If anyone ever doubted the awesomeness that is Saint Delia (as I call her), think again. Delia Smith’s Frugal Food is a classic with good reason.
This book was first published in 1976, at a time of inflation, rising prices and world food shortages. Sound familiar? Those problems persist, but add to those our current issues around austerity, benefits cuts and the uncertainty around Brexit and you realise that hard times and financial pressures are an increasingly common reality for many people.
This book, with its reliably cheap and tasty recipes, is still relevant. It was actually republished in a glossier format in 2008 but I have a copy of the original, with yellow pages and spillages to testify to its regular use.
There are some recipes I wouldn’t class as frugal nowadays. I think meat and fish may have been cheaper when the book was written so I don’t cook lamb or beef much. However, there are lots of recipes for those on a budget. My favourites include pork sausages with cider sauce, spaghetti with tuna and olives, bean and lentil chilli, souffle’d jacket potatoes and liver casserole. There are some great puddings too. Classics like bread pudding and spotted dick alongside blackberry cheesecake for the forager.
You can still pick up various versions of Delia Smith’s Frugal Food second hand, but if you use my link to Amazon to make a purchase I will receive a small commission.
Louise Houghton says
Saving With Jamie is a fantastic book for making value but tasty meals. One of my favourite books.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Totally agree. I will be reviewing that next
Sue says
I’m currently working my way through all my cookbooks, and selling all those that aren’t exactly what we need and use. I have a huge collection and have never been able to part with them until now, but some will stay and I think this will probably be one of them.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Sue, you have to keep that one!
Julia says
I tend to search the internet for inspiration these days rather than buy cookery books where, invariably, 95% of the recipes won’t be used. When I find a recipe I like I just paste it into a Word document instead and file it away, thus creating my own personal cookery book!
Jack Monroe’s books are the only ones I’ve bough in ages, but I still tend to go to the website first instead of to the book!
Sara @ Debt Camel says
One of the best things about “old fashioned” cookery books like Delia’s is that they don’t have long lists of hard to find ingredients. I’m tied of recipes that need palm sugar, argan oil. ancho chillis etc! It’s not just the cost, but the time to find them and then the space to store them.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Same! And then you never use them again and they get chucked out. Annoying
Mr. Paul says
A good post. I’m an American and just discovery Delia Smith and her cookbooks. Especially this one. We too in the USA, had the same financial issues throughout most of the 1970’s and into the 1980’s. And many of us are still having to deal with high food prices and low incomes today in 2019 & 2020 etc. And there still is the never mentioned inflation, which affects us all. Now, her recipes are good. The soups and desserts are heaven. I will never eat liver or such. And the fish recipes look tasty too. The last incarnation of “Frugal Foods” was in 2008. So i think a complete update is needed again to reflect food prices and to include a few more traditional, low cost recipes. A section on oven meals {the whole meal bake in the oven at the same time} and crock-pot cooking would be great. All in all, definitely worth buying from a used book store!