Not that I have time to read even one of these...
Project Gutenberg is one of those sites that aims to provide electronic copies of public domain works on the internet for everyone. I found a link on Wikipedia, which of course supports other public domain endeavors. While meandering through their webiste I found the Top 100 Downloaded Books. It's absolutely fascinating what people are downloading. #6 is the Kama Sutra in French. The Koran (Qur'an) is #46, while the Bible (King James Version) is #86 (it's true, they 86'd the Bible!). Many major literary works are on there: Shakepeare's Complete Works (#33), Ulysses (#13), Pride and Prejudice (#16), but I was completely surprised by the #1 most downloaded book. It's called Gordon Keith by Thomas Nelson Page. According to Wikipedia, he popularized the plantation tradition of novel writing, but Gordon Keith is not even listed among his major works. I bet the UVA people have heard of him, tho my head has clearly been lodged squarely in my Southwestern ass.
My favorite thing on the top 100 list so far is Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them by Alberta and Houston Goudiss (#9). Below is the full foreward on sugar and why to substitute it with other things like prunes, figs, and molasses. They actually make the argument that if we cut back on sugar there will be more for the Germans, and it will help us win the war because it will ruin their health. I'm considering printing the whole book out tomorrow at work and trying some of the recipes.
One ounce of sugar less per person, per day, is all our Government asks of us to meet the world sugar shortage. One ounce of sugar equals two scant level tablespoonfuls and represents a saving that every man, woman and child should be able to make. Giving up soft drinks and the frosting on our cakes, the use of sugarless desserts and confections, careful measuring and thorough stirring of that which we place in our cups of tea and coffee, and the use of syrup, molasses or honey on our pancakes and fritters will more than effect this saving.
It seems but a small sacrifice, if sacrifice it can be called, when one recognizes that cutting down sugar [pg 58] consumption will be most beneficial to national health. The United States is the largest consumer of sugar in the world. In 1916 Germany's consumption was 20 lbs. per person per year, Italy's 29 to 30 lbs., that of France 37, of England 40, while the United States averaged 85 lbs. This enormous consumption is due to the fact that we are a nation of candy-eaters. We spend annually $80,000,000 on confections. These are usually eaten between meals, causing digestive disturbances as well as unwarranted expense. Sweets are a food and should be eaten at the close of the meal, and if this custom is established during the war, not only will tons of sugar be available for our Allies, but the health of the nation improved.
The average daily consumption of sugar per person in this country is 5 ounces, and yet nutritional experts agree that not more than 3 ounces a day should be taken. The giving up of one ounce per day will, therefore, be of great value in reducing many prevalent American ailments. Flatulent dyspepsia, rheumatism, diabetes, and stomach acidity are only too frequently traced to an oversupply of sugar in our daily diet.
Most persons apparently think of sugar merely as a sweetening agent, forgetting entirely the fact that it is a most concentrated food. It belongs to what is called the carbohydrate group, upon which we largely depend for energy and heat. It is especially valuable to the person doing active physical work, the open-air worker, or the healthy, active, growing child, but should be used sparingly by other classes of people. Sugar is not only the most concentrated fuel food in the dietary, but it is one that is very readily utilized in the body, 98 per cent. of it being available for absorption, while within thirty minutes of the time it is taken into the system part of it is available for energy.
As a food it must be supplied, especially to the classes [pg 59] of people mentioned above, but as a confection it can well be curtailed. When it is difficult to obtain, housekeepers must avail themselves of changed recipes and different combinations to supply the necessary three ounces per day and to gain the much-desired sweet taste so necessary to many of our foods of neutral flavor with which sugar is usually combined.
Our grandmothers knew how to prepare many dishes without sugar. In their day lack of transportation facilities, of refining methods and various economic factors made molasses, sorghum, honey, etc., the only common methods of sweetening. But the housekeeper of to-day knows little of sweetening mediums except sugar, and sugar shortage is to her a crucial problem. There are many ways, however, of getting around sugar shortage and many methods of supplying the necessary food value and sweetening.
By the use of marmalades, jams and jellies canned during the season when the sugar supply was less limited, necessity for the use of sugar can be vastly reduced. By the addition to desserts and cereals of dried fruits, raisins, dates, prunes and figs, which contain large amounts of natural sugar, the sugar consumption can be greatly lessened. By utilizing leftover syrup from canned or preserved fruits for sweetening other fruits, and by the use of honey, molasses, maple sugar, maple syrup and corn syrup, large quantities of sugar may be saved. The substitution of sweetened condensed milk for dairy milk in tea, coffee and cocoa-in fact, in all our cooking processes where milk is required-will also immeasurably aid in sugar conservation. The substitutes mentioned are all available in large amounts. Honey is especially valuable for children, as it consists of the more simple sugars which are less irritating than cane sugar, and there is no danger of acid stomach from the amounts generally consumed.
[pg 60]
As desserts are the chief factor in the use of quantities of sugar in our diet, the appended recipes will be of value, as they deal with varied forms of nutritious, attractive sugarless desserts. It is only by the one-ounce savings of each individual member of our great one hundred million population that the world sugar shortage may be met, and it is hoped every housekeeper will study her own time-tested recipes with the view of utilizing as far as possible other forms of sweetening. In most recipes the liquid should be slightly reduced in amount and about one-fifth more of the substitute should be used than the amount of sugar called for.
With a few tests along this line one will be surprised how readily the substitution may be made. If all sweetening agents become scarce, desserts can well be abandoned. Served at the end of a full meal, desserts are excess food except in the diet of children, where they should form a component part of the meal.
PRUNE ROLL
2 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon fat
2 tablespoons sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 egg
½ lb. washed and scalded prunes, dates, figs or raisins
2 teaspoons baking powder
To prunes, add ½ cup water and soak 10 minutes. Simmer in same water until tender (about 10 minutes). Drain prunes and mash to a [pg 62] pulp. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add beaten egg and milk. Mix to a dough. Roll out thin, spread with prune pulp, sprinkle with two tablespoons sugar. Roll the mixture and place in greased baking dish. Bake 30 to 40 minutes. Take half cup of juice from prunes, add 1 tablespoon corn syrup. Bring to boiling point. Serve as sauce for prune roll.