During World War II, Americans
were asked to make sacrifices, to support troops overseas. People changed jobs, took on
new responsibilities at home and even changed their diets. The military got the best
food while everyone else tightened their belts and
found ways to make do. But instead of grumbling
about it, people got creative. So today we're going to take
a look at what people ate to survive during World War II. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel. After that, we'd appreciate it
if you would leave a comment and let us know what
other food related topics you would like to hear about. OK get your bib, it's time to
chow down on some World War II vittles. [MUSIC PLAYING] As World War II
kicked into high gear, the United States
government quickly realized that the military
would be competing with the general population
for resources like food, metal, rubber, paper and
various other materials. In order to make sure
the armed forces got what it needed to win the
war, a system of rationing was imposed. Here's how it worked. The government gave every
citizen, adults and children, a certain number of points. Those points would then have
to be spent, along with money, on any item restricted
for use in the war effort. So for example, in 1943, a
pound of bacon would cost seven points, in addition
to its monetary price, which was about $0.30. The points took the form of
stamps which the government would distribute in books. The Office of Price
Administration or OPA would have volunteers
distribute the books and explain their purpose to
merchants and consumers alike. The first product
to be rationed was tires, followed by
automobiles, and then gasoline. Then in May 1942, the government
began putting food products, including sugar and
coffee on the list. A few months later, meats, fish,
canned milk, fats and cheeses were also deemed restricted. Any time a new item
was added to the list, hoarders would clean the stores
out, leading to shortages. Inevitably, many of
the restricted goods would be traded on
the black market. Despite these problems
though, the system functioned well enough. Similar restrictions were
also imposed in the homelands of America's European allies. With so many basic
staples being rationed the public was going to have
to get creative with cooking. [MUSIC PLAYING] Sponge cake is a simple delicacy
and although many people don't realize it, it's
actually been around since the renaissance. The secret to its
staying power is that it's delicious and easy to
make, but during World War II, the ingredients, flour,
sugar, butter, and eggs were in heavy
demand by soldiers. Eggs and sugar were especially
in short supply in grocery stores around the world. The Welsh version of the sponge
cake had to be made sans eggs, but with a lot of
margarine, syrup, and milk. Jam was usually spread in
the middle of the cake's two layers. It wasn't as fluffy as what
modern diners are used to, but if cooked properly it
still took on a golden hue. [DRUMMING SOUND] During World War II , a sobering
25% of the population of Poland was wiped out in the fighting. Germans snatched
up all their land, which meant the
Polish people had to do their best with
what limited ingredients they still had access to. Not every meal however,
was a thing of drudgery. Potato flour sour
cream, for example, was meant to be served with
blueberry dumplings, which was a favorite of Polish children. The sour cream was made of
milk, sugar, and potato flour, which some of you
will no doubt note is similar to a standard
recipe for whipped cream. Maria Karpowiczowa, a woman
who grew up outside of Warsaw, collected World War
II Polish recipes. Instead of the potato
flour sour cream, "The kids indulge themselves
because they can cover the dumplings with a
copious amount of the cream." In England, cooks did their
best to keep some semblance of dietary normalcy. One of the ways
they did this was by frying what came to be
called mock fish fillets. The fillets were cooked in
the same way as an actual fish fillet, but with rice. To make mock fish fillets,
they mixed rice and egg into a half inch thick
pan of fried rice, chilled it, then
cut it into fillets. They breaded the fillets,
if bread was available. And then they were
fried again until they had a golden appearance. [MUSIC PLAYING] Demand for meat during World
War II, as one could imagine, was extremely high. Those on the front lines
received most of the meat. So things had to
change back home. Restaurants started
using meatless menus on certain days of the
week and advertisers took to sharing
meatless recipes, including things
like creamed eggs over pancakes and
walnut cheese patties. Home chefs, for their
part, started coming up with new and interesting ways
to stretch what they had. Or they just outright
created new recipes. For example, a staple of
the early 20th century was meatloaf made
from ground beef and various ingredients
formed into a loaf and baked. But during World War II, cooks
began substituting vegetables to make an economical meal. Rather than ground beef, this
loaf contained a cup of peas, a cup of mashed potatoes, and
a can of condensed tomato soup. It wasn't quite the
same as a real meatloaf but it was an efficient way
to get some vegetables and use leftovers. [MUSIC PLAYING] A big part of rationing
was using leftovers to make food last
as long as possible. So a lot of meals were
basically thrown together from odds and ends. Bubble and squeak, for example,
wasn't one specific kind of recipe, although there
was one basic necessity, mashed potatoes. During rationing, potatoes
remained widely available because they were easy to grow. Best of all, from a
cooking perspective, they took on whatever flavors
were impressed upon them. When used in bubble and
squeak, mashed potatoes turned every dinner into
a kind of potato pancake, usually filled with whatever
meat and veggies were around. [MUSIC PLAYING] Baking without flour may
sound damn near impossible. But when this staple
was scarce, people living in occupied Poland
found various ways to make do. In many cases, this meant
using beans instead of flour. Of course beans don't have
the same taste or consistency as flour, but when
boiled down and minced, they become malleable and
can be sweetened and worked into a cake. Beans also don't taste
anything like flour, rather they have
an earthy flavor. But the creative Polish
chefs had a fix for that too. Namely, they added six
tablespoons of sugar to the recipe, so it was
probably quite tasty. [MUSIC PLAYING] Vegetables were plentiful in
America during World War II, mainly because they couldn't
be sent to the soldiers. Fresh fruit and veggies were
impossible to ship overseas without spoiling, so Americans
were told to fill up on them. Eventually, the
government even began to urge citizens to plant their
own so-called victory gardens, reasoning that if the
people were able to grow and can their own
vegetables, it would free up more factory space for
war related manufacturing. Onions are a prime example of a
vegetable that was easy to grow and extremely hearty. And in the 1940s, cooks
began stuffing them with various ingredients. Grape-nuts, everybody's favorite
bland, eardrum-piercing cereal, which for the record contains
neither grapes nor nuts, and is actually made
from wheat and barley, was an American
staple at the time. Even though most people still
consider this cereal tasteless, it still has its
uses in the kitchen. For one, it gave a stuffed
onion a consistency similar to an onion
stuffed with ground beef. With the right amount
of spices, this dish might even make a
tasty appetizer today. [MUSIC PLAYING] Coffee is a must
have for many people. But during World War II,
pretty much every coffee bean in America was shipped
overseas, making coffee one of the
hardest things to ration. And what will sound like the
ultimate nightmare in today's era where at least one
Starbucks is on every corner, Americans were limited to going
through one pound of coffee every five to six weeks. That meant they were drinking
less than one cup a day. The horror. Americans who absolutely
had to have a cup of joe started making
roosevelt coffee, which was named for Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, who was president at the time. Roosevelt coffee was
really just coffee made with reused grounds. It was typically pretty
watery and was likely a mediocre substitute
for the real thing, but people got creative with it. Sometimes, ingredients
like chicory and postum were mixed with the coffee. The chicory added
spice to the coffee while postum, as a
coffee substitute, made of wheat bran, wheat,
molasses and maltodextrin. [MUSIC PLAYING] A cow's tongue is huge,
rubbery and tough. Not exactly a thing a
typical American family sits down to enjoy, if they
had any real alternatives. But during World War
II, American families were only able to buy meat
products such as tongue and feet, which made
for interesting twists on classic dishes. Beef tongue, for example,
wasn't just served as a big tongue on a plate. Instead it was
presented in something closer to a casserole. Braised beef tongue will
be fairly recognizable, one modern recipe calls for
carrots, onions, celery, and tomato sauce,
plus the tongue. To get the tongue into
an edible consistency, it had to be boiled
for two hours, then baked for another two in
a casserole surrounded by vegetables. [MUSIC PLAYING] Spit soup probably doesn't
have the most appealing name in the history of
culinary innovations, but the dish itself
is actually tasty. The soup was created
in occupied Poland as a way to make use
of excess barley. Poles no longer had access
to many of the foods that made the cuisine so rich. Proteins like oysters and
anchovies were off the table, as were items as
simple as chestnuts. So to survive
during World War II, poles made a soup out of
barley, a hearty cereal. But why did they give the
dish such an unappealing name? Well it came about because
while eating the soup, they had to spit out the husks. [MUSIC PLAYING] Chopped liver is a
traditional Jewish recipe that uses schmaltz and
gribenes or chicken fat and cracklings to fortify the
chopped liver that makes up most of the dish. During World War
II, Jewish families were advised to stretch out
their food rations which might mean using breadcrumbs
to reinforce meals or making a vegetarian version. This vegetarian
version of this dish was made using fresh
fruits and vegetables and whatever else may have been
growing in victory gardens. Home chefs often swapped out
the meat for green beans, peas, onions, crackers,
and hard boiled eggs, if eggs happened
to be available. [MUSIC PLAYING] You're probably thinking
that sawdust in this context is the name for
some sort of food. But it's not, it's just
regular, ordinary sawdust. You see people living in England
and Germany during World War II didn't have the vast fields
of wheat America enjoyed. So they mixed what little
they had with actual sawdust, which was sometimes
euphemistically called tree flour. One German recipe
for black bread called for half rye grain,
two parts sliced beets, two parts sawdust, and one part
"minced leaves and straw." Everything was mixed together
and baked like normal. It doesn't really
sound too yummy, but hey, in times of war,
you eat what you have to, to survive. So what do you think? Which dish would
you like to try? Let us know in the comments
below, and while you're at it, check out some of these other
videos from our Weird History.
