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 Food History and Food Lore from Food Fun and Facts

Food History and Food Lore

The following was published by the U.S Food Administration during World War 1 for distribution to the general public. I think you will find it fascinating and still useful to an extent! WIN THE WAR BY GIVING YOUR OWN DAILY SERVICE!

SAVE THE WHEAT:
One whittles meal a day. Use corn, oatmeal, rye or barley bread and non wheat breakfast foods. Order bread 24 hours in advance so your baker will not bake beyond his needs. Cut the loaf on the table and only as required. Use stale bread for cooking, toast, etc. Eat less cake and pastry. Our wheat harvest is far below normal. If each person weekly saves one pound of wheat flour, that means 150,000,000 more bushels of wheat for the allies to mix in their bread. This will help them save democracy.


SAVE THE MEAT:
Beef, mutton, or pork not more than once a day. Use freely vegetables and fish. At the meat meal serve smaller portions, and stews instead of steaks. Make made dishes of all left-overs. Do this and there will be meat enough for everyone at a reasonable cost. We are today killing the dairy cows and female calves as the
result of high prices. Therefore, eat less and no young meat. If we save an ounce of meat each day per person, we will have additional supply equal to 2,200, 000 cattle!

SAVE THE MILK:
The children must have milk. Use buttermilk and sour milk for
 cooking and making cottage cheese. Use less cream.


SAVE THE FATS:
We are the world's greatest fat wasters. Fat is food. Butter is essential for the growth and health of children. Use butter on the table as usual but not in cooking.  Other fats are good. Reduce use of fried foods. Soap contains fats. Do not waste it. Make your own washing soap at home out of saved fats. Use 1/3 ounce less per day of animal fat and 375,000 tons will be saved yearly!


SAVE THE SUGAR:
Sugar is scarcer. We have used 3 times as much
a person as our allies. So there may be enough for all at reasonable price; use less candy and sweet drinks. Do not stint sugar in putting up fruits and jams. They will save better. If everyone in American saves one ounce of sugar daily, it means 1,100,000 tons for the year!


SAVE THE FUEL:
Coal comes from a distance and our railways are overburdened hauling war material. Help relieve them by burning fewer fires. Use wood when you can get it.


USE PERISHABLE FOODS:
Fruits and vegetables we have in abundance. As a nation we eat too little green stuffs.  Double their use and improve your health. Store potatoes and other roots  properly and they will keep.  Begin now to can or dry all surplus garden products.

USE LOCAL SUPPLIES:
Patronize your local producer. Distance means money. Buy perishable food from the neighborhood nearest you and thus save.


GENERAL HINTS:
Buy less, serve smaller portions.
Preach the "gospel of the clean plate."
Don't eat a fourth meal. Don't limit the plain food of growing children.  Watch out for the wastes in the community. Full garbage pails in America means empty dinner pails elsewhere. The more fortunate of our people will avoid waste and eat  
no more than they need; the high cost of living problem of the less fortunate will be solved.

The above information comes from a 1918 book,
LIPPENCOTTS'S HOME MANUALS; The Business of the Household by C.W. Taber. Even though this was written nearly 100 years ago, and during World War 1, much of the information is practical, common sense.



Food Timeline



Bon Appetit!: Musical Food Fun
  Bon Appetit, follows the Fink/Marxer formula by deftly dipping into a range of genres that includes swing, samba, and show tunes and brightly making their points to young children Fun for the under 7 set
 Listen to a song!  Order Today and Save!



"The Cooks Oracle  1821"
"Remember to excite the good opinion of the eye
is the first step towards awakening the appetite."




On this day in America







Word of the Day  Fun and Games


Old Advertisements from the 1800's and Early 1900's!
Some nice pictures-Click Here!


"No where is the stomach of the traveller or visitor put in such constant peril as among the cake inventive housewives and daughters of New England.  Such is the universal attention paid to this particular branch of epicurism in these states, that I greatly suspect that some of the Pilgrim Fathers must have come over to the country with the Cookery book under one arm and the Bible under the other."
Said Charles Joseph Latrobe 1836, taken from The Yankee Kitchen Cookbook 1969


Could you eat a Guinea Pig?

Not me, but a 16th Century painting shows Christ feasting
on Guinea Pig and corn beer!



The first bubble gum ever marketed was called "Blibber-Blubber."
Manufactured by the Frank Fleer Corp. 1906, it was never
a hit with the public. The bubbles would burst into sticky
fragments all over the chewer's face!




Want to learn how to milk a cow?
How to Make Butter?
What to do with the milk from
the cow you just milked?
Click Here!


1918 Weekly Food Budget

BELOW IS THE WEEKLY FOOD LIST:

$2.50 FOR GRAIN FOODS
$2.00 FOR MILK
$2.00 FOR MEAT, EGGS AND FISH
2.00 FOR FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
$1.50 FOR FATS, SUGAR AND MISCELLANEOUS!
From LIPPENCOTT'S HOME MANUALS
"THE BUSINESS OF THE HOUSEHOLD BY C.W. TABER, PUBLISHED IN 1918


1971  Weekly Food Budget
In 1970-1971, a family of 4 could eat very well on a grocery budget of about $45-$50 a week!  
That would include steaks, chops and seafood, too!  The average rent or mortgage was $120-$175 a month.  The average income was $125-$200 a week.

Quite a difference from the early 1970's to the early 2000's!
Now, 2002/2003, a family of 4 can eat only fairly well on a weekly budget  of $150...But only if  coupons are used, and items are bought when on sale.  Seafood and steaks are now considered luxury items for most low to middle income people. The average rent or mortgage is now $1000 to $1500 a month.  The average income is  $400-$475 a week.  Seems to me food prices have quadrupled and the mortgage or  rents have increased 10 fold..However, looks to me like the wages have only a little more than doubled.



The Meaning of Anadama Bread and Recipe


 


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