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The theme of the summer dinner of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor was
The Kitchen Front in World War II. |
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We gathered around the table to introduce our contributions, which were characteristic of food during wartime rationing and shortages.
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| One member also brought the US Flag from the memorial service for her late father, a WWII veteran. |
Frugal Desserts in a time of sugar and butter rationing
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Mock Cheesecake made with condensed milk and no additional sugar.
This was quite delicious! |
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“Surprise Spice Cake” uses tomato soup to make up for some of the missing fat and sugar.
I believe that people still make this recipe from time to time. |
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| The dessert table, including a bread pudding and an eggless chocolate cake. |
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Parsnip pudding with a hint of sugar and cocoa. (Full disclosure: I didn’t try this one!)
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The Drinks Table
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Lemonade, iced tea, and coffee with chicory: drinks that fit the wartime theme.
The venue has no liquor license so we were not allowed to bring wine. |
Main Courses and Sides
To my surprise, not one dish on the well-stocked table included the most famous war-era food, that is, SPAM! Macaroni, noodles, potatoes, and beans all did appear in various forms, as did one big dish of garden vegetables representing the Victory Gardens which were planted by a remarkable percent of the population in the US.
UPDATE: a better-informed member of the Culinary Historians points out that SPAM was mainly available as rations for the troops during the war, and only widely sold for consumers afterwards, though the book I read did mention a household recipe for green peppers stuffed with SPAM.
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| A noodle hot dish with bacon that remained a favorite in the family of this CHAA member. |
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Potato salad with buttermilk dressing rather than mayonnaise — my contribution.
I found the recipe in the book Grandma’s Wartime Kitchen, which I wrote about last month (link) |
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| Carrot and potato mash. I’m not sure why this was a wartime dish, as potatoes were not scarce. |
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| Novelty meat roll: beef and pork surrounding a grated carrot filling. |
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The contributor of this macaroni salad said she did not know who “Judy” was,
but found the recipe on a random website. |
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| Bacon, Leek, and Potato Turnovers. |
The Joy of Cooking and Some Ration Books
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| Alongside a cucumber salad, here’s a copy of the 1943 edition of the Joy of Cooking! |
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| The 1943 Joy of Cooking added a section on wartime food preparation. |
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| These ration cards were in the attic of one of the members’ grandmothers. |
Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander.
22 comments:
This was very interesting!
No SPAM!??!! How did that happen? (I suspect your group is made up of people who want to cook...)
So interesting to see the assortment of recipes. I'd never heard of the tomato soup spice cake. With chocolate chips? I'd definitely give this a try. Like you, though, I'd skip the parsnips/chocolate combo.
Looks like an interesting evening!
It sounds like you had some quite authentic recipes. How awesome you got to share this with us. I like the idea of a Victory Garden and the recipes from it.
Looks like nobody cares for spam anymore today than they probably did back then.
Those ration cards are really neat! For rationing food, most of these dishes sound good to me. I love this idea of gatherings with themes. Not only is it a meal but a history lesson.
So glad you shared.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate
That is auch a marvelous idea to get together and have dishes used with recipes from WWII. A very interesting post. I don't blame for not trying the parsnip pudding, I don't think I would have done either. A cake with tomato soup - interesting! Cheesecake with condensed milk sounds actually delicious.
This is really interesting. My mom worked, but lived with her parents back then. She never talked much about cooking, but they had lots of rationing. Her parents were gardeners and canners, so I think vegetables for them were plentiful and if you think about it, no one really needs much sugar. We did eat lots of casseroles while growing up, so I think that was a carryover from the war days.
I think it all looks and sounds good. :) I have some rationing coupons that were my mom's. Great T Day post, Mae. Happy T Day.
Oh what a fabulous event and a wonderful post. The food looks amazing. I'm surprised there was no SPAM. I just read an acticle about SPAm and how it got it's name. Anyway, I think the event is something to go to. Have a great evening.
Maybe it was a wartime dish because potatoes WEREN'T scarce and consequently used often in wartime food!
This looks like a fun get together, and it's interesting to see what food people brought. I also was glad to see the flag in memory of a lost father. It seems fitting for this event. I'd like to try that mock cheesecake as well as the surprise spice cake. Food history is always really interesting. By the way, thanks for the Icelandic mystery recommendation too. Have a great T day Mae. hugs-Erika
I've been watching a lot of B. Dylan Hollis on YouTube making outrageous cakes and biscuits etc from previous decades. So fascinating! Amazing what they could conjure up without eggs, sugar etc!
Great idea for a theme! I grew up on wartime food, as things were still rationed or not obtainable till rationing stopped in 1952/3. I still make things like bread pudding, rice pudding, noodle pudding etc. Everything was filling back then, so we never went hungry. But even as a child I refused spam - no problem because one of the others was always happy to eat it. And my aunt started me on my coffee addiction with Camp coffee with chicory, which I loved. I tried some a few years back and it was vile - tastes change! Valerie
What a fun event, I like the theme. The war-era food all looks delicious, the cheesecake sounds yummy. Parsnip pudding, sounds strange. Take care, enjoy your day and the week ahead!
Wow - so interesting. What a great group you belong to and so fun to try all these recipes. Love the actual ration books - super cool. Fun post, Mae (I am not posting this week - just checking in on all of you). Hugz and happy T-day.
How interesting! I didn't really take in that the US had rationing too. My parents in Holland had rationing well into the 50s and the UK too.
I still drink Camp coffee which is chicory based. And I also make ´depression cake´ without eggs or butter ( a little bit of oil). it uses vinegar and baking soda. Bread pudding is something I make with left over bread, and just today I was thinking of making rice pudding in my slow cooker. Luckily we were not exposed to Spam (as far as I know) in Holland. At least I don't remember ever eating it.
Happy T-Day,
Hugs,
Lisca
All very interesting Mae. How easy it is all forgotten.. I think the potato dish fits in well here as it was something that was not rationed so it would have been available. Happy T day! Hugs! deb
Very fascinating. I've heard of the spiced cake but have never tried it.
What a fabulous celebration! I used to love my Mum's Bread Pudding - she used to add lots of spices! Happy T Day, Chrisx
What an interesting evening! I inherited a cookbook called "Household Searchlight" (I believe there was a magazine by that name) and it contains many depression-era recipes. Some of which I'm sure carried over to WWII era because I remembered them. I actually remember some neighbors having Victory Gardens (I was of course *very* young at the time!)
Mae, this was a very interesting post and made me think about some of the recipes growing up In the 1950's when many of these type of recipes were still popular.
This was so interesting especially desserts . I have made a Depression chocolate cake which didn’t use butter or eggs and it’s always been a big hit with my crew. I also liked seeing the ration coupons. Happy T Day
What a fascinating get together! Wartime cooking is always interesting, especially to see their ideas of mock meat! I also recently saw an eggfree golden syrup cake recipe from wartime that was quite appealing. It makes us realise just how lucky we are to have so much variety and amounts of food available.
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