Depression Cooking Teaches You To Cook Really, Really Cheaply

[Miss Chicken]

I don't see any reason why whole milk would have to be used. Damper can be made without milk at all, milk just makes it taste better than it would if only water was used.

Recipe for shortbread

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup plain flour
3 tablespoons of cornflour
3 tablespoons of icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Mix all the ingredients together. I do this by hand as I usually cannot be bothered to get my blender out, use it and then wash it.

I then roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to cut and place them on tray lined with baking paper.

Bake for 30 minutes.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Wow! Doesn't get any easier than that, does it?

Copying and pasting that recipe too! Thanks! I now have a text file on my desktop for these.

You might teach me how to bake from scratch yet!

 

[Miss Chicken]

My favourite cookbooks are the 4 ingredient books. The first book has about 340 recipes, the second one about 400. All recipes use 4 ingredients or less. They also have some worthwhile handy hints in the back of the book.

I also use the Central Cookery Book (also listed in link above). This book was first published in 1971 as the sole text for the education in cookery in Tasmanians schools. This means it was the first cookbook I ever used. Because it was aimed at schoolchildren the recipes are easy. This book has never been out of print and is updated regularly.

I think that many cookbooks today are over complicated and the recipes are too expensive to make. I am lucky that I have these three cookbooks.

It looks like the US has its own 3, 4, or 5 ingredient cookbooks.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ I agree. I have several cookbooks, but most of the recipes in them are fantasies. Not anything I would actually make. Too much time (not only prep time, but running around to stores to get obscure ingredients because I would never have 3/4 of the ingredients in the house) and very expensive.

My current interest is to learn how to cook and bake fairly simple items from scratch. I mean, yeah, I can already do some basic cooking - broiling a steak or a burger or a chicken breast, sticking a roast in a crockpot, making a meatloaf and one or two sorts of casseroles, etc. Can even make lasagna and a good veggie soup from scratch.

But I'm talking everyday simple recipes that are better for me and cheaper than all of this processed food I eat.

It's sort of becoming a challenge for me to finally learn how to do this stuff and really feel confident in the kitchen, if you know what I mean.

The objective: to get to the point where I use my stove/oven more than I use my microwave.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Okay. Made the damper today, Miss Chicken. Was very easy.

Sorta turned out like a giant scone. Is that the way it's supposed to turn out? I can see how this consistency would be quite filling with a nice soup.

I made my own veggie soup to go with (tomato sauce, water, salt & pepper, oregano, and a bunch of veggies including squash, green beans, carrots, potato, onion, celery, corn and lentils). That was a good choice, I think since anything with noodles would have been too much starch.

Anyway, let me know if I got the consistency right.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Okay. Made the damper today, Miss Chicken. Was very easy.

Sorta turned out like a giant scone. Is that the way it's supposed to turn out? I can see how this consistency would be quite filling with a nice soup.

I made my own veggie soup to go with (tomato sauce, water, salt & pepper, oregano, and a bunch of veggies including squash, green beans, carrots, potato, onion, celery, corn and lentils). That was a good choice, I think since anything with noodles would have been too much starch.

Anyway, let me know if I got the consistency right.

The big question did you like it with ypur soup?

Scone consistency sounds about right especially as the recipe had butter and milk.

As I said I made it when I didn't have any bread and I needed to fill the children up on soup. My kids would eat damper with soup but hated it on its own even when I spraed jam on it. As a result I only made small dampers so that it would be eaten right away.

I don't think I have made damper for about 10 years.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

It was great with the soup. Very filling and a good balance.

Have alot left over though. Not sure how good it will be tomorrow, but I'll see what happens if I wrap it up well. Might be okay if I dip it in the soup. I made enough soup to last a couple of days.

By the way, if you haven't, take a look at some of Clara's videos. In addition to teaching a few cheap dishes, she is an absolute hoot!

 

[trampledamage]

My favourite cookbooks are the 4 ingredient books. The first book has about 340 recipes, the second one about 400. All recipes use 4 ingredients or less. They also have some worthwhile handy hints in the back of the book.

I also use the Central Cookery Book (also listed in link above). This book was first published in 1971 as the sole text for the education in cookery in Tasmanians schools. This means it was the first cookbook I ever used. Because it was aimed at schoolchildren the recipes are easy. This book has never been out of print and is updated regularly.

I think that many cookbooks today are over complicated and the recipes are too expensive to make. I am lucky that I have these three cookbooks.

It looks like the US has its own 3, 4, or 5 ingredient cookbooks.

I'm going to look out for these cookbooks! I'm good at basic baking, but things with lots of ingredients just confuse me. You're right about modern cookery books just making everything too complicated. The recipe book I rely on is the Good Housekeeping book, but I can't recommend the new ones because all the recipes have become really complex! Mine is my Grandma's copy and it still has the straight-forward recipes that I grew up with.

The damper sounds similar to Irish soda bread - I guess every country (especially those that have gone through hardship) has it's own variant of cheap and easy bread.

We're hopefully heading back to Ireland in a month, so I'm planning on getting my mother-in-law's soda bread recipe then. If it works out, I'll share it!

 

[Seraphim]

Not as yet however I have taken down the recipe and shared it with others.

 

[SeerSGB]

I've actually rediscovered some food that I used to love growing up, due to us cutting corner and looking for ways to stretch the grocery budget. Of course, now, I know we ate that why cause money was tighter than it is now, but it's still, IMO, good food.