Learning how to Cook from Scratch is one of the most important long-term survival skills you can have. As a supplement to our article on learning how to cook from scratch, I found this great cookbook from World War I, Best War Time Recipes, which was released by the Royal Baking Powder Co.
The book was released by the Royal Baking Company as a way to help with war efforts when things like wheat flour were not available because it was being shipped over to the troops.
The recipes in this book can help show you what is possible, and is a great edition to your preparedness cooking and food storage stockpile. If you are looking for something to keep at home we highly recommend the 1896 Fanny Farmers Cookbook!
Best War Time Recipes
Thanks for this–very helpful.
Looks good, simple; yet, in a SHTF scenario you will not have access to milk.
Powder milk has a long shelf life. I keep and use powder milk all the time, especially since regular milk has gotten so expensive and usually spoils a few days after we buy it. I use powder milk in making biscuits, cakes, pan cakes, corn bread, mash potatoes and in my coffee.
I have used canned milk before
Store powered milk in canning jars that are vacuum sealed.
Possibility of no gas or propane for cooking What then ? Wood?
Wood or charcoal. You should have a good hatchet and some firewood stockpiled, as well as several bags of charcoal and lighter fluid. Remember, it is beyond dangerous to cook inside unless you have a proper flu to draw the smoke outside.
Superb…and thank u
great article ….A lot of this old recipes are seared in to my brain because my mom cooked this way all her life and taught me as a kid to do so ….. there is no fine measurement to it dump a little of this a dab of that pour some what ever you got then add a pinch of salt steer it up and fry it till it’s golden brown …..I have cooked a many a meal this way with more than a few compliments on them …..oh you have to give me this recipe …..aaaaa ok I’ll wright it down for ya……people this day really do not know how to cook… and over an open fire forget it burnt city…The one thing I love about going to camp is the cooking of meal at the camp fire…..
Recipe my great grandmother clipped from a newspaper in 1931(depression)
Bean burgers
Split a bun in half
Baked beans on top
Slice of cheese
Slice of bacon
Put in the oven 350 degrees 10-15 min
We ate many fried potatoes are sandwiches when I was growing up. also. A slice of homemade bread and some hot fried potatoes make a good nutritious meal.
I found an old cookbook from the 1940’s that was wrtitten during wartimes. The recipes are interesting, delicious, and the authors assume you know the basics. So many women, aged 12-30, have no idea what it means to cream something, or how to whip without a mixer. This society has done their children no favors by letting them be willfully ignorant. It is also assumed that every ingredient available will be used! NO wasting of anything, because you might not find or be able to afford that item. The book is called: The Victoru Binding of the American Womans Cook Book. Lots of great color pics and has a forward by General Douglas MacArthur.
My bad-that is Victory Binding
I have a book similar to this it was from 1955 I love it so nice to read even tells the new bride what she needs to get her kitchen started . I never watched my mother or grandmother cook they would run me out of the kitchen but I found some of the recipe’s they cooked I just have not been able to find my mom’s wonderful lemon pie I know she started out with eggel brand milk and 3 lemon’s and her coconut cake and one more thing she cooked the best roast and her gravy it was white and we have not been able to match it I wish she would have let us in that darn kitchen. I miss both of them all the time. Mom left us suddenly we buried her on Christmas Eve 2001 then my son left sudden June 30 2005 so I know they are together he could really cook good too. During the holidays I am always reaching out to them telling them I sure could use their help I know they are laughing at me because I am not a great cook .
What folks that don’t bake or cook from scratch may not know is “graham” flour is nothing more than Red Mills Whole Wheat flour. Any whole wheat flour will do as a substitute.
Forgot to mention: This book looks rather familiar, happen to have it among others on my shelf. It was a 16th birthday gift from my great-grandmother, all those years ago.
Thank you! I have been trying to figure out what graham flour is for ages. I have really old cookbooks and I have been deciphering certain ingredients that were foreign to me. (It took a bit to figure out what mutton was too) I have been substituting whole wheat flour for graham floyr because I did not know what it was or where to find it. Glad to know I was doing it right. :)
Ha! I didn’t realize that it was just wheat flour. Thanks for the tip!
can this be purchased, or any of the other books like this on your site.
I love these! I have a huge collection I’ve copied down in a book at home. Ready for rationing, should we see it again soon!
Cooking is good training for science. The weighing, measuring, recording, experimenting, using heat, various bottles, and utensils are science. Don’t be intimidated. You are smarter than you know. If you learn to boil water you have learned something fundamental in cooking for now you have the knowledge to prepare soup. And the temperature at which a chemical boils (the boiling point of a chemical), in this case H2O, is fundamental Chemistry. It only sounds or seems difficult. I taught my child to fry an egg at age two. It’s best to indoctrinate children before they get old enough to realize that what they are doing they might fail. If you are old enough and sophisticated enough to realize you might fail it will take some courage but don’t tell anyone, getting your hands all gooey with flour and water is fun. Even a two year old knows that.
Since I’m not an egg eater and got tired of throwing away eggs, I’ve been buying powdered eggs. They’re just as good for cooking or baking. Also bought powdered scrambled eggs just in case.
Google American Indian bread, steamed bread, Dutch oven bread, Flat bread(don’t need yeast. Bread can be cooked on a stick
In the book Depression Era Recipes by Patricia R Wagner there is a chart telling what the temperatures are for moderate, hot, etc. on page 154 of the 21st printing of the book.
I think I will have a garage sell I have about 60 cook books many of them old church cook books where the ladies of the church give some of their recipe’s they gather them and make a cook book sell them for money for the church you can find some great meals in there but I just have more than I have room for. I am always picking up a cook book others laugh because I hardly ever cook.
thank you my mum and grand mother used to make these