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My first ever roast chicken, and... a chamber pot?!

Today I cooked my first ever roast chicken! I decided to use wartime recipes to go with it, including a rather delicious parsley and celery stuffing. I also used some beetroot leaves from the allotment, which we had with some purple sprouting, and some potato/carrot/swede mash. For pudding we had freshly picked and cooked rhubarb and.. (drum roll, please) rabbit blancmange!
I had a nose around the charity shops today and my heart nearly stopped when I saw the object of my desire for the past few years - a chamber pot! As I want to re-make a late '30s-'40s house, I've been on the lookout for all sorts of odd pieces that I could use, and a chamber pot would've been pretty important! In case you can't quite read the miniscule writing, here is the recipe. It is from a Ministry of Food pamphlet:
4 oz chopped celery
2 large onions finely chopped
4 level tablespoons parsley
4 oz stale breadcrumbs
2 level teaspoons mixed herbs
1 oz melted dripping
Hot water to mix
Mix all ingredients together adding sufficient hot water to give a soft consistency. Use for stuffing meat and poultry. Blancmange is one of my favourite puddings to make, and I was given a beautiful rabbit blancmange mould for my birthday this year, so it was time to try it out. This is the recipe I use:

1/3-1/2 cup cornflour
1-2 drops pink food colouring (optional)
a few drops of almond or vanilla essence to flavour
First, mix a little of the milk with the sugar and cornflour, and put aside once it is a smooth paste. Next, put the rest of the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring with a whisk. Add the cornflour mixture, food colouring, and flavouring, and keep whisking until it forms a gloopy substance (don't know how else to describe this!). Keep on the heat for 8-10 minutes and then pour into a damp mould. Leave in the fridge or somewhere cool for a minimum of 1 hour until the mixture is set. Posted by Jessica Goldsmith at 10:01 pm Labels: 1940s, blancmange, chamber pot, cooking, ministry of food, wartime, wartime cooking


