I occasionally look through the few wartime cooking booklets I have, and while I'm tempted to try some of the recipes, I notice that some of the ingredients are not common, or no longer a thing. So my question: "How can we make thrifty substitutions for our modern kitchens?"
It's something I will probably look into, but I think it would be a handy resource for a lot of people.
Yes, I 100% agree! Some of the ingredients don't translate very well to our modern palettes. I'm curious which ingredients in particular stood out to you? Everyone's upbringing and tastes are different, so what would stand out to you from wartime might not be something that I would notice in the same way. Thank you for your question. I think it's a great one that I'm happy to look more into!
I went back and looked through one of my booklets. I thought I remembered more "odd" ingredients. Soya (flour, dried beans, etc) is the main one. Other things I ask myself:
Is All Bran the same as the cereal? Is it still made?
How do the packaging sizes compare to now? (Ex one can of salmon. One box of gelatin. One yeast cake (and the dry equivalent)
Are the cuts of meat different, or known by different names?
Why is there SO much corn syrup, and what can we use?
That said, quite a few of the meals look pretty tasty. They aren't "fancy" or trendy, but good for families.
So many great questions! Any recipe that uses soya flour is one of those that I skip. I'm just not a fan. I made a wonky wartime "soya fudge" recipe that tasted like grass. It was so gross. Haha! I also like how so many of the wartime recipes are easy meals with simple ingredients. It's also easy to modify many of them to personal taste, especially because a lot of them didn't believe in using many herbs. Ha!
Here are some quick answers to your questions:
- For All Bran cereal, just use any bran flakes cereal. It doesn't really matter as long as they're not sugar coated.
- Very good point about package sizes. They were different back then. That's something that takes a bit more study.
- I translate 1 yeast cake to 1 packet of yeast, or 2 1/2 tsp. loose yeast. This has worked great for me.
- As far as I know, the cuts of meat are the same. I have a number of cookbooks that show the cuts of meat so that's something that's easy to check.
- Corn syrup was a plentiful wartime sugar replacement, but it's the least sweet out of all the sugar replacements. They recommend for baking to only use half corn syrup half sugar for the best results. (And adjust the liquid.)
If you want, I can focus some posts on some of these specific topics in more detail!
An easy one my mother used to make was spaghetti and stewed tomatoes. Vegetable, bean, or lentil soups are also easy, versatile meals. That's just off the top of my head. If you still have parents or grandparents who lived through those times, ask them for their stories and recipes.
I’ve stocked up on beans and rice. Currently going through cookbooks for more traditional meatless recipes. Trying to experiment while I have the luxury of abundance. Curious about recommendations for stored milk (powdered vs. evaporated) and general storage recommendations. How to keep flour fresh and best bang for the buck on pantry items.
Perfect timing! I'm putting together posts about powdered & evaporated milk and meat alternative recipes! Thanks for your other questions. I'll add those to my list!
My wife and I are in our mid 60's. Our parents lived through the Depression and WW2. We both grew up with close family members that were born in the 1890's. I knew my great grandma and she was born in the late 1860's.
They do live a long time in this family.
Anyway, I was raised eating and cooking foods that came from this history. We ate well but it was seldom fancy. My family put up food in their root cellars, put their clothes on clothes lines and cooked most everything from scratch. We used cast iron skillets and pressure cookers. And, quite honestly, we weren't that different from most of the families in our suburban neighborhood.
My wife and I still live that way. We have large gardens and grow and preserve a fair amount of the food we eat. And I collect cook books.
We have a number of original WW2 era books and reprints of both U.S. and British government gardening books from the era. We've used them for years as both a source of information and enjoyment. The rest of my collection spans, mostly, from the very early 20th century to about the mid '70's. We cook from them regularly.
There is much history to be gleaned from those old books. Ideas about nutrition and efficient use of ingredients. But there is also a running commentary on the way society functioned, what was considered proper and the roles men and women played in daily life.
In many ways we find comfort in these books. They take us back to when we were kids. We can taste and smell our old world, long past. The weight on the pressure cooker rattling away still holds the promise of a wonderful meal made from the cheapest cuts of meat. Those cookies from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book still taste just as sweet as they did when I was a young. In fact, I just made a batch of Butterscotch Lace Cookies from it today.
I'm looking forward to reading your posts. I just stumbled across this site this evening. As much as I enjoy some of the recipes from the big name cooking stars, I still prefer to cook the old recipes from the old books. And I don't have to try to find all sorts of exotic ingredients to do it, either. As to what I'd like to know, well, anything I don't and that covers a lot of ground.
One thing that I know most people aren't real familiar with now is the use of offal. I grew up eating blood sausage, neckbones, oxtails, kidneys, tongue, heart, brains and pretty much every sort of meat product that most would never touch today. That was because it was cheap and my parents and other family members liked it, most likely because it was the food they ate out of necessity and tradition.
My grandmother was required to attend classes on how to properly run the home she ran with my grandfather, a career Naval chief. As a result, she was taught to plan her menus for the month. This required her to start, for example, with a veal roast for Sunday supper. The leftovers would be turned into multiple meals - soup with meat, vegetables and dumplings; noodles with leftover meat and sauce; shepherds pie. Every meal had a main, two vedge, and dessert. Before I started school, she allowed me to play with her former box of coupons and wartime ration booklets. Seeing the unredeemed tickets for big steaks always made me wonder - why did she save them up before the war ended and they became useless? “Something so precious was worth waiting for and dreaming about,” she said.
I love her approach to make that meat stretch through the entire week. That is so smart! I love that she let you play with the box of coupons and ration booklets. They'd be perfect for playing "shop" with. What wonderful memories, thank you so much for sharing!
Have you ever seen the British tv series on farm life in different time periods by historian Ruth Goodman? The ‘Wartime farm’ year has a wealth of info which we could all use. Good luck, looking forward to your stack!
Thank you! It takes real skill to plan meals around low or no-waste cooking and cooking seasonally, doesn't it? I'm still learning, but wartime cookbooks are a great resource for that!
At this point it's probably eggless cooking and baking 😅
I've been thinking about that. I'm working on a blog post now!
I occasionally look through the few wartime cooking booklets I have, and while I'm tempted to try some of the recipes, I notice that some of the ingredients are not common, or no longer a thing. So my question: "How can we make thrifty substitutions for our modern kitchens?"
It's something I will probably look into, but I think it would be a handy resource for a lot of people.
Yes, I 100% agree! Some of the ingredients don't translate very well to our modern palettes. I'm curious which ingredients in particular stood out to you? Everyone's upbringing and tastes are different, so what would stand out to you from wartime might not be something that I would notice in the same way. Thank you for your question. I think it's a great one that I'm happy to look more into!
I went back and looked through one of my booklets. I thought I remembered more "odd" ingredients. Soya (flour, dried beans, etc) is the main one. Other things I ask myself:
Is All Bran the same as the cereal? Is it still made?
How do the packaging sizes compare to now? (Ex one can of salmon. One box of gelatin. One yeast cake (and the dry equivalent)
Are the cuts of meat different, or known by different names?
Why is there SO much corn syrup, and what can we use?
That said, quite a few of the meals look pretty tasty. They aren't "fancy" or trendy, but good for families.
So many great questions! Any recipe that uses soya flour is one of those that I skip. I'm just not a fan. I made a wonky wartime "soya fudge" recipe that tasted like grass. It was so gross. Haha! I also like how so many of the wartime recipes are easy meals with simple ingredients. It's also easy to modify many of them to personal taste, especially because a lot of them didn't believe in using many herbs. Ha!
Here are some quick answers to your questions:
- For All Bran cereal, just use any bran flakes cereal. It doesn't really matter as long as they're not sugar coated.
- Very good point about package sizes. They were different back then. That's something that takes a bit more study.
- I translate 1 yeast cake to 1 packet of yeast, or 2 1/2 tsp. loose yeast. This has worked great for me.
- As far as I know, the cuts of meat are the same. I have a number of cookbooks that show the cuts of meat so that's something that's easy to check.
- Corn syrup was a plentiful wartime sugar replacement, but it's the least sweet out of all the sugar replacements. They recommend for baking to only use half corn syrup half sugar for the best results. (And adjust the liquid.)
If you want, I can focus some posts on some of these specific topics in more detail!
An easy one my mother used to make was spaghetti and stewed tomatoes. Vegetable, bean, or lentil soups are also easy, versatile meals. That's just off the top of my head. If you still have parents or grandparents who lived through those times, ask them for their stories and recipes.
I’ve stocked up on beans and rice. Currently going through cookbooks for more traditional meatless recipes. Trying to experiment while I have the luxury of abundance. Curious about recommendations for stored milk (powdered vs. evaporated) and general storage recommendations. How to keep flour fresh and best bang for the buck on pantry items.
Perfect timing! I'm putting together posts about powdered & evaporated milk and meat alternative recipes! Thanks for your other questions. I'll add those to my list!
The Caribbean runs on rice and beans. Ask me how I know. 😉 🇵🇷
Rice and beans are the best! So satisfying! ☺️
My wife and I are in our mid 60's. Our parents lived through the Depression and WW2. We both grew up with close family members that were born in the 1890's. I knew my great grandma and she was born in the late 1860's.
They do live a long time in this family.
Anyway, I was raised eating and cooking foods that came from this history. We ate well but it was seldom fancy. My family put up food in their root cellars, put their clothes on clothes lines and cooked most everything from scratch. We used cast iron skillets and pressure cookers. And, quite honestly, we weren't that different from most of the families in our suburban neighborhood.
My wife and I still live that way. We have large gardens and grow and preserve a fair amount of the food we eat. And I collect cook books.
We have a number of original WW2 era books and reprints of both U.S. and British government gardening books from the era. We've used them for years as both a source of information and enjoyment. The rest of my collection spans, mostly, from the very early 20th century to about the mid '70's. We cook from them regularly.
There is much history to be gleaned from those old books. Ideas about nutrition and efficient use of ingredients. But there is also a running commentary on the way society functioned, what was considered proper and the roles men and women played in daily life.
In many ways we find comfort in these books. They take us back to when we were kids. We can taste and smell our old world, long past. The weight on the pressure cooker rattling away still holds the promise of a wonderful meal made from the cheapest cuts of meat. Those cookies from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book still taste just as sweet as they did when I was a young. In fact, I just made a batch of Butterscotch Lace Cookies from it today.
I'm looking forward to reading your posts. I just stumbled across this site this evening. As much as I enjoy some of the recipes from the big name cooking stars, I still prefer to cook the old recipes from the old books. And I don't have to try to find all sorts of exotic ingredients to do it, either. As to what I'd like to know, well, anything I don't and that covers a lot of ground.
One thing that I know most people aren't real familiar with now is the use of offal. I grew up eating blood sausage, neckbones, oxtails, kidneys, tongue, heart, brains and pretty much every sort of meat product that most would never touch today. That was because it was cheap and my parents and other family members liked it, most likely because it was the food they ate out of necessity and tradition.
That might be a topic to cover.
I have some resources along this line, I’ll dig them out.
In a sense, I feel like I’ve been preparing for this my whole life. I’ve had to “make do or do without” as a general rule.
It's an awesome skill to have. You never know when it will come in handy!
My grandmother was required to attend classes on how to properly run the home she ran with my grandfather, a career Naval chief. As a result, she was taught to plan her menus for the month. This required her to start, for example, with a veal roast for Sunday supper. The leftovers would be turned into multiple meals - soup with meat, vegetables and dumplings; noodles with leftover meat and sauce; shepherds pie. Every meal had a main, two vedge, and dessert. Before I started school, she allowed me to play with her former box of coupons and wartime ration booklets. Seeing the unredeemed tickets for big steaks always made me wonder - why did she save them up before the war ended and they became useless? “Something so precious was worth waiting for and dreaming about,” she said.
I love her approach to make that meat stretch through the entire week. That is so smart! I love that she let you play with the box of coupons and ration booklets. They'd be perfect for playing "shop" with. What wonderful memories, thank you so much for sharing!
Must read: How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher
Have you ever seen the British tv series on farm life in different time periods by historian Ruth Goodman? The ‘Wartime farm’ year has a wealth of info which we could all use. Good luck, looking forward to your stack!
Thank you, and yes! I absolutely ADORE Ruth Goodman. Wartime Farm is wonderful. I enjoyed Edwardian Farm too. So many amazing things to learn!
Is the podcast done in an AI voice? That’s a skip for me. I can read it though.
Oh, absolutely not. It's 100% me doing all the talking! ☺️
It's on my TBR list!
Thank you! It takes real skill to plan meals around low or no-waste cooking and cooking seasonally, doesn't it? I'm still learning, but wartime cookbooks are a great resource for that!