1946 celebration menu?

[JumpandScore]

Mum's 70th birthday is coming up. She doesn't want a party as such but we will be having 3 generations at mine for a "gala dinner"

Dc have suggested the theme should be 1946, the year she was born. So, what would a typical menu have been?

I guess there was still a lot of austerity but I bet the rich were still eating well at times of celebration

www.foodsofengland.co.uk/umbleornumblepie.htm

This website might be helpful.

I think it might be quite bleak!
Rationing got even more strict after the war ended iirc. And lits of the 'rich people's' loopholes were ironed out in 1942, when I think they rules on what restaurants could serve, rather than just private citizens. Google British Restaurants for an idea.

Eg you could have max 3 courses, but only 1 could include meat. Fruit was obviously scarce, as we're eggs, cheese. So your menu won't be that celebratory! You could wheel out a pretend, beautifully decorated cake, like at a wedding, and just serve an underwhelming one made from carrots and marge?

Maybe pick another year - the year she turned 18, 21, got married (?), had you etc?

It depends where you lived. If you lived in the country then you had access to considerable amounts of potatoes, pork, chicken, eggs, rabbit, brown trout and game.

If you're willing to stretch a point, according to this article, Coronation Chicken was invented for a royal occasion before your DM was born.
Sure to be a crowd-pleaser, anyway.

My DM married in 1946 and I have inherited her Good Housekeeping Book which was reprinted 1946.
As there was a fuel shortage as well as a food shortage, this is a typical suggestion (all to go in a "moderately" hot oven at the same time:
Casserole of rabbit - this would have been bulked out with root veg
Baked jacket potatoes (but probably with a dab of marge, not oozing with butter)
Rhubarb Charlotte (using up the crusts of a stale "British Loaf" for breadcrumbs)
And another meal was to go into the oven at the same time so fuel wasn't wasted.
DM and DF told me that the worst post war rationed food was tinned Snoek - fish from off the coast of S Africa - so do not try to source that!
I would rather serve a meal of what people in 1946 dreamed about! Unlimited meat, dairy products, citrus fruit, anything with plenty of sugar ...

I agree with choosing the year she was 21. 1967 - you could have steak Diane with chianti and zabaglione. I know which menu I'd rather go for.

Have a 'random' conversation with her about the best year of her life and pick that?

I have the Marguerite Patten war and post war cook books. From 1946 she has beef and prune hotpot (hmm, yummy?) Sausage Savoury Balls, Plum Dumplings, Carrot and Potato Chowder, Savour Breast of Mutton (a bit more like it), chestnut creams, malt and fruit bread, ring doughnuts, swiss buns.

I could possibly supply recipes if you wanted (but you probably don't).

I've seen a recipe for beef & prune tagine, but not tried it.

I have made chicken and date tagine several times.