War Hairy Bikers' Best of British

You know, we believe that Britain has the best food in the world.

Not only can we boast fantastic ingredients...

-Piece de resistance.

-Ah, nice!

-Which is which?

-Lamb, mutton.

-SHEEP BLEATS

'..outstanding food producers...' It's weird.

'..and innovative chefs...'

-'..but we also have an amazing food history.'

-Oh, brilliant!

-Oh, wow!

Don't eat them like that. You'll break your teeth.

Now, during this series, we're going to be taking you on a journey into our culinary past.

-Everything's ready, so let's get cracking.

-'We'll explore its revealing stories.'

-Wow!

'And meet the heroes who keep our culinary past alive.'

Pontefract liquorice has been my life and I've loved every minute of it.

'And, of course, be cooking up a load of dishes that reveal our foodie evolution.'

Look at that. That's a proper British treat.

We have a taste of history.

-Quite simply...

-BOTH: The best of British!

Today, the Myers and I are going to war.

Well, I say we're going to war. We're going to investigate how war has shaped our cuisine.

And how us ingenious Brits responded to the challenge of rationing.

Even when our backs were to the wall, we could always make something out of nowt.

'We're going on a journey into our culinary past

'and our first stop is back at the turn of the 19th century,

'a tumultuous period in Britain's history.'

'The town of Portsmouth was then as it is now, home to the Royal Navy,

'which made it central to our military campaigns.'

'Its historic dockyard is home to the pride of Admiral Nelson's navy,

'HMS Victory.

It was Napoleon who said, "An army marches on its stomach."

Well, if the French were well-fed in Boney's day,

what about our lads in the Royal Navy?

See, naval food has always had a bad press.

Ship's biscuits, weevils, grog and scurvy.

But Britannia ruled the waves so they must have had some good grub

and we're here to find out the truth.

'Today it's Lieutenant Commander Oscar Wilde who keeps the Victory ship-shape.'

-Hello, captain.

-Welcome on board.

'And he knows a thing or two about life on board in Nelson's day.'

'HMS Victory was the flagship of Nelson's navy

'and could've stored enough provisions,

'or victuals as they're known, to stay at sea for a whole year.'

Oscar, how many men were on board and were they well fed?

There were 850 men on board.

There's a lot of myths about the quality of the food that they were given.

Hopefully, you'll dispel some of those. They were well fed, three square meals a day.

Porridge in the morning usually, called burgoo, which is mixed with molasses or sugar.

A stew for lunch with either dried or fresh meat and some pulses.

Then the good old ship's biscuit in the evening with cheese or butter.

What sort of quantity and quality of food would the Victory have carried?

We had to carry a huge amount of food.

One of my favourite statistics is that 15 tonnes of peas were kept on board.

It's a magnificent amount. And if we go down to the hold,

you can see the barrels that the food was kept in.

Drink, they would've had, depending on where they were in the world,

anything up to eight pints of beer per day,

two pints of wine or half a pint of rum.

And that's everybody over the age of 14.

So being drunk was an issue.

Thank you.

'The stereotype of the drunken sailor with scurvy is one that's persisted.

'In fact, they didn't really have any choice but to drink alcohol, as the water on board was unsafe.

'As for their diet, we're about to find out what they had to endure for ourselves.'

'With the help of Jean Spence, ship's cook for the Historical Maritime Society.'

-Ohh. Rations.

-There you are. That is one man's lunch

on board this ship.

So that's your stew. That's salt beef and some vegetables in there.

The stew is lovely.

It's tasty, nutritious.

You could live on that. You might get bored.

But there are original references of sailors actually getting a bit stroppy if the food was changed.

-Really?

-They liked it.

-These are ship's biscuits.

-Ship's biscuits

and you would have a pound a day per man, so you've got eight between you.

Don't eat them like that, you'll break your teeth.

You would break them up,

-put them in the bottom of your stew and it's padding.

-It's your carbs.

-It's your carbs.

'The biscuits were baked three times to be as dry as possible.

'This meant that they could be stored for years at a time without going off.

'As a result, contrary to popular belief, most self-respecting pests, including weevils,

'wouldn't have gone near them.'

'It did, however, make them also nigh-on impossible to eat.'

Crumble it up inside, it's fine.

-I've got it going.

-If you've got your stew, the longer to leave it in the liquid, the more it'll soften.

-I'm having trouble with my ship's biscuit.

-How long would you have to soak it for?

-SHE LAUGHS

-You are having trouble with your ship's biscuit.

-I am. I nearly took my eye out.

-The rats will get it.

You get your three square meals a day on your square plate.

-Is that why they called them square meals?

-Yes.

-Ah!

-You get 3,500 to 4,000 calories a day.

Cos on board this, nothing happens unless a man pulls on a rope

and you've got to be fit and well fed and healthy in order to do that.

-Right.

-This is why Britannia ruled the waves.

We got this right. Most of the other places, Spain, France,

hadn't got the victualling right.

I mean, they knew about it, clearly, because Napoleon was saying that the army marches on its stomach.

But the Royal Navy, we got it right, which is why we ruled the waves.

-There's no shops out there, is there?

-No.

And everybody has the same. What you ate here

-was what you knew your officers were having.

-And what Nelson would eat.

-And what Nelson would eat.

-I can't see Nelson working his way through one of these.

-It might have taken him a bit of time.

-Mm.

It was his eye he lost, not his teeth.

-THEY LAUGH

-Oh, kiss me, Hardy.

'For dessert, we're going up in the world.'

'We've been invited to eat at the captain's table.'

'The very place that Admiral Nelson's second in command,

-'Captain Hardy, would've tucked into his food.'

-'And we're having something he might well have eaten.'

-What have we got, Jean?

-I'm going to whip up a whim wham.

Is this the type of dessert that they would've had in Nelson's time?

Yes. Whim wham was a form of trifle that was very popular in the 18th century.

We've got in my bowl some cream.

I'm going to add the juice of half an orange.

And because we are a trading nation, we have access to oranges from China.

I'm going to put a little bit of orange rind in and whip it up and that's your topping.

And here I've got some Naples biscuits, which are a bit like a sponge finger

and flavoured with either rosewater or orange flower water.

-And this would've been eaten on board?

-It could've been.

You would certainly have the wherewithal to get the cream

-because you'd have the animals on board.

-Ah!

This tends to be officer food, not because they got better food, but they could buy better food.

Everybody had the same ration and everybody could bring on board extras.

In reality, it was generally only the officers who did that

because sailors, if they got extra money, they spent it on other things.

There's a little bit of marsala wine going in the bottom.

A little bit of topping in there and a few toasted almonds on the top.

-And there's your whim wham.

-Ooh, lovely.

So if I give one to you and...

-Thank you.

-There you are. Try some whim wham.

-Ooh, delicious.

-That is nice.

-Ooh, yeah.

-Good, isn't it?

The biscuits are great.

'But it wouldn't be a naval dinner without some grog.'

-Now, Jean, what's grog?

-Would you like some grog?

-Yes!

Grog is very particularly rum

cut with water, one part rum, three parts waters,

lemon juice to stop you getting scurvy and sugar.

-So, cheers.

-What's a naval toast?

I think it would be traditional to toast the Queen before we have anything to drink on board a warship.

-So, ladies and gentlemen, the Queen.

-ALL: The Queen.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN PLAYS

Good grog.

Excellent. Jean, Oscar, thank you so very, very much.

-You're welcome.

-So life before the mast wasn't quite as grim on the culinary front as we thought.

No, you were well fed.

-And well watered.

-And well watered.

-THEY LAUGH

'Good provisions obviously played an important role in keeping Nelson's navy fit and seaworthy.

'But there can be no time in British history that food became of greater importance than in World War II.'

'When the war began in 1939, the government was concerned that supplies would run out.

'So in January 1940, food rationing was introduced.'

'It began with bacon, sugar and butter,

'but many other things would follow, including eggs, tea, cheese and meat.'

# Everybody pinches my butter

# They won't leave my butter alone

'It was obvious the war couldn't be won on an empty stomach.'

-'So the authorities quickly stepped into action.'

-PHONE RINGS

The Ministry of Food asked the Board of Education to arrange a food campaign in the country.

We'll need some experienced food person to help on the practical side.

'To make sure the nation was fighting fit,

'the Ministry of Food dispatched an army of food advisors

'to educate people about how to make the most out of what they had.'

In some places, food advisors will help you with your shopping

so that you can buy the best cheaply. If you ask them, they'll come back to your kitchen

and suggest new and appetising dishes.

In this way, everyone can make sure that their wartime meals are as healthy and economical as possible.

'Radio programmes and other forms of propaganda used every tactic to get the message across.'

# Potato Pete, Potato Pete

# See him coming down the street

'The "Dig For Victory" campaign encouraged people to grow their own food

'and the ration-free hunger-quashing potato was touted as the answer to everyone's prayers.'

Any recipe that uses potatoes is bound to be a favourite.

'This being the land of meat and two veg, we weren't about to let Jerry do us out of our protein.

'So we quickly found alternatives.

-'There was whale meat.'

-'And if you didn't fancy that, well, you could always eat a horse.'

Horse meat is rapidly becoming part of Britain's diet.

Three million people buy it every week.

'Us Brits refused to let the war put us off our dinner.'

'Today, in the Best Of British kitchen, we're honouring some of that World War II resourcefulness

'by cooking up a wonderful wartime-inspired recipe.'

'But don't worry, there's not a pony in sight.'

BOTH: # Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run

# He'll get by without your rabbit pie

-That's just as well. We're doing stew, man!

-I know. We can't have a pie because there's a war on,

-we can't afford an egg for the crust.

-That's true.

And rabbit, very important during wartime, wasn't it?

Rabbit is tasty, cheap and abundant.

Indeedy-doo-doos. And, actually, it was a real staple of the wartime households.

All those meat-starved families would use rabbit because it wasn't rationed.

There were loads of them. They were left to do what rabbits do and then there was lots of them.

-Not just wartime. I remember my childhood.

-What happened?

-I'll tell you later. It's not a good story.

-Why?

-Well, I couldn't... Let's get on.

-I'll get on.

'As an ode to those wartime cooks,

'we're preparing this delicious and traditional rabbit stew with cider and thyme gravy.

'The perfect comfort dish for a winter's day.'

Right, now, you can get a nice, healthy bunny for about three quid.

Sorts the family out, it's tasty, low in cholesterol and, do you know, it's all right.

-That is a dismembered rabbit.

-Yes.

-Bugs Bunny in the nude.

-But a rabbit is a creature of many parts.

-You're not wrong.

-The rabbit has a saddle.

The saddle is like the fillet steak of the rabbit world. And like most meats,

you don't want to overcook the fillet bit.

Right, so, all I'm going to do, you see these bits here? Come here, have a look.

That's a bit chewy, so we're going to take that off.

Preparation of meat is important. Do the cooking in the kitchen, not on the plate.

You want a meal, you don't want a mission.

And I think that's what puts people off rabbit,

because they often think it's going to be bony, chewy and nasty. Just get rid of the nastiness.

'Once you've cleaned up the rabbit, make a shaker bag.

'Get a freezer bag and fill it with three tablespoons of flour

'and two tablespoons of freshly chopped thyme. If you're using dried,

'you'll only need two teaspoons, but try to make it wild thyme if you can.

'Next, add a pinch of salt and plenty of freshly-ground pepper and reminisce about bunnies past.'

-No, Kingy, it was a sad day when I was five years old.

-Why, what happened?

My father came back from the paper mill with an albino rabbit for me.

-Oh, nice.

-Called Bugs. Pink eyes, white as a snowball.

Anyway, that was Saturday. Played with him Saturday afternoon.

Sunday, my mother had made a chicken pie.

-Oh, good, nice.

-No, it wasn't chicken.

-And my mother looked down with guilt.

-Yeah.

-I burst into tears.

It was Bugs in a crust.

-No, it wasn't!

-I couldn't eat it. And do you know, I didn't eat rabbit for 30 years.

-Couldn't do it, man.

-Oh, Dave, that's bad that, like.

'Now dry your tears and stick the rabbit portions in the bag

'a few at a time and give them a good shake.'

# Shake, shake, shake, senora

# Shake your body line

# Shake, shake, shake, senora

Give it a good coating, cos the flour is going to give us a lovely crispy coating on the rabbit

and it's also going to thicken the eventual casserole.

Dave, pass the butter, mate.

'Now it's time to fry the rabbit.

'Get a pan nice and hot and melt 15 grams of butter with one tablespoon of sunflower oil.'

The good thing about putting oil and butter together, the oil prevents the butter from burning,

thus putting a beautiful brown hue all over our rabbit.

Meanwhile, I'm just going to chop some bacon up for stage two of the casserole.

I'm trying to be strict to wartime traditions and pastry would require flour, maybe eggs if you feel posh.

But at home, this is a really good rabbit casserole recipe.

To make a rabbit pie, make this casserole then put a crust on the top.

And what we're trying to achieve here is we just want some nice colour on that rabbit.

And the reason we want that is it looks nicer in the casserole, you see?

-A little bit of caramelisation across the nation.

-There's not much fat in a rabbit,

so the bacon is going to kind of give it flavour

and make it more succulent.

Right, mate, that's those portions ready. The only thing left to cook is the saddles.

-Right, we can pop these into the casserole dish. That, my friend, is perfect.

-Beautiful.

'Pop the saddles into the pan and brown them off.'

Right, that's the saddle.

'They're more delicate than the rest of the meat, so put them on a plate and leave them till later.'

'Fry the bacon lardons in the lovely oils and juices of the pan and pop them in the casserole dish.'

'Now chop an onion, add a little more oil to the pan

'and sweat them for a few minutes until they're nice and tender.'

Now, I know we're living in frugal times, Si, but what I reckon that there's plenty of, it's cider.

-So not only were you hungry, you were quite tiddly, as well.

-And like most things,

like apples go with pork, fruit goes with rabbit, so cider.

We're going to use that cider to deglaze this pan, aren't we?

Aye. Because you may have been thinking that this rabbit casserole is looking a bit dry.

Now we're making the juice. Because you want gravy.

And what is a casserole no good without?

-Gravy.

-He's not wrong.

-No.

-Right, that is our onions done.

-Nice.

'We're going to deglaze the pan with half the bottle of cider.'

And all deglaze means is, you know the lovely, crunchy, caramelly bits off the bottom?

You put a bit of moisture in, swill it around and get all those flavours.

Cos flavour is important in wartime, because you need as much as you can get.

Some stock. Now, we've got chicken stock,

but in times of poverty, you could use vegetable stock or indeed water.

And a couple of bay leaves.

'Gently simmer for a few minutes, add the remaining cider,

'then pour all over the rabbit.'

Lovely! Now just pop this into a preheated oven, about 160 degrees, something like that,

but leave the saddles out cos we don't want to overcook them.

-Not in there.

-No, not yet.

-Ohh!

-Now, rabbit takes a long time to cook.

It can end up like an old dog chew, so be patient.

Rabbits may be fleet of foot in the field and a devil to catch,

but to cook, oh, so slow.

-Slow.

-Slow.

-BOTH: Slow.

-Let's go and have a cup of tea.

-We may as well.

'Three quarters of an hour later, take it out and add the saddles and some peeled Chantenay carrots.'

'You'll then need to cook it for another one and a quarter to two hours,

'depending on the type of rabbit you're using. Wild rabbits will take longer than farmed ones.'

'You'll know when it's cooked because the meat should be starting to fall off the bone.'

-Yes.

-Yes, it is.

'And finally, you'll need to tackle the gravy.'

-Now, that's pretty thick, but I think we need that a bit thicker, don't you?

-Yes.

Now, this is a little top tip. What we're going to do is pour the juice out into this saucepan.

Don't worry if you get a few bits in. It's a rabbit stew, it's rustic.

Yeah. Oh, look at that.

Now, what we're going to do is we're going to reduce this down

and what we're doing, basically, when you reduce anything, you're intensifying the flavours

and reducing the amount of liquid by boiling it off.

-We just want to make the most out of the rabbit we possibly can.

-Yeah.

-Actually, mate...

-It is nice and syrupy, isn't it?

-Yeah, we're nearly there.

Now, the final flourish, we're going to chuck in

a nice big handful of frozen peas.

Give us a bit of vitamin C and a bit of colour. Doesn't that look lovely?

'Once it's reduced, pour the demi-glace back into the casserole.'

-Lovely.

-Just make sure that rabbit's coated. Look at the carrots, the peas. Looks great.

-Doesn't it?

Now, remember, we had loads of salt and pepper that we mixed with the flour and the thyme,

so we're going to just wait and adjust the seasoning.

-I think that needs nothing, actually.

-Oh, that's perfect.

-You can always put more on your plate, can't you?

-Exactly that.

And there it is, the Hairy Bikers' not quite so frugal wartime rabbit stew.

'So, that's a great dish inspired by the war.

'But in reality, rationing made serving up a half-decent meal extraordinarily difficult.'

'In 1993, a classic television series took us back in time

'to the kitchen of a house in the country during the Second World War to highlight just how tough it was.'

'We're taking a break to learn from someone who experienced it first-hand.'

Now, Wartime Kitchen And Garden. This should be interesting.

-I might learn a bit.

-It's a bit of reminiscence.

-It is.

-# Oh, the memories

-Wartime Kitchen And Garden.

-Ah, Ruth.

-Ah.

'Ruth Mott began work as a scullery maid in the 1930s

'and went on to work in the kitchens of some of Britain's greatest houses.'

'Her telly career took off in her 70s with her Victorian Kitchen Garden

'and her straightforward and common-sense approach to cookery

-'quickly won over the hearts of the nation.'

-It's not going to be difficult, it is?

-No.

Difficult as you like to make it.

'In this series, Ruth used her own wartime experience to demonstrate the tricks of the trade

'when making do with nowt.'

'Ruth now faces the challenge of turning breast of lamb into a tasty dish.'

Oh, it was very valuable during the war.

It was something that you purchased cheaply,

much cheaper than anything else,

and it was cheap meat you were looking for

because you were rationed by money.

-We don't eat much breast of lamb these days, do we?

-No.

I'm just going to take these little bones out here

because we're going to put this in the saucepan today.

Keep very tight to the bone so that you get it out

with practically nothing left on it at all.

You've got to use everything, you see? You mustn't throw anything away.

I bet she makes good food. She's like your favourite granny, isn't she?

-She's got that face of making good cake.

-Yeah, and pastry hands.

-Yeah.

-She needs to clean her nails. Crikey!

-She's digging for victory, isn't she?

That's it. Fit the lamb to the saucepan.

-Oh, that's rough.

-We've got a few bones in there at the moment

and then we put the meat in on top of this,

we've got some more carrot and onion to go in.

A bit of parsley for flavour. And if you've got a bay leaf or a little bit of thyme

-or anything like that, you can have that in, as well.

-Old faithfuls.

Pepper and salt. Anything that will give it a bit of taste.

A drop of water, not too much.

And that'll want to cook for about an hour and a half on a very low heat.

Er, leek pudding with potato and suet crust.

-Oh, leek pudding!

-Help fill you up in no time, suet crust.

My mam used to make that for us. It was leek and onion pudding.

But it was in a cloth, you know, boiled.

-That's just a leek pudding, isn't it?

-That's it. Leeks and suet.

-And then if we had a nice leg of lamb, it'd be nice, but we haven't.

-Aw, Ruth!

'The breast of lamb has been cooked for an hour and a half and allowed to cool.

'Ruth now starts on the last stage.'

And pop it into the egg, which will stick on.

You'll probably have to push it a little bit because they don't always dry out quite straight.

And into the breadcrumbs. Cover it up nicely. That should make us a nice little crust when we've fried it.

The fat we're using today is some little bits of fat that I've collected up over the week

because we want to save as much of our fat ration as possible to do other things with.

-You can tell that food was really in short supply, can't you?

-Yeah, you wasted nothing.

-Absolutely nothing.

-What a lovely idea.

-It is, isn't it?

Because your meat is going to be tender from the poaching, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-She's poached it down with the usual suspects. So it's breast of lamb with a leek suet pudding.

-That's a proper 30s and 40s kitchen, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Fabulous.

-Plenty for me, please.

-Oh, I don't know about there being plenty.

You'll have to have what you're given, like the children.

-That doesn't look too shabby, does it?

-It doesn't.

I rather like the leek pudding because I think it's something you could use today, really.

Brown. Mind you, with a face like hers, anything she fed you is going to taste good, isn't it?

It is. Exactly.

'Making sure people ate well on the home front during the Second World War was only part of the battle.'

'For soldiers on the front line, food was crucial and the Ministry of Defence

'was determined to make sure British troops were fighting fit.'

'Special field rations were devised to provide optimum nutritional value.

'These pre-packed meal ingredients, known as composite rations, were certainly adequate,

'and formed the diet of soldiers for years to come.'

'But after months of eating them, the troops must have found them a little hard to swallow.'

'The memory of surviving on army rations still leaves a bit of a bad taste

'in the mouths of these Chelsea pensioners,

'Wayne Campbell, Skippy Teesdale and Ken Chapman.'

'Between them, they served for nearly 40 years in over a dozen countries from Korea to Borneo.'

My recollection of all our foodstuffs and things like that,

we ate all the compo-rations, we called them,

the ten-man packs or the one-man packs, and it was so monotonous it was unbelievable.

-The spam, spam, spam...

-Corned beef.

-Corned beef.

-Oh, the corned beef.

-Who wants to have yet another tin of spam?

-You learned to live with it, you know?

'A version of the ship's biscuit from Admiral Nelson's day was still doing the rounds.'

'Talk about long-life! They were probably leftovers from HMS Victory.'

Biscuits were... I don't think many people liked the biscuits.

They were so hard, you couldn't even bite them.

You'd have to use a hammer to make the biscuits go soft

so you could put them in with some soup or some stew or something like that.

'But luckily, soldiers didn't require a hammer for every meal.'

-Powdered eggs.

-Powdered eggs, powdered milk, everything was powdered.

-Yeah.

And with the powdered egg, when you did have a unit cook from the army catering corps,

he would say, "Oh, these are real eggs!"

What he'd done, he'd used the powdered eggs, taken two real eggs,

smashed them all up, got all the egg shells, smashed them all into little pieces

so when you're eating the powdered egg, it was just the normal stuff you had.

You'd say, "Oh, this was real because there was egg shells in here." THEY LAUGH

'Hardly haute cuisine.'

'Back then, the emphasis was purely on nutrition

-'and taste didn't really come into it.'

-'But in the modern army, things are very different.

'Although surprisingly, some of those original rations are still proving their worth.'

'Captain Rob Burns is head instructor of the army's Food Services wing,

'here at Worthy Down barracks in Hampshire, where they're training up the next generation of army chefs.'

'British food heroes in the true sense of the word.'

The idea is that, with their own skills they have already learnt,

they need to transfer those skills and push the boundaries in using different types of rations

and turn them into something more interesting and exciting

than what we remember to be the corned beef and the spam.

'Corned beef and spam, not every chef's dream ingredients.'

'But for Sergeant Lee Pierce, they offer endless possibilities.'

Right guys, five minutes till service! Let's start getting the remaining things up!

'Every ingredient is chosen because it offers good nutrition,

'has a long shelf-life, and can be easily transported and prepared in the field.'

What I want you to do now is add your curry powder to the water, ready for your noodles to go in.

-OK? We are serving in ten minutes.

-OK.

When we are dealing with the ration packs, it's using our imagination. We could do sweet and sour chicken.

For example, corned beef we could make into lasagne or spaghetti bolognese.

We can do all those sorts of things. You have to use your imagination.

Yes, those things have been from World War II, but we still get them now.

We're just using what we've learnt over the years from other people and trying to come up with new things.

# I've got my eyes on you

# So best beware where you roam

'We brought our Chelsea pensioners, Skippy, Ken and Wayne, along to Worthy Down

'to sample some 21st century army food.'

'What they don't know is it will still be cooked using the ration pack ingredients they know so well.'

'But the choices on offer to our forces today

'reflect the cosmopolitan nature of modern army food,

'and would look right at home on the menu of any gastropub.'

'Sergeant Chris Bonner is giving the cadets a lesson in making the most of field rations.'

'Will the trainee chefs be able to disguise the fact that the key ingredient is still corned beef?'

'Aw, I was hoping it would be spam.'

We're using corned beef and we'll make corned beef meatballs with spaghetti in tomato sauce.

We have the dried onions that come in the ration pack.

And about a handful into two blocks of corned beef.

And you get messy.

Very important that a chef has diversity and shows innovation.

There was a story recently where a chef on operations

only got delivered spam for quite a long period of time.

And he disguised that into in excess of 20 different dishes.

That's why it's important that our chefs continue to develop food in the ration packs,

and make it as innovative as they can and interesting for the soldiers to eat.

'So today's emphasis is on variety, as well as taste and nutrition.

'But it remains to be seen whether a dish of corned beef meatballs in a sauce made of beans

'can convince our old-timers they're tucking into a gourmet meal.'

Get that pan nice and hot. We're going to put our meatballs in, get a good colour,

then put that straight in the oven to finish them off.

'Well, the recruits have done their bit, but will they get a commendation?'

'Or will they be peeling spuds all night?'

-Italian meatballs with spaghetti, tomato sauce and a bean fritter.

-Ah, beautiful. Thank you for that.

'While Skippy has gone for the meatballs, the other two have opted for another ration box creation,

'Thai fishcakes.'

-This has all turned out beautiful, hasn't it?

-They must be well-trained to do that.

-Yeah. Excellent.

-It's presented well, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Mm.

Mm. That's tasty.

Very nice.

-You can always tell when the food's good because everyone goes quiet. Too busy...

-Eating.

They do magic, don't they?

Come on in. Hi, gentlemen.

I'd just like to introduce you to Sergeant Chris Bonner who is our catering instructor here.

And the recruits here who have prepared the meal for you today.

If you keep this up, you've a hell of a career in the army.

Yeah, it's lovely.

-What about the meatballs, Skippy?

-Ah, brilliant. It's the nicest I've tasted for ages.

-And the meat, would it surprise you to learn that's corned beef?

-Is it?

-Yes.

No wonder I like it. It's one of my blooming favourites!

-Out of corned beef?

-That's the corned beef.

-I give in. I give in.

The only trouble is we were born too early.

-I've good mind to join up.

-THEY LAUGH

'Just as the army chefs in today's war zones have to be inventive to keep the soldiers' morale up...'

'..back in World War II the battle was on to maintain people's spirits despite rationing.'

'If he's fed up with his food, she gets the blame.

'But there are always new ideas about.'

'This brought about not only remarkable resolve but also an incredible ingenuity.'

'People came up with all sorts of recipes designed to tickle the tastebuds and deceive the brain.'

'The British housewife became adept at faking it.

'There was mock goose, mock fried egg, mock duck,

'mock suet pudding, mock apricot flan, mock cream.'

'And with sugar under lock and key, people turned to other ingredients to satisfy our sweet tooth.'

'But whilst many of these new dishes disappeared from the British repertoire when rationing ended...'

'..others found a permanent place in our hearts, including the treat we're about to cook.'

In times of war and economic hardship,

one still needs to find a way of celebrating one's birthday, anniversary or Christmas.

And we always do that, then as now, with a cake.

Yeah. And we're making a cake out of vegetables.

Ah, this one is a belting, banging carrot cake.

It is. Now, it's our take on a classic wartime recipe.

And we've just moderned it up a bit.

We've improved it, perfected it, and dragged the carrot cake into the 21st century.

-Where it belongs!

-Oh, bring on the carrot!

'Oh, this one's a luxurious, indulgent carrot cake.

'One people could only have dreamt of in the days of rationing.'

It has a very interesting history the carrot cake,

and medieval people, when sugar was scarce would use carrot, caramelise the carrots as a sweetmeat.

And we used to make carrot puddings in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It fell out of fashion, but in World War II, because we were all skint, and we needed something else,

we kind of rediscovered carrots. And we made carrot cake.

And since then, it's never been out of fashion.

'First, in a bowl, mix 200 grams of self-raising flour with pecan nuts and sultanas.'

'And get to work peeling and grating the stars of the show.'

-But didn't carrots used to be purple?

-They did. But these ones and the ones we know today are orange.

And for a very good reason.

In the 17th century, Dutch growers grew this breed of carrot

as a homage to William of Orange. You know orange, carrots, carrots, orange.

-I'm not sure what William of Orange would have thought of it.

-He probably thought it was "grate".

THEY LAUGH

'To the flour, fruit and nut mix, add half a teaspoon of bicarb, one teaspoon of baking powder,

'a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a pinch of salt, and half a grated nutmeg.'

And to this, something that would have been rare in the war,

-the grated zest of half an orange.

-Do you not know there's a war on?

-Shut up!

No. Uncle Jack has just come back from Burma with an orange in his sock.

God love him.

Lastly, with clean hands, combine.

It's a lovely smell, isn't it?

Smell that, Kingy.

-Oh, yes! Lovely! Really nice.

-Lush, isn't it? Nutmeg, zest.

Every day is a party when you're making carrot cake.

I know it's times of austerity, but there's a lot to be said for a food processor.

'When you've finally grated your carrots, beat three eggs in a bowl with some demerara sugar.'

This isn't a wartime recipe for carrot cake. It's a modern recipe.

Like a lot of modern cakes, we're using vegetable oil as the fat in the cake.

There's no butter or margarine. It's vegetable oil.

And vegetable oil does give you a lovely, lovely moist cake.

'Mix the oil in well, and add the 200 grams of carrot. Whisk until well combined.'

-Are you ready?

-Ready!

-Bit at a time?

-Oh, steady stream. See how we get on.

-It smells fantastic.

-Yep.

It's a lovely, lovely consistency.

'Pour the mixture into a greased square cake tin, lined with baking parchment to stop it sticking.'

Did you ever think that such a humble vegetable could actually be so attractive?

You wait till you taste this.

And that, once you've patted it down and evened it out, is your carrot cake ready for the oven.

Now just pop that into a preheated oven, about 180 degrees Celsius, for about 30 to 35 minutes.

-Time for a cup of tea.

-And a lick of your spoon. Ooh!

-Ooh, where's the bowl?

-Look! Oh! Colour's good.

-Isn't it?

-But is it cooked?

-Take one skewer.

-Yes.

-Insert into cake.

-Yes.

-Skewer comes out clean.

-Clean.

We're safe, the cake's cooked. Now we need that to cool.

But we have got a little job to do while that cools.

We're not just going to leave it like that. Now that's a wartime cake and we're in a time of plenty.

-We're going to do this most wonderful cheesecake, butter cream, pecan top.

-With a little zest to it.

Oh, it's everything. It's nutty, it's cheesy.

-A bit like us.

-Nutty, cheesy and a little bit greasy.

-Yes.

-Yes, it's just great.

'Whack 100 grams of icing sugar and 100 grams of softened unsalted butter into your bowl

'and mash them together. Then squeeze an orange so the juice is ready to add to the mix.'

When you make a butter cream icing, you always add some kind of liquid cos it stops it floating off.

Oh, look, you can smell it already, can't you?

That's blooming lovely.

I know it's cheating, but Auntie's got a friend who's a farmer so they've sent us cream cheese.

That goes in, too.

Now, you can tell we are cooking a modern twist on a wartime classic

because the amount of butter we've just put in would be equivalent to a fortnight's ration.

Well, to make up for that, we'll use the zest of the orange we've just squeezed. We won't waste anything.

-Orange goes with carrot. Carrot and orange soup.

-Oh, yeah!

That'll be hard to keep your fingers out of.

That's quite sloppy. In an ideal world, we'd put that in the fridge for half an hour before we used it.

-But it's not ideal and we're greedy. So we're going to go for it.

-We are.

-Mm. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

-HE LAUGHS

Right.

Put the licked fork to one side.

'Once your cake has cooled down, spread the luscious butter cream icing all over the top.'

Now, the key to a good carrot cake is not to be frugal with the topping.

-Shall we go rustic and ruck it up?

-Oh, yeah!

Oh, yes! Lovely!

Now that...looks great.

'Decorate the top with pecan nuts or whatever type you fancy and job done!'

Do you know, it's hard to believe that carrot cake fell out of fashion for nearly 200 years.

It may be only a small positive, but I'm very pleased that the war brought this back into our psyche.

Well, I think our carrot cake, it's a victory on all fronts.

'We've always known that good food is fundamental in keeping up morale.

'As we've seen, it played a key role in our military successes of the past,

'and it's just as vital on the front line today.'

'We Brits are so passionate about our food, that no matter how hard the circumstances,

'we'll go to any lengths to create a tasty, nutritious meal.'

'And we all owe a major debt to the wartime cooks,

'whose fortitude kept the home front ovens blazing and ensured Britain stayed well fed.'

'Even if we did develop an unhealthy appetite for spam.'

If you want to find out more about the series, visit...

..to discover some amazing facts about the history of food.

'And to find out how to cook up the recipes in today's show.'

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