Category: Wartime provisions

Wheatless and Sugarless Wartime Cooking: Oat Flour Muffins

During the winter of 1917-1918, The Mrs. Farmer’s School of Cookery developed a collection of recipes to aid the American housewife in conserving meat, wheat, sugar and fats. These austerity recipes were tested in the school’s “Wartime Cookery” class.

The Mrs. Farmer’s School of Cookery was started in 1902 in Boston, Massachusetts. It offered classes to both gentlewomen and housewives on the rudiments of cooking and household management. The Wartime Cookery class was just one of many classes offered at the school, which later came to specialize in convalescent diets.

 
 
Fanny Farmer testing wheatless and sugarless wartime baking recipes
Mrs. Fanny Farmer testing wartime recipes

 

Here’s a recipe for oat flour muffins from Mrs. Farmer’s Wartime Cookery class. Oat flour produces a delightfully light texture in baked goods. Should you not find oat flour in your area, grind oatmeal in a coffee grinder until fine.

Oat Flour Muffins
2 1/2 cups oat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon melted shortening
Mix dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add milk, the egg, molasses and shortening. Bake in buttered gem [muffin] pans twenty-five minutes [in a medium oven]. This may be baked in a bread pan and sliced when cold.
 
Why Fast and Fermented Foods by Christine Baumgarthuber

Would you rather receive The Austerity Kitchen by email? Then sign up for my Substack.

And, if you’d like to help the Kitchen keep cookin’, please consider picking up copies of my books, Why Fast? and Fermented Foods.

Posted on by theausteritykitchen 5

From Austerity Britain: Stuffed Cabbage

Stuffed Cabbage Great Britain World War 2

During the Second World War, the British Ministry of Food dealt with food shortages by instituting a system of rationing. Each citizen was given a ration booklet, which they had to present to their local shopkeeper. In exchange for money and ration tickets, the customer would receive a set amount of food.

In Britain, as in Germany, rationing was introduced early in the war. By late January 1940 many of the more common foodstuffs required ration tickets. Bacon, butter, marmalade and eggs were just a few of the items rationed by the Ministry of Food.

But the Ministry of Food didn’t leave the citizenry unaided when it came to figuring out how to prepare the sometimes unappetizing rations. Using various media outlets to popularize recipes for making the most of one’s meager allotment, the Ministry of Food helped the British housewife become accustomed to wartime austerity. Its recipes appeared in newspapers, radio broadcasts and postings in public buildings.

Here’s a recipe for stuffed cabbage from the March 29, 1941 edition of The Times of London. The cabbage and root vegetables help extend the meat, which was one of the foods rationed during the war.

Wartime Stuffed Cabbage

1 large cabbage
1 pound cooked meat, minced
4 ounces breadcrumbs
2 or 3 carrots
1 small turnip
1 parsnip
Salt and pepper to taste

Grate the raw vegetables and mix them together with the meat and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper. Wash the cabbage and dry carefully before stuffing the mixed mince between the leaves. To make sure the leaves do not open, tie a string around the cabbage and then put it into a saucepan with a little boiling water. Put on the lid and cook steadily until tender. Save the water for soup or gravy.

 
Why Fast and Fermented Foods by Christine Baumgarthuber

Would you rather receive The Austerity Kitchen by email? Then sign up for my Substack.

And, if you’d like to help the Kitchen keep cookin’, please consider picking up copies of my books, Why Fast? and Fermented Foods.

Posted on by theausteritykitchen 0