We Must Eat Less Bread

From Woman’s Weekly, May 1917.

WE MUST EAT LESS BREAD. 

Unless we ration ourselves carefully at once, there will come days when there may be no bread at the bakers’.

The Food Controller appeals to every housewife to do her utmost to save on the bread allowance. This can be done if the best substitutes are used, and with little loss in food value. The following recipes are to be highly recommended, and it will be found that the food made with meal, etc., is both palatable and good.

MAIZE MEAL CAKES. 

These are quite fitted to take the place of potatoes and bread at dinner, while for breakfast and tea they are nourishing and appetising in place of bread.
One cupful of maize meal, boiling milk, a pinch of salt, a little cooking butter, one small egg, a little standard flour. 
Put two cupfuls of milk on to heat; when boiling pour it over the meal and stir well with a wooden spoon till it thickens. Add a pinch of salt and about half an ounce of cooking butter, still stirring the mixture over a good heat. When the butter is well mixed in take the pan from the fire, let the meal cool a little, then mix in the well-beaten egg, and enough wheaten flour to stiffen the mixture to a paste. Turn it on to a floured board, roll it evenly to not more than half an inch in thickness. Mark out the paste with round cutters or a tumbler, put them on a well-floured tin and bake in a fairly hot oven until nicely firm.

Here is another much simpler recipe.

 FLAKED MAIZE SHAPES. 

These should be served as the vegetable with meat, vegetarian, and fish dishes, and will be found quite as nourishing. Bread, of course, will not be needed either.
Half a pound of flaked maize, about a pint and a half of water, salt, dripping for frying.
Put the water on to boil, with half a level teaspoonful of salt. When quite boiling sprinkle in the maize and stir with a wooden spoon all the time. Cook steadily till the mixture is thick and solid enough to turn on to a plate. Allow it to cool; it can then be cut in small rounds for frying in the dripping.
The maize can be cooked and cooled in fairly large quantities, sufficient to make cakes for several days.
Many have already given up using maize, as they cannot get used to the flavour, others have persevered and now have taken a real liking to it, and are learning the most practical methods of using it as a substitute.

BARLEY FLOUR BREAD. 

Equal parts of barley and wheat flour give an excellent loaf. The meal can be bought at several of the large stores, but at present it is not plentiful. When you can get it, use it as follows:
Half a pound of barley flour, half a pound of wheat flour, half to one ounce of yeast, a teaspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of sugar, warm water to mix. 
Rub the yeast and sugar together; add a tablespoonful of tepid water, cover it and set to rise in a warm place. Mix the flour; when the yeast has frothed pour it into a well in the centre of the flour, sprinkle a little flour over it, and the salt round the edges. Put in a warm place. When the yeast has cracked through the flour, mix in enough tepid water to make a dough. Knead this well till it is smooth and elastic, then place the basin in a warm place, cover it, and leave till the dough is double the size. Knead again, make into loaves, let these stand again in the warm for about twenty minutes. Bake in a very quick oven at first, then finish in a cooler part. The loaves are done when they sound hollow on being tapped.

SIMPLE OAT ROUNDS.

The egg here gives additional nourishment; it can be left out for a plainer make that can appear at each meal to save the bread.
Three and a half ounces of medium oatmeal, two ounces of lard or cooking butter, a quarter of a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda, two and a half ounces of wheat flour, one small egg, half an ounce of sugar, if liked.
Put the flour, meal, and sugar into a basin. Mix them well. Melt the butter or lard, and stir it into the flour, etc., with the slightly beaten egg, and just a little water to bring the mixture to a stiff paste. Turn it on to a floured board, roll it out thinly, cut into rounds, and bake on a greased tin for ten minutes in a hot oven.

PLAIN OATEN BUNS. 

Four ounces of fine oatmeal, two ounces of cooking butter, lard or dripping, four ounces of wheat flour, one ounce of sugar, one small egg, one teaspoonful of baking powder, milk to mix. 
Rub the fat into the meal and flour, mixing these two together thoroughly. Beat up the egg, stir in the sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the egg and enough milk to form a stiff dough. Turn this on to the board, sifted with meal. Roll it out and cut in eight pieces. Form these into balls and bake on a greased tin for ten minutes. A quick oven will be needed.

IT IS A CRIME TO WASTE A SLICE OF BREAD. Save it in every possible way. Do not have it brought to your table in slices; the slice that is left often goes to the dustbin. Have the loaf on the table, then each can cut as much as he or she needs and no more. If the well-to-do and the sedentary worker will REDUCE THEIR CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT-BREAD BY 1 LB. PER HEAD PER WEEK, the food problem is well on the way to solution.