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Peanut and Cottage Loaf
1/2 CUP PEANUTS, CHOPPED I CUP COTTAGE CHEESE I CUP LEFTOVER OAT- MEAL I CUP MILK I EGG, SLIGHTLY BEATEN 1/2 TEASPOON SALT I TABLESPOON MELTED FAT I TABLESPOON CHOPPED ONION 1/4 TEASPOON PEPPER 1/2 TEASPOON POULTRY SEASONING I TEASPOON WORCES- TERSHIRE TOMATO SAUCE Pack Mix together all ingredients except tomato sauce. into well-greased bread tin and bake in moderate oven until nicely browned. Or pack in greased frying pan, cover tightly and bake in ashes. Eat with tomato sauce.
A meatless supper loaf built on leftover porridge, cottage cheese and peanuts — cheap protein assembled from what was already in the larder. It behaves like a savoury bread pudding rather than a meatloaf.
- Moderate ovenRead this as 350F (175C). The loaf is a custard-bound mixture, so it wants steady heat rather than a hot oven that would set the crust before the centre firms.
- TimingNo time is given. In a standard 8x4in loaf tin expect 45 to 60 minutes; it is done when the centre is set and springs back rather than wobbling, and a knife comes out clean.
- Leftover oatmealThis means cooked porridge, already thick and cold, not raw rolled oats or steel-cut groats. If you are starting from dry oats, cook them first and let them cool, or the loaf will drink the milk and turn dense.
- Cottage cheeseCottage cheese of the period was often drier and more curdy than many tubs sold now. Small-curd cheese drained briefly in a sieve gives a firmer loaf; whipped or very wet styles will loosen the mixture.
- Melted fatBacon drippings, lard or butter would all serve. A tablespoon of any of them, or a neutral oil, does the same job of keeping the loaf from tasting austere.
- Baking in ashesThe frying-pan variant is a camp method: a covered, well-greased pan set in raked embers rather than open flame. Ash heat is uneven, so turn the pan periodically and check earlier than you would in an oven.
- RestingLet the loaf stand ten minutes in the tin before turning out. Cut hot, it tends to crumble; the egg and cheese continue firming as it cools.
- YieldNo yield is stated; the quantities suggest roughly four servings as a main course with tomato sauce, or six sliced cold. Cold slices fry well the next day.
Savoury loaves of nuts, cereal and curd cheese were a fixture of American cookery from the 1890s onward, spread first by the vegetarian kitchens of the Battle Creek sanitarium tradition and then, far more widely, by wartime and Depression-era thrift campaigns that urged cooks to stretch or skip meat. Peanuts and cottage cheese were both cheap sources of concentrated protein, and the two are often found together in thrift cookery of the period. What marks this version as an outdoor recipe is the second method: pack the same mixture into a covered frying pan and bury it in ashes, a camp technique older than the stove and long standard in scouting and trail cookery.