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Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 2:57 pm
by jhopgood
Goatherd wrote:Yes! Apparently from the Anglo-Norman French 'raisins de Corauntz' 'grapes of Corinth' - where they first came from.
That explains it.
I was in the Valencia Market looking for some to use in my Xmas Pudding, and was told they were called "Pasas de Corint" (pasas being the general term for currants, which can then be classified into sultanas, raisins etc). The stall holder claimed there was no call for them in Spain so no-one stocked them.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 3:00 pm
by jhopgood
Taken from another recipe

'These shortbread biscuits with currants take me back to my childhood when we used to call them squashed fly biscuits.'
But not fig bars, which gives the unfortunate impression of flies being rolled out into a paste rather than being individually inserted.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 8:25 am
by sejintenej
Foureyes wrote: Housie food I quite enjoyed and was certainly better and more plentiful than at home. The name 'Frog's spawn' springs to mind but I have no idea what it was. And always coffee (so-called) on Sunday breakfast and fish on a Friday - 'the piece of cod that passeth all understanding.'
Ah, well!
David :shock:
David; I'm not sure what period you are referring to. I was in the Prep in rationing times before the catering manager was changed and the food was pretty awful. Meat - what you actually got of it - was pure gristle as an example. I can't remember coffee - in those days it was regarded as a luxury impossible to find¤¤

At least at home the food was better - we grew our own and raised chickens.

¤¤ The family in whose house I lived supported an East European refugee in a camp in northern Germany by sending food parcels. The tea in one parcel was returned because they were not alllowed "luxuries" - they were allowed coffee which at that time, was not imported into the UK!

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 11:56 am
by Foureyes
sejinetej
You should have tried my mother's cooking!
David :shock:

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 2:04 pm
by eucsgmrc
sejintenej wrote:
Foureyes wrote:... in rationing times before the catering manager was changed and the food was pretty awful. Meat - what you actually got of it - was pure gristle as an example.
I agree with sejintenej. I arrived in 1954, and the food was dire, but quite normal for a big institution. In, I think, summer of 1955, the kitchens were refitted with what was then modern equipment. Lots of stainless steel, but still, I suspect, very basic indeed by modern standards. The food did improve slowly, and by the time I left in 1962 there were plenty of dishes that I positively enjoyed.

The kitchen equipment that was taken out in 1955 lay around behind the dining hall for a few weeks. It was mostly big cauldrons for boiling porridge or gruel or bone/fat/gristle stew. It was probably the original 1902 stuff, if indeed it had not been brought down from Newgate Street.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 4:07 pm
by Foureyes
Dear All,
I think that some of us are being rather unfair to C.H. staff about the standards of food in the war and immediate post-war years. OK, so the food was basic, but don't forget that food rationing persisted until 4 June 1954 and sourcing sufficient food within the permitted ration scales for 800 hungry boys at Horsham and 400 equally hungry girls at Hertford must have been a nightmare.
So, the food was dire and insufficient by today's standards, but compare that with what was available to contemporary children in Germany, France, and Poland. We were all very active, played endless games and did lots of PT - and did anyone at Housie collapse from hunger or starve to death? None that I can recall.
David :shock:

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 8:28 pm
by Katharine
Very true, David, but you have too many girls to feed! There were never 400 at Hertford, there were less than 300 of us, 8 Wards, as they were then, each with 36 girls as a maximum, so 288. Later it probably did reach 300, as extra beds became available in the former Steward's Flat for 6 of the most senior girls, and an extra one in each House as there were no longer live in maids.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 8:28 pm
by Katharine
Very true, David, but you have too many girls to feed! There were never 400 at Hertford, there were less than 300 of us, 8 Wards, as they were then, each with 36 girls as a maximum, so 288. Later it probably did reach 300, as extra beds became available in the former Steward's Flat for 6 of the most senior girls, and an extra one in each House as there were no longer live in maids.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:36 pm
by michael scuffil
When I arrived in September 1955, everyone said how much better the food had become since the new kitchens were equipped, and for that Mrs J. deserved all the credit. Certainly all visiting sports teams from other Sussex boarding schools invariably said our food was better (and more plentiful) than theirs.

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:27 am
by sejintenej
michael scuffil wrote:When I arrived in September 1955, everyone said how much better the food had become since the new kitchens were equipped, and for that Mrs J. deserved all the credit..
Agreed but was it that she got the refitting? (I don't know)

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:58 am
by Foureyes
Katherine,
OK, so I got the numbers wrong, for which I apologise. However, you might have given me a little credit for mentioning Hertford and the girls in the first place.
David

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:50 pm
by Katharine
Foureyes wrote:Katherine,
OK, so I got the numbers wrong, for which I apologise. However, you might have given me a little credit for mentioning Hertford and the girls in the first place.
David
Sorry, but I've known you long enough to know you are a gentleman and don't forget our existence, unlike some other Old Blues - not thinking of anyone on the Forum!

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:35 am
by postwarblue
The late OB Gordon Peiser who was married to a cousin of mine told me that when rationing came in at the beginning of the war the Housey food improved! So goodness knows what it was like in the Thirties.

Does anyone know the recipe for Skiffage Pie?

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 10:14 am
by Kit Bartlett
Live in maids at Hertford were mentioned by Katherine in a recent comment.
We certainly had maids in the Preparatory School at Horsham in the early nineteen forties. Does anyone recall if they "lived in " as they seemed to be on duty for a fair period of the day ? They must have had separate sleeping accommodation somewhere and would have reported directly to the House Matrons. They used to inspect our Housie coats for cleanliness amongst their many other duties.
Somewhat later a number of non English speaking foreign nationals were employed which caused language difficulties.
When did they all disappear does anyone recall ?

Re: Cod Liver Oil and Malt

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 10:29 am
by Foureyes
Kit,
The maids were certainly still at Horsham in the early-1950s. They lived in rooms on the upper floor of the extension behind the kitchens - above the Wardrobe, as I recall. The name Eithne, springs to my mind, so I suspect that at least some were from Ireland,l but I can claim no personal knowledge.
David :shock: