THE MUSEUM IN MY KITCHEN: TRYING WWI RECIPES

A Muse Bouche | Dominica Tang and Lindsay Chisholm

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The National WWI Museum and Memorial launched the online exhibition “War Front: From the Home Front to the Front Lines,” in 2014. To compliment the exhibit, it features a 1918 cookbook entitled “Win the War in the Kitchen,” and invites the audience to re-create war-time recipes. With the support of the Woodrow Wilson government, the United States Food Administration originally published this cookbook to further inspire women to “take up arms” and mobilize certain skills on the homefront.

                 

National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, United States. Source.

Blogs and news outlets have rediscovered this exhibit to provide the public with ideas on how to adapt their meals to the increased food shortages and to support their audience emotionally during this time of extreme stress. The increase of food shortages are brought on by mass hoarding of resources and a shortfall of agricultural labourers. The exhibit is finding relevance and purpose in a COVID-19 context, and we aim to find what new meanings have emerged because of it and the differences between cooking historic recipes in the museum and our homes. Lindsay and I chose two recipes to make and eat with our families at home and shared our experiences with each other.

Dominica: I chose to make potato bread and poultry with peas because their flavours were complementary. They also shared quite a few ingredients, which kept my grocery list nice and short.

Potato Bread  [Left] and a Poultry with Peas dish [Right]. Photographs courtesy of Dominica Tang. 

Lindsay: I made a scalloped cabbage dish and a tomato and bean stew, akin to a “Meatless Monday” menu. The United States became a major contributor for food supplies for the frontline when they joined the war. Meat consumption was restricted on the home front so that the meat could be exported for the frontline.

Scalloped Cabbage dish [left] and Tomato and Bean Stew [Right]. Photographs courtesy of Lindsay Chisholm.

Dominica: My family had trouble purchasing fresh meat, especially at the beginning of the lockdown. The number of dairy products that customers can purchase are also being limited in many grocery stores. So how did you find cooking and eating these dishes?

Lindsay: My prior experience in museology and food stems from the realm of edible archaeology. The key to unearthing stories from the past is through the systematic study of the archaeological record. It was this mindset that restricted any creative decision-making during cooking. It took every morsel of my being not to doctor up these recipes and alter the steps of seasoning to retain historical credibility. The lack of aromatics [onions, garlic, and herbs] made the food bland. For instance, without browning your butter first, it lacks a nutty richness and a pleasant aroma. This blandness may be accredited to the food shortages during the war. Did you have similar sensory issues?

Lindsay put on a cute, frilly apron for the occasion! Photograph courtesy of Lindsay Chisholm.

Dominica:  I actually used the recipe more as an inspiration than as a strict guide and as such, I took a creative licence in “recreating” the historic recipes. To the poultry and peas recipe, I added MSG, bacon, parsley, and garlic to add more flavour and colour. Both recipes called for bacon fat, so it made economical sense to also add the meat and not waste it. The mashed potato kept the bread wonderfully moist and fluffy, but the bread was extremely bland. I generously coated each slice with salted butter.

Slices of potato bread toast paired with a hot cup of coffee. Photograph courtesy of Dominica Tang.

Lindsay: Did you find your cooking was drastically altered when experimenting in your at-home kitchen rather than within a historic kitchen at a house museum?

Dominica: Yes! I have made potato bread before from a 19th century recipe in Mackenzie House’s historic kitchen, where I bake in a wood-fired iron stove and followed the recipe to a tee. An unofficial exception of the museum and our visitors was to recreate the recipe as accurately as possible. At home, I was free to incorporate and accommodate for my personal tastes and my family’s dietary preferences. My family was more interested in trying something new, rather than sampling food from a specific historic period. All the extra ingredients were still historically accurate to the period and location, MSG can be found naturally in products like cheese, and cooks have always altered their recipes to suit their diners.

Dominica's potato bread loaf in the historic oven at Mackenzie House museum [Left]. The bread tasted delicious with a bit of butter, jam, and marmalade [Right]. Photograph courtesy of Dominica Tang. 

Lindsay: That’s very true. By tracing histories from the past through food, we can make similar comparisons between how we examine recipes of the early 20th century to that from ancient societies. In “Win the War in the Kitchen” and Roman culinary sources, like Apicius, both lack detailed information on measurements, amounts of foodstuffs, and cooking times. The writers expected the audience to be experts in their field who would have taken liberties with their art. Dominica, you interpreted the record like a chef from the past by adding your own fixings! We were both able to incorporate museum based-programming for at home use. It is through creativity and connection that a person can figuratively leave the confines of their home isolation and be transported into a past world of exploration.

Digitizing and sharing these historic recipes with the public gives the audience control over their edible museum experience and provides access to them when people need it most. We chose to write about “Win the War in the Kitchen,” because it became a COVID-19 relevant project through public interest instead of the museum's. People are interested in museum programming that distracts them but also helps make sense of the world. Being a community-centered museum and appealing to an audience during COVID-19 goes beyond providing online education, entertainment, and emotional support. In times of crisis, museums should, as Nina Simon argues, serve the needs of people who are most vulnerable to the social, mental, and physical consequences of the pandemic. The Brooklyn Museum, for example, partnered with Campaign Against Hunger and donated their parking space to serve as a free food-pick up site. Will museums continue this type of community work in a post-lockdown world? We sure hope so.