Save Sugar!

Still looking at Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them, by C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss, 1918, this time on sugar.

"One ounce of sugar less per person, per day, is all our Government asks of us to meet the world sugar shortage. One ounce of sugar equals two scant level tablespoonfuls and represents a saving that every man, woman and child should be able to make. Giving up soft drinks and the frosting on our cakes, the use of sugarless desserts and confections, careful measuring and thorough stirring of that which we place in our cups of tea and coffee, and the use of syrup, molasses or honey on our pancakes and fritters will more than effect this saving."

"It seems but a small sacrifice, if sacrifice it can be called, when one recognizes that cutting down sugar consumption will be most beneficial to national health. The United States is the largest consumer of sugar in the world. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.) In 1916 Germany's consumption was 20 lbs. per person per year, Italy's 29 to 30 lbs., that of France 37, of England 40, while the United States averaged 85 lbs. This enormous consumption is due to the fact that we are a nation of candy-eaters. We spend annually $80,000,000 on confections. These are usually eaten between meals, causing digestive disturbances as well as unwarranted expense. Sweets are a food and should be eaten at the close of the meal, and if this custom is established during the war, not only will tons of sugar be available for our Allies, but the health of the nation improved." 

(I guess we had a post-war rebound, the hope that this would change national habits permanently did not manifest. The current estimates I find range from 150-170 lbs of sugar per person per year now.)

"The average daily consumption of sugar per person in this country is 5 ounces, and yet nutritional experts agree that not more than 3 ounces a day should be taken. The giving up of one ounce per day will, therefore, be of great value in reducing many prevalent American ailments. Flatulent dyspepsia, rheumatism, diabetes, and stomach acidity are only too frequently traced to an oversupply of sugar in our daily diet."

(I always knew it was the sugar in that broccoli that gave me issues.)

"By the use of marmalades, jams and jellies canned during the season when the sugar supply was less limited, necessity for the use of sugar can be vastly reduced. By the addition to desserts and cereals of dried fruits, raisins, dates, prunes and figs, which contain large amounts of natural sugar, the sugar consumption can be greatly lessened. By utilizing leftover syrup from canned or preserved fruits for sweetening other fruits, and by the use of honey, molasses, maple sugar, maple syrup and corn syrup, large quantities of sugar may be saved. The substitution of sweetened condensed milk for dairy milk in tea, coffee and cocoa--in fact, in all our cooking processes where milk is required--will also immeasurably aid in sugar conservation. The substitutes mentioned are all available in large amounts. Honey is especially valuable for children, as it consists of the more simple sugars which are less irritating than cane sugar, and there is no danger of acid stomach from the amounts generally consumed."

WHEATLESS, EGGLESS, BUTTERLESS, MILKLESS, SUGARLESS CAKE

1 cup corn syrup

2 cups water

2 cups raisins

2 tablespoons fat

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1-1/2 cups fine cornmeal, 2 cups rye flour; or, 3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder, or, 1/2 teaspoon soda

Cook corn syrup, water, raisins, fat, salt and spices slowly 15 minutes. When cool, add flour, soda or baking powder, thoroughly blended. Bake in slow oven 1 hour. The longer this cake is kept, the better the texture and flavor. This recipe is sufficient to fill one medium-sized bread pan.

SOUR MILK GINGER BREAD

2 tablespoons fat

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sour milk

1 teaspoon soda

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon ginger

Mix soda and molasses. Add other ingredients. Bake in muffin pans 20 minutes or loaf 40 minutes.

SPICED OATMEAL FRUIT CAKES

1-3/4 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup cooked oatmeal

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup raisins, dates, prunes or figs

1/4 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons fat

Heat the corn syrup and fat. Sift dry ingredients and add to first mixture. Add fruit last. Bake in muffin pans for 30 minutes.

SOY BEAN WAFERS

1 cup soy beans, finely chopped

1/2 cup butter or shortening

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon lemon or vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

Soak beans over night, boil for 1 hour. Drain. Cool and put through food-chopper. Cream butter and sugar, add beans, egg. Sift flour with baking powder and add to first mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet and bake 8 minutes in a hot oven.

WARTIME TAFFY

2 cups corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon water

2 tablespoons vinegar

Boil the syrup for fifteen minutes, then add the soda. Cook until a little snaps brittle when dropped in cold water. Add the vinegar when this stage is reached and pour into oiled pans. When cool enough to handle, pull until white; make into inch-thick rolls and clip off into neat mouthfuls with oiled scissors, or chill and break into irregular pieces when cold.

PEANUT BRITTLE

1 cup corn syrup

1 tablespoon fat

1 cup peanuts

Boil syrup and fat until brittle when tested in cold water. Grease a pan, sprinkle the roasted and shelled peanuts in it, making an even distribution, then turn in the syrup. When almost cold mark into squares. Cocoanut, puffed wheat or puffed rice may be used for candy instead of peanuts.

Going Meatless--sorta

More from Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them, by C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss, 1918, this time on the subject of meat.

“As a nation we eat and waste 80 per cent. more meat than we require to maintain health. This statement, recently issued by the United States Food Administration, is appalling when we consider that there is a greater demand for meat in the world to-day than ever before, coupled with a greatly decreased production. The increase in the demand for meat and animal products is due to the stress of the war. Millions of men are on the fighting line doing hard physical labor, and require a larger food allowance than when they were civilians. To meet the demand for meat and to save their grains, our Allies have been compelled to kill upward of thirty-three million head of their stock animals, and they have thus stifled their animal production. This was burning the candle at both ends, and they now face increased demand handicapped by decreased production. America must fill the breach.”

“Although most persons believe that protein can only be obtained from meat, it is found in many other foods, such as milk, skim milk, cheese, cottage cheese, poultry, eggs, fish, dried peas, beans, cow peas, lentils and nuts. […]It is our manifest duty to learn how to make the best use of these foods in order to save beef, pork and mutton, to be shipped across the sea. This means that the housekeeper has before her the task of training the family palate to accept new food preparations. Training the family palate is not easy, because bodies that have grown accustomed to certain food combinations find it difficult to get along without them, and rebel at a change. If these habits of diet are suddenly disturbed we may upset digestion, as well as create a feeling of dissatisfaction which is equally harmful to physical well-being. The wise housekeeper will therefore make her changes gradually.”

“So the housekeeper who goes to her task of training the family palate to accept meat substitutes and meat economy dishes, who revolutionizes her methods of cooking so as to utilize even "the pig's squeak," will be doing her bit toward making the world safe for democracy.”

There is a flaw in this argument that I am contrary enough to point out: if these other sources of protein are so wonderful, why would we not conserve THEM to be sent overseas to the Allies? I mean wouldn’t it be easier to ship a sack of lentils than a side of beef? Especially in 1918 when preservation and transportation would have been so much trickier. But I’ll cease playing devil’s advocate and post some of the recipes, which really, are not a bad thing to try for both nutrition and economy’s sake.

MOCK DUCK

1 flank steak

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon onion juice

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1 pint boiling water

1/3 cup of whole wheat flour

Reserve the water and the flour. Mix other ingredients. Spread on steak. Roll the steak and tie. Roll in the flour. Brown in two tablespoons of fat. Add the water--cover and cook until tender.

Wait, a minute, we’re eating steak in order to conserve DUCK for the Allies? Actually, hand me that steak, those Europeans can have all the duck they want.

BATTLE PUDDING

BATTER

1 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

4 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon salt

FILLING

2 cups coarsely chopped cold cooked meat

1 tablespoon drippings

1 medium-sized potato

1 cup stock or hot water

salt and pepper

1 small onion

Any cold meat may be used for this. Cut it into inch pieces. Slice the onion and potato and fry in drippings until onion is slightly browned. Add the meat and stock, or hot water, or dissolve in hot water any left-over meat gravy. Cook all together until potato is soft, but not crumbled; season with the pepper and salt. Thicken with a tablespoon of flour and turn into a pudding dish.Make a batter by sifting together flour, baking-powder and salt; stir in the egg and milk, mixed with the water. Beat hard until free from lumps, then pour over meat and vegetables in the pudding and bake until brown.

MEAT SHORTCAKE

1-1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons shortening

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups chopped, cooked meat

1 teaspoon onion juice

1/2 cup gravy or soup stock

Salt and pepper

3/4 cup milk and water

Mix flour, salt and baking powder. Rub in shortening, and mix to dough with milk and water. Roll out to quarter of an inch thickness, bake in layer cake tins. Put together with the chopped meat mixed with the onion and seasoning, and heated hot with the gravy or stock. If stock is used, thicken with a tablespoon of flour mixed with one of butter, or butter substitute. Serve as soon as put together. Cold cooked fish heated in cream sauce may be used for a filling instead of the meat.

NUT AND CHEESE CROQUETTES

2 cups stale breadcrumbs

1 cup milk

1 yolk of egg

1 cup chopped nuts

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 cup grated cheese

Shape and roll in dried breadcrumbs. Bake 20 minutes.

BOSTON ROAST

1 teaspoon onion juice

1 cup grated cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 cup beans (kidney)

About 1 cup breadcrumbs

Soak and cook beans. Mix all ingredients into loaf. Baste with fat and water. Bake 30 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce.

MEATLESS SAUSAGE

1 cup soaked and cooked dried peas, beans, lentils or lima beans 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs

1/4 cup fat

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sage

Mix and shape as sausage. Roll in flour and fry in dripping.

Foods That Will Win The War

Poor blog, you have languished, neglected, through the stomach flu pandemic that has made such an all-inclusive assault on my family. It has been a complete rout with the bodies of the fallen hanging over toilets all across town. This bug has vanquished even the mighty saltine and 7-up panacea handed down by our foremothers.  Heck, I couldn’t manage plain tea without another run for the bathroom. There’s only one place to turn to for any comfort and that is: Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them, by C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss, 1918.While it wasn’t written with invalids in mind, who would not find their resolve strengthened by this stirring argument:

“Food will win the war, and the nation whose food resources are best conserved will be the victor. This is the truth that our government is trying to drive home to every man, woman and child in America. We have always been happy in the fact that ours was the richest nation in the world, possessing unlimited supplies of food, fuel, energy and ability; but rich as these resources are they will not meet the present food shortage unless every family and every individual enthusiastically co-operates in the national saving campaign as outlined by the United States Food Administration.”

“A little bit of saving in food means a tremendous aggregate total, when 100,000,000 people are doing the saving. One wheatless meal a day would not mean hardship; there are always corn and other products to be used. Yet one wheatless meal a day in every family would mean a saving of 90,000,000 bushels of wheat, which totals 5,400,000,000 lbs. Two meatless days a week would mean a saving of 2,200,000 lbs. of meat per annum. One teaspoonful of sugar per person saved each day would insure a supply ample to take care of our soldiers and our Allies. These quantities mean but a small individual sacrifice, but when multiplied by our vast population they will immeasurably aid and encourage the men who are giving their lives to the noble cause of humanity on which our nation has embarked.”

So really, in a way, spending a day or two unable to eat is a noble thing. Think how much wheat, meat, sugar, and fat was saved, especially at this time of year! Those are the 4 foods this recipe book focuses on; let’s start with wheat and I’ll cover the others in later posts.

WHEAT

Baking your own bread is apparently, unpatriotic, at least if you’re a poor baker.

“Another source of waste of which few of us take account is home-made bread. Sixty per cent. of the bread used in America is made in the home. When one stops to consider how much home-made bread is poorly made, and represents a large waste of flour, yeast and fuel, this housewifely energy is not so commendable. The bread flour used in the home is also in the main wheat flour, and all waste of wheat at the present time increases the shortage of this most necessary food. Fuel, too, is a serious national problem, and all coal used in either range, gas, or electric oven for the baking of poor bread is an actual national loss. There must be no waste in poor baking or from poor care after the bread is made, or from the waste of a crust or crumb. Waste in your kitchen means starvation in some other kitchen across the sea.”

However, quick breads, though possibly hazardous to your health, are strongly encouraged, and cornmeal shines like a star on the flagpole.

“Even with all possible care to prevent waste, yeast breads will not conserve our wheat supply so well as quick breads, because all yeast breads need a larger percentage of wheat. The home baker can better serve her country by introducing into her menus numerous quick breads that can be made from cornmeal, rye, corn and rye, hominy, and buckwheat. Griddle cakes and waffles can also be made from lentils, soy beans, potatoes, rice and peas.”

CORNMEAL RAGGED ROBINS

1-1/2 cups cornmeal

1 cup bread flour

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1-1/3 cups milk

2-1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

4 tablespoons fat

1-1/4 teaspoons soda

Sift dry ingredients. Cut in the fat. Add liquid and drop by spoonfuls on greased baking sheet. Bake in hot

oven 12 to 15 minutes. These may be rolled and cut same as baking powder biscuits.

TAMALE PIE

2 cups cornmeal

5 cups water (boiling)

2 tablespoons fat

1 teaspoon salt

1 onion

2 cups tomatoes

2 cups cooked or raw meat cut in small pieces

1/4 cup green peppers

To the cornmeal and 1 teaspoon salt, add boiling water. Cook one-half hour. Brown onion in fat, add meat. Add salt, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne, the tomatoes and green peppers. Grease baking dish, put in layer of cornmeal mush, add seasoned meat, and cover with mush. Bake one-half hour.

OATMEAL NUT BREAD

1 cake compressed yeast

2 cups boiling water

1/2 cup lukewarm water

2 cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup brown sugar or 2 tablespoons corn syrup

2 tablespoons fat

4 cups flour

1/2 cup chopped nuts.

Pour two cups of boiling water over oatmeal, cover and let stand until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast and sugar in one-half cup lukewarm water, add shortening and add this to the oatmeal and water. Add one cup of flour, or enough to make an ordinary sponge. Beat well. Cover and set aside in a moderately warm place to rise for one hour. Add enough flour to make a dough--about three cups, add nuts and the salt. Knead well. Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise in a moderately warm place until double in bulk--about one and one-half hour. Mould into loaves, fill well-greased pans half full, cover and let rise again one hour. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven.

WAR BREAD

2 cups boiling water

2 tablespoons sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 tablespoons fat

6 cups rye flour

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cake yeast

To the boiling water, add the sugar, fat and salt. When lukewarm, add the yeast which has been dissolved in the lukewarm water. Add the rye and whole wheat flour. Cover and let rise until twice its bulk, shape into loaves; let rise until double and bake about 40 minutes, in a moderately hot oven.

SPLIT PEA PANCAKES

2 cups split peas

2 egg whites

1/3 cup flour

1 cup milk

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons pork drippings

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoonful baking powder

Soak peas over night, cook, and when tender, put through a food chopper and mix the ingredients. Bake on hot greased griddle.

BREAD GRIDDLE CAKES

2 cups sour milk

2 cups bread

Let stand until soft

Put through colander. For each one pint use:

1 egg

1 teaspoon soda

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup flour

1 egg beaten

Mix well; bake at once on hot greased griddle.