Thrifty Cooking for Wartime, Cookbook of the Day

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Sep 3rd 2008 @ 10:00AM

I'm dipping into my stash of vintage cookbooks for today's featured volume. Written by Alice B. Winn-Smith in 1942, Thrifty Cooking for Wartime is a slim, unfancy edition that strives to help home cooks during those times when resources are limited. It's primary goal was to help World War II-era housewives keep to the pledge, "I will waste nothing." A valiant goal and one that, as food prices rise, is as applicable today as it was in the past.

This is an especially good cookbook for its time, as it doesn't include many of the canned and processed ingredients that many cookbooks from this era typically contain. It is a useful guidebook through the land of whole wheat baking, small, flavorful alternations to basic recipes and ways to use up just about everything. Winn-Smith was also sensitive to the fact that sugar would potentially be rationed (the edition I have is from the very beginning of the war) and so she uses honey, maple syrup and molasses as go-to sweeteners in her dishes.

Some of the recipes I'm interested in trying from this book include the Basic Dried Apple Cake, Steamed Squash with Creamed Peas and the Fried Onion Soup. This volume also includes tips on how to use the grease you save from cooking meat and poultry and ways in which you can use every crumb from a loaf of bread.

Filed Under: Cookbook Spotlight
Tags: Alice B. Winn-Smith, AliceB.Winn-smith, cookbook of the day, CookbookOfTheDay, thrifty cooking for wartime, ThriftyCookingForWartime

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-03-2008 @2:19PM kitchenwitch said... Ever read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"? Turn-of-the-century family in Williamsburg? Awesome description of using up every bit of the day-old bread they buy, including a sort of meatless meatloaf. I made this once - it was a bit like poultry stuffing baked into a loaf.
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