Recipes that kept the Home Front fed in WWII

[Still Waters]

Fish made from rice, duck made from sausage meat and an omelette made of bread - you would be forgiven for thinking these were dishes from a Heston Blumenthal restaurant.

But these remarkable recipes are actually the creation of resourceful World War II housewives who had to make do with meagre rations.

They show how home cooks improvised with basic ingredients and food they could grow in their back gardens to concoct dishes that were otherwise unavailable in wartime Britain.

http://www.dailymail...ld-War-Two.html

[Kowalski]

Wow! I have to try some of these recipes. Those women were certainly ingenious with their recipes. Potatoes are also one of the most versatile foods around too. You can do anything with potatoes!

[pallidin]

Interesting. Some of those recipes seem nutriritious.

Very creative!

[Kowalski]

A cool website you might want to check out: http://www.allthatwo...timerecipes.htm

Carrot Fudge

Ingredients:

Carrots

Gelatine

Orange essence

Method:

Finely grate carrots and cook four tablespoons

full in just enough water to cover for 10 minutes.

Add flavouring with orange essence, grated orange rind or orange squash/cordial.

Melt a leaf of gelatine.

Add gelatine to mixture.

Cook quickly for a few minutes stirring all the time.

Spoon into a flat dish.

Leave to set.

Cut into cubes.

Also see

http://freepages.mil...imeRecipes.html

Edited May 19, 2013 by Kowalski

[pallidin]

Wow! I have to try some of these recipes. Those women were certainly ingenious with their recipes. Potatoes are also one of the most versatile foods around too. You can do anything with potatoes!

I also had found-out that potatoes contain a substance that mimics the sedative vallium(whilst researching natural foods/herbs to deal with my anxiety attacks)

Problem is, the article I read suggested it would take the ingestion of, I think, 20 pounds of organic potatoes in one sitting to equal a small-dose valium.

I was going to research that further, to see if there is some type of "potato extract" that concentrates whatever chemical it is, but I never did since being put back on benzo's.

Anyway, sorry, back on-topic...

EDIT: for those interested in further info, I think one can Google "potatoes vallium", without the qoutes,

or something similar. Not sure what I Googled.

Edited May 19, 2013 by pallidin

[lightly]

My sister swears by the potato for it's valium effect thing. She weighs 400 pounds now.. but couldn't care less. (lol)

I remember Ma talking about the food rationing during WW2 .. and "oleo" (some weird nearly tasteless margarine) Dad switched back to BUTTER as soon as possible.

i remember one of his favorite sayings being... LOTS of Butter!!!

It must have been harder on city people ... i grew up in farming/hunting/fishing country .. where people were not affected quite so badly by the shortages and rationing.

[PersonFromPorlock]

Gives new meaning to "Victory or death!"

[Rafterman]

Sounds similar to some of the Depression era dishes that my grandparents still cooked well into the 1990s. Many of them I still cook and love to this day.

[HollyDolly]

If you can get your hands on old womens magazines of the time period they too should have interesting recipes.

I once had a World War 1 cookbook from Portland Oregon which was put out by one of the newspapers there. Had some interesting recipes in it.Unfortunately I sold it,wish I had it now.

[Big Jim]

A common dessert in my family was something called War Cake. Essentially a dry sort of raison bread that was very tasty and probably nutritious, it used only ingredients that were not rationed. I'm pretty sure that meant no eggs, butter or sugar. My mother was still making it occasionally until the house was empty and she was too old to cook. A sister of mine still requests it for her birthday. There were many other family favorites that were plain and simple but I was never sure if they were developed due to wartime rationing or just part of my family's frugal German heritage.

[PersonFromPorlock]

My mother made 'depression hamburger', which was hamburger mixed with bits of torn-up stale bread and some mustard and an (optional) egg, to hold the patty together. Much better than regular hamburger, very moist and tender. I still cook hamburger this way.

Oh, and dredge in flour before cooking.

[shrooma]

i've owned this book for years, and not one of the recipes tastes boring or bland.

it just shows how ingenious people can be during times of shortage, something that could come in handy during economic climate.....

.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1850748713

i've owned this book for years, and not one of the recipes tastes boring or bland.

it just shows how ingenious people can be during times of shortage, something that could come in handy during today's economic climate.....

.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1850748713

Edited May 22, 2013 by shrooma