From the archive: Food products: bacon alternatives - 19 December, 1939

VARIOUS interesting developments are taking place providing alternatives to foods in which there is a temporary shortage.

In connection with the production of mutton-bacon, a difficulty has been the utilisation of those parts of the carcase not suitable for making into bacon. New products, such as mutton roll, are being prepared. Like other tinned foods, the mutton roll is sold ready for the table, but it can be cooked in the same way as bacon. There might be considerable development in the sale of beef ham, a product well known in the West of Scotland but not extensively sold in the East. An Edinburgh grocer said the public should remember the present allocation of butter was only 50 per cent of the normal. The best solution of the shortage was for housewives to mix butter and margarine. The trader said that in Scotland the demand had been for lean bacon, but that under present circumstances the public were having to take a heavier type.