Victoria Cross
My sister has just given me a gorgeous piece of food ephemera.
I’m in Melbourne (until an unholy hour tomorrow morning) to celebrate Betty’s life. You heard about Betty and her chocolate cake last week. You have to admit, I’m having an exceptionally strange August.
When I arrived here, my sister said “These are for you,” and gave me a bunch of leaflets and cookbooks, all of which I’ll get to in due course. Mum plonked her computer in front of me and said “You should blog now” and so I am. I was an obedient child and still have those responses embedded deep within me.
The leaflet looks rather patriotic. 1950s, from the recipes (early sixties at the latest). The cover simply says “For valour” and the picture of a military medal superimposed over shadows of soldiers in the clouds and unending acres of fields below.
Inside, the leaflet has a different name “Heroes of peace.” From there on, its 28 pages are dedicated to the purity and beauty of tinned pineapple. Queensland tinned pineapple. It’s the brand that -these days - is Golden Circle. In the fifties, it was called Victoria Cross. And so the odd military overtones of the leaflet are explained. A whole heap of cultural changes in Australia have taken place over the last fifty years, and one thing that has shifted is the nature of patriotism. VC pineapple has been replaced by Golden Circle pineapple and we no longer feel quite as amazingly military every time we open a tin.
The recipes are equally dated. Let me give you one that caused us fewest shudders:
Bread and Butter Pineapple Pudding
1 1/2 cups VC Crushed Pineapple
3 tbs sugar
1 tbs creamed butter
3 slices stale bread
lemon juice
Place the pineapple and juice in a dish. Spread the thin slices of bread with creamed butter. Cut them in various shapes and fit closely over the pineapple. Put in a few drops of lemon juice and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a moderate oven until brown about 45 minutes. Serve hot with cream.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:04 am
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August 25th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Does that mean I have to salute every Goldent Circle tin I meet?