Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

On Mon, 23 Jan 2006, Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:

> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?

No, but ...

the word was that you could just cook it like beef or mutton. Wartime
recipes tended to be very basic, and the fanciest suggestion would
probably be to mince it up and make a shepherds pie.

However, whale meat was available into the sixties, to my certain
knowledge, and I did buy it (it came in a frozen lump) and enjoy it.
Boarding school diet was pretty dull, and a solid chunk of very lean
meat was a treat. We dusted it with curry powder and pan-fried it.
Delicious. Fishy? Yes, it did taste slightly of fish, but it was far
from the puke-making whiff of boiled whiting that blighted our Friday
mealtimes.

We also believed that whale fat was used in the manufacture of ice
cream, and, with adolescent inconsistency, we found that idea repulsive.

John Wexler

J Wexler wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Jan 2006, Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
>
>
>>Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
>
>
> No, but ...
>
> the word was that you could just cook it like beef or mutton. Wartime
> recipes tended to be very basic, and the fanciest suggestion would
> probably be to mince it up and make a shepherds pie.
>
> However, whale meat was available into the sixties, to my certain
> knowledge, and I did buy it (it came in a frozen lump) and enjoy it.
> Boarding school diet was pretty dull, and a solid chunk of very lean
> meat was a treat. We dusted it with curry powder and pan-fried it.
> Delicious. Fishy? Yes, it did taste slightly of fish, but it was far
> from the puke-making whiff of boiled whiting that blighted our Friday
> mealtimes.
>
> We also believed that whale fat was used in the manufacture of ice
> cream, and, with adolescent inconsistency, we found that idea repulsive.
>
> John Wexler

I can't find any specifically for whale, but my book says you can use it
foe stews, just like beef. They all recommend quite a bit of
flavouring, like Oxo and onions, to help it be beefier and less fishy.

Larousse Gastronomique would have it that whale meat is 'most
indigestible and remains tough even after 24 hours cooking'.

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

I don't think so. Ships were essential to the war, and could not be risked
in whaling. I faintly remember a 50s British cookbook with whale recipes,
quite surprising to me, but treated casually. By then it would have been an
import from Scandinavia, perhaps promoted as a protein source since times
were still so hard and rationing had continued after the war.


--
-Mark H. Zanger
author, The American History Cookbook, The American Ethnic Cookbook for
Students
www.ethnicook.com
www.historycook.com

"Jack Campin - bogus address" > wrote in message
...
> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
>
> ============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk
> ==============
> Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660
> 4760
> <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554
> 975
> stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739
> 557

"Mark Zanger" > wrote

> since times were still so hard and rationing had continued after the war.

And for quite some time after the war apparently. In the introduction to the
1963 (Penguin) edition of "Italian Food", which originally appeared in 1954,
Elizabeth Davis wrote:

"...but all [of the recipes in 1954], in any case, had to be cooked with
ingredients as far as possible available in England.

"And rationing was still with us.

"Eggs, butter and cream were scarce. (At one time I was buying turkey eggs
at 1 s 3 d apiece for my experiments.) With meat, it was not only a question
of the restricted quantity: cuts were often unidentifiable--they were hunks
of meat designated as suitable for roasting, frying, grilling, or stewing.
To ask your butcher for special cuts (and foreign ones at that) was to ask
also for a sardonic laugh or a counter-request to remove your registration
elsewhere."

--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:43:18 -0500, "Mark Zanger"
> wrote:

>I don't think so. Ships were essential to the war, and could not be risked
>in whaling. I faintly remember a 50s British cookbook with whale recipes,
>quite surprising to me, but treated casually. By then it would have been an
>import from Scandinavia, perhaps promoted as a protein source since times
>were still so hard and rationing had continued after the war.

I think Mark is correct about the shipping question.

My memory of whale meat is eating it in a London restaurant in the
grey days of the late 1940s. I was with my uncle who had venturesome
tastes compared with most British people of those days. I do remember
it as slightly fishy in taste but nothing more about its properties.

That whale meat was not a WWII resource is supported by the otherwise
comprehensive "Wartime 'Good Housekeeing' Cookery Book", published as
a Penguin Special. My edition dates from November 1942. There is no
mention of whale meat. Most of the recipes are woeful, but times were
hard then.

COPAC shows that there is a 1948 edition of "Good Housekeeping Cookery
Book, i.e. with 'wartime' omitted. That's about the right time to be
looking in cookery books.

On Mon, 6 Feb 2006, Richard Wright wrote:

> COPAC shows that there is a 1948 edition of "Good Housekeeping Cookery
> Book, i.e. with 'wartime' omitted. That's about the right time to be
> looking in cookery books.

I have a slightly later edition, from a date when whale meat was certainly
available, but it doesn't get a single mention. Nobody would have bought
the book if it had dealt with whale meat. Good Housekeeping was for
respectable and conscientious housewives who would have been deeply
offended by the suggestion that they might serve up whale. The book is
silent also on the subject of horse flesh, for much the same reason.

JW
Edinburgh

On Wed 08 Feb 2006 09:37:23a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it J Wexler?

> On Mon, 6 Feb 2006, Richard Wright wrote:
>
>> COPAC shows that there is a 1948 edition of "Good Housekeeping Cookery
>> Book, i.e. with 'wartime' omitted. That's about the right time to be
>> looking in cookery books.
>
> I have a slightly later edition, from a date when whale meat was certainly
> available, but it doesn't get a single mention. Nobody would have bought
> the book if it had dealt with whale meat. Good Housekeeping was for
> respectable and conscientious housewives who would have been deeply
> offended by the suggestion that they might serve up whale. The book is
> silent also on the subject of horse flesh, for much the same reason.

Then I'm sure it did not also mentioin cat or dog.

--
Wayne Boatwright o¿o
____________________

BIOYA

"Jack Campin - bogus address" > wrote in message
...
> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
>
> ============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk
> ==============
> Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660
> 4760
> <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554
> 975
> stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739
> 557


A question passes my mind...If you get the recipes..Where will you get you
'Whale' meat these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !
--
Bigbazza (Barry)..Oz

"Bigbazza" > wrote ...
>
> "Jack Campin - bogus address" > wrote ...
>> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
>>
>> ============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk
>> ==============
>> Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660
>> 4760
>> <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870
>> 0554 975
>> stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800
>> 739 557
>
>
> A question passes my mind...If you get the recipes..Where will you get you
> 'Whale' meat these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !
> --

Less "banned" but likely not available in your local fish market, a plump
porpoise makes a good stand in.

I've eaten porpoise which in all honesty does not fill the "Well, alligator
and rattlesnake taste like chicken." rule. It tasted pretty much "porpoiy",
something like very fat veal fed on herring....

TMO

>> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
> If you get the recipes..Where will you get your 'Whale' meat
> these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !

A few tons of it was suddenly available in London the week I posted that.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

"Jack Campin - bogus address" > wrote in message
...
>>> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
>> If you get the recipes..Where will you get your 'Whale' meat
>> these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !
>
> A few tons of it was suddenly available in London the week I posted that.
>
> ============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk
> ==============
> Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660
> 4760
> <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554
> 975
> stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739
> 557


REALLY....I am surprised !.... It never appears on the Oz market !....
Wonder where it came from then ?
--
Bigbazza (Barry)..Oz

On Wed 08 Feb 2006 07:18:18p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Bigbazza?

>
> "Jack Campin - bogus address" > wrote in message
> ...
>>>> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
>>> If you get the recipes..Where will you get your 'Whale' meat these
>>> days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !
>>
>> A few tons of it was suddenly available in London the week I posted
>> that.
>>
>> ============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk
>> ==============
>> Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131
>> 660 4760 <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free |
>> fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic
>> fonts | mob 07800 739 557
>
>
> REALLY....I am surprised !.... It never appears on the Oz market !....
> Wonder where it came from then ?

Someone ran over one?

--
Wayne Boatwright o¿o
____________________

BIOYA

"Wayne Boatwright" <wayneboatwright_at_gmail.com> wrote in message
28.19...
> On Wed 08 Feb 2006 07:18:18p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Bigbazza?
>
>>
>> "Jack Campin - bogus address" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>>>> Anybody have any wartime British recipes for whale?
>>>> If you get the recipes..Where will you get your 'Whale' meat these
>>>> days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !
>>>
>>> A few tons of it was suddenly available in London the week I posted
>>> that.
>>>
>>> ============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk
>>> ==============
>>> Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131
>>> 660 4760 <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free |
>>> fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic
>>> fonts | mob 07800 739 557
>>
>>
>> REALLY....I am surprised !.... It never appears on the Oz market !....
>> Wonder where it came from then ?
>
> Someone ran over one?
>
> --
> Wayne Boatwright o¿o
> ____________________
>
> BIOYA


Smart Ass !! :-))
--
Bigbazza (Barry)..Oz

On Wed, 8 Feb 2006 19:26:33 +1100, "Bigbazza"
> wrote:

>A question passes my mind...If you get the recipes..Where will you get you
>'Whale' meat these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !

Well, there are still some countries where you may buy it. And,
treated correctly, it is very tasty. Like an ox beef. And taste almost
the same.

But, you have to visit that country. It is not legal to export the
meat to other countries.

"Alf Christophersen" > wrote in message
...
> On Wed, 8 Feb 2006 19:26:33 +1100, "Bigbazza"
> > wrote:
>
>>A question passes my mind...If you get the recipes..Where will you get you
>>'Whale' meat these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now !
>
> Well, there are still some countries where you may buy it. And,
> treated correctly, it is very tasty. Like an ox beef. And taste almost
> the same.
>
> But, you have to visit that country. It is not legal to export the
> meat to other countries.
>

Sorry....Mate..Just saw your reply..I missed it before !
--
Bigbazza (Barry)..Oz

On Sun 05 Mar 2006 12:41:21a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Bigbazza?

>
> "Alf Christophersen" > wrote in
> message ...
>> On Wed, 8 Feb 2006 19:26:33 +1100, "Bigbazza"
>> > wrote:
>>
>>>A question passes my mind...If you get the recipes..Where will you get
>>>you 'Whale' meat these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now
>>>!
>>
>> Well, there are still some countries where you may buy it. And, treated
>> correctly, it is very tasty. Like an ox beef. And taste almost the
>> same.

I can't imagine a sea-dwelling creature tasting like ox beef. Their diet
is so totally different. Even cattle fed different diets taste different.

>> But, you have to visit that country. It is not legal to export the
>> meat to other countries.
>>
>
> Sorry....Mate..Just saw your reply..I missed it before !



--
Wayne Boatwright o¿o
____________________

BIOYA

On 5 Mar 2006 10:52:22 +0100, Wayne Boatwright
<wayneboatwright_at_gmail.com> wrote:

>On Sun 05 Mar 2006 12:41:21a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Bigbazza?
>
>>
>> "Alf Christophersen" > wrote in
>> message ...
>>> On Wed, 8 Feb 2006 19:26:33 +1100, "Bigbazza"
>>> > wrote:
>>>
>>>>A question passes my mind...If you get the recipes..Where will you get
>>>>you 'Whale' meat these days ?...Whaling is banned in most countries now
>>>>!
>>>
>>> Well, there are still some countries where you may buy it. And, treated
>>> correctly, it is very tasty. Like an ox beef. And taste almost the
>>> same.
>
>I can't imagine a sea-dwelling creature tasting like ox beef. Their diet
>is so totally different. Even cattle fed different diets taste different.

But I'm sorry to say, the only difference is some strings in the meat.
Otherwise, a beef of whale and a beef of ox is extremely alike. Except
that the whale meat piece is very much more tender.
But, it is dependent on how treated before serving. If laying ready
cut for a while, it start to get rancid and will taste like rancid cod
liver oil. The same applies if stored for too long time. Like a week
or so.