Despite doing this research over ten years, I can still be surprised every now and then.
I will be taking a book repair course in a few weeks, and decided to take down a book from our collection to see what can be done with it. It is “The Art of Cooking and Serving” from 1930. It was given to my wife’s great-aunt for her wedding in 1931, and passed down to my wife in 1991. I had not given it much thought since then, but while looking through the book, there was a recipe for “war cookies” clipped and inserted.
And gosh ding it, there was Greg on the back of it.
Looking into it, it is from the May 1, 1943 Star Weekly. The article is called “Oats are Strength!” from the Star Weekly Kitchen, and since this is war time, recipes during rationing are highlighted.
On the next page is “Expected Guest”, which I have published before, and though it is a propaganda piece for War Bonds, I like it since the last line hits so hard.
Since I do like oatmeal raisin cookies, I had to give this recipe a try.
I was a bit worried if they would spread out in the oven, but since the mixture was quite stiff at the end, this was not an issue.
Another note, the recipe says it would make 6 dozen (72!) cookies. Back then, cookies would be quite small compared to modern standards. I made them a big bigger and still ended up with 60 cookies.
The verdict: I liked them, but they were a little dry.
I’ll end this with a “Boots and Her Buddies” comic from May 15, 1928 that I happened to be reading around the same time.
