I am known for suggestive selling to my co-workers and friends – 'What you need is a…'. And whatever 'it' is, is usually cooking related, from a specific pressure cooker to smartphone-controlled sous vide gizmos to the latest thing in air fryers.
But right now, as a glorious sunny Midwestern winter day comes to an end, and in the midst of a worldwide meltdown, I find myself reflecting on my most recent and perhaps best culinary purchase: a used book from Amazon ($15, Marguerite Patten's 'Every Day Cookbook').
It is both a comfort and a time machine. It transports me back to my childhood, as it was one of only two cookbooks my long-gone mother ever used ('The Good Housekeeping Cookbook' being the other).
Marguerite Patten was a rather more down-to-earth, British version of Julia Child. They were contemporaries and had similar, rather privileged, upbringings. But in Marguerite's case, there was not so much of the international espionage, although she did work for the UK's Ministry of Food during the Second World War.
It is a nostalgia piece, really. The first edition was written in 1968, so the recipes are, to be frank, not great by modern standards. But what it represents is the beginning of a culinary movement. One that got people back to cooking with fresh things after years of rationing and eating canned or dried everything. Rationing in the UK ended as late as 1954. In hindsight, it is remarkable how my parents had become so accustomed to eating things like canned fruit and canned evaporated milk, that they would take that over the apples falling off the tree outside and lush fresh cream available from the milkman and delivered to the doorstep. I should point out that my parents had me late – they were teenagers in the War, my mother surviving the London Blitz at age 11 to 12 because her own mother refused to allow her to be evacuated to the countryside.
Marguerite Patten paved the way for any number of the celebrity chefs that followed, improving and refining the palettes and skills of home cooks and broadening the appeal of a more internationally-inspired culinary repertoire that continues to this day. Passionate people writing cookbooks, making cooking shows, and blazing new culinary trails. And along the way, firing up a lifelong interest in food in me – growing it, raising it, catching it, killing it, preparing and cooking it. And, of course, a career related to it.
With all that is going on now, there is a resonant echo. More home cooking on the one hand, but also restaurants and grocery stores offering meal kits, based on simpler, more comforting and 'gather 'round the table' family-orientated foods, plus menus with items better suited to curbside pick-up and/or delivery.
Sadly, a stroke robbed Marguerite Patten of speech in 2011 – a cruel blow for a professional orator (her initial fame came from radio presenting), and later she was unable to stand, therefore unable to cook. The cruelest thing of all. She died in 2015, just five months short of her 100th birthday and, as her family put it, 'from an illness stoically borne.'
So tonight, to briefly escape the craziness of 2020, I will raise a glass and celebrate the life and works of Marguerite Patten, as I settle in and enjoy reading unsophisticated gems such as: 'Fish Pie: 1 lb cooked fish; 1 lb. mashed potato' or 'Dressed Crab: 1 cooked crab; chopped parsley.' Utterly basic and not very inspiring as they may seem now, but hey, they helped steer us away from a lifetime of canned pilchards and dried soup mixes. Thank you, Marguerite!
A Fishy Footnote
Fish Pie is a traditional and popular dish in Great Britain. Like so many dishes, its history is vague but certainly ancient. Competing stories peg its origins to Scotland or Cornwall (opposite ends of the landmass!) and to the 1100s or maybe the 1300s. Some even give credit to the Roman occupation from starting 55BC!
Like Shepherd's Pie, it is comprised of a sauce (mixed fish in a creamy sauce) topped with mashed potato instead of a pastry crust, although it is likely that the very first versions were pastry, as the potato did not arrive in Great Britain until 1584.
A more contemporary version of Fish Pie has the sauce made from a combination of white fish poached in milk then flaked, flaked smoked fish, flaked poached salmon, shrimp, quartered hard-boiled eggs, capers, and a few chopped pickles. The poaching milk is thickened with a basic roux and added to the fish mixture, along with more milk and cream if decadence is the goal. The pie is topped with creamed mashed potato, drawn with a fork to create ridges that brown and become crispy when the assembled pie is baked to finish. Usually served with peas, or in this case, peas and sweetcorn.
It is a great comfort food for these uncertain times and with the cooler weather just ahead. It is cheap to make (frozen fish is ideal and usually 1/3 the price of fresh), nutritious, and feeds an army! You can be flexible with the ingredients – go freezer diving or use whatever the grocery store has not had a run on this week! Best served family-style to bring the ones you love together. Go ahead and try it: take a culinary trip to Britain and a walk down history lane. Possibly to 55BC, but probably not.
Written by Edward Nunn, Induction Business Development Manager
