The Allinson Vegetarian Cookery Book/Wholemeal Cookery

Most of my readers have received great benefit from eating wholemeal bread instead of white, and they may all gain further good it they will use Allinson wholemeal flour in place of white for all cooking purposes. Those who are at all constipated, or who suffer from piles, varicose veins, varicocele, back pain, &c., should never use white flour in cooking. Those who are inclined to stoutness should use wholemeal flour rather than white. Hygienists and health-reformers should not permit white flour to enter their houses, unless it is to make bill-stickers' paste or some like stuff. Toothless children must not be given any food but milk and water until they cut at least two teeth.

Every kind of cookery can be done with wholemeal flour. In making ordinary white sauce or vegetable sauce, this is how we make it; Chop fine some onion or parsley; boil in a small quantity of water, stir in wholemeal flour and milk, add a little pepper and salt, thin with hot water, and thus produce a sauce that helps down vegetables and potatoes. In making a brown sauce we put a little butter or olive oil in the frying-pan; let it bubble and sputter, dredge in Allinson wholemeal flour, stir it round with a knife until browned, add boiling water, pepper, salt, a little ketchup, and you then have a nice brown sauce for many dishes. If we wish to make it very tasty we fry a finely chopped onion first and add that to it. White sweet sauce is made from wholemeal flour, milk, sugar, and a little cinnamon, cloves, lemon juice, vanilla, or other flavouring. Yorkshire puddings, Norfolk dumplings, batter puddings, and such puddings can all be made with wholemeal flour, and are more nourishing and healthy, and do not lie so heavy as those made from white flour. Pancakes can be made from wholemeal flour just as well as from white.

All kinds of pastry, pie-crusts, under crusts, &c., are best made from Allinson wholemeal, and if much butter, lard, or dripping is used they will lie just as heavy, and cause heartburn just as much as those made with white flour. There is a substitute for pie-crusts that is very tasty, and not at all harmful. We call it "batter," and it can be used for savoury dishes as well as sweet ones

Fry some potatoes, then some onions, put them in layers in a pie-dish; next make a batter of Allinson wholemeal flour, 1 or 2 eggs, milk, and a little pepper with salt; pour over the fried vegetables as they lie in the dish, bake in the oven from 1/2 an hour to 1 hour, until, in fact, the batter has formed a crust; eat with the usual vegetables. Or chop fine cold vegetables of any kind, fry onions and add to them, put in a pie-dish, pour some of the batter as above over them, and bake. All kinds of cold vegetables, cold soup, porridge, &c., can go into this, and tinned or fresh tomatoes will make it more savoury. Tomatoes may be wiped, put in a pie-dish, batter poured over, and then baked, and are very tasty this way. Butter adds to the flavour of these dishes, but does not make them more wholesome or more nourishing.

Cut Allinson wholemeal bread into slices a little over a 1/4 of an inch thick, line a pie-dish with these, having first cut off the hard crusts. Then fill the dish with hot stewed fruit of any kind, and at once cover it with a layer of bread, gently pressed on the hot fruit. Turn out when cold on to a flat dish, pour over it a white sauce, and serve.

Soak crusts or slices of Allinson bread in hot water, then break fine in a pie-dish, add to this soaked currants, raisins, chopped nuts or almonds, a beaten-up egg, and milk, with sugar and spice, and bake in the oven. Or tie the whole up in a pudding-cloth and boil. Serve with white sauce or eat with stewed fresh fruit. These puddings can be eaten hot or cold; labourers can take them to their work for dinner, and their children cannot have a better meal to take to school.

Mix Allinson wholemeal flour, milk, 1 or 2 eggs together, and a little sugar and cinnamon, and it is ready for use. Stew ripe cherries, gooseberries, currants, raspberries, plums, damsons, or other ripe fruit in a jar, pour into a pie-dish; pour into the batter named above, bake, and this is a good substitute for a fruit pie. Prunes can be treated the same way, or the batter can be cooked in the saucepan, poured into a mould, allowed to go cold and set; then it forms wholemeal blancmange, and may be eaten with stewed fresh fruit. Rusks, cheesecakes, buns, biscuits, and other like articles as Madeira cake, pound cake, wedding cake, &c., can all be made of wholemeal flour.

Chop fine any kinds of greens or vegetables, stew in a little water until thoroughly done, then add plenty of hot water, with pepper and salt to taste, and a 1/4 of an hour before serving, pour in a cupful of the "Sweet Batter," and you get a thick, nourishing soup. To make it more savoury, fry your vegetables before making into soup.