Recipes from the German Homefront: Bunter Eintof mit Migetti (Colorful Stew with Migetti)

 

Something a bit different for you all today just in case you were getting tired of clothes, clothes, and more clothes. . . but hey, that is the topic of this blog ya know. . . To expand my own horizons about the German Homefront during the war, I started translating some of the recipes in one of my wartime German ladies' magazines from 1941. When I started, I first thought it was going to be a fairly generic list of recipes, but I found instead something rather unique. All of the recipes used the same main ingredients with one in particular and that's when I realized this recipe spread was also an elaborate advertisement for the said one main ingredient. So, what is this one main ingredient? It's migetti. 

So, what is "migetti"? Well, I asked myself the same thing the more I kept reading and translating. So, then I looked it up to satisfy my curiosity. What I found was kind of surprising because it was not what I thought it was . . .I was thinking it was a kind of rice or noodle and I was half right . . . Migetti was developed early in the war years to serve as a substitute for rice and egg noodles that had already started to become scarce thanks to the war and its shortages. Made from potato starch, a little egg, and meal,  migetti was a processed dough that was then shaped into little rice like pieces. According to the article "Sawdust and Smelt" from the U.S. Naval Institute it was one of the better-known ersatz products produced in wartime Germany. So, migetti was like rice. . . .but it wasn't. . . . I was only half right. 

Of the recipes I translated, I thought it would be fun to share a one of them here for you.  Today I have one for you and that is Bunter Eintopf mit Migetti, or Colorful Stew with Migetti. The following is my translation which I will admit is probably not the greatest and I am including the original recipe as well so you can translate it yourself if you so desire. 

250g carrot

250 g celery 

250g parsley roots

250g leek

200g migetti

40g bacon

30g flour mixed with milk or tomato paste optional to thicken stew

To start, slice the veggies very thin and sauté. Fry the bacon. Add the sautéed veggies and bacon to about 2 liters of water and simmer. Next, add the migetti for the last few minutes of cooking. If you want to thicken the stew, add the four and milk or tomato paste for the last 2 minutes of cooking. Serve. Viola, a German wartime recipe from a 1941 ladies magazine. I do hope to try this one out and if I do, I will let you know it went. Wish me luck . . . 

Further Reading: 

Sawdust and Smelts | Proceedings - May 1947 Vol. 73/5/531 (usni.org)