Weird Meats – Take Two…

I did not learn from my experience of cooking heart.  This Christmas – my sister-in-law had bought a forth of a cow, and let me take some cuts of beef home for my Christmas gift.  So digging through my freezer I found beef neck.    I was not sure how I could use this cut of meat… but it looked like I could use it to make stew.

So that week I salted onions, celery and the cuts of meat in a big pan.  The neck cuts were interesting in that they did not hold as much meat as I thought they would.  The meat was tough, and was hard to cut off the bone due to a lot of tendons – Hurray for sharp knifes!  I ended up with half pound of meat (and the bone marrow from the bones).  I added lots of vegetables to bulk up the stew… then thickened it with flour. 

This turned out much better than the heart.  It was a tasty stew (mostly vegetables with a taste of beef) that tasted much better with some soy biscuits (Sour milk biscuits made with a cup of soy flour in them).   I do think that time wise and money wise – it is better to buy a pound of ground beef and stretch the meat with vegetables.  I have discovered that my favorite recipe is the vegetable burgers (meat loaf made with potatoes, carrots, onions and other vegetables instead of bread) and I cook them individually in muffin tins so they are ready for lunches.

Mystery Meat

This January – I attempted to try different types of meat.  In the 1940’s meat was rationed and was hard to find.  To combat this – the government attempted to have people use less meat… and when looking at the ration points cost of meat – the unusual cuts of meat require many less points.  I felt I needed to do my part and try to eat the unusual cuts of meat to support the war effort.  How bad can it really be?

So in that mindset - I went to the story to purchase my first beef heart.  I was not sure what I would find when I went shopping.  Would there be a blood dripping pile of hearts in the meat case?  When I lived in Poland the stores had piles of fresh chicken hearts, livers, and other unidentifiable parts… but never any large animal organs.  Could I really ask at the counter, “pardon me, but do you have a heart?”

I was very surprised to find them in the frozen meat area.  They did hide them at the top of the freezer and when reaching for a heart I was almost knocked out by a frozen Kidney!  I picked out the smallest heart I could find and thought about it for a while.  I was surprised that the modern cost of Heart is half the price of ground beef… this might be the cheapest way to eat for a while.  I finally talked myself into buying it and went home.

The Heart...

I let it unthaw in the refrigerator, and prepared to cook it.  Growing up, I had eaten heart and liver when I went archery deer hunting with my dad.  I remember the heart being tender and tasting really good (I hated the liver – yuck all chalky and stuff!).  I wasn’t sure how different frozen cow heart would be.  I had a recipe to make stuffed cow heart and it looked pretty good.

Stuffed and ready to go...

I was not so confident when I took the thawed mess out of the refrigerator.  There was a muscle sitting in a bowl of blood.  The recipe said to wash out the heart and cut out all the veins and arteries.  Humm -- I should have paid more attention in science class.  I could not tell where the veins were so I cut out anything that looked hard.  I washed out the heart as best as I could then carve out space for the stuffing. 

The stuffing was similar to what I put in turkey and smelled good.  I stuffed as much stuffing as I could get into the heart then tied it shut with cooking twine.  I put it in a roasting pan and cooked it like a roast.  It smelled good as it cooked.

The Heart "Roast" done...

When it was done – I let it cool and cut medallions of meat and took them to work for lunch.  The meat looked weird and kind of smelled like a deer that has been hanging in the garage for a few days before butchering.  Even after cooking it still had that smell to it (I think it is the smell of old blood).  I ate it for two lunches then found me eating just crusts of bread for supper so I would not have to eat that heart.  It was awful!

The Medallions - I don't know how brave I am to eat it...

I am starting to realize why women are often shown working a meat grinder in cook books.  Theses mystery meats are not bad – but absolutely not good!  Next time I make heart – I will grind it up and add it to meatloaf or something to hide the flavor.  I can now say that I tried heart but I will stick to meatless Mondays instead.  That week – I did not eat any meat (the heart was my meat rations for the week) and I realized that I enjoy eating beans and peanut butter - they are much better then heart.

Going Without to Give Back

Well – I am back from the wedding. It was wonderful … and it gave me a chance to eat some more often rationed food. Ummmm – I drank all the coffee that I could get my hands on!

Rationing during the winter holidays was an interesting experience. I ended up not making my traditional cookies (sprits or holiday fruit cake). I did end up trying some new recipes. I made a sugarless and eggless spice cake. This cake was so good and due to molasses being the sweetener – it could easily be substituted for fruit cake (which costs too many ration points in butter, dried fruit, and rum). I also ended up eating a lot of lefsa … and yes … I used my coveted butter on this wonderful sweet snack. I discovered that it is great with honey or jam besides using my favorite sugar and cinnamon.

One thing that surprised me was looking at what I gave away as gifts. Due to not being able to buy many new things (that and I am paying back school loans) I went through what I had that I wanted to give away. I discovered that I had so many things that were still nice but I didn’t need or use. My whole Christmas gift giving was all repurposed or homemade. I did end up buying my dad a new shirt (for the wedding) and my mom a new Christmas plate… but my nieces got my old jewelry and nail polish I didn’t use, my sticker collection (some from the 80’s-so vintage:). I hand other items that were very nice but I didn’t need them… It was wonderful to slim down my own home – while not buying a lot for Christmas. I do have to say… I haven’t heard the verdict from my family to hear wither I am considered thrifty or cheap!

This December got me thinking a lot about how much I throw away or what I have. I am discovering that I do not need as much as I thought I did. I want to know what I could do with the extra money that I save from not buying as much… So here is my new year’s resolution. I have decided that I am going to stop buying coffee (It is on the edge of cheating on this rationing thing anyways) and the money that I save from that habit – I am going to give to a charity. This is one way this experiment can be used for the good of others – besides me.

WWII living is about going without so others can have – and that is what I want to do as well!

When I dont want to Ration...

I must apologize at the long time that has passed since I have last posted. I can tell you that a lot has happened … which has given me a good honest look at rationing.

The biggest thing that has happened is that my little brother surprised me and my whole family with the announcement that he is getting married, oh… and the wedding is this coming Friday. My brother also surprised me at asking me to make the wedding dress – and I surprised myself by say yes!

So when I am not at work- I have been crafting a wedding dress.

If I was following WWII Rations – I would use very little fabric, and possibly cut down someone else’s wedding dress and remake it or to use the families linen table cloth for fabric. I couldn’t convince my soon-to-be sister-in-law to agree to that… So I did not follow rations for her dress. This is good because it is 100% silk – which was mostly used for parashoots.

There truly is something amazing at making your own clothes… especially something that is so special. I had a lot of time to think about their wedding, and pray for their new life together. And I know this sounds very cheesy – but each stitch (there was a lot of hand hemming and beading) holds my love for them and my hopes for their happiness.

I understand how wonderful (and to be very honest – how extremely stressful) it would have been for mothers and daughters to get together and sew the wedding dress. I also see how it was easier to wear your best outfit when getting quickly married while someone is on leave (which is what my grandmother did). I had a month to make the dress and it was very close to getting it done…

This wedding also opened up a new aspect of rationing for me – I sooo want to wear a new dress to the wedding!!!! I actually went shopping for one. It was my first time in a department store since August…And each dress I tried on – was nice… but I didn’t want to waste my one new outfit on these clothes. I did end up buying a pair of jeans that I needed… but couldn’t buy a dress. I then went home and dug through my fabric boxes for material for a dress – but I ran out of time to make a dress. So completely frustrated… I dug through the back of my closet and found that I have a perfect dress for the wedding in my closet. I figured out I can wear one of my old jackets with it and it makes it super cute – kind of bohemian. Add some great shoes in bold colors – and Presto! I had the perfect outfit already in my closet.

This makes me wonder – how many times do I buy things… just because I want something new, or I am board…? Whereas, if I used a bit of creativity- I have perfect outfits already in the closet.

This month I discovered that it is more special to make a dress or discover new options instead of buying new ones.
(Stay tuned for updates on how a Rationed Christmas went… as well as trying new types of meat and a look at what truly is the taste of Christmas? All of this will be posted after the wedding :)

When to be a creative cook?

In the past two weeks I have learned a valuable lesson… when to creatively adapt recipes to available ingredients and when it is better to not experiment.

Lesson one: Tapioca Pudding

I have to say that since I started rationing – I have made a lot more pudding. It is great, it uses milk (which fresh is not rationed) and there doesn’t have to be a lot of sugar in it. My favorite pudding is tapioca. It just tastes like a warm hug!

I planned to make tapioca and I soaked the beads in milk for a day. When I started to make it- I didn’t realize that I was short one cup of milk! What to Do? I still wanted my pudding (yes I know it is kind of extravagant with 2 eggs!) But I could just taste the warm, gooie, yumminess. Well- I didn’t have any powder milk or canned, but I did realize that I had soy flour. I have drunk soy milk before, and technically wouldn’t soy flour in water equal soy milk?

I have now discovered that it doesn’t taste like soy milk. It tastes like flour. Yucky, awful flour.

Most people would say that the pudding was ruined – but I found if you put a ¼ C of vanilla in it… it didn’t taste too bad. I do think it was a waist of eggs and sugar.

Lesson 2: Yogurt

Trying to be point thrifty… I decided to make my own yogurt. Again – fresh milk was not rationed… but yogurt was. I went to the store and bought a gallon of skim milk (problem #1). I had my own plain yogurt for the starter (problem #2 – the yogurt was 6 months out of date … it didn’t smell or taste bad so it should be ok?). I cooked my milk till it looked hot enough – It needed to be an exact temperature and I didn’t have a thermometer (problem #3). Then let it cool – eventually putting in the starter.

I let it sit in the yogurt maker for a day. I couldn’t wait to see what happened. Much to my surprise – when I opened the top… there was cheese! Somehow I made a very soft cheese! Realizing that there was no way to rescue the yogurt… I put the curds in a cheese cloth and let it drain.

I am not sure what I will use the cheese for… or if it is safe to eat… but lesson learned here is that if a person is going to make something… actually follow the directions!

Hurray Meat!!

Yesterday- I stopped by my brothers and sister-in-laws home and they gave a wonderful gift. I am now a proud owner of beef! They had bought a part of a cow from a family farm. They were nice enough to give me the neck bone cuts (I am hoping to make stew with them) along with a pound of hamburger and a roast.

It got me thinking about how did families deal with meat? Did some of them share a Cow – like my family? I know that some people raised rabbits to eat – and I seriously thought of this…. But I came to the conclusion that I would not be able to kill the rabbits. I can archery hunt deer and skin fish… but those rabbits are just too cute!

I am very excited for the taste of beef again. I am starting my third week of Turkey (I cooked and stewed a turkey breast three weeks ago and have frozen it in portions) and I am getting tired of the taste. I think I may start to observe meatless Mondays and Thursdays – just for a break in what I eat.

Next week I will definably be eating beef- Hurray for Beef!