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 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!

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.”

@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 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

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.

Please do an episode on the experiences of Japanese-Americans who were forced to relocate to camps. My husband’s father was interned as a young man. His family lost everything, including their small grocery store in Sacramento, California. When he was released, he went on to serve in the US Army, retired after a long career with the US Postal Service working at SFO, and fully paid off a simple row house in San Francisco. Rest in peace, Grandpa Dick.

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 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.

Fun fact: In Britain, a lot of things were being rationed, including Paper. Yes, Paper was being rationed. And it's because of the rationing of Paper, that the legendary author JRR Tolkien had to split his great novel The Lord of The Rings, into three books, which he heavily disliked, because the titles of the books spoiled the story.

My grandma has told me a story of how her dad wasn't allowed to join the army. He was a mechanic in Philadelphia who kept the buses going. The buses that everyone relied on to get to work every day. I guess he was so good at his job that he was termed essential to the war effort or something like that.

My parents (born in '39 and '41) grew up with rationing. My mom's family had a "Victory Garden" that was so they could have fresh produce, vegetables and herbs mostly, whenever they could grow through the Spring and Summer. My mom even called our family garden a "Victory Garden" when I was growing up. PBS had a television show called: "The Victory Garden" that mom watched regularly.

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.

My grandma had a few ration stamps long after WWII that she showed me when I was learning about WWII. She would use only public transportation to places out of walking distance. Had her victory garden and a few chickens she raised for eggs that she'd share with her neighbours. She kept a bee hive for honey, She went mostly Vegetarian during the war. I loved hearing her stories about living during wartime. Her stories about WWII and The Great Depression taught me about history.

My mom said they always soaked the cereal in the milk before combining it with ground beef. They ground their own meat from cheap cuts. We were still grinding our own meat for ground beef in 1963, in The US.

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.

Emergency steak is the most American thing I have ever heard, AND I LOVE IT!!!

My mom used to talk about rationing during WWII. Her mom raised rabbits & chickens. I remember her telling me about the sugar rationing. We were pretty frugal growing up seeing as how she was part of the Great Depression and WWII. Good show, Max, as always!

My grandparents always had a goat,chickens and rabbits. And had a cow. They didn’t eat the cow until she now longer produced milk. They had a smoke house for making bacon and smoking meats. They had a huge “victory” garden with fruits and vegetables. My great uncle grew corn and hay and had the cattle on his land my other great uncle had Nut trees, pecans and walnuts and apple trees. They all shared and worked the 3 farms together. My grandmother and aunts canned everything ,including meat. They lived this way before WW2. They lived in Oklahoma even durning the Dust Bowl. They lived this way until the days they got too old to work the land.