Have a CFAB Christmas!

Merry Christmas one and all!

Well, it's been a funny old year, hasn't it? Do you remember when we were being told things would be back to something like normal by Christmas? They said much the same about the First World War, too. Ah well, maybe next year. But let's not dwell on such matters.

As regular readers will know, as well as always keeping my eyes open for interesting tins, and constantly adding more to my kitchen cupboards (to the extent that the shelves are groaning under the weight) I have also amassed quite a collection of cookbooks and pamphlets focusing on tinned foods, largely found on eBay. Quite often these were originally produced as promotional items by the manufacturers of the foods themselves - there seem to have been a vast number over the years from the big players like Heinz and Campbells - but recently I have come across a number of publications, from the 1950s onwards, from an organisation called the Canned Foods Advisory Bureau (or CFAB, as I have dubbed it purely for the purposes of the title of this post), whose function seems to have been to promote the use of all kinds of tinned foods to the "modern housewife" (their terminology, not mine!) and show how much quicker and easier they make the daily challenge of putting something nutritious and appealing on the table. In that way it was very much a precursor of current organisations like Canned Food UK and Love Canned Food, and it may well also have been funded by manufacturers of either tinned foods or the tin cans themselves.

I couldn't let Christmas pass without sharing this fabulous Canned Food Advisory Bureau pamphlet from the 1950s or 60s (there's no date on it unfortunately), entitled "Christmas Fare".

The ruddy-faced Father Christmas on the cover is just about on the acceptable side of creepy, and I love the fact that he's proudly showing off a tin can as if it were a can of Coca Cola, which as we all know from the Christmas adverts is old St. Nick's favourite beverage (if there's nothing alcoholic on offer). The label on the can lists some of the delights to be found within.

Inside, the introduction explains:
"At no time of the year do our thoughts turn more readily to food and family parties than at Christmas. The traditional splendour of the dinner table, the exchange of news amongst a family home for the holiday - these are what we all look forward to with a tingle of excitement. 

Enjoy Christmas to the full this year by making your preparations in advance. When the holiday arrives, have a full store-cupboard behind you and nothing but days of enjoyment with the family ahead. This is no daydream if Santa Claus has brought you a supply of canned foods and you pay careful attention to the suggestions contained in this leaflet."

The recipes (all intended, I think, for a large buffet party rather than the actual Christmas dinner) are all illustrated, though we can't really see them in much detail. The designers have opted for one photo running across the bottom of the pamphlet, showing all the dishes proudly set out on what must be the world's longest table (in all its traditional splendour), which even has space for a truly enormous arrangement of flowers and other festive foliage.

While the pamphlet might have been intended to help provide an easy, stress-free Christmas, there aren't really any recipes that jump out as things I absolutely must try. The Mixed Vegetable Salad is basically tins of carrots, peas, French beans and broad beans, mixed with cabbage, minced onion and half a pint of mayonnaise. I can't quite get the image of a half-pint glass full of mayo out of my mind, which is more than a little off-putting.

Mince Pies I would happily make and eat any day of the year, but as far as I am aware, mincemeat is no longer available in cans, as listed in the recipe, only jars. Pineapple Pudding is essentially just a pineapple upside-down cake, which feels delightfully retro these days, but isn't particularly Christmassy. 

The Mixed Fruit Cream sounds like an overly convoluted affair, involving setting some tinned peaches and pears in lemon jelly at the bottom of a mould, then adding a creamy but equally wobbly layer on top of that, made by mixing evaporated milk, cornflour, sugar and undiluted orange squash with gelatine. The whole thing is then turned out and garnished with canned cream and cherries.

The only recipe I am (and indeed was) tempted to try from the centre-page spread was the Apricot Meringues - not because it is that interesting or Christmassy itself, but because I happened to have a tin of apricots and some ready-made meringue nests, so wouldn't even need to make them myself, as per the recipe. So really it was just a case of plonking a halved apricot on a meringue, which made for a nice easy pudding on Christmas Eve. I had in mind that it might look rather like a fried egg, which it sort of did. Well, an egg with a very large yolk.

Even when you top it with cream and sprinkle with grated chocolate as the recipe suggests, it still looks rather like an egg that's had a good grinding of pepper on top. As I had thought, it's not particularly exciting as a dessert, but certainly easier and more appealing than messing around with jelly moulds.

The suggestion for the turkey is to serve it cold, cooked the day before the celebrations, with a stuffing made either with chestnuts, or a can of pork sausages, removed from their skins and mashed up with breadcrumbs. To serve alongside: Asparagus Ham Rolls - i.e. tinned asparagus spears wrapped in thinly sliced canned ham (I can't really see today's readers swapping their pigs-in-blankets for these) - and a Cold Meat Platter of tinned pork luncheon meat, corned beef, stuffed pork roll and tongue, all sliced and with an optional boiled egg and watercress garnish. I always feel that with recipes of this era, the garnish is never really optional. In fact, the garnish is sometimes the best bit.

The back page gives us "Some OTHER suggestions for your Christmas Party". I'm not massively fussed by either of the drinks recipes; I'd rather just have a glass of cider as it is than this sweetened, watered-down version with tinned strawberries and raspberries thrown in (Mixed Fruit Cup), and the Fruit Fizz is just orange and grapefruit juice with soda water. I could possibly be tempted to try making either the Walnut Fudge (using evaporated milk) or the Fondants, though the latter would likely be tooth-achingly sweet, given that the recipe calls for a whole pound of icing sugar to be beaten into some condensed milk, formed into balls and rolled in coconut, chocolate, nuts or crushed cornflakes. So I probably won't get round to either.

A slightly disappointing selection all in all therefore. But lets face it, "days of enjoyment with the family ahead" was never going to happen this year anyway.

When purchasing some other Canned Food Advisory Bureau items on another occasion, I received an unexpected bonus item - a type-written sheet from December 1956, giving a selection of Christmas recipes focusing more on leftovers and the days after Christmas. Would these prove to be more inspiring?

"Meals after Christmas Dinner are often difficult to make a success. The family's appetite becomes rather fickle after the traditional feast and can seldom be encouraged with 'left-overs' that are easily recognised. The recipes that follow are designed to use up the remains of the dinner in a tempting manner and provide party dishes that will keep the festive spirit alive throughout the season"

Naturally there are lots of ideas of things to do with leftover turkey, and each recipe contains a tinned element of some kind - but there is also an awful lot of jelly again, thereby possibly stretching the definition of "tempting" from the introduction.

First up: Asparagus and Turkey Mould (doesn't that sound delightful?), consisting of diced cooked meat and various tinned vegetables (and a meagre teaspoonful of sherry) layered in aspic jelly, which you then garnish "with a lettuce" (what, a whole one? Personally I'd go for less lettuce and more sherry.)

The Hot Turkey and Mushroom Souffle could be a fun challenge for the more confident or adventurous cook. But if your souffle fails to rise, you could probably pass it off as the next recipe instead, Turkey Creole, which appears to be largely the same but without the eggs to souffle it up - it's just turkey, onion, garlic and green pepper in a sauce made from mushroom soup.

Next, the Tomato and Turkey Ring, which gives us a tomato jelly (yes, it's just tomato juice and gelatine) in a ring mould, and then when turned out, the centre of the ring is filled with another delightful-sounding mixture of turkey, tinned peas, a tin of creamed mushrooms and a raw egg yolk. 

You might therefore want to skip the mains and go straight to the desserts. The Apple and Banana Cream misses a trick in my opinion, by not saying "it's as easy as A, B, C". It is simply canned "apple crush" (which I assume is just apple sauce or puree), mashed-up bananas and evaporated milk, mixed together and decorated with tinned orange segments and cream. So essentially it's a fruit salad, especially good, I suspect, for nursery-age children (or anyone else without teeth).

Meanwhile, the Melon Fruit Salad calls for a the flesh of a melon to be scooped out, mixed with canned fruit cocktail, maraschino or kirsch, and yes, a packet of jelly, all served in the empty melon shell with whipped cream on top. I'm quite tempted to give this one a go, as it specifies a whole wine-glass of liqueur, which would probably make it pleasingly boozy. Not one for the kids.

Finally, the Chestnut Chocolate Basket: melted chocolate is poured into a paper cake case, coating the bottom and sides to give a basket shape when it cools. A slice of sponge cake is cut to fit inside the basket, then topped with a mixture of canned candied chestnut spread, whipped egg white and yet more gelatine, with canned cream and glace cherries to decorate. This one feels the most Christmassy with its chestnut filling - if I can track down a tin of sweetened puree I might try it out. I'd be tempted to sprinkle a little booze over the cake though, effectively making it a trifle within a chocolate basket. That would certainly keep the festive spirit alive.

Better options on the sweet front therefore. I'll let you know if I get to try any of them out over Christmas, and of course any other tinned festive adventures - as ever, I've got a few ideas in mind...