Well, here we are Christmas Eve. How did that happen? It's crept up on us really quickly now, but you might just have time to fit in o...
A simpler time: recreate these historical battleground recipes in your own modern kitchen.
One of the blessings of this festive time of year is sharing good food with family and friends. During the holidays, mothers and grandmothers everywhere retreat to the kitchen and don’t emerge until they’ve baked a pile of goodies imbued with generation upon generation of family tradition. In that way, holiday life in contemporary America ... Read more
I wanted to share a recipe with you today that is somewhat of a Christmas Tradition in our family. Its called War Cake and it just woul...
My Todd grew up here in the south of England during World War 2. One of the things they ate a lot during the war was rabbit. Things like...
Well, here we are Christmas Eve. How did that happen? It's crept up on us really quickly now, but you might just have time to fit in o...
We'll Eat Again [reprinted recipes from 1940's] Phew! Sorry about that break, but the kitchen of Time Travel Kitchen is now both larger, and closer to willing victims. HOORAY. I promised you goose, didn't I? I did. And you, poor things, have been waiting with bated breath. Wait no longer! "Man-about-Kitchen" Now that thousands of wives and mothers are helping in the factories, or evacuated to the country, many men are having to do their own cooking. No wonder they ask their women-folk for easy recipes! Here are a few suggestions. [Well, one.] Mock Goose Cooking time: 1 hour Quantity: 4 helpings 1 1/2 lb. potatoes 2 large cooking apples 4 oz. cheese 1/2 teaspoon dried sage salt and pepper 3/4 pint vegetable stock 1 tablespoon flour Method: Scrub and slice potatoes thinly, slice apples, grate cheese. Grease a fireproof dish, place a layer of potatoes in it, cover with apple and a little sage, season lightly and sprinkle with cheese, repeat layers leaving potatoes and cheese to cover. Pour in 1/2 pint of the stock, cook in a moderate oven for 3/4 of an hour. Blend flour with remainder of stock, pour into dish and cook for another 1/4 of an hour. Serve as a main dish with a green vegetable. Dig for your dinner When salvage is all that remains of the joint And there isn't a tin and you haven't a 'point' Instead of creating a dance and a ballad Just raid the allotment and dig up a salad! Beetroot Pudding Here is a new notion for using the sweetness of beetroot to make a nice sweet pudding with very little sugar. First mix 6 oz wheatmeal flour with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. Rub in 1/2 oz fat and add 1 oz sugar and 4 oz cooked or raw beetroot very finely grated. Now mix all the ingredients to a soft cake consistency with 3 or 4 tablespoons of milk. Add a few drops of flavouring essence if you have it. Turn the mixture into a greased pie dish or square tin and bake immediately in a moderate oven for 35-40 minutes. This pudding tastes equally good hot or cold. Enough for 4. Reflect, whenever you indulge It is not beautiful to bulge A large, untidy corporation Is far from helpful to the Nation. Mock Whipped Cream 1/2 oz cornflour [cornstarch] 1/4 pint milk 1 1/2 oz margarine 3 teaspoons sugar few drops vanilla essence Method: Mix cornflour to a paste with a little milk, heat remainder and when boiling add to the blended cornflour, stirring well. Return to saucepan bring to boil and cook 3 minutes. Cream the margarine and sugar. Whisk in the cornflour mixture gradually. Add vanilla essence. *** Verdict: Mock Goose: In... in what manner is this a goose? The duck, the duck I could see. It looks sort of ducky, and there's meat. This? This is a DANG POTATO CASSEROLE. It wasn't cooked for long enough, so it was still kind of crunchy, and the vegetable broth did not thicken in any way. It was more like wet potato discs with oddly flavored apples and surprising tiny globlets of soggy cheese. Were it cooked for longer, the vegetable broth thickened, and more herbs added, this would probably be fine. Troll your vegetarian friends. Invite them over for dinner. When they arrive, tell them you made goose. Hilarity cannot fail to ensue. Beetroot Pudding: Gahhh. I am undecided on this one. A list must happen. Good: *Beets are pretty sweet, so this actually sort of worked as far as sweetness goes. *It's pink! *It's really good for you Bad: *It was gritty. Like sand. And I like whole wheat. *A shred of beet got stuck in my teeth. *It's density is similar to that of brick. *It's really good for you. I will have to revisit this one, and see if it can be improved on. What made it quite palatable was the- Mock Whipped Cream: Mmmmm. If you think about it, this recipe actually makes mathematical sense. Given that: Cream = Milk + Butterfat Butter ≈ Margarine Therefore: Margarine + Milk ≈ Cream Ta da! With the addition of some cornstarch, sugar, and vanilla, a reasonable approximation of whipped cream can be made. It's more like a pastry cream than whipped cream, but let us not quibble. A sweet, creamy topping can be made. Let he who is without Kool Whip among you cast the first stone. Besides, it helps the sandy pink beet grit slide down much easier. *** Bonus propaganda! Have you wondered how much soy flour is needed to make a loaf big enough to fill Red Square? Wonder no longer.
Civil war hospital recipe for Farina Pudding. Served to the Wounded Soldiers after the Battle of Gettysburg by nurses and ladies of the Sanitary Commission.
The recipes were written with rationing in mind
Book digitized by Google from the library of University of California and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.
Ah, yes cornmeal hash by any other name is well Confederate Cush of course! Did you know that this Rebel delicacy (created out of necessity) is also known by many other names? It’s true. He…
Here’s the war-time recipe for Baby Ruth Cookies. 1940’s 1/2 cup butter or other shortening 3/4 cup white sugar 1 egg 1 1/3 cups flour 1/2 tsp. soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. vanilla 2 Bab…
When Imad Alarnab left his family behind in Damascus in 2015, his eldest daughter swore him to a pledge. “We’ll meet again in no longer than a year,” the 12-year-old said. “I promise,” he replied. It had been three years since the brutal civil war had broken out in Syria and after moving his family from place to place five times to escape danger, the restaurateur, 46, had come to the realisation that life would never return to what it was. Two of his restaurants had been destroyed by bombs and
Carole Lombard was a frequent contributor to Hollywood-themed cookbooks ( http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/469753.html ), and we now have one more recipe she apparently can be credited for. It's from a 64-page booklet issued late in 1935 entitled "Foods And Fashions Of 1936": This particular…
A hearty hot-pot made with non rationed black pudding and lots of vegetables. This nutritious casserole is good served with sliced cooked beetroot.
Well, here we are Christmas Eve. How did that happen? It's crept up on us really quickly now, but you might just have time to fit in o...
Mushroom ketchup was something I've been wanting to make for a long time. I love the fact that this was a common sauce so different from the ketchup we use today. In the early 1700s, ketchup was introduced to English explorers by the people of Singapore and Malaysia. Originally a sauce for fish, ketchup was made out of walnuts, oysters or mushrooms and was similar to soy sauce. The English expanded the use of the sauce and it became popular for fish and meat dishes.
A simpler time: recreate these historical battleground recipes in your own modern kitchen.
This is adapted from Crescent Dragonwagon's Cornbread Gospels. Dragonwagon cites Nelly Custis, Martha Washington's youngest granddaughter, gave an account of the first president's morning routine, which included getting up before sunrise, reading and writing until 7 a.m. in the summer, 7:30 a.m. in the winter, and then breakfasting on three of these cakes, "swimming in butter and honey."
Based on a Wartime recipe, this healthy and filling recipe for fish cakes doesn't use flour, and also uses tinned salmon for convenience. Packed with fresh herbs and coated in nutty crumbled oatcakes, they would make a wonderful midweek family supper dish when served with mushy peas and salad. (Can be frozen before cooking)
We'll Eat Again: A collection of recipes from the war years selected by Marguerite Patten Woolton pie was named after the Minister of Food in WWII, Lord Woolton. It is designed to work with severe rationing, with vast amounts of vegetables, no meat, and very little wheat flour. Woolton Pie Cooking time: about 1 hour Quantity: 4 helpings Dice and cook about 1 lb of each of the following in salted water: potatoes (you could use parsnips if topping the pie with mashed potatoes), cauliflower, swedes, carrots--you could add turnips too. [I used turnip instead of swede/rutabaga.] Strain but keep 3/4 pint of the vegetable water. I halved the recipe. This is 1/2 lb. of each. Arrange the vegetables in a large pie dish or casserole. Add a little vegetable extract and about 1 oz rolled oats or oatmeal to the vegetable liquid. Cook until thickened and pour over the vegetables; add 3-4 chopped spring onions [I used a lot of chives.] Top with Potato Pastry or with mashed potatoes and a very little grated cheese [I used two adult people's cheese ration for the week- 4 oz. total. I'm American, so it should be allowed under cultural exceptions] and heat in the centre of a moderately hot oven [375 F.] until golden brown. [half an hour-ish. Depends on how thick the pastry is.] Serve with brown gravy. This is at its best with tender young vegetables. [Nope. Turnips and parsnips are so unpopular, the only ones around look pretty beat-up. Oh well. There's a war on.] Potato Pastry This is a pastry that should be used a great deal as it helps to lighten the flour and makes our rations of fat go much further. Sift 6 oz. self raising flour with a pinch of salt. Rub in 2-3 oz cooking fat, add 2 oz grated raw potato. Mix well and bind with water. Roll out on a floured board and use as ordinary shortcrust pastry. Verdict: Well that isn't the wartime spirit I was looking for. Husband and I thought it was actually pretty darn good. Especially with the aid of a large amount of vegetable flavored "Better Than Bouillon" to serve as the vegetable extract. Mmmm. Husband even said he'd like to see it again! It could use some more color, though. Parsnips, rutabagas, potatoes, cauliflower and turnips do not have very striking contrast. 2-year-old, who had just been woken up from a sorely needed nap prematurely, was so offended that she wouldn't touch it and instead tried to knock over the precious ration of orange juice to which she, as a child, is entitled. Upon failing, she flowed off her chair and onto the floor like syrup and assumed the position shown in picture 2, to prevent me holding a carrot near her face on a fork. An hour later, she ate half her serving and liked it.
The recipes in this book can help you get an idea at what is possible, it's a great addition to your preparedness cooking and food storage stockpile. - Page 11 of 12
A food blog in the UK featuring everyday recipes for the everyday family
The World War II years were all about making do with less. In the kitchen, home cooks found thrifty ways to stretch the family’s food. When...
Unusual, historical Civil War Era recipe for Cheesikins from 1864.
How can you make the Revolutionary War for children in a way that is both appealing and fun to understand? With a recipe, of course!
Once upon a time to a transfixed nation, trans fats were not the troublesome substance we now view them as but were the very symbol of scientific progress. If the FDA has their way about it, bad-f…
An old fashioned way to steam a pudding and a great way to recycle old baked bean tins; these spiced mixed fruit rolls are easy to slice to serve and are also lovely buttered like tea loaf when cold. This recipe is based on several WW2 ration book recipes that I found in various books, where no eggs and sugar are used. Makes two bake bean tin fruit rolls to serve 4 greedy people or 6 restrained diners!
Lyuba Sheynin is the type of cook who travels with her Russian recipes — across continents and oceans. She first learned to cook when she was 12 and her mother became ill. During World War II, as a Ge
These may not be to everyone's tastes, but they have been around for a very long time and are a very quick and economical family meal.
A frugal recipe that makes good use of sausages, or sausage meat, and which originates from a 1918 edition of The People's Friend magazine. These sausage cakes are served with apple sauce and use slices of bread to "pad" them out to take full advantage of the meat rations.
We'll Eat Again: A collection of recipes from the war years selected by Marguerite Patten Woolton pie was named after the Minister of Food in WWII, Lord Woolton. It is designed to work with severe rationing, with vast amounts of vegetables, no meat, and very little wheat flour. Woolton Pie Cooking time: about 1 hour Quantity: 4 helpings Dice and cook about 1 lb of each of the following in salted water: potatoes (you could use parsnips if topping the pie with mashed potatoes), cauliflower, swedes, carrots--you could add turnips too. [I used turnip instead of swede/rutabaga.] Strain but keep 3/4 pint of the vegetable water. I halved the recipe. This is 1/2 lb. of each. Arrange the vegetables in a large pie dish or casserole. Add a little vegetable extract and about 1 oz rolled oats or oatmeal to the vegetable liquid. Cook until thickened and pour over the vegetables; add 3-4 chopped spring onions [I used a lot of chives.] Top with Potato Pastry or with mashed potatoes and a very little grated cheese [I used two adult people's cheese ration for the week- 4 oz. total. I'm American, so it should be allowed under cultural exceptions] and heat in the centre of a moderately hot oven [375 F.] until golden brown. [half an hour-ish. Depends on how thick the pastry is.] Serve with brown gravy. This is at its best with tender young vegetables. [Nope. Turnips and parsnips are so unpopular, the only ones around look pretty beat-up. Oh well. There's a war on.] Potato Pastry This is a pastry that should be used a great deal as it helps to lighten the flour and makes our rations of fat go much further. Sift 6 oz. self raising flour with a pinch of salt. Rub in 2-3 oz cooking fat, add 2 oz grated raw potato. Mix well and bind with water. Roll out on a floured board and use as ordinary shortcrust pastry. Verdict: Well that isn't the wartime spirit I was looking for. Husband and I thought it was actually pretty darn good. Especially with the aid of a large amount of vegetable flavored "Better Than Bouillon" to serve as the vegetable extract. Mmmm. Husband even said he'd like to see it again! It could use some more color, though. Parsnips, rutabagas, potatoes, cauliflower and turnips do not have very striking contrast. 2-year-old, who had just been woken up from a sorely needed nap prematurely, was so offended that she wouldn't touch it and instead tried to knock over the precious ration of orange juice to which she, as a child, is entitled. Upon failing, she flowed off her chair and onto the floor like syrup and assumed the position shown in picture 2, to prevent me holding a carrot near her face on a fork. An hour later, she ate half her serving and liked it.
James Beard Award Winner In Bibi's Kitchen: The recipes and stories of grandmothers from the eight African countries that touch the Indian Ocean by Hawa Hassan. Grandmothers from eight eastern African countries welcome you into their kitchens to share flavorful recipes and stories of family, love, and tradition in this transporting cookbook-meets-travelogue.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR by The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Bon Appétit • NPR • San Francisco Chronicle • Food Network • Vogue• Delish • The Guardian • Smithsonian Magazine • Salon • Town & CountryIn this incredible volume, Somali chef Hawa Hassan and food writer Julia Turshen present 75 recipes and stories gathered from bibis (or grandmothers) from eight African nations: South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, and Eritrea. Most notably, these eight countries are at the backbone of the spice trade, many of them exporters of things like pepper and vanilla. We meet women such as Ma Shara, who helps tourists “see the real Zanzibar” by teaching them how to make her famous Ajemi Bread with Carrots and Green Pepper; Ma Vicky, who now lives in suburban New York and makes Matoke (Stewed Plantains with Beans and Beef) to bring the flavor of Tanzania to her American home; and Ma Gehennet from Eritrea who shares her recipes for Kicha (Eritrean Flatbread) and Shiro (Ground Chickpea Stew).Through Hawa’s writing—and her own personal story—the women, and the stories behind the recipes, come to life. With evocative photography shot on location by Khadija Farah, and food photography by Jennifer May, In Bibi’s Kitchen uses food to teach us all about families, war, loss, migration, refuge, and sanctuary. “Their food is alive with the flavors of mangoes, cinnamon, dates, and plantains and rich with the history of the continent that had been a culinary unknown for much too long.”—Jessica B. Harris, food historian “What moves me most about In Bibi’s Kitchen is Hawa Hassan’s connection with these admirable women whose cooking traditions serve their families and help define their communities at home and abroad. I am thankful to see their faces, to meet them in their own words, and to know them and their diverse cultures far beyond the stifling generalities that America so often wields to conflate African people. This book illustrates what the wisest among us have known all along: The seat of power in food—its soul and expertise—has always begun at home, at the hands of skilled women in their kitchens.”—Osayi Endolyn, James Beard Award–winning writer
Now that I’ve made the former first lady’s peach preserves, I needed some bread to enjoy it! I chose this recipe, again from the Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery for the fun e…
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Never has ration book cooking been so relevant in the modern day kitchen, as most of the population struggle to make ends meet during the recession; and apart from the obvious relevance to thrift and frugal cooking, I also wanted to post my week's ration book cooking in the week leading up to Rememberer Sunday and Armistice Day on the 11th November.
Best Food Choices While Gold Panning Last month, we shared a recipe for "Hangtown Fry" (link to prev. blog), a popular miner meal. This month, we’re back with another traditional recipe for miners: Hard Tack Biscuits. Hard tack bread was commonplace during the 49er gold rush, since its ingredients were relatively easy to acquire. As their name suggests, hard tack biscuits are traditionally hard and dry, and they’re definitely worth a try! Interested in learning more about how your predecessors dined? Follow the recipe below! Hard tack biscuits can be a filling meal while gold panning. Ingredients: lb flour ½ pint water ½ tablespoon sea salt Optional, for a less authentic but slightly tastier version: 2 oz. butter Substitute ½ pint skim milk for ½ pint water. Directions (traditional recipe): Combine flour, water, and sea salt in mixing bowl. Knead dough until thoroughly mixed. Roll dough out until fairly thin. Cut the dough into rounds using a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass. Place on baking tray and use a toothpick to poke several holes in the surface of every biscuit (this will allow air to escape during the baking process). Bake slowly at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Directions (modern recipe): Combine flour and sea salt in mixing bowl. Combine milk and butter in a saucepan on low heat until butter is melted. Add the milk and butter mixture to mixing bowl and knead until dough forms. Roll dough out until fairly thin. Cut the dough into rounds using a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass. Place on baking tray and use a toothpick to poke several holes in the surface of every biscuit (this will allow air to escape during the baking process). Bake slowly at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
As someone who loves cooking and experimenting with ingredients at hand, I have always been fascinated by the Wartime kitchens and rationing. I won't say that I wish I had gone through that, but sometimes I wonder if we are just too used to having everything at our fingertips, to having life be so easy that we have become lazy. As with everything else that I go into, I like to research and read and watch as much as I can about certain periods in time, different eras, different ways of doing things. Why? Because I yearn for a simpler time, for a time where we may not have had everything readily available, but family came first, neighbors helped each other and really opened their homes to everyone around them. Unfortunately nowadays, and I'm speaking from my own personal experience, I've noticed that it's every man for themselves and how can we make a quick buck with the least work possible. Honestly, it seems that if there was a robot that could do everything for us, many would jump on that bandwagon pretty quick. But back to the topic at hand. The Wartime Kitchen, rationing and surviving through it. Rationing was introduced in England on January 8, 1940. Here is a little info about it: At the beginning of World War II, the UK imported 55 million tons of foodstuffs per year (70%), including more than 50% of its meat, 70% of its cheese and sugar, nearly 80% of fruits and about 90% of cereals and fats. It was one of the principal strategies of the Axis to attack shipping bound for the UK, restricting British industry and potentially starving the nation into submission. Each person would register with their local shops, and was provided with a ration book containing coupons. The shopkeeper was then provided with enough food for his or her registered customers. When purchasing goods, the purchaser had to give the shopkeeper a coupon as well as money. Rations were the fairest way to ensure people had enough to eat, and many poorer families had the healthiest diet they ever had. Children benefited greatly from this. For example, the number of children in Scotland who died before they reached 1 year of age fell by 27 per cent between 1939 and 1945. In Glasgow, the average height of 13 year olds increased by almost 2 inches (5 cm) by the end of the war. Weekly ration for 1 adult Bacon & Ham 4 oz Meat to the value of 1 shilling and sixpence (around about 1/2 lb minced beef) Butter 2 oz Cheese 2 oz Margarine 4 oz Cooking fat 4 oz Milk 3 pints Sugar 8 oz Preserves 1 lb every 2 months Tea 2 oz Eggs 1 fresh egg per week Sweets/Candy 12 oz every 4 weeks In addition to this a points system was put in place which limited your purchase of tinned or imported goods. 16 points were available in your ration book for every 4 weeks and that 16 points would enable you to purchase for instance, 1 can of tinned fish or 2lbs of dried fruit or 8 lbs of split peas. Here is the Food Minister talking about the food rationing in 1939.... He explains what the Ration books are and how to use them. Women really had to become inventive, they had to learn to make do with the little they got and food was stretched as far as it would go. Aside from the ingredients, there were ways to save on fuel as well while cooking, things like "cooking two at a time", which meant covering a cooking pan with a biscuit tin lid then standing a second pan on top. I don't know how safe that would be or how well the food would turn out, but I think in those days and time, it was a matter of survival. From 1942, there was no more white flour available, so that meant that everyone was consuming the National Wholemeal Bread. There were no supermarkets, so shopping for groceries would mean going to different stores, such as the butcher, grocer etc. Actually, growing up I remember that is the way we did food shopping too, we went to the butcher, we went to the market and the bakery etc. Eggs were extremely hard to come by, so most people used powdered eggs. One packet would be equal to 12 eggs and those had to last you at least 8 weeks, as even the powdered eggs were rationed. One of the items not rationed and available probably most of the time, were potatoes. The Government even came up with a "Dig for Victory" campaign, encouraging everyone to grow vegetables in their gardens or on any spare piece of land they could find. The Ministry of Food organized local cookery classes and demonstrations to teach people how to cook with what they had and how to use the vegetables they grew in meals. It was hard to come by food. Once you registered with a certain shop, you couldn't really go anywhere else to get your rations, so it usually meant standing in long lines for a very long time just to get your food. It was about this time that the Black Market came into play, and even though if you were caught you were punished with huge fines, people still risked it in order to get butter, sugar and even cigarettes and often times at exuberant prices. Rationing officially ended July 4, 1954. I've often thought about trying to cook just Wartime recipes for a pay period, and seeing how we do. I think the only thing that has held me back from trying, is the family, I'm not sure my husband and children would be interested in this sort of experiment. I may just come up with a menu anyway and introduce a few meals here and there, might be easier to do it that way than shock them into it LOL When it comes to wartime cooking and depression recipes, there are a few places online you can go to. I think one of my favorite YouTube Channels is the Great Depression Cooking with Clara. Love it :) Great Depression Cooking with Clara Season 1 Another great one to watch is Granny Doris, though I've only found 3 episodes so far. Here is a PDF booklet with some recipes for you.... Home Front Recipes You can find many on Clara's videos and by googling for wartime recipes. I think if anything, after all the reading and the video watching I've done, it's taught me that I need to be more flexible in the kitchen, to really push myself to use what I have on hand and not just ignore the ingredient because it doesn't fit into a specific dish or recipe. I don't know about you all, but I will admit that I have stuff in the freezer, refrigerator and pantry that tends to just sit there and not get used, and yes, I've even had to throw something out because it's past it's due date. In a day and time where everything is getting so expensive, I want to be able to use what I have available and not be wasteful. Will I succeed every step of the way? Probably not. But I am determined to give it a good try. I'm going to continue researching, applying what I have learned and strive towards a more self sustainable way of life. Growing some of my own vegetables is definitely a step in the right direction. I do hope you have found some of this information interesting, matter of fact I'm using it with my kids for homeschooling and they find it just as fascinating as I do. Though with them, we're not just concentrating on the cooking side of the wartime and depression eras, but on everything else too.....the war itself, air raids, etc. I'm off to watch The Wartime Kitchen and Garden. It is quite an old series that unfortunately was never made into DVD or sold to the public (much to my chagrin). I managed to find a few episodes on YouTube so you can watch too if you would like :) Episode 2 Episode 3 Hope you enjoy it :) Images found online through BBC. Videos from YouTube
From a feature in our State paper with recipes through the ages. The recipe states 1 quantity of shortcrust pastry (frozen or homemade - let time and economy decide), I've estimated this to 3 or 4 sheets, sheets are about 22cm to 23cm square. Cooking and prep times are also estimated.
