Cooking on the American Homefront During WWII

What other powers from WWII would you like to see me cover in this series?

Born in 1941, my parents jokingly, referred to me as a "bonus baby", as my arrival meant an increase in the household's sugar and coffee rationing stamps. In fact, I still have, 80 years later, a couple of those old rationing booklets, with a few unused stamps that were left when rationing was lifted at war's end.

My grandmother always talked about the emergency steak she made....for my dad. My dad would always refer to it as meatloaf, which would irritate my grandmother. Good times

My mom grew up in the '30s-early '40s, she inherited this cookbook from her mother. My dad was a POW for the 2nd half the war, his PTSD caught up with him in the '60s, when I was growing up, and his descent into alcoholism impoverished our family. My mother made the Wheaties and milk steak a lot for dinner. There were four of us kids. She would make a mushroom gravy and we'd have it with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. We liked it, it was really quite a delicious meal. None of us complained. My mom died 30 years ago. I don't know what happened to the cookbook. One of my siblings has it probably.

My Mum was a war child in England, and she never forgot how she craved certain foods unobtainable during WW2. Britain was too cold to grow oranges and lemons - they used to be imported from Spain and Italy - but those import ships could no longer get through, so the British slowly began to get scurvy. The Government were extremely worried about this, and luckily, Lord Woolten, the Minister in charge of food, found a clever solution. Announcing it over the radio, he ordered all the kids in Britain to go foraging in the countryside, and along the hedgerows, for rosehips. England was full of roses, and rosehips are an even greater source of vitamin C than oranges. Mum used to talk so fondly of the Great Rosehip Hunt, when hundreds of kids from her town in Lancashire raced around in the fields looking for rosehips, filling their baskets, and competing with each other over who could gather the most. They made great fun out of a national emergency! All the mothers then boiled up the rosehips in huge copper tubs they usually used for washing clothes - everyone chipped in their tiny sugar ration, which was 2 ounces per week, into these boiling tubs, as the rosehips were too sour to eat raw - and made rosehip syrup, bottled it up, and now every family and every growing child in Britain was safe from scurvy. British ingenuity at its best! She also told me how she craved bananas, which they could no longer import from India and Africa, and Lord Woolten had a cookbook printed for all the housewives in Britain, so they could manage on their meagre rations. 'Mock Mashed Banana' was one such recipe - and my poor Mum still shuddered at the memory of it. It was mashed potato, a tiny bit of sugar, and banana essence, which was bright yellow, and tasted absolutely vile! It was meant to be a treat for the kids - but Mum said it tasted like a punishment! Hitler underestimated just how tough and determined the British were. Mum never forgot this poster, which the Government printed and was posted up all over her town - 'YOUR COURAGE, YOUR CHEERFULNESS, YOUR RESOLUTION WILL BRING US VICTORY.'

My grandma used to talk about her memories of rationing. She was a teenager during WWII, and one of the things she found hardest was the shortage of nylon stockings. One time she was able to finally get a new pair, but she accidentally left them on the bus on the way home. She was still mad about that 70 years later!

My neighborhood was built in the 40s and a lot of the houses still have old rabbit hutches that people used to raise rabbits for meat during the war. They are all just used as storage spaces around me now- most people don't know what they were for. Regarding the Japanese internment camps: the internees were not necessarily making Victory Gardens- the government wanted the camps to be self-sufficient and demanded production. The internees just happened to be so good at farming they produced big surpluses (on what was also pretty garbage land, by the way). This would be a good story to look into- it shouldn't be forgotten.

My mother lived through WW2 in England. Her dad worked delivering coal and would often take delivery trips into the countryside. He would pass by orchards with no one available to pick the fruit, so they let him bring bags of it home if he would pick them. Mom had plenty to bring to school, which made her very popular.

My grandmother still has her parents' ration books. She was also lucky enough to have one of the last rubber toys available before rationing took over. She was also small enough to ride the last functional bicycle available from her local store. It happened to be the decorative one from the store sign. Apparently it worked and it was just the right size for a toddler

Loved this video! I almost never comment on the internet — I’m 66 years old. My mother (born in 1922) was a daughter-at-home with my grandparents during the war. I loved to discuss that time with her. Because they lived on a farm they didn’t use most of their ration coupons during that time — they grew and canned their own food and had cows, pigs, and chickens. The exception was the sugar ration. I found it so sweet and interesting when she discussed their sugar ration. She said they made sure to purchase the sugar that they were allowed. I asked her if they enjoyed having it for special treats. She said, “Oh no!” — and, I was confused. Then she explained that they donated almost all of it, except the little they needed for canning. She said there was always someone needing sugar for a “funeral spread” or to make cookies to send to the “boys.’’ When she said that, I cried. It still brings tears to my eyes. Perhaps you could do a video using WWII era recipes of cookies sent to the “boys.”

People often talk about turning to hunting and fishing for meat in a situation like that, but the fact is during the Great Depression wild animals like deer, elk, and wild turkeys and wild fish like trout and bass were hunted / fished almost to extinction in many parts of the US before rationing even happened. It took decades and fish and game reintroduction and management to bring the wildlife populations back to normal.

I would love to see a video on the Japanese internment camps! My auntie was put in the camps when she was 9. Her family had a farm in California. A neighbor bought the farm when they were forced to leave, kept it for the years they were gone, and gave it back to them when they were released. I always loved that story of kindness.

I know you've probably gotten this suggestion a lot, but the inventor of Tiramisu just passed away, and I would love to hear his story since it ended so recently and, until he died, I was unaware that the invention of Tiramisu was even in living memory. Fantastic vid as always, can't wait to see more of this series!

@9:35 i know some fun facts about the rubber shortages! Because the US imported so much rubber, they had to develop a synthetic rubber to replace it. Once they created it, the US government contracted a company called B.F. Goodrich to convert an old oil refinery in Louisville Kentucky to a synthetic rubber plant. The location is called Rubbertown now. They chose the city because they calculated that no foreign bombers had the fuel capacity to hit it and return to a coast to land on a carrier. The plant was massive, like 2 square miles. They still have the old watch towers from the war where they would guard for air raids. There's an old submarine buried on the land that is used as file storage now. The plant sold off more than half its land to a half dozen other chemical plants, but its still one of the largest producers of synthetic rubber in America.

My mother was English and lived there during the war. Growing up, she used to tell us how little food they had to survive on. My father was an American GI and, of course, had access to American rations. I was born in August of 45. Shortly after my birth a social worker came to my mother's house and ask why she had not picked up the imitation vitamin C drops for me. My mother brought her into the parlor and showed her a huge bowl of oranges my father had given her. Remember, they had not seen fresh oranges in several years. The social worker shyly asked if she could have one. My mother gave her a couple.

My parents were both born in the 1920s. Because if the depression both sets of my grandparents already had thriving gardens and both grandmas canned like fiends when the gardens came in so they had plenty for all winter. Both kept chickens for fresh eggs and meat, and one also had access to pigs and a couple of dairy cows. They both lived near towns but had enough land to work with. My Mom's stories of having strangers with hungry families coming to their door asking for help were heartbreaking. Things like this prepared that "Greatest Generation" for the hardship and sacrifice needed during the war.

As a Japanese-American from Hawaii, I only ever learned the stories of the internment camps through my pursuit for my history degree in college. I learned about what my grandparents had to go through during Pearl Harbor when they lived on the Big Island, but I would love to see what you could find in your research on the food of the internment camps! I love your videos and your platform is such a great way to dissect the big events of history that we learn in class and factor in the human aspect of everyday life for these people that had to live it.

I remember as a child going through my grandma's junk drawer. She had several war ration coupon books for meat and butter. My grandparents owned a small farm and raised livestock and didn't use the coupons. My other grandpa and I were in the hardware store and a little old man from church walked past and grandpa said loud enough for him to hear "thief". The man also had a farm and sold watered down milk. Townsfolk grew sceptical of all the farmers after that. Grandpa quit selling their milk and he still resented him thirty yesrs later because all of the farmers could have used the cash from the milk.

Celeriac "steak" became quite common during WW2 here in Denmark due to meat rationing. And don't let the "steak" part fool you, it was just a thick slice of celeriac root, boiled, breaded, and pan fried. There were also lots and lots of ways to stretch the food. "When the purse is empty, the flour pot is deep". We were also encouraged to grow Victory Gardens here in Denmark. There was also a flourishing black market going on here. "Sortbørshajer", literally "black market sharks" is what we called the people engaging in trade in the ration stamps, and other sundry black marketeering. And yes, my country was known as the "whipped cream front", but I assure you we did put up resistance against the Germans. On the rationing, and when it ended for us? Well, coffee, the roasted beans that is, was here in Denmark the last consumable to be taken off of the rationing plan... In 19... 55.

Ok, FYI, I am in my 60s. I work at my local courthouse one day a week, and last year, my work day fell on December 7. The flags were at half staff. I had probably 5 ppl ask me why, and I said Pearl Harbor Day. They looked at me like I was nuts. What is that? they asked. I explained and then polled everyone I ran into the rest of the day. ALL OF THE ONES UNDER 30 had NO IDEA WHAT THAT WAS. It was explained to me that this was no longer taught in school. I have no idea if that is true, because my child was taught in the single local high school, and she was told about it, and she’s 28. In the end, ppl who are younger didn’t know what Pearl Harbor Day was/is. My own dad was a veteran and I have helped and still do help about 2 dozen on a semi-regular basis. I hope we can continue to respect our veterans and those who are front line responders since in the end they are the reason we have services like YouTube. Enjoyed this video - TFS!