Woolton pie is a pastry dish of vegetables, widely served in Britain in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when rationing and shortages made other dishes hard to prepare. It was created at the

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 188 ...

in London by its then Maitre Chef de Cuisine, Francis Latry, and was one of a number of recipes commended to the British public by the

Ministry of Food An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

to enable a nutritious diet to be maintained despite shortages and

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

of food, especially meat. It was named after

Frederick Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, (23 August 1883 – 14 December 1964) was an English businessman and politician who served as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1946 to 1955. In April 1940, he was appointed Minister of Food ...

(1883–1964), who popularised the recipe after he became Minister of Food in 1940.

Recipe

The recipe involved dicing and cooking potatoes (or parsnips), cauliflower, carrots and possibly turnip. Other vegetables were added where available. Rolled oats and chopped

spring onion Scallions (also known as spring onions or green onions) are vegetables derived from various species in the genus ''Allium''. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions and their close relatives include garlic, shallot, leek, chi ...

s were added to the thickened vegetable water which was poured over the vegetables themselves. The dish was topped with potato pastry and grated

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

and served with vegetable gravy. The content of the pie filling could easily be altered to include whatever vegetables were in season at the time.

Reception

British Political Personalities 1936-1945 HU48187

People realised that meat was in very scarce supply, but that still did not overcome traditions of meat pies. Woolton pie, entirely lacking meat, was not universally well received. An editorial in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' commented: Professor John Fuller has noted that Woolton pie and similar wartime austerity dishes "were forgotten as quickly as possible when conditions returned to normal" (one notable exception is

carrot cake Carrot cake (also known as passion cake) is cake that contains carrots mixed into the batter. Most modern carrot cake recipes have a white cream cheese frosting. Sometimes nuts such as walnuts or pecans are added into the cake batter, as wel ...

which, while not invented during the war, was popularised in the United Kingdom then because it used the widely available root vegetable in place of some of the scarce flour, fat and sugar found in other cakes).

Publication

The recipe for Woolton pie has been published on a number of occasions since the war, notably in collections to mark significant anniversaries, e.g.

Marguerite Patten Hilda Elsie Marguerite Patten, (née Brown; 4 November 1915 – 4 June 2015), was a British home economist, food writer and broadcaster. She was one of the earliest celebrity chefs (a term that she disliked at first) who became known during Wo ...

's (1985) ''We'll Eat Again'', marking the 40th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Woolton Pie
(includes original recipe from ''The Times'') {{British pies British pies English cuisine Potato dishes Savoury pies United Kingdom home front during World War II Brassica dishes