"Harvesting" Meals from your Refrigerator

During WWI Americans voluntarily shifted enough food from our tables to increase supply of vital foods to our European Allies by 230 metric tons. Initially homemakers were urged to "fight a war against kitchen waste" with challenges that a "French family could live for a week on what is thrown out from American kitchens."

Cooks back then saved every scrap. Vegetable peelings and even the water they were cooked in were saved as the basis for soup stock. Delicious dishes were created from what might have been tossed. A cup of leftover rice is the basis for great main dish -- rice and cornmeal waffles. The last ounce of cheese grated into a white sauce turned vegetables into a creamed protein dish.

Slogans highlighted the possibilities -- then and now. "If a single ounce of food is thrown away in each of our 20,000,000 homes, nearly 1,300,000 pounds will be wasted each day." "One cup of milk saved in each of our homes is the product of 400,000 cows annually." The list of suggestions went on and on. The key is thoughtfully making the most of what they (and we) have.

Camouflage cookery was essential to success -- where bits of leftover meat are stretched with bread or vegetables into an entirely new meal. Cornstarch extended a baking batter instead of an egg and coffee is used instead of milk. The high point of these culinary concoctions is the "meat cake."

In some recipes meat is ground up and mixed with crumbs, stretching a sandwich worth's of roast beef into a meal for six. A writer for Wallaces' Farmer magazine set the gold standard for food shifting in this recipe for meat cakes where the role of the meat is filled simply with gravy. The recipe is still so good that it fooled a number of people at a cooking demonstration last Saturday in the baking lab at the Minneapolis Mill CIty Museum. And two charming young lads who watched me put it together liked it so much that they sent their mother back in to ask for the recipe. Here it is.

WWI "Meat Cakes"

2 cups bread crumbs -- either dry or stale
about 1 cup beef or chicken gravy -- low salt, but highly seasoned
for "hamburger" I use a lot of pepper. To mimic sausage add sage.
You may add other seasonings your family likes -- cumin, poultry
seasoning, maybe even a bit of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
butter for frying the cakes

Put the bread crumbs into a mixing bowl and add the gravy. Mix and let stand until the crumbs absorb all the gravy, about 10 minutes, or longer if you like. Sprinkle the baking powder over the mixture and then stir in the egg. If the mixture is too dry, add more gravy. If you don't have anymore gravy, a bit of milk will do. Form the mixture into thin patties, about a quarter of an inch think. Melt a tablespoon or so of butter in a frying pan. When the butter begins to turn bubbly, gently add the meat cakes. Fry until browned and then flip over to cook other side.

Makes 4 to 6 patties

NOTE: This recipe is an approximation. Much depends on the dryness of the bread crumbs. Fiddle with it a bit as you put it together to get the mixture to approximate hamburger or sausage meat,

Wheatless Oatmeal Cookies and Victory Cabbage

World War I food conservation measures inspired homemakers to use pantry and garden staples to maximum advantage. Instead of using precious flour, fats and sugar to make cake or pie for dessert, the clever cook served a light and satisfyingly sweet cookie instead. These crisp and chewy cookies certainly fill the bill.

Cabbage is a Midwwestern garden staple. Harvested late in the fall, folks could put the heads down in an unheated basement or root cellar for use well into the winter. Many traditional red cabbage recipes use bacon -- an important food to be shipped overseas to our soldiers and allies. The Victory Cabbage recipe below substitutes the tiniest bit of cayenne pepper and nutmeg to fill in that flavor gap. It is easy and one of the best red cabbage recipes I've ever had.

Oatmeal Crisps

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons melted butter or other fat

1 cup Quaker Old Fashioned oats

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat egg until thick and lemon colored and add sugar gradually. The mixture will look almost like cake frosting. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop teaspoons of mixture on well greased baking sheet about 1 inch apart and spread into circular shape with knife dipped into cold water. Bake until just lightly browned, about 8 to 12 minutes. Watch carefully, they can burn quickly. Cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet then carefully lift off and place on wire rack. Enjoy plain or sandwich two together with date filling. Store cookies in a dry place. Makes about 30 single cookies or 15 filled with date filling

Filling for Oatmeal Crisps

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

4 ounces chopped dates or figs

Combine sugar and water in a medium sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Add dates or figs and cook, stirring, until mixture thickens. Cool and put spoonful of mixture between cookies and press firmly together. Store leftover filling in refrigerator and serve as a jam or mix with cream cheese for a WWI-style sandwich filling for whole wheat bread.

Victory Cabbage

4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon minced onion

1/16 teaspoon nutmeg

1/16 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Soak the cabbage briefly in cold water. Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the onion and seasonings and cook until the onion is transparent, stirring frequently. Drain the cabbage and add to the frying pan carefully as the water clinging to the shreds will tend to spatter. Cover and cook over low heat until the cabbage is tender, about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Remove lid, add the vinegar and sugar, stir well and cook for 5 more minutes.

Copyright 2010 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved