Over the weekend, I found myself mesmerized by some World War 2 cooking and gardening films, the kind produced by government agencies in the UK, the US, and Canada. I'm interested in history, of course, but more interested in how ordinary people lived through extraordinary times. During WW2, British, American, and Canadian governments examined how citizens had been eating prior to the war and identified weak nutritional areas for some of the demographics groups. They took a fairly scientific approach in determining what foods should be suggested for society-wide consumption and how they should be prepared. Working within the confines of wide-scale shortages in some food groups, government agencies made suggestions and created recipes for the foods that would be needed to keep a society strong and healthy. (We've all heard about ration books intended to ensure everyone has an equal chance to buy foods in limited supply.)
In one film, the narrator highlighted a community kitchen in England that prepared the midday meal for a nursery, a school, and a community center for adults. The menu for all of the groups overlapped, but was slightly adjusted for different nutritional needs and tastes of the different groups. On one particular day, the kitchen was preparing what they called Wartime Steaks. One of the foods that grew well in the English climate and soil was carrots. Carrots were pushed for every meal, sometimes just as is, but other times "hidden" to stretch other, limited foods.
Wartime Steaks incorporated grated carrot with ground meat, whole wheat bread crumbs, and minced onions, forming and cooking in small steak-sized patties. You and I might call these meatloaf patties, hamburger steaks or Salisbury steak. What makes the Wartime Steak differ from my own Salisbury steak recipe is the addition of grated carrot. Once cooked, the carrot disappears. But I do think it adds moisture as well as extra nutrients.
Anyway, I made a batch over the weekend for us to use in our lunches. I used 1 pound of ground beef, 1 carrot, 1 thick slice of whole wheat bread, 1/2 onion, 1 clove garlic, salt, pepper, a dash of beef bouillon, making 8 patties at a cost of about 38 cents per patty. Each patty, then, uses about 2 ounces of meat. That's about how much meat I might choose to use in meat-based sandwiches at lunch time. I imagine the community kitchen baked these, as they cooked for many. I, however, skillet-fried them, saving the beef fat to use in cooking later. My family loved these and said they were far better than any sandwich made with lunchmeat.
There are several other recipes I saw that I will give a try in the coming days or weeks. The many good tips and ideas for stretching more expensive foods apply today, too.
