World War I Cranberry Conserve Recipe

I wanted to to find a cranberry recipe for Thanksgiving that was slight twist on the traditional cranberry sauce. I found this recipe for Cranberry Conserve from the book Conservation Recipes (1917) by the Mobilized Women of Berkeley.

During World War I, food rationing in the United States was largely voluntary, spearheaded by the U.S. Food Administration under Herbert Hoover. Americans were encouraged to conserve food to support troops and allies overseas. Campaigns promoted "Meatless Mondays" and "Wheatless Wednesdays," urging citizens to reduce consumption of staples like meat, wheat, sugar, and fats. The government emphasized personal responsibility through slogans like "Food Will Win the War" and encouraged growing "victory gardens" to supplement household food supplies. While rationing wasn't mandatory, the widespread participation showcased a spirit of patriotism and unity on the home front.

The "Mobilized Women of Berkeley" formed during the war to coordinate the efforts of local women in supporting the war. They organized food drives, produced clothing and supplies for soldiers, and ran community initiatives like war bond campaigns and conservation education. This group became a powerful example of grassroots activism, demonstrating how women could unify to address the needs of both the war effort and their local community.

Conservation Recipes, 1917

World War I Cranberry Conserve

Ingredients:

- 4 Cups Cranberries
- 1 Cup of Walnuts
- 1 1/2 Cups Water
- 3 Cups Sugar or Brown Sugar
- 2 1/4 Cups of Raisins

- The Juice of 1 Orange

Instructions:

1. Rinse the cranberries and place in a saucepan on medium heat with the water until the cranberries burst (about 5 minutes.

2. Add the walnuts, sugar, raisins, and orange juice.

1. Rinse the cranberries and place in a large pan on medium heat with the water until the cranberries burst (about 5 minutes). You may want to cover your pot loosely to prevent splashes. 

2. If you picked your own cranberries, now is the time to carefully strain out any leaves, and twigs that might be present. If your cranberries are pre-cleaned move on to step 3.

3. Reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the walnuts, sugar, raisins, and orange juice. Stir occasionally. 

4. Cook for 25 minutes, uncovered or until thick.

5. Pour into sterilized canning jars. 

Conservation Recipes, 1917

You might think that 3 cups of sugar is decadent for a conservation recipe but this recipe makes about 64 ounces of conserve.  Jellies, jams, and conserves stretched far and were used to help make substitute breads and meats more palatable. 

The only change I made to this recipe was adding the rasped orange rind. I didn't want it to go to waste. After Thanksgiving I'm planning on using the leftovers to make Cranberry Cream Cheese and Cranberry horseradish sauce.  

World War 2 Era Butterscotch Pecan Rolls

 

Wait, there's not even butterscotch in this recipe! Oh yeah, forgot you can make that yourself. I made these for an event some time ago and the plate barely hit the table before they all disappeared. The beauty of this recipe is that it uses baking powder instead of yeast, which reduces the rise time. The recipe is also versatile. Lard, shortening or butter can be used as the fat and nuts can be omitted or substituted with raisins or dried fruit pieces. 

Biscuit Dough

- 2 Cups sifted Flour

- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder

- 1/2 teaspoon Salt

- 4 Tablespoons Butter or Shortening

- 3/4 Cups Milk

Filling:

- 1/3 Cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed

- 3 Tablespoons Butter 

- 1/2 Cup Chopped Pecans + Extra for garnish 

Preheat the oven to 375 ° F.  Mix flour, salt and baking powder and sift. Cut in the butter or shortening and add milk slowly until a dough is formed. Flour your hands and knead for 30 seconds or until all is combined. Roll out on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet until the dough is a rectangle about 1/8 of an inch thick.

Cream together  the filling butter, sugar and pecans and spread in an even layer over the top. Leave a little empty at the end so there is room for the filling to move around. Starting at one end, roll the dough into a loaf and cut the loaf into 1 inch slices. Lay the slices on a clean piece of parchment on a baking sheet, leaving space between each roll. Bake for 22-26 minutes or until the edges are brown. Remove from the oven and top with the extra pecans.   

This recipe is from 10 Steps to Perfect Baking (1937.)  

Clarissa Dillon on Thinking Outside the Book

 

I came across this webinar by Clarissa Dillon on researching beyond using recipes. Recipes do not give the full picture of prevalence, who ate it, who cooked it, or if these recipes were altered due to need or desire. 

Webinar was hosted by the Historic Foodways of the Delaware Valley. 

"Mostly Dutch" | Civil War Era Sauerkraut Recipe

 Jun 27. Marched today by the following name towns 1stWaynesboro, 2ndDunoy, 3rd Funkstown 4th Fayettsville & stopped at Greenwood for the night. Hard looking crowd in this country, mostly dutch. Cloudy this afternoon.

- R.T. Douglass, Co. F, 47th Va.

The Wisconsin Farmer, 1863

In the 1860s, sauerkraut was known to prevent scurvy and was seen as a necessary component of the diet of soldiers.1  Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art (1852) claimed it was a "certain cure for cholera," although we know this is not true.2  There was a call in newspapers for women at home to can sauerkraut to send to the soldiers to prevent diseases. Typical recipes from the time call for sauerkraut to be boiled with beef or other cuts of meat. 

Sauerkraut held strong associations with Germany as it still does today.  Although no official count exists, it is estimated that 216,000 union soldiers were German immigrants and another 250,000 were first-generation immigrants from Germany. There were even a number of German-Americans fighting in the Confederate army. They were frequently referred to as "Dutch".

If you want to make this 100% authentic, there are a variety of heirloom cabbage seeds you can still get today that were grown in the 1860s. The Late Flat Dutch variety is dated back before the 1830s and is valued for sauerkraut. The Brunswick is another early variety that is suitable. I had a lot of fun trying to make this the period way (using leaves to keep air out). This is a fun recipe to make with kids because there's plenty of mashing. It tastes significantly better than store-bought. My family enjoyed this batch at Thanksgiving.

Peasant Life in Germany, 1858

Civil War Era Sauerkraut 

Ingredients:

- Cabbage (2.5 pounds)

- 1.5 Tablespoons Salt

- 2 teaspoons Cumin

- 2 teaspoons Tumeric or Saffron

Instructions:

Wash the cabbages and remove the tough outer leaves and set them aside. 

Remove the thick veins and shred the cabbage as thin as possible.

 In a large crock, knead the salt into the cabbage by hand.

Use a wood pestle to pound the cabbage and salt mixture until enough liquid forms to cover the cabbage.*

Mix in the spices.

Cover with the outer leaves and place weight on them until all of the cabbage is submerged in the liquid.

Sit in a cool spot for 2 weeks. After the 2 week fermentation period, sauerkraut can be kept in the refrigerator for months or canned. 

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* If liquid does not form, wait 30 minutes to see if enough liquid forms. If enough liquid never forms, 1/2 a cup of water with a teaspoon of salt can be added. 

At 70-75 degrees, fermentation should be complete after 2-4 weeks. At 60-65 degrees, fermentation may take 4-6 weeks. 

Notes

1 Hammond, William A. A Treatise on Hygiene: With Special Reference to the Military Service. Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1863.

2 Sartain, John, ed. Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art. Plates. 10. Vol. 10. Philadelphia, PA: John Sartain & Co., 1852.

A Tale of Two Viruses: Historical Negationism in the Historical Community

I have taken a step back from all things historical, not only because of Covid-19 but also because of the alarming frequency in which history is being used maliciously, especially among the historical community. I thought that they of all people would know the harms of historical negationism and how important it is to prevent the spread of it.

Historical Negationism is a kind of illegitimate historical revisionism (typically done by non-historians) created to support a particular political or ideological agenda. It's has been heavily featured in the past 5 years in fake news, memes, and on social media. 

These might look familiar:

Click Here and Here to read why this is not true. 

Click Here to read why this is not okay.

News Flash:

They are also just the tip of the iceberg of the rampant historical negationism that is occurring.  Holocaust denial, "Lost Cause" Rhetoric, and "Clean Wehrmacht" myths are prevalent examples of historical negationism and how harmful historical negationism is. 

When I first saw these misconstrued historical "facts" I assumed it was a limitation of the medium. Memes can't fit a lot of text, so the whole story would never fit. My first instinct was to try and combat misinformation. Surely people wanted to know the truth and would not want to knowingly share harmful misinformation. I was wrong. 

Throughout the 16 years that I've been blogging, there has been a shift in information pathways. In college, professors would badger us that we, as future historians, would not have the issue of piecing together what happened using scant fragments but would be overloaded with primary sources. We were being trained for an entirely new problem in history: How to sift through and find truth and relevance in the overload of records left behind. This is the way I approach information.

 

What I thought was an information sorting problem is actually part of a much bigger propaganda campaign designed to confuse, cause chaos, and promote malicious causes.  Researchers have dubbed this "The Firehose of Falsehood Propaganda Model". This model uses large amounts of repetitive information to take advantage of the human subconscious, most notably, the Illusory Truth Effect, and the Continued Influence Effect. 

  

The Illusory Truth Effect - The more times you hear or see something repeated it is easier for your brain to process and thus prefer that information making it seem more credible. 

The Continued Influence Effect- What people hear first has a lasting influence on how people think about a subject, even if the first information they heard has been debunked. 

Memes are a great medium for historical negationism because they are inherently meant to be repeated often. 

"18th-century women caught on fire on a regular basis, due to working around fires in long skirts." "George Washington had wooden teeth." "Quilts helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad." As historians, we get frustrated that these myths won't die. Historical myths are the Continued Influence Effect and the Illusory Truth Effect at work. Should you repeat myths to debunk them? That is still up for debate. Ultimately, these myths don't hurt people and our time should be focused on stopping history from being used maliciously.   

What Living Historians Can Do To Help

- Share Responsibly. 

You do not have time to fact-check everything you share. Make an effort to fact-check things that make you upset and things that can impact people's lives. I don't expect anyone to fact-check cute cat stories but you should fact-check anything that might be using history with a social or political agenda to see if the entirety of the occurrence is present. If you don't have time to check, it's better to just not share it. 

- Share the Real Story. 

If you see historical negationism, take some time to share the real story. Remember, the Illusory Truth effect works both ways. There is evidence that you should not repeat falsehoods unnecessarily but can mention them when debunking.  

-Report to the platform.

If you see something harmful, report it. No, this is not censorship, this is moderation. If you see something harmful at historically themed events, it should be reported to the event organizers.        

-Teach Real History. Many of us get monomaniacal with clothing and small details that we often forget to teach the history and culture part of history. This is where having nonpersonal interpretation can be helpful and necessary. You may not get a chance to tell spectators the whole story but posters, pamphlets, displays, and books can help give the proper context for what people see at historically themed events. Your information can be the information that sticks which allows people the ability to think more critically about new information they encounter about a topic. 

- Teach Critical Thinking in History- Many people have a poor understanding of history and historiography. Be sure to let people see how history is formed and why critical thinking and legitimate revisionism in history are important. These teachings can prevent the Illusory Truth Effect.         

- Include Reminders- Studies show that a simple reminder that all of the information that a person will be encountering should be taken with a grain of salt is effective at minimizing the Illusory Truth Effect, even if the reminder is given a few days in advance. Historically themed events should come with a disclaimer that contextualizes who the people are that are presenting information to the public and where this information comes from. 

As a living historian, it's your job to tell spectators about yourself. Are you a trained historian, public historian, research assistant, or someone who is very interested in history? All are welcome and valuable but that information should be offered upfront.  

Thank you for reading to the end. If you think this post is useful, please share!