, though i'd probably rather the carrot goran visnjic, except that that's just silly). i suppose i'd just have to get over it though. there's no way carrots will ever taste like fudge.

i like raw carrots just fine.

swedes = root vegetable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga

[Amy]

Times are tough, I'll admit, but I'm not sure I'm at the food rationing stage...

[Laura Matheny]

When he was a toddler, Ryan could eat an entire can of carrots (the mushy cooked kind) at his daycare as part of his lunch. Now, of course, he refuses to have anything to do with anything that looks like a vegetable (though he eats lots of fruit, so the ped says that's fine).

[Meaghan]

My mother is 81 and refuses to eat carrots. She says that's all she ate during the war! Thanks for the info.

[Frogdancer]

My oldest son is addicted to carrots. So much so that his hands are orange from the carotene. He gets really irritable if he hasn't had them for a day. He eats them raw, just crunches them up. If he could, he'd eat a kilo a day.
Weird...