Ration Book Cheese Pie – Lavender and Lovage

Ration Book Cheese Pie. An easy supper dish to make from Favourite Ration Book Recipes, Easy to Make Dishes from The Wartime Years.

A Ration Book Recipe for Today

As regular readers will know, I love researching and making old recipes, vintage recipes – and today’s recipe for Ration Book Cheese Pie is a new favourite.

I discovered this recipe in a small book I bought from Eden Camp a few years ago; published by J Salmon Ltd, this book entitled “Favourite Ration Book Recipes”, has some cracking recipes in it.

I have a big collection of these little books, from jams & preserves, cakes, Yorkshire tea time recipes to Christmas recipes and country baking recipes.

Today’s recipe for Ration Book Cheese Pie is one I earmarked to make a while ago, so when I saw I had some stale bread to use, and some odds and ends of cheese, I gave it a go, with great results.

We both really enhoyed it for a simple supper the other evening, served as it suggests in the book, with baked beans.

I tweaked the recipe slightly, to bring it up to date, as in adding some extra cheese (not much) and an extra egg, which made it a more substantial and cheesier dish.

I have shared the original recipe below, in the notes section, as it is still a great recipe to make if you only have 4 ounces of cheese and 2 eggs available.

I made mine in my late mother’s old enamel pie tin, which is quite deep. The original recipe suggests a “medium baking dish” such as a roasting tray or tray bake tin.

Although we enjoyed this savoury cheese pie recipe with baked beans, I can see it being a lovely dish to serve in the winter with seasonal root vegetables.

It reheats well the next day in the microwave, and puffs up again to give a lovely light soufflé texture, but still retains the crispy bits of the baked bread too.

I served mine in the style of the era, on my much-loved Woodsware Beryl plates, with matching teapot, cup & saucer, creamer and cruet set.

I hope you enjoy this comforting ration book recipe if you make it, and please do let me know in the comments below. Karen

Nostalgic Images by Trevor Mitchell from the Book

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More Ration Book Recipes

Notes:

• The author, Simon Haseltine, says about this recipe: “My aunty Audrey remembers this version of cheese pie made by her mother during the war years – she says that it was always a suppertime treat.”
• Metric converstions:
• 4 ounces = 115g
• 2 fluid ounces = 60ml

A Wartime Cake Recipe

What a revelation today’s recipe is for Wartime Eggless Fruit Cake (Vinegar Cake). With no lingering taste of the vinegar that’s added, it’s light and fruity, with a soft crumbly texture. However, “Vinegar cakes” weren’t just popular during the wartime era – using vinegar in cake making was countrywide practice when the hens “were off lay”. So, although those thrifty and heavily rationed housewives knew a thing or two, so did farmer’s wives and country folk who kept hens – my own paternal grandmother included. She came from Swaffham in Norfolk, and the other name for this Wartime Eggless Fruit Cake (Vinegar Cake) is Norfolk Vinegar Cake, as it was very popular in this English county. Nofolk is a very rural county, and my grandmother’s family owned a smallholding, where they reared and kept rabbits, goats, chickens, geese and ducks. The recipe for Vinegar Cake was found in Marguerite Patten’s book, “Feeding the Nation”.

Ration Book Cheese Pie Recipe

Ration Book Cheese Pie

Yield:
4

Prep Time:
20 minutes

Cook Time:
30 minutes

Total Time:
50 minutes

As regular readers will know, I love researching and making old recipes, vintage recipes – and today’s recipe for Ration Book Cheese Pie is a new favourite.

I discovered this recipe in a small book I bought from Eden Camp a few years ago; published by J Salmon Ltd, this book entitled “Favourite Ration Book Recipes”, has some cracking recipes in it.

I have a big collection of these little books, from jams & preserves, cakes, Yorkshire tea time recipes to Christmas recipes and country baking recipes.

Today’s recipe for Ration Book Cheese Pie is one I earmarked to make a while ago, so when I saw I had some stale bread to use, and some odds and ends of cheese, I gave it a go, with great results.

We both really enhoyed it for a simple supper the other evening, served as it suggests in the book, with baked beans.

I tweaked the recipe slightly, to bring it up to date, as in adding some extra cheese (not much) and an extra egg, which made it a more substantial and cheesier dish.

I have shared the original recipe below, in the notes section, as it is still a great recipe to make if you only have 4 ounces of cheese and 2 eggs available.

I made mine in my late mother’s old enamel pie tin, which is quite deep. The original recipe suggests a “medium baking dish” such as a roasting tray or tray bake tin.

Although we enjoyed this savoury cheese pie recipe with baked beans, I can see it being a lovely dish to serve in the winter with seasonal root vegetables.

It reheats well the next day in the microwave, and puffs up again to give a lovely light soufflé texture, but still retains the crispy bits of the baked bread too.

I served mine in the style of the era, on my much-loved Woodsware Beryl plates, with matching teapot, cup & saucer, creamer and cruet set.

I hope you enjoy this comforting ration book recipe if you make it, and please do let me know in the comments below. Karen

Ingredients

• 8 slices white bread
• 4 ounces Cheddar cheese, grated, or a little more if your ration book allows (I used 6 ounces)
• 2 eggs (I used 3 eggs)
• 2 fluid ounces milk
• Salt and white pepper, to season

Instructions

1. Grease a medium size baking dish, I used an enamel pie dish, and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.
2. Cut each slice of bread into 4 x traingles, and arrange them in the baking dish, sprinkling the grated cheese between each layer.
3. Beat the eggs and the milk together, and season to taste with salt and white pepper.
4. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes, or until the custard has set.
5. Serve hot with baked beans.

Notes

The author, Simon Haseltine, says about this recipe:

“My aunty Audrey remembers this version of cheese pie made by her mother during the war years – she says that it was always a suppertime treat.”

Metric converstions:

4 ounces = 115g

2 fluid ounces = 60ml

Nutrition Information

Yield 4

Serving Size 1

Amount Per Serving

Calories 325Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 6gCholesterol 122mgSodium 677mgCarbohydrates 33gFiber 2gSugar 5gProtein 16g

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