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Carrot Loaf
1 egg Salt, pepper 2 tablespoons red or green peppers 3 tablespoons minced bacon or other fat 1 tablespoon onion juice teaspoon mustard Mix ingredients in order given and bake the loaf in a moderate oven 1 hour. Serve with tomato sauce if desired.
A plain wartime-era vegetable loaf, bound with egg and enriched with minced bacon, baked in a loaf tin and sauced at table.
- Moderate ovenIn books of this period a moderate oven is usually reckoned at about 350-375F. An hour at that heat suits an egg-bound loaf; the top should be firm and lightly browned. The recipe names no tin or size.
- Onion juiceOnion juice was got by grating a halved onion on a coarse grater and using the liquid and pulp that collected, or by pressing grated onion in a cloth. Finely grated onion works in its place.
- Minced bacon as the fatThree tablespoons of finely chopped raw bacon renders during baking and does the work of both fat and seasoning. If substituting butter or oil, add a little more salt, since the bacon is carrying much of the savour.
- Red or green peppersSweet peppers, not chilli; two tablespoons means finely diced, and they are better softened in a pan for a few minutes first so they do not stay crunchy against the soft loaf.
- The mustard measureThe mustard quantity in the text appears to have lost its fraction. Half a teaspoon of dry mustard, or a teaspoon of prepared, would be in keeping with the rest of the seasoning.
- Binding a vegetable loafThe ingredient list as transcribed is incomplete (no carrot is listed), so the full binding may simply be missing from the text. Vegetable loaves of the period are often bound with soft breadcrumbs or cooked rice alongside the egg, and are usually left to stand in the tin before turning out.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantity for the main vegetable, so the yield cannot be fixed. The text leaves the tomato sauce optional.
Vegetable loaves like this belong to the era when the loaf pan was the standard way to make a modest ingredient look like a main dish. Grated carrot, held together with egg and a little chopped bacon, gave a sliceable centrepiece that could replace meat on a meatless day, and the tomato sauce served over it stood in for gravy.