When Recipes Go Wrong
One thing I have long wondered about is how people during the early 1940s managed to always put good meals on the table in spite of rationing and severe food shortages. Homemakers were constantly searching for ingredient substitutions, putting ingredients together in new ways or having to use ingredients they were unfamiliar with. Would you know what to do with whale meat or snoek?
Rationing and the unavailability of ingredients, even those that were not rationed, made it very hard for homemakers to prepare a lot of the recipes they knew how to cook well. Although governments helped by publishing thousands of recipes, ideas for ingredient substitutions and meals that didn't require the missing items, homemakers still had to do a lot of experimenting to get dinner on the table every evening—not to mention having to prepare breakfast and pack lunches!
When the Pie Flops
Invariably, there had to come a time when a homemaker tried a recipe that the family simply would not eat, did not like or that did not turn out as expected. I got my chance to see what that flop felt like this week. We had grapes on hand and I decided to use them in a new recipe, Grape Pie—of course, without the modern pie crust that uses lots of flour and shortening. During World War II those ingredients would not have been readily available and would have been carefully conserved.
A search through my 1940s cookbook collection finally yielded a pie crust recipe that used only a small amount of flour and butter. The recipe used a mix of flour and almond flour. I figured almonds—or some other nut flour—might have been available wherever people could glean nuts and grind them.
Only when it was too late, I learned the crust recipe—prebaked and used as a single tart crust—might have been perfectly acceptable. For a fruit pie, it was anything but.
When Life Hands You Lemon Extract
The pie filling seemed simple enough except that it called for the zest and juice of one lemon. During World War II lemons (along with most other citrus fruits) were practically unheard of in most places. So, I substituted with a bit of lemon extract and assembled the pie.
It ended up looking very pretty, but between the heavy, crumbly crust and the nasty lemon extract that tasted like rancid alcohol, it was awful! I had not only lost my small but precious quantity of butter and the flour, but had used up all of our fresh grapes in a recipe we could not eat. I could not relinquish all those beautiful grapes so easily.
I searched in more 1940s cookbooks for other recipes using grapes and discovered grapes were not as common as fruits like apples and berries, although they were available in many regions and were cultivated in some backyard gardens. There were more grape recipes in American cookbooks than in British ones. What I did not find anywhere was a muffin recipe. In the end, I decided to make one for the tortured grapes.
Repurposing Precious Ingredients
I deconstructed the pie, saying goodbye to the precious butter in the crust. The grapes went into a large strainer and were rinsed of the badly flavored pie filling. Because they had been exposed to the terrible lemon extract, I used almond extract and cinnamon in the muffin recipe, just in case any lemon flavor was left to be neutralized. Although the grapes were not as good as they would have been fresh, they were still fully intact and with some of their flavor.
I made the muffins in deep liners similar to the shape of dariole molds. They turned out to be very tasty! They would have been even better with fresh, uncooked grapes or with a variety of other fruits. The recipe is a simple, one bowl mix that is ready almost before the oven can preheat and finished baking in a matter of minutes.
Grape muffins would also be delicious with a number of toppings, from butter to jam to sweetened cream, or maybe with lemon curd. But even plain, they are very good.
Was this situation ideal? No! I would much rather have cooked the grapes once instead of twice. But it was better to cook them twice than throw them in the rubbish bin. Seasoned home cooks have always needed strategies for when recipes go wrong. It is the same principle as adding a potato to a soup that is too salty—the potato absorbs the excess salt and the soup is saved.
Another Grape Idea
Had I not wanted to make muffins, I could have turned the grapes into a delicious compote by stewing them with a can of crushed pineapple with its juice, and perhaps some other fresh fruit or berries, or even a handful of dried fruit. Compotes are often flavored with a bit of liqueur such as cognac, Cointreau or Grand Marnier. An apple- or other flavored liqueur might also be good in a compote with grapes. This could be served over ice cream, shortcake, biscuits or any kind of leftover cake or sweet muffin.
One small note to remember is that grapes (including raisins and Zante currants) are terribly poisonous for dogs and cats. Use extra care even when they are cooked, or when considering recipes to carry to others.
These are times when food is so expensive, it's hard to justify throwing good food away when a recipe doesn't go right. Sometimes, like with the grapes, one part of a recipe you don't like could be repurposed into something you do like. It isn't ideal, but it's making the best out of an otherwise wasteful situation. I’m only talking about fresh food, by the way, not ingredients that are unsafe.
Homemakers have been making do with what they had, repurposing leftovers and using up odd bits and pieces for centuries. During World War II they were forced to do that on a regular basis. We may not be hard-pressed by war but it's a good habit to get into, doing whatever we can to not waste food. If one of your recipes goes wrong, find out what other cooks have done to correct recipe blunders. It may lead to something better than what you had planned in the first place!
Grape Muffins
Ingredients
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425°F (220°C). Place paper liners in muffin tin.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract.
- Gently whisk in egg; then, whisk in buttermilk or milk. Do not overmix.
- In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add half of flour mixture to liquids; stir gently; add remaining flour and stir until ingredients are just combined. Lumps are okay. Do not overmix!
- Gently fold in grapes.
- Fill muffin liners 2/3 full with batter. Lightly dust with cinnamon.
- Bake 5 minutes. Then, reduce heat to 375°F (190°C) and bake another 20-25 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean. Do not overbake.
References
Top photo by Jorge Salvador on Unsplash.
Arrow photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22