Sawdust Bread.

Blood Bread may not have appealed to you yesterday, but there is no doubt it would be more nutritious than ‘Sawdust Bread’. The epithet of ‘sawdust bread’ has been applied in past times to many breads of uncertain constitution and gritty, hard texture which have been produced in times of great privation or punishment such as wars and prisons. Sometimes such bread did literally contain sawdust – or ‘tree flour’ as it is also called, as this sounds slightly less inedible.

Nineteenth century scientists were able to justify the addition of sawdust to ordinary bread by claiming not only its nutritional value but its digestibility. The subject of ‘sawdust bread’ got quite a bit of journal space at the time on account of the possibility of it assisting the feeding of the poor at little cost to the rich during times when wheat prices were high.

Here is an extract from the Proceedings of the New York Agricultural Society in 1868.

“Pereira says, "When woody fibre is comminuted and reduced by artificial processes, it is said to form a substance analogous to the amyloceous (starchy) principle and to be highly nutritious." Schubler states that "when wood is deprived of everything soluble, reduced to powder, subjected to the heat of an oven, and then ground in the manner of com, it yields, boiled with water, a flour which forms a jelly like that of wheat starch, and when fermented with leaven makes a perfectly uniform and spongy bread. …

Tomlinson, in his Cyclopedia, asserts that in Norway and Sweden sawdust is sometimes converted into bread for the people by a similar process; and the newspapers have stated, lately, that Norway was reduced to the necessity of using sawdust bread. So we see that woody fibre, practically as well as theoretically, is nutritious, and that heat will develop this nutriment. Heat will develop it into starch, and the action of an acid is necessary to turn it into sugar. The gastric juice supplies this acid, and after the proper application of heat, can dissolve woody fibre or starch, and probably convert it into sugar before it becomes nutritious. Starch is an element of respiration, and supplies animal heat, and, according to Liebig, the surplus contributes to the formation of fat in animals. ….And it is highly probable that even the trunks of trees, when so reduced, are nutritious.”

There is a recipe for bread containing ‘tree flour’ for the use in prisoner of war camps, which is said to have been published in Germany in 1841. It sounds grim.

Black Bread.
50% bruised rye grains.
20% sliced sugar beets.
20% tree flour (saw dust).
10% minced leaves and straw.

Quotation for the Day
O God! that bread should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap!
Thomas Hood.

39 Ways to Save Food.

In 1946, President Truman’s Famine Emergency Committee issued a list of 39 ways in which American’s could save food, thus enabling resources (especially wheat) to be diverted to assist post-war Europe.

I can think of a number of reasons why some of these suggestions are valid today, so I thought it might be interesting to look at them with modern eyes. Many of the suggestions involve reducing waste – something which should be a perennial hot topic. Some involve relatively painless changes to portion size – which might be helpful to the bottom line in a restaurant as well as the line of the bottom in all of us. Most will surely offer some general health benefits - replacing pastries with fruit, avoiding frying foods, and taking thinner slices of bread, for example. The suggestion to eat seasonal food too, is thoroughly modern advice.

1. Discontinue during the emergency abroad the use of toast as a garniture with meat, poultry, egg, and other entrees.
2. Discontinue the practice of placing baskets of rolls and bread on dining room tables. A single roll or slice of bread should be served with the entrée, and later as requested.
3. Eliminate the custom of trimming toast and sandwich crust.
4. Substitute open sandwiches for many closed or two-bread slice sandwiches in hotels.
5. Use potatoes in place of certain wheat and rice garnitures.
6. Use single crust or open pies in place of two-crust pies whenever practicable.
7. Serve corn and buckwheat cakes in place of wheat cakes where possible.
8. Serve oatmeal, bread, cakes, and cookies as alternatives for products made from wheat.
9. The size of rolls and thickness of toast and bread should be reduced. Bread size could be reduced by not filling the pans as deeply as at present.
10. Substitute fruits and other desserts for pastries and cakes whenever practicable.
11. Limit the number of crackers in individual packages or served with soups, cheeses, and so forth.
12. Eliminate three-layer cakes.
13. Whenever possible induce customers to only order what is needed. Whenever side dishes are included in the meal, the customer should request those side dishes and salads he will eat.
14. Use boiled dressings instead of oil dressings on salads where possible.
15. Use alternates for wheat cereal wherever possible.
16. Encourage re-use of food fats and grease salvage.
17. Develop methods for saving and use of bread ends, many of which are wasted at the present time.
18. Carry back all economies to employees’ meals. Employees should cooperate to the same extent customers are asked to cooperate.
19. Boil or broil rather than fry fish so as to save fats.
20. Eliminate serving of extra dressings on salads already prepared with oil or dressing.
Recommendations for the baking industry follow.
1. (21) Reduce by at least 10 per cent the weight of bread and bakery products.
2. (22) Wherever practicable, bakers should feature smaller weight and size loaves.
3. (23) Bread should be sliced thinner to provide more slices per loaf.
4. (24) Partial loaves of bread should be offered for sale as a waste preventing measure.
5. (25) Save flour and fats and oils by avoiding spoilage and waste.
Recommendations to food distributors and manufacturers were:
1. (26) Promote the use of alternate and more plentiful foods in the diet, such as – currently – potatoes, fish, eggs, poultry, citrus fruits, and seasonal vegetables.
2. (27) Assist customers by providing recipes using the more plentiful foods.
3. (28) Adopt measures for greater conservation and prevention of waste in food distribution channels.
4. (29) Encourage customers to conserve and prevent waste of food and to re-use food fats and salvage waste fats.
5. (30) In the manufacture of food items use alternate ingredients whenever possible in lieu of ingredients in short supply.
Recommendations to consumers follow:
1. (31) Prevent waste of bread. It is estimated that 5 per cent or one slice out of every loaf baked every day goes into garbage.
2. (32) Use less bread at each meal. Use potatoes, for example, as alternates for bread. One small serving of potatoes replaces a slice of bread, nutritionally.
3. (33) Use less wheat cereals and other wheat products.
Suggested ways for saving fats and oils at home included:
1. (34) Make better use of meat drippings for cooking and seasoning food.
2. (35) Serve fewer fried foods.
3. (36) Save and re-use fats and oils for cooking purposes.
4. (37) Render excess fats on meats, and save bacon grease for cooking purposes.
5. (38) Salvage all fats that cannot be re-used, and turn them in to your butcher or grocer.
6. (39) Go easy on oils and salad dressings. A teaspoon of fat a day saved by every person in the United States will mean a total saving of at least one million pounds of fat daily.

The potential to help save a million pounds of fat a day is too great a mission to resist. I therefore give you a recipe for a boiled salad dressing from The Royal Baker and Pastry Cook, a promotional recipe book from a baking powder company, published in 1911.

Boiled Dressing.
3 beaten eggs, 1 cup rich milk, 2/3 teaspoon dry mustard, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 dashes cayenne, 2 tablespoons olive oil or melted butter, ½ cup vinegar. Cook in double boiler till thick as custard. Strain and keep in a cool place.

Quotation for the Day.

You can have your cake and eat it: the only trouble is you get fat.

Julian Patrick Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot, ch.7.

Making a Little go a Long Way.

In ‘the good old days’, nothing was wasted. It can be difficult today - when we throw away one-fifth of the food we buy - to appreciate just how deep was the abhorrence of waste until relatively recent times. Rationing in Britain during both wars was imposed on a nation of people accustomed to re-purposing every leftover scrap, bone, or crumb - which perhaps partly explains why it was accepted with barely a demur.

Today I give you in its entirety an article from The Times of April 10, 1917, which beautifully demonstrates an attitude of patriotic frugality with no hint of mean-spiritedness or resentment. The only part of this that makes me shudder is the purchase of a fowl on a Saturday in Spring, with the raw legs not being used until the Wednesday – in a household that almost certainly did not have a refrigerator. I admit that the toast-water coloured soup does not excite me greatly, but it would certainly be a healthy choice.

RATIONS FOR THREE.

WEEK’S MEALS OF A SMALL HOUSEHOLD.

“A Housekeeper” writes:-

My little household of three women falls within the category for which some of your correspondents have suggested that menus are difficult to arrange. I venture to send you a sample of ours for a week. They are so simple as to be perhaps hardly worth quoting, but we have found them satisfactory and they have the hygienic feature of avoiding twice-cooked meat.
We begin always on a Saturday. On that day we bought 1 ¼ lb. of rump steak, and a fowl weighing 2 ½ lb.

SATURDAY DINNER.
Half the rump steak grilled; seakale; baked apples.

SUNDAY.
The body of the fowl roasted without its legs.
Chestnuts (stripped, boiled whole, and served like new potatoes with a bit of butter.
Remainder of bundle of seakale; jam tart.

MONDAY.
Second half of the rump steak cut into strips, stewed with prunes, and served with dumplings.
Tin of marrow-fat peas.
Coffee custard.

TUESDAY (MEATLESS DAY)
Slices of cod, sautés in butter and onions.
Potatoes and hard-boiled eggs sliced together in white sauce.
Baked tomatoes.
Mont Blanc of chestnuts, currant jelly, and whipped cream.

WEDNESDAY.
Chicken pie made with raw legs of fowl, a few whole chestnuts, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, and some good gravy.
Remains of chestnut cream.

THURSDAY.
Vegetable pot-au-feu soup; 1 lb of midget sausages on a puree of tomatoes and eggs; marrow-fat peas.
Trifle.

FRIDAY.
1 ¼ lb roast mutton (best end of neck); baked onions.
Remains of trifle.

Total Rations for the week:
Rump steak      1 ¼ lb
Fowl                2 ½ lb
Mutton             1 ¼ lb
Sausages          1 lb
Bacon               ½ lb
                       ------
                        6 ½ lb (to spare, 1 lb)

Flour, made into bread    7 lb
For cooking                   1 ½ lb
                                      -------
                                     8 ½ lb
Add sponge cakes for trifle
                                (to spare, nothing)

Sugar, helped out with saxin for
the sweetening of puddings          1 ½ lb

We thus come round to Saturday again, well within our rations; and on two days (marked by the better puddings) we had a guest to luncheon. But we do not attempt meat more than once a day. Breakfast consists only of porridge, bread, butter, jam, and a boiled egg if desired, with tea or coffee. The evening meal consists of good soup with a dish of haricot beans, eaten with the soup. After the soup we have only some slight dish of scraps, and bread and cheese and fruit, with a cup of cocoa to follow for those who like it.
We keep a meat stockpot and a vegetable stockpot. Our meat stockpot besides receiving our chicken and other bones, is reinforced by two pennyworth of butchers bones sawn and chopped in pieces; our vegetable stockpot receives all parings and strippings of vegetables, besides liquor in which certain vegetables have been boiled; and according as we desire to have a meat soup or a vegetable soup we dip to the right hand or we dip to the left.
This recipe for a vegetable pot-au-feu soup which is independent of the stockpot is perhaps worth giving:-
Cut three carrots, one turnip, one large onion, and the quarter of a moderate-sized cabbage into coarse strips. Put them into a large saucepan, earthenware for preference, with three pints of salted water: let them come to the boil, and continue to simmer gently for three hours. Within a quarter of an hour of serving toast a bit of bread very brown on both sides and hard. Put it in the soup and leave it there for only five or six minutes. Take it out before it has time to break and spoil the clear appearance of the soup. The only object of putting it in is to give the soup the pleasant colour of toast-water. When serving, empty the entire contents of the saucepan into the tureen. If rightly done, this soup has the appearance and flavour of a French pot-au-feu, and few people would guess that it has been made without meat. Where vegetables in the soup are not liked, the liquor can be strained off and sent up as a clear soup accompanied by little cheese puffs.


Quotation for the Day.

“He had drawn many a thousand of these rations in prisons and camps, and though he'd never had an opportunity to weight them on scales, and although, being a man of timid nature, he knew no way of standing up for his rights, he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting. There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short. So every day you took a look to soothe your soul - today, maybe, they haven't snitched any.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Battles and Biscuits.

Sometimes I give you an ‘on this day’ story which has a food angle, but the problem with giving you the story on the actual day is that it gives you no time to prepare a commemorative food in advance. I intend to remedy that glitch today by giving you an ‘on the morrow’ story.

Dishes are, as we have found out repeatedly, often named for famous events as well as for famous people. The opposite does occur too, and a historic event is given a foodie name. We have had stories about the Pastry War and the Battle of the Herrings, for example, in previous posts.

Tomorrow, August 7, is the anniversary of The Battle of the Ford of the Biscuit – an event that took place early in the history of the Irish rebellion against English rule.

In February 1594, at the beginning of what became known as the Nine Year’s War, an English army captured and garrisoned the Ulster stronghold of Eniskillen Castle. The Irish response was to place the garrison under siege. On August 7 the advancing English relief forces were ambushed at the Arney River by Irish rebels led by the famous Hugh Maguire, Lord of Fermagh, and leader of the Maguire clan. The English were well and truly routed, and the sight of English rations floating down the bloody river gave the event the name of the ‘Battle of the Ford of the Biscuit.’

The ‘biscuits’ were of course not Gingernuts or Oreos or Chocolate Digestives, but the traditional military campaign ration of ‘hardtack’ (or sea-biscuit, in the case of the navy). You can find a story about hardtack on the now-defunct Companion to the Old Foodie site, here. The recipe has remained unchanged for centuries – take flour and water (and salt, if you wish), make a paste, roll it thin, and bake it very hard so that it will keep for many years. It was most certainly NOT like the following biscuit, in spite of its name.

Sea-biscuit – Biscuit de Mer.
Take half a pound of sugar and half a pound of flour, mix in a bason with a little lemon grate and four eggs; mix them with a spatula to make rather a liquid paste, but if too much so add flour and sugar, or if too firm, add an egg: the cases must be the size of half a sheet of paper folded in, with the sides much lower than those made for the gros biscuit à couper: put the pâte into these cases, and set them in a hotter oven than for ordinary biscuit; when enough, take them out, and cut them in pieces the length and thickness of the little finger, and put them upon a copper leaf, on the side that has been cut, that all sides may be equally coloured.
The Art of French Cookery, Antoine Beauvilliers, 1827

Quotation for the Day.
You had to eat with all your mind on the food...and how good it tasted, that
black bread!
A. Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Fighting and Dining.

When the Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz said that "there are generals who win battles and there are generals who dine well", he would no doubt have included Napoleon in the first category and excluded him from the ranks of gourmet.

Clausewitz would have been correct. For all his pre-occupation with feeding his troops, Napoleon was remarkably uninterested in his own meals. He preferred plain food, which he ate very quickly. He said that ” A man's palate can, in time, become accustomed to anything” and told his colleagues "If you want to eat well, dine with the Second Consul; if you want to eat a lot, visit the Third Consul; if you want to eat quickly, dine with me." Small wonder that chefs, frustrated by their poor pay and the lack of appreciation for their efforts, did not stay very long in his employ.

Napoleon was by no means the first military leader to realise that “an army marches on his stomach”, nor would he be the last, but his constant efforts to feed his troops had ramifications far beyond the mere provisioning of his army. The usual strategy of the time was that the army lived off the land as it moved, but this was the largest land army the world had seen, and a supplementary strategy was needed.

Feeding the army was already a problem in 1795, and the Food Preservation Committee of the Societé d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale in that year offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a method of preserving food, especially for use by the army and navy. Eventually the news reached the ears of Nicolas Appert, a small town mayor and a chef and confectioner by trade. The idea of food preservation was already his personal passion, and he had spent years experimenting with various methods in his own workshop, initially using champagne bottles as his preserving vessels. By the turn of the century he was beginning to develop a reputation in this field, and had a thriving small business in Paris where his preserves were sold. His foodstuffs were eventually tried aboard French naval ships, and the reports were favourable. In 1810 Appert published his findings and on January 30th received his award, paving the way for the food “canning” industry as we now know it. You can read more about Appert in a previous post here.

The other significant development dating from this time was precipitated by Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar. The ensuing English blockade of cane sugar imports from the Caribbean into continental Europe stimulated interest in alternative sources of sugar. Napoleon had heard of the pioneering work on the extraction of sugar from beets by Marggraf in Berlin 50 years earlier, and the progress made by Marggraf’s student, Franz Achard, but it was still not possible to produce sugar in any significant quantity.

Napoleon issued a decree on March 25th 1811 which was intended to stimulate experimentation in this area. It set aside 80,000 acres of land for production of beets, and established schools, scholarships, and factories in beet sugar production. In 1812 he awarded the Légion d'Honneur to Benjamin Delessert for his technical advances in the clarification of sugar, which enabled the process to be carried out on a viable scale. By 1814, there were 40 beet sugar factories were in operation in France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. The industry did temporarily decline after Napoleon’s defeat, but eventually revived, and by the late 19th century, beets had again become the major source of sugar.

It became popular in the nineteenth century for chefs to name dishes after important guests or famous events such as battles. One dish named for (but NOT immediately in the wake of) a battle was Chicken Marengo, which has been a previous topic on this blog. One of the most famous foodie-generals of the time had a number of dishes named in his honour. He was Pyotr Bagration, the Russian general who died following Borodino ultimately had several dishes named after him, and these became standard items on European menus for decades. It seems that he may have been in Clausewitz’s second category as Napoleon said of him "The man is an absolute fool who has not the slightest idea how to command an army." Certainly he was well known for his extravagant dinner parties, their legendary status being assured when Tolstoy chose to write about them.


Fish Soup; so named from Prince Bagration
(Potage de Fillets de Poisson à la Bagration)
Prepare a good consommé, make a quenelle of soles with crayfish butter, trim in escalopes the fillets of a sole, perch, and carp, and throw a little salt over them; an hour afterwards wash, drain, and place them in a sauté-plate, mark [make?] an essence with the bones and trimmings of the fish, squeeze it through a tammy upon the escalopes of fish, and boil them slowly for ten minutes, then pour the liquor from them to the consommé, and clarify it as usual; reduce it one fifth, then pour it into the tureen upon the escalopes and quenelles poached in consommé, six roes of carp boiled in water with salt, and fifty tails of cray-fish (using the shells for the butter), some chervil blanched, two parsley roots cut in small pieces, and stewed in consommé, and the flesh of two lemons cut in thin slices and blanched, carefully withdrawing the pips
The Practical Cook, English and Foreign; Joseph Bregion, 1845

Quotation for the Day.
Happiness: a good bank account, a good cook, and a good digestion.
Jean Jacques Rousseau

A Plea for Cheese.

Meat rationing in World War II was a trial and a chore for most Britons, and it might be assumed, it not being an issue for them, that vegetarians had it easy in that regard. When a cheese ration was proposed in early 1940 however, vegetarians became vocal. The President of the Vegetarian Society, Mr.W.A. Silby, was moved to write to The Times newspaper on the issue, with a convincing argument that the general public had reason on a number of counts to be grateful to the vegetarians in their midst. His letter was published on February 6th.

A VEGETARIAN PLEA

“FAIR PLAY AND SUFFICIENT PROTEIN”

“ … Rather do we feel that we have some claim to the gratitude of the Ministry of Food and of the meat eating-majority, for not a single meat, bacon, or ham coupon have we used since the war began, nor do we take fish, lard, and dripping, and thus either there is more of these commodities for others, or shipping space is saved. … we now learn … that no more shipping space will be found for nuts. Surely, Sir, this is a mistake, from the national standpoint no less than our own. Concentration of nourishment and so also keeping qualities, give the advantage to cheese and nuts all along the line, for a very large part of the space and weight (estimated by some at as high a figure as 70 per cent) concerned in meat and its carriage is sheer waste. On the other hand a single cargo of cheese or nuts has enormous potentialities. … The vegetarians have yet another claim to the nation’s gratitude, for we are living examples of the good advice given in the broadcasts from “The Kitchen Front”, and in the appeals of Lord Woolton. The use of wholemeal bread, the daily consumption of salads, raw carrots, and green vegetables (cooked conservatively), potatoes eaten in their jackets, and all the rest of it have been preached and practiced by many of us from our youth up. …Sir, I beg of you to use your influence to persuade the powers that be to give us fair play and sufficient protein, in the shape of cheese and nuts. To many of us these last are not merely an occasionally after-dinner luxury, but a regular and substantial part of our daily diet."

The following day the newspaper reported that Mr. Silby’s letter had elicited a sympathetic response from the Ministry. “We admit,” stated an official, “that at the moment the vegetarian is pretty badly off [compared to earlier in the war]… I think the position of vegetarians will have to be considered again by this committee.”

Cheese rationing was set to begin on May 5. On April 2, the Ministry confirmed that vegetarians were to be allowed a significant amount of extra cheese – 8oz per person per week instead of 1 oz. There were of course, certificates and application forms to be signed and promises to be made (not to eat meat at a restaurant or other eating place, for example) by those wishing to claim this concession, but nevertheless, Mr. Silby had had a victory. Who said Letters to the Editors are a waste of time?

In mid-1945 the cheese ration stood at 4 oz. per person per week, and the Ministry’s “Recipe of the Week” was clearly designed to make little of it go a lot further.

Cheese Spread.
This filling between two good slices of bread makes an appetizing and nourishing meal especially good for heavy workers.
Ingredients: Left-over cold potato or cooked haricot beans. Grated cheese. Pinch of dry mustard.
Method: Mash the beans or potato and mix well with grated cheese and dry mustard. This can be spread directly on the bread, butter or margarine being unnecessary. To make the sandwiches a perfect meal, raw shredded cabbage, spinach, or sliced tomato, or well-chopped parsley should be added.

Quotation for the Day.

Swiss Cheese is a rip-off! It's the only cheese I can bite into and miss!
Mitch Hederberg.

Rations for one.

The amazing work of the British Food Ministry during World War II continues to provide much food for thought over half a century later. Week after week throughout the war and for years afterwards (rationing did not end completely until 1953) they churned out information and advice to the general public on rationing and many other war-related food issues. We could with advantage heed some of that advice today – particularly the advice relating to avoiding waste, reducing our meat consumption, and growing as much as possible of our own food.

Weekly Food Facts leaflets put out by the Ministry were reproduced in the newspapers, and today I want to share with you the advice in one edition from mid 1944. Food Facts leaflet number 231 gave good advice about using leftovers and spreading out the meat consumption, but it was particularly addressed to those living alone. It was a lot less common for someone to live alone at this time than it is now – and we are told that the number of solo households is increasing dramatically, so perhaps reviewing this advice is timely.

Upon receipt of a postcard request, the Food Ministry would send, free of charge, “ideas for a week’s menu for one person living alone, with recipes for many of the dishes mentioned,” but Food Facts leaflet 231 had some good advice in itself.

“It’s less easy to manage on a single ration than it is to cater for a family when one has three or four Ration Books to juggle with, but given imagination and ingenuity, it is possible for those with one Ration Book to avoid monotony and eat well. Sometimes you will buy your meat ration on one piece, pot-roast it, and eat the remainder cold with some appetising trimming. Sometimes you will grill or stew your three chops, or make pie, pudding, and casserole out of your 1s.2d. worth of stewing steak. A vegetable stew with dumplings, or a cheese and vegetable pasty will provide you with another main meal. Bacon Hash, a risotto of diced liver sausage, a Pilchard salad, or Scotch eggs or Mock Hamburgers are other good dishes for the man or woman who lives alone.”

Most of the Food Facts leaflets included recipes, and number 231 was no exception. I give you two of them for your interest today.

Bacon Hash.
Ingredients: 2 slices bacon, ½ lb potatoes, sliced, ½ lb mixed vegetable slices, 1 onion, sliced, pepper and salt, ½ pint stock or water.
Method: Remove rinds from bacon and cut into small pieces. Cut bacon into larger pieces and fry all together until fairly crisp. Remove from pan. Put in layers of sliced potatot, vegetable and onion and bacon, finishing with potato. Season well. Pour over liquid. Bring quickly to boiling point then simmer gently for one hour.

Mock Hamburger.
Ingredients: 1-2 oz.mince, 2 oz. grated raw potato, 1 oz. oatmeal, seasoning, 1 chopped onion, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley.
Method: Mix all the ingredients together and fry spoonfuls in shallow fat for 10-15 minutes.

Quotation for the Day.

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink, for dining alone is leading the life of a lion or wolf.
Epicurus

Four Courses at The Front, 1915.

I thought that in the remaining few posts before Christmas day we would look at some historic menus for the season. There is no doubt that when times are hard (especially when someone is also a long way from home), personal and traditional celebrations take on a new significance. Often a great deal of determination and defiance is needed to carry on regardless – not to mention a great deal of imagination and humour.

One English army officer of WW I wrote a letter to The Times in which he described the very satisfying surprise Christmas dinner he enjoyed “somewhere in France” in 1915.

FOUR COURSES AT THE FRONT.

DINNER AND “CRACKERS” ON SERVICE.

A non-commissioned officer in an Infantry regiment writes from France:-

I’ve got quite settled down again, and am at present suffering from bad indigestion consequent upon a huge and most unexpected Christmas dinner. It happened thus.

We are quartered in a large chateau “somewhere in, &c.”, and the C.O. gave a swagger dinner to the officers – a real imitation of the Ritz affairs. I have a little room to myself (the study of the one-time owner, now an officer in the French army), and was sitting disconsolate therein. The adjutant strolled in, and asked me what I liked to drink! Result – one bottle of port. He then gave orders that a portion of the banquet should be brought in for me and one of my clerks, which was awfully decent of him. In about ten minutes came course 1 – soup. Course 2 – turkey, peas, greens, and “spuds”, and gravy followed; and then close on the heels of this came course 3 – plum pudding and brandy sauce. No.4 consisted of cherries and blancmange, and this was hotly pursued by fruit, nuts, coffee, cigars, crackers (with paper hats!), various drinks and liqueurs. How’s that for Christmas on active service,eh?

The sequel was amusing. I gravely discussed some business matters after dinner with an officer decorated with a paper “baby’s bonnet”, and a wreath of paper festoons, myself likewise ornamented with a gaudy plumed helmet and flourishing a bunch of grapes.

The Vintage Christmas Recipes archive has many choices for the soup, turkey, and pudding on this menu, so I invite you to visit it for inspiration. The Christmas recipe archive does not, however, appear to have any recipes for ‘spuds’- for these you will have to visit the Fun With Potatoes collection.

Before I could turn to the challenge of giving you a WW I recipe for ‘spuds’ the word itself. The first port of call, of course, is the Oxford English Dictionary. This gives a number of definitions for ‘spud’, my ridiculously brief and highly selective summary of which is:

- in the fifteenth century it meant ‘a short and poor knife or dagger’
- in the seventeenth century it meant ‘an iron head or blade socketed on or fixed to a plough-staff’, and also ‘a digging or weeding implement of the spade-type, having a narrow chisel-shaped blade.
- by the early nineteenth century it was ‘a digging fork with three broad prongs’
- by the mid-nineteenth century it had come to mean ‘a potato’ – with the specific citation being from the
English social researcher Henry Mayhew’s extensive writings on ‘London Labour and the London Poor.’ The context was of ‘spuddy’ as ‘a nickname for a seller of bad potatoes.’

The word ‘spud’ itself is, (as if you could not guess), of ‘obscure origin.’ I am sure someone somewhere has some theories, and one day I am going to continue this little research thread.

In the meanwhile, the recipe idea for the day comes from an article on ‘Simple Hints for Light Dishes, appearing in The Times just before Christmas in 1915.


Stuffed Vegetables.
Besides stuffed tomatoes, it is possible to make light and seasonable lunch dishes by stuffing baked potatoes or baked onions with ordinary mince, having removed the centres, and then putting them back into the oven to get quite hot. A pinch of chopped herbs, a little chutney, or a tiny pinch of mace makes a good seasoning, but this part must never to overdone.


Quotation for the Day.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.
Douglas Adams.

Fewer Breakfast Eggs.

Promoting the idea of going without wheat bread at breakfast, was, as we saw yesterday, quite a challenge for the food authorities in Britain during WW I. Imagine the difficulties when the egg shortage also become an issue. In The Times of December 1, 1915 there was a short article addressing just this issue under the heading Breakfast Fare: The Economical Use of Eggs.

“Mr. Iwan Kriens, the Duthch chef in charge of the kitchens at the Westminster Technical Institute, yestersay suggested a number of breakfast dishes. Cheese, shaved fine like cucumber and eaten on bread, a favourite breakfast dish in Holland, might, he said, be tried in this country, Cheddar being the best cheese for the purpose. ‘Eggs at 3d. each are prohibitive’ he went on, ‘but if they must be eaten, the same device might be used as in the case of bacon. Desire for both is greater than the need, and instead of eating two eggs, one would be sufficient by boiling it soft, emptying it from the shell, and eating it with breadfingers … A very satisfying egg omelette sufficient for two people can be made with two eggs with the addition of the soft part of a baked potato. Egg croquettes too are good, and used in this way one egg can by made to do the work of three.’

The chef suggested other non-egg savoury breakfast dishes: liver and bacon, or fish, or mushrooms fried with tomato and one slice of bacon, curried dishes, and home-made sausages (“every woman aught to have a sausage machine and make her own sausages”) He also gave a recipe for meat loaf (small, apparently individual sized), acknowledging that they were not a common dish in England.

Meat Loaves.
Meat loaves are rarely seen on English tables, but are excellent. This is the recipe. Take 4 oz cooked meat, 2 oz breadcrumbs, fresh or soaked and squeezed dry, one egg,1 oz fat, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and mix well together. Shape into rolls, place in a greased baking dish,sprinkle with breadcrumbs and fat, and bake in the oven.When done add a little gravy over the loaves.


Quotation for the Day.
You can trifle with your breakfast and seem to disdain your dinner if you are full to the brim with roasted eggs and potatoes and richly frothed new milk and oatcakes and buns and heather honey and clotted cream.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden.

Corn Bread to Help the Allies.

Breakfast has been the subject of the last two posts, and as it is an intriguing (and inexhaustible) topic, I am of a mind to continue with it for perhaps a few more days.

In both World Wars, wheat conservation was a huge issue. There were several reasons, not the least of which was that every available ship was required to transport troops, not agricultural products. There was also a strong belief that what wheat was available should be fairly distributed amongst the Allies.

In the USA, the obvious substitute was corn. A large part of the responsibility of saving wheat and using corn or other substitutes obviously fell to the housewives of the times, and large amounts of newspaper space were given over to exhortations to acts of housewifely patriotism in this regard.

The New York Produce Exchange ran a "Corn Bread for Breakfast Until the End of the War” campaign during WW I “as a practical method of increasing the supply of wheat available for the Allies.”A New York Times article in June 1917 reported on the official statement from the Exchange under the header “Corn Bread to Help Allies”. In part it read:

“Eating corn bread for breakfast may not - on the face of it – appear to be either an act of sacrifice or service contributory to winning the war. It is, however, a very definite and effective form of service to that end, and if the propaganda can be spread far enough to enlist the co-operation of a great mass of the people, it will help mightily to solve the crushing problem which is now facing the Food Administrator of the United States.
If there could be a complete substitution of corn and other cereal products for wheat bread on the breakfast table of the nation, it would increase our exportable surplus of wheat by 150,000,000 bushels. This sould solve the immediate problem of wheat for our Allies.
We suggest that special efforts be made to enlist the patriotic women of the country for the idea, and its house to house promulgation.”
… We urge that each one adopt the habit in his own household, and that he begin today.”

Now, we have had stories before on the “wheatless” days of WW I, and we have certainly had several recipes for cornbread and muffins, corn puffs, and other corn concoctions such as Johnny Cakes. Here is an alternative corn dish that would be perfect as a bread substitute at breakfast, from Meatless and Wheatless Days(New York, 1918)

Belgian Corn Fritters.
1 ½ cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup milk
2 egg yolks
Corn scraped from 2 ears cooked green corn.
1 teaspoon melted fat
2 stiffly beaten egg whites.
Mix and sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar; add the corn, milk, egg yolks, and melted fat slowly, stirring constantly. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Cook like pancakes on a hot greased griddle, turning until a golden brown on both sides. A piece of bacon or pork rind may be used for greasing the griddle.


Quotation for the Day.

We breakfast at seven on beef, potatoes, tea, coffee, new bread, and butter.
Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.

A Rabbit in the Larder.

The packed lunch theme continues for today, with advice from the wartime Ministry of Food in Britain. Rationing remained in force in Britain for years after WW II, and the Ministry continued to put out its weekly Food Facts leaflets until well into the 1950’s.

The Ministry was mindful that the constraints of rationing could only worsen the housewife’s daily challenge of avoiding ‘the same old sandwiches’ for lunch and picnics. To assist her to get around this problem, leaflet No. 516, of May 1950, addressed the issue with a feature on the use of rabbit. It began with the following hint:

“With summer just around the corner there’s and increasing demand for cold meals and picnic snacks. This is no problem if there’s a rabbit in the larder. Here are some picnic ways with rabbit, the frozen rabbit now in the shops – a welcome change from the same old sandwiches. The family will bless you for that extra trouble.”

The leaflet went on to give recipes for Devilled Rabbit, Rabbit Paste, Rabbit Loaf, and the following nice idea for a pasty – surely a nice treat to find in the lunchbox, whatever the era.

Rabbit and Potato Pasties.
Ingredients: Pastry using 6 to8 oz. flour; 8 oz. cooked rabbit, chopped; 4 oz. grated raw potato; 1 hard boiled egg, chopped; 1 tomato, skinned and chopped; salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons of stock or milk.
Method: Divide the pastry into four and roll each piece into a circle about the size of a saucer. Mix all the other ingredients and divide the mixture between the pastry rounds. Damp the edges of the pastry and fold into pasty shapes. Bake in a hot oven 25-30 minutes.

Quotation for the Day.

Luncheon: as much food as one's hand can hold.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), from his dictionary (1755)

Women, War, and Bread and Jam.

The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was created in Britain in 1917. Young women with a taste for adventure and a strong sense of patriotism were – quite astonishingly for the era – allowed to join the army and go to war. They were sent to France, where they freed up men for fighting by performing all sorts of clerical jobs, but otherwise they lived the military life – wearing uniforms, living in camps, and eating in mess huts.

So, what did they eat in those mess huts? A lovely book called Women and War Work, published in Britain in 1917, tells us that:

“The girls wait on themselves and the food is excellent. They receive in rations the same as the soldiers on lines of communication – that is, four fifths of a fighting man’s ration.”

The book also gave details of a typical week’s meals, “to show how well they are fed”

MONDAY: Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, baked mince, jam. Dinner: Cold beef, potatoes, tomatoes, baked apples, custard. Tea: Tea, bread, butter, jam. Supper: Welsh rarebit, bread, butter, jam.

TUESDAY: Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, boiled ham, marmalade. Dinner: brown onion stew, potatoes, baked beans, biscuit pudding. Tea: bread, butter, jam, cheese. Supper: Savoury rice, tea, bread.

WEDNESDAY: Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, veal loaf. Dinner: Roast mutton, potatoes, marrow, bread pudding. Tea: bread, butter, marmalade, jam. Supper: Rissoles, bread, butter, cheese.

THURSDAY: Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, fried bacon. Dinner: Meat pie, potatoes, cabbage, custard and rice. Tea: Supper: Tea, bread, butter, jam. Supper: Soup, bread and jam.

FRIDAY: Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, rissoles, marmalade. Dinner: Boiled beef, potatoes and onions, Dundee roll. Tea: tea, bread, butter, jam, slab cake. Supper: Shepherd’s pie, tea, bread, butter.

SATURDAY: Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, boiled ham, jam,. Dinner: Thick brown stew, poatoes and cabbage, bread pudding. Tea: tea, jam, cheese. Supper: Toad-in-Hole, bread, jam.

SUNDAY: Breakfast: tea, bread, butter, fried bacon. Dinner: Roast beef, potatoes and cabbage, stewed fruit, custard. Tea: tea, bread, butter, jam. Supper: Soup, bread, butter, cheese.

I guess the girls didn’t go hungry, and in fact for most of them it was probably pretty similar to the daily diet of the working class back home in England. A superfluity of calories (all that bread and jam!) but a great dearth of fresh fruit and vegetables.

I did search in vain for a recipe for ‘Dundee Roll', but without success. So today, I give you good old Shepherd’s Pie.

The OED blames it on Scotland (as do a number of other sources), and gives as its first supporting quote a reference from 1877, from Kettner’s Book of the Table. The author (not the famous London restaurateur himself, he only lent his name to the book), says it is basically Irish stew with a crust:

“In Scotland they produce … such a stew, cover it over with a crust, and call it shepherd's pie... The shepherd's pie of Scotland is ...too farinaceous … potatoes within and paste without.”

I am now on a mission to find the first reference to Shepherd’s Pie. As a start, one of today’s recipes is from 1862, but I am sure there will be earlier examples, so please assist!

Nowadays we are more likely to make it from raw minced meat, but it was originally a way of using up leftover cold roast, as the following recipes show:


Shepherd's Pie.
Take cold dressed meat of any kind, roast or boiled, slice it, break the bones, and put them on with a little boiling water, and a little salt, boil them until you have extracted all the strength from them, and reduced it to very little, and strain it. Season the sliced meat with pepper and salt, lay it in a baking dish, pour in the sauce you strained, and add a little mushroom ketchup. Have some potatoes boiled and nicely mashed, cover the dish with the potatoes, smooth it on the top with a knife, notch it round the edge and mark it on the top the same as paste. Bake it in an oven, or before the fire, until the potatoes are a nice brown.
The Practice of Cookery and Pastry, by I. Williamson, 1862


Shepherd's Pie.
For shepherd's pie, chop finely some cold meat, season it well with salt and pepper and add enough gravy to moisten. Put into a greased baking dish and cover with an inch layer of potatoes mashed, seasoned and moistened with a few spoonfuls of hot milk. Smooth with a knife, brush with hot milk and brown in a quick oven.
365 Tasty Dishes, (Philadelphia, 1906)


Quotation for the Day.

Digestion is the great secret of life. Characters, talents, virtues, and qualities are profoundly affected by beef, mutton, piecrust, and rich soup.
Mr R. Hyde, of the Industrial Welfare Society, 1929

Shadow Larders.

A spokesman at the Ministry of Food made an announcement in late October 1944 in which he disclosed that ‘food arrangements’ had been made in 1940 ‘to guard against invasion risk’. These stores were now to be released into the general pool of food resources.

The scale of the ‘arrangements’ had been huge. In practically every town and village of less than 30,000 people (about 20,000 locations), ‘shadow larders’ had been built up in case of invasion. The stored food totalled 54,000 tons at 20,000 locations.They would have enabled the immediate distribution of about 9 lb a head of ‘emergency biscuits, corned beef, tinned soup or stew, sugar, tea, and margarine. There had been practice runs to test the distribution system, but luckily it had never been needed, and now, he said, the remaining food (26,000 tons had been handed over for the use of the forces in the previous year), was to be released into the general supply system.

One wonders at the appeal of four year old margarine, but no doubt a wartime perspective made it quite attractive. I wonder what is stashed away today, in the bunkers of the movers and shakers of the world, in case of emergency?

Fats such as butter and margarine were rationed during WW II in Britain, and the British were exhorted to save the fat from meat etc that they could as this was then recycled to the manufacture of explosives. The Food Facts Leaflet number 189, in February 1944 focused on fat-saving ideas.

Try These Fat-Saving Tips.

1. Fried potatoes take less fat if they’re boiled first, so boil extra potatoes for frying later.
2. Use wrapping paper from butter, margarine and lard for greasing tins and covering food in the oven.
3. Fat left in frying pan can be strained and clarified, and re-used. Wipe out frying pan while still hot with a scrap of paper and salt – don’t clean with water.
4. After boiling fatty meats and suet puddings, allow the liquid to cool, and skim off the fat which has solidified. Use as dripping.
5. Fry herrings and sprats without fat. Warm the pan and sprinkle in salte before frying.
6. Give children dripping instead of margarine on bread.

From Food Facts Leaflet number 191, a recipe to use up some of that margarine.

Cheese and Potato Lunch.

(One of the prize-winning village recipes collected by the Women’s Institute)
Ingredients: 1 lb potatoes, ¼ teacup rolled oats, 1 teaspoonful dried mustard, 1 oz. margarine, ¾ teacup grated cheese, pepper and salt.
Method: Boil the potatoes and mash with a little milk. Season with pepper and salt and spread evenly in a sandwich tin.
While potatoes are cooking, mix in a bowl the oats, cheese, pepper, salt and mustard. Pour over this the margarine melted and mix to a stiff paste. Spread on top of the potatoes and cook in a hot oven for 10 minutes until a nice golden brown.
Decorate with parsley.


Quotation for the Day.

I haven't trusted polls since I read that 62% of women had affairs during their lunch hour. I've never met a woman in my life who would give up lunch for sex.
Erma Bombeck

Outside Ideas.

The food reference for the new hard times should without doubt be the Food Facts leaflets put out by the British Ministry of Food during World War II. We could learn a thing or three about waste and about frugality in the kitchen by a thorough study of those old papers. The concepts of not wasting a crumb of bread, and finding creative ways to extend a small amount of animal protein are immediately accessible ideas at any time of the economy, but those pamphlets gave good advice too about the stuff most of us would normally throw away without a millesecond-length guilt attack. 

From a couple of the early leaflets, in the second half of 1940:

Example 1. The outside leaves of lettuce.

Cooked Lettuce.

Don’t make the mistake of using lettuce only as a salad. Lettuce cooked in a very little water makes a delicious vegetable, and you will enjoy even the outside leaves.

Example 2.  The outside leaves of cauliflower.

Cauliflower Leaves.

Always ask your greengrocer for the leaves of the cauliflower. As well as being rich in vitamins, the leaves taste delicious. Cook and serve them with the cauliflower, or have them as a separate vegetable the next day.

What do you think your greengrocer would say if you asked for a cauliflower in full leaf? Makes good sense though, doesn’t it? Especially considering that botanically speaking the cauli is exactly the same as a cabbage. Both are officially Brassica oleracea. The cauli is simply a cabbage cultivar grown for its flower head.

Cultivars are not always ‘natural’ – many are testament to the skills of human gardeners who have selected a particularly interesting or desirable feature of the plant (flower head, buds, leaves) and cultivated them in such a way as to maintain that feature. Other Brassica oleracea cultivars include kale, brussels sprouts, broccoli, kohlrabi, and collard greens. All very good for you, apparently, with a possible protective effect against bowel cancer. Eat some today.

Quotation for the Day …

Cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.
Mark Twain

Curried Mayonnaise of Vegetables, 1917.

I have been considering the history of bouillon cubes recently, to determine what role they will play in my forthcoming book Soup: A Global History. In my own growing-up life in the North of England, with my dear mother who hated cooking, there was only one player – the OXO cube.

The OXO company developed out of the nineteenth century Liebig Extract of Meat Company. The little foil-wrapped cubes that I remember from my childhood developed out of the liquid extract, but OXO had already indisputably been part of the British food tradition for many decades. The history of the company itself is worthy of a blog post, but today because of time constraints I want to go straight to an interesting recipe. It comes from a product advertisement during World War I, from a newspaper dated December 12, 1917. The ad urges the use of OXO ‘To make many inexpensive delicious dishes which will to a great extent take the place of a meat course, and help to save rations.’


Curried Mayonnaise of Vegetables.
Ingredients: Cooked vegetables, such as potatoes, spinach, carrots, onion (about 2 lb in all.) 2 teaspoonfuls of OXO, 2 oz. dripping, 1 dessertspoonful of curry powder, a small piece of butter, 1 teaspoonful of flour, salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice.
Cut all the vegetables into neat pieces, mix them together. Melt the dripping in a frying-pan and add the vegetables. Toss them about in the pan until they are thoroughly hot. Then dissolve the OXO in a little hot water, and mix with the curry powder, stir into the vegetables. Add a piece of butter and a dust of flour, and stir until all are well mixed. Season with salt and a sprinkle of lemon juice just before serving. Send to table with a dish of nicely boiled rice.

What intrigued me about this recipe (it was certainly no anticipated deliciousness!) was the name – ‘mayonnaise’ as a noun referring to a dish thickened with flour! Anyone else seen the word used this way?


Quotation for the Day …

Mayonnaise: One of the sauces which serve the French in place of a state religion.
Ambrose Bierce.

A Patriotic Christmas.

Sugar was in short supply and rationed during both world wars in Britain, and the Ministry of Food continually churned out advice on how to cope with the shortages. Home supply of sugar was a greater issue in those days, when baking and preserving were part of every housewife’s lot. Even the most reluctant home cook had to make the effort at Christmas.

On November 2, 1917, the Ministry put on a demonstration of Christmas Cookery. One of the recipes given was this one, which gave me pause for thought:

Mince Meat for Patriotic People
1 ¼ lb apples

6 oz suet, grated
½ lb currants and raisins
¼ lb moist sugar or corn syrup
¼ lb dates or prunes (stoned)
¼ lb candied peel (optional)
1 oz ground ginger
1 oz mixed spice
1 lemon or orange
½ gill cider (optional)
Peel and chop the apples, chop the dates, figs or prunes and candied peel – clean currants and raisins, mix all together. Sufficient for 36 mince pies.

Firstly, I love the name. It is hard to imagine such a call to patriotism even in times of the greatest nationalistic fervour today, isnt it?

Secondly, I was surprised to see corn syrup as an ingredient. Is it not a modern evil? A manufactured non-food perpetrated on us surreptitiously for non-nutritional reasons, and sharing a large part of the blame for the diseases of over-nutrition such as diabetes and obesity, that plague our modern society?

No, actually. The original corn syrup was glucose syrup, not the High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which is the subject of increasing controversy today. HFCS is made by using various enzymes to convert 90% of the glucose into fructose . It is sweeter and more soluble, and it converts cheap corn (from a perpetual surplus) into a valuable ‘commodity.’ The English version was likely also made from wheat, which was called ‘corn’ in the old days because ‘corn’ meant grain (‘corned’ meat is processed with ‘grains’ or ‘corns’ of salt.)

This article, from an edition of The Times in August the previous year, shows that corn syrup was quite heavily promoted as a substitute for sugar during the war.

GLUCOSE INSTEAD OF SUGAR.

ADVICE TO JAM MAKERS.

In order to meet the deficiency of sugar, the Board urge all those who have been in the habit of making home-made jam to save as much ordinary sugar as they can from their household supplies and to make up the remainder with the sugar known as glucose. Glucose, which is sold under the name of corn syrup, is made in England, and also imported from America, and is extensively used in the manufacture of confectionery and sweets, especially acid drops and toffee. In the manufacture of home-made jam, not more than one part of corn syrup should be added to two of sugar, and the weight of the sugar and syrup should be approximately equal to the weight of the fruit used.

Now, something I only do occasionally is look at my blog stats, because I have no idea what to do with the information. I did look during the week before Thanksgiving, and was surprised to see quite a lot of searches for ‘pies no corn syrup’. Am I picking up some sort of grass-roots resistance here?

Getting back on topic, the other important shortage during both wars was wheat. Again, the Ministry came to the rescue with recipes to conserve it. This was the recipe for the pastry to make up the Patriotic Mince Pies.

Short Crust Paste for Mince Pies.

¼ lb ordinary flour, 2 oz maize flour, 2 oz barley flour or cornflour, 4 oz lard, dripping, or margarine, a pinch of salt, ½ teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda, water to mix.

Mix the flour, salt, and soda, and rub fat into flour. Mix to a stiff paste with water. Roll out. Sufficient for 12 pies.

These recipes are now in the Vintage Christmas Recipes archive.

Quotation for the Day …

If there is no joyous way to give a festive gift, give love away.
Unknown

Don’t Mention The War.

This day in 1904 was the birthday of the English writer Nancy Mitford. I admit to knowing next to nothing about Miss Mitford, save that she was vaguely aristocratic and wrote a lot about the vaguely aristocratic. I do have one longish quotation from her in my file however that says much about that particular species.

She is speaking about Right Honourable Sir Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt Wilson, 14^th Baron, aka Lord Berners (1883-1950), during World War II.

“There is something magic about all of Faringdon, and Lord Berners himself, in his skull cap, looks not unlike a magician, but perhaps the greatest, most amazing conjuring tricks are reserved for the dining room. In this pleasant sunny white room, scattered with large silver-gilt birds and wonderful Sevres and Dresden china, a standard of culinary perfection has been maintained through the darkest days of war. Cook or no cook, raw materials or no raw materials, a succession of utterly delicious courses would somehow waft themselves to the sideboard, and the poor Londoner, starved, or sated with Spam, would see sights and taste tastes he had long ago forgotten to believe in.”

Lord Berners has been called “The Last Eccentric” of England, but he is not, there are still quite a few of them around. He could, however, be eligible for “One of the Most Eccentric.” One has to be aristocratic or wealthy, or both, and preferably English to be able to cultivate eccentricity. Lord Berners was a musician and novelist, and a Peer of the Realm. His whippets sported diamond collars, his doves were dyed in all the colours of the rainbow, and he trained a parrot to walk under a bowler hat (thereby creating the illusion that the hat was moving across the floor.)

I think it improbable –that Lord Berners ever ate Spam himself. Spam, as I am sure you are aware if you were born BC (before computers), is a “manufactured meat product” perpetrated upon the world by “The Yanks” and sent over to England by the shipload during the war, to the undying gratitude of the Poms, who came to love it with a guilty passion.

The Ministry of Food during the war conducted ongoing campaigns to advise the British housewife how to cope with rationing. At one time the ads featured a series of fictitious housewives with not-very convincing names. “Mrs. Merry” at one time asked “For only 12 points you can get a lovely big tin of American pork sausagemeat, but what’s the best way to use it?’ The famous and favourite cookbook writer Marguerite Patten was advisor to the Ministry of Food during the war, and she says “There’s lots of ways to use it, but here’s one of our favourites and the beautiful clean pork fat in the tin is wonderful for making pastry.”

Fillets of Pork.
Flake ½ lb. pork sausagemeat (with the outside fat removed), then mix in ½ lb mashed potatoes and one cupful of crisp breadcrumbs. Season well with pepper and salt adding a pinch of sage if liked. Then bind with a thick sauce made from the meat juices taken from the can, and made up to one teacup measure with vegetable stock and 1 tablespoon of flour plus a little of the pork fat from the tin.
Divide into nine or ten sections, shape into finger rolls, coat in more crumbs, and fry or bake till heated through and crisp coated, with a light greasing of pork fat for the frying pan or baking tin.

I guess if you are going to use canned pork sausagemeat, you may as well call the dish Fillets of Pork, yes? I also guess that it was Spam that was intended, but the MOF could not appear to be recommending a particular brand.

Quotation for the Day …

Dine we must and we may as well dine elegantly as well as wholesomely. Isabella Beeton.

Not enough butter.

June 5 ...

Saving every scrap and drip of fat rendered in the kitchen was a patriotic act for housewives in the Allied countries during both World Wars. Every scrap and drip was almost as good as a bomb on the enemy, because even the blackest grungiest smelliest grease contains a very desirable 10% of glycerine – desirable because it is an essential ingredient in explosives. The fat was collected in empty cans kept beside the stove, and these were collected, usually by the local butcher, and sent to the munitions factory. The authorities were very serious about the saving of fat - a good housewife could earn two extra meat ration points for every pound of fat collected.

The other half of the patriotic culinary effort was reducing the use of fat in the first place, and this was enforced via rationing. In Australia on this day in 1944, the butter ration was reduced to 6 ounces, which was still very luxurious compared with the miserable 2 ounces allowed in Britain. There were all sorts of strategies promoted to offset the inconvenience of not enough fat for cooking. The whole idea seems bizarre today when we are told constantly that fat is poison. At the time however, fat was very desirable: it was necessary to feed you, fill you up, make you grow, and give you strength. There were no gyms, no brand-name gym shoes, and if one was seen running around the neighbourhood barely dressed, one’s neighbours would have called the police on one. Everyone simply moved about more, that’s the difference.

With such a dearth of fat the home baker had to be very creative. Both sides of the problem – finding enough fat and not wasting any fat – were got around partially by making cakes with fats that would not previously have been considered. In a previous story we found out about ‘codfat’ – which is not what it seems - and according to an Australian cookbook of the time made a great Pineapple Cake. Here is another recipe from the same book – some delicious cookies that use the dripping carefully saved from your Sunday roast – if you can stop the family spreading it on their bread, crunchy bits and all, that is.

Glamorous Cookies.
If you want a lovely rich tasting dark brown cookie try this: Melt together one generous tablespoon of clarified beef dripping, one big tablespoon of honey (just as you lift the spoon from the jar) and quarter teacup of brown sugar – the darkest you can buy. When boiling stir in one teaspoon baking soda dissolved in one tablespoon hot water. Cool a little while it bubbles. Then add a lightly whisked egg. Stir well. Flavour with vanilla or orange essence. Pour into it the following mixture.
Two cups sifted flour, one cup rolled oats, a saltspoon of salt and a big cup of raisins or sultanas (or mixed fruits.) Blend to a stiff consistency with the hot honey liquid. Allow to stand for ten minutes. Then put by small teaspoonful on a greased oven slide. Bake in a moderate heat until deep golden brown (approx. 36) Because you have mixed these cookies hot, there is no risk of them spreading flat in the oven.

Tomorrow’s Story …

Afternoon tea with Jane.

Quotation for the Day …

Eating is not merely a material pleasure. Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill and happy companionship. It is of great importance to the morale. Elsa Schiaparelli.

The invention of “American Cheese”.

December 11 …

The man who invented ‘American Cheese’ was born on this day in 1874 on a farm near Stevensville, Ontario. Why did this Canadian call his cheese ‘American’? Was he honouring the country that enabled him to make his fortune? Or was it some sort of ethnic slur/joke against the folk across the border from his birthplace (like ‘Welch Rabbit’ is in England? You decide which of these applied to James Lewis Kraft’s patented processed cheese - made from genuine milk solids, all pesky bacteria and mould killed, and virtually guaranteed not to spoil.

Kraft moved to Chicago in 1903 with $65 in his pocket and started peddling cheese from the back of a wagon. The problem is, the very nature of cheese makes it prone to spoilage (and this applied especially in summer in the days before refrigeration). There is a fine line between a perfectly aged cheese and a spoiled cheese and a spoiled cheese means loss of profit. Kraft was not a scientist, but he tried various ways around the problem – including canning. Shredding and heat-sterilising cheese solves the spoilage problem (or the ageing virtue, if you want to look at it that way), and the addition of emulsifiers stops the separation of fat from solid. If this mixture is then canned it will keep virtually indefinitely. This is what Kraft did – naming it ‘American Cheese’ for reasons which I have not been able to establish – and he patented the method in 1916.

Sterilised emulsified canned cheese may be absolutely consistent and may keep forever, but a lot of folk feel that it is bland and – well, just ‘aint cheese. Kraft’s timing however was perfect. One organisation that does not care a hoot about flavour but cares a lot of hoots about durability in food is the military. Six million pounds of his cheese ended up in ration packs during World War I; soldiers developed a taste for it (or at least a familiarity with it), it remained relatively cheap during the Great Depression, and Kraft’s name became famous, or to some – infamous, on account of its synonymity with “not cheese”.

Here is an American World War I recipe that uses cheese – no cheese specified, but presumably “real” as it is grated. It would have been a perfect recipe for a meatless day, and comes from Farmers’ Bulletin 487.

Corn and Cheese Souffle.
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of chopped green pepper
¼ cupful of flour
2 cupfuls of milk
1 cupful of chopped corn
1 cupful of grated cheese
3 eggs
½ teaspoon of salt.
Melt the butter and cook the pepper thoroughly in it. Make a sauce out of the flour, milk, and cheese; add the corn, cheese, yolks, and seasoning. Cut and fold in the egg whites beaten stiff; turn it into a buttered baking dish and bake in a moderate oven 30 minutes.
Made with skimmed milk and without butter, this dish has a food value slightly in excess of a pound of beef and a pound of potatoes.

Tomorrow’s Story …

An Enchanting Christmas Pudding.

Quotation for the Day …

If antiquity be the only test of nobility, then cheese is a very noble thing … The lineage of cheese is demonstrably beyond all record. Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

Not bacon, not ham.

December 7 ….

The English smallgoods company T.Wall and Sons introduced their new product ‘macon’ – at a brunch (which the newspaper pointed out was a ‘combination of breakfast and lunch’) at the Savoy Hotel in London on this day in 1939. ‘Macon’ is pronounced with a hard ‘c’, as in bacon, because it was ‘bacon’ made from mutton. Marketing genius, yes? Apparently mysterious marketing genius, because the spokesperson for the company admitted to not knowing how the name came into being, “it just happened.” It was also said at the event that “everybody could do some home curing if they secured a fat sheep” – which would seem to be an optimistic view even of the very resourceful British of the war years, and quite counter-productive to the bottom-line of the company.

Cured mutton had actually been around for a long time, the idea appears to have originated in Scotland, where the land was more suitable to sheep than pigs .The the driving force behind its commercial production was the looming war – “mutton was a home-produced food which ate grass, while pigs food had to be imported” (an idea which must have come as a surprise to many pig-farmers and cottagers). It was hoped that it would eke out the wartime shortage of bacon, but within a few months the wartime food situation had become more dire, and macon-making was ceased in order to save mutton.

T.Wall and Sons had been experimenting with six different cures, which were all successful but not all to everyone’s taste (as if anything ever is!). It was presented in a number of ways – in “the raw” (it resembled streaky bacon, but with darker fat), in a variety of ‘kickshaws’, and in breakfast dishes, and would cost ‘somewhat less than bacon.’

Naturally there were some samples available, thanks to the culinary efforts of Miss M. Baron Russell. She advised that macon could be cooked in the same way as bacon but it must be well done. She also gave a recipe for mutton ‘ham’ or, as it was obviously designated – ‘mam.’

There were many ways to eke out the precious small ration of bacon during the war years. Here is one idea to make two rashers feed four.

Bacon Fritters.
Fry two bacon rashers then cut into small pieces. Make a batter with 2 oz. self-raising flour, a pinch of salt, 1 reconstituted dried egg or a fresh egg and 5 tablespoons of milk or milk and water. Add the bacon and season to taste. Drop spoonfuls into a little hot fat and fry until crisp and brown on either side.

Monday’s Story …

An All-Australian Meal

Quotation for the Day …

I've long said that if I were about to be executed and were given a choice of my last meal, it would be bacon and eggs. There are few sights that appeal to me more than the streaks of lean and fat in a good side of bacon, or the lovely round of pinkish meat framed in delicate white fat that is Canadian bacon. Nothing is quite as intoxicating as the smell of bacon frying in the morning, save perhaps the smell of coffee brewing. James Beard.