Really mean things people do to save money.

Pork chops without kidneys....I think that's one we have to thank the EU for. It was one of her favourites, and she wasn't pleased when her butcher told her he was no longer allowed to sell the two together.

Yep, Claireseptember, I can and do cook all that - Königsberger Klopse need capers, that's what gives them that sweet & sour flavour, same goes for the sour apple in Rotkohl (red cabbage). And not forgetting a couple of cloves and bay leaves.
Sauerbraten is also a favourite here - a joint of beef, post-roasted on the hob with red wine, cloves, bay leaves, garlic, slowly simmered until it virtually falls apart.
My own personal favourite is fresh cod fillet, pan-fried in real breadcrumbs (made from real bread) with Senfsoße, a quite sharp mustardy white sauce, similar to the Königsberger Klopse sauce .... I could swim in that !!!

God, but you've made me feel hungry now ...

Rosequartz I've just this minute chopped up some ropey-looking apples that have been lying around the kitchen for ages (free windfalls from a neighbour). I am making mince pies and have mixed the apple in with a jar of mincemeat to make that go further

Don't see anything wrong with being careful, personally

And me

I have to agree with the previous post.

Really mean things people do to save money? More like, really mean things people do to their deceased MIL…!!

What a revolting post to write, Daddima. Dancing on people’s grave is such an appalling thing to do!

It’s not amusing at all, it’s just damn nasty and unnecessary. So you didn’t like your MIL, maybe she didn’t like you either - have you thought of that? Have you even tried to understand why she would have been behaving like this?

I just do not understand what on earth could have possessed you to even think about writing such a post. As a matter of fact, it turned my stomach and surely I can’t be the only one to think this.

Let’s hope your own DIL has more heart than you.

Not food related, but my dm and df used to turn off the pilot light on their boiler when they went out, and then had all the faff of lighting it again when they came back home.

ps bubble and squeak tonight with leftover casserole - a funny mixture but waste not want not as they say

That makes three of us then, claire!
Kartoffelpuffer with Apple sauce were a meal in themselves, oh we could learn so much today from that generation.

I hope your MIL's money is not cursed Daddima, if she was apparently so horrible
Perhaps you should give it all to charity just in case it brings you bad luck .....

claireseptember all sound delicious.

We try not to waste food in this house - but there are some ropey looking apples left over from the tree lurking around which no-one is willing to peel. Perhaps when I have finished writing Christmas cards I could make a cake with them!!

Older no wiser, my much loved mother in law (kisses here not spitting ) was also an east Prussian refugee. Sadly she died this year but some of her lovely and much missed dishes were konigsberger klops , made with a mix of mince meats and a creamy sauce with peppercorns, kartolfelnpuffe ( a dish of fried grated potatoes with an apple sauce ) and her beautiful Apfelkuche, with apples cooked inside a kind of scone-like cake, oh and fabulous red cabbage cooked forever with apples, peppercorns some vinegar and lots of seasoning. She never ever threw any food away, all of it could be used in some way, veg fried up in bubble and squeak etc.
Apparently we are the worst country in Europe for food wastage.

If your dead MIL, on whom you spit, had been really mean she'd have disinherited her son and his ungrateful wife, instead she left the dosh and you had a good time spending it, due to her frugality.

Our cottage pie always has a tin of baked beans and plenty of carrot in it - never have been a great fan of red meat and this way it tastes good and is good for us.
My grandmother was an East Prussian refugee from a seriously poor family. She could feed six people on a head of cabbage and I love some of her recipes.
Green lentils with carrots, leek, potato, seasoned with a dash of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper ... feeds a family of four for little more than £2. The grandchildren can't get enough of it.

My parents and my husband's parents had to manage in war and postwar times and endured years of rationing. They were inevitably frugal. I well remember my mother making a packet of ten fish fingers go round four of us:- three for her and my father and two for we children. She also gave us a packet Vesta curry for one between four of us on Saturdays and eked it out with a tin of cooked meat.

My in-laws ate home grown veg from the garden and my MIL made jams, marmalade and chutney in season. All delicious, of course and better than anything you could buy. In the MIL's value system a woman who gave her family 'shop bought cake' was not in the top rank.

I absolutely love the extensive and luxurious range of food from all over the world that is available now at a reasonable cost but I am still frugal as I feel that this is only ethical as waste is to be avoided when so many go without. I plan meals and eat plainly in the week leaving treats (and alcohol) to the weekend. I, too, now make cakes, jams, bread, curd, marmalade and other preserved goodies.

It makes me smile to think of the tinned salmon (one tin between four) salad with tinned mandarins and tinned cream we had on Sunday afternoons in the old days and the sole, Champagne and home made Florentines we have now.

Alea reminded me of the lovely pork chops we used to get with the little bit of kidney attached, does anyone know why they don't sell them like that any more? I used to love them!

Putting soya protein in with mince has health benefits. I bought some but keep forgetting to put it in. The time I did it we couldn't detect it anyway. It's all down to the herbs.

feetle your mum's Christmas pud recipe looks very similar to my mum's - amended after the war to include a bottle of 'old ale' [I use stout] and brandy instead of milk! I have used that recipe many times and it is very good (I don't use as much mixed peel).

The front garden was dug up (by the elderly next door neighbour as DF was away) and potatoes planted, the back filled with other veg. My DB bred rabbits for meat. Fruit picked from auntie's farm and turned into jam with carefully saved sugar. Eggs came from the same farm. The jam was eaten on bread without butter.
DM made the best damson jam - can I find damsons these days? No.

I don't remember any of this being a post-war baby but heard so much about it!

It had long been true that the peasantry ate a healthier diet than the gentry in this country - anything other than meat was beneath the dignity of The Hall, while the Baldricks got by on rough bread and whatever veg. they could grow, plus they might be lucky enough to have a milch-cow.

@Janeainsworth - you know what gets me? They are so happy! Happy with one another, happy with their family (my young brother and me) - and all in the midst of a vicious war - that would have been a couple of years after we had been bombed out of our flat... It was the Zeitgeist...

Thanks for the link, Stansgran
"Apparently neither the pie or the loaf were liked, but by the end of the War, the country was fitter and healthier than it ever had been.
As a whole the population, was slimmer and healthier than it is today. People ate less fat, eggs, sugar and meat whilst eating many more vegetables.

Many people ate a better diet during rationing than before the war years and this had a marked effect on the health of the population - infant mortality declined and life expectancy increased."
It also says Lord Woolton believed in 'educating and helping' people rather than 'instructing' them.
What a pity the present day food tzars don't follow his example!

What a lovely photo Feetle.
Actually your mother's wartime recipe isn't very different from the one I use now, except that mine has some form of alcohol instead of the milk.

www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/woolton.html

My mother started the fruit mixture for puds and cake for Christmas in September,buying weekly and adding to an enormous mixing bowl. I think the mixture was probably fermenting by the time she cooked them. She said woolton pie was disgusting during the war but I suspect I could serve it to a veggie guest quite happily

And here is my Mum's war-time Christmas Pud - not a patch on her 'real' one, but very good nevertheless... From her notebook:

half pound of Currents
half pound of Sultanas
half pound of Raisins
half pound of Mixed Peel
half pound of Plain Flour
half pound of Demarara Sugar
half pound of Bread Crumbs
half pound of Suet
six eggs
Milk (quantity unfortunately not specified)
Nutmeg & Spice
Carrot

Boil for twelve hours.

This made enough as I recall for two decent sized puddings and two small
ones.

It must have demanded some pretty frantic 'saving up' of ingredients!