A COOK from South Cerney has been experimenting with cooking war time food, after coming across a vintage family recipe book.

Dulcie James, 57, who holds Taste the Memory cooking and therapy sessions in her home, recently met William Jackson at a local Christmas charity fair. She then saw him again at a cooking demonstration for the Churn Project in Cirencester, and he showed her something that caught her interest.

After delving in his attic William had come across several recipe books written in the 1930s and 1940s by his mother Ellen and aunt Sylvia, and was keen to try some of them out with Dulcie's help.

"The recipes are handwritten using limited ingredients that were available at the time, due to war rationing they were clearly economical, simple and good wholesome home cooking," said Dulcie. "Their titles really give a sense of the era such as half way pudding or war time cake, or war time pud using carrots and potatoes. Or how about coffee jelly or Batchelor's buttons?"

William visited Dulcie's South Cerney home so the duo could make Gloucester Tarts, custard biscuits, and half way pudding, which has jam, potato and carrots in.

"The war time pud tasted very good surprisingly," said Dulcie. "It was a lovely session, William was very sweet and bought some cookery books printed in 1934 for me to look at too. He is very humble and spoke so fondly of his aunt Sylvia."

William said of his aunt: "Sylvia wasn’t the kind of cook mum was but I do remember her cooking bubble and squeak and leaving it in the frying pan to get the bottom crispy. Her cheese scones were very good and she would cut the rind from bacon and crisp them in a frying pan."

Dulcie's Taste the Memory sessions aim to help anxious, grieving, and stressed people feel more relaxed and at ease by cooking good, wholesome food and chatting with Dulcie.

Visit tastethememory.co.uk to find out more.