Sausage Loaf: War-Time Recipe

This month’s History Baker’s Recipe is from a book compiled by Ada Hartley c.1910-1970. Ada Hartley was a teacher for 47 years within the East Riding of Yorkshire, 33 of them spent at Hessle C.E. Infants School where she rose to be Headmistress. The recipe book (Ref: C DIMH/1/3) includes hand written recipes as well as recipes Ada cut out of magazines. It was deposited with the History Centre in April 2010.

The reason that I chose this particular recipe was because I had already decided that I would make something savoury for a change. I also wanted to find a war-time recipe so that this month’s bake would tie in with our VE day 70th anniversary celebrations.

This sausage loaf recipe caught my attention as I have never made a meat loaf and I thought I would give it a try. Off to the butchers I went. I changed a couple of things within the recipe, for example I used smoked bacon trimmings and nutmeg rather than mace. I also brought in some English mustard for colleagues who fancied a try as I thought that would add a bit of flavour.

Colleague’s comments:

Elaine: Very tasty

Pete: Very meaty-good with the mustard!

Christine: Absolutely delicious, a war-time recipe that tastes good today!

Elspeth: The onion taste is quite strong. Might be nicer with a bit of boiled egg and salad

Verity: Lovely, would be very nice with a roast!

Laura: Great, strong flavour and very tasty!

Carol: Delicious

Claire: Very flavoursome, would make good pastry lattice filling

Caoimhe: Scrummy – delicious!

Written by

Elspeth Bower, Archivist