Ministry of food ww2 recipes: Wartime recipes pdf

What did ww2 soldiers eat?

      Due to the harsh reality of war and rations sawdust, insects, cats, and potatoes were just some of the things on the menu for the people at home during the Second World War. World War II shook the world to its core. 

 

Ministry of food ww2 recipes 

     Although the conflict revealed shocking atrocities and new levels of the horrors of war, many people experienced its effects every time they opened their pantries. The war machine consumed everything, including the food that people needed to live. 

     As food was shipped out to soldiers, the people at home were left to survive off what remained. Some countries had more than others, so what people ate differed radically depending on where they were. 

WW2 ration booklet

What did people eat in Poland? 

     Poland suffered under German occupation for almost all of the war, so they saw some of the harshest eating conditions. Before the war, Polish cuisine was colorful and decadent – they were one of the chief exporters of shellfish, so it featured prominently in their dishes. Vegetables like beets, carrots, and rutabaga added flavor and color, which was essential for an excellent presentation. 

     When the war marched into Poland, though, all of that changed, and the bright and tasty dishes that defined Polish cuisine faded into the background as the need to survive became more prominent. Meat became more and more difficult to obtain, especially for the poorer people, and they scrambled to find anything that could provide them with needed protein.

    The Polish diet quickly moved to starches, aided by government propaganda that starches were actually healthier than meat. Of course, the minimal food supply did not stop Polish creativity. The potato became an essential part of their diet because it could be used as a substitute in many dishes. With enough imagination, the potato could even become a sponge cake or sour cream. Both potatoes and turnips were popular in Poland during World War II, and they helped keep the country fed. 

Wartime recipes

      Maria Karpowiczowa collected Polish World War II recipes, creating a book that helped many people in Poland survive World War II and the communist rule that came after it. Her book contains a recipe for potato flour sour cream. Sour cream itself was hard to come by, but by mixing milk, potato flour, and a little sugar, the Polish people could create an acceptable substitute. 

     When they baked, the people did not have access to most kinds of flour. While they could use potatoes, they also used beans as a flour substitute. We might think putting beans in your cake instead of flour is strange, but if the beans are boiled long enough and minced fine enough, they can be worked into a cake – and disguised with a bit of added sugar. 

     Of course, the people of Poland had to eat more than just sour cream and cake. One of the popular soups was called spit soup, but it’s not as gross as it sounds. The people sometimes had an excess of barley, which can be difficult to eat by itself, so they would make barley soup. While they ate the soup, they would spit out the husks, which is how the soup got its name. Poland wasn’t the only country that suffered hard food shortages during World War 2. 

     The people of Germany also had great difficulty getting the food they needed, especially as the war waned towards its end. At the beginning of the war, though, the people of Germany were not really affected. Food rationing did begin in 1939, but rationing was kept to a minimum. Hitler and the Nazis knew that harsh rationing could build public resentment and negatively affect the war effort, so they made sure the rations were the highest in Europe at the start of the war. Some people even ate better during the first part of the war than they had eaten before the war. Food from conquered lands was sent back to Germany, which achieved two goals. First, it allowed them to keep the German citizens well-fed. Second, it allowed the Nazis to work on “depopulating” the lands they conquered by starving the people who lived there. The Nazi government officials were so caught up in their belief in a superior race that they purposefully allowed millions of people to starve. Food in Germany was bolstered by soldiers who sent parcels home. 

     By 1942, German families were getting good quality food from across Europe, including fresh fruit, ham, and even butter. Shortages began to affect Germany later in 1942, and by 1944, the German people were experiencing chronic shortages. Instead of the generous rations from the beginning of the war, the German people had their portions of sugar and meat rationed by the gram. By 1943, the meat ration had dropped to 250 grams a week – a far cry from the 750 grams per week they were receiving in 1939. To get some protein, many people raised “roof pigs,” which were cats raised in roof cages for consumption. 

     One of the other foods that the German people had difficulty getting late in the war was wheat. They began adding fillers to their bread, ranging from rye to beets to sawdust. The fillers were baked into the bread like any other ingredient, and the German people ate it because they had very little else to eat. These fillers added substance to the dwindling food supply, even if they didn’t add any nutrition. When the Allied powers invaded Germany, they fought in the streets with German soldiers while the starving citizens stood in bread lines, hoping for something to eat. 

What about the people of Japan? 

     Even though Japan was not affected by the European theatre of the war, the country still experienced severe food rationing. Japan instituted food rationing in 1940, which not only included sugar, seafood, and dairy products but also included vegetables and rice. The government tried to create a sustainable rationing system by freezing prices and doling out food to citizens, but it proved unsuccessful. 

     Daily food amounts were reduced several times throughout the war, which was especially dangerous for the people living in cities. They were completely reliant upon the government to feed them, and over one million children were evacuated to the countryside, hoping that there would be more food there. Sadly, even in the countryside, food was scarce. Athletic fields were used to grow crops like sweet potatoes, and people supplemented their protein by eating any insects they could find. The staple ration for the Japanese people was rice, and they saw decreases in the amount of available rice as the war went on. 

     The United States set up blockades on Japanese imports, which limited the amount of rice they had. By the end of the war, Japan also lost their colonies in Korea and Taiwan, so they had to rely entirely on their own rice fields, which had poor crops in 1944 and 1945. While the Japanese tried to replace their rice with wheat, potatoes, soybeans, and other coarse grains, the grains were not properly balanced to provide the people with the nutrients they needed, leading to mass malnutrition in Japan. 

Did any country have an easier time getting enough food to eat? 

     Yes, several countries did not have the same difficulty feeding the home front. These countries tended to be removed from the front lines and were already fairly wealthy, even though there was still rationing that limited how much people could buy. Britain still had strict rationing, but it did not suffer the same food shortages as Germany, Poland, or Japan. Part of this is because the fighting did not really take place in Britain, so they were still able to grow food. 

     However, rationing was still pervasive, so the British people had to be creative. This included finding replacements for meat and dairy, and those substitutions were generally made with potatoes. Potatoes were used as fillers and food replacements for many different dishes. One of the more popular dishes during the time was Bubble and Squeak. Potatoes were one of the few things that the British could usually get, so they combined mashed potatoes with whatever leftovers were around. This was part of the rationing initiative to avoid wasting any food; Bubble and Squeak was flexible enough to work with whatever was left over. Root vegetables also became extremely popular in Britain during World War II. 

     Onions were almost idolized, and keen gardeners grew any seeds they could get ahold of, including squashes and gourds that had not been grown for years. People were also encouraged to make their own jams and preserves. Canning had not been popular in Britain before the war, but during World War II, the British government strongly encouraged people to take it up again. In fact, they were so serious about promoting it that they even gave out extra rations of sugar! Making jams and pickles was popular and even seen as patriotic! One of the things the British could not easily preserve from their home gardens was meat, including poultry and fish. 

     Fried fish fillets had been a normal part of the British diet, so cooks in England tried to maintain this by making mock fish fillets out of rice. They would mix egg and fried rice in a pan and let it cool. Then, they would cut the mixture into fillets, bread them (if there was any bread available), and then fry them like real fish. Although it wasn’t exactly the same, it helped maintain a semblance of normalcy on the home front in the chaos of the war. Although Britain had fewer food concerns than other European countries, one country had even fewer food restrictions: the United States of America. Food rationing did not even begin in America until May 1942, and it included foods like sugar, coffee, meat, cheese, and canned milk. 

     During World War II, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese became a popular American staple because it was cheap, satisfying, and required very few ration points. Americans were also encouraged to plant “victory gardens” in their backyards and can the produce themselves to free up space at factories to make canned goods for the troops overseas. Overall, even though Americans found themselves with less access to certain foods, they never found themselves in danger of starvation like many European countries did. There were still some things that Americans could not readily get, and one of those things was meat. 

     Most of the choice meat was sent overseas to the soldiers, so many American families made do with meat that was available, like beef tongue and feet. That’s not something most people imagine enjoying today, but American families would cook the beef tongue in a casserole with vegetables to increase the family’s protein consumption. Americans also handled their meat shortage like other countries by finding meat substitutes. For them, these meat substitutes could be cheese patties or eggs, which still had plenty of protein to keep the country moving. 

     Another food that Americans had difficulty obtaining readily was coffee, which is something that few people could imagine living without today! Americans were still allowed coffee, but they could only get one pound every five to six weeks. 

     To make their coffee last longer, many Americans began drinking “Roosevelt Coffee.” It was a patriotic name for reusing coffee grounds to make a weak coffee usually mixed with chicory and Postum, a coffee substitute made from wheat and molasses. Overall, the food of World War II has defined the cuisines around the world today. It was a time of shortages, hunger, and creativity as people took the little they had available and created food that would help their country survive one of the most brutal wars of the 1900s.