Award-winning author Donis Casey has written eight Alafair Tucker
Mysteries. Her series, featuring the sleuthing mother of ten children, is set
in Oklahoma and Arizona during the booming 1910s. Learn more about Donis and
her books at her website and the Type M 4 Murder blog.
The eighth Alafair
Tucker Mystery, All Men Fear Me, was released this month. The saga of Alafair
Tucker and her family, which began in 1912, has now progressed to the year
1917. By now four of Alafair’s daughter are married, there are four
grandchildren, and the community of Boynton, Oklahoma, has almost recovered
from the devastating tornado of the previous summer. Life would be wonderful if
it were not for the fact that the United States has recently declared war on
Germany, and if Alafair didn’t have two well-grown sons who are both eager to
do their duty.
All Men Fear Me
is not about the life of a soldier, though, or what is going on in Europe. All
Men Fear Me is about the American home front. The war had a huge impact on
daily life for ordinary people, even in the far reaches of eastern Oklahoma.
But even more than bond drives and the loss of civil liberties, Alafair’s daily
life is affected by the war’s impact on dinner.
In 1917, the United
States Food Administration was headed by a young man named Herbert Hoover. He
was charged with making sure that all American housewives were doing their part
for the war effort. “Our problem,” said the USFA, “is to feed our Allies by
sending them as much food as we can of the most concentrated nutritive value in
the least shipping space. These foods are wheat, beef, pork, dairy products,
and sugar. Our solution is to eat less of these…and to waste less of all
foods.”
Every housewife was
encouraged to use as little of the aforementioned foodstuffs as possible. There
are several surviving war cookbooks that show women how to make meals for their
families without using wheat, or meat, or sugar. I’ve tested out many old
recipes in the course of writing this series. Our modern tastes are different
from our ancestors’, and sometimes the old dishes are so heavy and rich that a
bite or two is all we can take.
But when I made the
following recipe for War Cake, which I found in a 1918 USFA publication called War
Economy in Food, the reviews from my test eaters were very good. The cake
is dense and moist and even though it has no ginger, it reminds me of
gingerbread. The following recipe is taken directly from the booklet. It’s easy
to make and delicious. But be warned, it is not low in calories.
War Cake
1 cup molasses*
1 cup corn syrup**
1-1/2 cup water
1 package raisins***
(exact quantity according to preference)
2 T fat (vegetable
oil)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 cups rye flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
Boil together for 5
minutes the first nine ingredients. Cool, add the sifted dry ingredients and
bake in two loaves for 45 minutes in a moderate oven. (I baked it at 350ยบ F. –
Donis)
*There is more than
one kind of molasses. I think the cake tastes better when it’s made with light
molasses rather than blackstrap.
**I usually use Karo
Syrup, which is corn syrup, but I have also substituted maple syrup, agave
syrup, honey, and a combination thereof for the 1 cup of corn syrup. The maple
syrup is especially delicious.
***I prefer to use
golden raisins, both for the look and the taste.
All Men Fear Me
An Alafair Tucker Mystery
The U.S. has
finally entered the First World War and scheduled the first draft lottery. No
one in Boynton, Oklahoma, is unaffected by the clash between rabid pro-war,
anti-immigrant "patriots" and anti-conscription socialists, who are
threatening an uprising rather than submit to the draft. Alafair Tucker is
caught in the middle when her brother, a union organizer for the Industrial
Workers of the World, pays her a visit.
Rob Gunn is fresh out of an internment
camp for participants in an Arizona miners’ strike. He assures Alafair that
he's only come to visit family, but she's not so sure. More unsettling,
Alafair's eldest son enlists, and a group calling itself the “Knights of
Liberty” vandalizes the farm of Alafair’s German-born son-in-law.
Alafair’s younger
son, 16-year-old Charlie, is wildly patriotic and horrified by his socialist
uncle. With his father's permission Charlie takes a part-time war job at the
Francis Vitric Brick Company. Soon several suspicious machine breakdowns delay
production, and a couple of shift supervisors are murdered. Everyone in town
suspects sabotage, some blaming German spies, others blaming the unionists and
socialists. But Charlie Tucker is sure he knows who the culprit is and comes up
with a plan to catch him red-handed. And then there is old Nick―a mysterious
guy in a bowler hat who's been hanging around town.
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