1940's Recipes at Wartime

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1940's Recipes

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Peanut Butter Balls

Victory Apple Pie

Chinese Cake

Wartime Christmas Cake

Mock Duck

Peanut butter balls

About 3 dozen

 

1/2 cup light oil

1 cup peanut butter

2/3 cup maple syrup

2-1/4 cups unbleached pastry flour

1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

Mix the margarine or oil with the peanut butter. Add in the sweetener and mix well. Mix the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon together, then add to the peanut mixture and mix well. Preheat the oven to 350 deg. F. Pull off bits of dough and roll into 1-inch balls between the palms of your hands. Place the balls on a lightly greased cookie sheet. They can be placed close together (not touching) because they don't flatten out during baking. Bake for about 12 minutes.

VICTORY APPLE PIE

1/3 cup cool potato water

1/2 cake yeast

1/3 cup riced potatoes

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup shortening, melted

3 eggs

1 cup sifted flour

6 apples

 

Combine potato water, crumbled yeast, cooled potatoes and 1/4 cup sugar. Let rise 1 hour. Add shortening, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, beaten, and flour to make stiff dough. Knead well. Let rise until doubled in bulk. Roll out in two circles about 1/2 inch thick. Place in two deep greased pie pans. Press to edges of pan. Pare apples, core, cut into eighths and arrange on dough. Beat remaining eggs, add remaining sugar and pour over apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Let rise. Bake in moderate (350° F.) oven 30 to 35 minutes. Makes 2 (8-inch) pies.

 

CHINESE CAKE

1 ½ pounds haricot beans

Salt and pepper

1 pound firm mashed potatoes

4 ouncesfat boiled bacon

2 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon sugar

Crisp breadcrumbs

 

1. Soak the haricot beans for 24 hours, then simmer for 1 ½ hrs in enough salted water to keep them covered.

2. Mash beans thoroughly, mix with potato, chopped bacon, sage, pepper and sugar. If the paste seems stiff, add a little bean water.

3. Grease a cake tin, sprinkle the sides and bottom with the breadcrumbs, press the mixture into the tin, cover with a greased paper and bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour.

4. Serve with cabbage or Brussels sprouts and brown gravy.

 

WARTIME CHRISTMAS CAKE 3 ounces sugar

4 ounces margarine

1 level tablespoon golden syrup

8 ounces plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch salt

1 level teaspoon mixed spice

1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 - 4 reconstituted dried (now use 2 reg. eggs)

1 pound mixed dried fruit

½ teaspoon lemon essence

Milk to mix

 

1.. Cream the sugar and margarine.

2. Add the syrup.

3. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and spices together.

4. Add alternately with the eggs to the creamed mixture and beat well.

5. Add the fruit, lemon essence and enough milk to make a fairly soft dough.

6. Line a 7 inch tin with greased paper, put in the mixture and bake in a very moderate oven for 2 hours.

 

MOCK DUCK

l pound sausagemeat

8 ounces cooking apples - peeled and grated

8 ounces onions - grated

1 teaspoon chopped sage or ½ teaspoon dried sage

 

1. Spread half the sausagemeat into a flat layer in a well greased baking tin or shallow casserole.

2. Top with the apples, onions and sage.

3. Add the rest of the sausagemeat and shape this top layer to look as much like a duck as possible.

4. Cover with well greased paper and bake in the centre of a mod hot oven.

 

1940's Tips for Cooking!!!

 

WARTIME COOKERY

Food shortages in this as in all wars will be due to lack of man power for production, lack of transportation facilities for distribution and reservation of shippable foods for the armed forces. This war is only complicated by multiplication.... the number of places from which food cannot be shipped and the wide scattering of places to which our food supplies must be shipped in order to feed our own and allied military forces. Many of the imports are in the condiment class and we will learn to do without them for the duration. Some are valuable foods - sugar, bananas, chocolate - and for these we will need to substitute. Among beverages, mate' can easily replace Oriental tea. (NOTE - I have no idea what "mate' " is; can anyone fill me in on this)

Besides these fundamental difficulties always associated with wartime, the modern woman in America has become accustomed to foods prepared outside the home to be purchased by her in tin cans. Metal shortages are threatening these supplies and if they become acute, may cut them off all together. Since fats and oils are the basis for both soaps and gunpowder as well as for foods, the household will probably be called upon to curtail their use. On the bright side is the eagerness of the modern woman to pit her intelligence against a knotty problem. She will need to learn not only to prepare all the food needed in her household, but to raise her own garden and poultry and to save every last bit, as has not been done in several generations. Women in restriced defense areas are apt to have problems quite their own.

Along with problems arising from the congestion there will be periods when all transportation facilities will be clogged with defense materials being moved in and out, and everything else will need to wait. Special shortages will develop in these areas that will need to be met. The Return of the Soup Kettle The family soup kettle comes back into its own with the returning necessity for using every bit of food that enters the kitchen and the reduced supply of canned soups. Practically all leftovers except sweets may go into the soup kettle. When making stock use the bone ends from steaks, chops and roasts, the gristly end of the tongue, carcass of roast poultry and poultry feet. Drain all vegetable liquor as well as the liquid from canned vegetables into the soup kettle. If the drippings in the bottom of the roasting pan are not used for gravy, chill and add all but the fat to the soup stock. Use the fat for other purposes. Use the More

Perishable Meats Smoked meats and the larger cuts of fresh meats can be shipped to the armed forces. Besides the smaller cuts the more perishable parts of the animal - liver, sweetbreads, kidneys, heart and tripe - are left for those on the home front. This is no hardship but a distinct advantage, for these parts contain more vitamins than those that we are accustomed to using and since there is no waste they cost less. Have Poultry Frequently Poultry contains nearly the same nourishment as meat. It is likely to be plentiful, it has always been raised by women and it is not easily shipped.

For selection and preparation see pages 274-276. Make soup stock from poultry feet or carcass of roast fowl. Combine poultry meat, vegetables, rice, hominy or noodles in scalloped dishes or stews. Save All Fats and Oils Save every ounce of fat; use what you need for cooking and take the rest to your meat dealer, who will pay you for it. These reclaimed fats are not used for food but in the manufacturing of munitions and soap. Fat to be sold to the meat market must be clear and free from water or other liquid. Keep a container near the stove with a fine wire strainer in the top.

Pour melted fat through the strainer to remove bits of meat or crumbs. Fats to be used in home cooking should be kept in the refrigerator. Render all solid fat cut from meat or poultry. See pages 23-24. Poultry fat has a mild flavor which makes it desirable for use instead of butter in preparing eggs, vegetables, cakes and cookies. The mildest flavored fat is under the skin of chicken, geese or other fat poultry.

Remove it by slitting the skin down the front and carefully separating the fat from the skin with the point of a knife. Render this fat seperately from that inside the body. Use meat and poultry fats for cooking; they are suitable for most purposes and the cracklings for appetizers, muffins, etc.

While fats are so vitally needed for defense the patriotic American homemaker will use them sparingly for deep fat frying and will make meat loaves instead of croquettes, cookies instead of doughnuts. Serve Meatless Dishes If the supply of meat becomes limited the homemaker may turn to other foods to give her family the necessary proteins. Dried peas, beans and lentils are good protein foods; so are nuts which supply fats as well. The pea beans ordinarily used for Boston baked beans are being bought up for the armed forces but other beans such as pinto beans, soybeans or cowpeas may be used in their place. Leftover baked beans may be used in soups, sandwiches or loaves; they combine well with onions, green peppers and tomoatoes. Purchase bacon when available on the rind and use the rind to season bean or lentil loaves. Place the rind fat side downon the loaf before baking and remove it before serving. Loaves made from nuts and bread crumbs will not need added fat because of the fat in the nuts. Entire dependence should not be placed on these meat substitute dishes but they may well be used two or three times a week

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