Rations

In the aftermath of the War, I suppose my mum was no different to many others. Ration books were in operation for basics like meat, sugar, milk and other commodities that have been taken for granted today. Nothing could be wasted and you could write the menus week by week as regular as clockwork. The only variations would be for  the seasons, obviously more salads in the summer with vegetables being more plentiful. 

On a Sunday it was a piece of beef, rarely pork and occasionally lamb. But that would have depended on what was available and at what cost. Mum did a wet roast with water gravy thickened towards the end of cooking with bisto mixed in a cup. Served with vegetables usually carrots and peas this was a one pot feast. There would then be cold meat from the leftover joint on a Monday with mash. Occasionally, if there was lots of left over vegetable, we’d have bubble and squeak. Anything left after that would be minced up to make a cottage pie on Tuesday. Wednesday would be a season pudding or steak and kidney pie and always on a Thursday train wrecking pasties, which was mother’s speciality. Friday it was fish and chips as good Catholics did on a Friday and Saturday cold meat and mash.This rarely changed and each meal had an afters of jam or lemoncurd tart homemade, suet puddings, Nelson squares or sponges with homemade custard. Sundays, we’d have a trifle which would last for Monday, bearing in mind there were no fridges. At least not in our  house. There was only large granite slabs in a ladder cupboard for us.  It’s quite an ask how these things were cooked and preserved so well.

The surprise was sometimes Maureen would come home with a rabbit from one of the farms the milk was collected from. Mum would skin, dissect it and cook the most amazing rabbit pies. At about the age of ten or so there was a Myxomatosis disease among rabbits and almost wiped them out, so the practice died out too. The rabbit pie is still one of my  favourites, personally I think far more tasty than chicken.

I always felt sorry for my mum as she was tied to the kitchen every day. Dad worked his whole working life at Mile House bus depot as a fitter and turner and insisted on coming home for lunch Monday to Friday. He would catch a special to be through the door around 12:30, have his dinner and catch the return bus back to milehouse at 1:15. It was always tight on time, so dinner had to be on the table for when he came through the door. This however became their way of life for the 49 years that he worked there and a more light tea would follow at about 6ish.

However  looking back the meals were filling, nutritious and always had mum’s mark on them and generally we weren’t hungry throughout the day. Considering the limited range of things available and the limitations on money, she did an excellent job of keeping us all healthy and full. I seem to recall dad got paid on a Thursday and would come home, pass over the money for the housekeeping they had agreed and that was it. I know many years later when mum discovered just how much dad had been earning and she wasn’t at all pleased. I think an exchange of sharp opinion happened. She was a skilled seamstress and could look at fashions and make a dress or trousers, skirts and blouses at will, but that seemed her only hobby. More likely it was the only way clothes could be obtained within their finances. I think she was more than miffed that that may have been avoidable had she known the real earnings of dad at that time. But that seemed to be the common way things were done in most  swirling class households, the male attitudes dominated just about  everything.