Delia Smith's recipes from Frugal Food

We may be tightening our belts financially, but there's no reason to go without. With the reissue of her book Frugal Food, first published in the 1970s when Britain had its last harsh lesson in home economics, Delia Smith has the recipes that have stood the test of time. Photographs by Michael Paul
This week one of my oldest books, Frugal Food, published 32 years ago, is republished, and rereading it has been for me a revelation. Although it has remained in print throughout that time, and now and then I come across people who still sing its praises, it was, I have to confess, largely forgotten by me.

Poached eggs with souffléed Welsh rarebit
Sausages braised in cider
Old-fashioned honeycomb mould
I suppose that's because the nature of cookery writing means always searching out new and different ways of cooking and devising recipes. That said, I have been fascinated by having a peek at another era, and while the book is rather quaint and nostalgic it has (as I wrote in the intro to the new edition) an eerily familiar ring to it.
Recession, the gathering clouds of financial doom, the prospect of impending food shortages, and the effects of climate change and global warming are all contributing to, if not a complete turn-about, then a serious rethink about what we cook, what we eat, and more alarmingly what we throw away. Of course, the problems were precisely the same then, and I recall being asked by the Government at the time to do some TV ads along with the actor John Alderton on how to save energy.
How strange it is that since those frugal days we have all been swept along on a tide of affluence, when T-shirts can be worn in overheated homes and shops in the depths of winter, when five-year-olds have mobile phones and TV in the bedroom, and we want to eat only the leanest meat and poultry in the shape of fillets or breasts - and the rest of the poor animal is unwanted. Yet despite our obsession with health and diet, as a nation we are more obese than we ever were. Maybe global recession is a timely reminder that we have lost direction and need to get back on track. Eating more frugally is a challenge, but can often be more fun. Using cheaper cuts of meat, cooking meals with no meat or simply enjoying good square meals instead of junk food is actually more satisfying. And just think - to sit round a table and eat a substantial, beautifully cooked meal can cost less per head than a sandwich in a pub. Here are three recipes from the book that I hope will prove the point.