Awesome Cook Book - Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them (1918)

Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them (1918)

by: C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss 

I was blog surfing this past weekend and I found the most awesome cook book.  I went back to see if I could find the blog who spoke of this book first and I am sorry, but I can't find it.  This book  was written in 1918, during World War I.  You can get it for free here.  I downloaded it as html and then copied it to a Microsoft Word document.  Then I went through and reformatted it with correct page breaks and such.  I had to go back and change the page numbers in the Table of Contents and I set it to have page numbers on the bottom of the page.  Then I put it in page protectors and put them in a binder.  Then I labeled the binder. This way I will have it to use as a reference and as a real cookbook.  I also have it on my computer downloaded as an adobe e-reader file but if we don't have power then it will be difficult to use my computer so a hard copy is more practical.

Let me tell you about this cookbook.  The premise of the cookbook was to help US homes save rations during the WAR.  The government wanted to be able to send more rations over to Europe to help those who were starving because of the War.  Our government asked us to Save Wheat, Save Meat, Save Sugar, Save Fat, and Save Food. The cookbook is divided into these sections.

In the "Save Wheat" section alternative grains are highlighted and recipes are given using these alternative grains.  There are some great recipes using cornmeal, oats, barley, rye, and potatoes.  A wonderful basic bread recipe is given too.  (I will expand on this recipe in another post.)

In the "Save Meat" section you will find a couple charts with different cuts of beef, uses for other parts of animals, and a comparison chart of meat and meat substitutes.  There are many recipes for economical dishes, fish dishes, and cheese dishes.

The "Save Sugar" section has a wonderful recipe for wheatless and sugarless cake, sugarless candies, and preserves too.

The "Save Fat" section teaches us to render the fat in foods and how to clarify and save it.  It also has many recipes to use the rendered fat.

I think the "Save Food" section was the most interesting to read.  I love that not only are there a bunch of recipes to use leftovers but also a calorie chart and a section with several menus for wheatless days, meatless days, and lists of meat substitute dinners and vegetable dinners.

I can see me using this cookbook to help plan for using my long term storage, and to learn how to conserve and save my wheat, meats, sugar, and fats. We don't generally have meatless meals here in our home.  My husband loves his meat!  But this cookbook will be helpful in working some of these meals into our "repertoire".  I also love the various recipes for grains.  There is a potato bread, potato pancakes, oatmeal breads and mixed grain breads.  From an historical point of view, this cookbook explains so much, like, why my grandparents loved rye bread.  They were born around this time period so they probably grew up with their mom's baking rye breads.  There are so many other recipes that I recognized.

My only criticism is that some of the items in the cookbook are not called that any more.  I have a few things I need to research before putting this book on the shelf and calling it ready to use.  What is a mapline?  What is sweet milk?  and What is salad dressing? Is that mayonnaise or real salad dressing?

I will give you one thing I have found out.  A cake of yeast is about 2 1/4 teaspoons of active yeast. :)

PS:  This review is completely my own.  No one asked me to review this book and no one is paying me.  The book is free and I personally recommend you download it and check it out.  It won't cost you a penny. Let me know how you like it and what you think of the cookbook.