On her return from London,
Molly gave a number of talks and guidance sessions locally and she was valued as a local
‘expert’ by the regional MOF office in Cardiff. In November 1942 she recorded
two programmes for The Kitchen Front at the Cardiff offices of the BBC. In these
she was asked to provide a number of basic recipes which were then vetted by the Ministry.
Vetting by the Ministry would not be anything sinister in these circumstances, it was more
a case of trying to incorporate ingredients into recipes that there may have been a glut
of (carrots come to mind) or trying to reduce the importance of ingredients that were
scarce.
Molly recalled that her biggest problem was a shortage of
butter and cooking fats. The reason for this was that Britain relied heavily on imported
butter, lard and margarine. Convoy shipping space for butter and fats was extremely
variable for the first three years of the War and the Ministry were always on the lookout
for hints and tips on how to cope with a lack of fats and oils. Eventually, matters were
made easier by the import of American bacon which was valued for the amount of dripping it
produced.