Traditional Woolton Pie

Swedes, potatoes, carrots, turnips and other root vegetables are usually recommended for Woolton Pie. Cauliflower is also a common ingredient. Sometimes the recipe calls for a mashed potato topping. Other times it calls for a wholemeal pastry or potato pastry crust. 

The recipe is often written in the most basic way. This isn’t unusual for wartime recipes. After all, paper and ink were both heavily rationed during the war. Cooking knowledge is assumed, so not as much about the process is spelt out. For instance, most traditional recipes say little more than to dice the vegetables, cover them in water with some stock powder and oatmeal then bring to the boil. The idea is that the water cooks the vegetables, the stock adds the flavour and the oatmeal thickens the liquor. In theory, the mixture converts from a soupy consistency to a thick and creamy pie filling.

Savoy Flair?

Part of me thinks the head chef at the Savoy was trolling the British public with such a sparsely described recipe. Why didn’t he suggest the vegetables be sautéed gently first? Such a thing would use very little of a person’s weekly ration of butter, but increase the flavour of the final product immensely. Why didn’t he specify to use less water rather than more? Using too much water will dilute the flavour and prevent the mixture from thickening, resulting in an unsatisfactory slop.

Recipes are always interpreted by the cook who brings their own food literacy to their cooking. Just as is these days, home cooks with high levels of cooking skills and food literacy would be able to look at the recipe, read between the lines and adapt their rations to bring out the most flavour.

But the fact that this pie was the object of derision and mockery during the war, make me think the copy needed to be finessed and filled out so that the majority of housewives (yes, it was usually housewives) could cook it well. Of course, there are other reasons people may have disparaged it. A meatless recipe may have been generally unsatisfying to palates and bellies used to meat? Once meat was no longer rationed, did people simply look down on a recipe like this a relic of a time they wanted to forget? 

Woolton Pie a la Mode

I cooked the traditional recipe a couple of times before I came up with this Modern Woolton recipe. Here’s how it is different to the wartime one:

• I suggest you saute the diced vegetables in a little olive oil before adding water.
• I add a little meat. With modern trends towards plant-based diets, this step goes against the grain. The point of a Woolton Pie is that it is vegetarian! But my ten year old gave me the idea. His review the first time I cooked it was “It’s good, but it would be better with just a little meat. Not to much, just a little” So this pie is still mostly vegetable, but the chicken breast (which would most definitely NOT be available during WWII) adds a textural element that makes the dish much more satisfying. It is entirely optional.
• I make a scone topping instead of a pastry one. Anytime I have to get a rolling pin out the whole recipe feels harder. But with a scone topping, you simply have to use your fingers! It also sucks up some of the excess moisture in the mix. The texture is also hearty and satisfying. (Note: the picture here is of a wholemeal pastry crust.)
• I used modern convenience items like frozen vegetables and soup “starter” kits. Once again, these are not items WWII cooks would have had access to, but they represent what is cheap and accessible in modern supermarkets.

The Modern Woolton Pie

NB: I use Standard Australian Measurements so 1 Cup=250ml and 1 Tablespoon=20ml

Ingredients

For the pie filling:

• 1 x 1kg soup starter kit (Mine contained one swede, one onion, two sticks of celery, two carrots and two potatoes) or equivalent seasonal vegetables
• 1 x 500g bag of frozen cauliflower or fresh equivalent
• Approximately 500 g of vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 or 2 small chicken breast filets (optional)
• 1 x 20 ml Tablespoon oatmeal
• A splash of olive oil 
• Approximately 1 tbsp of roughly chopped parsley

For the scone topping:

• 2 x 250ml cups self raising flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 x 20ml tablespoons cold butter
• 1 teaspoon fress rosemary, finely chopped
• 250ml whole milk

Instructions

1. Dice or vegetables to the same size. Make sure each piece is no bigger than a playing dice. If you’re using frozen cauliflower you can chop it up in the pan once it’s soft.
2. Dice chicken to about the same size. Add a splash of oil to a small frying pan and add chicken to the pan. Saute gently until cooked then remove from pan and set aside
3. Add diced onions to the saucepan with another splash of olive oil and cook over a medium low heat until softened. Add the rest of the chopped vegetables and sweat for 3 to 4 minutes. Add chicken back into the pan along with stock and oatmeal. Simmer gently for ten minutes.
4. While the vegetables are cooking, add flour and salt to a bowl with cold butter. Rub butter into flour with fingertips until the mix resembles breadcrumbs or there are no large chunks of butter remaining. Add rosemary and mix well. Add milk to flour but instead of using a spoon to combine, use a knife to ‘cut’ the milk into the flour using slicing motions rather than beating ones (Tip: pretend you are carving a Noughts and Crosses/Tic-tac-toe board into the flour with the knife). Do not over mix.
5. Once the vegetables are cooked, transfer to an oven proof casserole dish (or if you saucepan can go in the oven, you can put the scone mixture right on top). And dollops of scone mixture to the top of the vegetables to act as a pie crust.
6. Cook in an oven preheated to 180C degrees (sorry – you are on your own to figure out the Fahrenheit equivalent!) for 15 to 20 minutes or until the topping is cooked. 

Legal protection…for a recipe?

Military rations for the original ANZACs included hard tack biscuits called at the time ‘ANZAC biscuits’, but they were horrible, unpalatable things. More appealing were the biscuits sent in care packages from home by women who knew a hard, eggless biscuit with a good amount of sugar would last the long distance from home to the front.

The recipe started appearing in recipe books in the 1920s and did evolve over time, but shortly after the war the government introduced legislation to protect the memory of these soldiers including restrictions on how the word ANZAC could be used. To this day, if you want to call a biscuit an ANZAC biscuit and sell it commercially (they probably don’t care what you do in your own home), it has to include certain ingredients. The Australian government issues fines for businesses who deviate from the recipe by using cheap substitutes for butter or adding anything as scandalous as chocolate chips to the mix. Also don’t call it a cookie! They don’t like that either!

Traditional Anzac Biscuit Recipe

The recipe I use for these traditional Australian biscuits was hand written by my mother in law who had to learn to cook the biscuit when she arrived in Australia from South Africa. I’m not sure where she got it, but it’s very similar to recipes I have seen in Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbooks over the years. However, there’s not much variation between ANZAC Biscuit recipes because the word ANZAC is legally protected!

NB: I use Standard Australian Measurements so 1 Cup=250ml and 1 Tablespoon=20ml

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup coconut
• 125g butter
• 2 Tablespoons of golden syrup (Note: According to my mother-in-law’s notes you shouldn’t try substituting this ingredient. Treacle is too bitter and honey is questionable. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs agrees, though for historic rather than culinary reasons.)
• 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 Tablespoon of boiling water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius.
2. Combine oats, flour (I rarely bother sifting), sugar and coconut in a large mixing bowl.
3. Melt butter and syrup over a gentle heat, stirring as you go.
4. Mix bicarb soda with boiling water and add to butter mixture.
5. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
6. Roll into balls and put on greased oven trays (Don’t line the tray with baking paper). Allowing some room for the biscuits to spread. Press balls flat with a fork.
7. Bake for 20 mins, switching the trays halfway through if your oven cooks unevenly.
8. Cool on tray and serve with milky tea. 

Gunfire Breakfast

This combination of tea and rum had an association with the armed forces from the nineteenth century, when it was probably used as a way to boost morale among non-commissioned officers. Apparently, it’s still common for this “gunfire breakfast” to be served on Anzac day in Australia and before dawn on other anniversaries for the military. I can see why: It’s a very hearty combination and I imagine would be quite fortifying on cold winter mornings.

This tradition has given rise to gunfire cocktails which are made from iced black tea and rum, but I wanted to pay homage to the idea that the rum was a medicinal ingredient designed to warm and calm the men on their return. My recipe is a combination of these two ideas.

Spiked Chai Marsala

I only use a little spirit in this recipe, feel free to use less if you prefer. The chai spices are still deliciously warming if you don’t want to add alcohol.

Ingredients

For each serve, allow:

• 250ml water
• 1 heaped teaspoon black Ceylon tea leaves
• ⅛ teaspoon chai-style ground spice mix*
• Up to 20ml spiced rum
• Milk to taste

Instructions

Add water, tea leaves and spice mix to the tea pot (a modern one with a built in strainer that contains the leaves in the centre of the pot works best). Allow the tea to seep until it is very strong.

Once brewed, pour the tea into a mug through a strainer so leaves and spices stay in pot. Add rum and milk to taste.

*Note: DO NOT use whole spices, garam marsala or a chai latte packet mix! Use a product similar to this or google a recipe to make your own ‘chai marsala’ spice mix from whole spices and grind them yourself.