A case for historical cooking

Why cook the food of the World Wars? Many may still remember the period as a dark time of scarcity—even starvation. A worldwide moment of gastronomic and emotional suffering. But I believe that World War cookery has much to teach, especially in today’s economic and environmental climate. During both World Wars, on all belligerent home fronts, households faced rationing and absences of crucial items. Their innovations and adaptations may help us conceive of new ways to change the way we buy, cook and eat.

The cookbooks themselves are fascinating. In the coming weeks I will be preparing recipes from Better Meals for Less Money (1917), Everyday Foods in Wartime (1918), Foods that Will Win the War and How to Cook Them (1918), Recettes de Cuisine et Conseils Ménagers en Période de Restrictions (1940), A Kitchen Goes to War: A Ration-Time Cookery Book with 150 Recipes (1940), So kochen wir heute (1940), 300 Sugar Saving Recipes (1942), Victory Vitamin Cook Book for Wartime Meals (1943). And many more.

The World War period was a time during which theories about health, nutrition and efficiency were revolutionized. For our own darkened economic moment, wartime cooking encourages us to cook without wasting, and always on a budget.

For the curious epicure, historical cooking is a new frontier. Instead of preparing foreign cuisines whose ingredients may be expensive or hard to find, step back in time and experiment with edible history from fifty and a hundred years ago.

Cooking is always historical. Family recipe books make this clear. But few of us actively associate food and history in the kitchen. The Victory Kitchen is an attempt to make this link conscious, educational, and fun.

About our name. All nations’ wartime propaganda linked household activities—and cooking in particular—to the success of the war effort. Today, victory gardens are back in style (see Michael Pollan’s article “Farmer in Chief” in the 12 October 2008 New York Times Magazine), but the victory kitchen has been forgotten.