WW2 Rationing Recipes - American

[Marianne]

Vinegar Pie
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. ground allspice
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 cup water

1 9” pie crust that had been briefly baked (about 3 minutes) at 450 degrees

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Sift together flour and spices then add to flour mixture, mix well. Beat in egg, vinegar and water. Pour into a double boiler and cook over boiling water until thick. Pour into the pie shell and bake about 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.


Pioneer Vinegar Pie
1 egg
1 heaping tablespoon flour
1 c sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat these ingredients together and add 1 tablespoon of sharp vinegar and a cup of cold water. Flavor with a little nutmeg and pour into an unbaked pie shell. Cover with second pie crust and flute edges. Bake for an hour.

 

[Marianne]

Salads From Your Victory Garden!

Panama Radish Salad

This unusual, fresh and crispy combination tastes wonderful served as a side dish with meat or with crusty rolls for lunch.

Mix about 2 doz. medium-sized radishes (sliced) with 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. minced onions, 1/2 tsp. chopped mint or parsley leaves, a large tomato, chopped fine (if you have it). Add 1/4 cup Heinz Pure cider vinegar, 2 tbs. Heinz Olive Oil (optional) . . . garnish with tender radish tops and garden lettuce.

Old-Fashioned Potato Salad

Made from any kind of potatoes, this salad is delicious–but, if possible, do try it with tiny new potatoes from your garden. To serve 4 you need 4 cups cubed boiled potatoes, 1 small onion, chopped.

For dressing . . . heat 3 tbs. bacon droppings, 2 tbs. Heinz Cider Vinegar, 2 tbs. water, 1 tsp. Heinz Worcestershire Sauce. Pour on potatoes. Salt to taste. Sprinkle with chopped onion tops. Serve hot.

Surround potato salad with tender young beet tops or dandelions, shredded. Save a little of the bacon dressing to pour over greens.

 

[Britesea]

The vinegar pie sounds like a similar dessert to Chess Pie, which was always popular when the "boughten" foods got scarce before a trip to the store.

I found these "Rules" in a book called the Economical War Time Cookbook
Seven Commandments for War-Time Conservation

1. Set aside enough money to buy 1 quart of milk a day for each child and 1/3 quart of milk a day for each grown person
a. The grown person may use some cheese in place of all milk. 1.8 oz of cheese will replace 1/3 quart of milk.
b. If there is not enough money to buy this amount of milk, try to buy at least 1 pint a day for each child and 1/3 pint a day for each grown person.
c. The grown person may use skim milk. Half of the daily quart for the child my be skim milk, if necessary; but it is not best to feed the child skim milk.
d. Children suffer more from lack of milk than do grown persons.

2. Buy 2 to 3 ounces of some fat for each grown person
a. Children will not need as much of this as they are getting a quart of whole milk a day.
b. The best fat is butter; particularly for little children

3. If money is scarce, buy only enough sugar to make the meals palatable.
a. 1 ½ oz, or about 3 level tablespoons of sugar, honey, molasses, or syrup a day for each person will do this.
b. Sugar is not a necessary food; too much money spent for sugar is likely to deprive the family of more needed foods.

4. Buy for each day some potatoes and one other vegetable such as cabbage, onions, carrots, turnips, beets or other available fresh vegetables.
a. Children can eat daily 3-3 medium sized potatoes and ¼ to ½ pound of one of the other vegetables.
b. Grown persons can eat daily 6-8 medium-sized potatoes and ½ lb or more of the other vegetables.

5. Buy only as much wheat and wheat products as the Food Administration rulings allow.
a. The rest of your need for cereal food may be satisfied by such other cereals as rolled oats, pinhead oatmeal, cornmeal, hominy, barley, rice, and buckwheat.
b. If possible, buy flours, meals, and breakfast foods made from the entire grain, such as water-ground cornmeal, rolled oats or oatmeal, cracked wheat, graham and whole-wheat flour. They have greater food value than have the refined products.
c. Less bread and other cereal foods are needed, if some dried beans or peas are eaten and if potatoes are used freely.
d. One serving of dried beans or peas or one medium-sized potato may replace one serving of cereal or one slice of bread.

6. If some money still remains, buy a little fruit for each member of your family.
a. Apples, fresh or dried, and dried prunes and raisins are among the cheapest fruits

7. If there is more than enough money for this necessary food for all members of the family, spend it to increase the variety and flavor of the meals.
a. The plain but safe diet resulting from following rules 1 to 6 may be made more palatable by spending more money.
b. Meat may be added for grown-up members of the family
c. Eggs may be added for all members of the family.
d. The amount of money to be spent for milk, cream, butter, cheese, fruits, vegetables, fats and sweets may be increased.
e. This more expensive diet may be more pleasing but not more wholesome than the first one suggested.

 

[Marianne]

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 squares Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine chocolate and milk in top of double boiler and cook over rapidly boiling water 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Blend with rotary egg beater; cool. Sift flour once, measure, add soda, salt, and sugar and sift together three times. Cream shortening; add flour mixture, vanilla, and chocolate mixture, and stir until all flour is dampened. Then beat vigorously 1 minute. Bake in two greased and lightly floured 8-inch layer pans in moderate oven (375° F.) 20 minutes, or until done.

Eggless Cocoa Cake. Substitute 1/4 cup Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa for chocolate. Sift cocoa with dry ingredients and add cold milk with vanilla.

Orange Frosting. Combine 1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange rind, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and dash of salt. Add 2 tablespoons hot melted butter or other shortening and beat vigorously 1 minute, adding more liquid, if necessary.

 

[Marianne]

I've checked out a Chess Pie recipe several times, but never made it. One of these days...

After looking a bunch of American ration recipes, we had a lot more options than what the British had. They also had to ration for a few years after the war. Tough times.

 

[Marianne]

Betty, how you've changed.

Emergency Steak, from the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, 1950 -
"T-Bone," family style. Strips of carrot may be inserted to resemble the bone.

Mix together...
1 lb. ground beef
1 tbsp. minced onion
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup Wheaties or 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs

Place on lightly greased pan, pat into shape of T-bone steak (1" thick). Broil. Serve hot...immediately. 6 servings.

 

[Marianne]

Recipe for War Cake
2 cups brown sugar

2 cups hot water

2 tbsp shortening

1/2 lb seedless raisins

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

Boil this five minutes & when cold, add three cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda dissolved in a little warm water. Bake about 45 minutes in a slow oven.

 

[Marianne]

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I don't think it sounds too bad - at least with some modifications, lol. I'd add some finely minced onion. And, I'd leave out the pickles, the mushroom sauce and the hard boiled eggs. Other than that it sounds faintly salmon patty-ish. But, I've never baked my salmon patties.

 

[Marianne]

Americans and Canadians had to be careful with flour products. The Brits took a different approach, people could buy as much bread as they could afford. But there was only one bread available. By law. Enter the Wholemeal Loaf, or National Loaf.
The National Loaf
National Flour was used to make the National Loaf, a yeast-risen, bakery-made bread for daily consumption.

A ban on commercial, pure white bread production came into effect on 6 April 1942 [11]. The regulations stated that 75% of the wheat flour in a loaf of bread had to be of 85% extraction (the rest of the wheat flour could be regular white wheat flour), that the bread had to be sold unwrapped, and unsliced, that the bread could only be sold the day after it was made, not on the day of, and that the official legal size of a loaf of bread was reduced from 16oz to 14 oz.

The definition of the National Loaf was adjusted over the years.

Man, those guys meant business, too. Here's a link about it: https://www.cooksinfo.com/national-loaf

The British Gov't said that beer/alcohol wouldn't be rationed as it would help morale. But sugar and other ingredients made the price increase as time went on. Bread and beer. That might be a welcome change from turnips and parsnips, eh?

Nothing Fancy Wartime Loaf

* 600 ml (1 pint) of warm water
* 5 teaspoons of quick rise yeast
* couple pinches of sugar
* 2 lb of wholewheat (wholemeal) flour
* 1.5 teaspoons salt
* 1 tablespoon rolled oats (for top)
* drizzle of vegetable oil

Method

Place flour in large bowl
Mix in all dry ingredients except the rolled oats
Drizzle in vegetable oil
Pour in warm water
Mix thoroughly
When dough comes together knead for 10 minutes until dough is silky
Place back in bowl and cover
Let dough rise somewhere warm until doubled in size
Knead dough briefly again
Place dough into 4 x 1/2 lb tins (or 2 x 1 lb tins) that have been floured
Brush top with a little water and sprinkle on some rolled oats
Leave to rise for around 20 minutes
PLace in oven at 180 0C for around 30-40 mins (depending on the size of the loaf)
Remove from oven
Cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting