Part 1 (1/2)
Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them (1918).
by C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss.
FOREWORD
Food will win the war, and the nation whose food resources are best conserved will be the victor. This is the truth that our government is trying to drive home to every man, woman and child in America. We have always been happy in the fact that ours was the richest nation in the world, possessing unlimited supplies of food, fuel, energy and ability; but rich as these resources are they will not meet the present food shortage unless every family and every individual enthusiastically co-operates in the national saving campaign as outlined by the United States Food Administration.
The regulations prescribed for this saving campaign are simple and easy of application. Our government does not ask us to give up three square meals a day--nor even one. All it asks is that we subst.i.tute as far as possible corn and other cereals for wheat, reduce a little our meat consumption and save sugar and fats by careful utilization of these products.
There are few housekeepers who are not eager to help in this saving campaign, and there are few indeed who do not feel the need of conserving family resources. But just how is sometimes a difficult task.
This book is planned to solve the housekeeper's problem. It shows how to subst.i.tute cereals and other grains for wheat, how to cut down the meat bill by the use of meat extension and meat subst.i.tute dishes which supply equivalent nutrition at much less cost; it shows the use of syrup and other products that save sugar, and it explains how to utilize all kinds of fats. It contains 47 recipes for the making of war breads; 64 recipes on low-cost meat dishes and meat subst.i.tutes; 54 recipes for sugarless desserts; menus for meatless and wheatless days, methods of purchasing--in all some two hundred ways of meeting present food conditions at minimum cost and without the sacrifice of nutrition.
Not only have its authors planned to help the woman in the home, conserve the family income, but to encourage those saving habits which must be acquired by this nation if we are to secure a permanent peace that will insure the world against another onslaught by the Prussian military powers.
A little bit of saving in food means a tremendous aggregate total, when 100,000,000 people are doing the saving. One wheatless meal a day would not mean hards.h.i.+p; there are always corn and other products to be used. Yet one wheatless meal a day in every family would mean a saving of 90,000,000 bushels of wheat, which totals 5,400,000,000 lbs.
Two meatless days a week would mean a saving of 2,200,000 lbs. of meat per annum. One teaspoonful of sugar per person saved each day would insure a supply ample to take care of our soldiers and our Allies.
These quant.i.ties mean but a small individual sacrifice, but when multiplied by our vast population they will immeasurably aid and encourage the men who are giving their lives to the n.o.ble cause of humanity on which our nation has embarked.
_The Authors._
FOODS THAT WILL WIN THE WAR
SAVE WHEAT
_REASONS WHY OUR GOVERNMENT ASKS US TO SAVE WHEAT, WITH PRACTICAL RECIPES FOR THE USE OF OTHER GRAINS_
A slice of bread seems an unimportant thing. Yet one good-sized slice of bread weighs an ounce. It contains almost three-fourths of an ounce of flour.
If every one of the country's 20,000,000 homes wastes on the average only one such slice of bread a day, the country is throwing away daily over 14,000,000 ounces of flour--over 875,000 pounds, or enough flour for over a million one-pound loaves a day. For a full year at this rate there would be a waste of over 319,000,000 pounds of flour--1,500,000 barrels--enough flour to make 365,000,000 loaves.
As it takes four and one-half bushels of wheat to make a barrel of ordinary flour, this waste would represent the flour from over 7,000,000 bushels of wheat. Fourteen and nine-tenths bushels of wheat on the average are raised per acre. It would take the product of some 470,000 acres just to provide a single slice of bread to be wasted daily in every home.
But some one says, ”a full slice of bread is not wasted in every home.” Very well, make it a daily slice for every four or every ten or every thirty homes--make it a weekly or monthly slice in every home--or make the wasted slice thinner. The waste of flour involved is still appalling. These are figures compiled by government experts, and they should give pause to every housekeeper who permits a slice of bread to be wasted in her home.
Another source of waste of which few of us take account is home-made bread. Sixty per cent. of the bread used in America is made in the home. When one stops to consider how much home-made bread is poorly made, and represents a large waste of flour, yeast and fuel, this housewifely energy is not so commendable. The bread flour used in the home is also in the main wheat flour, and all waste of wheat at the present time increases the shortage of this most necessary food.
Fuel, too, is a serious national problem, and all coal used in either range, gas, or electric oven for the baking of poor bread is an actual national loss. There must be no waste in poor baking or from poor care after the bread is made, or from the waste of a crust or crumb.
Waste in your kitchen means starvation in some other kitchen across the sea. Our Allies are asking for 450,000,000 bushels of wheat, and we are told that even then theirs will be a privation loaf. Crop shortage and unusual demand has left Canada and the United States, which are the largest sources of wheat, with but 300,000,000 bushels available for export. The deficit must be met by reducing consumption on this side the Atlantic. This can be done by eliminating waste and by making use of cereals and flours other than wheat in bread-making.
The wide use of wheat flour for bread-making has been due to custom.
In Europe rye and oats form the staple breads of many countries, and in some sections of the South corn-bread is the staff of life. We have only to modify a little our bread-eating habits in order to meet the present need. Other cereals can well be used to eke out the wheat, but they require slightly different handling.
In making yeast breads, the essential ingredient is gluten, which is extended by carbon dioxide gas formed by yeast growth. With the exception of rye, grains other than wheat do not contain sufficient gluten for yeast bread, and it is necessary to use a wheat in varying proportions in order to supply the deficient gluten. Even the baker's rye loaf is usually made of one-half rye and one-half wheat. This is the safest proportion for home use in order to secure a good texture.