WW2 Rationing Recipes - American

[Marianne]

During the wartime, those simple assets saved many. Still true today. The rest is just icing on the cake. My grands lived this way and didn't even know there were problems, it was life as usual.

Exactly. Those rural folks in the US didn't have too many problems with rationing, but some of the city people sure felt it. I wish my grandmother was still alive so I could ask her about her experiences. I'm going to visit my elderly aunt in another state next month, so I'll see what her experiences were with rationing.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

My grandparents raised 13 kids through the Great Depression on a farm with a huge garden. In fact, their barn burnt down in 1929, and had to be rebuilt. My dad was one of the middle children. He was 4 years old when the barn burnt. They made most of their own clothes, and several of my aunts went on to be marvelous seamstresses. I never once heard ANY of my aunts or uncles ever say there were times when they didn't have enough food. In fact, my grandfather was a farmer, and hauled milk to the cheese factories, and they were one of the first in the area to have electricity. Neighbors would come to their house to listen to the radio. My grandmother canned and quilted well into her 80's, and I remember shelves and shelves (and shelves) of canned food in her cellar, along with giant crocks of carrots and saurkraut, and many other preserved crops like apples, potatoes, and onions to last through the long winters. My Dad and Uncle were both in the Navy during WWII.

I'm LOVING these recipes, and THANK YOU @Marianne for the GREAT pictures! We'll be trying out some of these recipes.

 

[sumi]

Golden Syrup

Sugar, water and a slice of lemon are all you need to make this buttery caramel flavored syrup!

• 3 Tbsp water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup boiling water
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 lemon slice

1. Pour 3 Tbsp water and 1/2 cup sugar into a saucepan.
   
   
2. Bring to a simmer over medium-low to medium heat.
   
   
3. Once the mixture turns a caramel color, slowly and carefully add 1 1/4 cups boiling water (I pre-heated the water my countertop hot water kettle).
   
   
4. Add 2 1/2 cups sugar and bring to a low simmer.
   
   
5. Add a slice of lemon to the mixture. The lemon will keep the mixture from crystalizing at is simmers.
   
   
6. Turn the heat down to low and let the syrup simmer for about 45 minutes.
   
   
7. When the syrup is ready, remove the candied lemon slice. Let the mixture cool down for a few minutes before pouring it into a sterilized glass jar (I poured boiling water into my jar and let it sit for a couple minutes). The syrup will be thin at this point but will thicken up as it sits in the jar.
   
   
8. Store in a cool, dry place.

My mother used to make and sell syrup! I'm pretty sure this is the recipe she used. I remember she added lemon and it was sooo good!

 

[sumi]

These rationing talks reminds me of something. Some of you may recall my spooky experience a few months ago on the corner of the road I live on in this village. Awhile after that I bumped into a wonderful old man that lives here and is an absolute treasure trove of stories and Irish history. I could listen to him all day. I mentioned my experience and he regaled me with stories of and relating to not just that corner and the building on it, but the rest of the street as well!

Now, back to the rationing. I'm not sure when exactly this happened, but food and loads of other goods were strictly rationed here in Ireland and there was a grocery shop at the time on that corner. The shop owners kept to the strict rations for most of their customers, but allowed certain rich folks as much tea, sugar, tobacco, etc as they wanted. Of course this upset the rest of their customers and one day a heck of a fight broke out in the shop about the unfairness of their dealings. An upset customer cursed the shop, as in wished misfortune and bad luck on them. Which seem to have stuck... The businesses there for the next few decades suffered terrible misfortunes, including a fire that completely gutted the building. (According to a friend locally, it was around that time that the haunting started) It had been renovated and refurbished some years after, turned into a business premises on the ground floor and apartments above that. Interestingly the first people to have managed to successfully run a business in that premises, since the curse all those years ago, is a Chinese family that started a very successful take-away restaurant there about 8 years ago.

I remember saying when I heard the story that the curse may not have applied to the Chinese because they are foreign immigrants and therefor "innocent" of the crimes and injustice committed there so many years ago? Who knows.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - how interesting (and a tiny bit spooky) is that! Waaay cool!

 

[NH Homesteader]

That's a cool story!

 

[Britesea]

I remember being told about someone's grandparents that lived in the Deep South during the Depression. Apparently the only difference the Depression caused in their lifestyle was that Grandpa started using his old muzzle-loader again, because he didn't have to spend money on ammunition!

 

[Marianne]

This all reminds me of my mother talking about how kids would have bacon grease smeared on bread for sandwiches when they went to school. You do what you have to do.
Sumi, I love the story!!

 

[Marianne]

My grandparents raised 13 kids through the Great Depression on a farm with a huge garden. In fact, their barn burnt down in 1929, and had to be rebuilt. My dad was one of the middle children. He was 4 years old when the barn burnt. They made most of their own clothes, and several of my aunts went on to be marvelous seamstresses. I never once heard ANY of my aunts or uncles ever say there were times when they didn't have enough food. In fact, my grandfather was a farmer, and hauled milk to the cheese factories, and they were one of the first in the area to have electricity. Neighbors would come to their house to listen to the radio. My grandmother canned and quilted well into her 80's, and I remember shelves and shelves (and shelves) of canned food in her cellar, along with giant crocks of carrots and saurkraut, and many other preserved crops like apples, potatoes, and onions to last through the long winters. My Dad and Uncle were both in the Navy during WWII.

I'm LOVING these recipes, and THANK YOU @Marianne for the GREAT pictures! We'll be trying out some of these recipes.

My mom told me about my grandmother selling eggs, butter and cottage cheese to the local grocery. According to her, everyone loved "Mrs. Bordahl's cottage cheese". Ha! I wish I knew what made hers better than others. My mother hated churning butter.
WWII is a bit of a hobby of mine. My father was a POW and kept a diary, my husband's father was on Omaha Beach. I bet your relatives had some hair raising experiences as well.

 

[Marianne]

My mother used to make and sell syrup! I'm pretty sure this is the recipe she used. I remember she added lemon and it was sooo good!

Oh no kidding!! That's pretty awesome.