Gretel’s Bookshelf: How Belgian food inspired British WWI cooking

Welcome to Gretel’s Bookshelf, where we spotlight interesting cookbooks from around the world, speak to experts about their history, and pick out the best recipes. 

When you think of major stories about World War I, you don’t often think of the arrival of 250,000 Belgian refugees to British shores. “This period is still a lesser known bit of our history,” says Prof. Alison Fell, professor of French Cultural History at the University of Leeds. Fell has been part of the public history research project Tracing the Belgian Refugees, which has sought to raise public awareness of the Belgian migration to the UK. “Ninety per cent of Belgium was occupied in the war after the invasion in 1914, and most of the Belgians fled in the initial six months,” she says. “They went to the UK, France, and Holland, which was neutral, but the British government agreed to take more refugees. It was the largest number ever of refugees coming into the UK and in such a short period of time.” 

The Belgian Cookbook by Mrs. Brian Luck is also fairly unknown when it comes to World War One sources. The book is likely to have been made with the support of Belgian refugee committees and regional refugee committees which were set up to support Belgians in the UK. “They were made up of local volunteers who organised fundraising, hosting, and translating for them,” says Fell. The author’s real name is Mary Ann Luck. The pseudonym was her husband’s name, but this isn’t public knowledge either, says Fell. “I had to find this out through the records, it wasn’t anywhere else.” 

Dr. Fell also discovered that Mrs. Luck was a writer of short stories and other pieces that were published in journals such as Thrift in the Home, from 1915, advising women how to save money when cooking. “You can tell she’s a writer, because her preface in the cookbook is quite funny,” says Fell. In the first paragraph of The Belgian Cookbook Mrs. Luck writes: “It is through the kindness of these correspondents that I have been able to compile it. It is thought, also, that British cooking may benefit by the study of Belgian dishes.” She obviously wasn’t too keen on contemporary cooking in Britain at the time. As Fell says, “she’s kind of trying to nudge British people towards a little bit of seasoning, and a bit less boiling of vegetables!”

Fell also discovered that Mrs. Luck was born in London in 1873 and was a fairly affluent woman, the wife of a military husband who was a career officer. “She’s clearly of a certain class, because in 1939, she was listed as being a district councillor,” says Dr. Fell. “In the 30s, it was still relatively unusual for women to be having those kinds of roles, so I think she’s the sort of elite class of women who would be involved in charity work, and exactly the sort of person who would have been on a refugee fundraising committee.” Like many parts of history though, Dr. Fell stresses that due to the lack of research into Mrs. Luck’s life, it’s difficult to describe the context of the cookbook in great detail. “But even though I don’t know for certain, I can imagine how she might have made it. There were loads of fundraising initiatives in 1914 and 1915 to raise money for Belgian refugees: concerts, performances and art, pageants right around the country, and so the making of the cookbook certainly could have been part of that effort.”

The Belgian Cookbook was made to be used by a mixture of social classes. “It’s not just the well to do Belgian refugees who are featured in the book,” she says. “About two thirds were Flemish and about a third were French-speaking, but there was everybody really. From practically aristocratic, to very poor peasants or urban working classes.” Consequently, a range of recipes are on offer. “There’s quite a French influence, but there’s definitely some that seem a bit more Flemish tradition as well,” says Fell. Some key examples being the Waterzoei (today spelt as Waterzooi), a traditional Flemish soupy stew (which originates in Flanders), made out of a mixture of different pieces of fish, and the spinach à la Bracconnière, typically French-inspired with spinach, half a pound of minced half and an intensely cheesy bechamel sauce.

‘This small manual is offered for the use of the work-a-day and inexperienced mistress and maid. It is not written in the interests of millionaires‘

Fell believes the cookbook would have been popular at the time: “I think it would have appealed to people to buy the book and make money for the cause in two ways, because, firstly, it was about the Belgians being the sort of people who deserved it, and secondly, they were considered a bit exotic, and the food was different.” 

The book would have also been useful for people cooking at a time when spending a lot on your ingredients wasn’t the norm. As the cookbook states in its preface, “this small manual is offered for the use of the work-a-day and inexperienced mistress and maid. It is not written in the interests of millionaires.” Those with little to spend and little time to learn insanely difficult recipes were the prime target market.

People in Britain at this time did not have a lot of money or time on their hands. “It wasn’t like the Second World War , but the British public were starting to see that they all had to deprive themselves of some of the rarer things,” says Fell. “Quite a few people were starting to struggle on the separation allowances. Soldier’s wives got a pittance to live on a week, and although the war economy meant there were more jobs for people in war factories,” she says, “It was harder to feed a family, and people had less time, women in particular, because they were working outside the home more.” The “Quickly Made Stew” for instance would be a useful filling dish for those without much time or money. The recipe is barely three sentences long, and involves a simple process of mixing butter, onion, garlic, gravy, water, meat, parsley, a glass of red wine and an egg yolk in a pot, and leaving it to simmer for approximately 15-18 minutes. 

Fell acknowledges that academic essays aren’t for everyone, but that cookbooks are a nice alternative to explore this lesser known part of history. “It might bring it to life for different people who might not read the kind of stuff I normally write as a historian,” she says.

Waterzoei (Flemish soup):

Method (quoted from cookbook): 

“This is an essentially Flemish soup. One uses carp, eels, tench, roach, perches, barbel, for the real waterzoei is always made of different kinds of fish. Take two pounds of fish, cut off the heads and tails, which you will fry lightly in butter, adding to make the sauce a mixed carrot and onion, three cloves, a pinch of white pepper, a sprig of parsley, one of thyme, a bay-leaf; pour in two-thirds of water and one-third of white wine till it more than covers the ingredients and let it simmer for half-an-hour. Then the pieces of fish must be cut an equal size, and they are placed to cook quickly in this liquor for twenty minutes. Five minutes before serving add a lemon peeled and cut into slices and the pips removed. Some people bind the sauce with breadcrumbs grated and browned. You serve, with this dish, very thin slices of bread and butter. For English tastes, the heads and tails should be removed when dressing the dish.”

Gretel’s Tip: travel back in time by drinking a beer with this dish that was produced in the western Belgian town of Silly in 1918 by Sergeant Jack Payne. Payne, who was stationed in Silly with the Suffolk regiment, worked with the town’s brewery to create the beer. With hops being mostly destroyed in Belgium at the time, Payne was able to liaise with his unit commander to send over some hops from Kent. 

Mary Ann Luck’s ‘The Belgian Cookbook’ was last published in 2019, older versions of the book can still be bought in UK-based book retailers today – £16.68 RRP at Blackwell’s.